Where's my Blog?

Test. Test. Here Blog, Here Blog, come hear boy. Blog, is that you? Oh there you are. Why did you run away like that? You were gone for so long I thought I'd lost you. Well, I'm glad you're alive and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

2009 Taco Tuesday Wipeout Contest

Taco Tuesday '09 is over and the big moment is finally here, it is time to vote on the best wipeout of the season. We've narrowed the field to 6 finalists. Your job is to watch the video and then vote at the poll on the right of the screen. Vote just once please. Polls close September 5th. The big winner will be announced in Threshold on Sunday September 6th and be awarded their 4 pole position race tickets.

That's the kind of Church I want to be a part of...

On Saturday May 30, a small army from our church amassed to partner up with Canyon Lake Little League in putting on their closing day carnival.

Why did we do this event? It pretty simple for me. I believe God wants the church to be a tangible expression of his goodness in the world. So, this day was an opportunity to express God’s love for kids and heart for fun in a tangible way by serving our community’s families and providing a super cool event for kids. I think it turned out awesome! Hundreds of kids and their families played all day long on various jumpers, water slides and carnival games, climaxing with kids dancing, screaming and singing along to a sick concert by TC and the Threshold band (the free candy thrown from the stage helped too).

I just have to say that I was super proud to be a part of CLCC this day. How many churches do this kind of thing, for free, with no strings attached? How many churches have earned enough trust to get invited by a public organization to participate in their very important grand finale event? How many church worship bands play the headlining entertainment at a major public community event? It’s my job to spend time on things like this, but for the rest of you, there are a lot of things you can do with your Saturday other than serving the community, but YOU made it happen. All in all, more than 65 of you from CLCC spent most of your Saturday to help with setting up, cleaning up, spinning cotton candy sticks, chasing down balls from the games, bagging the much prized new pet gold fish, painting faces, making water balloons, cheering for big jumps down the water slide, and on and on with more than 15 games and jumpers.

So, thank you for wanting to be a body of people that make a positive difference in our community and world. This was just one day and just one way, but one that showed me the kind of church that I want to be a part of.

God is alive in their lives

For the two weeks prior to Mother’s Day, instead of me preaching in Threshold, we’ve had a few people from our church family share some of their story about what God has done and is doing in their life. I felt these were holy moments and I want to take just a couple minutes to share why.

Jim Downey shared an amazing story of how after the tragic passing of his young son in a motorcycle accident God gave them the strength to get through it. Jim and his family had ample reason in the eyes of many to curse God, turn to the bottle, turn on each other, or find any number of ways to numb the pain. But they took one of the most courageous routes possible, they said “we’re going deep with God.” And through that choice, not that the road has been easy, they have emerged as people who, like Abraham, can call God their “friend.” And there isn’t anything better in life than to actually experience life with God. For that, they are an inspiration to all of us as we face choices each day whether to numb our pain or go deep with God.

Tom and Marianne Segobia gave a daringly vulnerable account of their difficult childhoods and how they brought all of that brokenness into their relationship with each other and repeated the painful cycles of brokenness until something happened: Jesus! Normally that sounds like a cheesy Sunday school answer, but when it comes in the context of alcoholism, violence, abuse and adultery and then you hear the incredible story of how surrendering their lives to Jesus has broken chains of addiction, brought freedom from pain and fears and brought reconciliation and healing to a marriage, suddenly the answer “Jesus” is not cheesy at all, but rather, like Jim’s story, inspiring to all of us to bring our junk to Jesus so he can be the healer he wants to be.

There is a lot of stuff these days that passes for Christianity but I felt in these talks Jesus would smile at what he saw and heard. They displayed an authentic walk with God that was honest about their struggles and didn’t pretend to have it all together; they asked the Savior to save them. He did and He is. He is strengthening and healing them in a tangible way that shows God is real and alive and can transform our lives if we stick near to him.

To hear either one of their stories, go to www.whatisthreshold.com and click on “podcasts.”

Out in the Community at Canyon Lake Middle School

Awesome day yesterday teaming up with TC to do an assembly (6 periods, 1200+ kids total) for the Canyon Lake Middle School about achieving their dreams in life. TC rocked the music (along with Chadd and Rhys) and shared some of his personal story and insights, and I yacked about how to make their dreams a reality. The kids seemed really into it, based on their decently good attention for 45 minutes (which is always a challenge for a Jr. High crowd), their participation in the activities, the questions and comments afterwards and the requests for “autographs”, though I think that was mostly due to the mysterious persona of TC and the band in rockstar garb.

Two things mainly come to mind about yesterday.

One is that I was stoked with the synergy between TC and I. The kids love the “Rockstar” image and his great music and TC does a great job of using that platform to get across a good message. I combined the use of a funny movie clip, an audience participation activity, a video of some CLMS kids about their own dreams, interactive questions about current pop-culture favorites, and some high-energy motivational speech kind of stuff. We brainstormed together on the theme and flow of the day and then each let loose in our own area of strength/giftedness. A good team is hard to come by, so I feel blessed to partner up with my bro TC for stuff like this. (A shout out to Chaddelicious and Puff Webster for their work in the band, and RCG Swanson for his editing and camera work and Ben O’shea on camera. Awesome teamwork gents!)

The second is that I count it a major privilege to be there. One of my passions as a person and a pastor is for Christians and the Church to earn a reputation in the community as people who love, serve, enrich and make a positive impact on the place they live. So to be there yesterday pumping up 1200 kids to work hard in school and chase their dreams so they can make a positive difference in the world is a little bit of a dream become a reality for me. Yesterday we began a relationship with the school administration that I see as a partnership for the future of our community’s kids. The kids are the future leaders of our world so to partner with the CLMS principle and teachers to be a part of developing them into strong leaders is an awesome privilege and I look forward to this partnership expanding in the future.

Embryonic thoughts on Money

First of all, I’ve heard that some of you have found it hard to leave a comment. So, this weekend in Threshold we are going to explain a couple easy ways to do that.

Also, just so you all know, I’m planning on doing a new blog entry every Monday, so you can count on that (and feel free to get on my case if I don’t). And I’ll do a new quiz/poll every few weeks, with the results/answer posted when the poll closes.


Ok, so for a blog…
Last weekend in Threshold we talked about money. As I shared then its not a topic that is comfortable for me to talk about because I feel like there’s some pretty heavy baggage when it comes to preachers talking about money. And rightly so, since I think there has been straight up abuse of power and manipulation by Christian leaders, and I’ve experienced some of it myself.

With all of that aside I was glad that last weekend we got some good stuff out on the table, mainly answering a BIG question about money: WHOSE IS IT? We saw Jesus paint a picture through the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) that everything (including money) belongs to God and he has made us trustees of His resources in order that we may experience his Kingdom in our lives and further His Kingdom in the world around us.

This is a radical idea to me. I’m wrestling with what this will look like. It is a 180% shift from what everything around us in our culture teaches us. From “its MINE”, to “its HIS” has massive implications. Every purchase becomes a spiritual activity because we are saying it is how God would use his money (that’s what trustees do right, they act on behalf of the owner).

This feels a bit overwhelming to me, on the other hand its exciting when I notice that the root of the word Trustee is TRUST. God trusts us enough to give us the chance to make a contribution to the bringing of his will into the world through the way I spend money. That’s a pretty cool thought. He trusts us enough to play an important role in His plan.

Yet, if this is going to mean anything it has to do something practical in my life. I know that for me one thing the idea of being a Trustee of God’s stuff has got me amped to do is to keep better track of what I’m spending. If I don’t keep track, money has a way of just disappearing and then there is really no way to decide if it’s a good decision for God’s stuff or not, but as I keep better track through a categorized budget I can see what is going on and thus make adjustments we (Dawn and I) feel led to.

But this doesn’t make it worry free, even today Dawn and I argued for like an hour about money stuff, but after we kissed and made up, I still felt like its something worth making the effort to get good at, because as Jesus said, a lot is on line when it comes to money.

What about u? How does the idea of Trustee land on you? How is God challenging you practically?

Blogosphere Intro

If you've stumbled upon this blog then you have probably discovered that we just launched our Threshold website and the Threshold online social network. Good times ahead. So here's my first blog.

One of the things that I’ve always loved about Threshold, a core value that was in place far before I had ever heard of Threshold, is that everyone has unique gifts and talents to bring to the table, everyone has a valuable contribution to make to this world, everyone plays a crucial part in us becoming the people God created us to be. So with that in mind, let’s start off the Threshold blog by hearing from YOU! Why is Threshold significant to you? What has God done in you through Threshold? Why are you part of Threshold?

Answer 1 or all, in a few words or few sentances. Let the voices of Threshold be heard!