Orange County Pastor: May 2007

The Joys of Manhood

2 Nights ago as we were was driving on the
5 Freeway out here in Orange County, Ca
we happened to pass Anaheim stadium, home of the Angels.
Right as we were passing the stadium
2 huge F-16 fighter jets buzzed over us

as part of a Memorial Day fly-by.
It was one the greatest moments of my life.
They were so close, I could practically reach out and touch them

Something about fast planes, loud cars and dumptrucks
that just speak to the heart of every man.

Best Drummers of all-time

A few days ago, our almost 2 year old daughter

announced to me and my wife

"girls drum."

We did a double take and looked at her again

and said, "What did you say Lily?"

She announced it again,

"girls drum."

We both got huge grins on our faces and told her,

"yes Lily, girls can drum."

Marie told me Lily had noticed the dolls in

"It's A Small World After All" at Disneyland

last week drumming and she must have gotten

the idea from that!

Over the past 3 days Lily has been parading around

our house with 2 wooden spoons drumming everything she

can get her hands on!

Drum Set for Christmas?

I don't know if we are there yet,

but wouldn't it be cool to have

a daughter who drums!!

Speaking of drumming, here is my list of the 5 best Drummers of All-Time:

#5 - Larry Mullen (U2)

#4 - Alex Van Halen (Van Halen ---Best Drim Solo Ever)

#3 - Ringo Starr (Beatles --Best Band = Top 5 Drummer)

#2 - Andre Meschi (New Arrivals)

#1 - Animal (from Muppets)

1 John Series comes to a close

Yesterday we ended our 2 month journey through the bookof 1 John with our High School Students at Calvary Church.
I loved this Study.
As I have mentioned in previous posts
this was by far the most challenging book I have ever
taught to High School students.

Yesterday we ended with a sermon on 1 John 5.
The chapter really sums up the entire book.

It answers 2 Basic Questions:
#1 - How does one become a Christian?
A: By BELIEVING in Jesus as the Christ
(To hear a great message from Matt Chandler on what Belief is...click here)

#2 - How is a person assured that they are a Christian?
A: The love of God is supernaturally placed in a person by God which allows the person to truly love others and hate sin.
(To hear an incredible message on 1 John 5 from John Piper... click here)

Throughout our 2 month series, we challenged our High School Students to truly
evaluate if they are in fact an authentic Christian.

In my Sophomore small group, I had 2 guys who admited last month that they were not assured that they were in fact Christians. This led to some great discussions with them over the last few weeks, talking about what belief is, what Jesus has done for us in offering us forgiveness through his blood shed on the cross and what is means to truly love others.

In our journey through 1 John, we had 1 High School Senior make a decision to become a Christian! I pray that there were others as well.

Yesterday as I taught, I kept making eye contact with a sophomore guy who told me last week

that he has decided to become an atheist.

His parents force him to come to our group each Sunday morning. Throughout my message, I kept being drawn to him.

It was an interesting feeling to be speaking to the entire group, but in some ways feeling like I was talking just to him.
His name is Carter.
Pray for him today.
I really believe God is going to draw this kid to Himself soon.

Also pray for Alex, a Senior student I mentioned a few weeks ago on this blog.
He is a senior and will graduate from school and our group in a few weeks and then move
to Arizona to live his grandparents.
I am so burdened that Alex come to know Jesus before he leaves.

Maybe it will be this Wednesday night in Samsvick Chapel

our ancient building we meet in

for our mid-week study

(Check out these cool pictures from the 70's of construction workers putting the cross steeple on the chapel)

This Wednesday we complete our

end times study for High School students titled, "War of the Worlds"

We will talk about the Hero of the End Times, the Mighty Lion-Lamb...JESUS

I'm not sure I Like Johnny Cash, But I love his music

3 weeks ago, I was listenting to talk radio

while driving to Talbot Seminary and the program went

to a commercial with the Johnny Cash song "Ring of Fire."

I had the song in my head the rest of the day,

so the next day I downloaded "Ring of Fire" from i-Tunes

and played it constantly in my car for the next 7 days.

This has lead to a bit of a Johnny Cash obsession in my life.

Last week I bought a new Johnny Cash hymn CD which is incredible,especially the song with a Billy Graham sermon spliced throughout. I just love the passion and simple beats that

he consistently produced in his songs.

This weekend I borrowed the movie "Walk the Line" from my cousin Bob.

This afternoon I watched the first 1/2 of the movie.

And you do you know what?

I found Johnny Cash the person to not be very likeable.

He seemed like an unhappy, tormented, self-centered person, who sold

out Jesus for stardom in the early parts of his career.

I have heard that he turned back to Jesus in his last years and really mellowed.

Does anyone know of a good book that talks about Cash's spiritual renewal?

I know there has been tons written about him,

but I know very little. If anyone can point me towards

some recommendations, I would appreciate it!

Anyways, if you are in need for some good tunes

as you drive to and fro this week

you couldn't do a lot better than Mr. Cash.

Summer Planning

Today was an exciting day in youth ministry.
Melissa Brosch and Peter Pizzuto,
the two full-time High School Associate’s and I
sat down at Café Lucca (Best gelato ice cream anywhere) in Orange, Ca
and began to discuss, plan and dream
about the summer and future of Calvary Church’s High School Ministry.
It is so cool to have the opportunity to work with people whom I consider friends and who are passionate about Jesus and youth ministry. Both of them are brillant youth workers.

One of the things we discussed this morning was how to encourage our volunteer
adult staff .
One of the biggest juggling acts in youth ministry is the balance of time that
we spend pouring into staff or pouring into students. It is so easy to get out of balance
either way.

One of the goals we have is to do a better job in the coming months of
pouring into our volunteer leaders. We have a great team of volunteer leaders and a whole new batch of leaders coming on board this summer, so this is the time to really step it up and encourage and challenge our leaders.
Here are some good articles I came across today:

Article from a youth pastor in Kansas encouraging youth pastors to spend more time with volunteers (Click Here)

From the other side: A Youth Ministry Volunteer’s perspective (Click Here)

A Youth Pastor’s challenge to take volunteers to the “next level” (Click Here)

Youth Ministry Volunteers take the floor in a roundtable discussion (Click Here)

Take the “Are you a volunteer ministry destroyer” QUIZ (Click Here)

It is 2am and I just finished my Paper!

Good evening or Good morning or just plain old good.
I am delirious at the moment,
pumped up on black coffee and thoughts of the paper I just finished
a few minutes ago
for my Talbot Seminary class, "Civil Government: A Biblical View"
The paper stinks but I do have a new hero as a result of it.

I hated math in high school but my new hero is the famous
French mathmetician, philospher, Christian apologist and all around good guy,
Blaise Pascal. He was only 39 when he died, but the guy made
quite an impact in his short life. He invented geomentry theoroms at the age of 12 that had never been defined or thought of before. Incredible genuis. Read about his life here.

In my paper, I found this great quote by Pascal talking about
how the effects of Sin on humanity have caused us to long to be rescued by a Savior.

The greatness of man is so evident that it is even proved by his wretchedness. For what in animals is called nature we call wretchnedness in man; by which we recognize that, his nature now being like that of animals, he has fallen from a better nature which once was his. For who is unhappy at not being a king except a deposed king?...Who is unhappy at having one mouth? And who is not unhappy at having only one eye? Probably no man ever ventured to mourn at not having three eyes. But anyone is inconsolable at having none."
Pascal once remarked about how incredible Jesus sacrifice was with these words, "The Judge himself is the sacrifice"
It is cool to read about an ancient historial figure who loved Jesus and was
intellectually brillant.
Just some thoughts from my head at 2am.
Sweet dreams.

People who have inspired me lately

I have had the cool opportunity to meet with several
Godly, humble, creative people in the last few weeks.

I have been encouraged and inspired by
their stories, by their passion for Jesus
and by each of their individual missions
to bring Christ into their neighborhoods.

Read about some of the people I have met
below and about the unique mission God has
for them:

1. Jon Cochran, Lead Pastor "The Portico"
(church plant currently meeting at the Ugly Mug in downtown Orange, Ca)

2. Ava Stephens, CEO of KIDWorks in Central Santa Ana
(Restoring hope to the inner city of Santa Ana through Biblical Mentoring)

3. Phil Payne, President, YouthWorld, Quito, Ecuador
(Developing teenagers who follow Jesus, in an beautiful, yet poverty stricken place)

4. John Handy, owner of TreeBones Resort in Big Sur, Ca
(A guy who loves Jesus and the local Church and who developed the action toy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles while working at Mattel Toys!)

I am so thankful for rubbing shoulders with these 4 and being
inspired to dream big dreams and trust God along the way!

The Kenosis Theory of Quaker Oats

This morning I was up making some quaker oats instant oatmeal

with my daughter Lily when she looked at the box and

pointed at the old man and said, "Jesus."

I thought I misheard her, so I said,

"What did you say Lily?"

She pointed at the box of oatmeal and again said, "Jesus."

I looked at her and got all excited.

What should I do?

Should I attempt our first Father/Daughter theological discussion?

Should I sit her down and began to explain to her the "kenosis theory" of Philippians 2?

Should I tell her how God did indeed come into our world in the form of a man.

100% God, 100% man and The miracle that is the incarnation?

She looked at me as I debated in my mind what I should do...

then she looked back at the oatmeal box

and said, "Jesus."

Oh no, I thought to myself.

She is going to get

a warped view of Jesus

as some old man, smiling kind of funny in a weird hat...

I need to break this false view of God

right here and now!

Then I came to my senses

picked her up, smiled at her

and said, "good girl Lily."

And with that our theological discussion came to an end.

Reunited with Lily

Marie and I spent the last 3 days up at Hume Lake attending a youth pastor's conference.

It was great time of relaxing, hanging out with other youth pastor's and eating a lot of great food.

Hume Lake is such a special place for me.

It is where I made the decision to surrender my life completely to Jesus at the age of 15 (1990).

It is where I first heard of this small Christian college in Southern California called Biola where I would end of graduating from in 1998.

It is where I first jumped into youth ministry as a volunteer camp counselor (1998) and where I began to sense the call to be a pastor to high school students.

I love Hume because of how God has used it as a place to shape me.

While we were only gone for 3 days, Marie and I missed our 23 month daughter Lily so much!We talked to her each night on the phone but it was so great to see her today and to hear her say, "hi daddy!"