Well our soccer season is over. We started out really bad, but finished in second place! Here are some pic's of our games and the team.












More than that though we made some great relationships
with folks we would have otherwise never met.
The next day we had a BBQ at Jeff's and it was cool hanging out with our team outside of soccer.

Our main goal was to get out of the "Christian Ghetto" and hang with the folks, so that's what we did.


We already signed up for the next season with all of our new friends.

So, at the last "The College Group" we went to the mall and handed out candy canes.

We came with the idea of handing out candy canes with tags on them saying, "Jesus thinks you're awesome! Merry Christmas!" 250 people that night were confronted with the fact that Jesus thinks they're awesome! AWESOME!
One girl, Cheryl, who has been coming to the group and finding a relationship with Jesus, thought it was too cool that we were doing something like this. I was surprised since she is so quite, but she is really falling in love with Jesus. Her passion is really inspiring.

Her group had an interesting experience: This guy with two girls came up to them to receive their candy canes and started talking with our folks. No sooner did they start talking when this guy busts out a blunt (a marijuana filled cigar) and starts smoking it in front of them and blowing the smoke in Laben's (one of the leaders) face! They then read the tags and when realizing that our folks are Christians apologized for their cussing and blunt smoking. Cheryl then steps out and invites them to church. To her surprise the other girls grab a piece of paper and hand it to her and said to call them. Cheryl couldn't believe what happened. She made herself available and God used her.

"The College Group" learned how to be the "salt of the earth" by doing it instead of just hearing or reading about it. Praxis.

We stand in awe of the ocean,
The thunderstorm,
The sunset,
The mountains;
But we pass by
A human being
Without notice
Even though
The person
Is God's most
Magnificant Creation.
AUGUSTINE

My little girl.










What' up with Romeo! This guy gave my
daughter one too many pieces of banana,
so I took him outside and broke'm down.
Needless to say, he left.

BBQ with young folks
Worship in the park
Classroom
Guys room where we slept
Where "China" pottery is made!

This is a back alley at night. Lots of fresh good fruit.
Well China was amazing. In short: I got sick as a dog for 3 days; we invited a lot of college students to hang out with us on Sunday; we had a blast at our fellowship in the park Sunday singing, dancing, eating, and playing football; five people chose Christ at the park; we worked with 45 children ages 7 to 19 who were former prostitutes, drug dealers, slaves, and criminals at an old factory where we taught them English, worshiped, prayed, and celebrated Yeshua together. Hopefully we go back in the summer time to work with the kids. I hope to bring some of The College Group folks for a longer trip. I always have to remember that the door could be closed at any time. Playing catch-up right now with school and it's working me. Practice praxis.

Well I'm leaving for Beijing tomorrow at 7:25. I'll be back Nov. 4. Keep loving Jesus and loving your neighbor. Practice praxis; it's easier than you think!

I was gone last week in San Francisco at one of my Grad classes-Urban Ministry-and it was pretty awesome. We had the opportunity to go through SF and see some of the great things that God is doing through his church. The class was held at City Church, which is a blossoming Presbyterian church in SF. I have been to their church once and it is a really cool fellowship. Our teacher, Dr. Carlo is from New York and he brought a bunch of his students, who were, and still are, all black and Latino. Having them in the class was great since they brought a fresh perspective to the class. We had the chance to hang-out and talk a lot, which was part of the learning experience. Plus I stayed with my friend, who is basically like a brother to me, and he doesn't know Jesus. We had a great time going surfing and had good conversations about the faith.

The College Group was last night and we had a great time. We had two new folks there and we hope that they will plug-in. Rachel, who oversees the ladies, and I are going to get together to talk about assimilation and how we are approaching that. If people feel called to go somewhere else, that's great, but we want to make sure that we make every effort to let them know they (regardless of where they're at in the journey) are welcomed in our fellowship.

We're off to China in 4 days! I'm stoked since this will be a first for many of the people going. I'm also stoked since our fund-raising (basically misc. work days on Sat.) will be over. I would and will do it again this way since working for your money builds character and we've all had our "character" grow (especially me!) "Thanks God, don't be confused by my attitude, I want to grow."

We had a great time at group last night. There were 12 people and a couple of folks were not able to join us, so that puts us at...a group that's getting ready to multiply! Allen, who is interning with me, helped lead discussion and he did a great job. I'll be gone in China soon and he is going to lead the group with the help of our small-group pastor from the church who will coach him. I hope to multiply by Jan. which will provide more room for the folks that we are reaching out to. Plus it gets me out of the way so our new leaders can pastor, lead, raise and release other leaders.

We talked about community and looked at Acts 2:14-47 as our text. One of our main goals in our discussion is APPLICATION. Here are some question we used: 5. Do you believe this style of community is normal or abnormal? Why? 6. Would you need to change your lifestyle to achieve this type of community? 7. Are you willing to adjust your standard of living so that you can experience Christ-centered community like this? Why or why not? 8. What can you do to take part in Christ-centered community?

If-Then

If you started watching TV at the tender age of 5 and you watched the average 4hrs of TV that americans watch then you've wasted a lot of time.

4hrs x 365days is 1460hrs. The average life span of people (kinda) is 70, so we could say that we have an average TV watching life of 65yrs. If each year we watch 1460hrs of TV per year then in 65yrs we watch 94,900hrs of TV. If we divide that into 18hr days, since you have to sleep at least 6hrs a day, you waste 5,272.22 days, or 14.44yrs (of 18hr days) in front of the boob tube. Wow is right.

If-Then
If you believe that we will all stand before God and give an account for what we did with the life (& Time) that He gave us, then you wouldn't watch as much TV as most folks.

So, the next time someone tells you they don't think they can squeeze God stuff into an already busy schedule you can share our little secret.
(I don't have cable, but I do watch movies, when I have time ;-)

Once again I can’t help but notice the church flourishing in China. By 2020 it will be the largest Christian nation in the world. What do they say about our situation? (Books—Heavenly Man, Road to Jerusalem) We are Luke-warm, don’t pray enough (average Christian prays 3min a day, average pastor prays 6min, Barna—not really storming the gates of hell now are we), don’t fast enough, are consumed with media (average ??hrs), live a powerless faith, are too comfortable, have divorced mission (Gen 3:9, Matt 28:19, 2 Cor. 5:11) from church, preach a “make me happy” gospel, won’t challenge secular culture, are too tolerant, un-relational, ETC, man. The guy in The Heavenly Man speaks at churches in the US and straight tells ‘em to repent and that they need to be broken for God.

Try this: Get radical for Jesus, PRAY, FAST, get up earlier & read your word, tip 100%, smile, PRAY AGAIN, listen to worship music and sing as loud as you can, FAST, intercede, repent for not praying enough, do the un-imaginable—get rid of your cable, have fun, weep for the nations, read Voice of the Martyrs, laugh at yourself, stop watching and living in Smallville, join the real Amazing Race like Keith Wheeler (check the “carries cross” link), PRAY.

Try it for one month. If you don’t notice a difference in your life and those around you I’ll give you your money back.

A few of us from our church are headed to China (Oct 24-Nov-4). I am blessed that three people I am discipling are going with me, two of them have never left America, one has never gone outside of California! plus two of them will be planting a church with me in 2007, so experiencing cross-cultural stuff is a must.
We will work with three missionaries: Two University teachers who allow us to hang our with their students, they also oversee many house churches, so we attend church with them and talk to some of their leaders. We also spend time with a woman who adopts street kids and brings them to an abandoned chili factory teaching them about Jesus while giving them life skills.
We are in the middle of fund-raising, which is a great opportunity for some of the folks to own and admin events. My desire is that they learn how to admin a trip initiating, overseeing, and follow-through all the steps needed to take their disciples on cross-cultural journeys. We do odd jobs for our money, which is a character and team building adventure. Most of our work has come from people who don’t know Jesus, so it’s a great witness as well.
We started our college group. After much prayer and fasting God finally gave me the name for our group: The College Group! Totally PoMo (postmodern) so we’re guaranteed to bring um’ in. I’m into cell church, so The College Group will meet as a small group, evangelize (which was our topic last night Luke 10:25-36), grow, and then multiply & do it again & again & again etc… When we have four groups we’ll get together as a large group (Cell-ebration)
We had two new folks and when we started talking about taking a mission’s trip this next summer they were stoked. My intern will help me lead next week. I think he'll be ready to lead his own group in Jan? Good stuff.

Last night we played indoor soccer. Laben, Jeff, and myself joined up with the league to make some friends with folks who don’t know Jesus. We’re not sure how it’s all gonna work out since the guys on our team take off pretty quick to go drinking. No joke, last week we had a late game (9pm) and most of the team didn’t show up because they were too ripped to make it. One guy came hammered and played better than I would have in that state. There is one guy, Brian whom we all agree seems interested in hanging out, so we’ll see when we can hang out with him. It is pretty awesome though to be teammates with these guys. We’re gonna give them free drink cards to the Koffee shop our church owns www.yakskoffee.com; we’ll see how it goes.
Well I set a great example last night by almost getting in a fight! Go pastor Sean!! This dude runs into me hard and I grab his shirt for two reasons:
One-I’m pissed off
Two-I’m trying not to fall over.
Of course the guy starts yelling at me. I wasn’t trying to start a fight; I was reacting wrongly to a wrong against me. I told the guy “You know you’re in the wrong man, you slammed into me.” He continued to tell me to “-----------!” Well we were both wrong (the ref did give us the ball!), but I know better. (Once again, just knowing something doesn’t mean you’ll do it) After the game I apologized to him, which is never easy. He shrugged me off. Hopefully I see him around town and I get a chance to talk to him. Maybe we’ll laugh about it; exchange stories.
Nobody said I’m doing it right, but I’m out there trying.

Scene 1-Sean's living room, morning time, after the coffees been had.

Sean said, "Lord what books must I read to gain eternal life?"
Jesus said, "How do you interpret the law?"
Sean said, "You didn't answer my question Jesus, what books will tell me how to live rightly?"
Jesus said, "Matthew 22:37-40."
Sean said, "Matthew who?"
Jesus said, "Love your neighbor."
Sean said, "What's that got to do with what I'm asking you? Anyways, what's your definition of love? I know what Luther says, Augustine says, Clive says, and what Richard says, but I'm not to sure what to think yet. I am going to this conference soon where there's a workshop on post-modernistic ecclesastical soteriology as it pertains to hamartiology. I hope it changes my life."

Sean hears a sound outside, stands, looks out the window where his neighbor is changing his tire.
Sean exits the room, goes outside.

Sean says, "Ya need some help with that tire."
Dave says, "Thanks man, I gotta get to work quick."
Sean says, "I'd love to help."
Simple.

"Given that the center of Christianity has now shifted to these poorer countries...Ironically, those who boast the highest standard of living and display also the greatest spiritual poverty are also the ones who write our theology texts; meanwhile, those with the least often have much to teach us about prayer and dependence on God." William A Dyrness-Diversity in Mission and Theology: Fuller Seminary
The majority of Christians who are living today are not Anglo-Saxon, are financially poor, and are people with whom we have little in common with; if you can overlook the fact that we are brothers and sisters in Christ.
Their Christianity is not our Christianity; our faith is not their faith. They compose a majority of the church, yet as Dr. Dyrness says we compose the majority of theology that affects the body. Can't we say that our theology, and therefore the body, is lacking without the contribution of those who experience Christ-centered life in ways we don't? I believe that our understanding of God is deficient without the contribution of those who have a dependency on Christ that most of us only read about. Yet we write the books on ecclesiology (church), which is ironic since our culture provides us with a context that leaves community as an option, whereas community for them is often a means of survival.
Shouldn’t they be invited into dialogues about church since they live what most of us attend? They really know what it means to "share all things in common" (Acts 2), we "sacrifice what we don't need, keep what we want" and then write about community while living in neighborly isolation.
The church is the body, the bride of Christ. The body and therefore our understanding of church is out of proportion. We need the emergence of a global perspective.

This is my second blog of the day. I guess I'm turning into a blogger. Jesus is pretty dang cool. I love Him. Grad school is great right now, I'm writing a paper about the character of a Christ-like leader: God Dependent, Church Dependent, Teachable, and a Servant's heart. There could be much more written on the subject (and better?), but it's a start.
I joined the city indoor soccer league with the other guys who will be planting a church with me. We really wanted to hang with some people who don't know how cool Jesus is, so we decided to join a soccer team. We got picked up by a team (all three of us), which was a miracle in and of itself, and we are stoked. Some of our games are at 10pm, so our goalie informed us that instead of getting drunk after the game he has to get drunk at the bar (at the sport's complex) before the game. Laben, who is one of the three guys planting with me, and I totally busted up because that sounded like us before we met Jesus. We are certainly in the right place. My devotional life has been weak lately, but the team is fasting the next three days, which always ends with a renewed passion for Him. Keep loving Jesus.

Well this month has been pretty cool. My life seems to be comsumed with reading my Grad books. If you guys want some good information about biblical exegesis & hermentuetics ask somebody else cuz' I'm about finished with it! Just joking, I'm not totally over it, but let's not talk about it ;-). I seem to go through interesting cycles concerning works & faith. At first it starts out with me trying to spend more time in the word, in witness, & in prayer. This leads to me setting times for all this, which is birthed out of a innocent pursuit of Jesus. However, after a period of time I start to hold on to these things whether the Spirit of God is there or not. Don't get me wrong I love praying, witnessing, & reading my word. It just starts to get weird (works?). That said, God spoke to me through His word: Isaiah Chapter 1 "I don't need your religion" (ouch!) Chapter 40 "They that wait on Yeshua" (ouch!!) Psalm 1 "I'm a tree chillin' on God's riverbank" (ouch!!!) Mark 4: 26- "The Gospel will grow without me" (that hurt) So, now I'm really enjoying God again. Sleepng in! Chewing on one chapter for devotionals. Watching the Tour De France with my Bible in hand. Which leads me to the next part of my cycle. Since I'm having such a great time with God I plan on getting up earlier tomorrow, gonna' read more of His word since it's so awesome, & I want to pray more because I know it works. All this will lead once again to...a man who wants more of God, but is bound by the everpresent blemish of sin. Lovin' it man!