2 years ago I decided to move from Hawaii to the Philippines. I made a decision to make a change in my life to serve ourchurches in Asia. I left family, friends, surf, local food, and the only home I had ever known.
Some people might consider this to be a sacrifice.
Jesus left being at the side of His father to be with us. Jesus left perfection to be with sin. Jesus left a painless world to be in a place full of pain.
Jesus did this because He loved us.
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. John 6:38
I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” John 16:28
here are some thoughts from another great week at gbck…..
-continued our ongoing talk about 3 major areas of focus we will be pushing forward. 1.Sunday 2.Discipleship 3.Leadership
-made some good progress on our essentials material. design and layout looking great. working on final edits getting ready for our January 10 launch.
-essentials is our way of depositing basic biblical foundations into the lives of the people in our church.
-week 2 of Christmas Conspiracy talked about how giving presence can help us put meaning back into Christmas.
-here are some thoughts:
“without God’s presence we face 2 huge problems 1.being disconnected 2.being discontent”
“the most meaningful gifts aren’t always expensive”
“the greatest gift we can give anyone is the presence of God”
-presented our discipleship process at small group leaders meeting. love seeing this process begin to gain traction. praying and believing for discipleship to begin to gain more momentum.
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Matthew 4:23
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. Matthew 8:3
Jesus was more than a mere man. Jesus had supernatural power from heaven to perform miracles. Jesus performed miracles so that we could believe.
launched our Christmas series today. In a time when Christmas has become over run by consumerism we will be talking about 4 keys to our conspiracy to bring meaning back into Christmas. Join our movement as we conspire to see Christmas change the world.
Here are 4 keys to our conspiracy to change the world:
1. remembering the reason
2. giving prescence
3. building margins
4. loving all
Here is a 59 sec clip from today looking at some what we can expect later in this series:
Super excited about what God will do through this series. Praying and believing a ton of people will begin a relationship with Jesus as we walk through these next few weeks.
Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? John 8:46
Jesus told this to the religious people who brought accusations against Him. No one could reply because Jesus was sinless. Jesus was the son of God and was without sin.
The fact that Jesus was sinless qualified Him as the ultimate sacrifice. The death of this sinless man was what was needed to atone for the sins of all men.
“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” 1Peter 2:22
2 corinth 5:21
luke 18:21
if you want to get caught up with the Jesus series on this blog, CLICK HERE.
For Liz and Benaiah this was their first taste of what thanksgiving is like in Hawaii. You gotta love a holiday completely devoted to gluttony and the worship of the food God with a side order of football.
Here is a peek into our thanksgiving…..
I cant believe my mom and dad are making me wear this shirt.
Ben and the bird
The wife showing off her rachel ray skills. Good thing she watches every day.
good stuff happening at gbck. here is the latest…….
-great discussion at our staff meeting about momentum.
-also talked more about what it takes to break the “missional code” in kapolei.
-learning more and more how to contextualize stuff we are doing for our community
-great meeting with some other guys building financial partnership teams for their ministries. super encouraged by the faith and commitment of these guys as they pursue what God called them to pursue.
-preached this past week at xchange. love talking to the youth. believing for great stuff with our youth.
-wrapped up FAQ series by answering the question “are we living in the end times”
-answer: NO ONE knows when the world will end, but the bible does tell us to know the signs
-if the world were to end today would you know what would happen to you? do your know what will happen to your loved ones?
-super excited about our Christmas Conspiracy series starting this Sunday. Talking about 1 of 4 keys toputting meaning back into a Christmas that has turned into a conspiracy meant to make people spend money.
-over the next 4 weeks we will uncover this conspiracy for what it is and explain what Christmas was supposed to really be about.
well thats it for me for this week. gotta get geared up for another great day of meetings tomorrow as we continue to push the flywheels in Kapolei.
this week is the final week of our die hard series. over the past 3 Fridays we have talked to our youth about living life to the fullest.
here is a recap of the past 2 weeks:
week 1: live passionately
week 2: learn humbly
this week we will talk about loving completely.
From love songs to movies like the new moon that is opening today culture has a lot to say about love. Most of it sounds good from the outside, but at the core is twisted.
Love is more than a love triangle between a ware-wolf, a vampire, and a girl. Love at its core starts with and ends with a relationship with Jesus.
Love is not just about hooking up with that cute guy or girl at school. Love is more than some crush that consumes the majority of your thoughts. Love is about understanding that for many of us God has given us families who love us deeply, who we often times take for granted. Our families may not be perfect, but that is what true love is. an unconditional commitment to very imperfect people.
If we want to live life to it’s fullest we must learn how to love completely.
Been meaning to post this for a few days now. I guess better late than never. Just had to share with yall all the great stuff God is doing in Kapolei. Praying, believing and planning for a breakout year in 2010.
Here is the latest from Grace Bible Church Kapolei…….
-locked down some storage space at Mauka Lani. super stoked be working with a great school and principle that works with us to bring change to Kapolei.
-great meeting with our operations director, mel and share rosario. The commitment and sacrifice that these people demonstrate seriously blows me away.
-met with some of the pastors in Kapolei from different churches and denominations. Although we may do stuff differently you gotta love the effort to find unity in the body of Christ.
-finally was able to meet up with one of the students from Kapolei Middle. love discipleship. believing for great stuff at Kapolei Middle.
-MANNY PACQUIAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Benaiahs first pacquiao fight was a great one. At the top of his game and still living humbly….. gotta love that
-week 3 of FAQ series was great. unpacked “why do we need to go church”
-Mike did a great job of communicating why we need to go to church.
-cant wait for next week…. “are we living in the end times?”
-super excited about our food distribution project coming up in a few weeks. Christmas is definitely a season for giving.
-believing that God will use us to impact some low income housing folks that literally live walking distance from the church.
-a church that does not meet the needs of the poor is missing it.
-dont miss out….. bring a case of can goods with you to church this Sunday.
Recently we have been talking about our vision for Sunday morning. We have been talking about making improvements to our sunday experience. We have come to the conclusion, though it may be obvious that Sunday has to be great. As great as we are now through the people who have brought us this far, we know that we must always push to become better.
After months of unpacking what we do on Sunday we have begun to land on this statement:
“to create a compelling and comfortable environment where people far from Jesus can meet Him.”
As we talk about this more this statement it has become very helpful in bringing clarity to the management team, volunteers, and church what our vision is in regards to Sunday. Although seemingly obvious and elementary this simple statement helps us make this idea stick as a part of our culture. We know we must constantly remind people what we are trying to do. We must remind people until everyone knows that this is what we are targeting on a Sunday morning. Then we must remind them again and again.
churches in Asia. I left family, friends, surf, local food, and the only home I had ever known.
improvements to our sunday experience. We have come to the conclusion, though it may be obvious that Sunday has to be great. As great as we are now through the people who have brought us this far, we know that we must always push to become better.
As we talk about this more this statement it has become very helpful in bringing clarity to the management team, volunteers, and church what our vision is in regards to Sunday. Although seemingly obvious and elementary this simple statement helps us make this idea stick as a part of our culture. We know we must constantly remind people what we are trying to do. We must remind people until everyone knows that this is what we are targeting on a Sunday morning. Then we must remind them again and again.
