A morning focus on the next generation launched the third day of Foursquare Convention 2008. Early morning prayer time was held with Foursquare President Jack Hayford and author and Teen Mania founder Ron Luce praying over the teens.
Roger Thrower then kicked-off a third day of acoustic worship, this time with a full band, followed by the morning’s first speaker, Tammy Dunahoo, national director of Foursquare Women.
Dunahoo started by debuting a video promoting the upcoming Foursquare Women’s National Gathering. She explained that the previous women’s gathering in Tulsa had radically changed her life, and expressed her heart for ensuring the next generation of women have that same opportunity.
She then delivered a sermon called “Two Towers” from Matthew 22:37-40. Speaking passionately and eloquently, Dunahoo explained that when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit San Fransisco in 1989, the Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed while the Golden Gate Bridge was able to remain standing. The reason the Golden Gate Bridge was able to stand is because it is held in place by two stable towers and a single cable that allows the bridge to swing 27 feet in either direction.
Dunahoo said flexibility is crucial in reaching the next generation, and that the most important aspect is to love, as noted in Matthew 22. She added that parents and grandparents should be the two towers, standing stable in the love of God, so that they are able to be godly models and mentors for the next generation.
With tears in her eyes, she told the leaders: “God loves you. For who you are, not for what you can do for Him!” Her message was met with a spontaneous standing ovation, to which she responded with, “May we hear Him say, ‘Well done.’ ”
Following a compelling worship and prayer experience facilitated by Eric Green and Carolyn Foster, Pastor Jack honored Dan Stewart for five years of service at Life Pacific College in San Dimas, Calif. (also known as LIFE Bible College). Stewart and his wife, Connie, are currently serving as senior pastors at the Simi Valley Foursquare Church, and Dan will continue as an instructor at Life Pacific College.
Pastor Jack introduced Randy Remington, noting his pastoral sensitivity in taking the senior pastor role after Ron Mehl died. With his wife, Sandy, Remington serves as the senior pastor of Beaverton Foursquare Church in Beaverton, Ore., and is the Foursquare district supervisor of Alaska.
Remington spoke on 1 Samuel 16, where David, the youngest of Jessie’s children, was chosen to be the next king. He kept the group’s attention with his easy manner of speaking and humorous anecdotes. He noted that even though everyone considered David the youngest and was viewed as a Cinderella-type who was just sent out to be with the sheep, God wanted to rise up a new generation and said, “I see me a king.”
Echoing the message of Dunahoo, Remington explained, “There is an importance in seeing the things that God sees. He’s not looking for a certain kind of activity—He is looking for a certain kind of person.” And that kind of person is someone that pays attention to the heart, just like David.
The meeting concluded with a business meeting, while the afternoon brought a special screening of the new documentary film Lord Save Us From Your Followers.
Evening Session
After Pastor Jack led the group in an opening worship song, he debuted a new video explaining Foursquare’s new ministry, IGNITE, which is a catalyst for future Foursquare leaders who are in pursuit of their life-mission through ministry preparation, discipleship and hands-on experience with both the local church and a global focus. It is led by former FMI director Mike Larkin.
John Ruppert, who works in Flight Control Systems at NASA, then kicked-off the evening session with a special greeting and a testimony. Ruppert was a part of Florence Avenue Foursquare Church in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., and is now with a Foursquare church plant in the Houston area.
Pastor Jack then officiated one of the evening’s most special events: the presentation of 50- and 60-year Service Awards to ministers who have invested their lives in faithful service to the Foursquare family. They received a long and heartfelt applause from the convention body after a special video presentation.
Jim Scott, assistant general supervisor, and Sterling Brackett, corporate secretary/treasurer/COO, then led the business-session voting where all proposed bylaws were passed. Eric Green returned to lead the group in a time of meaningful worship, starting with “Trading My Sorrows (Yes Lord).” The time led people to raise their hands and get down on their knees in humble worship as they sang such songs as “Here I Am to Worship” and “Agnus Dei.”
A new video celebrating Foursquare Foundation was shown to the crowd. The video, accompanied by Newsboys’ song “He Reigns,” showed how many salvations, water baptisms, Holy Spirit baptisms, and church plants had occurred because of Foursquare Foundation.
Jim Hayford, chairman of the Foursquare Foundation board, told the crowd how he thanked God for all the people who have come to know Jesus due to the work of the Foundation. He then announced that $20,000 was placed in the ARC accounts in every district to assist the Foursquare churches in the United States. Each of the five regional counsels received $100,000 each, just yesterday.
He also announced a “major policy change: at Foursquare Foundation—grant requests as low as $10,000 will now be accepted, with a cap of $100,000. The Foursquare Foundation wants to say yes more often and no very, very seldom.”
Following the Foundation announcements was Jonathan Hall, vice-president/global operations and director of Foursquare Missions International, who announced that “God is blessing our family extraordinarily” worldwide. He then showed an enlightening video highlighting Cambodia, telling about missions work and the demographics and the state of the people there.
Hall then interviewed Ted and Sou Olbrich, Cambodian missionaries, who encouraged the gathering with stories of people rising from the dead, and deaf and mute people being fully restored thanks to the power of Jesus.
He then announced the exciting progress Foursquare Missions has made around the world, including more than 400,000 Holy Spirit and water baptisms and more than 53,000 new churches.
Grammy-award-winning Brazilian singer Soraya Moraes, who also sang Monday, returned to sing a powerful worship song that deeply moved the audience.
Pastor Jack then returned to the stage to introduce Jim Tolle, senior pastor of The Church On the Way and La Iglesia En El Camino, both in Van Nuys, Calif. After telling about Tolle’s inroads in the Hispanic community in Los Angeles, Pastor Jack asked the bilingual pastor to preach his message in Spanish and translate it into English himself.
Tolle charged the group with going forth to create inroads with Hispanics and other groups not currently attending their churches—whether it be high-powered executives or people of other faiths. He brought three specific prophecies:
1. God has a people for you. “I believe there are thousands of people waiting for your message of Jesus Christ,” Tolle said, adding that “we must position ourselves first in our hearts to be available [for the people] that he crosses our path with.”
2. God is unleashing supernatural tools upon us. “Let’s be spirit-filled and never turn back ever again,” Tolle told the group. Foursquare must “get back to the gifts of the Spirit.” He noted that we must use practical wisdom to meet people where they are at.
3. God has called us to be interpreters, transformers and healers. He explained that “your greatest defeat is your greatest ministry in days ahead!” He added: “We’re going to be restorers of anything that has gone wrong!”
The prophetic pastoral leader then concluded, saying that the time is now, that “the revival has already arrived … don’t act like it hasn’t come! Don’t wait on [the] flesh to believe it, it’s already here.”
The special time concluded with Moraes returning to sing at Tolle’s request, followed by closing remarks from Pastor Jack.
