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Cross or Pole? What's at Stake?

Tiffany Harper asked me a really good question on my personal blog about the Jehovah Witness' claim that Jesus was crucified on a stake instead of a traditional cross. Is there any merit to this claim? What is the big deal? Isn't the fact that Jesus was crucified enought?

Well, this is a big question, and a tough one for me to distill and encapsulate in this one blog entry. For a good idea of what the JW's are teaching, check out this article. I'm warning you, it's really long and attempts to overwhelm you with "evidence." My quick reaction to this article? A close examination of the actual references indicated will show a real lack of diligence to quote what their reference is actually quoting. I guess they just think by adding reference material, you'll be convinced. For a briefer synopsis, click here.

Basically, here's what is at stake: the authority of biblical translation. The JW's would like for you to believe that their translation of scripture is the most accurate, and therefore, renders our translation obsolete. The tactic is simple: get you to doubt this one issue, then you will be more inclined to belive there many lies.

JW's believe that the Catholic Church is the "whore of Babylon" and that the cross is a symbol of that whore. Here's a good Catholic article that talks about that fallacy. And here's another article that succinctly puts this notion of a stake to rest.

I appreciate Tiffany's eagerness to engage the JW's and not run away from their fallacies, but to approach them head-on. This Easter, I encourage you to do the same: engage your culture and those around you with the message of the cross. Many of you are home with non-believing frineds and families and the old temptations are still there. Stand strong in the faith, and in the defence of the gospel!

For those of you away on Spring Break, you have our prayers and we look forward to your soon return!

SOCKS UPDATE (cheat report)

Ok, it has been a very very busy week at work for me. I apologize that I have not updated in a few days.

For starters, I would like to devote a few minutes to SOCKS. For those of you who have no idea what SOCKS is, let me explain.

It's like paintball's capture the flag, but instead of shooting each other with paintball guns, you throw socks duct-taped together into balls at each other. It sounds pretty lame, but it turns out to be alot of fun.

That is... if you cheat.

That's right. I'm calling our fearless leader Tim Nugent and David Caldwell to the mat for "unethical SOCKS tactics."

Here's how it went down:

Game 1: Red Team defeats Blue Team. In a outright display of courage, cunning, stealth and accuracy, the Red Team redefines the term "Shock and Awe" as they grind the blue team into the dew soaked grass of defeat.

Game 2 - 4: Realizing that they have been outmatched, outsmarted, out-maneuvered and plain ole out-played, the Blue Team decides to no longer fight a conventional war. Tim relies on his law enforcement training and brings a mag-ligth to the battlefield to locate and blind the honorable red-team member while his band of thugs swarm around the victim in a merciless onslought of laundry. David Caldwell decides that this is a good tactic, but lacks the mag light. What is his solution to this problem? A digital camera. The only difference here is that Caldwell's treachery produces evidence of his mis-deads.

Here's a typical order of events for the locate and blind method, as caught on camera (click on each to enlarge):

Step 1 - Target Acquisition -
Locate the victim lurking in the dark:


Step 2 - Pre-Emptive Flash
The victim, knowing he's been spotted, is forced to defend himself. The cheater then waits unitl the precise moment for the red-team to take aim, and then fires off his flash - blinding the red-team and destroying any vestige of night-vision that they may have developed:


Step 3: The Kill -
Of course, there is no hope for the red team. His rounds go flying off blindly while the blue team is left to gloat and take demeaning pictures of the defeated hero (Notice that the victim is surrounded by socks, having been pummeled by the horde of blue-team terrorists who lie in wait for cunning trap. It pains me to look at this picture. Where is the international outcry?)


Step 4 - Gloat -
At the end of the game, the blue team clutches their prize: smugly mugging for the camera (it really is sad that an honorable man like Austin would be found in the company of villians):



All told, it was a really fun evening. I now know, however, that the rules of engagement have been forever altered by what will go down in history as the "Treacherous blue team of 2005"

SOCKS pictures

...coming soon...

...busy day at work. Be patient! I'll get them up before midnight tonight, I promise!

Finals Week and SOCKS Weaponry

Howdy. I'm writing this as a quick note of encouragement to all of you out there struggling through finals this week.

Who am I kidding? I'm the last person you should look to for encouragement during heavy exams. If you talk to me, I'd encourage you to forget the books with one of the following responses:

"Well, if you don't know it now, you never will."
"What do you call a guy who got C's all through med school? Doctor."
"You think your employer is going to look at your GPA?"

That's right... in college I prided myself on knowing when and how to relax. For example, this Wednesday night's SOCKS tournament is a great way to blow off some finals week frustration!

Instead of our normal Thursday night meeting, we will be meeting on Wednesday night to play a variation on the paint-ball theme. Only, instead of paintballs, we will be hurling socks duct-taped together at each other.

Warning: I overheard several engineering students talking about rigging SOCKS siege weapons. I recommended a design for a hand-cranked gatling gun, but was told that an automatic pitching machine would work better. Ha... let them try it... me and Josh are bringing our potato guns (more).

Anyways, I look forward to seeing you guys on Wednesday night. This is a great opportunity to bring some friends and get them plugged into the group before the spring quarter gets underway. And no, I was just kidding. No SOCK weapons will be in play - just your throwing arm.

praise report

Howdy, folks. I apologize that I have been offline for so long with so few posts. I got called away to the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith late Thursday evening, so I was incommunicado all day Friday. The rest of the weekend was spent moving my in-laws into their new home.

This new home of theirs is no small bit of news, mind you. For several years God has seen fit to keep my father-in-law unemployed. They have suffered some serious financial setbacks as a result, culmintaing about 9 months ago in the loss of their home.

For the past 9 months they have lived in a used RV at a park in Castaic. They care for my little niece and the RV park was no place for her to grow up. We have been praying that God would provide them a perfect spot and, well, He has.

It was so great to finally sit down at their table with them and rejoice in God's continued sustaining faithfulness in their lives. This weekend stands as a strong reminder to me that God will always provide for the needs of His children.

What are your needs? How can we pray for you and rejoice in the answers to prayer in your life? Comment below, and don't hesitate to join the online boards to discuss prayer requests, sermons, etc...

Endurance and Discipline

I have no idea who is teaching tonight, but I assume it will be either Josh or Billy-Dave (who I have taken to calling William for reasons of my own insane amusement). I have no idea how much of Hebrews 12 they plan on covering, but I snuck a peek at the passage today to prepare my thinking for tonight's lesson and discussion.

Last week, Josh taught on the nature of sin, and ways to avoid it (the flee principle and scripture memorization). One of the things Josh said was that there comes a point in the Christian's walk where sin becomes flat-out willful. There comes a time in every believer’s life where we can no longer claim ignorance about certain sins, but rather, we flat out choose to disobey the Holy Spirit and God’s Word.

Verse 3 and 4 of this passage picks up on this concept a bit further. The writer reminds us that Jesus endured at the hands of sinners so that we can continue to run the race with endurance. We must not grow faint or weary! We must continually strive for personal holiness.

The text reads, "In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." (ESV) This verse has some interesting hidden implications which would take a whole lesson (or blog entry) to fully unravel, but the word that speaks the loudest to me is "yet".

Christ’s' definition of my endurance, and His vision for my commitment to holiness includes me be willing to shed blood for the sake of personal piety. The word "yet" assumes that this level of commitment is in my future. Frankly, I can’t wait – I’m tired of my willing attitude towards sin.

So, what is God’s plan for me to get there? Discipline.

This is one passage of the scripture that I like to skip over because I don’t like discipline. What’s worse, I don’t like surrendering myself to God’s discipline. Why not? Well… because it usually hurts. I can think of several times where I have been very clearly disciplined by the Lord, and they each involved instances where things that I loved (idolized in fact… that was part of the problem) were irreplaceably removed from my life.

Each time, my spiritual growth was hindered to the point of ineffectiveness until God chose to prove His love and discipline me. Each time the discipline hurt. However, during every one of these pivotal growing experiences in my spiritual walk, God’s comfort and His love consumed and comforted me.

During one particularly distressing period in my life, as the consequences for my sin were almost too great to bear, the Lord led me to Lamentations 3. This passage is required reading for anyone who is under the weight of their sin and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. In fact, stop reading this blog and read this passage right now (but don’t forget to come back when you’re done!).

My heart broke as I read Jeremiah’s description of being hunted and afflicted by God. Verse 21, however, broke upon me like sunrise. The remainder of the passage reminded me of God’s faithfulness and His love for me. When I read verse 31 – 33, I knew that God’s discipline was just, true, compassionate and loving.

For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.

God requires and expects certain things from His children (just as I expect certain behavior from my kids) and one of those is endurance in the race and freedom from sin. God’s discipline is the method that He chooses to bring about our endurance. Praise God that He does not delight in our affliction, but rather lovingly reproves and corrects us as a father to his son.

Scott and Karen Morton

Karen & Scott Morton, I just thought you should be able to get a glimpse of the new blogger

Prayer precedes Words

Well here we go, my inaugural attempt at the world of blogging! The first hurdle I had to clear was 'Do I have anything to say worthy of posting??' I guess you will ultimately be the judge of that!
I've been going back through the book 'Life Together' by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Pastor Tim graciously gave the elder board this book at our last pastor/elder retreat, and I have been greatly challenged by his thoughts on Christian community. In the very first chapter (pg.36) Bonhoeffer contrasts human love with spiritual love in the context of the Christian community and says:
'Thus this spiritual love will speak to Christ about a brother more than to a brother about Christ. It knows that the most direct way to others is always through prayer to Christ and that love of others is wholly dependent upon the truth in Christ.'
How often are we guilty of going to our brother and sharing with them the Christ that they need or even worse sharing the Christ we think we have?! We often forget that the most powerful tool God puts into our hand is prayer!

The opportunity of a lifetime - go to Israel THIS FALL!

Guys, I have an amazing opportunity that I’m about to share with you. I can not overstate how amazing it is that opportunity is even presenting itself at this point.

As some of you may know, my wife and I spent an entire college semester in Israel studying. It was an amazing experience – one that has forever changed our lives. And now, that experience could be yours as well.

The program is through The Master’s College’s IBEX program. You don’t need to be a current student of Master’s to qualify, but there is an application process that involves enrollment in The Master’s College for the one semester that you would be in Israel. During my trip, I excavated Hezekiah’s Tunnel and rode camels with students from Azusa and Biola.

The experience is fun, informative and life changing. If you don’t believe me, click here to see images from the current semester. If you want to know more reasons why you should go at all, click here.

Folks, this opportunity will be very unlikely to be around for long. Act quick. If you have more questions or you want to get the ball rolling, you can email me or contact the IBEX office.

While we’re at it, check out this website. It is built by one of the professors, and you can buy CD’s with some of the most amazing images from Israel available – anywhere. Use them for pleasure or for study. They’re great (and I don’t get a kick-back in sales… although that’s not a bad idea).

Unity (The importance of doctrine)

Last night I had a wonderful conversation with my Growth Group about a lot of hot issues (theistic evolution, Catholicism, etc...). It was the kind of conversation that could have quickly gone south, spiraling into bitter feelings, suspicion and hostility. However, it turned into an amazing opportunity for the Lord to speak to us on the doctrine of unity from Ephesians 4.

The doctrine of unity found in Ephesians 4:11-16 is interesting, because it is the backbone to the doctrine of doctrine itself! The relevance of doctrine to the church is of the utmost importance. The very fibers of our love towards one another depend on unity, and without commonality in truth, our life together can not exist.

But I am not speaking of the kind of unity that is often preached today - the message of "let's agree to disagree." The unity that Christ calls us to is one founded in truth.

According to Ephesians 4, Christ gave men the following gifts: apostles, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc... so that we might attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph.4:13, ESV).

God accomplishes His unity in us through these men (teachers, pastors, etc.) in a two step process: the equipping of the saints for ministry and the building up the body of Christ.

Both of these aspects require knowledge, understanding (Romans 15:14) and sound doctrine. Our unity and "completeness in Christ" go hand in hand with the pursuit of sound doctrine and truth (Colossians 2:2). We are made mature by the warnings and teaching of truth (Colossians 1:28). It is amazing how every time unity is brought up in the Bible, the reader doesn't have far to look to find words like "wisdom, knowledge, understanding or truth."

In our Growth Group discussion, the Lord used my studying of this passage to bring the following truth to mind: Christians should not get hung up on the scores of hot-topic issues that permeate our generation. Rather, we should get hung up on the matters of the heart.

If a brother holds a view that I would disagree with, why not seek to find which of us is not putting their faith in Scripture?

When we look at our issues through this type of lens, our hearts will be compelled to build one another up in the gospel - strengthening one another's faith and reliance on God's word. This isn't intellectual suicide for the modern thinker, but rather an exercise in faith for the weaker vessel.

My encouragement is this: do not to let these issues slide in the name of "love overlooking a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). But rather, let's use this love to overlook the issue and look straight at the heart.

Three Responses to the Call of God

I took a page out of Pastor Tim's book in tackling such a large text today. All told, I still think he had me beat by six in the total number of verses covered in one sermon.

I apologize that this entry is so long, but I'm putting the meat of today's lesson on this site in case you missed it this morning (we don't have the luxury of mp3 recordings). If you’re pressed for time, just check out the text in bold for the outline.

I have said it before: Acts is a book of history - specifically detailing the story of how Jesus fulfills His promise and builds His church. It is the unique story of the unique ministry of the Holy Spirit as the church of God was brought into existence. While Acts is not a book of doctrine, we can, at times, find illustrations to doctrine. This is what we did today as we examined three responses to the call of God.

God's Call to Saul (God's Call to Faith)

In the dialogue between God and Saul on the road to Damascus, we see an example of Man's rejection and God's sovereign intervention. Saul's lifetime of rejection – and even zealous hatred of Christ is instantly terminated by God’s relentless Grace on the road to Damascus.

In this we see evidence of the following principles of God's Grace:

God's Grace is Irresistible - (Acts 9:5-6, 15-16; Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1: 3-6, 11, 2:8-10)
You can not find a candidate in all of scripture of someone more darkened in their thinking and in greater enmity towards God. And yet Christ met Saul on the road to Damascus, changing his life forever. In fact, God says that "he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." (ESV)

God's Grace Changes Everything - (Acts 9:6, 18-22) Saul originally went to Damascus with his own plan - to persecute believers. However, he ended up there because of God’s command -for the purpose of proclaiming the name of Christ, and to suffer for His sake.

God’s Grace is Persistent - (Acts 9:5) Some texts read "It is hard for you to kick against the goads." This is an indication that God's Spirit had been working in the heart of Saul, with Saul resisting like a beast of burden to the goading of the driver. Saul's resistance was strong, and, like all of us, his capacity to understand the gospel was missing because of the totality of his darkened mind. (Romans 1:21, Jeremiah 17:9-10). God's Grace, however, is stronger than our own rebellion.

God's Grace is Free, but it Costs us Everything - (Ephesians 2:8-10) God’s grace is a free gift to us, and it is not given because of our works. Rather, it is given to us so that we will perform God’s works. We are His worksmanship, and bought with a price. In Acts 9:16 we see that Saul has been, from the beginning, marked for suffering for the cause of Christ. All of Acts is a testimony to this, from floggings, stonings, imprisonment, etc...

God's Call to Ananias (God's Call to Obey)

In this section, we looked at man's lack of faith, and God's enduring promises. Scripture does not condemn Ananias for His response to God's command, so I am not one to pass judgement, but it does remind us of the examples of the disciples' faithlessness in Matthew 8:23-27. God’s direction to Ananias was very clear and precise, and yet it seems Ananias’ response assumes that God is not aware of the nature of His own request.

God does not respond to Ananias’ fear, but rather to his lack of faith. God re-affirms the fact that He is sovereign, and that He has a perfect plan which involves Saul.

God’s faithfulness is greater than our faithlessness – (Deuteronomy 7:9; 2 Timothy 2:13; Psalm 78, 90,136).

God’s Call to Barnabas (The whispering of the shepherd)

It is more difficult to draw comparisons between God’s interaction with Saul and Ananias and God’s interaction with Barnabas for obvious reasons: God’s direction to Barnabas is not recorded in scripture. However, the absence of any dialogue only emphasizes the point.

Barnabas’ spirit was in tune with the Holy Spirit, so that when the time came, he was bold and defended Saul in the presence of the Jerusalem disciples.

Barnabas didn’t necessarily vouch for Saul, but rather for the work of the Lord in Saul’s life. Barnabas did not fear staking his reputation on the name of Saul, but, rather, he saw intuitively what Ananias had to be told – that God has a plan and it involves Saul.

Scripture records another instance where Barnabas refuses to give up on God’s redemptive process in another man. In Acts 15:36-51, he defends John Mark while Paul himself questions another man’s usefulness to God.

Application:

Those of us today are in one of these three camps. We are either like Saul – running from God and in enmity towards him; Ananias – willing to obey, yet hindered by fear, doubt or sin; or Barnabas – walking rightly with the Lord, eager and willing to place our trust in His sovereign plan regardless of the cost.

If you are like Saul, running from God and unwilling to recognize the totality of your sinfulness, today is the day of salvation. Don’t wait until God uses the tragedies of life to get your attention. But rather, seek Him today so that when those tragedies come, you can be like Barnabas and trust in His sovereign plan. The same exhortation applies to those of you who may be believers and yet are fighting the call of God in your life.

If you are like Ananias, what is it that God is asking you to do? Why are you hesitant to obey? Do not be so arrogant as to think that your fears and inhibitions are greater than God’s redemptive purpose. God will work on this earth, and He is asking you to be a part of the team. Now is the time to huddle-up, get your head in the game, and do what he asks. Learn to listen to His voice and obey without question.

If you are like Barnabas, then that is great. You have achieved a status that I only attain for the briefest moments in my spiritual walk. Always be listening, ready to do His will. Just because you have been stretched and proven yourself faithful in the past, do not get too comfortable. God is in the business of growing and pruning us so that we can be more and more conformed into the image of Christ.

Sin as a Mud-puddle

On Thursday night, Josh's lesson was about Hebrews 12:1-2, and how the author encourages us to lay aside every sin that ensnares us. We talked about some practical, biblical ways to accomplish that, as well as having a discussion on the general nature of sin.

(By the way, remember that your memorization / meditation verses for this passage are 2 Timothy 2:22 and Psalm 119:9-16)

I was thinking about the general nature of sin today as I played with my little 3 year old at the park. Eventually, after interest in all the parent-sanctioned playground toys began to wane, Zak found his way over to the mud-puddle. As he approached it (being sternly warned by me), I was fascinated to see how his growing interest and involvement with the mud-puddle began to mirror my own dallying with sin.

First step: walk blatantly through the mud-puddle with non-puddle approved shoes, followed by instantly looking in my direction (and receiving) admonishment.

Second step: "Oh... I'm just throwing the leaves and sticks into the puddle... Look! They float!"

Third step: Using one of the larger sticks to just poke at the puddle from a distance, and eventually using the stick to flick the mud surrounding the puddle into the water. (By the way, this looked like fun, but I was too sanctimonious to participate).

Fourth step: Zak is now squatting perilously over the mud - bottom inches from wet, slimy peril, using his fingers to dally in the filth. Eventually, balance is lost and regained by putting the hand down firmly into the sludge. (Interesting: a hypocritical sense of "cleanliness" is still clung to at this point. The problem? Zak chooses to rinse his hand in water from the mud puddle! Talk about having the appearance of cleanliness (godliness) but denying its power!)

Fifth step: This one was inevitable. After losing balance a few more times and catching himself with his hand, he finally goes down completely: soaking the seat of the britches and leaving the sinner... er... child with the feeling of, "well... I'm down here in the filth anyway; I might as well have some fun!).

Romans 1:18-32 talks about how we get ourselves ankle deep in the mud of sin. After constant rejection of God, God finally gives us over to full pig status. Of course, in Zak's case, I decided that my personal object lesson had gone on long enough, so I pulled him out and gave him a proper cleaning.

I couldn't help thinking that if Zak was meditating on his father's words, and delighting in the plan that I had for him (more merry-go-round time, or something) he wouldn't have been interested in the mud. (Psalms 119:9-16)

And if he had heeded my earliest advice and ran past the mud puddle and straight to the merry-go-round, we would have never even needed to worry about microbes found in standing water. (2 Timothy 2:22)

Message Boards, anyone?

Hey guys,

I've launched a message board forum so that discussions about the happenin's at The Source can be discussed at length. You will see a link to it permanently on the right side of this blog, but you can also get to it by clicking here.

I think this will be a good tool to discuss lessons, Pastor Tim's sermons, and share prayer requests.

I encourage you to use it, and I also encourage you to give me some feedback. If the service I'm using isn't any good and would prevent you from using it, please let me know. I think it could be a great way to engage each other and promote community - but it has to work!

Also, there is a brief registration process involved... it's not too invasive, so don't let it scare you off.

If it gets popular, who knows? I may spend some money to get the ad-free version.

Instructions on how to become a contributing member to this blog.

I announced the creation of this web log for the Source last night. I mentioned that I wanted this to be a team blog, where the leaders and student leaders can leave posts and where everyone can participate in the comments.

If you would like to be able to post articles and entries on this blog, then you need to contact me and give me your email address. Once I have that, I can send out invitations with instructions on how to become a part of the admin group for this thing. My email address is in my profile section.

I was excited to see how many people thought this whole blogging idea is a good one. I look forward to using it as tool to continue to build our community.

Taskforce Ronin - Operation Colored-Pencils

Ok, I don't know if this mission had an official operational code name, but it is neat to see this video (25MB) from a co-worker who is in northern Iraq right now.

The company I work for, CafeFX, is one of the companies that is supporting this effort. Me and one of my co-workers stuffed box after box with plastic bags full of school supplies. When I watched this video it nearly brought me to tears. Looking into all those brown eyes I couldn't help but think about my own blue-eyed boys.

We are truly blessed to live in America. But it isn't enough to be blessed and live here. We need to reach out and help - specifically as the body of Christ.

I was reminded of the missions conference that was taking place this week. I was unable to attend any of the sessions, but I did go to the Sunday night dinner. Jacquelyn and I were blessed and encouraged by the work of Lifewater. It is a ministry that we ar going to commit to prayer.

Why College Students are Important to Grace Church

I couldn't think of a better way to kick-off this blog than a personal treatise on why college students are important to Grace Church. Many ministries exist for the express purpose of reaching college students: Navigators, Campus Crusade for Christ, and many others. While each of these ministries do an exceptional job of achieving their stated vision, it is important to remember that these ministries are not the church. They are para-church organizations, and it is the Church that Jesus has promised to defend, protect, cherish and use as the tool for accomplishing His Master Plan.

I have been doing a lot of new thinking about the role of The Source, here at Grace Church. It is my personal opinion that college ministry is one for which God has specifically positioned our church, and it is within the walls of the college ministry that the vision and mission of our church can be immediately applied in all its facets. Furthermore, it is an extension of our biblical role as the body of Christ.

By ministering to college students, we fulfill the church's vision.

Grace Church’s vision is to see lives, families, communities and the world transformed by the Gospel. By ministering to a college student, you can reach all of these demographics at once. We can be a part in changing their lives forever, and then they go home to their families on Holidays and the effect of our ministry can be felt there. After they graduate, these students will live in communities and hopefully begin to live out the life-long principles that they have learned while in our flock. Many students will have international businesses, or more directly, be studying in our midst from over-seas. Each point of contact that these students make as they go out into the world is a direct point of contact to Grace Church.

By ministering to college students, we are fulfilling our biblical obligation as the body of Christ.

The body of Christ exists in such a fashion that makes the life of each individual believer extremely important. Romans 12:4-6 says "For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them..."

It is misguided, at best, for us to think that the college students do not need the support of the body at Grace. And it is, at best, arrogant to think that our church does not need them. I Corinthinas 12:14 - 20 highlights the error of thinking that we can do without another member of our body.

Grace Church in SLO has the unique opportunity (and responsibility) to reach out to these students and provide for them a church family that they can call home. College is an important time for the development and cementing of life-long habits and disciplines, and it is our goal at The Source to fulfill the role of the church in these students’ lives.

So, if you are a college student, and you are reading this, here's my encouragement: join a Growth Group, volunteer for ministry, sign-up for a summer missions trip... get involved! The church needs you!

If you are a regular attendee of Grace Church, here's my encouragement to you: join a Growth Group with college students in it. Take a college student out to lunch (they will never turn down food). Join our ministry team and reach out to students who are looking for people who are living on the other side of the diploma. Discipleship begins with you, but it could end with reaching the world with the Gospel of Christ.

Hey... good idea, Pastor Tim!

Howdy folks,

I'm not sure that this idea is going to fly, but why not give it a shot? I've been monitoring Pastor Tim's blog since it's beginning (like I'm the police or something), and I can't help but think how wonderful an idea it would be for The Source to follow his leadership.

It is my hope that this will be a little online hub for all of the students who attend the Grace Church, SLO College group. I'm going to try to figure out what I need to do to get the leadership of the Source plugged in and able to post.

Check back here often, as I hope to have the teachers post pre and post thoughts on our lessons and discussions. Also, in due time, the student leadership will be able to communicate to you directily via this web log.

Well... here goes nothing!