You are invited!

Christmas Season

This is the time of year for school Christmas programs and I am especially grateful that our children are able to attend Prince of Peace Christian School. They do a great job of focusing the students attention on the real meaning of Christmas...the birth of Jesus. This year I especially enjoyed both programs. Ethan was "Joseph" in the kindergarten program (Side note: I asked him if liked "Mary"...his answer, with a serious look on his face, "Dad, she's a girl" LOL). And Alanna and her best friend had a duet in the main program last night.

Every now and then people ask me how our family practices Christmas...so I thought I would share a few things we try to do:

1. At least once a day, we remind our children that the real meaning of Christmas is the birth of Jesus.
2. My wife (she does a great job with this) prepares a daily Advent calendar that our kids totally love. Each day there is a Scripture reading that explains who Jesus really is. Sometimes there is a little treat or activity planned as well. You can email her for ideas smilealways27@hotmail.com.
3. We make Christmas a fun time at our house. We play up Santa Clause, reindeer, elves, and of course presents.
4. We make Christmas a time of both giving and receiving. I think this year we are doing the Christmas Gift for Jesus offering at church and we are donating some gifts to Compassion Network. I think we make a mistake when we don't include our children in these decisions.
5. We create time for small simple things: seeing Christmas lights, the Bethlehem display at 1st Baptist Santa Clara, Christmas in the park, board games, etc...
6. We play lots and lots of Christmas music in the house and the car. Nothing like rocking out to "Santa Clause Is Coming To Town" with everyone playing an air guitar. Our personal favorite version is from the Lonestar Christmas CD.
7. We attend Christmas Eve services which really helps remind our children that Christmas is not about them.
8. We read the Christmas story (and act it out sometimes) before opening presents on Christmas morning.
9. We watch Christmas themed movies (you know the syrupy sweet, happily ever after movies) with the kids.
10. And if things get too crazy...we cancel our plans and go to bed early :)

I hope that gives you some ideas. Merry Christmas!

The True Legacy of Steve Jobs

Over the past week, the death of Steve Jobs has been all over the media. Rightfully so, he has been heralded as the most creative business leader since Walt Disney. There is no doubt that he was an incredibly creative genius. He refused to be trapped by the moorings of conventional wisdom and he doggedly pursued what he believed to be the best way forward. But in reading about his life, I was deeply disturbed by how shallow and superficial his life was. The media has far overblown his true influence and completely avoided the "dark side" of his life. His true legacy is: 1) Valuing earthly things over eternal things 2) Valuing products over people 3) Valuing personal fulfillment over relational fulfillment 4) Valuing the accumulation of wealth over generosity

In one of his final interviews, he provides this reasoning for authorizing a biography of his life. "I wanted my kids to know me," Mr Isaacson recalled Mr Jobs saying, in a posthumous tribute the biographer wrote for Time magazine. "I wasn't always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did."

I pray that when I die, my wife and kids write my biography because they knew me well. Instead of me having to write a biography so they can get to know me.

Here are a couple of links that tell the real story:

http://goo.gl/R7Vf3 - An article from gawker.com

http://goo.gl/vxrS8 - An article from the Independent

Great Time At CORE Tonight!

Got to hang out with the CORE kids tonight. We have a awesome group of teens at our church and tonight was a lot of fun. God is really doing some cool stuff through our youth ministry team. I constantly hear words of thanks from our parents. Great jobDrew, Cyanna, Brandon, Aja, Jon, and Sarah!

An interesting perspective on "cool" church

I came across this video recently and thought that it makes a very valid, interesting point. Especially the last line, "I just don't want the Lord to end up in this box."

What's the Purpose of Parenting?

JUST KIDDING?

Tomorrow at church I'll give a Biblical answer :)

What If Marriage Was Not Designed To Make Your Happy...

But instead designed to make you holy. So many people enter marriage and family life thinking that happiness will soon follow. But the statistics don't lie...the majority of new marriages end in divorce and of those marriages that do survive only a small percentage rate their marriage as "happy." What if God's primary purpose for your marriage and family life was not to make you happy? I know in our culture that sounds like blaspheme since everyone "deserves" to be happy. But maybe part of our problem is the perspective we carry into marriage, home, and parenting life.
My wife and I will starting a new series this Sunday that tackles this subject head on. Over our 11+ years of marriage we have not been exempt from struggles, problems, and difficulties that have tested our commitment to each other [most of the time I'm the primary source of testing instead of the one being tested :)]. Over those years we have been on a journey of spiritual growth and have been forced to look at things from a different perspective. A number of books by Gary Thomas (Sacred Marriage, Sacred Parenting, Sacred Influence) have been really beneficial for us on this journey. During this five week series we will be talking about the truths that have changed our way of looking at home and marriage. I hope you will join us.

Another Awesome Baptism Celebration

This past Sunday was a great way to end the summer! We had our summer ending Baptism and BBQ in the church courtyard. What made this baptism extra special is that Andrew (our youth pastor) was able to baptize two of the teens from the CORE program. I remember it was just about 3 years ago that a few of our church families stepped up their financial giving to allow us to hire Andrew full-time. This was a big stretch for our small church at the time but God has really blessed. These baptisms as well as previous ones were a direct result of time and energy that Andrew and all the volunteers in CORE have invested!

Incredible week of MEGA Sports Camp

I just got finished with a busy, hectic week of sports camp. I'm tired...but it is a good tired. We had an incredible time each night. We averaged about 55 kids a night. Our coaches taught then basketball, soccer, baseball, and cheerleading. We learned awesome stuff about Jesus, sang and danced, and celebrated together. I've included a video that captures the excitement of the week. To all our volunteers that made this week happen...THANK YOU!

Community Back To School BBQ

Tomorrow is our annual outreach BBQ at Newark Community Park. It's from 11:00am to 2:00pm. If you are local I'll hope you'll come join us. Last night we had about 20 volunteers come to the church and fill 155 backpacks with school supplies! This is our largest total ever. I'm so grateful for those who have given sacrificially and volunteered to make this event a success! Our church family really cares about the community and building God's Kingdom and I am grateful to be the pastor. See you tomorrow!

Why I love what I do

As many of you know I've been pastoring Morning Star since I was 22 years old (8+ years has gone by very fast). Over these years there have been some great moments and plenty of low moments. When Cecil and I made the decision to start MSC and invest our life in building God's Kingdom, we had a genuine desire to help others encounter God and assist them in the process of being transformed to look like Jesus. I was counting up the number of baptisms over the past 8 years (my memory is not as good as it used to be) and came up with at least 42 names! Jesus Christ commanded His followers to be baptized to symbolize the new life that begins when one surrenders control and makes Jesus the Lord. On June 5th I had the honor of baptizing four adults. It is really exciting to be part of a church community that values life transformation and seriously following Jesus!

The End of the World

Just this morning I turned on the radio to KGO 810 (it's the most listened too talk/news station in the Bay Area and one of the most popular in the world). What was the topic of Ronn Owen's first hour...you guessed it: The End of the World. As many are aware (I've received numerous inquiries and questions from those in my congregation and even those who aren't believers in Jesus but are just curious) Harold Camping founder of Family Radio, which is a world-wide network of radio stations, has predicted this Saturday, May 21st as Judgement Day (http://www.familyradio.com/). Of course this claim is completely bogus and ludicrous. He has made this claim twice before so hopefully the third time will completely discredit him and his ministry. Although if I was a betting man, which I can be from time to time:), I would bet Harold has already come up with a response that will spin why he really wasn't wrong again. If it wasn't for the fact that Family Radio has a net worth of over 75 million dollars this claim would be completely ignored but when you have money you can buy publicity. I want to mention two things that all of this has brought to my mind:
1) This is the slippery slope where those with fundamentalist views of Scripture can find themselves. When everything in the Bible is taken literally and everything in their faith is black and white, you will find all types of dogmatic views on fringe elements of Scripture like when and how Jesus is going to return,which particular translation of Scripture is perfect, and even going as far as to define what styles of music are acceptable. I don't mean to paint all fundamentalists with a broad brush but their approach to Scripture makes them vulnerable to extreme theological positions based on just one or two verses that they take literally (and usually out of context).
2) The Bible is exceptionally unclear on when and how Jesus is going to return. Over the centuries Christians have held numerous views on this issue (pre-trib, post-trib, amill, premill, postmill, historical amill, etc...). My job is not to be on the planning committee but to be on the welcoming committee. If you want more perspective here are two good articles on this subject that probably say it better than I can:

http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/6396/9/

http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/6296/9/

Track Meet Day

This past Saturday was a blast! Alanna participated in the Bay Area Lutheran Schools Track Meet. Her school, Prince of Peace, hosts the event and about 13 other schools from around the Bay Area compete in various events. There are about 500 competitors from kindergarten through 8th grade. We were especially proud since Alanna represented her age group for girls in four different events. She came in 2nd in the long jump, 3rd in the 50meter, 4th in both baseball throw and 50meter relay. I've attached some pictures so you can see how determined she looks while she competes.

8th Anniversary Celebration

This past Sunday, March 23, we celebrated the 8th anniversary of Morning Star. Sometimes its hard to imagine that it was only eight years ago that Cecil and I moved back here from Florida to start the MSC. Sunday was a great celebration service. It really reminded me of how far we've come over the years. We have great staff and volunteers that make it all happen. Which helps make my job so much easier and more enjoyable. I also had the priviledge of baptizing four after the service! I've included the group picture of those who stayed to watch the baptism and have lunch.

Date Night With Alanna

As the kids grow older, my wife and I have tried to find ways to connect with our children on an individual basis. Connecting with my son tends to be fairly easy since he loves to sports especially baseball. But connecting with my daughter is a bit more challenging. The older she gets the less interested she is in wrestling with Daddy :). So just a few months ago my wife suggested that Alanna and I should cook together because we both love to cook (and eat!). So here are a few recent pictures from our last date night. We went out together to the grocery store and bought what we needed to make Tiramisu. It was delicious! But most importantly I had a wonderful time with my totally awesome not so little, little girl!

CRAZY DAY at School

This is Lutheran Schools Week and our kids attend Prince of Peace Lutheran School in Fremont. So each day this week the kids get to do something fun or crazy. Well, today was Crazy Day so we had lots of fun this morning helping make the kids look very crazy. Alanna was totally into it but Ethan was a little more hesitant. He didn't want anything weird done to his hair (for some reason he has always been more into comfort than coolness...probably got that from his Dad) so we worked with limited options.

Hanging out with some pastors in the area

For those who don't know, our church is part of an association called Next Generation Churches. I lead the Alameda County pastor's cluster that gets together once a quarter for breakfast and fellowship. This morning we met at one of our churches in San Leandro. I just took on this responsibility about 9 months ago so this was our third time to get together. It was an especially good meeting because each of us took some time to share what was happening in our lives and then someone else in the group prayed for us. Here are a couple of thoughts that I had during our breakfast:

1. Everyone (even pastors) needs someone they can talk to about life. To often we think that the more spiritually mature we are or the longer we've been a Christian the less we will need to rely on others. The opposite is actually true. The more spiritually mature you are the more you will realize how much you need other people in your life.
2. Everyone goes through difficult times. Somehow the idea that good Christian people never have problems gained traction in the church. I'm not sure if its the Power of Positive Thinking Movement, or the Name It Claim It Theology Group, or if its the God Wants You To Be Rich Crowd, but regardless of where it came from, that idea is totally bogus and anti-Scripture. As I shared breakfast with these pastors I realized that all of us were just as human as anyone in our churches. Some of them are having serious health issues, others have financial problems, a few had family/relationship issues. Which validates what Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer I have overcome the world."
3. Talking with other Believers about what is happening in your life is good for you. It may not fix the problem but it does seem to make it more manageable.

Relationships in the Church

We started a new sermon and small group series last Sunday that is studying I Corinthians 12:12-26. As the week as passed I have heard some really good comments regarding the small groups that have met. The major underlying theme that I am hearing is how enjoyable it is to spend a solid block of time in conversation about God and the Bible. I think this theme illustrates how seldom we set aside time to talk about God with other people. Usually our conversations focus on superficial things like weather, sports, or job situations. Sometimes we our close friends we discuss more important things like marriage, parenting, and financial pressures. The problem with this approach to relationships is that we focus all our attention on the outward. Whether those things be positive or negative, questions or answers, problems or solutions, they nevertheless are lacking since they bypass what should be the most central element of our life...God. So make some focused time to discuss God and what He is doing in your life this week with someone else.

BELONG Sermon and Small Group Series

This Sunday we launched a new sermon and small group series as we study I Corinthians 12:12-26. I was really excited to see how many have signed up to participate in the small groups each week. If you missed Sunday's message you can listen online at www.msconline.org