Filed under: Finding God in the Ordinary | Tags: church, entertainment, sports
Nothing beats a free night out. Leslie and I got to go to the Angel game tonight for free (they won!), where we parked for free (it was a nice night for a walk) and saw a really cool firework show for free (better than Disneyland).
When things are free, they always seem just a little better. I think all the expectations get lowered and you’re just able to enjoy yourself a little more. In fact, I’ve been to three Angel games this year. All of them free. I’m not sure I would even go to an Angel game if I had to pay for it. It makes me wonder if we should find a way to make as many events as possible that we do as a church – free.
Filed under: Finding God in the Ordinary | Tags: Calvary, church, communications, faith, leadership, prayer, production, work
I’ve always been a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. I’m very comfortable and fairly confident leading from the back of the room – even if it’s a very big room, a big production or a big project. Over the last couple weeks I have found myself leading from up front. I guess you could call it growth, or at least a shift of sorts.
First, I got to pray with a family from our church during a recent child dedication time. That was an incredible priviledge in a lot of ways to be a part of such a special moment in that family’s life.
The next night, we had an event at Calvary that we called The STUDIO. It was a night designed to cultivate creativity and community within our worship and creative arts volunteers. I helped Nicole lead the ice-breaker/team-building game, emceed the entire awards part of the evening, and unfolded the next couple of teaching series to begin gathering creative ideas from our volunteers. It was a nice sized baby step as there was just under 100 people, but it still felt like a big event.
The very next morning in our service planning meeting, I was once again nominated to do the current highlights (our term for “announcements”) from the pulpit in both Sunday morning services. I’ve been asked to do it about 20 times before over the last six months since I took on my current role and I’ve always laughed it off and refused to go there. I’m not sure why, but this time I said yes.
So, I found myself this last Sunday up in front of hundreds of people stringing together words that hopefully formed some cohesive thoughts about what’s going on at Calvary. I had no idea that I would be struck with a sudden bout of parkinsons. My hand wouldn’t stop shaking. My vision narrowed and I couldn’t get my eyes to focus on any one thing for more than a nano-second. My voice suddenly had a mild quiver. I think Matt Doan, a fellow Calvary Pastor, summed it up when he told me afterward that you only have about 10% of your usual brain capacity as soon as you get in front of a large group of people for the first time. That’s exactly what it felt like.
I don’t know how much more I’ll find myself leading from up front, but I want to be willing to be used by God wherever He want me. Do you have a familiar area of comfort that God is growing you out of, or at least shifting you? Are you willing to follow His lead if He calls you to something new?
I picked up my new glasses last night. They’re taking a while to get used to. For the first time in my life, I went with a half-rim design. Stylistically, it’s a big change from what I’ve worn ever since I first started wearing glasses in college.
I think I can see clearly through them, but then at some points today it has seemed like everything is just a bit funky. Seeing everything through a different set of lenses, no matter how precise they supposedly are, still takes some getting used to. Our eyesight is so crucial, yet how often do we take it for granted. For me, my glasses are crucial. Without them – I just see big, colorful, blurry blobs. With them, I can see 20/20.
It reminds me of one of my favorite verses in I Corinthians 13 (The Message), ““We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.”
What an amazing promise and an incredible challenge to carry on until that day when we’ll finally see it all as it really is.
Filed under: Ordinary Life | Tags: Calvary, church, concerts, entertainment, ministry, music
We are going to have an amazing concert at Calvary this Sunday night. Tyrone Wells, Trevor Davis and Erika Soto will be performing. And it’s only $10. It’s called Concert for a Cause – in support of Project Hangout, a local outreach organization. It’s on the patio, so if you can make it plan on bringing a beach chair and a picnic dinner. You can find out more at www.calvarylife.org/concert
Filed under: Ordinary Life | Tags: Family, health, Leslie, politics, sports, tv
Some kind of stomach bug hit me hard on Friday night. I spent most of the weekend in various states of duress, with different parts of my body taking turns malfunctioning.
So, I spent all day Saturday layed out watching the Olympics, football, and the Civil Forum at Saddleback. The Olympics were good when filtered and fast-forwarded using TiVo. The Charger’s game was horrible as none of the starters played. The Forum with Obama and McCain was fascinating. It was so well done. I thought they both did an amazing job of presenting their point of view and for the first time I feel like I actually know where they stand on some key issues. Why can’t reporters be as good as Warren at asking simple, yet challenging questions?
I thought I was feeling better on Sunday and didn’t want to miss church. Met up with the family afterwards for lunch and everything seemed to be feeling better. Then, I spent the evening at Corona Del Mar helping video Calvary’s beach baptisms. It was a great time with just over 50 people taking the plunge. At about an hour in though, I had to make an emergency exit as the bug came back.
I’m taking it easy this morning, trying to make sure I’m recovered before our appreciation event tonight for all of Calvary’s worship and creative arts volunteers called The Studio. I have to be up front a few times throughout the night, which won’t be very easy if my stomach is rolling in pain.
I have to say that the main reason I was able to gut it out over the last few days is because of my amazing wife Leslie. She has gotten me drugs and made me soup and jello and allowed me to just lay around and moan. I can’t say enough good things about how great she is.
Filed under: Extraordinary Life | Tags: entertainment, Family, food, Football, fun, life, travel, vacation
After wrapping up VBS last week at Calvary, I got to follow it up with a great weekend away. Leslie and I headed out first thing Saturday morning for San Diego.
We met up in Old Town with my brother Ty and his wife Shelley and our favorite nephew Connor, who had already been down in SD for a few days on vacation. From there we headed over to the harbor to go on a SEAL Tour. It’s one of these huge open-air bus/trucks that drive you through the city and then drives right into the water and becomes a boat to take you around the harbor. Our tour guide was really funny. The whole experience was like one big smile. (even though in the photo below, they’re both too busy looking cool bother with smiling)
After that we grabbed some good grub at Buster’s Beach House and Long Board Bar. The rest of the fam headed back to the OC and we spent the afternoon shopping and chillaxing (that’s a word our tour guide used, and Leslie immediately knew I wouldn’t forget it.)
At about 5 pm we got on the Green Line train from Old Town to …. Qualcomm Stadium! It was the very first game of the preseason with the Chargers playing the Cowboys. It was my first time going to an NFL game. We got there almost 2 hours before game time to take in all the pregame warm ups and see all the sites we could. Leslie had gotten us tickets as a gift for our anniversary back in July.
Sunday was perhaps the most relaxing day I’ve had all year. I felt a little twinge of loss for missing out on the big One Service we had at Calvary on Sunday to close out VBS. But, that feeling drifted away as I listened to the breeze blowing through the giant pine trees around the pool I was floating in.
We were able to extend the weekend into Monday as we celebrated Leslie’s grandma TooToo’s 90th birthday. Her family all got together in Laguna at Las Brisas for brunch. We just hung out all day with her and wrapped it up with dinner at Mike’s in Whittier. It was like a perfect Toot day and great way to end the weekend.
All week, my mornings have been devoured by our annual VBS program. It’s a monster sized production. There are about a dozen guys on crew helping with all the tech behind the scenes. There are nearly 500 total volunteers spread out over about 10 acres, trying to keep up with nearly 1000 kids. It’s a little bit mind-numbing at times. This morning was shaky, as we didn’t get all the systems fully online until about 15 minutes after doors had opened, and only a couple minutes before the band started the first song of the morning.
One of the best parts of each day has been going out to lunch afterwards. On average, there have been about 15 people each day. Monday was Johnny’s Burger, Tuesday was Jalapenos , and today was Waikiki Hawaiin Grill – all local Tustin joints. It’s been a great way to unwind and connect with other people.
It feels good to be at the half way point of the week. So far, 70 children have expressed a new faith in Jesus Christ. Just imagine what the next few days will bring.
Be sure to check out all of the daily updates and photos on the VBS website at www.calvarylife.org/vbs
Filed under: Extraordinary Life | Tags: Calvary, church, creativity, production
7 days x ( 1000 kids + 500 volunteers+3 Mad Scientists) = VBS 2008
We’ve been preparing at Calvary for the epic awesomeness that is VBS. This year we’re doing the Power Lab with all sorts of cool gadgets, trippy lighting, colorful orbs, and explosive experiments. Matt Davis is the creative genius who oversees all this chaos.
These three mad scientists will be teaching the kids about the power of Jesus all week. We’ve got a couple of segue scooters for them to get around on and plenty of stuff for them to blow up. Should be a lot of fun. We’ve had a great crew pulling together video segments about them for each day. There’s even a special segment we’ll show on Wednesday night when Calvary takes over the Discover Science Center.
Of course, one of the coolest things so far was getting a Delorean – tricked out with all the Back to the Future props – into the lobby of the Worship Center. Ryan Roehl, our multi-talented tech guy at Calvary, engineered a ramp so it could drive straight through the center doors with about an inch to spare on each side. Thanks to Victor for the photos.
It’s quite a production, but totally worth it when you see how huge of an impact this one week has on so many people’s lives. I’m glad that I get to help. If you’re free next week – it’s not to late to sign up…
