Three Sundays Later

Here is a copy of what I sent to Coastline Bible Church yesterday. I'm sharing as it might be helpful for you. Maybe you want to see what I'm sharing. You might want to steal some ideas. You might need an encouragement too during this time!



Hey Coastline,

The last three weeks have been some of the wildest, most interesting, bizzare, confusing, and learning-filled weeks of my time as a pastor. I have thought a lot about discipleship, leadership, spiritual growth, leader empowerment,  prayer, and Bible reading. I’ve also prayed a lot for those in our community who have lost a job, are sick, are scared, and are fearful. My guess is that each of us have gone through a myriad of emotions the last several weeks.

My aim in this email message is a simple: “Thank you.”

Thank you for being so supportive as we’ve moved to Coastline Online only. I will be the first to admit that we’ve had some bumps along the way. Thank you for being patient with the different platforms we’ve used. We have found that going to our website has been the best way to get to our online worship gathering.

Thank you for giving to Coastline. The first two weeks of giving were a drastic reduction from our proposed budget need. Many of you have continued to give generously during this time. Some of you have just started giving. We see tithes/offerings trickle into the office on a daily basis. Thank you for giving online, via text, and mailing your gift to the church office.

I’ve had some requests to get the small group questions out for everyone. Here is a link for the questions from Mark 14:27-72. I’ve been posting all the small group questions on my personal blog. After Easter we will begin posting these questions on our website in the sermon section so that everyone can access them!

Let me leave you with an encouragement; my heart is that those who follow Jesus will grow in discipleship during this time. If you don’t have a Bible reading plan, I invite you to find one (You can reply to this email and I have some ideas to share with you). Grab a book to read and grow in your faith. Take a day/meal to pray and fast. Go on a prayer walk (if you are healthy). Sit in your favorite chair and pray. Let’s use this as a time to grow in our personal relationship with Jesus!

Let me end with this. In seminary I studied church history. The thing that surprised me the most was that the church grew during periods of suffering. We might be suffering here, but our brothers and sisters in Christ suffer too all over the world. We are the church! Let’s be the church no matter what happens!

Neal Benson | Lead Pastor
Coastline Bible Church

Canoeing the Mountains- Book Review

Book Title- Canoeing the Mountains

Author- Tod Bolsinger

Publisher- InterVarsity Pres

Pages- 247

Quotable- Leadership isn't so much skillfully helping a group accomplish what they want to do (this is management). Leadership is taking people where they need to go and yet resist going. (page 124)

I grabbed this book about six months ago. I meet with a group of pastors each month for coffee, conversation and then we grab lunch. We talk about the changing landscape of ministry, leading churches in California and laugh a bunch.

One of the guys in our group read this book a few years ago and recommended we go through it. Tod uses the lessons that Lewis and Clark learned from traveling across America and translates them into the lessons pastors are currently learning. His stories about Lewis and Clark are fascinating! He gives me historical insight that I never knew. For example, the Western part of America was thought to be similar to the Eastern part. Lewis and Clark thought they would take a waterway to the Pacific Ocean!

When they reached the Rocky Mountains they knew they needed to adjust their method of getting through the Rockies. These men literally carried their canoes through the mountains until they found a waterway that took them to the Pacific. They wouldn't have been able to accomplish this feat without the help of Sacagawea. She was pivotal in helping them. For example, no raiding party would bring women along. When other groups saw Lewis and Clark, with Sacagawea they knew they were a friendly group!

For pastors who've been leading for decades I can see this book as a huge help. Most of my ministry experience has been in post-Christian America. I've served in cities that are not Bible-minded. I've lived in Las Vegas, the San Francisco Peninsula and now in So Cal. That doesn't mean I didn't learn from it. Tod has decades of experience I can learn from. He shares practical examples that are needed in leading the church through changes.

This book had great material, that spoke to my situation, with revitalizing a church. Tod helped lead his church through a process of reaching more people in their community for Jesus. He was encouraging for a pastor to have a strong conviction, from the Lord, about the direction of the church. The pastor needed to remain calm in the direction and stay the course. It's easy to get upset but the need to remain calm in leadership is huge!

The adventure that Tod leads on through the reshaping of church leadership is really good. He puts good words to what many leaders experience. He talks about how to navigate mountains when you expected water. Tod starts by discussing what it will require to chart uncharted territory. He makes sure the leader knows how to use a map and what it requires to lead off the map. Tod talks about the need for resilience and relationships to make the journey. He ends with transformation and what that looks like.

I enjoyed most of this book. After the second half I felt like things got a little repetitive (that is not always bad, we need to hear things repeated so we understand them). I didn't completely like the final two chapters. I appreciate Tod's honesty about the denominational struggles he faced with leading off the map and helping his denomination but skimmed them. You might read the book and feel differently if you're a part of a denomination in change.

Overall, I would recommend the book.

This is Us- Sermon Series

This is Us is one of my favorite shows on TV right now (ok, it's my favorite). The story is fresh, compelling and raw. The characters are normal. They have struggles. They are dealing with the daily problems of life.

Our church just finished a seven week teaching series on our core values. Instead of calling it our core values we called it: "This is Us". The sermon series was a huge hit!Understanding the show is what lead to us doing a sermon series by the same title. About a year ago God led us to Ventura to revitalize a church that was in trouble. I didn't realize how bad things were until we got here. I was in a conversation with a guy who told me, "I thought the church was going to close the doors." Those things happen at churches, but God loves this place too much!

Our leadership dug in, gave more and invested more to seeing Coastline move into the future as a healthy church. We casted new vision, restated our core values and simplified our mission to be laser focused.

The core values were crafted in team unity. We looked at our core values that had great intentions but were outdated. They used language that wasn't really how people talk. During the process someone said, "Our old core values were written in the King James Version of the Bible and the new ones are written in the New International Version." Those are the kind of values you want! Core values that anyone can read and understand.

Here are the Core Values in no particular order except we always think "We Put God First" needs to be on top. Understand this, these core values are the best version of ourselves as a church community. We are not perfect but strive for this!

We put God first.

Our church is committed to the God of the Bible. He is our ultimate authority. He is the object of our worship. We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and live our lives in obedience to its truth.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Matthew 6:33, Matthew 22:34-39, 2 Timothy 3:16

We build people up.

We are a fun, welcoming, loving and encouraging church community. We want to help everyone take the next spiritual step to grow in their faith journey. We invest ourselves in the lives of others because we think that developing servant leaders matters.
Deuteronomy 34:9, John 13:34-45, Ephesians 4:11-12, 2 Timothy 2:2

We do life together.

We believe that God did not create anyone to be alone so we do life together. We think life change happens best in circles rather than in rows. Jesus established the church so that we may help, encourage and love each other as we follow Him.
Genesis 2:18, Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 2:46, Hebrews 10:24-25

We are outreach focused.

Our church does not expect people to seek us, therefore we intentionally pursue people who are far from God. We are committed to doing anything, short of sin, to help people find Jesus.
Matthew 9:9-13, Mark 5, Luke 15, Acts 2:47

We pray bold prayers.

We know that God is awesome and capable, so we make “the big ask” of God in our prayer life. We come to God with a bold list of prayers and take time to actively listen to Him on a regular basis.
1 Samuel 3, Mark 1:35, Acts 12:5, James 5:16

We are multigenerational.

The church is meant to be multigenerational. We think the best way to keep the love of God fresh in our hearts is to place a high value on kids, students and families. We intentionally invest in the next generation.
Joshua 24:15, Proverbs 22:6, Mark 10:13-16, 1 Timothy 4:12

Grace happens here.

We understand that we do not deserve the grace of God but God’s grace is experienced and extended to one another here. This is a safe place to meet with God and learn about the great things He has done for each of us.
John 8:1-11, Romans 3:24, Ephesians 2:8, 2 Timothy 1:9

7 Questions with Danny Strange

Danny Strange is a Christ follower, husband, father and pastor. Danny grew up in the East Bay and ministers at the church where he met Jesus. Danny is married to Jessica and they have six amazing children. Danny is currently the Executive Pastor at 3Crosses Church in Castro Valley. Danny has a passion to help see more people enter a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Danny and I met at Hume Lake back in 2005 or 2006 while we were both serving as Student Ministry Pastors. We went to the camp the same week of summer for years and formed a great friendship outside of the week of camp. When I moved to the Bay Area in 2012 we began hanging out more regularly and eventually formed a pastors group together. Each year we meet with a great group of guys for 48-72 hours and talk about the great things the Lord is doing, share our hearts and pray for each other. I'm stoked Danny answered these questions and think you're going to love learning from him.

1. You’ve served at your church for almost two decades, how has longevity helped you in ministry? 

It's been an awesome blessing to serve in the same church for 18 years now. There's something about being an insider that is super helpful in ministry. It's so fun to know our church's history, legacy, core values (and most of all, our people) at a really deep level.

2. Doing ministry in the Bay Area is fast paced, what is a piece of advice you would give to someone who is thinking about moving there? 

Choose not to get sucked into the fast-paced life. Refuse to put your kids in 5 different sports. Guard your workweek. Go home on time. Honor the Sabbath. Build rhythms for your ministry and your family that trump the rhythm of society around you.

3. You’ve served in a variety of capacities at your church, tell us more about your new role. 

I've been serving as Executive Pastor for the past nine months or so. My role, in a nutshell, is to add value to our church ministry. This can happen through strategic initiatives, fixing problems or helping our staff stay on the same page.

4. Headlines seem to be full with pastors who’s marriages are falling apart. I know that you and Jessica have a great marriage. What is one thing you do to keep your marriage strong and fresh?

Our favorite thing to revitalize our marriage is getting away for a full week every year with no kids. It's the best. We vacation with our kids too, and take smaller trips, but the seven days we spend in Mexico every October is the best.

5. There are many men who don’t have a life outside their work and family. What is one hobby you enjoy doing and that fills you up?

I love travel and exploring. Every year I try to head out of town numerous times with various groups: Myself alone with God, Tahoe with friends, retreats with other Pastors, Mexico with my wife, various trips with my whole family.

6. You recently adopted two amazing girls, how has that changed your family dynamics and given you a glimpse into the heart of God? 

Adoption is a crazy party. Our house is loud and fun and exhausting and we're always cleaning up after someone. Although it's amazing to add some females to the mix (we have four biological boys), the girls have also added a ton of value in their extrovert-ness. Thanks to the twins, our boys are learning how to show emotion and how to come out of their shell from time to time. Sure, adoption reflects what God did for us in adopting us into His family, but for us, adoption has helped us see the messy chaos that is the church in our own home.

7. If you could give your 20 year old self one piece of advice what would if be?

Don't spend so much time dreaming about the future that you miss out on experiencing life in the moment.

The death of Facebook?

Facebook has been in the news a lot lately...

It's good to know that I am not a news anchor, a journalist or someone who spends their time following news stories (they probably have a special name too). I am a pastor who loves Jesus and cares deeply about seeing more people know Him.

In the last week I've seen more imagines like the above one popping up in my newsfeed (obviously, I'm a Facebook user). I'm starting to wonder what is causing people to want to make this shift.

For the last couple years I have been more and more convinced that social media isn't making us any more social. The other day I intentionally took 36 hours away from social media to focus on my family. My conclusion from the experience; I enjoyed being present more than thinking about my Instagram story or checking in at Disneyland to let everyone know we were there for Isaiah's birthday.

Before you keep reading I want to be clear on a few things:
I am a nobody in the social media world.
There are people with millions of followers and I am not at that level.
My voice is small in the vast web.
My opinion is based on some thoughts that I'm writing at my kitchen table while my kid sleeps soundly upstairs and my bulldog has her five minutes of energy before she starts snoring on the couch for the next two hours.

Here are four reasons I think more people are considering leaving social media:

1) We long for human interaction 

I didn't do too well in history in high school, in fact I didn't do that great in high school at all. I dropped out my junior year so I could smoke weed and snowboard. I did end up finding a passion in college and even did my graduate degree. I've been fortunate to have studied history and learned more about human interaction that I thought I would.

Most societies think about the family as the primary source of encouragement and connection. While traveling in Africa, I learned that many families will gather together to discuss all the kids in the family. I'm talking about lots of cousins and kids being talked about in a room smaller than my living room. The family will decide what kid has the most potential to make it in college. They will invest their money in sending one kid to school and the kid might not be your kid. But the kid knows that it will be his or her job to help the family out once he or she gets a good job.

In America, we've moved to an individualistic society. We think it's all about the self. But it seems this model isn't working too well for us. I think people are longing for more human interaction, just like I was for my son's third birthday last month. We are longing for more people time and less screen but aren't completely sure how to accomplish this.

2) The screen never satisfies

I'm not sure I've ever left scrolling social media thinking, "I'm really glad I just spend thirty minutes of my day looking at nothing." The screen doesn't satisfy our longing. No matter how many likes you get on a pic or a video or a post or anything it will never satisfy.

The other day I posted saying that I've been sober for eighteen years. It is a huge accomplishment! In the comments a friend from high school, who probably never thought I would be sober, commented that the post had over 600 likes and she had never seen that. I had never had that many likes before on a post.

What I have learned is no matter how many hours I spend on social media scrolling, no matter how many likes I get or how many accolades, the screen never satisfies. It doesn't satisfy because God created me to do life with Him. What really satisfies my soul is spending time with God and other people. I love being outdoors and enjoying what God made.

3) God wired us to do life with other people 

We were created to do life with each other. In the very beginning of the Bible God created mankind. Adam named all the animals and then realized he was alone. He was the only one without a partner. God created a suitable helper for him. God wired us to do life with each other. We are hardwired to do life with other people.

Don't beleive me? What is the worst punishment our judicial system gives? I would argue its solitary confinement. I think the death punishment is gnarly but solitary is horrible for inmates.

God wired us to do life with others. This is why my friend recently posted that she was looking for reasons to keep her Facebook account. She was looking to the people she does life with to ask for their help. She had 24 people comment on the post. Some gave reasons to stay. Some reasons were funny and other heartfelt. Someone posted a funny video about the mass exodus from Facebook.

As I've been fortunate to do life with others I've realized how much I need human interaction with others. I need people to share my thoughts, dreams, and fears with. I have a wonderful wife who, when I'm on social media, I can ignore. I have great kids, who when I'm on social media, I can miss out on. I have so much in my life that social media distracts me from.

Now, I know. There are positives, please don't get me wrong. I just think more and more people are weighing the benefits of sitting on their screen with constant scrolling taking place.

4) Many times we leave our experience feeling worthless 

The last thing I've personally noticed is that I can leave social media feeling a little worthless or jaded. I could be having a rad time with my kids but I see your post from Hawaii. Then I start thinking, "I wish I was there."

I could be in Hawaii, but you are posting from Tahiti and I get jealous. Am I the only one with these feelings? If this is just me please let me know.

I could be snowboarding with my kids in Big Bear but I see your post from Tahoe and the ten feet of snow you just got. My nine inch storm sucks even more now and I wish I was riding Kirkwood.

Social media has become a new comparison gave or a way for envy, covetousness and jealousy to stir in my heart. The more I'm writing about this, I'm starting to think about deleting my account. Just like I said, my bulldog is snoring. My kids are asleep and my wife is out studying the Bible with some other women. I'm going to sit on these thoughts, edit them another day and probably post them (took me a week).

This post may not change your life or it might. Maybe you are on the fence like the above people. You are wondering if you should delete your social media. I did once. About six years ago I took three months off social media. It was great. At least once a year I leave my social presence for about 30-40 days and it's great!

I just read a post from a friend who deleted all the people he said, "yes" to that he met once or knew from school but wasn't friends with. Someone mentioned how he deleted thousands of friends. His number of friends is in the hundreds now, but he is connecting with people he really wants to connect with.



I haven't deleted people because I believe that my posting Bible verses, camp experiences and pictures with my family is helping more people love Jesus and their family.

Do what you need to do to connect with God and others. Like I said, these are just my thoughts.

Explain | Reason | Prove

At the conclusion of Acts 16 Paul and Silas left Philippi to continue preaching the Gospel throughout Greece (Acts 17:1-4). Paul and Silas traveled 100 miles south, on foot, from Philippi down to Thessalonica. Thessalonica was a business center in Macedonia. Going from Philippi to Thessalonica was a wise move for Paul. It was Paul’s custom was to find a larger city where he could share the Gospel. From the larger city he would strategically reach the surrounding area with the Gospel. It’s a brilliant plan to help the Gospel reach as many people as possible.

Luke gives us a snapshot of the ministry in Thessalonica. When we read the letters that Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica it appears that he spent months with them. But in Acts, Luke only accounts for about three weeks in the city. And much of the ministry is dedicated to reaching the Jewish people. Throughout the book of Acts we’ve seen that it was Paul’s custom to first go to the Jewish synagogue to preach the Gospel of Jesus. Paul was warmly welcomed into synagogues and was regularly invited to preach. This gave him the ability to share the good new of Jesus with his fellow Jews.

In Thessalonica Paul spent three Sabbaths sharing about Jesus the Messiah. We read that this ministry in Thessalonica was fruitful! Some of the Jews believed and they joined the brothers in their ministry. Note the words associated with Paul’s ministry there: reasoned, explained and proved. Let’s look at each of these words briefly.

To reason with a person is to have a logical conclusion to a matter. In this case Paul would use the Old Testament Scripture in hopes the Jewish people would come to a logical conclusion that Jesus is the Messiah.

After he reasoned with them he would explain that Jesus had to suffer. Some Jews expected Jesus to come as a conquering king. They knew the Messiah would come from the linage of David and therefore expected Him to be a king like David. They expected the Messiah to break the Roman oppression and free them again. Their thinking was too small. Jesus didn’t come to simply change the government but to give us freedom. Jesus wasn’t focused on an earthly kingdom but on an eternal kingdom! The Jews wanted a conquering king, not a humble servant. Therefore Paul needed to explain the Scriptures to them.

Finally he would take the time to prove all of this. He would most likely turn to the Old Testament Scriptures, the passages they were familiar with. He would go to the Psalms, Isaiah and Deuteronomy. It would also make sense for Paul to explain the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of Christ. This would complete the picture Paul was painting for the Jews to understand the truth of Christ. He wasn’t cramming this down their throat but proving it from God’s word. I imagine he was also praying for the Holy Spirit to reveal it to them.

If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, could you reason from the Scriptures to those who are far from the Lord? Do you know how to explain what Jesus came to accomplish? Are you familiar with the Gospel and able to prove it to others?

If you’re not, it’s ok. Continue to study God’s word every week so you can reason, explain and prove that Jesus is the Messiah. At our church we open God’s word and go through it so we are all more prepared to reason, explain and prove that Jesus is the Messiah. But you can also study it more on your own.

Preparing for Victory

Last month our church started a new teaching series through the book of Joshua called Ventures in Faith. The book of Joshua is a fantastic book that details the Israelites transition from a group of wandering nomads to occupying the Promised Land.

On September 18 I preached on how the Israelites prepared for victory. Watch the sermon and my guess is you will be as shocked as I was on how God's people prepare for victory!

9/18/2016 - Neal Benson | Preparing for Victory from Central Peninsula Church on Vimeo.

Summer Reading Idea

Summer is usually a time when our normal schedule is thrown out the window. Think about this with me.

Students- you are on summer break. Whether a junior high, high school or college aged person you are on break. That means: no reading, no going to classes, no homework and no opening your locker on campus.

Adults- you are loving the warmer weather. People are traveling more and you are seeing places you've never seen on your Instagram feed. You're roommates may be out of town or you might have an old college friend visiting you this summer.

Parents- you are still waking up early because your kids don't know how to sleep in. You're trying to figure out what to do with your kids. You're creating awesome adventures with your kids or dreading some days when you have no plans.

Grandparents- you might have the grandkids for a week or two this summer so that your children (who are adults now) can get a break. You are loving the change of pace and the new routine of having the little ones around.

No matter what stage of life you find yourself in we can all agree that summer brings about change. With this change that means we may find it tough to have a Bible reading plan. What if this summer you made a commitment to read two Gospel accounts in the Bible? What if you said, "I'm going to read Matthew and Mark"? You may not read every day but you can sure try your hardest.

The Gospel of Matthew is 28 chapters long and Mark is 16 chapters. That means 44 days of straight Bible reading. You might miss a day or two here and there but you could finish both of these books by the middle of August with no problem. It would require about 5 mins of reading a day. Did you hear that? Five minutes of reading is all it would take to read one chapter a day! Make it even better and use the YouVersion Bible App to help you out.

Take a summer reading challenge and start reading God's word today!

Preparing Your Heart for Worship

Before the worship service can begin the necessary preparations must occur

27 At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres. 28 The musicians also were brought together from the region around Jerusalem—from the villages of the Netophathites, 29 from Beth Gilgal, and from the area of Geba and Azmaveth, for the musicians had built villages for themselves around Jerusalem. 30 When the priests and Levites had purified themselves ceremonially, they purified the people, the gates and the wall. Nehemiah 12:27-30

The text never tells us how long after the completion of the wall this dedication took place, but we can assume it was very soon. The worship for this service was extremely important, so important that Levites were sought out to celebrate. The Levites were the ones who performed all the various functions revolving around God’s Temple and its worship. Not only were the Levites sought out to participate in the worship service, so were the musicians. Musicians came with their instruments from surrounding towns to celebrate all God had done for Israel. This gathering of the people united the residents of Jerusalem with the Israelites residing in the countryside.

Look how they came in verse 27; joyfully. They were brought to joyfully celebrate but before they could celebrate there needed to be a purification (vs. 30). We don’t know exactly what this purification consisted of. It may have had something to do with ceremonial washing, fasting could have been involved, it could have involved abstaining from sexual relations and possibly sin offerings. The gates and the walls were purified also. The gates and walls may have been purified by sprinkling them with the blood of the sacrifices. All of these were part of the purification ceremony described in the Law of Moses. It would not have been uncommon to purify animate and inanimate objects.

Why would they start with all of this purification? Because joyful worship requires a pure heart. Have you ever tried to worship while harboring or hiding sin from the Lord? It makes it almost impossible. Some people come to church, put on a smile and try to worship the Lord all while hiding sin in their hearts. The book of Hebrews says,

“let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22). 

Before you walk into church do you ask God to cleanse your heart? Are you in the regular habit of confessing your sin before worship? If not, now is a great time to start purifying yourself before worship. The truth is, God cares more about the heart in worship than in the voice.

Let me explain this more. When I surrender my life to the Lord at the age of 20 I began attending a growing church that meet at San Diego State University. The worship was great. The sermons were convicting. The 7:15pm service was full of young people. And the girls were hot! I would arrive early, walk down to the very front of the church and pretend that I was looking for a friend. While scanning the crowd I would look for the hottest girl I could find with a seat open next to her. I did this a few times in an attempt to meet girls with little success. The reason; my heart was impure. After trying this a few times God convicted me of my actions. How could I walk into church and make picking up girls my main focus. I needed to purify my heart and focus on God. This is what the Israelites did. They purified their hearts and turned their focus on God.

Confessions of a Dad: I love my phone too much

"Hey dad, wanna play?"
Looking down at his phone, "Give me one minute, I'm almost done."

Dear Dad,

Look up from your phone for just one minute, I'd like to tell you something. Your kid is only going to be this age once. Tomorrow she will be older. Today she wants to play: Legos, hide and seek, soccer or Go Fish. So why not play with her?

Do you know there is going to be a day that she isn't going to want to play with you. Sure, you'll still have your phone. In fact, it will be an upgraded model with more "cool" stuff. There will be more apps and games for you to play. But she will always be your kid, there is no trading up here.

Let me ask you: "Is what you're doing on there really that important?" I mean, can it wait? Do you really need to check your email every five minutes? Will the posts on Facebook still be there when she is in bed? Is it more important to check Craigslist right now?

Let me give you an example to help you. Walk to your room. While you're walking turn your phone to silent. Look at your dresser, there is tons of room there. Set your phone down, try facedown. Now walk out, leave it there.

I'll stop telling you how to live your life, I can see you're either frustrated with me or get the point. I know being a dad is tough for you but fight for her. She wants to play with you. Remember how big she smiles. Remember how much she laughs. She loves you!

Put your phone down, it can't really be more important than her.

Signed,
Me

This is a letter I wrote to myself and I'm sending to myself. It's not for you, though it may speak to your situation. The letter is for me. I'm sick of stuffing my face in the phone, so it's a reminder I need to focus on my family and what really matters most.

Parenting "Don'ts" /// Part One

I figured it was about time to start sharing some parenting "Do's" and some parenting "Don'ts".  Since I think the "don't" list is going to be longer I'm going to start out with that!

The other day I was searching on Youtube to watch movie's with my kids.  Some how I saw this trailer for Iron Man 3 and thought it would be a good idea to watch with my little girls sitting next to me

After my wife came out and pretty much gave me the death look I realized I botched it!  I mean really, lets be honest here.  What kind of dad lets his 3 year old and 4 1/2 year old daughter sit on his lap watching a video clip with a crazy robot man, a plane that is crashing, helicopters shooting a house to bits, people sinking in the ocean and fire all over.  I have no clue what I was thinking but I can tell you I won't do it again.

I now realize how precious my little girls are (more than I did before) and that God didn't create their minds with the ability to handle things my mind can handle.  Little girls; I am so sorry for letting you watch this when you are so young, please forgive me! 

Confessions of a Pastor: Final Confession for 2012

I have a final confession to make for 2012...

I read the Bible every year from cover to cover

I feel much better now that I got that off my chest.  I know some people prefer to read one book of the Bible and take multiple weeks to read it and read it and read it again but that just doesn't work for me.

I am not one of those people who can just open their Bible and read whatever page that I turn to.  I find it too difficult not completely understanding what is going on when I open to the middle of a book.

To be honest I really can't remember who invited me to read the Bible from cover to cover or how I started this reading plan.  One year I gave up reading cover to cover and ordered the Chronological One Year Bible off Amazon.  I found that an enjoyable way to read the Bible but after reading it I passed it onto my mom to share the goodness.  In an effort to switch it up I went back to cover to cover and had done that ever since.

One year I decided to switch it up again and read the New Testament first and then went back to the Old Testament.  That was about two years ago; I'm back to cover to cover.

The confession gets better...

I don't read the Bible on my phone or iPad.  I read the Bible in paper form so I can underline passages and make notes.  I know I am so not 21'st century or hip.  I do love the youversion app and I know many people who use it to read the Bible but I just can't seem to focus... Maybe that is my problem; I need to focus and I want to be intentional with my walk with Christ so I read the Bible from cover to cover so I can know the whole truth of God.

There I said it!

con[DIS]nected

When we moved up to the Bay Area one of my friends in ministry sent me a Facebook message telling me about this guy up here that I needed to connect with.  It took a little while for me to land, and for us to figure out a time, but we finally met up this week.  I drove up to the city and connected with Matt.  We had breakfast, talked about life, shared about our different ministry contexts, shared our faith stories, bragged about how cute our kids are and talked about reaching the Peninsula for Christ.  Everything my friend told me about Matt was true.  He is a friendly guy, a catalytic leader and super rad (I added that).  I left very encouraged this week after connecting with Matt.

Later that day I was driving home from the office and I started thinking about how connected we are as a society.  Now this has been my rant before but I came to the conclusion that we are more connected than ever but more disconnected than ever!  

Let me explain that thought before you close this tab

I feel very connected when I am on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, my iPhone or Email.  I can FaceTime People, Skype, Message, Text, Tweet and have entire conversations with never opening my mouth.  We can decide solutions to problems, talk with relatives and look at screens but there is something about sitting face to face with a person.  

My hope coming from this post would be that you find more conversations to have face to face with people.  I am the person that uses almost every social media avenue so I don't think they are bad; I would just prefer to have more human interactions.  That conversation with Matt reminded me of that.  I love finding other people who are passionate about reaching lost people and Matt is one of those guys.

Now take it a step further.  What would it take in your life to really find true connections with people in your local area?

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25

Women's Resource Center Banquet 2012

When we moved to Nevada my wife got a job at an amazing ministry called The Women's Resource Medical Centers of Southern Nevada (WRC).  Now to be honest I really had no clue what Charity did when she got the job but it didn't take long for me to learn all about her role and how important what she was doing was to the community.  The WRC is actively involved in the community by helping with crisis pregnancy counseling.  Now I am not the stat guy on this one but I know that there are so many people who find themselves in a situation with an unwanted child.  The bummer is that many of these women abort their child because they believe there is no other option.  The WRC is here to let women know that there is another option and that the baby shouldn't have to suffer for the choice of the parents.

Every year the WRC holds an annual banquet to help keep the awareness there in the community and to raise money.  We are super blessed because we have been able to attend this banquet almost year we have lived here and recently we have been able to secure a table so we can bring students along to help them understand the importance of the sanctity of life.

This year we were blessed to bring some students that we have worked with for years to this event so they can hear about the importance that there are options when people find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy.

Here are three things that stuck out to me from the banquet

1) I WISH I COULD BRING 100 STUDENTS 
This event is so much fun that I wish I could bring 100 students with us to it!  The message is so vitally important and there are kids in every city in America making choices they will regret forever.  If we could bring more students to hear this message I think that we could see more of an impact of the ministry.  Since we can't bring 100 students there it means that we (pastors) need to bring the message to the church of how important this is!

2) WRC MADE A BIG ASK
Every year the WRC makes a request for people to help support them financially; and I think that every year we have written a check to help them out.  This year they needed to raise money so they could buy their own commercial building since they are outgrowing their current location.  They didn't pull any punches and put a line on the card to see if anyone wanted to give $1,950,000.  Yep, they asked for someone to give them 1.9 Million dollars!  It made me think of James 4:2

3) GOVERNOR HUCKABEE
This year Governor Huckabee was the keynote speaker and he brought it!  The students who came with us were talking about the message he gave and how it impacted them.  This was so important for them to have an engaging speaker to keep the crowd interested in the message and he did that!

I am thankful for the opportunity to attend this event every year but I am more thankful that we can help students understand the value.

Connected

The last six months I have a been asking more questions about ministry than I have in a long time.  Now I am a question asker by nature (just ask my tattoo artist).  When I was asked to transition into working with adults it was a whole new game for me and that meant new contacts, new lessons, new books, new contacts and new clothes (ok, just kidding about the clothes).

The main thing I work on now is connecting people to the church and the more I am working in this role I am beginning to see how unconnected people are to the church.  To be honest I am kinda of shocked at how many adults are not connected in smaller groups of people.  I guess when I became a Christian that is just what was explained to me as normal so I did it but my experiences are not true for everyone and that is why I preached about being connected at my church the first two Sunday's of the year.

I could take more time to talk about being connected but if you have not listened to these messages I invite you to listen to them and see what God stirs in your heart about your life connections.

Connected Week One

Connected Week Two

Chicas y Muchachos

We are currently doing a series in our High School Ministry called "Chicas y Muchachos". The point of this series to talk about sex. Yep, you read it right; sex. We want to teach our high school about sex and how to wait. See I have worked with students now for almost eight years and the reoccurring theme I hear is the pain and hurt from unwise sexual decisions. The series has been a home run so far (I never played baseball but have always wanted to say that).

The great thing about doing a series on purity is we get the chance to radically be involved in the lives of the students we work with. The adverse side of this is that stuff comes out. I think there are times that I avoid teaching on a topic because I know stuff is going to come out. Like when the hurricane happen in Louisiana the water filled the sewers and stuff came out that no one wanted to deal with; well we have some rad leaders who are prepared to deal with the stuff that comes out!

Here's how the series breaks out:
Week 1: Sex and Love, Love > Sex (Intro week)
Week 2: R.E.S.P.E.C.T. (you gotta respect yourself)
Week 3: The Difference between Pink and Blue
Week 4: Dealing with Lives Hurts
Week 5: I got a Question
Week 6: The Choice of Purity

See the first three weeks of this series we have just talked about sex and how that impacts us and the world we live in (we live in Sin City) and the last three weeks we are going to talk about healing and how to make right choices to avoid the pain of unwise sexual decisions.

"What Would Jesus Buy?"

Another movie review for you all: "What Would Jesus Buy?" is the last movie that we watched in our household and this one brought up some good subject matter. I am so compelled by the movie that I am putting the trailer into this post:



"What Would Jesus Buy?" started out pretty good. The narrator shared some amazing stats about how much money we, American's, spend yearly on Christmas. The main character, and He is a character, is Rev Billy and he runs "The Church of Life After Shopping". Before I go on, I must make it clear that Rev Billy is not a Reverend. I think (personal thought) that he is dressing up like a Reverend so that when he is outlandish in his actions that people may, key word "may", take him serious.

I think that this movie has great point: we waste SO much money on consumerism! I was very convicted by the facts about shopping the message that his team is sharing. There is so much waste in the world. I wish they would have directed people to share what they could save to help others in need; but that didn't happen.
I did take a few key points from this movie:

• America has taught me that by getting gifts at Christmas, that are expensive, it means I am loved
• America has become a consumer nation therefore; I want to look for products that are made in America when my family is shopping
• I want to use my credit card less (not that we have massive cc debt; we use our cc like a debt card and get airline miles)

If you get an extra 90 min in life and want some laughs and some scenes to make you smile then rent this flick; but be ready to be a bit convicted.

Fantasy Football 2009

So last year I posted something about fantasy football and how I wasn't planning on playing. Last season I won our fantasy football league (and it felt good) but there was something about playing again. I have a very competitive personality and its hard for me to do something without putting my everything in it.

This year I made a decision that I would not play fantasy football and not becasue of anyone in my league, honestly I really love those guys. But this year I realized that I have more important things to do than think all week how I will win and then take the day on Sunday to make sure that I win. In short; fantasy football consumed me last year.

This year when it came time to start back up I gracefully bowed out and let someone else take my spot. Here are the three main reasons that I am not playing fantasy football this year:

1. I want to put more into my marriage
My marriage is going super good right now! Charity and I were talking about marriage the other day and the need to invest into it. I realized that if I said "yes" to fantasy football that meant I would be saying "no" to other things in life. Charity and I are getting ready to hit five years of marriage (by the way we are planning an Elvis re-wedding for Jan!) and that is more important to me than winning fantasy football again.

2. I want to spend more time with my daughter
Sophie is at the best age right now! Yesterday I was laying on the ground playing with her and she climbed on my chest and just started cuddling with me; I loved it! I want to invest in her and if I said "yes" to fantasy football that would mean I would have had to say "no" to some of these great moments with her; I'm not willing to miss out on her growing up.

3. I need to focus on school and finishing that up
Right now I am on track (taking two courses a semester and one course in the spring; when BB2 is due) to graduate Seminary in Summer 2011. I need to make that happen and I think that fantasy football would take away from that. I want to get school done before Sophie is too old; I want to have it done so that I can spend more time with my family and less time at the kitchen table (we don't have a home office) doing homework.

So that is why I'm not playing fantasy football this year; I just don't have time for it.

My truck and My Spirititual Life

So I hope the title confuses you some, or just catches your attention, because this is reality for me! I once heard Doug Fields mention this topic and it has always stuck with me.
The premise is that my truck can be, and for me mostly is, a direct representation of my Spiritual life. Let me elaberate on that a bit more. When my life gets crazy; my truck starts to get messy. I dont wash it, I leave the gas tank empty (the picture should speak for that), I have trash all over the floor and currently there are graham crackers crumbled on the backseat from my daughter.

When my truck looks like that I know that I need to clean up my life; its like a warning light for me. I know that I need some extended time with Jesus to get refreshed. I can often look at my calender and see how busy I have allowed myself to become without leaving margin in my life to get refueled by Jesus. When I filled up my truck on Tuesday morning I did it right after I had filled up my spirit.

The Bible talks about our spirit longing for Jesus and that is where I was Tuesday morning. I am thankful that I obeyed the logic in my life and looked at my truck. It may seem like a silly, and somewhat childish, analogy but its very true for me.

Burkina Faso Flooding 2009

Please pray for the country of Burkina Faso and the recent flooding that took place last week