Peter Haas
Lead Pastor of Substance Church

WHY THE CHURCH?
“Cynicism about the Church is at an all- time high. A study revealed 80 percent of American evangelicals think the church ex­ists to meet their personal needs. How do you approach church? [Too many Christians in the church] are ‘bride’ haters—depres­sive, opinionated people who are so critical of the Church they’re not useful for the Gospel. Just like in a marriage, you can’t hate or critique your bride into improve­ment. You cannot expand God’s kingdom by being a bride hater. What if you came to church to give, serve, pray and fast for oth­ers? If you are cynical about church—all the more reason to invest in it.”

Shaun Groves
Singer/Songwriter and Compassion International Rep

MISSIONS WEEK
“You all sound amazing [singing in praise chapel]. But do you serve as well as you sing? Do you sacrifice as well as you harmonize? The word ‘worship’ has been translated from many words and none of them mean music. And I wish it did be­cause I’m pretty good at it.... Everything in life is manna—God provides it all.”

Roger and Becky Tirabassi 
Premarital Pastor/Author and Author/Speaker, respectively

PURITY AND PURPOSE
“If we don’t understand the motivation for staying sexually pure, then purity becomes a legalistic trap. Legalism is what we do to receive acceptance from God. But God al­ready loves and accepts you. Consider God holding your face, saying, ‘I love you. I love you. I love you.’ You must start there. What follows is us wanting to please God. Unless you’re thinking about your purpose for remaining pure, you’ll probably fail. The purpose is to glorify God, please Him and build the kingdom.”

Greg Speck
Speaker/Author

LIVING FOR JESUS
Micah 6:8 – Act Justly. “What’s the differ­ence between a moral person and a person of character? A moral person doesn’t do what they think is wrong. A person of char­acter does what is right. A moral person is passive and judgmental. A person of character lives for Jesus. To act justly is to do what is right in God’s sight. Living for Jesus is an adventure. It’s all about growing, learning and being stretched. Ask yourself in the mirror each morning: Who is going to be in charge of my life today? Me or the Holy Spirit?”

Matt Bostrom F'92
Ramsey County (MN) Sheriff

HOMECOMING WEEK
“Months after the Republican National Convention, a leader from one of the protest groups called and said, ‘I’ve been thinking about what happened in RNC; has anyone asked you to run for sheriff?’ The DFL came and asked. The Republi­cans said, ‘You should run.’ I was running against someone who held the job for 16 years, but the Lord used that support. People said, ‘You ran a brilliant campaign.’ But the only brilliant move I made was to trust the Lord for daily steps.