ACAC Voice Issue 1

include worship, teaching,

and fun. Come spend

and old, eat good food and enjoy

campfire and exploring the

DEAR ACAC COMMUNITY Welcome to the inaugural issue of ACAC Voice

By: Pastor Rock Dillaman

THE PURPOSE OF ACAC VOICE IS THREEFOLD:

1 2

Most events are initially brought to your attention as part of our weekend worship gathering. We accomplish this in several ways: scrolling announcements before and between services; our bulletin (both in print and on our app); and video highlights during our worship through giving. Due to time constraints—and our desire for a focused worship experience—such announce ments are intentionally limited and do not provide the details you need to make an informed decision about participation.

This magazine will help us provide those details. For ex ample, this inaugural iassue features details about our upcoming Missions Month and our guest speakers. We could never provide such details during a weekend ser vice.

God is changing lives at ACAC! I’m reminded of that fact weekly as people spontaneously share their stories with me. But I can share these exciting stories with only a few people each week. We do frequently highlight individual testimonies in our weekly Ministry Minute, which appears immediately prior to the teaching during our worship services. But that’s only one testimony per week. For every one we feature, many more are unfold ing in our congregation each week.

Those testimonies need to be heard. They give honor to God. They encourage those who are doubting or struggling. They offer hope to the discouraged. They tell those who feel lost in the crowd that God loves and cares for individuals. This publication will provide a place where many more people can share their exciting testimonies with the entire congregation.

First, we want to enhance our communication about upcoming ministry events.

Second, we want to expand our communication about what God is doing in people’s lives.

One of our pastors recently told me of a reveal ing conversation he had with a younger member of our church family. That individual asked why ACAC wasn’t doing more to address the tragic effects of injustice in our community. In response, the pastor shared all the things we’re doing, demonstrating our intentionality in this area. The person who asked the question was blown away! He or she had no idea of all we are doing and plan to do.

I wish that was an isolated incident. But I suspect it isn’t. Many people don’t know all the effective things we are doing, and for good reason—we don’t talk about them often! We’re not trying to impress anybody. We’re just trying to be quietly faithful.

Nevertheless, our members should know how our combined prayers and efforts are being translated into ministries that make a difference. That awareness will inspire people to believe God for fruit in their own area of involvement. It can encourage greater confidence that we have dis cerned God’s vision correctly. It produces greater confidence in ACAC leadership and in our stew ardship of the resources granted to us. And it fills their lives with faith-fueling expectancy. So we’re going to use this magazine to make our people more aware of all God is doing through us.

These are strategic and exciting times at ACAC! God has called us to share what we have learned about urban, multicultural, holistic, and mission al ministry. He’s called us to prepare future gen erations to continue in these paths. He’s called us to Expanded Influence. And He’s called us to a number of big changes! But in the midst of all that, His most significant and ongoing work con tinues to be the “small” changes that occur daily in the lives of faithful people. Taken together, these small changes form the basis of a powerful spiritual movement—one we hope to capture in the pages of ACAC Voice.

Privileged to be sharing the journey with you, Pastor Rock

Third, we want to expand our communication about what God is doing through the people & ministries of ACAC.

BAPTISM AT TURNBULL LAKE

By: Shelley Berad

My Expectations

I was filled with a giddy sense of expectation, mixed with perhaps a little bit of fear, as my family of sev en piled into our minivan in August 2018. I marveled that I was finally making a public confession of faith and being baptized after so many years of putting it off. Though I had accepted Christ into my heart at age 5, I had waited until I was 38 to be baptized. But now, here I was. What would it be like? Would I feel different afterwards?

The setting on that warm evening at Turnbull Lake was extraordinary. As family after family arrived at the Turnbull property, cars lined up in the front and side yards, taking up almost every available space on the grass. It seemed reminiscent of a wedding celebration, full of food, fellowship, love and com munity as those being baptized and the witnesses rejoiced together.

Gradually, everyone made their way toward the

beautiful and peaceful lake with chairs and blan kets to claim a seat. The worship team began to sing and hands were raised in praise and worship to God. After the singing concluded, the men and women being baptized lined up at the edge of the lake. Each one was interviewed briefly and shared a short testimony on God’s work in their lives and why they had decided to make this public procla mation of faith.

My Experience

As I gave my testimony, I sensed deep gratitude to God for the work He had already done in my life and excited anticipation of what He would do next. Having two of my children (age 10 and 8) getting baptized with me made it all the more poignant, and hearing their own testimonies of faith deeply touched my heart. I have been a member of ACAC for over 17 years, but this was the most memorable church service I have ever been a part of.

God does not want our faith to be stationary or complacent, but vibrantly growing and stretched to greater heights and lengths day after day. For me, this commissioning in baptism was a signif icant step, pushing me forward and giving me a jump start in my awareness of what God has in store for me. It was both an acknowledgment of what God has already done and an equipping for what lies ahead.

In the year since my baptism, God has challenged me over and over again to step outside my comfort zone and go beyond what I think I am capable of doing—whether in nurturing (sometimes diffi cult) relationships, parenting my children, making more time for devotions and prayer, really trying to love my neighbors as myself, forgiving and ask ing for forgiveness, or working on my marriage. He has pushed me to go a step further, to not make the excuse of “I can’t” and instead to say, “With God’s help I will.” Ever since I was raised up from beneath the water that day, 2 Corinthians 5:17 has kept echoing in my mind: “The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

Ministry at Turnbull Lake

Since the early 1970s, Keith and Sally Turnbull have used this property not only as their home and the place where they raised their five children but as a site for ministry to thousands in the Pittsburgh-ar ea community. Every year they have held baptisms for as many as four different churches, as well as hosting children from ACAC Summer Day Camp for two weeks each summer. Keith and Sally also host neighbors, friends, and missionaries on sabbatical. Though now in their eighties, they remain very ac tive at ACAC. One never senses that they feel their work is finished; on the contrary, they pour every ounce of their strength into doing things that fur ther the kingdom of Christ.

Anyone who visits the Turnbull residence and lake quickly realizes that Keith and Sally do not view it as their own personal property, but as a venue to share the love of God with the community at large. If you spend time with the Turnbulls, you immedi ately feel as if you are a part of their family. Isn’t that how we, as the people of God, are all supposed to treat each other within the body of Christ?

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body” (1 Corinthians 12:12–13).

“I sensed deep gratitude to God”

FAITH CAMPAIGN UPDATE

The Next Gen Faith Campaign is a three-year effort designed to help fund strategic ACAC investments in our campus redesign, church planting, and communications. The campaign officially started just over a year ago, on July 1, 2018, with some do nations having been received in the weeks leading up to the launch date. The totals presented below represent campaign donations received as of July 31, 2019.

Next Gen Faith Campaign:

• Total needed to fully fund all project costs: $9,800,000

• Campaign pledges by ACAC donors: $7,154,224

• Number of family/individual pledges: 678

• Donations received as of July 31, 2019: $2,738,207 (38%)

• Number of family/individual donors: 595 (88%)

Praise Report:

At the time of this writing, ACAC’s books for the fiscal year-end, June 30, 2019, had yet to be officially closed. However, based on preliminary year-end numbers, across all donations to the Core Ministries Fund, the Next Gen Campaign, Missions, Be nevolence, etc., the past year was by far the highest giving year in the history of our church family! What a joy to serve among a people who continue to grow in the grace of giving. - Pastor Blaine

FINDING JOSHUA UPDATE

The months of September and October 2019 could be significant in our prayerful nationwide search for Pastor Rock’s successor as the next lead pastor of ACAC. The succession planning committee, com prised of respected congregational leaders, has designed a very thor ough consideration process for potential candidates.

Several candidates have stepped into the consideration process, and as of publication date, three have remained and are now at various stages of the process. One or more may eventually be referred to our district superintendent and our congregational leadership boards (Board of Elders and Board of Operations) for a final decision.

Please continue praying that the Lord leads us to the one person, “Joshua,” who He has uniquely gifted and equipped to lead the next generation of ministry at ACAC.

THE SEARCH PROCESS INVOLVES:

•

A thorough analysis of every candidate by national ministry search firm, Slingshot

Candidates reviewed based on ACAC’s church profile and prioritized requirements.

Less than 10% of prospects advance through this gate

• Initial group interview with a diverse team of ACAC trained congregant interviewers

Interviewer team debrief discussion & decision to proceed

• Second interview with individual members of ACAC’s congregant interview team. The candidate’s wife is invited to one of these interviews.

Interviewer team debrief discussion & decision to proceed

ACAC campus visit by candidate and spouse

Group interview with succession planning committee

Group interview with Pastors Rock, Blaine and Ross

Individual interviews with Pastors Rock, Blaine and Ross

Campus and Northside tour with candidate and spouse

Debrief discussion with pastors and succession planning committee & decision to proceed

Interview with district superintendent of our Western PA District of the C&MA

Debrief with district superintendent & decision to proceed

Meeting with ACAC Boards of Elders and Operations

Vote of ACAC leadership boards to call “Joshua”

Reception of

become an official member of ACAC, attend a four - week ACAC Connections class. The next class will be held on October 6, 13, 20 & 27.

Child Dedication – Saturday & Sunday, September 14 & 15, 2019

Child dedication will take place on Saturday & Sunday, September 14 & 15, 2019 during all services in the main sanctuary. Feel free to invite any family or friends you would like to take part in this blessed occasion. Online registrations are available at the Connection Hub or you can go to www.acac.net/Events/Registrations. You must be a regular attendee to dedicate children.

ADMISSION | Worship geared towards the dancer who desires to connect their faith and dance.

Congregational Meeting - Saturday & Sunday, September 28 & 29, 2019 during all weekend services

The annual congregational meeting will be held during all services the weekend of September 28 & 29, 2019. However, only official members of the church will be permitted to vote on such matters as the election of officers or other matters of business. In addition, we will review the church finances as reported in the 2018-2019 Kingdom/Expanded Influence Report and there will be time set aside for Q&A.

Baptism – Saturday & Sunday, November 16 & 17,

Baptism will take place on Saturday & Sunday, November 16 & 17, 2019 during all services in the main sanctuary. There is a mandatory adult baptism preparation class scheduled on Sunday, November 3, 2019 at 11:30am on the fifth floor of the Union Place building – Suite 526. You can register online at the Connection Hub or at www.acac.net/Events/Registrations. Child care will be provided up to the age of five, register for child care online as well.

Our short term missions team arriving in Guatemala.

At ACAC, mission is not an obligation…it’s our passion, our response to God’s wonderful grace in our lives, and the best way to stay constantly in tune with the heart of God.

MISSIONS MONTH

By: Pastor Glenn Hanna

The theme of this year’s October Mis sions Month is The Heart of Missions. God’s passionate love for His creation was His motivation to send His son. It wasn’t a distant love but a yearning, aching, longing love. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

We should have the Father’s yearning, aching, long ing love for the lost and unreached. Not an academic, distant love, but the same passionate drive that moved God to sacrifice His own son.

The Christian and Missionary Alliance founder, A.B. Simpson was frequently seen hugging the globe, weeping and praying for the lost and unreached. This burden of love is the heart of missions. It’s what moti vated God to send His Son, and it’s what should motivate us to go and to send. As we focus on missions this October, our prayer is that with a burden of love you give passionately, go if called, and always pray with a passionate love for the lost and unreached.

This year seven ACAC members have said “yes” to the heart of missions and are moving on their burden of love for the lost and unreached. Continue reading as Pastor Blaine introduces you to them and their compelling stories, then join together in praying passion ately as they go.

Pastor Glenn Hanna comforting refugees in Kiev Photo credit: Gregg Hughes

THE HEART OF MISSIONS

By: Pastor Blaine Workman

Historic. That may be the best way to describe the fruit of our missions efforts at ACAC in the last half of 2019. In the space of just a few short months, three couples and an adult woman will be commissioned in prayer and join the ranks of ACAC’s cross-cultural international workers serving the Lord in full-time assignments overseas.

Rebecca (Wakeley) Guild was raised in our church family. As a teenager, she volunteered in the Children’s Min istry and served in Summer Day Camp. She also went on short-term mission trips where she sensed God’s call ing to her life’s purpose. At Nyack College, Rebecca met her future husband, Stuart Guild, on the cross-country team. In his studies as a college freshman, Stuart had also sensed a calling to missions.

After graduation, they pursued further studies in prepa ration for ministry overseas. And later this year, along with their young daughter, Malaya, the Guilds will travel to Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim coun try, to teach at an Alliance Bible school.

Rimo and Loza (not their real names) are relocating to a Muslim nation where it is illegal to encourage others to believe in Jesus. After graduating from college, Loza had moved to Pittsburgh to be near the (unbelieving) man she intended to marry. However, three months before the planned wedding date, during an ACAC wor ship service, the Lord convicted Loza, and she broke off the relationship.

Earlier in her life, Loza had studied in an Islamic country in college, and its people had captured her heart. Then, in October 2017, in an ACAC worship service during that year’s “Missions Month,” Loza sensed God calling her to return to that same country – this time not as a student but as an ambassador sharing the message of Christ’s love. A short-term trip to that country a year later confirmed the calling, but with a special added twist. On that trip Loza was introduced to another team

member, named Rimo, who would go on to become her husband. Together, they are now adjusting to their new home and new assignment.

When ACAC Missions Pastor, Glenn Hanna, first sug gested to Jim and Jen Armenis that they go on a shortterm mission trip to Paris, they laughed. When most people hear the word missions, they think of remote places. “We had been under the misconception that France had just as much access to the gospel as we do here,” said Jen. What she and Jim learned, however, is that Paris, like much of modern-day western Europe, is indeed a spiritually dark and needy place.

Four short-term trips to Paris later, the Armenises have left successful local careers and will soon relocate to Paris as team leaders of the C&MA’s Envision mission site in that city. There they will do the work of relational evangelism, using a wide range of events as opportuni ties to build relationships and friendships with spiritual ly-open Parisians.

Christian missionary parents first took Julie Harris to live in Japan as an infant less than a year of age. As a young girl growing up there, she heard God calling her to missions service, and pursued training for this service at the C&MA’s Nyack College. Julie met her husband, Mike, at Nyack, and together they served for 18 years (1978-1996) as Alliance missionaries in Japan before returning to the United States and ACAC.

Following the heartbreaking dissolution of her mar riage, Julie began the long painstaking process of re building her life and rediscovering her life’s purpose. In January 2017, Julie returned to Japan to visit her sister whose health was failing. On that trip, the Lord started moving among people there, and, more importantly, in Julie’s heart. He still had unfinished work for her to do in Japan. Fast forward to today. Julie is preparing to leave for another term of service in Japan—this time under the umbrella of the C&MA’s Envision ministry, in a location just west of Tokyo. “I’m on a new journey of joy,” said Julie. Her life has come full circle and she’s ready to bring Christ’s hope and encouragement to many in Japan.

Four very different stories of four different couples/in dividuals traveling to four very different places. What connects them is the heart of missions.

One of our core values in the Christian & Missionary Alliance is this- “Lost people matter to God. He wants them found.” This is the very reality that connects these four stories—love for lost people who need to find Jesus. In each case, these men and women are going to places where people have little access to the life-changing truth that they are loved by the One who created them. In each case, it is this love that compels them to go.

Scott and Danielle Maritzer are designing the ACAC Hub—and ACAC is helping to shape their family

For professional architects Scott and Danielle Maritzer, the focus group for one of their current projects is right at home—it’s their two young children.

Scott and Danielle are experiencing ACAC not only as new attenders, but also as architects for the new ACAC Hub project, now in the pre-design stage.

“When we are at church, we ask our kids, ‘What do you think?’ and ‘What would you want here?’ I ask myself how I experience the parking. We are experiencing the project first as people, then as architects,” Danielle explained.

Scott and Danielle moved from Philadelphia to Greensburg four years ago to be closer to her family after their second child was born. Although they enjoyed having extended family nearby, they missed the diversity of urban life and were thus drawn to ACAC.

Offering architectural support to ACAC was a natural fit because the project is near their workplace, the Pittsburgh office of Pieper, O’Brien & Herr Architects, located at the Penn Brewery building near Troy Hill. Scott is a project manager/associate there and Danielle is an architectural designer.

Scott said the project appealed to him as he likes mixeduse space and old architecture. ACAC’s desire to connect multiple buildings while preserving each of them presents unique challenges.

Danielle said she was drawn to the concept of bringing ACAC kids—currently across the street at 4AC on Sunday mornings—back to the main building as a key goal of the hub project. “My heart and passion are in this because I feel the sense of family here,” she stated.

Finding a project and a church community at the same time

While living in Philadelphia, the Maritzers attended a small church where they felt a strong sense of community. They became disconnected from regular worship after that church was closed by its diocese. But their children (ages 3 and 6) had been asking questions about church in the past year.

“In the same week that ACAC was selecting an architect, our three-year-old asked to go to church,” Scott said. “It’s not that you selected us or we selected you. That’s what I learned. All these decisions are part of a big plan.”

In God’s special timing, Scott and Danielle became archi tects for the Hub project around the same time that they experienced ACAC as first-time attenders. They came for the first time on Mother’s Day, bringing their children into the worship service with them. Both children loved the worship—a contrast to their prior church experience—but Scott and Danielle noticed no other children in the service and felt uneasy and tense when their kids made noise or squirmed during the sermon.

“I was adamant about bringing them into the service with me because we both work full-time and want to be to gether on the weekend,” Danielle said. But after they took the children to ACAC Children’s Ministries on a subsequent visit, they appreciated how much their kids loved the ex perience and came home singing the songs they learned.

“Our six-year-old didn’t want to leave class, and she really didn’t want to go back to the main service,” Danielle said.

The Maritzers also enrolled their six-year-old daughter at ACAC’s day camp this summer and have seen her grow spiritually as well as benefiting from exposure to diverse groups and cultures. Danielle’s mother and stepfather have also started attending ACAC.

Along with enjoying ACAC as a participant, Danielle appreciated that her role as a mother was valued as an asset for a project that aims, among other things, to integrate chil dren more fully into the ACAC community.

Sensitivity to a complex task

The Maritzers have been surprised by the sheer volume of ministries and community connections in which ACAC par ticipates, such as counseling services and the Urban Impact Foundation.

“The typical image of a church doesn’t indicate all the things happening behind the scenes,” Scott said. “It’s not obvious from the sidewalk that there are kids in the basement learning music and dance. That’s something I’d want my daughter to be in, and I wouldn’t have thought I would find it in a church.”

One of the Hub project’s goals is to preserve the diversity of organizations and ministries that use ACAC space seven days a week. “You flick a light switch and that space can be some one else’s house tomorrow,” Scott said.

Moreover, the project aims to position ACAC to address fu ture needs, not just present ones. “How is this going to be a space that can always teach as God intends as time goes on? We want it be adaptable to change. Things change over time, but the lessons He taught don’t change. How do we take that into architecture, into creating spaces? That’s the challenge of this project,” Scott explained.

“We’ve been challenged to think of the future, to create flexi bility,” he added. “We want to look at the situation holistically and create a building that can be changed in 20 years to re spond to whatever the community need is. We may need a preschool today, but that may change in the future and we want the space to be able to adapt to that.”

ACAC Hub Project Status

The ACAC Hub project is now in the third of nine major stages. Here’s what has happened already and what’s ahead:

✓ Existing conditions assessment - an overview of the project plus any already existing architectural designs and drawings.

✓ Design charrette process – interviews with ACAC staff and ministry leaders about the space.

• Pre-design phase – current status: Architects and ACAC team plan concepts—figuring out flow patterns, laying out rooms, promoting flexibility of rooms around a central hub, defining spaces, connecting the garage. Danielle is also creating inspiration boards of images to inspire.

• Master plan – shows the existing conditions and what was learned through the interview process, and then presents solutions and ideas.

• Schematic design (1-2 months) – where do the walls go?

• Design development (1-2 months) – add in engineers, electrical, mechanical, energy requirements, etc.

• Construction documents – final details and specifications in preparation for bidding.

• Bidding and permitting (minimum of 1-2 months)

• Groundbreaking – tentatively set for April or May 2020, with construction expected to take 10 to 12 months.

The Urban Impact Foundation warehouse project will be done by a different architect, but as a collaborative effort.

Thanks for putting on the Sunday morning event. It was tremendous & more than we had hoped for. It was wonderful to see all those folks enjoying the park and music and the sunshine and each other. It was the perfect cap to a great festival. And I had ribs for breakfast!

Mark Fatla - Executive Director - Northside Leadership Conference

Service in the East Park - Gospel Brunch & Worship July 13, 2019

THE DAY WAS ABSOLUTELY BLESSED BY GOD

Gospel music that truly preached the gospel followed by our first outdoor public service. The day highlighted our commitment and love for the Northside community - the kids’ activities, prayer tent, awesome food - all enjoyed by 1,000+ people. I can’t wait for next summer!

Pastor, Young Adult Ministry