One down...one to go

Finished our first meeting this week, and it felt like we got stuff done. I like the changes we talked about and proposed, but we'll definitely have to follow up nicely to get the results discussed. Maybe I'm an optimist and idealist, but I can see Editorial Evangélica improving and becoming a top contender in its market. So, we finished up by 5pm, and then I headed off to a friend's house where several of us got together for dinner.

I'll probably play some Guitar Hero later on tonight with the Burger Boys as well as some other people. I've only played that game once, but it is AWESOME!!

Anyway, apparently the other meeting/conference won't begin until tomorrow night, so, I'll get to work a little bit tomorrow and hook up with friends for breakfast and lunch and maybe get to hang out a bit before the conference begins. This pace is much more pleasant than the norm. Gotta love Cleveland...

I spent almost all day travelling yesterday, from LA to Nashville and then to Cleveland, TN. I'll be in a meeting today and tomorrow discussing ways to improve the educational/discipleship material produced by the Spanish-speaking publishing house for the Church of God, Editorial Evangélica. I'm looking forward to meeting with the others because it shows that they've noticed how a lot of times the material doesn't connect or isn't always relevant to the students. Plus, it demonstrates that they're interested in being intentional about being relevant, pertinent and purposeful with the students within the denomination.

Besides this meeting, I'll be attending a conference here in Cleveland called Engage 21, which the COG is hosting to begin dialogue between the various generations of ministers and also to discuss missionality within the denomination.

In addition to these "meetings," I'll be visiting a bunch of friends, which I haven't seen in quite a while. I'm looking forward to that...


...and so, I'm off to begin my visiting tour!

Week Wrap-up

Last Tuesday, my leadership team for the replant and I met to discuss the basics of the church. I think that at times all the material may have been overwhelming to them, but it turned out to be a good meeting as we got through a general skeleton of what we'll be doing. After a few hours of discussing, dialoguing and dreaming, we decided to continue the discussion Sunday after meeting with the rest of the church for worship.

Sunday--
After worshipping together, we headed to the Old Spaghetti Factory to discuss chapter 2 of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day as well as continuing our journey of establishing the basics of the replant. We got really far on Sunday and because we were taking long at the OSF, we headed to Seattle's Best Coffee to continue. I love productive days, like this past Sunday.

Generosity hit us!

Yesterday, God hooked us up with some gear from a church in the LA area. Unexpectedly, we were given a sound board (mixer) with its corresponding amps, a Kurzweil with an amp and a drumset. Man! As a musician, one knows the cost of this stuff, and it's so humbling to see how God takes care of you. I had not anticipated receiving this stuff at all. In fact, the thought of us needing something like this had shortly been entertained for the future....but not until the summer months or so. Anyway, I'm just in awe of how God hooked it up and am soooo thankful for this!

Sunday Recap and more

What a great worship experience today. Mr. Fitch does a great job with the music and worship, and the message really hit home for many as we finished our Friends series, where we touched a lot on forgiveness.
Also looking forward to this Tuesday as I will be meeting with the leadership team to discuss Mark Batterson's book and to dream quite a bit. I am so humbled by God's love and mercy and often wonder why he chooses people like us to carry out his mission. It's humbling as well as exciting!

ADD reading?

Am I the only weirdo out there that will read several books at a time?? When I started reading Chazown, I kinda had to drop all my other reads for a while, but I've gone back to my old habit as I'm finishing it up. For leisure, I'm reading The Catcher in the Rye, and next week, my leadership team from church and I will begin reading Mark Batterson's In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. Pretty excited about that, especially because as a team, we'll get to grow together and talk about the direction of the replant, including risks needed to be taken (which is a major theme, if not the main theme, in Batterson's book).
It's good stuff!

Weekend Wrap-up

Okay, so, I'm a little late for a recap of last weekend, but I'm barely getting back into the swing of things after a busy couple of weeks with my "day job."
Anyway, last Saturday, my team and I organized our region's leadership summit in Ontario, CA and had a good turnout. Every person working helped make it a great success. I was pretty tired by the end of it but still managed to go to a Toby Mac/Jeremy Camp concert after with friends. I had a great time there, and by the time I got home, I was exhausted!

Sunday was a terrific day.
· Had the best attendance ever (our little place was packed out!)
· Among those in attendance was a cousin of mine who is considering joining the church
· Continued our Friends series
· Had lunch with a bunch of family afterwards at El Torito in Rancho
· Hung out with some friends in the evening at Victoria Gardens
· Got some way overdue rest at the end of the night!!!

Breakfast Club and bilingual ministry

Had breakfast with the small crew of young pastors again this morning. It's so cool to be able to share and vent with these guys. Plus, some of the ideas bounced around today were beneficial to all of us.
Sometimes the Latino ministry mindset can be so complex because of the language issue as well as the cultural dynamics between the different generations of Latinos here.
I'm looking to do some bilingual stuff in the future, but I'm not so sure I wanna do it simultaneously yet. I don't want to limit ministry to Latinos only. Yesterday, I spoke with a pastor of a large, growing church that does ministry bilingually...simultaneously. I'll probably check things out in his church to see how they do it. However, my experience doing that is that it tends to be a little distracting, especially to bilingual people. Plus, it's never cool when the voices overlap. I guess we're going to have to experiment more when the time comes.

Leccion de hoy con el texto aureo...

Me recuerdo que en mi niñez y toda mi adolescencia, usábamos el material de Editorial para lo que tuviera que ver con discipulado en la iglesia, o lo que se conoce como la Escuela Dominical. Recuerdo todavía algunas canciones que se cantaban con la iglesia, la ofrenda que se daba, los cumpleañeros, y algunas lecciones que eran aburridas…más cuando fui adolescente. Cuando empecé a enseñarle a los jóvenes (siendo yo un joven también) usaba el mismo material de siempre. Recuerdo que cuando simplemente seguía las instrucciones del expositor, la clase resultaba ser aburrida, y que casi siempre le tenía que hechar crema a los tacos para que la clase fuera interesante, ya que no era yo un educador profesional. Ahora, no estoy diciendo que yo era la gran cosa para enseñar, pero siempre fui forzado a ser creativo y/o buscar otras fuentes de creatividad para ser efectivo como maestro.

Si tú estás leyendo esto, creo que tu experiencia haya sido parecida a la mía. Si tú le pudieras decir algo al escritor o escritores de todos esos expositores, ¿qué le dirías? Me gustaría saber tus pensamientos en cuanto al material y en cuanto a las ayudas pedagógicas ofrecidas en el material.
Interesantemente, estaré asistiendo a una junta a fines del mes con esta misma casa publicadora. Entonces, quiero llevar algunos puntos donde yo creo que puede mejorar y dar una retroalimentación positiva y constructiva. A ver que ondas...

Last Sunday

This past Sunday we met at our new place in Upland...

· Our new place is smaller but more functional and very cozy
· The group is very excited and on board to do whatever it takes to reach Upland and its surrounding cities
· We just opened up a 3-week series called Friends, where we will tackle on certain relational issues that will benefit us both in the not-so-distant future as well as in the long run
· The children were happy to have their own room
· We're working on having a more kid-friendly environment as well as good, fun teaching material for them
· We need to begin small groups...asap!!!
· I need to move into the area as well