The Unstuck Church | Book Review

Title- The Unstuck Church: Equipping Churches to Experience Sustained Health

Author- Tony Morgan

Publisher- Thomas Nelson

Pages- 205

Quotable- "For the church to return to sustained health, a growing core of people needs to come to the realization that church isn't about me."
( I could have written 20 quotes from this book but only choose one)

A few months ago called me and my family on the greatest adventure/step of faith in our life. About two months into my call to lead Coastline Bible Church I was talking with my mentor about where our church is at. He is familiar with the church and cares deeply for both of us. He recommended that I read a new book by Tony Morgan. I immediately got it on Amazon and started reading it.

I've followed Tony Morgan on social media for a while and read many of his posts. He a well respected leader, pastor and helper of churches. Tony essentially breaks down the seven stages that each church will experience:
1) The Launch stage
2) Momentum growth
3) Strategic growth
4) Sustained health
5) Maintenance
6) Preservation
7) Life support
(Carey Nieuwhof explains these more on his website)

From the first chapter to the last word each chapter has been helpful in the role God has called me to in leading. Tony combines his experience, with practical application and stories from churches in the different stages that every church goes through. He writes about churches who are shaping the mission and vision of their church. He talks about helping a growth church move from leader driven to a strategy for sustained health.

Now there is also the downside, the side no church wants to find itself on (this is the beginning of the maintenance mode). Tony provides practical steps for churches that are dying to become healthy again. He speaks clearly about reaching out, investing in the community and having strategic focus. He encourages churches in these stages to make drastic changes so they can be a vital part of their community again.

One part that really stuck out to me was Tony's emphasis on prayer. He knows that no matter how much strategy, information and great ideas a pastors has it requires a movement of God to help the church become healthy. He emphasizes the need for pastors to be praying for God to reach their community. Tony also talks about staff teams and the importance of having a unified team. Team leadership is one of my favorite subjects!

This book has been fantastic in aiding me in leading the church. If you're a leader, elder, director, staff member or pastor at a church I highly encourage you to pick up this book. You might see something that could help your church move to strategic growth once again.

Castle Rock Hike with Kids

So you're thinking about hiking Castle Rock in beautiful Big Bear Lake? Then I would say: "YES! Do it!" Castle Rock is a fairly moderate hike. It does have an increase in elevation but the trail is clearly marked and it leads to a beautiful view of the valley (If you scramble to the top).

Castle Rock is located on the Southwest side of the lake. If you're coming up from the San Bernardino area you will cross over the dam and look for the hike on the right side of the road. There is some parking on the opposite side of the highway about 200-300 feet from the start of the hike. Judging on how many cars are parked will give you a glimpse into how busy the trail will be.


On my last family visit to Big Bear I took my daughters on this hike. We did the hike in the middle of the day, which can be not the ideal time, but it was great! You have to keep in mind that you're hiking at 6000 feet elevation! We had to pose for a picture in front of the sign to make sure we let everyone know we did the hike! You can see the trail marked behind us.

As we began the ascent Leah took off like a rabbit. She was loving the first part while Sophie was tired and dragging. Doing this hike with kids you need to be ready for anything. Since I could tell the altitude was getting to them we had to take our time. I think it took us about an hour to make it to the top. This included many water breaks and much bribery, I mean encouragement, on my part.

The trail is beautiful. I shared stories with my kids of hiking this same trail at their age. We had some glimpses of the lake and then you circle around the backside of Castle Rock. We made it to the base and had lunch on a rock. The girls enjoyed the view but I wanted to get on top. My guess is that it had been at least 20 years since I had hiked to the top. It some maneuvering but I made it. When they saw me up there it was game on!

For the next 15 mins or so I helped both of the girls make the final ascent. It's not the easiest part and some families might choose to not make it to the top. But the view from the top is breath-taking! We sat up top and ate a snack. There are chipmunks that will even come up to you!




After enjoying the view we took the time to walk back down. As with each hike the descent is typically quicker than the ascent. We laughed, smiled and talked the whole way down. It was a great afternoon with the girls (while Isaiah napped at home). After we made it back to the cabin we treated ourselves to a Slurpee!

Next time you're in Big Bear consider making this a memory you have with your family or friends!

Isaiah's First Time Snowboarding

Last week we took a family trip to Lake Tahoe. As this trip was approaching I felt like it was the right time to get Isaiah on a snowboard for the first time. I looked all over to find a board that would be his size and found nothing.

I figured that I would just hold him and let him ride down a little with me. When we arrived at Heavenly Valley our girls wanted to take some laps on the magic carpet. At this time is when Charity had the idea to let him try.

See the whole time his sisters were riding he would say "skateboard" (he calls any board a skateboard). It was obvious he wanted to ride it. As you can see in the picture he did great standing on the board! His first ride he actually rode down on his own, but later wanted me to hold his hands.

I am so stoked for my son and how he rode!

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.

Helping people get connected

One of my passions for people is to help them get connected in the local church. God has placed me in a large church setting and let's be honest, this can be tough. People walk into our church and think, "This place is big." After that I believe people either think about how to get connected or are thankful to be able to grow in a setting where they can just sit and learn.

Knowing how tough it can be to really get connected in a large church in a large area we started something new about nine months ago. We call it our New People Dinner. Since it was a new event for us we needed to make a plan. Our campus staff got in a room with a whiteboard and began to sketch out what the day would look like.

We knew we didn't want this to be something that didn't feel organic. We didn't want it to be too scheduled but we wanted a good plan so we could accomplish helping people who are looking to get connected. We came up with the whiteboard dream to the left and since then we have tweaked and made this better!

After doing three of these we have learned a ton. We've learned about location, timing and who needs to be there. We've learned about how to invite people and how some people will just come on the day of. Every two to four months we send out an invite to anyone who has filled out a connection card that says something like this:

You’re Invited!

Finding a church community is a big choice. We also know that the larger the church, more difficult it can feel to connect and we want to help out. We’re hosting a dinner for our new guests to CPC Foster City. This will be a time for you to meet our campus staff and Elders. Our hope is to provide an opportunity for us to connect, for you to learn a little more about CPC and for us to have a meal together. Children are welcomed. Will you join us on Sunday April 17 from 4-6pm?

After we send the invite out we wait for the day to come so we can hang out with people who are new to our church. This has been a great time to connect with people and learn more about people. Whether your in a big church or a small church people are looking to get connected.

Don't forget this: "People want to be known and loved." -Vicki Pettingill

Young Adults: State of the Union

Last Thursday, January 14, we started a new series in our Young Adults ministry. Its a seven week that I kicked off where we will go through the six core values of CPC. I started the message series off with what I called "The State of the Union" address.

The State of the Union is a rally cry for our Young Adults for the year, it is what we will focus on for this entire year. You can hear the entire message on our Young Adults site, but let me summarize what we're going to focus on.

The mission of CPC Young Adults is to make and mature more followers of Christ. 

This is the same mission statement for our entire church. We're not going to mess with that! Its a great focus for our church, especially with the location God has strategically placed us. We're going to have two main focuses for the year: to help more people find Christ and follow Christ.

Maturing Christ Followers
Our main goal for 2016, in the maturing followers of Christ part, is to double our small groups. We currently have 4 small groups meeting on a regular basis. The average size of each group is somewhere around 12 people. With the amount of people we have in our Young Adult ministry we need to double this this 8 groups so people can be in discipleship community.

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

Making Christ Followers
We live in an area that is approximately 97% unchurched. That means there are a lot of people who we can tell about Jesus! We're going to do this by focusing on friendship evangelism. The goal is for each person to share Christ with one of their friends this year, in hopes that they will enter into a life changing relationship with Christ. When a person meets Christ is it normal for them to go and share that truth with others.

The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. John 1:41-42a

An Eternal Purpose
This ministry isn't about us, its about making the saving truth of Jesus Christ known. We're going to focus on reaching single and married people, on the Peninsula, ages 18-35. We're going to do this by meeting on a regular basis. If its Thursday, our Young Adult ministry will be meeting. We're going to do this because people are dying without the saving truth of Jesus.

Hope to see you on Thursday!

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.

15 Years of being sober

April 20, 2015 was a big day for me. It was a day I never imagined would happen.

Today marks 15 years of being sober in my life.

Just over 15 years ago I walked out of a jail cell for the last time. I really thought that I would stay. I was on probation and had violated probation, I thought I was going to serve a year for that violation. When I got to jail that night I looked around and noticed the homeless drunks sitting in their stupor. I thought: "I'm not one of these guys..." but I was. Then it hit me: "I don't want to be like them when I grow up."

When I was a boy I wanted to be a fireman so I could save people but as a 20 year old I couldn't even get my life in order to help my self. I needed a change. That night I cried out to Jesus in the wee hours of the morning. I prayed a simple prayer, if you can it that. I made a request of God: "God, if you get me out of here I will do anything you want." Little did I know how much that request would change my life.

I was released 5 hours after praying that prayer.

A few days later I found myself attending my court mandated DUI school where I met a man named Brett Wheeler. Brett reached out to me at the end of class and invited me to attend church with him. Brett invested into me. He shared with me what he knew about God and helped me to find a solid relationship with Christ.

There isn't enough time to write what has changed in the last 15 years but for me its obvious when I look in the mirror; I am not the same man. God has changed my life and its only because of His mercy I have been able to stay sober for the last 15 years.

"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit..." Ephesians 5:18

Bringing Up Girls /// Book Review

Title: Bringing Up Girls

Author: Dr. James Dobson

Pages: 285

Publisher: Tyndale

Recommend: Emphatically YES

Quotable: "You will make the difference in your daughter's life." (Page 20)

This is one of the books Charity asked me to read about 2 years ago, with seminary and moving I wasn't able to read it until recently.  In fact the book was so confusing, impacting, interesting and life changing I stopped reading it after 8 chapters.  Yep, I stopped reading it!  I took a month break from the book to think about, process and apply what I'd been reading.  Once I felt like I could pick it back up again I grabbed it and restarted reading the book.  Its not a short book, but its a great book!

Here are some major themes I took away from the book:

My daughters need me
Coming from a broken home I have a skewed view of parenthood.  I'm not saying my view is completely incorrect, I'm not saying my parents are bad people; I am saying I've never lived in a home with a set of married parents (beside my home today).  Dobson takes the time to explain, throughly in this book of how important my role is in the life of my daughters.

Show appropriate physical touch
The key word here is appropriate.  All too often, from what I read, dads are showing inappropriate physical touch: sexual touch.  My daughters need me to show them appropriate physical touch.  For me, this involves lots of hugs, kisses, cuddling, hand holding and carrying my kids.  Dobson talks about how important my role, as a father, is in my daughter's life and my physical touch will show that.  Working with students for almost a decade I've seen the effects of girls who don't have a dad and boy I don't want my kids to act like that.

Engage, Engage, Engage
There are times I want to run... from my kids.  There are times my kids are: screaming, crying, whining, and having a tantrum (I have normal kids even though I'm a pastor).  When they act like this I want to leave; just being honest.  I have actually given myself time-outs before and taken walks to clear my head.  Dobson shares about how important it is for dads to engage with their kids and not push them away.  Dads, we need to engage our kids all the time, frequently and when its tough!

I've recommended this book to so many dads.  If you're a dad go get it and start reading it!  Hit me up if you want to talk about it.

A Morning of "Firsts"

This Sunday morning was a morning of "firsts" for me

I feel like I have done most pastoral responsibilities in my life.  I have preached sermons, officiated weddings, helped ordain pastors, preached Easter, baptized people, preached Good Friday, officiated funerals, lead staff meetings, preached Christmas Eve, helped license new pastors and done my fair share of counseling.

This weekend was a weekend of firsts for me as I did my first baby dedications.  I have never done baby dedications before; probably because no one wants the High School Pastor to dedicate their kid and say something dumb.  This weekend I dedicated 5 babies at our church and I'm pretty sure I didn't say anything dumb.  The best thing is I feel like I was able to play a huge role in the lives of these families over the last couple weeks and I hope that continues.

At Central Peninsula Church we are in a series right now called "Come and See".  In this message series we are looking the first twelve chapters of John.  This weekend I preached on John 2:13-25.  Now it wasn't my first time preaching but it was my first time being on video at one of our other campus'.  To be honest I was a bit nervous.

I have never had to be so prepared in my preaching before hand.  I had to make sure to look at the camera, a few times, to help the campus feel engaged.  I had to make sure my jokes were funny (they weren't).  I wanted to make sure the campus felt included.  I did my best to make mention to our South Campus and what God is doing there.  Its fun being a part of one church that meets on three locations!

Here is a link to the message I preached (same morning; second service)

Follow Jesus Series

This Sunday our church started a new series called Follow Jesus.  Mark started out the series talking about the passage in Luke 9 where Jesus asks the disciples to give Him and update on what people are saying about Him.  Right after Peter confesses Christ as the Messiah Jesus goes into sharing about how He will soon die (probably not a fun conversation).

The message really impacted me as Mark talked about that there is no difference between being a Christian and being a Disciple; Christ never meant for their to be a division between those two words.  At the end of Mark's message we transitioned into a time of communion.  At that point Mark asked us to take a few minutes to think about what is in our life that is holding us back from being a Disciple.

To be completely honest, when those times arise, I normally pray for people in our church that God would speak to them.  But this Sunday I didn't do that.  I asked God what was holding me back from being a Disciple.  To that I felt God speak four things to me and then I asked Him to repeat them so I could remember them by using my fingers to mark a point.  Well when I did that I only got three things that I need to work on and here they are:

1. Watch less TV
Believe it or not this is a problem for me.  I love watching: Gold Rush, Parks and Rec, American Hoggers, Survivor, Duck Dynasty, Storage Wars, Football, The Office, Parenthood, Alaska the Last Frontier, Up All Night, Yukon Men and probably more!  I can sit in front of the TV for hours and just love it.  It allows me to veg and not engage life.

The truth is I can't live like that anyone.  I need to be engaged in life which I think leads well into the next thing I am going to work on this year.

2. Be present
I have struggled with this for years and have written about it before.  Once, while meeting with my counselor, this topic came up.  We talked about how I have the personality type that can always think ahead and miss out on today.  She encouraged me (warned me) that this will be something that I will have to fight against in my life; she wasn't kidding.  I have to fight to be present.  I can day dream in conversations, think about other things and turn the conversation to what I want to talk about.

This year I am going to FIGHT to be present more often; especially with my kids. 

3. Be a better parent 
Its tough to admit but I don't think I am the best dad.  I think I am good dad but I think I could do better.  For most of my children's life I was in seminary.  While in seminary I was able to skip out on dad duties in the name of conquering school.  Well the truth is that school is done.  I don't have an excuse anymore to be a disengaged parent.  I have written papers on how to be an involved parent so I am going to go back and take my own advice on what I need to do.

I am not writing any of this to show how Godly I am.  In fact it may be the opposite.  I am writing this because I need prayer.  I want to be a better dad.  I want to be more present in situations.  I need prayer.  I need others to come alongside me to help me be the man that I think God desires for me to be.

If you want you can watch the message that Mark preached here on Vimeo.

My New Role: Pastor of Discipleship

Last night was a very difficult night for me.  Last night was the night that we shared with our students about some of the things that we have been working hard on, behind the scenes, to make South Hills a more effective church.  Part of this will include a role transition for me.  Starting September I will be transitioning out of student ministries and into a new role: Pastor of Discipleship.

About two months ago I had a conversation with the leadership of our church and during that conversation I was asked to transition into this new role to help us grow the church.  This new role is going to stretch me in some pretty big ways and as I have prayed through it I think it's going to stretch my faith also.

About a year ago it became evident to me that our High School Ministry was functioning like a one-legged pirate.  I shared this with leaders and students.  Now one-legged pirates are cool and people want to see them and take their picture with them but they are not balanced.  Our High School Ministry was not balanced in the Biblical Purposes and it was hurting our growth in students lives.  This same analogy works for our church.  Our church has a great week worship experience but we are lacking in discipling believers.

As I move into this new role, initially, my main responsibility will be to build on what we currently have going in our Life Groups area.  As we develop those, recruit more leaders and get more people in church involved them my role will expand.  Some areas we have talked about would include: Missions (local and global), Spiritual Formation, and Accountability.  I would really appreciate your prayers as we move into this new role and transition out of student ministries.  

Now let me share some things about this change:

• Chase Feindel, our Middle School Pastor, will provide leadership for all Student Ministries
• I am not in trouble
• This new role is going to stretch me
• Charity and I have prayed about this role and feel God leading us in this direction
• We love our church
• I have spoken with our Elders at our church and the affirmation I have received from them is: "Neal, we think you are the only person on our staff who can do this."
• My pastor, Kevin Wehr, have given me his vote of confidence to lead this area of ministry

The Benson's are Moving

The rumor is out so I figured its time to let you all know that we are moving!
We are actually moving out of Las Vegas... and heading over to Henderson!

Now that I got your attention, and maybe scared you a little bit, I can let you know the facts about the move.  Charity and I have been praying for about two years that we could move into a bigger place than we currently live.  I tend to fall into the American trap and say things like: "Our condo is so small." or "I need more room."

When I actually take the time to step back, and slow down, I realize that I have a beautiful little condo.  I realize that I don't need more room but that I would like more room.  I would love it for the girls to have their own bedrooms but in reality they like to sleep in the same room.  I want an office to do my seminary work at while at home (its tough on the kitchen table).  I would love to have a garage to store our seasonal items but we just don't have that where we currently live.

So through all our prayers, and my whining, God has answered our prayer to bless us with a bigger place to move in to.  We are pretty stoked to have a guest room (slash office) for our friends to be able to stay in when they come to town.  I'm excited for the girls to have the loft to use as a play room.  I am really excited to have a little backyard where we can BBQ and play with the girls outside.  I am more excited to have a place where we can have people over and it wont interfere with the girls taking naps or sleeping.  We can hang out with people at night, do ministry, and our girls will hopefully not be bothered.

These are just a few things that make me excited about our new place.  Now we aren't buying the place.  We are actually short selling our condo (and I would like to blog on that in the future) so this has been a long prayed out process in our lives.  Will you please join us in prayer as our move gets closer?  Please pray that our new home will be a place of ministry and life change for all that enter and that God will guide our thoughts and action in that home to honor Him!

My Top Five from 2010

2010 was a good year.  We had some crazy times as a family and some great times.  Overall I have to look back on the year with some huge learning lessons, some great ministry lessons and wonderful time with my family.  On New Years Eve Charity and I were talking about our top five from the year, she already blogged her's, and it was good to just talk and think about all that God has done for us and how He provides for our family.

With that said here is my top five greatest memories from 2010:

1) The birth of Leah Joy Benson
This seems to have to be a no brainer that my daughter being born was by far the best thing to happen to our family in 2010.  When Leah was born we were both a bit nervous because of all the issues that we had with Sophie.  It was great to have Charity's mom and sister in town to help out on the day Leah arrived.  We went to the hospital late on the night of March 10th and at 7:06am on March 11th Leah Joy joined us (of course I cried when I first saw her).

2) Elvis Wedding
January 7th 2010 marked Charity and I being married for 5 years.  We have decided that every five years we are going to do something big for our anniversary.  We also talked about how we may not live in Vegas for ever and we needed to do the Elvis Wedding.  So I got my tuxedo t-shirt out and we invited the friends to our wedding.  Now one of the best parts is that Charity was a good 7+ months pregnant!

3) Family Vacation in San Diego
Over the summer we packed up the girls and headed south to the beach.  Now its weird to write that we took a vacation in the city where Charity and I meet and used to live for a few years but we did.  We meet my Mom, her Husband, Sister and Nephew down there.  We went to the beach, Sea World, the Zoo and the Wild Animal Park.  Such a great time at the beach and with family!

4) Hume Lake Summer Camp
This was my sixth summer going to Hume Lake and every year I have enjoyed it more and more.  I think that is partly because we, as a student ministry, have learned how Hume functions and how we can best use the week up at camp.  Every year we bring more and more students there and have just seen God really grab students hearts in huge ways and change lives!  I am very thankful for the ministry that Hume Lake has in our students lives.

5) Beaver Dam Fishing Trip
My church did something great for me last year and gave me three weeks off for Spiritual Refreshment.  Part of that time I went on a four day fishing trip with my buddy here in town, Taun Yurek.  We went to Beaver Dam, in Nevada, and went fly fishing for trout.  This was by far one of the highlights of my year; getting away and just being in nature!  Now it was super cold but I pushed through it and had one of the best times of my life.

Well that's it; that's the top five things from 2010

Leah Joy Benson

So this post is much overdue!

The short story goes like this:
On Wednesday March 10th 2010 we took Charity to the doc to get checked out at like 1:30pm. Everything was good and then around 4pm she started having crazy contractions! At 6:45pm we decided that I should go to explode and help teach because we were having a Q & A night for the sex series (my wife is rad!).

I left Explode at 8:30pm came home, changed my shirt and then we were off to the hospital. We got there at 9:02pm and just waited... literally. We did some laps to make the contractions increase and finally at 2:00am we were admitted into our room. We had the best nurse that night; thanks Janet!

At around 3:30am I took a nap (hahahaha) and woke up at 5:30am when Charity's mom and sister arrived. Things progressed and then Charity started pushing and on March 11th 2010 at 7:06am Leah Joy Benson was born.
She was 9 pounds 1 ounce and 22 inches long
She stole my heart from the first minute I saw her and just like when her sister was born I cried.

My life will never be the same...

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.

My little girl is growing up...

So this post is just dedicated to my amazing family that is growing. Sophie Marie is going to be 17 months old tomorrow and Leah Joy has about 7 more weeks in Charity's tummy until we get to meet her! My girls are growing:

Sophie when we went on Family Date a few weeks ago




















It seems pretty undeniable that she is my daughter















Sophie has a different feeling about the snow than we had expected




















But a few weeks later I took her snowboarding and she changed her mind

LOVE

Tomorrow night we start our "LOVE" series. Every year in our High School Ministry I try to do a series that focuses on either love or sex (students love it when we talk about sex!). This year we are doing love. Feb 11th is our invite night where we really challenge students to reach out to their friends. The last stat I heard was that 90% of High School Students would go to church if one of their friends would just invite them.
We are having food, some funny games, doing a raffle for some prizes and sharing the truth of Christ. As we kick off the love series are focusing on why we have love and where the ability to love came from. I have come to the conclusion that if we don't have Christ in our lives all the loving we do is false; its not eternal.
I am super excited to see how God will work tomorrow, pray for us!

Wrapping up 2008

Today Charity and I were talking and I shared how I wanted to give an update on all that we did this year. She came up with a great word; "Reflect". We both decided that too many times we fail to reflect on life and remember all that God has done for us. I know this post may be long, but I hope you enjoy reading/seeing what God has done for us this last year.

Winter Camp 2008
This year we did our own winter camp in BrianHead Utah. It was amazing! My buddy Joey Ross came and spoke and Aaron Hoffman lead worship. It was great to see our leaders all jump in and make it happen. We just rented houses and Town Hall and spent time with students. It was so good we are doing it again in 2009

Mexico Mission Trip
I was able to lead a team to a town just south of Ensenada Mexico to build a home for a family who didn't have one. There are some super cool missionaries down there; Rick and Tammie Romano. They have great hearts and run a super effective ministry down there called "The Ensenada Project". If you are looking for a place to serve, contact them!

Translating the Book of Ephesians
This year I took a class through Fuller Seminary where I was able to translate the book of Ephesians from Greek into English. I would say that it was the hardest assignment that I have ever accomplished. I was so happy to turn all the 150 pages of homework in for that class!

Italy Vacation
If you missed the posts from Italy you gotta go check them out! This was by far the best vacation that Charity and I have ever taken. We feel so blessed that we were able to do this before Sophie came. (Little unknown fact: while we were in Italy we thought that Sophie was going to be "Zachariah Charles Benson")









Sophie Marie Benson in the oven
Sophie is by far the best thing to happen to our family this year. Neither of us would know what to do without her!









Hume SD: Middle School
Middle School Camp... was rad! I had a great time with the 8th grade, soon to be 9th grade, boys. They were great and Evan Faircloth is a rad leader, but Chase Feindel really led that camp well! Thanks for all your hard work Chase.




Hume Lake: High School
The students that we brought this year were great, but our leaders did even better! I always tell other pastors that our leaders are one of the main reasons that I keep serving. Without there help and support I don't believe that our ministry would be as effective as it has been out here. Thank you leaders for all your hard work. It is not un-noticed!

Baby Shower
Thank you all so much for all you gave. A special thanks to the McComb's for opening their home to allow us to have the shower there; you guys are truly amazing!

The Arrival of Sophie Marie
You can search the blog back in August to get more updates (click here). Sophie was born on August 26th 2008. She is by far the most beautiful little girl that I have ever seen in the world. Thank you Jesus for letting us have her!





Learning Hebrew
In the Fall I started on my Old Testament work for Seminary. I am currently, almost, half way done with my masters of Divinity from Fuller Seminary. Hebrew has been a huge challenge, but has taught me so much! Wanna see the Hebrew Alphabet? Check this out!

Thanksgiving in So Cal
We had a great chance to do a little So Cal tour this year at Thanksgiving time where we were able to see Charity's parents and my family. It was a great time with family. Click for pics

My Expanded Role at South Hills
This year we had an opening that I noticed on our staff: we had no one championing missions. I prayed that if God wanted me to help with it that my pastor would ask me. About a week later him and I were talking and now I am creating an Outward Team at our church that will be focused on evangelism and serving. I am pretty excited about this opportunity and the chance to grow in my leadership. Thanks for trusting me and letting me lead Bret!

These are just some of the memorable events from the year. Thank you so much for all of you that have prayed for us, supported us to reach students, helped me go on a mission trip and have just been there as our friends. You appreciate all of you!

Advent Conspiracy

This is a great video, I think we will be showing this @ Explode in the month of December.