Suggestions?

I have been messing around with Microsoft Publisher
and foto flexer (a free on-line photo editing site)
to create a monthly calendar for our Young Adults Gatherings
as well as to brand our upcoming Young Adult series on CS Lewis.
As the High School Pastor
I have had a great team over the last 9 years (Lois, Peter, Matt G, Shane, etc.)
who have always done creative stuff like this for me
coming up with the coolest, most innovative stuff.

I have always wanted to improve in this area,
but until recently have never really tried.
So I am really stepping into new territory as I try to put
together a few creative elements on my own....

Here are my first 2 projects...Will you tell me what you like and don't like
about them and how I can improve?

#1 - This is the May Calendar I created for Young Adults
The background template I downloaded from the freebies section at simply youth ministry.
What do you think of the fonts and the graphics I added on the left column? Any constructive criticism would be appreciated...



#2 - This is the powerpoint slide I am thinking about using in May as the background slide for our CS Lewis series. I simply took 3 separate photos I found on google images and spliced them together to create this picture. What do you think? Lame? Usable? Improvements? Go back to using professional graphic artists? Give me the truth...I really want to improve.

3 Guys I Am Proud of Today

3. A Former Student
Matthew Slater grew up at Calvary and I had the honor of being his Pastor while he was in high school. Matthew is an outstanding football player who preserved through injuries, depth charts, coaching changes and juggling a double major to graduate from UCLA and star at football. Today he was drafted into the NFL by the New England Patriots.
I am so proud of Matthew for perserving in football and being a man who follows Jesus.
It's sounds weird to say, but Go Pats!


2. A Fellow High School Staff Member
Blake Boyd spoke this morning in our High School service at Calvary. Blake got saved at Calvary in junior high but basically walked away from God once he got into High School. I met him his sophomore year as he randomly signed up for our Easter beach camp. God pursued Blake that weekend at camp and there has really been no turning back for him. Today, Blake is one of our high school interns, a junior at Biola University and a guy I respect a ton. I was so proud of Blake this morning as I watched him walk through John 6 with our high school students.

1. My Son
Samuel Calvin Doan came into the world 6 months ago this week. He has absolutely rocked me. I love this little guy so much. One smile from him can change my whole day. Today, Samuel rolled into church sporting this brown hat. I laughed out loud when I saw Marie bring him in. I am so proud of Samuel.

The Power of the Cup

Lately I have been making my coffee at home
to save money.
I have tried all kinds of different coffee brands:
- Don Fransciso (horrible)
- Peet's
- Folgers (suprisingly good)
- Starbucks

For some reason, no coffee I brew at home
can measure up to the taste of an in-store
selection.

Why is this?
Is it in my head?
To I need to pay $1.85 a cup to enjoy coffee?
Am I using a bad formula?

Here is my conclusion...

It is all about the cup.
The carboard cup at my favorite coffee houses
Peets, Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Lost Bean
have some special feel-look-taste to them
my coffee mugs from Yosemite simply cannot offer.

So here is my new plan.
Go to Starbucks, today and ask for some cups.

What to you think...will Starbucks give them to me
or do they secretly know the power of the cup as well?

Deep Thought (at least for my brain)

Lately I have been noticing several of my friends
saying in public prayer,
"Jesus we love you so much."

I know that I have personally said this phrase
in public prayers many times so the following words
are not meant to implicate any of my friends
but for some reason, this phrase has been bothering me recently because:

1. How could we ever tell God our love for him is "so much?" It seems like
our love for Him is up to God to determine how extensive it is.

2. Is it even possible for me to love God "so much?"

3. In public prayer is it appropriate for me or even honest for me to speak on behalf of others when I have no idea where others hearts are at with God? Can I possibly say, "Jesus, we love you so much" with non-Christians and numb Christians in the audience?

I have been reading tons on the doctrine of prayer this month
so forgive me if the above thoughts are way overanalyzed.

I don't know, what do you think about praying publicly,
"Jesus we love you so much?"

Great CS Lewis Quote

In the circles you run in,
I am sure there are people
who if you ever directly quote by memory
something that they have said or written
in the context of your conversation, you will immediately
gain instant respect with your friends.

Here are a few guys worthy to quote in my circles:
5. GK Chesterton (I honestly have never read anything by him, but to quote him in a conversation makes anything I say next, brillant)

4. George Barna (84% of all statistics are false, but this guy carries some weight with his statistical madness)

3. Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards (I don't even have to give a direct quote from any of these guys, just saying dropping their names in conversation brings with it some props)

2. Elmo (This may not work in your circles, but in my house, Elmo's sayings are gold)

1. CS Lewis...And to Quote:

"May it be the real I who speaks.
May it be the real Thou that I speak to."
-CS Lewis
(As quoted in Philip Yancey's book, "Prayer"...double points for quoting Lewis in a Yancey book)
In all seriousness, I love this Lewis Quote.
My prayer is that in my relationship with the Living God,
I will be my authentic, real self.
And I also that I have an accurate picture of God
as I come into his presence in prayer.
God, please help me to do this,
I so badly want to grow deeper in my journey with you...

I Might Be the Last One on Earth to Realize This


Did you know you can create your own

custom M & M's?

Here is the Link...

Customized M & M's

I am here to inform...

Clyde Cook's Memorial Service

Former President of Biola
Clyde Cook's memorial service
was held Saturday at EV Free Fullerton.

It was pretty amazing.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE...

You Might Be Emergent If...

"if you listen to U2, Moby, and Johnny Cash’s Hurt (sometimes in church),
use sermon illustrations from The Sopranos,
drink lattes in the afternoon and Guinness in the evenings,
and always use a Mac;
if your reading list consists primarily of Stanley Hauerwas, Henri Nouwen, N. T. Wright, Stan Grenz, Dallas Willard, Brennan Manning, Jim Wallis, Frederick Buechner, David Bosch, John Howard Yoder, Wendell Berry, Nancy Murphy, John Frank, Walter Winks, and Lesslie Newbigin (not to mention McLaren, Pagitt, Bell, etc.) and your sparring partners include D. A. Carson, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Wayne Grudem;...
if your idea of quintessential Christian discipleship is Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, or Desmond Tutu;

if you don’t like George W. Bush or institutions or big business or capitalism or Left Behind Christianity;
if your political concerns are poverty, AIDS, imperialism, war-mongering, CEO salaries, consumerism, global warming, racism, and oppression and not so much abortion and gay marriage;
if you are into bohemian, goth, rave, or indie; if you talk about the myth of redemptive violence and the myth of certainty;

if you lie awake at night having nightmares about all the ways modernism has ruined your life;
if you love the Bible as a beautiful, inspiring collection of works that lead us into the mystery of God but is not inerrant;
if you search for truth but aren’t sure it can be found;
if you’ve ever been to a church with prayer labyrinths, candles, Play-Doh, chalk-drawings, couches, or beanbags (your youth group doesn’t count);
if you loathe words like linear, propositional, rational, machine, and hierarchy and use words like ancient-future, jazz, mosaic, matrix, missional, vintage, and dance;

if you grew up in a very conservative Christian home that in retrospect seems legalistic, naïve, and rigid;
if you support women in all levels of ministry, prioritize urban over suburban,
and like your theology narrative instead of systematic;
if you disbelieve in any sacred-secular divide;
if you want to be the church and not just go to church;
if you long for a community that is relational, tribal, and primal like a river or a garden;
if you believe who goes to hell is no one’s business and no one may be there anyway;
if you believe salvation has a little to do with atoning for guilt and a lot to do with bringing the whole creation back into shalom with its Maker;

if you believe following Jesus is not believing the right things but living the right way;
if it really bugs you when people talk about going to heaven instead of heaven coming to us;
if you disdain monological, didactic preaching;
if you use the word “story” in all your propositions about postmodernism—
if all or most of this torturously long sentence describes you, then you might be an emergent Christian."

Adapted from the Introduction to the new book...

We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be (Moody, 2008)
authors Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

Do you consider yourself "emergent"?
(taken from Christianity Today Website)

O Yes (but is that a proposition?)

O No (I don't think Calvin would approve)

O No idea (does anyone even know what emergent means)

Great Question

Mark Beeson, one of my favorite pastors
(from Granger Community Church in Indiana)
recently posted this question on his blog.
He said it was from John Ortberg
(another one of my favorite pastors)

"Are you living the life you are inviting others to live?"

Fantastic 4

Many of you have been asking (okay 2 of you)
for an update on our John 3 memory challange from Sunday.

If you remember, 2 weeks ago I got myself
in trouble by spontateously challenging our
High School group to memorize John 3,
the passage I would be teaching on next.
I told the students I would PERSONALLY
give each one who memorized the chapter
$50.

I began to freak out when I had over 25 students
come up to me after the gathering and tell me they
were for sure in for the $50.

A few days before the next Sunday,
a parent of one our high school students
stepped up and committed $500 to the challenge.
Wow, that was great news.
So Sunday came and...
we had 4 high school students stand up in front
of hundreds of their peers and recite John 3.
It was incredible.

I was fighting back the tears (I have been so emotional lately)
as I saw the fruit of 4 kids who had spent hours and hours
memoring God's word bust it out in front of the group.
The students listening were absolutely quiet as
they listened to the 4 recite the passage.
One girl, a junior at Orange County Performing Arts High School,
even did a monologue for her reciting of the chapter.
The group roared after each person finished.
Congratulations to Gary, Grayson, Tiffany and Chantelle.

It was a history maker for the life of our group.

If that is what happens when I offer $50,
I wonder what would happen if I offered a $1,000
for John 4 thru 6?

The Passing of Clyde

Clyde Cook, the recently retired president of Biola University
where I attended in the late 90's


My Grandpa's name was Clyde
so maybe that had something to do
with why I loved the man so much.
Clyde Cook was a great man.
I am so grateful that I got to spend
my college years at a school
with a President I respected so much.
Here are 5 things I will always remember about Dr. Cook:
5. He loved his wife.
He would speak about her with

such high esteeem in public settings. He would hold
her hand as he walked thru campus.
I want to be like that with Marie.
4. He returned correspondence promptly.
One Christmas my roommates and I dressed up
in suits took a dumb Christmas photo and mailed it to Dr. Cook
in a Christmas card, just to be funny.
He wrote us a note back within the week
thanking us for the card.
I want to be like this.
I really struggle to stay on top of my e-mail, phone calls
and letters. Dr. Cook really inspires me to improve in this area.
3. He gave up a Division I basketball scholarship to USC to go to Biola
Can you imagine OJ Mayo doing this?
Dr. Cook responded to God's calling,
even if it meant he would have to give up collegiate fame

2. He Walked in Integrity.
One time, my youngest sister and her friends
invited Dr. Cook to lunch.
He responded by telling them he would love
to go to lunch with them
but only with his wife alongside
him to be above reproach.
I thought this was so cool,
that even as a senior citizen,
he would still have such high standards of integrity.
1. He followed Jesus until the end of his life.
Christian history is full of stories
of guys who rose to leadership and then
didn't finish well.
Dr. Cook finished well at Biola
and from all accounts finished well
up until this past weekend,
following God and growing in Christ.


Well Done Dr. Cook.

Oprah and Christianity

The Bible states very clearly that:

1. Sin is a reality and that every person has freely chosen
to sin and go against God.

2. Our sin has separated us from a Holy God and caused
us to live out of relationship with God.
The consequences of living out of relationship with God
is that when we die we will continue to live out of relationship
with God in the very real, eternal place of Hell.

3. Thru the life, death and ressurection of Jesus Christ,
we can have our sins forgiven by God and enter into
a relationship with the Holy God. Living in relationship
with God means that when we die, we will live
in relationship with God in the very real, eternal place of Heaven.

4. Jesus Christ is the only solution to our sin and our separation from God.
Nothing else is adequate to remove our sins from us.
Nothing else is accepted by God.

Oprah Winfrey seems like a nice person.
She has done a lot of great things.
She has helped a lot of people.
But her views of how to have our sins forgiven,
her views of who Jesus is,
her views of heaven and hell
are in direct contradiction to what the Bible teaches.

The following video captures the differences between what
the Bible teaches and what Oprah believes...
I thought it was appropriate to place this on my blog
considering Oprah and new age guru Eckhart Tolle's podcast is
the #1 most downloaded podcast this week in i-Tunes
"religion and spirituality" category.

Before you click on it, a couple of disclaimers:

1. The video at the end, seems to be selling some book, which I have never read and do not endorse.
2. The video at the very end, seems to tie Oprah and Barack Obama as believing the same things, which I do not think is accurate


Watch:

Bill Buckner, Ruth, Redemption and My Tears

Tonight I cried....hard.

I spoke to our Young Adult group at Calvary
on Ruth chapter 2, an incredible chapter in the Bible.
In this section, you see Boaz redeeming Ruth
even though she is undeserving of his attention, kindness and sacrifice.
It is really the story of us as sinful, messed up, undeserving people
and Jesus as the loving sacrificial redeemer.

The passage so stirred me tonight,
as I reflected on the love and goodness of
God redeeming me.

So a little while ago, I am checking on baseball highlights
on the internet and I came across something that made
me bust out crying.

First the back story on Bill Buckner.

Buckner was the first basemen for the Boston Red Sox
in 1986 who committed the most famous mistake
in the history of baseball.
Here it is:



So with the Ruth passage on my heart from tonight
I came across this from today's opening day
a Fenway Park. Bill Buckner was invited to throw out
the first pitch at today's game.
The You Tube video is kind of hard to hear
but the crowd went nuts when Buckner was introduced.

It was such a beautiful moment of redemption
between Buckner and the city of Boston.
In the late 80's and 90's, Buckner
was practically a curse word in Boston.
He moved to rural Idaho and disappeared
from baseball and the media because of the constant
harassment he endured for his 1986 mistake.

Now 22 years later, he was been forgiven
and redeemed as Boston's favorite son.
Amazing.


That's what made me cry.

Just as Ruth was redeemed by Boaz,
Buckner by the city of Boston,
I have been redeemed from my sin by Jesus.

Thank you Lord.

WOW

I just received an e-mail from a Dad of one
of our High School Students who
volunteered to pay for up to
10 students ($500) in this Sunday's
John 3 memory challenge.

Thank you Jesus.

Does anyone have change for a $100?

I might have created a bit of a problem.
Sunday mornings we are teaching thru the book of John
to our HS students.
This morning, Melissa solidly preached thru
John 2 and the account of Jesus turning water into wine.
At the end of the gathering, we still had a few announcements
to give and for some reason, this is what came out of my mouth....
"hey guys, next week we will be looking at John, Chapter 3.
If anyone can memorize the entire chapter
and recite it perfectly in front of everyone next week,
I will PERSONALLY give them $50."

What happened next, kind of threw me.
Students started looking at each other and nodding,
pumping their fists and looking at me like hungry vultures
around a carcass.

Suddenly it donned on me what I had just done.
Even if only 10 students can memorize the chapter by next Sunday,
I will be out $500!
I must have had 25 students come up to me afterwards
saying things like they hadn't seen $50 since 8th grade graduation and that
this was the answer to their prayers in wanting to get the new
Nintendo game, "Brawl" and all kinds of similiar comments.


So....

Want to contribute?
My family's water bill may be at stake.

Last Night I Found Out What High School Students Are Scared Of...

Silence.

Last night we started a new teaching series to our high school students
at Calvary called, "Stop the Noise."

Here is how we started the night:
We called all of the students into our chapel
and as they came in...
sirens were flashing all around the room,
annoying commercials were playing on the screens,
a Angels and Airwaves video was playing on the main screen,
an alarm clock was going off over the sound system,
hardcore music was blasting thru the speakers,

We usually start our Wednesday program within
a couple of minutes of inviting all the students inside.
Last night, we wanted the students to experience
all of the noise in the room and to become frustrated with it
so we intentionally didn't do a welcome or have any leader
go up front. We simply let the noise go on for about 10 minutes.
It was serious sensory overload.

And you know what?

The students were not fazed at all by it.
They actually seemed to be mellowed by the sensory overload
not annoyed or frustrated by it.

After 10 minutes of noise, we had a signal and everything
all at once was shut off. Sound, lights, music, everything.
It became completely silent.
We went into this video that we created
that instructed the kids to be silent.

And you know what?

The students could not handle it.
It absolutely drove them crazy to have it silent.
They started yelling and shouting out,
making fun of each other, the video,
they were completely uncomfortable!

It was awesome and proved our point exactly.
Students in this generation do not know how to be quiet.
They are addicted to noise.

The big idea of our night was to get the students to understand
that God speaks loudly when we discipline ourselves to be silent.

I am so proud of Melissa, Matt G, Katy, Blake, Tom, Cathy, Ryan and Tammy
for putting together such a powerful night.

SHHHH....

Tough Day at the Office

My son Samuel lives a fairly stressful life.
He has to grab sleep wherever and whenever he
can find it:

Every Day is an Adventure

I love being a Pastor.

I have had the honor of baptizing people,
officiating weddings,
leading funerals,
teaching the Bible,
thinking of creative ways to point people to Jesus,
even praying with people to receive Jesus as their Savior.
I love what God has called me to do.



Every day as a Pastor is a little different.
Some days I am a counselor meeting with people about intense, deep stuff.
Some days I am a theologian, studying the Bible and thinking philosophical thoughts.
Some days I am an event planner, putting together an event or party.
Some days I am a custodian, picking up after the event.
Tonight I did something I have never done before
as a Pastor and honestly never expected or wanted to do.



I talked to 5th grade boys about puberty.




A group of parents at the elementary school at our church
put together a great program where they invited Dad's
and their 5th grade sons
to come to a dessert where they played games, eat root beer floats
gave away a Nintendo DS and tons of gift certificates

and...


talk to the 5th grade guys about armpit hair,
putting on deodorant and treating girls with respect.
I must have said a certain "P" word about 20 times.


It was awkward and awesome all at the same time.


The coolest part for me was getting a chance to tell
the boys how important it is to follow Jesus.
As I looked into their young faces
and challenged them to allow God to lead them
even through the scary days of puberty,
I almost felt like crying knowing some would make it
and some would inevitably walk away from God during
the future years of adolescence.


My prayer for the 5th grade guys of Calvary Christian School
"Lord, prepare this generation for the pressures of adolescence.
Give them minds to discern truth from lies.
Give them hearts to love Jesus
Give them mouths that worship God rather than destroy others.
Give them friends that stick close and encourage them
Give them parents that model Christ
Father, please do not allow sin to cause any of these guys to walk away from you.
Lord, do great things with these guys,
mold them into men of God."
"We are made for God and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in

God."
- Augustine



"They didn't come to see you, they came to hear from Jesus."


-Message written on J Vernon McGee's Pulpit