Now for a word from our Pastor
Perspective
Dear Church Family,
I want to begin by thanking all of you who were praying for us during our time away. David and Any’s wedding was the highlight of the two weeks, and they are still on their honeymoon in Europe for another 10 days. Also, thank you for praying for my mom and sister’s house in Northern California. They weren’t able to get back into their community before they had to leave for David’s wedding, but when I drove back up with them after the wedding, everything was OK. The fire never jumped Highway 44, but it caused a lot of devastation and loss 5-10 miles south of our family home.
Over the course of four days I sorted through all of my dad’s machines and tools, loaded up everything I hope to keep in a U-Haul, and drove it home in 12 hours! And then by the end of the week I was able to enjoy my high school reunion. Pretty memorable two weeks. :-) Thanks again for all of you who prayed us through those days!
Last week I started a new sermon series entitled, ‘God’s Heart, Your Heart.” It’s a study in the life of King David who was described as “a man after God’s own heart.” We saw last week that even though by human standards David was “least likely to succeed,” God chose him to be one of the most important figures in the history of Israel. He was a shepherd, a musician, a warrior, a king…and also a sinner who needed God’s grace. I’m looking forward to all the things we will learn about God and ourselves as we follow David’s life through all its ups and downs.
Tomorrow I’ll be sharing from the most familiar story of David’s life: his battle with Goliath. We’re going to see how David’s faith in God enabled him not only to face a very fearful and overwhelming situation, but to also come out victorious. The key was his perspective! I hope you’re able to be with us tomorrow as we worship and learn together.
Blessings,
Doug
Unity in Diversity
Dear Church Family,
Tomorrow I’ll be wrapping up the series I’ve been preaching entitled, “Moving Forward in Faith.” I’ll be sharing from a passage in the book of Ephesians that talks about how we really need one another to grow and mature in the way that God intends. The passage is a wonderful reminder of the significance of unity in the midst of diversity. Appropriately, we’ll also be celebrating the Lord’s Supper together! I hope you will be able to join us.
Then we’ll be at our services the next two Sundays, but we’re going to actually be on vacation during those two weeks. Next Saturday, our son David is getting married to Any, and all sorts of family and friends are coming in for the big event. We’ve been looking forward to this day for several years, and will be so happy to have Any “officially” added to our family. :-)
The week after the wedding I’ll be traveling up to Northern California with my mom and sister to help them sort through a bunch of my dad’s tools and other belongings. There are some big items I’ll be bringing back home in a U-Haul truck at the end of the week, so I would appreciate your prayers for safety in traveling and for some special time with my mom and sister.
Bryan will be preaching next week (August 26) on the topic of our political responsibility, and the following week (September 2) Paul Kim, the pastor of Harbor North County, will be speaking on the topic of prayer. You won’t want to miss either of those Sundays!
Thanks again for your prayers and support.
Blessings,
Doug
Whew!
Dear Church Family,
July is a wrap, and it was quite a month at NCPC. In four consecutive weeks we hosted a conference, two youth theater camps, and put on our own VBS. We had well over 60 people who helped pull all that off, and I am thankful for each one of you. And in addition to all of the weekday activities, we also began sharing our facility on Sundays with Harbor North County!
While August won’t be as crazy, we’re continuing to move forward. And that has been the theme of our summer sermon series, “Moving Forward in Faith.” With all of these changes at NCPC, we keep asking ourselves the question each week, “How do we move ahead in the way that honors God and expresses our faith in His ability to provide for all of our needs?” Tomorrow we’re going to see how our faith changes our perspective on the world around us. We will follow Paul into the city of Athens and see how he processed the pagan culture and idolatry that surrounded him. It’s a timely message for us and you may be surprised at his approach! I hope join us tomorrow at 9:00!
Blessings,
Doug
Rocky Mountain High
Dear Church Family,
“The older we get, the better we were.” That’s a saying that will probably come to my mind many times over the next week. Lois and I will be headed out on a one-week vacation tomorrow and we’ll be spending most of the week at a cabin in the Colorado Rockies with three other couples from our college days. We’ll sit around, catch up, laugh about the good old days, and on Thursday we’re planning a whitewater rafting trip. These are the kinds of friends who allow you to just pick up where you left off, however many years it’s been, and after five minutes it feels like you haven’t missed a day.
We’d appreciate your prayers for safety and just some much-needed R & R. With my dad’s death earlier this year and all the exciting stuff going on at the church, we haven’t had the opportunity to get away yet this year for any down time. So this is just what the doctor ordered.
Bryan will be preaching this Sunday, continuing our series on “Moving Forward in Faith,” and I’ll be back in touch with an email in a couple of weeks. Thanks so much for your part in NCPC and for your prayers!
Blessings,
Doug
Power & Grace
Dear Church Family,
San Diego made national headlines on the 4th of July for all the wrong reasons. The annual spectacular fireworks display in San Diego Bay was a complete disaster. Although I have a friend who was there and said it was the best fireworks display he had ever seen (!), most people were left disappointed when the 20-minute show malfunctioned and went off all at once, lasting only about 15 seconds.
They came to see a colorful and graceful lightshow in the sky. What they saw instead was simply raw, explosive power. It was certainly impressive, but it left most people feeling empty.
We’re going to be looking at a passage in the morning that speaks of the gospel as the “power of God.” And I couldn’t help but think this week that the gospel is NOT the kind of raw power that people witnessed in San Diego on Wednesday. Rather, it is that perfect combination of power, beauty and grace. And just because it is so beautiful, the gospel changes us and compels us to share it with others. That’s the basic theme as we continue to focus on what it means to “Move Forward in Faith.” I hope you all can join us!
Blessings,
Doug
P.S. Remember our new service time is 9:00am! We had a great crowd out last week and most of you were there right on time. Thanks!
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Dear Church Family,
Last night’s “Fiesta Night” was a huge success! If you were with us you had to be moved by Tomas’ account of the fruitfulness of our partnership with Kid’s Kingdom Orphanage over the past 23 years. We also heard from Jonathan, who expressed his appreciation to us and shared how his life had been changed by the ministry of Kid’s Kingdom Orphanage. The event raised much-needed funds for the ongoing ministry of the orphanage and we all left full, entertained and blessed.
What a great way to kick off the summer! And this summer, especially the month of July, will be an incredibly busy time for us at NCPC. During the month we will be running our VBS program, sending 30 of our Lighthouse kids to Indian Hills, hosting a denominational conference for church planters, and renting our facility for two weeks of Christian Youth Theater camps. In the middle of all of these events, Greg & Caitelen Schneeberger, along with their daughter Aria, will be moving into the area to join us as our new interns. And then as if all this wasn’t enough, tomorrow we will begin sharing our facility on Sunday mornings with Harbor North County!
So please be in prayer for all of these opportunities and changes. I’ve heard it said that the only people who truly welcome change are wet babies. :-) That’s probably true! But we are looking forward to all that God will do during these weeks and the ways that He will change us for our good.
And don’t forget that the first change tomorrow morning will be our service time! We’ll be starting at 9:00 sharp, so please adjust your schedules to be there on time. We have a great worship service planned and you won’t want to miss any of it. I’m going to start a summer series entitled, “Moving Forward in Faith,” and tomorrow we’ll focus on the issue of our priorities as we look at the story of Mary and Martha. It will be a great way for us to begin what we hope to be a very fruitful summer of ministry.
I hope to see all of you tomorrow!
Blessings,
Doug
P.S. We’ll have the lower parking lot open in the morning, and if you’re able to navigate through the dirt and wood chips, please help us out by parking there to free up spots in the upper parking lot.
God's In The Details
Dear Church Family,
I gained a renewed appreciation yesterday for the airline industry and God’s sovereignty.
I was in Louisville, Kentucky all week for our denomination’s General Assembly. The purpose of the General Assembly is to hear the progress of our various organizations that are serving God’s kingdom throughout the world, take care of the administrative details of the denomination, and settle various issues that arise in our churches. But it’s also a wonderful opportunity to attend seminars, reconnect with other pastors and church leaders, and spend time catching up with friends.
This year, the Assembly ended a little early, so yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the Louisville Slugger baseball bat factory with a friend. Fascinating tour! And I even bought a couple of bats to bring home.
But then the rest of the day got complicated.
It all started with storms on the east coast, and then a fire broke out at an airport technical center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. 1600 employees had to be evacuated, and the fire left certain traffic flow systems unavailable. Suddenly, all over the eastern half of the country, flights began to be delayed and cancelled.
When something like that happens and you’re in an airport with thousands of other people trying to get home on a Friday night, it usually gets ugly. But kudos to the Southwest Airline employees in Louisville! They were friendly, patient, and did a wonderful job of handling a tense situation. I ended up leaving Louisville two hours later than the original plan, flying through Chicago rather than Phoenix, landing in San Diego four hours later than expected, but I got home.
The whole episode also was a great reminder of God’s control over the details of our lives. A fire in Atlantic City literally affected hundreds of thousands of people in one way or another, yet God was in the details of the solutions for each one of us. Aren’t you glad you don’t have that job???
Now, after a short night’s sleep, I’m off this morning to play a baseball game and see if these bats have any hits in them!
Blessings,
Doug
P.S. Tomorrow we will be having a congregational update after the morning service to pass along the latest information on all of the new developments in the upcoming weeks at NCPC. Also, tomorrow is the last Sunday of our fiscal year and we are praying a strong finish to our giving! Please pray and give with us!
Summer Kick-Off
Dear Church Family,
When I was younger, there never was a doubt: summer began the day school ended. And of course in those days (am I dating myself here or what???), school ended on the same day for everyone in the world.
Now, it’s much more complicated. It seems as if each school has a different calendar and only the kids can keep track of when they’re actually through. But even though I’m not sure when summer officially starts these days, this Sunday may be as good a time as any for us at NCPC.
So please join us! We’re having a family service, which means that all our children and students will be in the main worship service, and we’re going to have a special time of recognition for all of those who are graduating from the Lighthouse to the Dome. After the service we’re having a luncheon on the patio, a bake sale, the students will be washing cars, and you’ll even be able to give blood to the Red Cross. Definitely a full-service Sunday!
I’m looking forward to a great day and hope to see each one of you!
Blessings,
Doug
Sowing and Reaping
Dear Church Family,
“You reap what you sow.” That’s not one of those sayings that people believe is in the Bible when it really isn’t. Like, “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” or “God helps those who help themselves.” No, this one is really there.
So the question isn’t whether it’s true…the question is how do you respond to it?
I think there are two basic ways. The first response is dread: “Oh no…this verse is talking about all the bad things I’ve done catching up with me.” And certainly that’s part of what it means. Consequences are part of God’s loving plan to keep us on the right track.
But I was struck today that dread is the “glass half-empty” response to this verse. The “glass half-full” response is to see this truth as a wonderful God-given opportunity. And that’s the approach that Paul takes in the passage we will explore on Sunday. He gets excited about the fact that we reap what we sow, because it means we can take advantage of the countless opportunities we have to do good to others. And if we sow those seeds of goodness, we’ll reap the harvest.
So it all really boils down to the main issue in the book of Galatians: will we live in fear or will be live by faith? I hope you can be with us on Sunday…we may show up feeling like our glasses are half empty, but by God’s grace, we’ll leave believing they are overflowing!
Blessings,
Doug
P.S. Speaking of opportunities, if you didn’t get a chance to listen to the congregational update from last week, here is the link: http://www.ncpcfamily.org/services/sunday/sermons/3675-congregational-update-meeting. For those who are interested, we’re going to have a question and answer time after our morning service this Sunday.
The Power of Caring
Dear Church Family,
“People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” We’ve all probably heard that saying dozens of times. But it bears repeating, doesn’t it?
I believe there was a time in our culture when the most important issue for people who were considering Christianity was whether or not it was credible. During that time the best Christian thinkers focused on creating air-tight arguments for the truth of the gospel. Many who were convinced by those arguments received and followed Jesus.
But is that still the case today?
Don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say. I still think it’s vitally important for us to understand what we believe and be convinced of its truth. But as I observe our culture (at least here in Southern California), I run into more and more people who aren’t necessarily hung up on whether Christianity is true. They want to know whether it works. They want to know if and how followers of Jesus are different from everyone else. And if their primary experience of Christianity is people who appear to be dogmatic and judgmental, they want nothing to do with us.
On the other hand, if they know that we care, they will listen to what we believe. They will want to know what drives us to live our lives with different values and priorities. They will be willing to consider that there might be some substance to who Jesus is and what he taught.
And that’s why the passage we’ll be looking at on Sunday is so important. The theme will be “Caring Enough to Love” from the beginning of Galatians 6, and we’re going to see the power that a caring community has when it is committed to Christ.
I’m convinced that if we grasp and are changed by what God says, we’ll not only be blessed…we’ll be a blessing to others. And then maybe more people will begin to listen.
Hope to see you Sunday,
Doug
P.S. Don’t forget that we’re having a special Congregational Update meeting after our service on Sunday to pass along some exciting news! The meeting will last about 20 minutes and childcare will be provided.
Now for a word from our Pastor
Musings and advice from our Pastor.