build with us
While living in the Philippines Liz and I had the privilege of being a part of the team that helped start Victory Greenhills. I would consider some of the men and women on this team some of my best friends in the world. Recently the Greenhills team made a huge announcement that will mean some big changes in the San Juan community.
Huge props to Dennis and the team. I am definitely with yall and am cheering you guys on.
If you are reading this I would like to encourage you to sow a seed into the tremendous work that God is doing in San Juan.
How to create a discipleship culture?
A few weeks ago I gathered our youth staff and through this question out to them. I love our team and the way they contribute to creative solutions to some pretty complex questions. Here is a list of some of the ideas that we generated and will begin to execute this year.
- Once a month training after Youth service
- once a month training in service
- pulpit
- individual small group outings
- combined groups
- scripture on discipleship (weekly)
- T-shirts
- advertising of small groups
- sports league
- community outreach (rice crispy treats)
- continual follow up
- fliers with all the groups
- sign up card
- video training
- testimonies
- pictures
- pictures of activities
- small group awards
- reward for new members and those who invited them
- prayer and fasting
Easter Plans 2011
Easter is always a pretty busy time for the church. We try our best to build up to Easter empowering our members to be praying
for and reaching out to their friends and family. Here is what we got going down at GBCK gearing up for Easter.
March 12: Beverage Blast
Passed out free drinks to people at the parks in Kapolei who were participating in sports.
March 26: Womens lunch outreach
The women of the church invited others and gathered for a time of outreach and fellowship.
April 20: Easter Supplies
We will set up a table after school at Mauka Lani Elementary (the school that we meet at every Sunday) and pass out supplies for parents who want to give Easter baskets to their kids, but might need help providing this for their kids.
April 23: Prayer and Door Hangers
We will walk the community praying and hanging door hangers with plastic easter eggs with candy and small gifts inside. The door hangers will also have an invitation to our Easter services.
gbck download: seek week
Each year we take a week at the beginning of the year to dedicate ourselves to God in prayer and fasting. For
GBCK this is happening next week Jan 24-30. We will take a week to dethrone the all powerful stomach God and focus more time and attention on Jesus.
We will be opening up a bunch of prayer pockets at our new office space here in Kapolei. Here is the schedule.
Monday
700pm-830pm
Tuesday
9am-1030am
7pm-830pm
Wednesday
9am-1030am
7pm-830pm
Thursday
9am-1030am
700pm-830pm
Friday
730pm: Xchange Youth Service
gbck download
It’s been a while since I last posted one of these. Too much to catch yall up with everything happening at GBCK, but let me roll out some thoughts…
-Christmas eve service was a hit. It always feels good to pack out a room. Tons of new people exposed to Jesus.
-1 Service sunday is my favorite service of the year
-great time with our volunteers at our volunteer appreciation lunch last sunday. definitely love our volunteers
-God moving in big ways in the lives of people in our church… Praying and asking for prayer for these guys.
-launched a new series today. Be One, Make One.
-realized today we made a bunch of big time improvements to our facility last year
-bunch of people stepping up and saying they want to start new small groups. gotta love discipleship.
-youth encounter weekend was powerful. amazed at how much our youth is growing in Jesus.
-excited for seek week happening at the end of January.
-OUR PLAN FOR 2011: SAME PLAN AS 2010. MAKE DISCIPLES.
1 service Sunday
One of my favorite services of the year is definitely the 1 time a year that we scale things down to give our volunteers a break.
The idea is to bring the 2 services together, and scale down the set up to what is absolutely necessary. No kids ministry, no road signs, no hospitality. We have a scaled down worship and a preacher, and that is about it.
Many pastors would consider this suicide. Loss of tithes, loss of momentum and a bunch of other concerns most pastors have. For me I think it is a gain. Gain of time to simplify and focus on Jesus and relationships. Gain of filling up the tank of the volunteers. Gain of showing our hard working volunteers that we value them more than the task. Gain of fighting against that internal drive every pastor has to grow their church.
xchange halloween
This past Halloween our youth team threw a party in an effort to reach out to their friends. Understanding that the first step to discipleship is evangelism our team did a great job of engaging those far from Christ.
Check out some pictures from the party.
ipray
Tomorrow we launch a new series on prayer. we are on the verge of wrapping up a 5 month journey through the book of James as we discover what James has to say about prayer. For the past 5 months or so our youth service has been synced with our morning services, however we have changed the title and design to be a little more youth friendly for each series. for our prayer series the youth chose to go with P.U.S.H. (pray until something happens) our morning service chose to take a page from victory and title our series ipray.
here is one thought as we head into the first week. God loves to hear our prayers because God loves us.
I think sometimes we forget how great our God is and how much he loves us. I think we put God in this box where we cant bother God with certain things because He is too busy. Or maybe we think that God wouldnt bother with our small request when He probably has so much other stuff to deal with. Another thought might be that if we ask God too many times He might get irritated. whatever your thought process I would encourage us to remember that God is a god who loves to hear from us. He loves it when we ask Him for stuff because He loves us.
6On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen;all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, 7and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. Isaiah 62:6-7
satan interviews
Last week we launched a new series called Real Deal. The big idea behind this series is dispelling myths regarding Christianity, and exposing the Real Deal when it comes to our faith.
To help us better understand some of the misconceptions regarding our faith, we decided to interview the person who is responsible for these misconceptions and myths. In this exclusive interview we were given some insights into the plans of the most deceitful person the world has ever seen.
check out the interview intro here.
Tough Stuff wk4
Great finale to our tough stuff series today. Here are my live notes from church at GBCK.
Excited for our Real Deal series starting in 2 weeks.
-sometimes God needs to take us through tough stuff before he takes us out of tough stuff.
-james 5:10-12
-when you do everything right, & everything is going wrong, keep doing right. V:10
-is my obedience to God attached to our circumstances?
-stuff got pretty bad for Jesus, but He still obeyed God.
-Jesus’ obedience was not based on circumstance, it was based on His love for God.
-when it seems like nothing is happening, something is happening, so keep going. V:11
-God is a god that works behind the scenes. Ph 2:13
-above all we must keep our integrity when we face tough stuff.
Tough Stuff
Last week we launched our tough stuff series in our morning services. Super excited about this series as we hope to better
equip Gods people to face challenging times in our lives. One great thought from this past week was that God sometimes walks us through tough stuff before He pulls us out of tough stuff.
For the next 3 weeks we will continue to look at what James has to say about suffering. Here is an overview of the series.
August 29: Test. Testing our faith strengthens our faith.
September 5: Temptation. Fighting temptation with truth.
September 12: How long? Patience is key in tough stuff.
September 17: Make it go away. There really is blessing in pain.
gbck download: He > i wk4
havent posted one of these for a while. here is what has been happening at gbck.
-finished He>i series this past week. Pride is not exactly a thrilling topic to talk about, but it is definitely needed in the body of Christ
-super excited as we launch our tough stuff series. the reality is that life is not always perfect. the bible teaches how we as Christians can walk through tough situations in life.
-mens encounter weekend happening this weekend.
-been seeing some new faces in my small group. definitely love discipleship in its early stages.
-just installed some new screens at mauka lani. definitely think this adds to the service. it is always good to be able to bless mauka lani elem.
-still praying for pete elson. excited to hang out with him this coming week.
-youth staff meeting was fruitful yesterday. love the youth team. some super exciting stuff going down in the next few months at xchange.
-long week this past week. good thing i love my job.
-thats it for now. sister getting married in a few hours.
en2010 recap vid
-50 nations
-20,000 people
-2 venues
-the word of God
-worshipping Jesus
you definitely dont want to miss en2013 no matter where in the world it will be.
does satan exist?
Mark Driscoll hosted a debate that was featured on nightline, a show that was viewed by millions of people across America. I appreciate how Mark handled some basic apologetic issues, as he did so with both shrewdness and also with love. Here is a breakdown of the debate:
Team Free Thinkers
Deepak Chopra
Bishop Carlton Pearson
Team Jesus
Mark Driscoll
Annie Lobert
here is a compiliation of all the videos posted by tofudynasty and will be available for you as long as tofudynasty keeps this posted on you tube.
Its all about ME
tonight we launch a new message series at xchange called “its all about me” for the next 3 weeks we will be
unpacking the idea of pride as we continue to walk through the book of James. we will look at 3 things we can do to fight our pride.
here is a quick overview of this series:
Aug 13: grace
Aug 20: bless others
Aug27: bend to Gods will
Pride is like bad breath. Most times we dont even know we have bad breath, but for the people around us it is painful and clearly evident. Because of this we have to learn to become aware of our pride so that we do not continue to live as prideful people inflicting pain on those around us. As our awareness increases we will then hopefully avoid allowing our pride to continue to make us look and act foolishly.
Pete Elson
One of my heros at GBCK is Pete Elson. Pete is a retired Army colonel, retired high school teacher and super
volunteer at our church. When Liz and I needed someone to help teach liz to drive Pete was there. Pete is the guy who is always letting us know that he is praying for us. Pete is the guy who is sold out to the vision of the church and believes in the leadership more than we believe in ourselves sometimes. Pete is a man of God that I hope to be like one day.
A few weeks ago Pete found out that he had pancreatic cancer. This is an aggressive cancer that most people do not overcome.
Even while dealing with this horrible news this is what Pete had to tell me the Sunday before I left for 3 weeks in Manila. “I am praying for you”
I could not believe it. You face death and you are praying for me and my trip. I cant help but think, hope and pray that i will be able to see life the way Pete sees life.
With all this said i would like to ask you to pray with me for Pete. If you are reading this please just take a minute to say a prayer for Pete, his wife Martha, his children and his grandchildren. Here is a website with more info on Pete.
gbck download: splash bash 2010
1x each year we break up our weekly routine and take the church outside on the grass. Jumpers, hot dogs, burgers, live music, volleyball, and a bunch of other stuff.
As good as all of this stuff is here are my 2 highlights:
1. The Gospel was preached. Gathering a crowd and celebrating national holidays are great, but our job is to preach the Gospel. As great as the temptation is to preach a non offensive happy message we must teach the WHOLE Gospel.
2. 17 people made a public confession of their faith through baptism
Here are some pix from splash bash 2010.
gbck download: manswers
kicked off our MANswers message series today. For the next 4 weeks we will be answering questions
that men face. We will be looking at the greatest resource on the planet for these answers, THE BIBLE.
Mike did an unreal job of explaining what the bible has to say about a mans anger today.
Here is an overview of the series.
week 1: How to deal with anger?
week 2: special guest Captain Jerry Coffee. (Former POW in Vietnam war camps for 7 years.)
week 3: special guest Bryan Yamashita (wife brutally stabbed to death 1 year ago by man who mistook her for the wrong person)
week 4: How to fight the battle of sexual purity?
You seriously dont want to miss this series.
52 days
52 days until EN2010.
50 days until we get to go back to Manila for the first time in a year.
super excited to see friends and family.
cyma, teriyaki boy, yoshinoya, crispy pata, massages, divisoria, $5 movies, zong, chinese food with GH people, and the list could go on and on…
gbck download: April Recap
Realized I haven’t posted one of these for a few weeks and thought I would take a moment to celebrate all that God is doing at gbck.
-transitioned inns out of youth ministry. these guys have done a seriously unreal job launching the youth ministry at gbck, but felt like it was the end of a season. absolutely love their decision to focus on their family.
-as we look for a youth pastor i grabbed the leadership of the youth. totally excited to be able to work with this youth team.
-new role will probably have me blogging about the youth a little bit more.
-my mens small group has been seeing some new faces which is always good. gotta love new people getting involved in discipleship.
-got a bunch of people signed up for round 2 of essentials.
-womens encounter weekend happening this weekend. super excited as we launch our 1st ever encounter weekend. definitely history in the making.
-working on a few more great transitions in the church. believing that God is shifting the seats on the bus to prepare us for growth. this stuff is definitely tough at times, but necessary for growth.
-did i mention i absolutely loved our crazy love series.
-may is discipleship month at gbck. gonna take 3 weeks to talk about our 3 step discipleship process.
-baptism next week to help us illustrate step 1: develop my faith. got a bunch of people signed up to get baptized in service.
gbck download: Easter
A bunch of stuff happening at gbck. here is a snap shot to get yall caught up.
-installed sound booth and wired sound system at mauka lani elementary. Uncle Norman De Los Santos is seriously the man.
-15 new people completed our first round of our essentials course. round 2 starting up next Sunday.
-Easter services were powerful…. gotta love seeing a bunch of new and old people in church. praying they become disciples.
-launched our “crazy love” series on Easter Sunday.
-looking for new offices. getting pretty close, praying for wisdom and favor.
-been seeing steady growth in our youth service. seriously love our xchange team.
-finished the first edition of gbck study journals. only folks who finish essentials get one of these….. you need to get with essentials.
-ongoing discussion on gospel centered preaching and ministry has been changing my life…
-super stoked on what God is doing at gbck. believing for some big stuff in the next few months.
crazy love
Easter is tomorrow. Believing for lives to be changed.
Launching a new series. Check out this series trailer…..
gbck download: You Are Here
Church yesterday was unreal. we kicked off our “You Are Here” series in a major way. 
Based on a fantastic book by Andy Stanley, this series is designed to help us become better decision makers. We will spend 4 weeks looking at what the bible has to say about decision making.
we got a bunch of cool stuff happening this month. here is a quick preview of what is going down:
week 1 compass: direction not intention determines destination
week 2 today matters: what i do today will affect my tomorrow
-our very own worship director TC will perform a special song driving home our main idea for this week
week3 know your role: submitting to God’s will in my life
-special testimony from an awesome couple who had to make some tough career choices
week 4 attention: what i pay attention to will direct my life.
-communion Sunday. as we gear up for Easter we pause to remember our Lord.
you seriously need to be at this series.
