John Wesley's Daily Questions

Mark Beeson, the Senior Pastor at Granger Church (in snow filled Indiana) recently posted the questions John Wesley would ask the members of his "Holy Club" on a consistent basis. I really appreciate how these questions get me to think and evaluate the thoughts and attitudes of my heart:

Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?
Can I be trusted?
Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
Did the Bible live in me today?
Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
Am I enjoying prayer?
When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?
Do I pray about the money I spend?
Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
Do I disobey God in anything?
Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
Am I defeated in any part of my life?
Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?
How do I spend my spare time?
Am I proud?
Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?
Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?
Do I grumble or complain constantly?
Is Christ real to me?

God Is Greater Then Our Struggles

Recently, I have been walking through life with several people who are feeling the constant weight of spiritual warfare, temptation and life struggles. I love how the Bible encourages us in the midst of all of these things that our God is with us and is greater than the anything we face.

1 John 4 states it really powerfully when it says, "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

This brief video clip from the 1988 French film, "The Bear" (known as L'Ours in its original released) is a powerful analogy of this concept.

In God's Hands: Surfing Mavericks

Maverick's, The famed surf spot in Northern California was the scene of a miracle last Saturday as an Orange County surfer was rescued from near death in 30 ft. waves.

Check out the story here

A circle added to the photo shows the location of Jake Trette, 30, just after he was slammed by the first set of huge waves last Saturday morning
(courtesy OC Register and Ed Grant)

A Letter To My Son

Recently Matthew Paul Turner crafted a short letter to his son that just grabbed my emotional heart strings and yanked! It made me realize what an incredible gift, what an incredible honor it is to be a Father. Thank you Lord for allowing me to be a earthly Dad to Lily and Samuel and thank your Lord for allowing us to call you "Abba Father" in our daily walk with you.

Church Sign of the Week

Saw this from Ed Stetzer...Classic.

Do Nothing for 2 Minutes

My friend and fellow Pastor Ryan Guard (who is doing an incredible job leading students at Mission Community Church in Gilbert, AZ) pointed out a great website to me called "Do Nothing for 2 Minutes."

Check it out and see if you can complete the challenge.
I failed on my first attempt!

The Best Neighborhood Shopping Center in Orange County

Al and Gloria Enderle own a local Shopping Center, close to our Church here in Orange County.
The Enderle center was named as Orange County's best Neighborhood Shopping Center by OC Weekly in 2010.

You can't get into a one-on-one conversation with Al Enderle and not hear him talk about Jesus. He is incredible, I have never met a man who is so excited and contagious about sharing his love for Christ.

Watch this short profile of the Enderle center and tidbit of Al's story:

Psalm 145 is Amazing

Have you come across Psalm 145 before?
Brian Croft's great blog "Practical Shepherding" recently reminded me of how wonderfully powerful and comforting the words of Psalm 145 are...


Psalm 145 NIV
A psalm of praise. Of David.

1 I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
2 Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.

3 Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
4 One generation commends your works to another;
they tell of your mighty acts.
5 They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty—
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.

6 They tell of the power of your awesome works—
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
7 They celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

8 The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.

9 The LORD is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made.
10 All your works praise you, LORD;
your faithful people extol you.
11 They tell of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might,
12 so that all people may know of your mighty acts
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.

The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises
and faithful in all he does.
14 The LORD upholds all who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
16 You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and faithful in all he does.
18 The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.
20 The LORD watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

21 My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever.

What is God Like?

We begun a new teaching series last night in our Young Adult group at Calvary Church.

Here is a brief summary of the new series, "What is God Like?":

When we feel disappoint in life, we are often tempted to listen to lies from Satan rather than truth from God.

Disappointment With my life plan (marriage, job, etc)
Lie #1 – Maybe God isn’t really as loving as I thought He was?

Disappointment With my sin issues (habitual sin, failure, imperfection)
Lie #2 – Maybe God isn’t as powerful as I thought He was?

Disappointment With my spiritual growth (passion/knowledge of God)
Lie #3 – Maybe I will never be as good a Christian as others are


Our Tuesday Night series aims to destroy these 3 lies and replace them with truths about “What God is Like!”

If you live in Orange County, California and you are in your 20's, I invite you to join us Tuesdays at 7pm at Calvary Church (1010 N. Tustin Ave. Santa Ana, Ca 92705) in the *Vintage Choir Room.

Money Church

It is so Sad to realize many American's view Christian Churches as money obsessed institutions hiding behind tax-exempt, non-profit status. Many non-believers point to this reputation as one reason they haven't ever gone to Church or taken the Bible seriously. This should break our hearts as people who follow Jesus and love his Church.

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about what we can do as Churches to change this reputation. Here are a couple of my initial thoughts...Some of these ideas we are already doing at my home Church, Calvary Church in Santa Ana.

#1 - When taking an offering each week in the Church service what if we took time to explain: A) Why we are doing this (to support the work of the Church internally and externally), B) Who is expected to give (Members and attenders of the Church) and C) Who is expected NOT to give (visitors).

#2 - What if we maintained a detailed chart on-line which tracked where collected offering money went to and what if this giving summary was available for anyone and everyone at anytime. And what if in our Church services, we often mentioned where people could find this information on-line. (This would be so refreshing and so counter-cultural to the strange cloak of secrecy some Churches like Creflo Dollar's Church held onto when Congress came calling...)

#3 - What if we had a volunteer financial oversight committee independent of the Pastor, elders and staff members who examined the Churches finances on a monthly basis. (Calvary has this)

#4 - What if we as Churches, hired independent financial auditors to examine our financial records on an annual basis. (Calvary does this as well).

#5 - What if we as Churches maintained a giving level at the same pace as what we call our members to give at (example: If 10% is the minimum amount we challenge our people to give, then 10% is the minimum amount we as a Church give away to those outside our immediate Church).

#6 - What if Pastor's volunteered to make their salary information public in order to maintain transparency and accountability and faithfulness to 1 Peter 5 which says:
"So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. 5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble..." (ESV)

#7 - What if we as Pastor's voluntarily refused to take the controversial IRS housing allowance exemption for Clergy (what is this? Go here to IRS.gov to learn more)

#8 - What if we as Church leaders in an attempt to avoid any type of favoritism (James 2:9) made sure we never knew what any individual Church member gave financially to the Church (Calvary maintains this, no one on staff knows what anyone gives, except for a very small group of people involved in counting the weekly offering and providing end of the year donation receipts).

#9 - What if we boldly taught from the pulpit that the ideology of the "Health-Wealth Prosperity Gospel" is not Biblical and simply wrong. (God calls us throughout the Bible to give generously and joyfully of our finances but never promises us financial sacrifice will generate future financial prosperity or health...for proof read about the life of Paul in Philippians 4:11-13)

#10 - What if we as Churches refused to go into debt for building projects


I am not a financial wizard by any means and who knows I may be dead wrong on several of my suggestions. But we need to take an honest look at ourselves and realize something needs to change within our Churches to change the overwhelming opinion among Non-Christians that Churches are all about money.

What are your thoughts?
What would you add to the list in order to help Churches walk in better financial integrity and transparency? It would be great to hear any ideas you may have.

The Sacred Work of Parenting

Marie and I and our kids and my mother and father-in-law just spent 4 awesome days in Sonora, California skiing at Dodge Ridge, eating pizza and subway sandwiches with our cousins, going on long uninterrupted walks and spending 13 hours in a car together. It was great!

As Marie and I were being cared for by our parents and as we in turn were parenting our kids this weekend, it made me really resonate with what Paul Tripp recently wrote on the website Gospel Coalition

"Parenting is all about living by the principle of prepared spontaneity.
You don’t really know what’s going to happen next.
You don’t really know when you’ll have to enforce a command, intervene in an argument, confront a wrong, hold out for a better way, remind someone of a truth, call for forgiveness, lead someone to confession, point to Jesus, restore peace, hold someone accountable, explain a wisdom principle, give a hug of love, laugh in the face of adversity, help someone complete a task, mediate an argument, stop with someone and pray, assist someone to see his heart, or talk once again about what it means to live together in a community of love."

To read more of Paul's article, click here.

Freedom

A few weeks ago, one of my brother-in-law's decided he was over Facebook and went to deactivate his Facebook account. Upon going through the steps to erase his Facebook, he came to a crossroads where Facebook asked him, "Please give us a reason for wanting to deactivate your Facebook account." The question gave a few sample responses as well as a space to simply put "Other."

My brother-in-law didn't feel like putting an answer so he hit the "Other" button and left the box blank. To his shock, Facebook wouldn't let him deactivate his account until he gave them an actual reason! So finally he caved and wrote in the blank box, the reason he wanted to deactivate his account was...."Freedom!"

With so many of us living lives constantly attached to social and media connections, maybe we could all use a bit more freedom!

Did you know there is a program available on-line that is called "Freedom?"


This program is available for you to use, to purposely lock you out of the internet and internet connections on your computer for a set amount of time, up to 8 hours. Here is how Freedom describes its services:

"Freedom is the perfect New Year's resolution, a simple productivity application that locks you away from the internet on Mac or Windows computers for up to eight hours at a time. Freedom frees you from distractions, allowing you time to write, analyze, code, or create. At the end of your offline period, Freedom allows you back on the internet."


I can't mention the word Freedom without thinking about William Wallace...

Jesus In Every Book of the Bible

You have to watch this. So powerful, not just because it is delivered by a kid, but because it reminds us that we can see Jesus and His character in literally every book of the Bible.

By the way, I am making my son Samuel do something like this when he is 11!
(Thanks to Resurgence for the clip).

Setting Up Church

For many Churches, gathering together on Sunday's or throughout the week, is not as easy as simply unlocking the doors and turning on the lights.

Tomorrow night we begin are new season of our Young Adult Gatherings at Calvary Church, (If you are in your 20's, single or married and live in Orange County, Ca...Come join us at 7pm in the *Vintage Choir Room!). It takes us about 2-3 hours to set-up the room for our Tuesday evening gathering. From setting up chairs to music to tables, to backgrounds, it is a entire afternoon of effort!
So if you can remember, pray for me and our team as Tuesdays are a great, but long day.

In similar fashion, Check out this time elapse video from the Bay Area Church, Reality-San Francisco

Confessions of a Mega Church Pastor

Great interview with several "Mega-Church" Pastors courtesy of Outreach Magazine

Matthew Slater Leads Patriots in Special Teams

I have been a diehard San Fransico 49ers fan since birth (Or at least since Joe Montana found Dwight Clark in the end zone) but I must admit over the last 3 seasons, I have had a keen interest in the New England Patriots.

Why you may ask?

Because Matthew Slater (#18) out of UCLA has played for the Pats for the past 3 years. Matthew was one of the students in my youth group in High School and now is part of our Young Adult Group at Calvary when he is home. I really respect Matthew, not just for being in the NFL, but for his heart for God and his commitment to walk in integrity. He lives out what he believes, not just on the football field or at Church on Sunday's, but in his daily life. I really respect that about him.

Matthew and several Patriots teammates are going through the Book of Romans this month studying the Bible together each week. They are using John Stott's commentary on the Book of Romans, pretty heavy stuff! How cool to know that there are professional athletes who are hungry to grow in their faith and know God through his Word.

Here is a article about Matthew from today's ESPN/Boston.

Here were the leading Special Team Tacklers for the New England Patriots this season:

1) WR Matthew Slater -- 21 tackles (15 solo, 6 assisted)
2) LB Tracy White -- 18 tackles (9 solo, 9 assisted)
3) CB Kyle Arrington -- 16 tackles (13 solo, 3 assisted)
4) CB Devin McCourty -- 12 tackles (11 solo, 1 assisted)
5) RB Sammy Morris -- 12 tackles (8 solo, 4 assisted)
6) OLB Rob Ninkovich -- 11 tackles (6 solo, 5 assisted)
7) LB Dane Fletcher -- 11 tackles (10 solo, 1 assisted)
8) RB Danny Woodhead -- 10 tackles (10 solo, 0 assisted)
9) S Patrick Chung -- 8 tackles (6 solo, 2 assisted)
10) S Jarrad Page -- 6 tackles (3 solo, 3 assisted)
11) S James Sanders -- 4 tackles (1 solo, 1 assisted)
12) S Sergio Brown -- 3 tackles (2 solo, 1 assisted)
13) RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis -- 3 tackles (2 solo, 1 assisted)
14) LB Gary Guyton -- 3 tackles (2 solo, 1 assisted)

Your First Church and Second Church

My friend Ryan Whieldon posted on his blog excerpts from a great article by Douglas Wilson.
on how to prep for a sermon.

I especially liked Wilson's thoughts on How to keep a message "fresh" and who your first Church needs to be...

"But before the message can be fresh, the man must be. Prepare the man before you prepare the message. The first issue relates to character -- confess sin, grow in grace, resist temptation, feed your soul something other than spiritual Doritos.

Then there is your family, the place where the man lives and thrives . . . or not. Love your wife, spend time with her, love your children, give yourself to them. Your household is your first church, your foundational church, your probationary church. Don't work on your sermon all week, and give your family the dregs of your time. Give yourself to your family in such a way that you have something to say to your second church."

A Day in the Life of Calvary Church

I had the honor of preaching this past Sunday at Calvary.
We wrapped up our 4 week sermon series called, "Kingdom Come."


In the series we examined Matthew 2 and talked about the Kingdom Jesus ushered into the world through the First Advent. I wrapped up the series by speaking on what we have to look forward to in the "Return of the King," the second advent of Christ.

The Second Coming of Christ will be a glorious day where Jesus will come back to Reign as King of King and Lord of Lords!!

For my Sermon Notes go here.
For my Powerpoint slides go here.

To listen to the audio message on i-tunes go here

My fellow staff member, Ray Pertierra, captured some great photos from yesterday....

Worship Pastor, Ron Rogalski has a rare blend...

He is musically brillant and incredibly humble.
I thank God for his leadership in our Church.

Is this what I look like when I pray? Hahaha

This is our Senior Pastor at Calvary Church, David Mitchell.
Such a Humble and Godly Man...

What a Great Way to Begin 2011, By being Baptized!

Victor Estrada (Left) is an incredible leader of Worship. He sang Evan Wickham's "Jesus Come" to set up the sermon, I almost lost it right before I got up to speak, it is such a powerful song.
Daniel Lopez (Right), is an amazing Bass player. He has been such a gift to our Church since he came out of no where 2 years ago.

Michael W. Stand is the lead singer/guitar player of the Altar Billies. His former band, the Altar Boys was such a groundbreaking Christian band in the 1980's and 90's.
On Sunday he played next to his son who plays the Viola, Drums, and pretty much everything else.

One of my favorite places to be on a Sunday morning is at the front doors of the Church as people enter in.

After Church, we hosted the Gourmet Food Truck, "ShortStop BBQ" in our Church courtyard. You owe it to yourself to find out where this truck will be next, their pulled pork sandwiches are to die for.

Brock Meet Silas

Brock and Deanna Buoniconti are a couple in our Church at Calvary. I have known Deanna since she was a high school student in our youth group. I just love her family, the Herring family.

Brock serves courageously in our armed forces and for the last 7 1/2 months has been serving our country in Afghanistan. During those 7 1/2 months, Deanna gave birth to their first child, a beautiful baby boy named Silas.

Over Christmas, Brock was given 15 days off and headed home to meet his son for the very first time. Here is a snapshot of the first meeting...

7 Billion Loved Ones

It is crazy to comprehend a number like 7 Billion.
Amazingly God's loves each one of us.
Psalm 139 proves it.

Think about that as you watch this...




Thanks to Tyler Stanton for showing me this video...