My first teaching experience at Vintage Faith was a good one. The people at all three services were extremely kind and welcoming. My message was about "How to align ourselves to hear and know God's will". I spoke about how God reveals Himself through SCRIPTURE and PRAYER. One of the main points I tried to make was that in trying to understand God's will, we really are trying to understand GOD HIMSELF. As we get a better understanding of WHO God is, we get a better picture of WHO He wants us to BE. In discerning God's will, I believe the question is not, "WHAT do you want me to do, Lord?" but rather, "WHO do you want me to BE, Lord?". WHAT WE DO flows from WHO WE ARE. I took us through Psalm 1:1-3, Ecc. 5:1-2, and Matthew 6:5-8 and Mark 1:35. Jesus often withdrew from the crowds and ministry to be alone with the Father...we need to do the same.
On a personal note, it felt real good to preach again. The topic is one that Annette and I are currently working through, so I was able to speak from the "overflow" of my heart. I've spoken to a few people afterwards, and they have given me positive feedback. Dan K. and I talked and I may be able to teach again here and there.
Here's a cool thing that happened before I preached on Sunday night. I went up to my office a few minutes before the service to pray and just "be still". I got a phone call from my friend Sam:
Sam was able to pray for me over the phone before I went into service. It was so cool because I was really wanting to find someone to pray for me, but I didn't know who to ask. Thanks, Sam for praying for me.
Some other items to note:
--I only said the word "poop" in one of the services
--the first thing I did in the first service was grab hold of the podium (which is a music stand) and accidentally pulled the top off of it. I just handed it to Pastor Lee and started my message. I need to lay off my kids' steroids...
--I continued my tradition of preaching on a holiday weekend (Labor Day, Martin Luther King Day, etc.). I preach best when the other pastors are on vacation along with half the church...I can do less damage that way!
It's been over 11 months since I preached a sermon at church. I was asked to teach this weekend at Vintage Faith. We are in a series titled: "The Beautiful Mess" and we are looking at how to align ourselves and know God's will in the midst of the chaos in our lives. I will be speaking on how God has given us His Word and Prayer as ways He reveals Himself to us. I'm looking forward to teaching. It has been difficult to work 30+ hours at Starbucks each week AND find good study time, but it's coming together alright.
Annette and I celebrated our 12th anniversary by going to Monterey for two days. We took our bikes down and rode to Cannery Row for lunch at El Torito (translation: the little bull, for my non-spanish speaking amigos). They have the BEST salsa because it's not hot at all...in fact, I think they just add water to ketchup, and I LOVE IT. 
We had an All Night event in December with the youth at our church. It was a GREAT time. We had 13 students and 6 adults hang out for the night. We hung out downtown for a photo scavenger hunt. We had a team of girls and two teams of guys...the girls won! Then we went bowling. The second picture is of the leaders (and a couple students squeezing in). Eddie, the guy in the backwards hat, wins the award for "Most Sleep by a Leader at an All Night Event". No joke, he was out by 1:30am...and yelling at kids to get out of the room if they made any noise! 
So check out this flyer for our "Freeze Yer Buns Beach Bonfire". This guy Alex from our church is really good at designing stuff on the computer, so I asked him to do a flyer for my "genious" idea of having a bonfire at the beach in January (who doesn't like a little frostbite with their s'more?). Now I've done some pretty amazing flyers in my past (not at all), but this one is pretty amazing. And to think I actually thought of doing this flyer on my own and not bothering Alex. Great job, Alex.
