Church

It's 5:30 in the morning and I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Norwalk, CA (at least I think it's Norwalk ... it's dark outside and Los Angeles all looks the same to me -- with or without sun light). Hannah and I are in Los Angeles to visit five colleges in three days. Yesterday, we spent the afternoon at Azusa Pacific. Today we'll be at Biola and Westmont. On Friday we'll conclude our whirlwind tour by visiting Hope International and Point Loma Nazarene. When we return home I will start looking for second, third, and fourth jobs in order to pay for it. As we walk around the different campuses, I can't help but remember the little baby whose crib was in the second bedroom of our 800 square foot condo in Concord, CA. My "office" became her first bedroom and my computer desk was (literally) shoved inside a closet. Once,…

Do you know how to make a cereal healthier? It's pretty simple: Change the name. Frosted Flakes were once Sugar Frosted Flakes. Sugar Smacks became Honey Smacks and then just Smacks. Corn Pops were once known as Sugar Pops. Are you noticing a trend? Rather than make the cereal more healthy, just change what it's called to a more healthy-sounding name. Then again, no one would buy Cheerios if they were called Fruit Loops Without All the Fun. The message of Ecclesiastes is to challenge the advertising of our culture; to compare it against God's truth. As Christ-followers, are call is to follow a first-century Savior who wants us to live his values in the 21st Century. That's our challenge: to effectively navigate consumerism and contentment. ********** What if cereal companies named their cereals acurately?

We have assembled a great staff at Mountainview. God has blessed us with talented, passionate men and women who are committed to him and his church. When you have a great team, it makes ministry all that much more enjoyable. Our staff meetings regularly includes times of devotion and study. When we worship and learn together, it helps us stay focused on the things that are truly important. At a staff meeting earlier this year, I took the opportunity to remind each person that they were seated at the table because we believed they were the best qualified person for the job. We have staff members who have served at larger churches, hold more degrees, and look better than their senior pastor. Even with all that talent, I told them this: We can do better. In fact, we must do better. This is not about perfection but effectiveness. It's about the continual…

"Mountainview exists to Glorify God, Grow in Jesus, and Go into the Word." In my last post, I explored what it means to be a church that glorifies God. In this post, I will tackle the second of the 3G's -- growing in Jesus. Both churches with and without a mission statement agree that spiritual growth is vital and necessary. And having a mission statement doesn't somehow make growth automatic. If it did, there ought to be more spiritually mature believers scattered across the country. When churches talk about reaching the world for Jesus, they often go the end of Matthew and what is referred to as the Great Commission: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them…