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Cloud of Witnesses
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Jesus said go. He wants us to go into the world and tell people about the love of God. We have 250 people who have said, "You know what? We'll go to Indie North. We want to reach our neighborhoods. We want to be missionaries to our friends and our families." On the second weekend of January 2016, you stand in front of this congregation by divine appointment, and we are so very proud of you for your obedience to the great commission.
It's not about brick and mortar—it's about reaching more people for Christ. We really do believe that God wants us in that neighborhood, and we're excited to see what he is going to do there.
Can we celebrate what God is doing at the Benford location? Specifically to all of you who are gathered right now at our Benford location—we are just so proud of all of you, especially those of you who from the very beginning answered the call to plant that church in that location.
Here we are 10 years later: a decade of faithful ministry off of Benford Boulevard there in Indianapolis. Can we just celebrate God's faithfulness and all the team—every individual who played a part from staff to volunteers? It is wonderful.
What I love is we get to do it again. Currently, we are already in the process where we have launched another location in the Noblesville community, and that location is also thriving and has outgrown its location. Now in this season, we are looking for a permanent home, and as you know, we have already secured a property for that to take place. Can we just celebrate again? 10 years. Way to go, Benford.
We're one church across multiple locations. If your neighbor hasn't told you or if I haven't proved it already, we are far from a perfect church. We don't have it all together. We don't have all the answers. We are trying our best to collectively walk together as a community of faith, anchoring ourselves unapologetically in the timeless and trustworthy word of God, and following as close as we possibly can in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
Not a single one of us—your pastor included—gets this fully right. But the good news is his grace is sufficient. There's something about coming together and just locking arms with other believers and seeing what God might do in and through our lives as we journey together.
We are super blessed to be in a community surrounded by wonderful, outstanding, God-honoring churches who are on the same team. Can we just celebrate all the churches in our community today?
It is vision weekend. Ultimately, our goal is to continue updating and doing our best to keep the church informed. When you have this many people, sometimes it's hard to keep everyone on the same page. However, we do believe .
There are things that we are not only excited to clarify but we are also excited to simply celebrate—and that is the things that are taking place through the recent Heart for the House offering.
At the end of the year, we found ourselves in a position where there were certain things taking place that God was opening doors and presenting different opportunities. Initiatives were taking shape faster than we were even planning or expecting. So we asked you as a church: would you consider praying about participating in an end-of-the-year offering where we could go above and beyond our regular giving so we could sew seed into advancing some of these new initiatives?
What is amazing is that for a lot of people this can be a daunting ask, and it certainly is to ever ask someone to trust God with their finances. What was so interesting about the month of December is that because of the weather, we actually did not meet two weekends in the month of December. For most churches, that would have a definite impact on the financial picture. However, that just wasn't the case.
I want to commend all of you who continue to sew into Northview, believing in the mission and vision. It's because of that our church is able to function and do the things that we are.
When we came to the offering as a leadership team, we were really curious. We don't have two weekends of meeting this month, and it'll be interesting to see what God puts on the hearts of people in terms of what might we do above and beyond what wouldn't be able to be accomplished through our current operating budget.
What you guys did is outstanding. You gave $1,976,319 across all locations. I was a church planter, and I remember it taking over a decade before we did that in a year. To see that happen in a weekend across all the different locations is outstanding. That's not a boastful thing—it is just to commend every single one of you who continued to place your faith in Christ in this area.
One of the biggest vision objectives was updating the video experience. Most people who attend the Carmel campus are oftentimes unaware of the fact that the majority of our church meets at a different location and receives this message via video. Up until this point, we have been rocking with projector screens and projectors at our campuses.
This is going to elevate the effectiveness of all of our campuses. The quality is significantly better, as well as the size of the screen and the ability to do different things programwise. This is going to really help out the different locations. Be on the lookout for that at all the different campuses.
We are also sewing some of those resources specifically into Bible expedition scholarships. I think it's important to always push our community to understanding the historical credibility of our faith—how our heritage and history as a faith community is so uniquely set apart, and how you can actually go around the world and step into the Bible and see firsthand for yourself. This isn't an urban legend. This isn't a fairy tale. These things actually took place, and they are historically verified.
We are doing Bible expeditions every single year, and those are available online. It not only benefits people, but these trips also benefit pastors. My biggest passion since I've been here has been launching the Northview network. There is a disappointing dynamic that sometimes happens between churches where we start to view other churches as competition. If you showed up not liking your last church, we don't want to hear it. No church is perfect. We're glad that you're here. But we are praying God's blessing and his favor on every ministry around our community that is advancing the cause of Christ and teaching the word of God.
Regionally, we have over 250 churches now in the Northview network, which is absolutely outstanding. A lot of churches are fairly underresourced. Most of us understand the basic concept: when the leader gets better, everybody gets better.
Some of these resources are going to go to scholarship pastors—not pastors at our church, but pastors within the network, pastors at other churches within our community—to go on Bible expeditions where they can study abroad and have a spiritually catalytic experience that would equip them for service in leadership within the local church.
If we were to be sending 50 to 100 pastors a year together from our community to go study abroad together and then return home to serve together, I just wonder what that might feel like in our community when it comes to unity and us linking arms and partnering together. Some of your resources are immediately going outside of the church into other ministries, where we're going to be sewing into other pastors.
Some of those resources are being swed into what we discuss as the new rebrand that is being rolled out. It's a practical thing to discuss. We all can probably relate to understanding how professionalism and consistency can help effectiveness.
When you are a church of 45 years old with so many different locations over the years, things can become inconsistent. So we said: stepping into this new season with some of these new initiatives, can we do a refresh of the brand also so we can continue being effective as a multi-generational ministry?
You will start to see the rebrand being rolled out at all of our locations—starting from street signs as well as all things within the lobby. Part of that will also include campus refreshes internally: redoing lobby spaces, ripping up carpets, painting walls. Be on the lookout at every single one of our campuses.
Some of those resources are also being swed into the Union Chapel. This church is beautiful. It's a church that was started in 1864.
In this season, God did some really unique things. There's about a three-month window where our church came into possession of multiple buildings and properties. Three of them were granted to us. This one we were actually able to purchase for pennies on the dollar.
What was amazing is this came our way in the 11th hour. This is right off of Keystone Avenue by the Fashion Mall. It was a property that was being highly sought after by all kinds of developers within the community. The plan was for them to bulldoze the entire property and develop it commercially. In the 11th hour, our church was able to step in and save this historical church. I just think that is outstanding.
To do so, you have to understand that's not like me just saying, "Yeah, go buy it." It was actually a great team win. Three groups had to participate: our executive team, our trustee board, and our elder board. In order to get this done, all three boards had to unanimously vote this into play. We were able to get this done in order to secure this space in 10 days. That is outstanding.
Some of the resources have gone into the Union Chapel in terms of paint and carpet. This will be operating as the center for leadership that will house a lot of the activities for the Northview network. We are building a seminary library in the building for pastors throughout the community to have access to credible resources there in town, as well as our Northview leadership college that we have launched and are earning our accreditation. It'll also serve as a wedding chapel and some of those things that we will be rolling out. But we are just elated that God has entrusted us with this property, and I just think it's amazing what he's allowing us to steward.
Some of those resources were invested into the album that we've been talking about. I say often I learned a lot of my theology through the hymns. It wasn't to dismiss scripture—it was just to say those melodies would get stuck in my heart and mind, and over time, it gave me language to articulate my faith.
What I love is God has blessed our church with such remarkable talent and ability—with humility. Individuals who are open-handed with their gifts and want to serve the local church. Our team has written songs that reflect the season that we're in, the things that we're discussing, the heart of our house, and the mission and vision of what we are aiming for.
They recently were able to record and are now producing the album as well as the videos that will go along with it. This stuff will be living on different platforms. And again, it's because of your resources that are making this possible.
Additionally, we were able to sew those resources into the new sports facility that again just fell into our lap. We had been talking about our plan to build a fieldhouse in Noblesville that will also serve as the Noblesville location. Someone heard of this plan and said, "Well, hey, I have a sports facility and we've kind of gone through a unique season. But I hear what Northview is trying to do, and I would love for Northview to use it."
What this has done is accelerated the sports ministry initiative probably five years down the field. It's really amazing.
When it comes to sports ministries, here's what we're trying to accomplish: I want to get kids off the couch, off the device, and in community developing healthy habits with mentors who are rooted in values who can develop strong character in kids who can live out in this world strong lives of faith.
We talked a few months ago about how there were a lot of names, brands, and labels on these floors that for legal reasons had to have the floor stripped. This actually opened an opportunity for us to restripe the floor. Before it was exclusive to basketball, and now we were able to add volleyball and pickleball lines. There will be pickleball leagues starting there as well as volleyball teams. And everyone's played on a brown floor—it's now cool for kids to get to play on a blue floor.
We call this facility the crash. Anyone know what a herd of rhinos is? It's a crash. A couple years ago when I first got here, I preached a sermon using an illustration on the rhino, which is my favorite animal. The reason why I like it is a rhino can actually run pretty fast. It just can't see for anything. It's blind as a bat. They say that a rhino will just take off running, and no matter what it comes in contact with, it just operates with the mentality that whatever I come against, this big trunk and huge body is just going to run right through it.
When I first heard that, I thought, well, that's faith, right? We walk by faith, not by sight. Greater is he that's within us than he that's within the world. So come what may, I am more than a conqueror. I'm going through it.
When we went through the rebrand, the team was like, "Hey, we should try to incorporate the rhino." So now that's becoming a little bit of a mascot. This facility we are calling the crash where a bunch of rhinos show up and crash. It is amazing.
Some of those resources are going to go to lay the groundwork for our Noblesville location. This is really the thing that in 2026, we are going to as a church be stacking our hands and really focusing on in this season.
I think it is really important for us to always think through the filter of good stewardship. A challenge for me is seeing a church property or building only being used one day a week. The question is: is there anything that we can do to leverage our properties to add value and to meet felt needs within the community? Is there any way that we can look at our facilities and build them differently to make them more adaptable for different programmings and functions?
We are going to pilot at the Noblesville campus a new model where we will be building a fieldhouse that throughout the week will facilitate community activities during the day and evening for kids as well as adults. Throughout the weekend, it will serve as a house of worship.
Full disclosure: in 2026, we are going to be asking all campuses to stack hands on the Noblesville location. Can we all rally together and believe that what God is going to do at Noblesville is going to be significant? I think this is more than just another location. I think it's a strategic flagship location for our church, located off of 37 and 69 as well as around some of our other locations. Being located in the county seat—I think it's going to be outstanding.
Additionally, some of your resources are going also directly into discipleship content. If you don't have the Northview app, just know there's a lot of things being developed weekly to serve and support and supplement you in your faith as you go, so you can take your church in your back pocket and stay engaged throughout the week.
A ton of information, I know. But can we just celebrate all that God is doing? Again, church, well done. Well done. It is amazing to see what is happening here.
If you're new, this isn't because any of us are that impressive. It's just because our God is that good. Somehow he puts on the hearts of people collectively to do things simultaneously. And when we all respond, somehow it's more impressive than we thought it would be. Somehow we all discover that what we are a part of is so much bigger than the part we play.
And so we are just thrilled to be a part of what God is doing in our community.
We are now five weeks into our study called Cloud of Witnesses, looking at 52 key central figures of the Bible to help people across all our campuses gain a better grasp of the overarching biblical narrative. When you know the story of redemption, suddenly scripture is less intimidating.
We start with God—amazing, majestic, wonderful, mysterious, and creative. He creates all things and places humanity in the middle of it all, giving them free will. Why? Because a loving relationship requires a choice. Our God is raising children, not making robots.
In that freedom, humanity chooses autonomy and edges God out, trying to establish themselves apart from Him. They open the door, and sin and death enter the world. As Adam and Eve leave the garden and sin spreads with population growth, wickedness, corruption, evil, and despair rise at an alarming rate. This is where we land in the days of Noah.
I remember learning Noah's story as a flannel graph in Sunday school—this amazing guy with a gnarly boat and cool animals. But when I graduated to an adult Bible, I realized this is not a fairy tale. It's God's authentic approach to not sidestep humanity's brokenness, but to lean into the mess and redeem it all.
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. And then the Lord said, "My spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal, and their days will be a 120 years." (Genesis 6:1-3)
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward. When the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them, they were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, "I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground, for I regret that I have made them." (Genesis 6:5-7)
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:8)
There's this clear mention of the Nephilim—a factor causing violence, corruption, confusion, hatred, and wickedness. Yet despite all this craziness, despite all the wickedness, despite all the gut-wrenching heartache, Noah found favor with the Lord in the middle of that crisis and darkness.
Noah is proof that you can live a righteous life in an unrighteous world. As followers of Christ, we do our best to understand that just because we're having a bad day doesn't give us license to be bad people. We try to live anchored to Christ and allow Him to determine what our character, values, and lives ought to look like. Even though we're living in a world that can test the things we believe, even though we're living in a culture and society that at times runs against the grain of our faith, Noah proves once more that you can live a righteous life even in an unrighteous world.
Most people misread this story and see God as maniacal. But as you do a thorough study of scripture, you realize that upwards of 900 years before the flood, God sends warning. God says, "Hey, heads up. At some point, we all get to experience the byproduct of our decisions." He says, "Hello, you're heading in the wrong direction," and at some point, "I'm going to have to intervene."
But why does God have to intervene? Is He just doing away with humanity because He's mad? Or is there something else He's trying to accomplish?
The story of Noah and the ark is not about punishment as much as it is about preservation. There is a promise of redemption unfolding in humanity, and wickedness, evil, corruption, and violence are spreading so aggressively at such an alarming rate that God realizes: if I don't intervene, I fail on my promise to provide redemption. So He preserves the promise by preserving this family. He carries redemption through on a thread.
If you're not impressed by God's sovereignty, look through the pages of scripture and history. There are so many times humanity made it almost impossible, yet somehow God got the job done, threading redemption through like a needle.
The story comes with instructions, warnings, clarity around the assignment God gives Noah. It comes with a blueprint. And then there are these simple but profound statements that follow:
Noah did everything God commanded him to. (Genesis 6:22)
If you want to experience all that God has for you, at some point you have to embrace all that God has instructed to you. This is how He works in our life. If you don't obey God's word, there's a very good chance you will miss God's work. It's learning to trust in the effectiveness and fruitfulness of God's word taking shape and root in our life.
My challenge for all of us is to continue coming to the pages of scripture saying, "Okay, we're not trying to conform this to our lives. We are trying to conform our lives to His timeless word." That is something we're all trying to do our best at.
There will be questions around the Nephilim. This is an open-handed discussion that's fun and fascinating. There are really two primary theories. The Protestant evangelical camp tends to hold that the Nephilim were the byproduct of fallen angels—along with Lucifer—who took human women and had children with them, thus producing the Nephilim, giant-like figures who became instruments of wickedness within the world.
What's interesting is that Genesis tells us wickedness and evil and all these disturbing things are on the rise, yet in the culture of the time, these individuals causing it were viewed as heroes. They were celebrated. There was a time in history where wickedness was so rewarded, so celebrated, so affirmed that those carrying out the atrocities began to get celebrated.
Have you ever looked out at the world and thought, I think we're celebrating wickedness? What gets rewarded will get repeated. When we affirm these things, we should be on the lookout to see more in the coming days.
I want to use the Nephilim as a launching pad to consider this: Was there a clear element producing violence and corruption in the world then? Is there anything at play in our current world that, in some way similar to the Nephilim, is driving confusion, corruption, violence, and hatred?
I would say you could maybe view propaganda as a modern-day Nephilim dynamic. I define propaganda this way:
Propaganda is information, ideas, or messages deliberately produced and spread to influence public opinion, attitudes or behavior toward a particular cause, person, or policy.
We all have been living on the same speck of dust within the same galaxy together. We all know the last seven years has thrown a lot our way. We continue to bump into different social crises and things around the world, constantly trying to figure out what to make of it and how to engage productively.
I'm embarrassed to admit this, but all week I discovered still within me a level of gullibility that clearly I still need to focus on. Over the last five to seven years, this past week may have been one of the more confusing moments we've experienced. I found myself reading an article, seeing a video, looking at a picture, and it would create heaviness in my heart. It would jolt me with what felt like convictions. I would find myself developing opinions and arguments, only to wake up the next day and discover what I was upset about was fake. It wasn't a real video. It wasn't a real photo. It wasn't a real article. It didn't actually happen.
I cannot stand up here as your pastor and speak to things with the certainty you might look for. I am not confident in the information I've been reading and witnessing this week to speak with great confidence to you as a pastor.
Propaganda simplifies a complex world. Reality is messy, and propaganda turns it into a circus. But careful judgment requires effort, time, and humility.
Propaganda targets emotion before reason. It uses fear, anger, pride, shame, and nostalgia—all bypassing the brain's fact-checking department. The moment you're outraged, you're recruited. The moment you're stirred to emotion, most people rarely circle back to verify.
Propaganda repeats until it feels true. Familiarity feels like truth. You hear something so often you think, "I've heard that before. That sounds right. I heard someone else say that. Yeah, that makes sense." Before long, it starts to feel so familiar we assume it's truth.
Propaganda uses selective truth and half-truth. The most effective propaganda uses real facts. We end up with news reports that have true details but false conclusions, accurate data but dishonest framing. We elevate one story so we can bury ten. A straight lie breaks trust, but a half-truth can build a movement.
Propaganda creates identity, not just belief. It doesn't just say what to think; it tells you who you are. The problem is that once an ideology becomes your identity, the moment you have a subtle change of thought, suddenly it's a betrayal.
Propaganda dehumanizes the other side. It exploits authority and consensus with language like "experts say," "everyone knows," "science proves," and "history will be the judge." We're all gaslighted—it's a psychological form of manipulation that gets every single one of us to stop looking out at the world, drawing accurate conclusions, and to doubt our own perspective on reality.
But God gave you a conscience. You have the Spirit of God within you, the Holy Spirit equipping you with discernment and conviction. Sometimes you have to pay attention to the times where you're just getting duped. I've been duped. You've been duped.
Propaganda punishes doubt. Asking a question is suddenly disloyal, ignorant, harmful, or dangerous.
Propaganda moves faster than truth. With social media, it no longer has to be accurate. It just has to be immediate.
I think it is a pretty basic and bipartisan understanding that no strong, secure, or stable nation can function without secure and effective borders as well as law and order. This has been a bipartisan talking point for decades. Like all things, there come seasons where discussions around reform take place. Chances are we are heading into a season as a nation where discussions around immigration reform will take place.
However, to dismiss the importance of law and order and effective borders is to sign up for anarchy and chaos. I do not think that is wise to sign up for that type of belief and to demonize anyone who prioritizes or values those things.
A loss of life is always going to weigh heavy on me. As Christians, our theology is that the moment someone breathes their last breath, they step into the presence of the Almighty. That's a weighty moment.
I am so disappointed by how callous and casual we are talking about the loss of life. Whether it's justifiable or not, whether it is Charlie Kirk or George Floyd, or whether they're shooting at Democratic officials or Republican officials, or whether it's hundreds of thousands of unborn babies—for me as your pastor, a loss of life is always going to grip my heart.
Death is death. Whether it was self-defense or however it took place, someone met their maker. I have signed up my entire life to serve and do whatever I can to introduce people to Christ, to save a soul. Standing here staring at death and just so casually looking from this angle or that, I think we are becoming so desensitized to things that are warping our soul and warping our perspective.
Folks, at the end of the day, we're all aware that investigations take place. And as your pastor, I personally believe that anyone who breaks the rule of law should be held accountable. A thorough investigation will potentially show what that looks like. We all just have to stay patient knowing that we're pretty limited where we sit.
My concern centers around this idea of propaganda. I'm disappointed in the party I voted for and the way I see them speak at times. This is on both sides. The rhetoric, the hatred—it's not productive and it is not reflective of how Christ wants you and me to operate within this world.
We don't spew hatred. We don't demonize people. We try our best to stay rooted in what is right. It is a balancing act and a tightrope walk in the world we currently live in.
A half-truth can build a movement. Propaganda doesn't just tell you what to think—it tells you who you are. Once an ideology becomes your identity, even a subtle shift in thought suddenly feels like a betrayal.
Propaganda dehumanizes the other side. It exploits authority and consensus through language like "experts say," "everyone knows," "science proves," and "history will be the judge." What results is a form of gaslighting—a psychological manipulation that causes us to doubt our own perspective on reality and stop drawing accurate conclusions about the world around us.
But God gave you a conscience. You have the Holy Spirit within you, equipping you with discernment and conviction. Sometimes you have to pay attention to the times when you're being duped. I've been duped myself. Propaganda also punishes doubt—asking a question becomes disloyal, ignorant, harmful, or dangerous.
Here's another critical problem: propaganda moves faster than truth. Our social media no longer has to be accurate; it just has to be immediate. Truth requires due diligence, and speed kills discernment in our lives. Finally, propaganda works best when people think they're immune. The moment you believe "this will never happen to me," it already has.
I want to play my part in fighting for our community. Let's not get swept up by this stuff. Let's not follow suit with the world. Let's link arms together and reason well together. Let's showcase for our community a different approach to walking through turbulent times—without resorting to hatred, without resorting to unproductive behavior.
Right now, I'm concerned with the propaganda machine and how it is not just convincing people of different narratives. It is conditioning people and warping us from the inside out. I do not think we were meant to be staring at so much death so casually.
When I look at the story of Noah, it's clear there is a factor causing the corruption around us. Noah, however, went into waters in a moment in time that was far more corrupt, evil, and wicked than what we're facing today. What I love about Noah's story is that it is a very public act of obedience. Think about how big that boat was—you couldn't hide it. People were walking by every day asking, "Noah, what are you doing?" But he kept building in a world where no one believed. He was faithful and lived out his faith publicly.
God gave Noah the blueprint with specific measurements and materials. But there's a detail I find remarkable: God gave him a window, but he didn't give him a wheel. Sometimes that's what a life of faith looks like. God will give you a window to see, but not a wheel to steer. Because the good news of His sovereignty is that we don't get to control, but we do get to contribute.
For Noah, the safest place in the midst of a storm was actually outside of his control, in the hands of his God. And folks, the safest place for you and me in the middle of a storm is oftentimes outside of our control, in the hands of our God.
To everyone getting baptized this weekend: you can still live a righteous life though you live in an unrighteous world. You can still take a stand for Christ despite the turbulent times that run against the grain of God's desires. Standing publicly in your faith like this is such a triumphant thing to do.
At all of our locations, we are going to pray and transition into this baptism moment. We are going to celebrate with people who are going public in their faith.
