Sunday Night Recap / Things I’m Learning

I thought that the worship service this morning was exceptional. The worship team is progressing and growing and leading us in real, heartfelt worship.

Ridge gave a message that everyone needs to hear about, “Do You Want to be Made Well” from John 5. It was powerful, penetrating and life changing if we dare to apply its truths.

Today I was thanking God for how He has provided in such an amazing way for Sanctuary.   Here are a few things I have learned this past year…

• God is My Provider: He has answered prayer after prayer in providing for the church and on a personal level.  God has brought some amazingly gifted and committed people to serve in critical places of leadership.   Every time I find myself beginning to worry about a need being met and I have prayed it through, God has provided.

• Clear Communication: I have learned that I need to be more clear in my communication.   I cannot expect people to follow communication that has not happened.   Communication gets increasingly more complex as a church grows, and needs to happen in detail and be reinforced on a regular basis.

• Success does not equal the Size of the Church: In a numbers crazy culture, I am learning that success is more about being obedient, loving people, and seeking to fulfill the Lord’s will.   Success is not found in simply imitating other successful church models, but following the unique purpose God has for Sanctuary.   Success is having a happy home life!

• Jesus builds His church: I am learning that Jesus cares way more about the church than I do.   He is the master builder of His church and wants it to prevail and influence the culture in which it has been placed.

• Don’t be afraid to ask BIG: I am learning that  Jesus wants me to depend on Him for EVERYTHING.   I am growing in this and learning to just ask and keep on asking.

G’nite!

Christmas Eve Service Reflections

• I thought our Christmas Eve service was great and loved the Sanctuary choir. I am really thankful for the ton of effort that everybody put into the service, including our set up team, multimedia, and sound and lights.  You guys rock!

• I did a short  Christmas Eve message knowing that I am not just speaking to adults, but also to families with children!

• The reality of Christmas is that God became a man (Luke 1:20). This is the essence of the message and will always be the message.   The wonder of it all… that the God of the Universe became human, and that humanity and divinity were integrated in Jesus, who came to rescue us from our sin.

• We celebrate at Christmas this incredible truth that God is with us.   He would say to us this upcoming year, “Know always that I am with you”.

• Ridge is going to be speaking at our End of the Year service. This is always great  service and gives the church a chance to respond to God’s goodness during this past year.

See you Sunday!

An Amazing Story

I was making plans to go to Africa for a pastors conference we were calling, “Uncaging the Lion”. A young 22 year old guy wanted to come and ended up joining our team.   The year was 1994.  He turned out to have a real heart for the people of Uganda.

Darryl Woodson is now a pastor in Kampala, Uganda and has a great church that has planted numerous other churches.

I had lunch with Darryl yesterday and we talked about sending a Sanctuary team to Uganda this summer.

Darryl had some church planters venture into the country about 5 hours from Kampala, the capital city. They hit a town called something like Roratoga.   The people did not want anything to do with christians because a former cult leader lead about 1,000 people to their deaths in the village.

The chances were zero of starting another church in the area.

The village people told the church planting team, “We don’t want you here, go away”. A real nice, warm welcome to the community…

They decided to give the church planters a job before leaving town.

“If you want to go and pray for the man that is out of his mind, you can do that”. The man was chained up in the forested area of the village.   People just threw food at him like you would an animal.  He was absolutely out of his mind, and known for his out of control looking wild hair.

The team decided to take ‘em up on the offer. They did not have anything to lose.  They found the crazy man and prayed for him.    The man was under the influence of the powers of darkness.  He was delivered of demons.   After this, they cleaned him up and CUT HIS HAIR.   He entered the village again, “in his right mind”.

People were stunned. The small village was so astonished that 30-40 people decided on the spot that they wanted to follow Jesus!    Now there is a church in Roratoga!

Sunday Night Recap “Mary Christmas”

Every Sunday is a gift from God. Every Sunday someone walks though the doors for the very first time.  We want to give people hope in a big year for bad news.   (as in the economic crisis, recession, unemployment, AIG, GM, bail-outs, swine flu, CA budget crisis, etc).  We want to lead and point people to Jesus!

My prayer is that God would steer us a church family and as a people. I pray that we do not arrive on Christmas morning having done all these activities and wrapped all these gifts and approach Christmas with a heart that is unprepared.

The message today “Mary Christmas” (this was not a typo!!!) was to help prepare our hearts and remind us of the great and epic story of Christmas.  I wanted to make sure that people heard the gospel – that Jesus would bring forgiveness for our sin and remove our shame and guilt.

Here were some take away truths…

• Zechariah let his circumstances (age) speak more loudly to him that God’s promise. He got nailed with 9 months of being a mute for being a big time doubter of God’s Promise.

• Mary defines for us what it means to have faith in Jesus. We understand what faith really looks like from a teenage girl chosen by God to bring the arrival of His son.

• Nothing is impossible with God! Even the things that seem so utterly impossible right now.

• God seems to pick the most unexpected person to accomplish His will. He picks the most ordinary individual to do the most extraordinary thing.

• Mary was honest in her confusion and doubts. She had questions.  She did not understand. We will all ultimately walk through some season of honest doubts on our way to faith in Christ.  Mary faced obstacles and barriers to believing.
• There is healthy doubt and unhealthy doubt. Unhealthy doubt flows from a closed mind that just resists the truth of Jesus.  Healthy doubt is a sign of a learner who is open to truth, who is looking for answers and honestly searching.

I expect that 2010 is going to be our best year ever. It takes a couple years just to get some foundation going, and now we are ready to impact or community in a greater way and let people see that there is a God who loves them and cares for them.

MY CHRISTMAS WISH… Sanctaury needs someone to invest in college age students – it would be a small group based college ministry of 18-25 year olds.   We don’t have anything specific for college age students right now.  We also need  a place where our high school graduates can be challenged to do missions and serve God.

I also need someone who would be a PST (be a “personal spiritual trainer” – also known as discipleship).

Don’t miss the Dec. 24′th Christmas eve service and invite some family or friends! We will have our Sanctuary singers and I hear they are awesome.  Its going to be a great great night.

Dec. 27′th is our END-OF-THE-YEAR SERVICE and one of our most meaningful services we do throughout the year.

THE COLLINS FAMILY… had about 14 of our family members come to church today and then we went to Anchos in Riverside for lunch.   A great day.

G’nite!

Are You Ready to Lead?

One of the most important aspects of a growing church is discovering and developing potential leaders.    Here are some of the things I look for in knowing when someone is ready to lead…

1.  Personal life: one of the ways to know if someone is ready to lead others is to observe how well they can lead themselves.   I look for things like attitude, commitment, loyalty, passion, and how they are living their life behind the scenes.

2.  Desire: If God is calling someone to lead, they will sense God pulling on their heart.   It is inescapable.   There is an inward reaching out type of desire that wants to answer the call of God.  If one is serving God out of obligation or a complaining or negative attitude, then they need to stop serving.

3.  Motivation: What is motivating the potential leader?   A genuine heart for God?   A desire to serve Jesus and His church?    A desire to be “discovered”  or climb a ministry ladder?    We need to watch our motives, for the Lord looks at our heart.

4.  God’s Hand: Is there evidence of God’s leading and choosing that needs to be affirmed?   If God has chosen someone, then I need to choose that someone too!

5.  Teachable: Some potential leaders are much more difficult to teach than others.   Some think they know it all.   Others recognize that they have much to learn.   I tend to shy away from picking potential leaders who are not teachable.   It takes too much energy and effort to get past the spiritual arrogance of a unteachable individual.

6.  Track Record: Is there fruitfulness in past serving and leadership experience?  Are they fervent?  Fruitful?   Faithful?   How easily are they discouraged?   Will they stay the course?   Or will they bail at the first test of adversity?

7.   Team player or individual? I really look for team players.    Can you function well on a team?  How do you resolve conflict?    Can you commit to being a faithful team member?   Can you defer to another team member?

8.  Biblical foundation: Do you love your bible?

9.  Honest and Humble:   Its murder trying to lead when honesty does not prevail in relationships.

10.   A desire to have a growing relationship with Jesus.   Intimate.  Real.  Genuine.

Leadership will naturally follow those who have a mix of these qualities.   I am amazed at the godly and capable team of leaders I get to share  life with at Sanctuary!

A Sunday Night Thought

It is amazing to me to think that God who can do “more than we can ask or think” would RESTRICT Himself to working through flawed and imperfect people.  He calls the unqualified.   He calculates for our miscalculations.  He uses the inconsistent.   He uses people who made mistakes…

• Jonah ran from God.

• Moses was a murderer.

• Lazarus was a dead man.

• Abraham was washed up and too old.

• David was the Tiger Woods of his day.

• Timothy needed  Tums for his stomach ulcers.

• Joseph had  Jerry Springer family dynamics.

• Jeremiah was a bull frog needed anti-depressants and to be on suicide watch.

• Jacob was a con artist.

• Mary was a dirt poor teenager.

• Samson only had one weakness – anything with a skirt.

• Noah got drunk and would see his mug shot on the National Enquirer today.

On my office wall is a century old photo of a man praying passionately.   His face is buried in a chair. The quotation below him reads, “God was seeking a man to stand in the gap” from Ezekiel 22.

Yet God said He could NOT find such a man just to stand in the gap! Nobody.

It does not take greatness to stand in the gap!  It just takes availability.

God is still seeking men and women through whom He can move.

What do you say we be such men and women?

G’nite!

Top Things on My Mind

Yesterday while driving my three sons to school they started to complain about having to ride in my truck.   They like Mom’s car better…  Having three sons can leave my truck looking or smelling like a cross between a locker room and fast food restaurant.   They seldom connect the dots to their contribution.

“I would rather ride my bike to school” one of them quipped to me.

I found these words coming out of me…  ”Guys, this truck is God’s provision for our family. And you are complaining against God’s provision for our family.   That is what the children of Israel did and they didn’t get it.   God had to send then into the desert for 40 years because they complained about His provision for them”.

Dead silence for about 20 seconds… I was waiting for a response that never came.   They just were quiet and kept thinking about it.  I actually loved the silence. It will be interesting to see how they do come Monday morning!

Here are some of the top things on my mind for 2010…

• Sanctuary Young Couples: We have a fantastic couple that is going to be heading up our young couples ministry.   Armando and Amanda were full time serving for 7 hears in Murrieta as well as missionaries in the inner city of Omaha (Hope Center for kids) and Eastern Europe.   I could not be more fired up about them coming.

• What is really cool is that over 20 years ago I had Armando in my high school discipleship group. We have stayed in touch over the years and have done some ministry stuff together and now we get to reunite at Sanctuary!

• Singles at Sanctuary is officially kicking off in Jan. They have gathered a couple times already and we have the making of a very cool singles ministry.    Our leaders, Eric and Amy are going to do a superb job.   I have known Eric for about 15 years and we did a Saturday night service together.

• “Young at Heart” is something we are looking to put together for our youngsters 55 and better. This is is going to be a connection type oriented ministry and off the charts fun.   We might even have to check ID’s  when people try to sneak in under the radar.

• “Life’s Healing Choices” will be a great small group option in 2010. We have six people going through the 8 week training to get geared up to kick this off off next year.

• The “SWAT Team” (Sanctuary With A Testimony) will be looking for people who are wired up to hit the streets and share Jesus with people in our communities.

• “Adopt a Block” is going to be happening where we go into a community and serve them in a multitude of ways.   It will be a way for us to reach out and connect and care for the community.

• Year End Giving at Sanctuary is a time where people enter into the  joy of giving in a greater dimension. As I have gone through this year and my own giving, I am mindful this season of all that God has given to me.  Its good to stop and recognize all that God has given to us at this time of year, a difficult year for many people.

Every time we are blessed in a monetary way God says, “I want you to acknowledge that I was the giver of that gift. Honor me, and you give faithfully a percentage of that gift”.   And we respond with our giving by saying, “God, its you who has blessed me this way”.

God did not only have me in mind when He gave me all that He gave me.

May we be mindful of who He wants us to be and the kind of people He wants us to be. We celebrate this season that He is a God who gave us His Son.    May we see the generous God that He is and respond to His generosity to us!

The Towel(way) to Greatness

One of my favorite stories in the bible is found in John 13.

Jesus was facing his arrest and crucifixion.   He was having a final meeting with His still clueless small group.   After 3.5 years of coaching, they still did not get it.

The dirt roads produced yucky feet, covered in layers of dung filled dirt. Every guest entering a home required their feet be washed by the least-paid-lowest-ranking servant.   Who would rise to the occasion?  Who would be the one to stop at the water basin and adorn the towel and wash the disciples’ feet?

Each of the disciples blew right by the basin in the entryway. Would anyone bow down and get low and wash the disciples’ feet?  Nope.  No volunteers.   No one wanted to admit that they were the least-ranked.   “I don’t do feet” was the prevailing attitude.

So Jesus carried the basin over to the disciples nasty feet, knelt, and began to wash their feet. Once Jesus was done washing their feet, He got up, and said to them,  “You also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you”.

This story makes me a bit uncomfortable because it tells me that…

• The only way to a significant life is through a towel.

• What stands between me and picking up the towel of selfless service is that it will cost me something like the perceived loss of  status, image, reputation, preference, money, pride or my time.

• Jesus does not see picking up the towel as a loss of anything, but the doorway to greatness.

• While the disciples were getting their feet washed by Jesus, I wonder how many still had thoughts of who was the greatest and the best?

• Seeing Jesus unprecedented example of servanthood to those He created, is it really that difficult to stop at the basin of opportunity and pick up the towel of service to others?

Sunday Night Reflections “I Believe”

Today was an awesome day. I was amazed at how many people stood and declared, “I believe” when I extended an invitation.  I had never done that before.   I wondered if anyone who be so bold as to stand in front of the whole church and make such a  public declaration.

There were some people who were not able to be in church for the past months for personal reasons, and who have been through some rough times.  I was moved to see a man standing and waiting until I saw him and he affirmed that “I believe”.

I believe in the church today. I believe that we need to simply be His church, and not try to ask Him to build our church. Its not our church, its His church.

Today I talked about one of the names of God, that He is the “wonderful counselor”. (Isaiah 9:6)  My simple points were that we need to be brutally honest with Him, listen to Him, and DO what He says.  God is speaking to us through His scripture, but we can get too busy sometimes to stop and listen.

We need to shut off the noise factor and focus all our energy to hear from Him. He is the ultimate communicator and wants to communicate with us.  When God speaks to us, the greater question is, “What do we do with what we know?”.

Let us be encouraged to open the scriptures and let God speak. Open the only book God wrote with an attitude to do whatever Jesus is speaking to our lives, and not open His word seeking permission to do something I am wanting to do!

The next couple weeks I am going to be speaking from Isaiah 9:6 on the names of God. Please do whatever it takes to get people to church these next few Sundays!

Let’s celebrate this season together – I know our Christmas services are going to be amazing.

I am honored to serve at Sanctuary.  I am honored to work with such amazing, talented, godly, and fun people.

Tonight my son Garrett and I put out the Christmas lights on the house like we do every year. He loves Christmas lights.  May the light of God’s son shine in or hearts’ this holiday season.

G’nite!

My Prayer for Sanctuary Part II

I pray that Sanctuary would a worshipping church. Where people are passionately in love with Jesus and come together to meet with Him.

That we would be responsive with all that we are to all that God is and all that He has done.

That we would bow down in adoration, lift our voices in heartfelt praise, and celebrate His mighty act of redemption at Calvary.  That we would be a grateful people, filled with joy and overflowing with thanksgiving.

I pray that our worship would not only be expressed in weekend services, but also in our homes and cars and work places and in our everyday experience of life.

I pray that Sanctuary would be a healing community. A church whose love spills over to the outside world.   And the love of God would be expressed in practical ways.  That God’s love would be infectious. Irresistible.  Warm.  Embracing.  All encompassing.

That Sanctuary would be a place where people come together and bare one another’s burdens.  A place where God expands the care capacity our hearts to include other people.  A place where people would find wholeness in Christ.

I pray that Sanctuary would be a praying community. A place where we lay hold of God in prayer.  Where prayer is central to all that we do.

I pray that we would be generous – with our time, our talents and our treasures.

As I look to the future, my prayer is that we would be a humble church. One of the  dangers we face is that we would begin to take credit for the work of Christ.   That we would begin to think that God is at work because of our human efforts, gifts, or talents.  To think that we had something to do with the outpouring of God’s blessing.

My prayer is that we would not pretend to be humble. Or pretend to be less that we are, or more than we are.

My prayer is that the Holy Spirit would be at work in our lives. That He lead and guide us and He would have His way among us.