Thank you for visiting our website and reading our updates. This is a new process for our church and we want to simply welcome you in Christ’s love. We also want to give a shout out to a good friend of mine, Joshua, for putting this website together. He’s a real estate agent by trade (we bought our two houses over the years and he was our agent for both. Anyone in need of a good agent in Southern Cal?).
Over the years, Joshua and I have met regularly over lunch and coffee to get away from our daily routines and dig deeper into our random (and outside-of-box) thoughts about God, faith, and church. We shared our doubts about God, disappointments with ourselves and churches in general, but undoubtedly would come back to the deepest conviction that we share together - that, at the end of the day, church is still the best real solution we have for the cultural and spiritual ills of today.
We couldn’t escape from this conviction and longing. Just as we couldn’t escape from God even with all of our doubts and theological questions, we simply couldn’t look at each other in the eyes and say that church is hopeless and not necessary anymore. Yes, our definition of “church” went wild at times. Do we really have to meet on Sundays? Do we really need a pastor preaching a sermon every time? What constitutes as a church and what doesn’t? What is the real meaning and purpose of church?
As I think about it today, it’s funny how I’ve had the most interesting, outside-of-box, and often amazingly liberating conversations about God and church with not another pastor but a real estate agent. Or, maybe it’s not so funny after all. Maybe it just speaks more to the great truth of the New Testament about everyone being God’s "priest" in this world. You see, my friend, Joshua, sees himself as a priest before seeing himself as a real estate agent. He also teaches me I’m a priest in this world before being a professional pastor or a chaplain. We might have different jobs (some have religious ones like I do but some don't), but we all have callings that are directly from God. And, for this common calling of being a “priest” in and for this world, we have to come together as his church. Because, God works through his body as a whole, more than through individuals.
With this website, we will attempt to live out and share with others how God is calling us for his purpose and constantly growing us toward that purpose. It’s not to show how well we do it, or to suggest in any ways our ways are any better than others, but we simply seek to live out the freedom and power of Jesus’ redemption and love.
I as the pastor will do my part as best as I can. One part of my contribution will be to update and write in this website consistently. Please engage with me in any ways you can. I’m sure I will need some encouragement along the way.
Hope to see you here often. Here is a selfie of me writing these blogs (sorry about the photobomb. I think he also wanted to contribute in his own way!).
