Micheal Goetz

Michigan Camp Meeting 2025: He Must Increase

Mentorship Matters

Craig Harris

Gary Knowlton

Gisela Knowlton

Rich Sutton

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

02 Mentoring Kids in Elementary-Middle School

You're about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2025 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Thank you for the blessings we have here at Camp Meeting.

Thank you for the blessings you give us as being members of this worldwide remnant Church.

Thank you for Christian mentors along the way that has helped us come to this very day and to this very place.

We're thankful for your love and pray that we might reflect that love to others And we ask this in Jesus' name.

My name is Gisela, and as long as you keep this information here, I'll tell you that I'm 75 years old.

But as far as all the kids are concerned that I talk to, I'm 102, and I've been 102 forever.

That's because I lied about it so much, I could never remember until I went to the doctor's office, and then I had to really count it up.

At least a part of my speech is about being honest.

I started teaching Sabbath school when I was just 18 and I've never gotten out of Sabbath school.

A mentor is just someone who is there, someone who is willing to listen and willing to give an ear and possibly even advise when kids need some advice.

But a mentor is someone that has to develop that relationship with a child.

You have to develop a relationship with that child before they will ever give you any kind of secrets and trust me they've given me all kinds of secrets.

It right now in my in our Sabbath school class What we do to just break the ice on Sabbath mornings is we have a table set up, and I go to the Ionia Church, our Sabbath school is not real big, and we sit around the table and we play with Play-Doh.

And playing with Play-Doh is just a way of just relaxing and getting started with Sabbath school.

They play with Play-Doh and we can talk to them.

And when you talk to them In a setting like that, they're much more willing to be open and to share.

Another thing that you must do as a mentor is have eye contact.

You can't talk to them and talk to everyone else in the room.

You've got to give them the attention that they need.

And if they can see that you are giving them the attention that they think that they need, they're willing to share with you.

But you also want to mentor a child to succeed later on in life.

But so there have to be some creative ways of doing that as well.

And 1 of the things we do in our Sabbath school class is get kids to memorize their memory verses.

If you're, none of you guys are as old as I am.

When you're as old as I am, learning memory verses is not easy anymore.

Learning anything from memory is not easy anymore.

But when you're a child, it just goes in and they're like a sponge.

And so what we have done for the last many years is if a kid can memorize all 13 of the quarter's memory verses, and not just week by week, but the whole 13 at the end of the quarter, I will have them get up front, usually between Sabbath school and church, because they don't want to do it in front of a big congregation, but they've got to get up there and prove to me that they know it.

I will start them out with a word or 2, and then they finish it.

If they can do that for the whole 13 weeks, they get something special from me.

We've, yes, I've had sleepovers at my house.

And, you know, the possibilities are endless.

And when I used to have, like, a group of 5 or 6 girls, there weren't any boys, it was all girls, they just wanted to come to my house.

And they would spend the night at my house and play.

And it was enough of a reward for them to be able to do that without their parents, and come and just really play that they wanted every quarter to be able to learn those memory verses.

Now, I don't have very many kids, And only this last quarter, I only had 1 little boy who did all of his memory verses.

And Sharon, who's my assistant sitting there, suggested, Well, why don't we take him to Drummond Island?

Another 1 that, another older kid, another older kid of mine who, she lived on Drummond Island.

She had a house there, but then they moved to Arkansas, she's working for whatever that conference is in Arkansas.

And so she was there that Sabbath visiting us and said, Well, why don't you take them to Drummond Island?

And nobody had memorized any of their memory verses yet.

OK, I'm sure I don't have to go to Drummond Island.

And he was thrilled to be able to go to Drummond Island.

Well, his parents weren't going to send him by himself with us, so his parents came along too.

The Lord was good to us and gave us a nice weather and it was just a wonderful time.

Now besides Sabbath school, I'm also a piano teacher and I had a few of these people in piano lessons And to me, for me to be able to really teach piano to these kids, I have to get to know them.

I have to know who they are and what their goals are and what their, and so we have a half hour lesson, but I always make it, excuse me, always make it into a 45 minute lesson because we'd spend the first 10, 15 minutes just talking.

And So these kids not only get to know me, I get to know them.

And it just makes it so much easier to be their piano teacher.

And I had a recital this May and I've had several new students.

Nobody knew I was an Adventist until recital and I had the recital in our school and this was the first time some of these people knew where I went to church.

And I'm sure that there were some conversations that were going on when on their way home.

Because 1 of the kids that I went to that following week.

We were sitting there talking and he said, why do you go to church on Saturday?

And he said, you know, he kind of looked at me really funny And I said, I keep all 10 of the commandments.

Well, I know he's a churchgoer because on his coffee table, there was a Bible there.

So I opened it up and showed him where the 10 commandments were and showed him the fourth commandment.

Well, I'm not going to say anything more to him, but I know the seed has been planted.

And I'm sure that when I left, he took that information to his parents.

But a mentor is someone that a child can come and talk to and because they know you and because you know them, you've spent time with them, you've spent quality time with them.

01 Mentoring Young Families

You're about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2025 Michigan Conference Camping, held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

And as we come before your throne room right now, we just ask you to bless us.

Bless us as a small group, But Lord, you always have these small beginnings.

Give you a little history of who and what we do as far as Mexico missions and and beyond.

I was, I had a service station, a Texaco gas station in Holly, Michigan.

I don't know if you know what Holly is, but it's kind of different.

Now, I wasn't raised the Seventh-day Adventist.

I went to public school and there were some different kind of people at Holly, Michigan.

Do you have a clue how weird you guys are?

And so this coal porter, can I stand over here, that'd be okay, I'm gonna kind of be with this, you guys can come over here if you want, there was a coal porter, his car kept breaking down all the time?

And I kept fixing his car and fixing his car.

And then he started dropping little hints about the Bible and things.

I was raised a Catholic and my wife was raised a Baptist.

So we were a great mix, and we didn't talk religion at all.

But he started Bible studies with us, and lo and behold, I became 1 of you grass eaters, amen?

My mom hated the guy that gave me the Bible studies.

She did not like the guy because it split up our home.

I have 6 brothers and we were all kind of evolving around Holly, Michigan.

We moved to a town called Big Rapids, Pam and I.

And then this Cole Porter guy came to my church, and he recruited me.

I knew he was coming, so I was sick that day.

But lo and behold, he came to my house, and I canvassed.

7 years I canvassed and they made me a district leader and everything was going well, almost.

Now when you're a canvasser and when you're a district leader, you spend a lot of time in the evenings in the homes, and I was teaching.

My wife comes up to me 1 day, and she says, Rich, you're winning the whole world, but you're losing your own kids.

I called the conference and I said I'm going to resign.

I'm going to pick up my toolbox and go back to work.

And the conference says, I'll move you anywhere.

So that's what you're getting from me today.

This is personal, it's real, and it's on my heart.

I had a youth group then of 30 kids in my youth group.

I moved from Big Rapids, we went to Cadillac, Michigan, and I was in charge of 7 churches.

But I had 30 kids, 30, they were just beautiful kids.

And I was understanding that 15 of those 30 would leave the church.

So I developed ideas and things and plans on how I was going to keep those kids in the church.

I have a saying, and this is really wild, but whatever you break, I can fix.

When you're laying blocks, hey, we can fix it.

And so that was always my attitude with my boys, with my girls.

Pam would make the reads, but she would go sell them.

It made her responsible for Mexico missions, amen?

We need to put our kids in a position of responsibility.

They hang out, they're gonna go out the back door.

And then, so we're doing Mexico missions.

GYC Conference 2024: Wherever He Goes

Love and Life in God's Will

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

05 Heard God’s Voices or My Stomach Growled

In fact, you declare yourself as a very present help in the times of our lives.

And So today, as we wrestle with the question, how do I know, how can I understand the will of God for my life?

Then, Lloyd, we come to you with our open hearts and minds in these next few moments.

I'm gonna tell you this story because it will set it up for, it's just a very real experience.

I'm going to master's, I'm getting my graduate degree at the seminary.

And I'm working at, I don't remember the name of it, it's a little campground.

What's the little campground across the river as you head out 31 toward Niles?

You go across the river, and there on your left, by the water waste treatment plant?

So I'm working there and my job was to sit in this little cabin and check people that fishermen would come in, alright, you gotta pay your $7 or $5 entrance fee or whatever.

If people wanted to camp, they could camp and they would- so that was my job.

And then there were some long term campers there and the UPS would drop off packages at the little booth where I worked.

It wasn't exactly a backup and people waiting to get in but I had to, in fact on Sundays I had to be there at 5am.

Sundays 5am in Berrien Springs, Michigan in January are about the coldest, darkest place on this planet.

So I had this little routine that I sat in the chair at the desk where people would come by and I would prop my feet up on a desk facing the television, turn on the television and prop my feet up and I would go to sleep but it would look like as you came in the door, it looked like I was just watching television And then the door had the bell on it, so that would alert me to the fact that you'd come in to go fishing.

I am in the throes, and it is the throes, of dating.

And it comes to a head 1 day when I'm just like, I got to kill, we're going to settle today, we are going to settle today, God, you and me, done today.

And the UPS guy comes and drops off a package and I'm just thinking about this, this is enough is enough.

And so I'm like, all right, look, here's the deal.

If the UPS man, I don't know where we get this stuff, but don't act like I'm the only 1.

If the UPS man, if he comes back for any reason, he's dropped off the packages, if he comes back for any reason, then that's a sign, and I know she's the 1.

And I'm extra friendly in case he, you know, for any reason, he needs to come back, right?

Give him every, I'm giving God every opportunity to demonstrate his fleece.

I'm like, come on, this is better than a thing of wool out on the ground.

So I watch his truck, and those of you in Bering can picture this.

He goes out to Highway 31, takes a right, and from that little shack, you can see as he crosses the bridge, headed uphill, into downtown.

Well, like an hour later, I'm like, All right, Lord, I probably threw out the wrong 1.

If I see him drive past on 31, then that's good enough.

You wouldn't believe it, except I'm telling you it's the truth.

At the end of the day, as I got off work, he never came back.

He never came back, and I married that girl.

So, this whole signs and signals thing, let's go.

I want to start with just backing up a little bit.

That just sets the mood here for really what are we talking about.

David Crump, in his book, Knocking on Heaven's Door.

I found out about his book by reading John Peckham's book, Why We Pray, which is a book I've told you, along with Daring to Ask for More by Melody Mason and Why We Pray by John Peckham.

Those 2 books you need to read by tonight.

You just, You've got to be reading those books.

But I found out about Knocking on Heaven's Door, David Crump through Peckham.

The Sovereign Lord does some things precisely because we pray for them.

The larger context is we've got evidence for this in Scripture.

Had we not prayed as we did, God would not have acted as He did, period.

So it is true, and the scriptural support is solid, that God will do things in answer to our prayers that He otherwise would not do.

And Peckham, his whole book, John Peckham's book, Why We Pray, is all set in the context of the great controversy, which makes it just an unusual work.

Why we pray in the context of the great controversy.

And he's saying in the rules of the great controversy, it is clear that we are in the middle of a battle, and in response to prayer, Why prayers are answered sometimes and other times not, he wrestles with all of that.

It's just a fantastic work and it stirs your mind.

It says, wait a minute, wait a minute, we gotta be real about this.

We can't just be pie in the sky, bye and bye, like, hey, just pray about it.

There are prayers that God answers no about people that it just doesn't seem right that He wouldn't.

But the fact remains that the sovereign Lord does some things precisely because we pray for them.

The fact that your prayers change the course of history.

Your prayers, my prayers, can change the course of history.

So when we pray and we ask for things, we are well within God's will.

This is not at all against asking for specific things.

04 God Likes What I Like

And so here's the whole bathroom break situation that those of you that were like, okay, if you just wait a couple minutes, they say that there'll be, because you now have a seat.

So if in the next couple of minutes you need to slide out, you'll have a seat.

You just need to use those middle doors, not these front doors.

And then give him the secret handshake and they'll let you back in.

If you don't know, what are you doing here?

Father in heaven, as we jump into yet another more exciting, if it's possible, a more exciting study may it be that you open our eyes as only you can do.

Change us from the inside out so that we leave changed, molded and made into the will of who you are.

All right, this is presentation for entitled God Likes What I Like.

God's will is also strangely similar to your will and my will, right?

Let me use an example that may get me on to, Just be patient with my example here.

In the areas of adornment, jewelry, I have heard, as I have studied it and wrestled with individuals, here's the different progressions, all right?

Somebody says, no, God is against all jewelry, all right?

Fair enough, studied the Bible, that's the conclusion they came to.

Somebody argues, no God, as long as it's tasteful.

And that's where it gets into like this, what?

As long as it's tasteful, it's not extravagant, it's not expensive, it's just tasteful.

Now, wherever you're at, whether you've studied the issue or not, wherever you're at on this, just kind of examine, this is where you feel like God probably sides on this issue.

If you're into that, well, God is into tasteful.

And how does your tasteful define what the next person's tasteful is?

So I serve as a police chaplain, and I do it because as a pastor, I am honored and privileged to represent and to work with the church.

However, sometimes the church feels like a very clean, everybody's organized and has their life together.

You may not feel that way about the church, and I don't always feel that way about the church, but when you go into the guts of a community with the police department, you begin to meet and interact with the very bowels of the community.

And those are the people that are sons and daughters of God as well, and they need hope.

And then you work alongside the police officers who see that, and their worldview is colored because of the amount that they see.

In fact, 1 guy said, I have to get off night shift because everybody I, when you stay on night shift so long, everybody you see is suspect.

And so he says, now I just live life like everybody is suspect.

He says to me, hey chap, After our conversation last week, I went to church.

Back to Menu

Presenter

Micheal Goetz

All Recordings

02 Mentoring Kids in Elementary-Middle School

53m

01 Mentoring Young Families

50m

05 Heard God’s Voices or My Stomach Growled

58m

04 God Likes What I Like

56m

03 God’s Will and the “One” for Me

49m

01 Guessed by Faith

30m

Christmas to Calvary: In Our Planet

34m

Sacrifice

42m

Misunderstood

39m

Everything

41m

All In

43m

Middlemost

41m

Sound Doctrine