A church revitalized by prayer

As many of you know, about eighteen months ago our family moved to Ventura to be a part of Coastline Bible Church. Coastline has been in the community of Ventura for almost nintey-seven years now.

Our church had a rich history of being a lighthouse in this community for Jesus.
Our church has a rich history of planting churches, sending missionaries, baptizing and leading people to a relationship with Jesus.
Our church had a rich history of investing in kids, students, and families.

When we arrived we realized that God was getting ready to do something new here. We had a vision of what that would be, but needed more clarity.

One thing we did was restate our Core Values. For months I crafted what I felt like God was leading us to. I worked with staff and elders to make sure we were heading in the right direction. To finalize them we had a big gathering of staff and elders to make sure the language was correct. I love how one of our elders put it. He said something like, "We just put them in modern language." It was the perfect statement.

One of our Core values is:
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

You might be wondering where I'm going with this, but stay with me.
About a year ago we created a new gift to give our guests.
We wanted something they would use and not throw away.
We wanted something that wasn't cheap.
We wanted something that would be valuable to them.
We landed on Coastline mugs (because who doesn't love coffee).

After the mug was created I began taking them with me to speaking engagements, conferences, small gatherings, vacation, and more. I began giving them to all our friends who were praying for us and supporting us. I gave them to friends in different cities, counties, and states.
The one similarity was that I would ask them to pray for Coastline every time they used the mug.

Some friends would send texts, others would send pictures. They were always encouraging.
In the last three weeks these came in. Some had text messages and others I just knew what the pic meant.

Praying! This mug is the best gift you’ve ever given me...I think I pray for you more than anyone else....





















Prayed for you and the grand re-opening this morning. Love you guys.




Been drinking coffee out of my Coastline mug last couple mornings and praying for you guys.






















All of this got me thinking about how God longs to converse with us in prayer. Then I got to thinking, "What would it look like to invite more people into your life to pray for you and what God is doing?"

Cool New Opportunity

A few months ago I had coffee with a super creative guy. My friend Brain Berry introduced me to Mark Campbell. Mark lives across the Bay from me and is leading at a super cool church called Neighborhood Church in Castro Valley. At this first coffee with Mark we talked about Men's Ministry, life, a little of our history and good movies.

After our first connection Mark invited me to speak at their Men's Ministry on a Wednesday night. They do something super cool called Road Crew dinners. The night officially starts at 6:30pm but in my mind the connection time started much earlier. When I rolled in around 4pm there was already a few guys grilling up some killer Mexican dinner. Other guys were making sure the room was ready. There was bantering, smiles, laughter and high-fives.

As the sun began to set the men started rolling in. I always think that food attracts people; especially men. Mark is helping to reach the most difficult population in a church, the men.
Men don't seem to naturally attend a church service.
Men actually seem to think that church is lame.
Some men will never enter a church.

On Wednesday night there was a room full of men. The age range was all over the place. There were 14 year olds and 75 year olds there. There were guys who just graduated from college and men who have been married for 30 years. It was a super cool experience to be a part of. I felt privileged to be invited to share with these guys what God is stirring in my heart and life right now.

As I've thought about my time there, I have a few things that stick out to me:
* Guys need a fun environment to connect with other guys
* Food attracts and keeps men coming
* Relationships keep guys connected more than food
* Good leadership knows these facts
* Good looking material makes a difference
* People don't care what you know until they know that you care
* Guys need other guys in their life to grow strong in the Lord

Encourage Your Friends

This is totally something that I am working on in my life right now.  I am an encourager and love to encourage my friends in what God is doing in their life.  I love to meet people and encourage them to follow hard after the truth of God.  I love to see people serving in our church and thank them for all their hard work.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)

The opposite side of being an encourager is being a discourager and I can be great at that also.  When I get close to people to love to razz on them.  I have a bad habit of knowing what bothers people and being able to bring that up in awkward ways.  There can be some fun points in this of bonding but there is also an aspect that really brings people down and this is something that I need to constantly be aware of.

See so many times we forget how powerful our words can be.  We forget that in our words there is the power of life and death.  We forget that there are people in our circle of influence who need an encouraging word in their lives and we have the power to offer that to them in the time of need.  If you were to read through the New Testament (mainly Acts and the Epistles) you would see the word "encouragement" come up 40+ times.  There is something important in our words so I want to begin to more aware of as we seek to encourage those around us:

When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.  Acts 11:23 (NIV)

Lets talk about three areas that we can help to encourage each other

BUY A COFFEE
This could be one of the best ways to encourage someone this week.  Maybe you already have a meeting planned where you could just slip the old debt card over and take care of the coffee to encourage your friend.


WRITE A NICE NOTE
It is amazing at how much a nice note can make someone's day.  My wife LOVES it when I write her little notes and leave them around for her to find.  Who can you write an encouraging letter to today to let them know how important they are in your life?

SPEND SOME TIME
Time is the most valuable resource that any of us have in this life.  Who do you need to spend a little extra time with this week?  Time spent can help to refresh a relationship, it can be used to strengthen a bond, it can be used to clarify some things so that you can leave the other person more encouraged!