Vector and Life-Trac: Rockets 5 & 6

"We not only want to launch a ship, we want to make sure that it's got folks who can fly it for a long time. And so this is our initiative to continue raising up the next generation of leaders who can think biblically and critically and theologically and constitutionally and be good active citizens in the country God's called them to love and serve.

"And so just a quick update on that. It's coming to an end here in June. That's the list of books they have read all or parts of this year. And I got corrected by a bunch of students this week. They said, 'We've read more than that.' So they wanted to get credit. Okay. Ooh, sorry. They get credit for all the books they've read. It's a ton of great classics they're digging through. It's just remarkable.

"This is a picture of them a few weeks ago. Pastor Carey teaching Bible and I've been in there with them periodically and it's Bible's open and marked up. They've read the Bible cover to cover. In the process of reading it, the things they're seen and discovering on their own with their own eyes is remarkable. It's just so, so exciting.

"This is the students a few weeks ago with Sheriff Burnett and his executive, command staff there. Some Fridays we do this thing called Leadership Symposium where I'll connect with a friend or a local leader or an elected official or an entrepreneur in town. And they'll come in and they'll take the students to their place of employment, to their business, to their elected officer, wherever they work, and explain how that works. And then we'll come back to the church. And then we just get to bump them with questions for an hour or two. And they opened up their life, their personal life, how they got into that career, how it works.

"Just wanting to expose these students to as many remarkable leaders as possible. We really do have some remarkable leaders in our community. They've they've got to sit down with representatives, mayors, county commissioners, the man that leads River Com, as well as business leaders in town and tech industry. And got to meet last week with a guy who was with NSA agency for 10 years, hunting down Osama bad guys, so they got to talk with someone who'd been involved with CIA and spy work around the world. Super cool stuff.

"This is walking through Pheasant Hill development off of Easy Street. Adam Brizendine in the red sweatshirt fleece there is leading the path walking through. They're building, I don't know, 140 homes, something like that.

"So they got to walk through a spec home and hear about price points and inflation and interest and capital investments and timelines and critical paths and working with subs. And ask, 'How do you run a hundred million dollar company with 50 projects spread across 10, 12 states with 450 employees? How do you create culture? How do you protect the brand? How do you press culture from the owner's office down into the field man's office. How do you navigate working with county and city and committee after committee, after agency, after trust fund? And everyone's got to speak into it, environmental and ecology and everyone who gets a voice and a say, to stick their finger in your pie, and you're trying to do something good for the community. How do you stay on point, not get discouraged, overcome adversity?'

"Tons of great leadership lessons. They got to see and experience there. There's Adam Brizendine, good childhood friend of mine, who's part owner of Selland Construction. Great conversations there. Praying over him and his family and his business.

"So that's Vector Academy in a nutshell. It's coming up on the end here and here's what I wanted you to hear. It costs about 24,000 bucks, give or take a few grand, a year to pull off Vector Academy as an operation. We charged the kids 5,000 last year for the inaugural class. We're going to charge this year 7,500. Which means there's a significant financial Delta between what we charge the kids to come and what it actually costs to pull off.

"Now, we couldn't charge 24,000 bucks a kid because no one could come. Even private schools and public schools, universities, that cost $30,000, $40,000 a year, the kids don't pay that because of government subsidies and things like that. We don't have government subsidies, thanks be to God. We have the people of God, right? And we have the God who owns the cattle on a thousand Hills. And so, as you've been giving generously and sacrificially to Lift Off and to church through tithes and offerings, we're able to do things that no one else could do was this generosity lever not in place for us to pull.

"And so what's in place. I could not more strongly urge you to talk to any 18 to 24 year old that you know. Maybe they've finished college and are looking for a capstone experience or an internship experience. We're tweaking it this year so they could be a part of the full-time Vector experience and still work a part-time job. If they'd like the internship track, it will be competitive and pay in terms of knocking half off the tuition. So there's lots of ways to get this done.

"But I wanted to thank you for generosity because it's allowing us in part to throw in one final adventure. They've gone on multiple adventures this year that are a huge part of the experience. This last adventure we surprised them with about six weeks ago is we, and I say we, I mean us in this room, we are sending them as a capstone experience to the Vector one year academy experience. We're sending them to Washington DC to tour the nation's capital for five days with Daniel Appel, one one of the greatest local historians we have access to and he's a professor for them. and five days at the Museum of the Bible, which is a Smithsonian class world class 400,000 square foot museum. That's just opened recently down the street from the Capitol, Carey McPherson, who's been doing their Bible class, will lead that to tour.

"So the guy who's been talking to them about the Constitution and what it means to be a citizen in this nation—they’ve read through the Federalist papers and everything between—he’ll lead the Washington DC tour. And the guy who's been teaching them the Bible will lead the Bible museum tour. It's going to be 10 of the greatest days in their life. And that's happening because of your radical generosity. Isn't that awesome. Can you thank the Lord for that? So cool.

"So, I've had mixed emotions about this because part of me is like, 'Aren't we an amazing church? This is incredible.' And part of me is like, 'No one ever do that for me when I was 21. That's awesome.' I would kill to go on this kind of trip. And it's only possible because of your generosity.

"So here's what I want to do. If anybody from Vector is here... Students? Students from Vector? Okay. Stand up. Any other Vector students here? Okay. Okay. On the count of three I want you to clap and applaud this room for sending you on that trip. Okay. Ready? 1, 2, 3 clap. No, no, no. Stop. You didn't get what I said. No, no. They are going to clap for us because we're sending them on this trip. Okay? So this is your moment to receive adulation. Okay? So you just be quiet and let them. This is good for them. Let them thank you for this gift. Are you ready? 1, 2, 3 let her rip. Louder. Louder. Okay. That's good. You guys can sit down. Didn't they do a good job. They did a good job. You can thank them. Good job guys. Love these guys. They got incredible hearts. They're diving in.

"Anyways, ton of great kids in the program. If you got a grandkid, a niece, a nephew, a brother, a sister, a child in that age range, registration's open. It's the best deal going in town. Four adventures throughout the year. Weekly leadership symposiums with myself and other local leaders. World class instruction from incredible teachers like Carey McPherson, and Gene Helsel, Daniel Appel, Kyle McMullen, Kyle Strong, and Adam James, and others. So I could not more strongly recommend that if you know somebody there. And that is what's going on.

"We are going to do a Vector graduation on June 19th, Father's day weekend, we'll capstone our Man Conference with the graduation. We thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool to have a graduation with the room of people that helped make it possible?' So you're going to get to be there to see them walk and get their graduation certificate. It means nothing. The certificate means nothing, by the way. I mean there's no credit. But what it does mean is that you helped launch one of the most awesome programs I think on the great left coast. And so well done to you guys.

"In fact, all these guys are interns over there. They're writing songs. Hailey's been writing songs. There's a Communication intern right there. She's been doing cool stuff. You'll see it here printed in a little bit. So really, really great thing going on. Can you tell them thanks again for kicking this program off? We love you guys. Great job guys. Great job."

"This is where we become lifelong learners fulfilling the great commission and teach everyone to obey Jesus.

"Here’s Pastor Kyle doing a financing class:

"My dad teaching marriage. My dad teaching marriage, isn't that awesome? Don't you just feel like we're winning when the Greg is telling other people how to be married. Pretty cool.

"Here's pastor Adam doing cultural Marxism stuff:

"Here's pastor Carey doing Bible stuff. Awesome. Awesome stuff going on.

"Over 1500 people equipped in the last three quarters and lots more awesome classes and topics coming up. We're hoping it grows into something where folks from all over the region can come for this training and equipping. We're just out of space. We can't add more classes till we add more space which is the urgency for the Barn which we're open to finish that soon."