really big fingerprints

In Honor of My Many Mom's.

2011-05-07T17:51:00.000-07:00

I've had a lot of "mothers" in my life. My biological mom, my adoptive mom and quite a few substitute "mothers" in between including the years my Dad played Mr. Mom. I wanted to thank and honor them this Mothers Day.
Jesus (the one in the bible not my neighbor across the street) once said that "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." It seems to me this is the ultimate description of what mothers do. They lay down their dreams, desires, comforts, restful nights, etc. in order to give life to, provide and care for, guide and love their children. They give of themselves for us.
My birth mom epitomized this spirit.
She was diagnosed with cancer at the same time she found out she was pregnant with me. Her doctors told she and my Dad her best hope to survive this disease was to have an abortion. They were told there was little chance that I would survive the pregnancy wether they treated her disease aggressively or not at all, I would either succumb to the cancer or to the cancer treatment. She and my father made what had to be the hardest decision of their young lives, they decided to keep me and told the doctors to do what they could to fight the cancer while protecting my tiny life.
"Greater love has no one than this..."
It didn't matter that the Dr's told her there was little chance of my survival or health and great peril for her. My mom decided to put her life on the line to protect mine.
My mom Vanita Kay Barrows/Colaw did what mothers do, she laid down her life. Vanita died before my first birthday. During Vanita's illness and in the following years a whole lot of "mothers" came through my life. Aunts, grandmas and family friends jumped in and helped my dad. Feeding, changing diapers and caring for me while dad was at work or with my mom at the hospital. I wish I could recognize you all by name but I'm sure I would leave someone out (please give me a break I was a baby). Each of these women and my dad as Mr. Mom made sacrifices in their own lives in order to care for and love me. Thank you.
While I've had many "mothers" I've only have memory of one mommy. When I was three years old my dad met, wooed and married Joyce Lynn Baker. I have no doubt, None; that I would not be the man I am today if it were not for her influence in my life. I believe for a person to thrive they need to know unconditional love. This is the gift that keeps our kids going even when we blow it as parents, what kids need more than perfect parenting is to feel the unconditional love of their parents. Every parent expresses this love in different ways, but a child always knows when it's there. This kind of love empowers children to become their best selves. I could tell you all sorts of stories about how my mom loved me; baking me cookies, teaching me to skip, bandaging hurts, studying spelling lists (to this day I can't spell together without hearing her voice saying "to get her"), editing book reports (Misty of Chincoteague is after all a book about Horses not whores), listening to me talk about a girl I broke up with, teaching me that Dorcas is both a woman in the bible and a proper way to insult someone in a loving manner etc., etc., etc.. But the greatest gift she gave me was unconditional love. When my Dad married her, my mom adopted both my sister and I. Occasionally when I share my history someone will say "oh so Joyce is your stepmom", my instinct is to pop them in the nose and yell "No she's just my mom!", but I always refrain. In the 35 years she has been part of my life, there has never been a nanosecond of time that I have not felt that I fully unconditionally belonged to her. Even though she later gave birth to my brother Patrick (by the way don't ever call him my half brother unless you want to be popped in the nose) I never felt less than 100% her's, and this love had profoundly shaped me.
I have been fortunate enough to have two mom's one who gave me life and gave her life for me and another who laid down her life daily and taught me to love unconditionally.

Happy Mother's Day Moms, you are wonderful examples of Gods love!

Happy Mommy's Day Mom
I Love You unconditionally too!
Brent

Would Jesus Drive Someone to Get an Abortion

2010-03-09T15:56:00.000-08:00

Recently my wife blogged about her struggle to make a decision about wether or not to drive a young lady to an abortion clinic. Quick before your knee hits you in the nose go read her blog post. (Do not read the rest of this post without reading her post first. I know you’re tempted, but Don’t Do It.)

Here are the things I learned about God and following Jesus from watching my wife struggle with this decision.

1) God loves people more than he hates sin.

Does Becky hate abortion? Absolutely, she is a black and white–right and wrong kinda gal. However, Becky loves this girl more than she hates abortion and this has caused her to look beyond the obvious answer and struggle with how to best love this young lady. I’m not sure how often Christians reflect this sentiment. As a whole we tend to be known for what we’re against. The old hymn, They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love may need an update. Perhaps They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Ban Gay Marriage Bumper Stickers. I’m not saying we shouldn’t take a stand against things that are, by Gods standards, wrong. I just wonder if we shouldn’t reflect on wether we’re more passionate about loving broken people or keeping them from sinning. It’s good to remember that Grace was God's answer to how to best love us!

2) God understands our struggle because He created us and came and lived among us.

Becky is struggling with this decision because she knows and loves this girl, she knows and understands the circumstances that lead to this moment in this young women's life, and that knowledge leads to empathy and love not to judgement. Becky doesn't see this girl as a good person or a bad person she sees her as a hurting person with lots of hard choices in front of her, some right and some wrong. Becky sees this young lady as desperately in need of love and grace and truth.

3) Being obedient to Jesus is better than being "right".

Becky knew immediately what the "right" thing to do was. She grew up in conservative midwest churches. The "right" answer is: no good Christian would ever drive someone to get an abortion. Fortunately Becky's maturing faith allows her to ask not “What seems right?”, but “What

is Jesus leading me to do in this circumstance?” When the religious leaders of Jesus day chastised Him for healing someone on the sabbath (the day of rest declared by God; in the ten commandments no less) it was because they knew what was “wrong”, no one is to labor on the sabbath, therefore you shouldn’t heal people on the sabbath. But Jesus knew God’s heart and His decision to heal was based on God’s heart, not rules established to uphold God’s laws.

4) Simple slogans can be a barrier to understanding complex issues.

Because “Abortion is Murder” driving someone to get an abortion would make you an accessory to murder right? I wonder how often we get caught up in the slogans of our faith or movement and how often they begin to shape how we think and how we act. Nothing in life is simple enough to be understood through slogans printed on bumper stickers, cardboard placards and church signs but Christians really tend to love their slogans. There is an abortion clinic just a few blocks down the street from my wife’s office and every day there are people holding signs up outside. I don’t know one way or the other but I wonder if they spend any time ministering to people who are likely to have “crisis” pregnancies? I wonder, if you’re holding up a sign that says “Abortion is Murder” are you more likely to see the people that pass you going in and out of the clinic as murders or as people God loves and Jesus died to redeem.

5) Life following Jesus is difficult, messy and uncomfortable.

It’s easy for me to sit back and write about the lessons I’m learning from Becky, but if you read her post, you know this is a real emotional struggle. The American dream is to lead an easy, neat and comfortable life. Be honest with yourself and examine how many decisions you make are in the direction of easy, neat and comfortable and how many are in the direction of difficult, messy and uncomfortable. From what we drive, to what parts of town we’re willing to drive through we like things comfortable, but what if following Jesus means embracing discomfort, messiness and difficulty? I’m pretty sure it does, because the people most in need of God’s truth and grace live in a difficult messy and uncomfortable world. The more we follow Jesus in His redemptive plan the messier things are gonna get.

6) Proximity and Time begets love like nothing else can.

From a distance it’s easy to judge this situation and this girl. From a distance you can’t understand the circumstances, you can’t feel the emotion and you can’t know the hurt. From a distance the situation is black and white. However, because Becky has spent time with this young lady, because she is close to her, Becky has a perspective very few other people have and it allows her to look past the facts of the situation into the heart of the girl. It allows her to react out of love. If we want to really love people the way God does we need to spend time in relationship with them.

As of this writing Becky is still doing everything she can to convince this girl to put this child up for adoption, so please if you are a follower of Jesus pray for Becky and this young woman. Before you decide to give Becky unsolicited advice, remember she is striving to follow the Holy Spirit. My opinion is that there isn’t a right or wrong decision here, only an obedient one. I know my wife and if, God forbid, this young woman decides to have an abortion Becky will prayerfully seek godly council from a few trusted men and women before she decides what to do.

Just in case your blood was boiling too hot to read straight, this is not a question of wether or not abortion is acceptable for this woman. Becky believes abortion is wrong. The question Becky is struggling with is, how is God calling her to love someone who has chosen to get one.

So, would Jesus drive someone to get an abortion? I think it’s a question worth struggling with.

Mexico Gone for Good

2008-08-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

Last week was a Gone for Good (G4G) week at Kaleo. For anyone who doesn't know, roughly once a month instead of our traditional Sunday gathering Kaleo heads out into our community to serve others and show God's love in tangible ways. We've cleaned up an alley in Southwest Bakersfield, painted a dorm at one of the local homeless shelters, thrown a party at a local park and last month we sent out teams of five to six people with $50 and the mandate to prayerfully and creatively go bless people. We called it the Fifty Dollar Experiment, you can read some of the participants experiences here. This month we joined Christ's church of the Valley and went to Mexico for a day and helped build houses for Casa de Amor. (see all the pics here) We had an incredible time I took James and Jason and Becky stayed home with the little ones.

I was so proud of the boys, Jason helped where he could and kept an eye out for one of the younger kids who came with us, and James worked like a man, really. He stirred cement (by hand) lugged stucco around two hoppers at a time (those things are heavy), applied stucco, shoveled sand and anything else that needed to be done. All the adults with us were impressed. The down side for him is that my expectations for him are significantly raised.

I'm hoping to go again in the not too distant future, although I'll probably have to arm wrestle Becky over it since one of us will need to stay home with the youngsters.

What's missing from my reading list?

2008-05-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

I read a buddy of mines blog the other day about parenting books and how he has no use for them and never reads them. 2 Months earlier I would have agreed with him flat out. I had never spent any real time reading parenting books. I started a Focus on the Family book called Bringing up Boys once because a group at our church was reading it but I don't think I made it even 1/4 of the way through it.

However I was at a bookstore/coffee shop a few months ago waiting for a friend and a book entitled Good and Angry: Exchanging Frustration for Character in You and Your Kids caught my eye. I'm not sure why but I bought it, it just seemed to fit how I'd been parenting lately. It sat around for a couple months until it got moved to the bathroom. As with any good man, I'll read anything while sitting on my throne, and so I picked it up. It's very good (I wish I had read it years ago), I'll blog about it at a latter date.

So today I came across a blog iamhusband.com (women don't go check it out. But if you must, please don't start commenting on the posts and ruin it as a place for us guys to hang out.) and on it links to a few other marriage/husband blogs. The thought hit me-I've spent a lot of time reading about every topic concerning any job I've ever held, but I've spent very little time reading about parenting or marriage. I read about development, vision, and leadership when I was at a development consulting firm–design and creativity when I was at a creative agency–small groups, discipleship, evangelism, outreach etc when I was on staff at a church and church planting, leadership and entrepreneurship as a church planter. So why would I not be reading about parenting and marriage? If the saying "show me your wallet and your calendar and I'll show you what's important to you" holds any truth, certainly my reading list would also reflect to some degree what I value.

I agree with my friend that every child is different and no one book can address how to parent every child; however I also recognize that I've never read a book that fully addressed any topic I was interested in, but I've also never read a book that didn't have at least some insight and wisdom I could use.

I guess all this has lead me to believe I really need to spend some more time reading up on marriage and parenting.

So I have a great parenting book that I'm just finishing, any suggestions for a book on how to love my wife better? or another parenting book?

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Sarah Grace

2008-05-09T14:05:00.000-07:00

What can I say about Sarah? Sarah means princess and being the only girl after three boys it's very appropriate. I realize I'm a biased father but she is B E A utiful. Her smile absolutely blows me away. She is already whipping her brothers in to shape, we all adore her. She may come out of this a little over confidant, but she'll never need to turn to some young man for a sense self worth. She has four men (future men) in our house who think she hung the moon. Of course with David around I'm not to worried about future suiters, at this point they're almost inseparable. At three we're only beginning to see signs of her personality. She definitely has David and Jason's charm it will be interesting to see if she gets Becky and James' sense of justice and strength of character.

David

2008-05-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

We like to say that David has an internal nuclear reactor. If you google perpetual motion pictures of David are always the first thing to pop up. When I was looking for pictures to post of David I had to search a little harder because so many of them are blurry, really. All of his pics basically fall into a five categories David running, David swinging a sword, David messy, David sleeping, David with Sarah. We take pictures of him sleeping because it's the only time he stays still unless of course he's posing with Sarah. He adores his little sister, he will be her great protector when they hit school. David is equal parts sweet and mischievous. He's incredibly difficult to discipline because he has a way of being naughty and hilarious at the same time. You try not to laugh or smile but it's usually to hard.

Jason

2008-05-06T23:51:00.000-07:00

Jason our second is a charmer. I'm scared of what the next 5 years hold for us. At recess this year he had a girl (6th grader) write her phone # on his hand and asked him to call her. We told him to avoid those girls like the plague. I'm very proud of him, because he has worked very hard this year to catch up in school. This past semester he made Honor Role and was the student of the month for his grade last month. He has an incredible smile and a deep love for his siblings. If we can teach him to harness his ability to influence people for the Kingdom he will be a great leader.

James

2008-05-05T22:39:00.000-07:00

Becky is the one who usually blogs about the kids, but I decided I needed to brag on them some. This blog is supposed to be about God's fingerprints on our lives and our kids are certainly the greatest gift (outside of salvation) Becky and I have been given. So I'll take one at a time in the order they were given to us. I took these pics of James about a week ago. They really show how he's maturing. He plays soccer like he lives life–he's intense but not too competitive, he gives his best, but always looks out for others, he loves to laugh and make others laugh. Of course he's in Junior High so most of his humor makes his parents cringe, but hopefully thats just a phase. James has an incredible moral compass, not that he doesn't also have a sin nature, but usually given time his conscience wins out. He is very tenderhearted and giving and deeply loyal. His friends are friends for life, as evidenced by all the emails we still receive from the ville. Here are some recent pics.

A Swarm of Locust

2008-05-04T22:10:00.000-07:00

Wow! What an awesome day. Kaleo partnered with Life Journey for our second combined "Gone for Good". [G4G is the outflow ministry of Kaleo, once a month instead of gathering for corporate worship and learning on Sunday, we go into the community and serve.] These absolutely thrill me because they hit the crossroads of two of my biggest passions 1)the unity of the body of Christ and 2)the church serving the community as a tangible expression of God's love. This month we went to The Bakersfield Rescue Mission and painted their men's residence.

I talked to the chaplain this evening and he said the residents of the mission described us a swarm of locus descending on the building. It was pretty cool a group of roughly 45 of us mostly teens (go youth power!) painted the entire building in about 3.5 hours.

This evening I had the privilege of speaking to their "Disciples" crew. The Disciples are a group of men and women who are going through a one year program with the mission to grow in their faith. The worship was incredible! When people who are keenly aware of their brokenness and all that God has done for them praise Him, it is unforgetable. If only we could all understand our need for God's grace and appreciate it the way I experienced it tonight. I have so much to learn from these men and women that much of society has probably given up on. I was greatly humbled.

Also I wanted to give huge thanks to Becky for taking care of all the kids today. There's nothing sexy about staying behind and watching kids while everyone else is enjoying each others company and slopping paint or worshiping with new friends, but Becky did it (as always) without complaint. It freed me and our team to serve although there was no glory in it. She is the servants servant. I love her dearly and know none of my ministry would be possible without her. I also know she makes Jesus smile. I couldn't ask for a more Christ-like woman.

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Some Heros

2008-04-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

Last week I was in Florida at Exponential. It was great to hang out with so many incredible men and women who have answered Gods call to start new God honoring fellowships. However the highlight of my week was hanging out with some guys who are my heros. It was cool to have brief conversations with Allen Hirsch, Mark Batterson, Sally Morganthaler and Vince Antonucci all of whom have had a good bit of influence on how I think about and engage in ministry. I even got invited to a private Q&A with Andy Stanley (although I still have no idea why, I was probably the only guy in the room who had a congregation of less than 500 people and certainly the only one with a congregation of less than 50. I'll chock it up to clerical error). However I can't say that these guys are my heros. The hero's I'm talking about I got to spend significantly more time with. ie

Linus Morris who's ministerial longevity, wisdom and graciousness are inspiring (I hope someday I can have made an impact for the Kingdom anywhere half as large as he has and be as humble and approachable).

David Limeiro who is crazy obsessed (in a good way) with church planting, his encouragement of, and words of wisdom to, me are some of the most valuable I receive because He knows me and the road I walk well.

Eric and Shanon Barnes who just quit a great job at a good church to go and plant even though they don't know where/when/with whom they're going to plant or how they're going to fund it (now I'm trying to remember why I'm so crazy about them. lol)

And my newest hero Tim Reardon. I attended a pre-conference intensive on the incarnational church and I realized (no disrespect intended) I learned more and was more inspired about living an incarnational life just hanging out with Tim than from the intensive I paid for.

After lunch with a couple other pastors on Thursday Tim said he wished he could hang out with all of us more because there was so much he could learn from us. I think we have as much or more to learn from Tim.

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Banners & Gratitude

2008-04-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

We're coming to the end of our year of free banners from Group Imaging. I can't thank them enough for their investment in our church and church planting in general (we would never have been able to afford a wrap for the events truck much less all the other banners they printed for us). We just ordered banners for each of our Children's Ministry Classrooms and have a few more to turn in. If you have a need for a banner, vehicle wrap or trade show stuff give them a call.

One Prayer

2008-04-08T20:51:00.000-07:00

I stopped blogging. I'm starting again. Nuff said.

I got an email from LifeChurch.tv the church we attended in Tulsa before we moved out here. They are partnering and inviting other churches to join in a series they're doing in June entitled One Prayer. I love the concept. We'll preach one sermon live and bring in some other incredible speakers from other churches via video. We'll all be preaching on the question, If you could pray one prayer for the church at large what would it be.
It's a tough question. So many things spring to mind. So I've begun the process of building my list so I can cut it down to one.

What would your prayer be?

the missing aspect

2008-01-01T23:22:00.000-08:00

"It's a nice community, real warm and friendly to each other - something I am missing since I am not religious at all. In fact I left church when I was 18, first thing I did when I was coming of age. But I must admit that when I am around people that are religious I sometimes realize that my life is missing one aspect. Religious people in a community are embedded and protected, and when things go wrong, they have the support of their community."
This is from a blog I ran across recently, the author was describing their experience at a Bar Mitzvah. I love reading blogs about peoples experiences with faith, religion and the church, it always challenges me.
I'm reminded about how important belonging is in the Body of Christ. I hope Kaleo is attractive to an "unreligious" world because of the warmth and authenticity of our community.

Ten Grand For Good

2007-12-11T23:30:00.001-08:00

This week were rolling out our prelaunch media campaign with a twist. Instead of sending out post cards and advertising in the local paper, we decide to do something completely different.
We're going to give away our entire prelaunch advertising budget to encourage people to look beyond themselves and see how they can make a difference in the lives of those around them.
Our hope is that this campaign will give us a platform to talk about God's love for mankind, that it will cement in our DNA an outward focus and that people who may never have been interested in "a cool new church" will take notice because when we say God loves you we put our money where our mouth is. I'll share more about how we're getting word out about this campaign later, but for now check out our website tengrandforgood.org

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preview post-post

2007-12-05T00:08:00.000-08:00

Our preview was far more than I hoped it would be. Blessed is the best way to describe how I feel. I kept having the wonderful feeling of just being along for the ride, it was as though someone else was planting the church and I was plugging in to help wherever I could, this is exactly what I've prayed for from the beginning, that this would be Christ's church plant and I would be His servant doing His bidding. There is no greater feeling than submitting to God's plan for your life and allowing Him to lead and direct you. It gives me more motivation to share the good news because I'm experiencing just how good it is. As for the details–we had five families there that had no prior association with Kaleo. That is exciting! Several of them expressed their desire to be part of our launch and one of them asked why we couldn't just launch now! Including our volunteers and well wishers from our partner churches there were 68 of us total. I'm so grateful for all the people God has brought in as co-laborers this couldn't have happened without them. I'm also grateful for what has to be the worlds best church planting venue hands down.(check back for pics soon) Here's my cumulative thought from our almost three year journey in church planting so far.
Ask God to do through you something so incredible only he can get the glory, listen for His call, accept His invitation, recognize and confess your own agenda to Him, take a leap of faith, strive to do everything big and small as an act of worship to Him, remember His power works best in your weakness, keep trusting in His strength and goodness and enjoy the greatest adventure you'll ever have. You won't regret it.

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Preview Preview

2007-12-01T23:38:00.000-08:00

We set everything up this evening at the facility for our preview service tommorrow, and the worship team practiced. God blessed us with an amazing bucnch of volunteers, some of whom I hadn't met until tonight. It was a great night for counting blessings and letting God be God. I have to admit I'm a bit of a control freak (although I retain the right to deny it to my wife). I would have loved to have made sure everything was just so in childrens ministry, on the sound board in hospitality etc. but there was no way I could be everywhere. In fact because of some misunderstandings about how the facility was being used tonight, what I had planned ahead of time was flipped upside down forcing us to use volunteers differently than we had planned and forcing me to let go even more. But our launch team did incredible and the people they recruited were amazing and the people who just showed up were amazing. So we're basically ready to roll for tommorrow. I can't wait to see what God has planned. It is an immense privilage to be a called to church planting-to get a front row seat to what God does to reach those who don't yet know Him. Another huge blessing is that Jeff and Courtney some of our great friends from b'ville are here. Not only have they been a great help, it's just nice to enjoy this with old friends. New friends are great, but there's something special about the comfort of being with people who you've experienced the extremes of life with, great joys and pains create compounds that don't break down easily. Thanks God for letting me be a part of all this.

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Go Sunday 1

2007-11-16T22:10:00.000-08:00

One of the things we're going to be doing as a church is taking one Sunday out of the month and going out in to the community with random acts of kindness and radical acts of service. There are many reason we are doing this. I'm going to take the next few blogs to talk about what has lead us to this decision.

Reason 1) Many Christians have almost no depth of contact with non-christians. Serving brings us back into contact with those outside of our faith.
Reason 2) Servants focus on others. That's what a servant does, their place is to look to the needs of those they serve. So for a Christ follower serving redirects our focus to what God is focused on-those sheep who are not yet in the fold.

Probably the first thing that God used to lead me into a new understanding of serving others was the book The Church of Irresistable Influence by Robert Lewis. I first read this book about several years ago while I was on staff at a church in Oklahoma. Lewis' premise in the book is that the church has become an island with its own customs and traditions that those outside don't understand. These differences become a barrier to people understanding the good news of God's love. So serving the community becomes a "bridge" that covers the distance to a world from which we have become isolated. The book changed the way I viewed the church. It helped me recognize both the churches lack of contact with those far from God, and our lack of focus on those far from God.

The AFA vs. Mrs Fields revisited

2007-11-01T22:40:00.000-07:00

I recently received the following response to my blog on the AFA and the Mrs Fields company.

There isn't bullying going on, Mrs. Fields expressed their opinion by saying no to the simple words Christmas, we're just expressing our opinion. They don't want to offend A hand full of athiests? But are willing to offend God and those who believe. Yep, I am a bit offended, and Christmas isn't for Athiests, this was our holiday, and nobody forced them into joining, now they have pushed their way in, and are changing the rules. You put Christians and pansies in the same boat and you are wrong.

As the comment was anonymous I can't respond to just that person which would be my preference so I'll throw it up here and maybe generate some more discussion.

First I regret using the the word bullying as it appears the word has distracted this reader from the questions that followed. However I don't feel the word is entirely inappropriate. The AFA has asked thousands of people to stop buying this companies products unless they put the word Christmas on their packing and in their promotions. They didn't just ask them to express their disappointment in a letter, they ask them to put fiscal pressure on the company to do something. That's more than expressing an opinion.
Webster's Defines Bullying as forcing one's way aggressively or by intimidation.
I consider several thousand letters threating to ban your product aggressive.
This week the AFA sent me a letter telling how the pressure has paid off and that the Mrs Fields company has added Christmas items to their website.

But I come back to the questions I posed in the original post. How does this campaign draw people (the real people who work at Mrs. Fields) closer to God? Does it show them His love? If the word Christmas appears on a package will someone see it and decide to give their lives to follow Christ?

My hope is simply that we will live following Christ's example. Remember how He treated the woman divorced several times over and living in adultery, the prostitute and the thieving tax collector. It was to these people that He brought grace, love and understanding. Now remember who he reserved His greatest anger and harshest words for. It was for those who knew and feared God but didn't live according to His spirit.

I have four children and it sometimes scares me what they see, hear and are exposed to by our rapidly changing culture. It's uncomfortable living in a post-christian nation. However, if I let my fear drive my actions I will lash out at a culture I can't control. But if I let the Spirit drive me, I see people God loves and Christ Died to redeem–instead of seeing their actions, attitudes or behaviors I see people separated from our loving God and facing an eternity without Him.

So again I ask, how does this campaign and others like it draw people into a redemptive relationship with Christ?

If you find this all a bit challenging to your standard way of thinking (as I did when God first started reshaping my thinking on this), I encourage you to read this series of articles by Denis Haack.

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Prep Gathering

2007-10-23T00:50:00.000-07:00

We met with our launch team in the facility this Sunday. After a great time of worship and communion together we walked through all the areas the facility we will be using, trying to see it with the eyes of a visitor. We literally started at the entrance to the parking lot and walked through what we wanted people experience their first time with us. It was a great time and there were lots of great ideas and observations. I'm excited to see what God has in store for us next.

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More Party Pics

2007-10-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

I've posted more photos from the party at kaleo.cc . Thanks to Kevin Morrison for the camera work.

really big fingerprints–really big trees

2007-10-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

Eric and I went up to the Sequoia National Forest North East of Bakersfield today to hang out, get away from the busyness and enjoy God. My hope was to take lots of pictures, however the "fresh" batteries I put in the camera this morning were actually dead. Not that it mattered, we had a great day anyway. God provided a mostly foggy, drizzley fairly cold day, with times of the brightest blue skies you can imagine shining through breaks in the clouds. The colors were amazing the rain makes the Sequoias an impressive burnt orange and the greens of the pines, the yellows of the aspens, and the yellows, ornages and reds of the maples looked amazingly vivid in front of them. At over 7000 feet you don't so much look up at a cloudy sky as you walk through it–so when the cloud your in rolls into the valley below you, perfectly clear skies appear until the next cloud pushes over the peak above you and envelopes you as it rolls through. I know pictures wouldn't do it justice, and I'm sure my words won't either. I wish you all could have been there. The sequoias themselves are so impressive. I'm posting a pic of our last trip up there with my folks. You can't really get an idea of how large they are until you're there but I think this shot begins to capture it. I love the surprises God throws into His creation that make you gasp.
I don't have words to express my gratefulness to God for the beauty He has provided.

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God's Timeline

2007-10-15T02:14:00.000-07:00

I was challenged by a friend last week as I was lamenting how far I felt we were behind schedule, to make the best plan you can and then hold it very loosely. (thanks Ben) As often as I've said that in the last two years to other people about our situation you'd think I would own it by now. But no, I was getting too caught up in the plan, calendar and budget to hear God. And so it is with a much lighter heart that I've made some changes. Next weeks preview gathering is going to be a prep gathering. (Read more about it at kaleo.cc) Although it seems to be a slow down in our plans I think it will be great. It just feels right. After letting it go I realized that part of the reason for holding on to it was my own pride. After all if I said we were going to have a preview on the 21st I'd better deliver right. But of course that leaves God out of the picture and me with way too much weight on my shoulders. It's probably true that if your feeling stressed out your not letting God be God. After all didn't Jesus tell us that His burden was easy and His load light and since He also told us that this world would hold troble for us I've gotta assume that He intends to carry the weight. Well I'm looking forward to a much lighter week ahead, in fact Eric and I are going to take Tuesday and head into the mountains for a day of Picture taking, goofing around and enjoying God. I'll post photos later this week.

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Killer Party

2007-10-14T00:06:00.000-07:00

The party went terrific. Inspite of several missed opportunities in our communicating it to the public we still had probably 250 or more people. I'm not sure we could have handled too many more.
I am grateful to God for covering my misteps, and to all of the volunteers from CCV, Life Journey and Northeast Christian, and especially our launch team, Mike and Sheri Williams and the pastors and wives of our partner churches You guys rock! We've had a few people ask us why three local churches would help us plant in their own backyards. I just have to say it's a Kingdom thing. Here are a few pics I'll post more soon. Thanks to everyone who prayed and Courtney for the post event call.

Kevin and Jill Our Childrens Min. leaders.

Eric in Kaleo's required preaching attire. : )

A crowd in the gym for a game.

The truck and bounce house.

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The House

2007-10-13T02:54:00.000-07:00

The bounce house got here today. Eric and I couldn't wait 'till the party tomorrow. We had to put it up the moment it arrived, you know to "test it" before the party. Anyway we let the neighbor kids play on it for a little while before loading it into the ice cream truck. We can't wait to see it in use at the Family Night Out tomorrow.
Speaking of the party here's the flyer we sent out.

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Kaleo.cc

2007-10-13T02:34:00.000-07:00

Kaleo.cc goes live, temporarily anyway. I put up the temporary home for Kaleo on the web. As of tomorrow we will have printed materials out with the kaleo.cc web address so it seems pretty important to have something up. For some reason the website is one of the last things I've been able work on. I think part of that is because I think many people choose wether or not to visit a church based on it's website—partially because as a designer freedom to do almost anything can be suffocating (odd but true) —and because when it comes to big ticket items for Kaleo I've been very hesitant to spend money. If the decision can be put off in hopes of finding a better value, or a less expensive solution, I'll probably put it off. I hope this is because I want to be a good steward and not because I lack the faith that God will continue to meet our financial needs. Anyway until I hand it off to a professional this is what we have. www.kaleo.cc

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Mrs. Fields bans Christmas from their products

2007-10-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

Today I got an email from the American Family Association (AFA) stating their offense at the fact that the Mrs Field's company was not offering any products with the word Christmas on them and asking me to write the company expressing my own offense and threating to boycott their products.
I just gotta ask, Really?
Does the AFA really think I'm going to be offended by the fact that a corporation does not celebrate the birth of Jesus. More importantly do they think encouraging thousands of Christ follwers to send threating (or just mean spirited) letters to the company will help people discover, recognize, love and submit to Christ as their savior?
What is the Goal of this campaign? If thousands of "christians" write letters, and the Company is bullied into putting the word Christmas back on its packaging will God be glorified? How will these letters be received by the real humans at Mrs Field's who read them. Will it draw them to our incredibly loving God or will it move them away? Will it help them understand who He is?
So here's my proposal. Lets write the employees Mrs Field's and tell them they make great cookies and that as Followers of Christ we are sorry if they receive offensive letters from those claiming to be God's representatives. Let's tell them that God loves them and that He longs to have a relationship with them. Tell them that we are not offended by their actions but that we recognize their good intentions. And that we hope, if they don't already, that those who read our letter would come to a point where they personally celebrate Jesus birth because they recognize it as a gift from God.

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From 12 to 8 in 24

2007-09-30T21:47:00.000-07:00

Within a 24 hour period this week we had two couples who were on our launch team call to tell us they wouldn't be able to help anymore. One because they're moving to Minnesota (Do they even have summer in that state?) and the other for health reasons. I think I know how Gideon felt. Right now I'm thinking really God 12 is too many, your sure about that, You do remember we're having a block party/fun fair in two weeks, right? Oh, and a preview service on the 21st you remember that too right. While my my heart knows God's got it covered my brain is scrambling with the math. At this point the Lord should be "Adding to our numbers daily", after all we want to be a "New Testament" church right. ;-)

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I'm Back

2007-09-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

Since it's been so long since my last Blog I'll start with an overview of what's coming up for us.

· Informational Meeting Oct 7th-We'll be inviting people we've met that have expressed interest in Kaleo to find out more about us.
· Family Date Night Oct 13th-Our first big promotional event. We will be co-sponsoring this block party/kids carnival w/ American Kids Sports Center (thanks Mike and Sheri). There will be inflatables, booths, food, as well as gymnastic activities provided by AKSC.
· Preview Service Oct 21st-How will our gatherings feel? How long will it take to setup and tear-down everything? How many chairs will fit in the gym? Our first service will help us answer these questions. This one will not be publicly advertised, it's just for friends and family, a sort of dress rehersal.
· 2nd Serving Sunday Oct 28th-We will be partnering with Life Journey Church and helping them celebrate their fourth anniversary by serving those outside the church. We're hunting for a name for these monthly service Sunday's, I'd love to hear your ideas. Right now I think I like "Inside/Out".

Thanks to Courtney, Becky and Marci for nagging me to start blogging again. What is it with women and pushing men to talk, no guy has ever told me I don't talk or write often enough.

A Starr shines in Bakersfield

2007-08-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

We knew from day one that if we we're going to plant a church we we're going to do it in community. From the beginning we were thinking and praying about who God might call to be a part of this adventure. Eric Starr has been a friend of ours since he was in a highschool small group we led in Bartlesville. As God started guiding us and planting the seeds of this adventure in our hearts, He was working in Eric's heart as well. After many late night conversations about the Kingdom and the church, over summer and holiday breaks in the years since Eric left High School, we invited him to be a part of what God was calling us to. The truth is when I invited him I didn't know where we were going or wether or not there would be any money to pay him. How's that for a job offer a few months before graduating with your masters fom Duke University. "Come with us to plant a church, we don't know where we're going and we have no money to offer you, but we'd sure love to have you". But Eric took a leap of faith said yes, and now he's here. I'm stoked to start moving forward in this Kingdom adventure with a partner in crime.

Becky is Blogging

2007-08-16T23:07:00.000-07:00

Becky decided to start blogging about family stuff check her out at familyprints.blogspot.com or follow the link to the right of this post.

Coming and Going

2007-08-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

We had our first Informational meeting about the plant on Sunday. We only invited people from our partnering churches to this one, I had the opportunity to speak at each of the churches over the last three weeks and cast some vision as well as tell the story of how God brought us here. We had prayed God would bring just the right people to this meeting. One of the things we felt strongly about was the need to make sure if people from our partnering churches came that they were coming for the right reasons. The following is my list of reasons to come, not to come, and questions to ask yourself before coming.

Reasons not to come (anyone of these alone are disqualifiers)
• Upset at someone in the church. (seek to restore the relationship)
• I believe the church is doing something unbiblical. (follow Matt 18)
• I’m looking for something that I enjoy more. (consumerism vs servanthood)
• This seems more exciting. (the new will wear off)
• The church I’m at won’t do ________. (am I driven by my agenda or do I feel called)
• If I leave, are there others who would perceive that I left for any of these reasons, ask. (the self deception test)

Reasons to Come (all three of these should be part of the decision)
• I love to serve.
• I have a passion to see those far from God find Him.
• I feel called.

Leaving Well Questions
• Where will my going leave a hole in ministry.
• Where will my going leave a hole in fellowship.
• How can I help fill any potential holes before I leave.
• Who do I need to talk to before I go.

If you have others you think should be in here drop a comment.

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Trukin' Update 1.0

2007-08-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

We've got the truck now. It's in great shape and was a great price. We've got the serving window and graphic wrap ordered. One huge praise is that we will be getting the wrap free thanks to Group Imaging www.groupimaging.com. They have given us unlimited banner printing for a year. PTL! We're on the look out for the A/V system, bounce house and freezer to finish it off. We're probably going to need to put new tires on the rear, and new batteries to get it running perfect. We're pulling all the shelving out now. We'll keep you posted as we make progress.

Weakness and Glory

2007-08-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

…“My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (1Cor. 12:9-10)

It's been one of those days. The administrative details are piling up. I'm emensely thankful for the planters who have gone before us, and the people and organizations who have gathered best practices and are passing them on. God has blessed us with relationships with people and organizations who are dedicated to helping Church planters in general and us in particular. PTL!
However, there are always details that have to be addressed by the planter, this week is full of those and I can see no light at the end of the tunnel. So many administrative tasks… so little administrative ability. And so I hang on to the truth of this verse. I told God several years ago I wanted to be a part of something bigger than me by a long shot, something that could only be accomplished if God came through in a big way.
I'm feeling that prayer being answered. If Kaleo goes on to reach hundreds or thousands of people with the message of God's love it will be because God moved beyond the gifts and abilities He's given me, our staff, and launch team and made it happen in His strength. So I'll boast now in my weaknesses because my desire and prayer is that God will do something so amazing that it will be obvious that He made it happen; that no one will ever think for one moment that we had the leadership skills, charisma, organizational sense, creativity or any other abilty to make it happen.

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Lion Chasing is the Best Part of Life

2007-07-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

I just finished Mark Batterson's book In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day. I give my highest recomendation to this book. As someone in the middle of his own lion chase, planting a new church, I resonated with so much of what Mark said. But more than just resonating with it I was challenged to go even deeper with my trust in God and to go even bigger in my leaps of faith. I read alot of really good books but this one has challenged me the most lately. Pick this book up and read it, it may just rock your world. Mark is the pastor of National Community Church in Washington D.C. www.theaterchurch.com, home of an old friend of mine Chad Hayward and what I've heard is the coolest coffee house in D.C.

I See People

2007-07-28T00:12:00.000-07:00

In the movie The Sixth Sense (great flick btw) Cole Sear, played stunningly by Haley Joel Osment, sees dead people, he discovers as the movie progresses that they're not there to hurt him, they just need his help. Now i have no desire to see dead people, but my prayer right now is that i would really see live people. i was on the phone with a friend the other day and he told me he was about to order coffee so he would need to call me back in a few minutes. When he called back he explained that after his stint as a barista at Starbucks he's made it a point to get off the phone and pay attention to the person behind the counter whenever ordering anything. He said he was amazed at how often people would come in and order their drinks while in the middle of a phone conversation and that he never felt more invisible. "It was as if it was an inconvienence for them to have to talk to me at all, as though they would prefer to push a button to get their coffee and forego the trouble of exchanging words with me." i have to admit i was fairly convicted, how many times had i done the same thing. In fact i would guess more than half the time i could leave a restaurant and not be able to describe the person who served me, even at a sit down meal.
i'm afraid too many times we as Christ followers either fail to see those who are still missing from the Kingdom at all or if we do we are scared of them. We are worried they may change the culture of our country, or corrupt our children. And so our fear causes the flight or fight response. We either segregate ourselves from them or go on the attack.
Maybe it's time we realize that those who are far from God need what we have. My prayer for myself, my family and the new church we are planting is that we would have not a sixth sense, but a Spirit sense that would cause us to really see everyone we come in contact with and look for opportunities to share (both tangibly and verbally) God's love with them.

(if your not a Christ follower and wonder what I think a Christ follower may have to offer you, or about God's love drop me a comment and we can chat)

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Faith vs. Insurance Revisited

2007-07-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

I spoke with our insurance agent again this week and we found a work around to make the ministry vehicle available to other organizations. We will have to send a volunteer to drive it, but that in it self could be a ministry to those organizations.
God always finds away, thanks for your prayers about this.
I also heard about another organization that is using a bus to do some great Kingdom work check them out at www.bigredbus.org. A very cool ministry.

Faith vs. Insurance

2007-07-13T16:52:00.000-07:00

One in a list of many things I wish I didn't have to think about as a church planter but do, is insurance. Specifically insurance on our ice cream truck (see previous post). A friend of mine and church planting supergenius Patrick Furgerson recently blogged at plantingspace.com about insurance, churches and bounce houses.
One of our visions for the ice cream truck is to make it available for other churches and community service organizations to use, in fact we're designing it so our name can easily be deleted from the vehicle so no one assumes we're loaning it to them for the free publicity . My hope is that everything our church ever owns will be considered Kingdom property and be made available to Christ followers to use for God's glory. However, after a conversation with our insurance agent and the two Patricks in my life–Furgeson, the afformentioned supergenious and Colaw, my brother the Lawyer and fellow supergenious. It appears that if we choose to allow people outside our church to use our stuff we do so at great peril of having our pants sued off with no coverage from our insurance company. Having no pants and being exposed is apparently a bad thing.
So, what to do? Follow our heart and Kingdom values and make the ice cream truck and everything else available for Kingdom purposes having faith that God will provide all the coverage we need, or, follow the wise counsel of godly insurance agents, lawyers and supergenious'?
I wish it was as funny as it sounds, but it really is a conundrum. God certainly encourages us to seek counsel which we've done, but He also tells us not to live in fear, which lawsuits certainly encourage. Anyway we know that God has the answer already wether it be a step of faith under a heavenly policy or an insurance a company with flexible coverage. Either way we'd appreciate your prayers.

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Truckin' for Jesus

2007-07-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

One of the out of the box ideas a couple of church planters in our network have used to help promote their churches is to purchase an ice cream truck and take it to community events and give out free ice cream and water. We loved the idea but felt we could do alot more with it. Our vision for this type of vehicle centers on four areas that are high values of our church: incarnational ministry, unity of Christ followers at large, being present where our community gathers and drawing in the young and getting them excited about following Christ.
This vehicle will serve as a rolling billboard, an ice-cream truck, a food/drink distribution center, a mobile movie theater and performance venue. It will be equipped with a freezer and fridge, a retractable awning, a mobile A/V system, an inflatable bounce house and movie screen. It will be wrapped with high impact graphics making it highly visible. It will have one reversible billboard identifying our church and Serve the city that can be swapped when in use by another organization.
In line with this vision, the vehicle will be a centerpiece for Serve the City (our incarnational service ministry which will focus on one week of service to the community each year, but point people to continuing service opportunities). We will make this vehicle available to other Churches and community service organizations for any community service event or outreach event in which two or more churches collaborate in order to encourage unity. We will take it to as many community events as possible distributing free water, popsicles or ice cream depending on the type of event. It will also be used by our youth ministry, childrens ministry and individual small groups for outreach events (block parties, movie nights, VBS alternatives, etc.).

While we were at family camp a couple weeks ago, a family there heard our vision for the truck and volunteered to buy the truck, the graphic wrap (see pic) and the freezer. All we need to round it out is a bounce house, a/v system, and video screen. We can't wait to start using this incredible ministry tool.

BTW the pic is just a mock up of what the vehicle could look like, we are now searching for the right truck.

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God's Story

2007-06-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

I was asked to speak at NorthEast Christian Church in Bakersfield last Sunday just to tell "our story" and our vision for Kaleo.
I had planned on just winging it as I know my story pretty well and I've been eating and breathing Kaleos vision for about two years now. However, my wife reminded me that I tend to be a bit long winded when talking about myself or Kaleo and that maybe an outline would keep me on track. SoI started walking through chronologically the turning points which lead us to this point in time and the decision to plant a church. It was a very powerful experience! I could see God's hand in so many critical moments guiding, loving, redirecting, disciplining and delivering large portions of His Grace. I am so blessed, so many people have played crucial roles in my development, I am grateful to so many people. I know I've barely begun to scratch the surface of God's moving in my life but I'm determined to identify more and more and let this drive me to gratefulness and worship.

Where can you see God's fingerprints in your story?

A Home for Kaleo

2007-06-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

If you’ve been reading our prayer emails or our newsletters you’ve heard me say that God’s fingerprints are all over this adventure. Well this time His print is in the form of a meeting facility. We passed by this place the first time we were in Bakersfield and David Limiero the pastor of Life Journey Church in Bakersfield mentioned that it might be worth looking into as a place to meet. Then we passed by it again with our realtor, an elder at NorthEast Christian Church, and he said he knew the owners because they attended his church as kids. Then when we hit town we were visiting Christ Church of the Valley and noticed they were having an event there, Becky asked Amberly Neese, the lead pastors wife, about it and she said the owners attended and were active at CCV. So about this time (I’m apparently a little slow on the uptake) I decide maybe God’s doing something and call the owners Mike and Shari to see if I can come and see the facility and talk about the possibility of renting it. After touring the place with Mike and realizing we couldn’t possibly hope for a better place. Mike tells me they would love to have us in the facility and they wouldn’t charge us anything to use it. After picking my jaw up off the floor, Mike explained to me that he couldn’t charge me rent because he didn’t own the building. After pausing just long enough for me to start wondering about sub-leasing problems, He tells me that the owner is God and he’s pretty sure He won’t mind. : )
You can see more pictures of the inside of the facility at http://web.mac.com/sbcole just click on A Home for Kaleo.