(Spontaneous) Baptisms last Sunday

It's Thursday, but I'm still so stoked about what happened at The Vine last Sunday! Nine people went public with their faith as they took this step of obedience! Originally, we had about six or seven people who were "scheduled" to get baptized, but we felt led to offer spontaneous baptisms and as a result, I pretty much preached about baptism, as I deviated a bit from our King David sermon series.

• Among those baptized was an entire family of four, who is growing in Christ. It is such a "high" to see people come to Jesus and then grow. It's like a total drug and I can't ever get enough!!
• Another story was of a guy who was on the fence about following Jesus, possibly because of his family turning their back on him because of Christ. He got baptized.
• Another story included a cancer survivor who abandoned her wig to be baptized. Her sister was also baptized.
• A high school student was also baptized as she took a public stand for Christ.
• Had the privilege to also baptize a guy from my own Vine Gro
  up. He and his family were introduced to the church through our children's summer program, VKids Adventures, a couple of years ago. AND his wife recently made a decision to follow Christ too!

The icing on the cake included more volunteers than normal serving that day. I am so grateful and honored to serve with people who strive to make a difference, serving Jesus by serving people. What an awesome Sunday!

Jounaling

I was just thinking about some of the goals I set for this year back in December of 2009, and here we are in October already. One of the goals I set out to accomplish this year was deeper spiritual growth and maturity. Obviously, this doesn’t just happen. One has to work at it… --------> As Paul says to Timothy, “train yourself to be godly.”

So, among a few things I changed or began doing this year is that I began journaling—on a more consistent basis, that is, which (embarrassingly) I had never really done. In the past few years, I had occasionally journaled but not regularly. It has not only given me newer/fresher insights into the Word, but it has provided a much needed avenue to connect with God like never before. It’s hard to believe that I had never ventured into this gateway to connect with God. But I’m so glad I did.

It has also provided a way for me to “hear” God clearer, where my flaws and short-comings have been displayed before me in such a raw manner that there is no doubt that I have been saved BY GRACE! My dependence and need for Jesus are very deep-seated!

Anyway, I’m looking forward to new chapters in my walk with Jesus as I journal my adventure with him. Will have to talk more about this later…

New Seasons

At The Vine, we’re talking about the new seasons to which God calls/brings us. I honestly believe that God calls us into new seasons often, but our paralyzing fears, subtle complacency and/or sin hinder us from entering into that season.

My wife and I are in one of these crucial moments in life right now, and we’re learning as we go. We don’t always have the answer(s), but we’re still pushing forward into that new season. As we enter this new season, the road is “foggy” and filled with uncertainty. But this is where faith comes in and is necessary. It’s so much easier to take the assured road that is filled with certainty and security but if we don’t risk anything, we’ll always have that pestering “what if” question looming over our heads about what could have been. Additionally, taking the safe and conservative route is normally more comfortable and can induce more of the same actions…instead of trail-blazing into the unknown. In other words, the more safe and conservative decisions we make, the less faith-risks we take. At the end of my life, I want to have taken way more faith-risks than comfortable, “easy-way-outs.” Life is too short to live in mediocrity, and mediocrity just sucks.

So, as we enter new seasons in our life’s journey, opportunities for faith-risks are to be expected. What will we do when confronted with such a situation? Whatever it is that we do—even if it’s one time—will be a determining factor of how much life we really lived.

I'm testing this entry from my phone. Man, you can blog from virtually anywhere in the world, even if you don't have a computer. What will 2020 look like??

Dia 8

Hace una semana, una gran parte de The Vine empezamos el Ayuno de Daniel, y hoy estamos en el día 8 del ayuno. Estoy tan orgulloso de aquellos que decidieron empezar. Los días más difíciles fueron los primeros días ya que el cuerpo se tiene que acostumbrar a un ritmo de alimenticio muy distinto al normal. Ahora, creo que la mayoría están alimentándose mucho mejor sin efectos secundarios--como dolores de cabeza, mareos, etc.--y aun hay reportes de tener más energía.

También han habido historias de personas que aciertan que Dios ha estado haciendo cosas en sus vidas: se ha encontrado empleo, se ha recibido aumentos de ingresos, y ha habido sanidad física....y ¡apenas completamos la primera semana!

Estoy ansioso y emocionado por ver lo que Dios hará en las vidas nuestras como en las vidas de aquellos por quienes estamos orando. ¡Me ha encantado el inicio del 2010!

Voices

Been out of the blogosphere for a while, but after reading and meditating this morning, I began perusing some blogs and ran into Perry Noble's blog, and God totally used him in this post to give me a kick in the 'ole be-hind.

As one draws nearer to God, there are always other "voices" that one hears (no, I'm not a schizo). Many times, they're from "reliable" people or those that have more experience and appear to be more mature than you. There are also those who tend to squeeze the life and the dreams out of you by bringing you back to the ground or giving you a shot of reality, which I guess is their reasoning. But, in all honesty (they may not even realize this), they are not the voices to be heard, especially if they go against what God has placed in your heart.

I suppose I can listen to these life-draining voices, but I'd fall into the pitfall of mediocrity, and man, how I hate mediocrity! I'm sure God hates mediocrity too (Rev 3.15-16) and has definitely not called us to it....but to obedience....even if it seems out there, crazy &/or stupid.

I am so glad God has never acted half-heartedly toward us or on our behalf. I know--for a fact--that he expects full obedience and an "all-in" attitude from us as opposed to half-hearted measures. May God's voice be the one we actually do follow and act on........

.......I'm all in!

Twitter

I have resisted opening a twitter account for a very long time, especially after someone hacked into a family member's e-mail account. It seems counter-productive to publish everything one is doing. Thus, giving mischievous hackers easier access to one's life and info.

However, I finally gave in yesterday and opened my very own twitter account. Man, it can be addicting! Still trying to figure it out, though. I'd like to be able to link it to my phone, facebook and blog...but haven't gotten that far...yet. Gotta love technology!

Christianity is down...in America, that is

I ran across this CNN story/survey today and got to thinking: Maybe this is a good thing for followers of Jesus Christ. Talk about an open mission field...

Mark Silk, of Trinity College, reports to CNN that "the rise in evangelical Christianity is contributing to the rejection of religion altogether by some Americans." What are some of these contributing factors? I mean, we can't just generalize and say, "well, it's because of evangelical Christianity that the American people are rejecting any type of religion altogether." Or can we??

I'm interested in reading the complete survey findings to know what some of the contributing factors to the rejection of religion are. Could a factor possibly be the mass amounts of evangelical Christians who side with one political party, who consequently "turn off" those who disagree with them?

How much good does it really do for an evangelical to side with one political party and then call the other party(-ies) wrong and of the devil? Could it be a total disservice to the Mission of Jesus Christ to not dichotomize between Church and state? Where is the line drawn between Christianity and nationalism/patriotism?

The General

Today, I bumped into this video, and all I can say is, “Wow!” This was an inspiring, timely message by the General Overseer of the Church of God, Raymond Culpepper. I am so proud to serve under his leadership and am pumped to be serving at the vine.

It’s great to know that God works “on-stage” as well as behind-the-scenes, whether we know/see it or not. I am confident that he’s doing his thing, even though I can’t always see what’s going on. God’s handiwork goes beyond my wildest imagination and my biggest dream.

Interviewing a Ministerial Vet

Hope you enjoy this interview, and because it's with my dad, it'll be in Spanish. My apologies to non-Spanish speakers. By the way, 2 minutes into the interview there will be a phone ringing...sorry, my dad never turns that thing off!

Sunday Recap

We kicked off our December month long series of Advent yesterday with Hope as the first of four traditional elements of Advent. It hit home even better than I had anticipated. Used a lot of scripture and once again confirmed that one definitely cannot underestimate the power of God's far-reaching word.

Also, it felt really Christmassy yesterday...I guess the beautiful decorations (done by my wife), the lit candles, the subtle apple-cinnamon scent and the Christmas songs contributed nicely to holiday feel. We also planned our Christmas dinner yesterday and am looking forward to all the new invited guests, who we will be inviting, joining us. We will be sending out invites this week to several guests with whom we have had contact--second time guests, festival attendees, etc.
This week will also be used to brainstorm for next year's sermon series.

Well, it's up and at 'em...

Dinner @ the vine

Last night at the vine, we had a Thanksgiving meal with the regulars as well as several new people. We had a great time of community, and it proved to be a major relationship-building occasion. After dinner, we played several games of Mafia, and it totally opened up most of our new people. It was great. We finished up at 11:30pm...a little too long, maybe. Everybody was in high spirits as we ended the night, though.

Now, my wife and I are off to Central and Northern California for the Thanksgiving weekend. Probably won't be blogging till after. Peace!

Building community through food!

As the holiday season is pretty much here, beginning with Thanksgiving, there is one element throughout that we can’t do without: Food! Not sure what others will be eating here in CA, but in my family and circle throughout this season, we will be eating Turkey (Thanksgiving, of course), stuffing, arroz con gandules (rice-PR style), habichuelas (beans, PR-style), tamales, pasteles (PR-style tamales), frijoles puercos, buñuelos, flan, and who knows what else will be added to the Mexican-Puerto Rican-US mix.

As I was reading earlier today in the Bible, I ran across the early church’s custom to eat together, which some called “Love Feasts.” It’s unbelievable how much “connection” and relationship-building can occur between people at the table…having some eats. Jesus did it countless times, the early church did it as well and even today it occurs quite often. I’ve experienced this connection with people throughout my life and have noticed its beneficial effect in ministry as well as in doing life with people.

However, I have had somewhat regrettable times in my life where I did succumb to the individualistic milieu of the society and instead of contributing to something so organic as community, I contributed toward its demise. Of course, I don’t purposely do this anymore, but I have to consciously make decisions as to promote community…even through something so mundane as meals. To eat...everybody does it. Why not eat together once in a while? I mean, who doesn’t like to eat???

How much does this individualistic society influence us to the point we don’t eat together as families or as faith communities? How could we connect to unbelievers through meals? Could we be more “effective” as missional followers of Christ through…food?

While on my way to Mexico to get married, I didn't get all the results to the US' presidential election until I arrived at my in-laws' house. Polls had Obama up decidedly over McCain...and they were right this time. At the end of the day, I heard the news...Obama was the president-elect. Talk about history being made!

By the way, I received some type of forward (email) about several past presidents being African-American as well. Not too sure how reliable those forwards are...

Have I been gone that long??

So much has happened in the past few months, accounting for the relatively long hiatus from the blogosphere. Was involved in several regional church events during the summer months, a fall festival at the vine and also my wedding a few weeks ago...that’s right, my wedding! The lovely Janeth Beltrones is now my beautiful bride, and we have been learning so much from each other in the last 2 weeks. It’s been a great beginning to our lifelong journey and adventure together.

We’ve also had some changes as of late at church. A couple of people left but others are coming…slowly but surely…all unchurched! How I love that! It’s a long process, but that’s what we’re in the business of doing.
Relational ministry tends to bring results in a long-term sort of way, and it can be real easy to get discouraged as no “immediate” results are evident. However, God is always working behind the scenes, and we’re trusting that he is doing much more than we can ask or imagine. In addition, relational ministry tends to have longer lasting results as well…at least, that’s been my experience in my short ministerial career (including ministry before pastoring the vine).

Effective Evangelism?

As I was browsing through a few blogs, I ran into this picture of some kind of demonstration. I wonder how effective this is for evangelism, or could it be that it's a statement of Biblical holiness? I wonder if Jesus (living in the 21st century) would do something like this today...or would he call those people out like he did the Pharisees??? Hmmm....

Very cool Sunday! Attendance was up again, and the message seemed to hit home nicely. Although I realize that numbers aren't everything, they sure are a boost and an encouragement.

Today, I noticed the heartfelt needs so much more than other times. The need can be so great among the church that it's pretty overwhelming. I'm going to have to take things in stride and do as much as I can. I'm definitely learning to rely and rest on the Lord for stuff like this. There's just no way I can be the doctor, counselor, etc.; I'm learning quick that I have to be the one who points them to Jesus, the ultimate healer, marriage fixer-upper, etc.

Anyway, among the attendees was a second time visitor who came with her son. It's always nice to see visitors come back. Momentum seems to be growing with us, so, we're going to have to capitalize on the opportunities God sends our way.

Man, am I ready for this summer!

The Finals

After the Celtics defeated the Pistons last night, the stage was officially set for a rematch of a classic battle between the Lakers and Celtics in the finals. Even though I'm not a big time basketball fan, it's nice to see this matchup. Of course, it helps that my LA team is in the finals. Can't wait to see this series unfold...

....Go Lakers!!

Weekend Wrap-up

Super busy weekend, but it was all good...

Friday - Drove 2 hours to the Santa Barbara area to speak to a youth/young adult group. They were camping out for the weekend at a campsite right off the Pacific. It was sweet! The weather wasn't typical for this time of year in SoCal, but it was cool to crowd around the campfire. I had a blast at their camp, meeting cool people and sharing from the Word.

Saturday - Headed out to Redlands to the SB/Riverside counties' Fiesta de Area (a convention of churches) where I got to share with the teens and also got to play in the worship band. I don't play as much as I used to anymore, and I had a great time worshipping through music. It was a great worshipful experience overall. Also got to see and catch up with several friends.

Sunday - Had a great turnout today...about 30-40% more than usual...on Memorial Day weekend! Worship was awesome, and we had a guest speaker share with us today. Fidencio Burgueño used to be my overseer (supervisor) before he moved on to be the Director of Hispanic Ministries in the COG. It was nice to hear him speak from his heart on coming together as a church. His four points were

1. Be united
2. Speak the same language
3. Do the work
4. Be persistent

In addition to being the overseer, he and several others began the church 12 years ago. So, this was his home church while he and his family lived in California.

Later on in the afternoon, I hung out with some friends from Vegas, Lizette and Junior, and got to meet their beautiful daughter, Abigail, and hold her for a bit. It was nice to catch up and just hang out. Definitely need to do this more often. Great way to cap off the weekend!

Fueling up

The first weekend of May a group of us pastors headed to Tucson, AZ to visit New Life Church to observe and become students of the work being done there. We got a behind-the-scenes look at the church as well as being able to hear from some of the church leaders and the pastor's, Sam Santana, story of transitioning a traditional church to something more contemporary.
Additionally, it was nice to see how he's doing bilingual ministry...definitely can learn from that. Overall, it was a pretty enriching experience, and most of us returned pretty fueled about pastoring.