Crazy Faith tm

Yes, we are trying to trademark that! So for all of you who were praying for our launch on the 9th, I have some good news, it didn't happen! Now how can that be good news? The reason it didn't happen was because the school didn't find someone to open the door and monitor us on Sunday morning. Now we were kinda bummed about it, but we began to think about it, and we honestly weren't ready. We were biting off more than we could chew. The school rental plus the church insurance was really too expensive for us, especially on a weekly basis so this made us stand back and rethink what we were doing.

So we have a better plan and we're really excited about it. We are going to open the Lakewood Library's doors on Sunday, December 23rd, for our first church service which will be held in the evening. Yes, we will still have pancakes, as Stan Simmonds put it, "Pancakes were never intended as only a breakfast food."  We are also going to be buying a bunch of Christmas gifts for people who cannot afford gifts for their kids to take home with them.  Now meeting at the Library is a huge blessing because its free. We can only meet twice a week, but that's a good start, and it will make a more obvious transition as we grow and we start holding weekly Sunday services in the morning sometime in the future.

Crazy faith, in other words, Stupid faith or Reckless faith. This is what we have been experiencing in the last couple weeks. This is when you give up everything that is comfortable and do something that is beyond your means just because God asked you to and He has promised that He will provide. This is a story of what God did to show His great provision for us.

MEAT!

I have been looking for a job since I got here and I've been looking everywhere. I found an add that said they were hiring drivers, so on a Friday I interviewed with them and they said they would contact me by Monday if they wanted me. I didn't get a call so I moved on, but about 1 1/2 weeks later, I got the call. They said they were going to take me on a 2 day ride along to see the job first hand. I hopped in the car with the manager of the branch, Jerry, and realized very quickly this was a door-to-door sales job, not really delivery. So I knew right away this was not my thing but I was there and so I prayed that God would use it.

The first thing this guy tells me is that he is an ex pastor/prison chaplain. Say WHAT?! Okay so he tells me his whole life story and asks me some questions and its totally laid back. We get the the place we are going to work and I watch and observe, praying almost the whole time. Now the product we are selling is meat, variety packs of tasty choice beef steaks and premium marinated chicken. So around 4:00 we sit down at McDonalds to take a break and he brings up a study he wrote while in ministry about Grace and the Law. It was really fascinating and we talked about it for about 45 minutes. I left with some really good insight.

We finished our route and headed home. We discussed it and decided it wouldn't be good for me to continue, but he gave me a small box of the steaks, the least valued ones and the some deer meat we acquired from a hunter on our route and I was very appreciative. Then He asked me how the financial situation was with the pastor and his family. I told him that things were super tight, but we were hangin in there. Then he told me that the Lord had been prompting him to do something all day and he asked whether I wanted a full box of chicken or steaks to take home. I was completely blown away, this is not cheap stuff. So I said chicken because we have kids, so he said he was going to give me both because he knows how hard starting a church can be.

After selling this stuff all day, I knew this was huge, and this was the reason God sent me there. I drove away laughing because I had no words to thank God. I want to put this into context for you. What we got was 13 gallon size ziplock bags full of choice beef steak and premium chicken. If you were to order these two boxes online, it would cost you about $800, we were selling both for $388. Each box costs the driver $132, so if he sells both for $388, that's $124 profit. So by giving us that, its a cost of $388 to him because its $264 out of pocket and a miss of $124 profit. So he donated $388 worth of meat to us. Now as poor church planters, meat is something we have missed out on for a while, so this was the biggest blessing ever. You should have seen the jaws hit the floor when I showed Cam and Britt what I had brought home.

All the meats

This is our chest freezer

Das good Steak

Then through a program called WIC, which helps children under 5 eat better, we have been provided with food free of cost till March! And the lady that interviewed Cam and Britt is a Christian and wants to tithe to our church because hers is big and doesn't really need the money.

Mind Blown!

Also Cam might be getting a good security job this week and I still don't have a job so keep praying that I find one soon. One thing we are learning, Life is hard, but God is good, and Heaven is real. God provides to those living on Crazy Faith. This is not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but we know that God holds true to his promises. All the time. To Him be the glory! Amen.

In Him,
Landon

On the edge...

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to let all of you know what is going on up here in Lakewood.  It has been a while since we have written.  We have been meeting on Thursday nights in our local Barns & Noble coffee shop.  It has proven to be fruitful.  We have a couple of people coming regularly to learn about the Jesus, every week.  What is truly amazing is that we are finding people that did not go to church, wanting to launch church with us.

On December 9th we are planing to hold our first service, we are calling this our "soft launch", simply to see what God will do to bless this city.  We will be serving pancakes to the general public, we have a very large homeless population.  There need is so great, we are expecting many to partake in this opportunity to feed their family for free.  Since church is usually called a "service", we thought we should serve!  

When we left Los Alamos, we had planned to pay our rent for at least six months to buy the time to be able to find a job that will pay the rent.  Unfortunately we have not been able to land a job.  I have been working at Walgreen's part time, and am still actively looking for a job.  To be completely honest, we are coming up short for the new year.  I do not like to ask for support, but at this point we need to. 

There is an easy way to give to the cause.  You can give online at http://calvarysouthsound.org/support/.  We have set up an e-giving account to make this as easy as possible.  Using this service will enable you to give with a one time, or monthly giving plan.  Please consider supporting us.

In Him,

Cameron

Who Said Walking by Faith Was Supposed to be Easy

Hey guys! Sorry you haven’t heard from us in a long time, but we have some great news to share.  First off, we have a launch date!  On December 9th, we will hold a Sunday service in Park Lodge Elementary School, right across from the Lakewood Towne Center.  We will be serving free pancakes to anyone who is willing to come get them.  We’re really excited that this is going to happen and we are praying that it will be a great outreach to the community.  We also now have two lady’s that are consistently coming to our Thursday night Bible study.  They are excited to help us with our launch and we can tell that we are making a difference in their lives already.  So praise Jesus for those awesome things.

What is the cost of picking up your cross every day and following Jesus?  To some it looks like 5 minutes in the morning praying, Sunday morning and maybe Wednesday night.  But is that all He asks for?  Just a little time from us each week?  Cam and I have been realizing more and more this is not the case.  We read in the Bible that when Jesus tells people to follow him or when someone comes to Jesus and asks to follow Him, His response is always the same.  The cost of following Jesus is, well its everything.  You say, well I know that, but do you?  What is everything to you?  God has been teaching us this slowly while being up here.  We’ve had to fully rely on God’s provision for lots of the things that we could take care of ourselves before we came here. 

This has been really prevalent for me because I have been looking for a job since I got up here.  That’s a total of 3 months that I have been submitting resumes and applications, and even though I am in the process with two companies, nothing is for certain yet.  I’ve been wondering for a while know why I haven’t seen God provide like I thought he was going to and recently it even developed into an anger towards Him.  Like with how many people are praying and how hard I’ve been working, how could you not answer me yet?  I realized yet again that I was trying to control many things and getting mad that things were not going my way.  Well here’s the deal guys.  God’s ways are not our ways, and I have once again had to bow before the throne and give everything back to Him.  His promises are true.  If you are feeling this way at all go read Psalm 6:2-4, 27:14, Matt. 6:25-34, 7:7-11.  These are promises that we can hold on to in times when we think that God is not near or that things are not turning out the way they should.

These things are hard and we don’t always seen why they happen but the important thing is to trust in His promises and have faith, no matter what.  And when we run out of faith, just obey.  So we are continuing the church plant in faith, trusting that God will provide for us, lots of love, hurting people, and the ability to carry out His will here in Lakewood.

Here are some prayer requests you can be lifting up for us.

• Cam and I are still looking for Jobs so we can stay up here and not be a burden on the church.
• Our first Sunday service is coming up very soon and there is a HUGE list of things we have to do before that can happen, so we need prayer that we can actually get everything done that we need to.

In Him,
Landon

A manual

We have been about this work of church planting for a few months now.  I wanted to share one of the things that God has been teaching me, us, through this new work.  Let me get everyone up to speed on what is going on.  First, we have been intentionally getting out on Thursday nights to meet people, teach, and discuss who Jesus is.  During the planning phase of the church plant, we, and by that I mean me, decided that I knew about the culture enough to engage in a structured and decisive way to win people to Christ.  Apparently I did not.  Now I am not going to give up on our Thursday nights, but I see now that every culture is different, and needs to be engaged within its cultural context.  I also see that I did not truly understand the cultural context that I am now living, and ministering in.

Second, I am quickly learning that the book of Acts especially chapters 13 through 28, are God's way of showing us not only how to, but what to expect from church planting.  I was reading the book of Acts this morning, and was startled by the parallels of the first church planting movement, and my own experiences of church planting today.  The first thing that popped up on my, "it happened to me" radar was that people will let you down.  When we hit ground zero, I commonly refer to our city as ground zero, I started to get out and share the Gospel.  What I found was a city underbelly that was starving for Jesus.  Just the fact that I wear Van's shoes and talk about Jesus attracts people to Jesus.  So in my own mind I saw who I thought were going to be the transformed leaders on this new work.  What I found was that God was leading me through loving people, no matter what their response to the church plant is.  Paul went through this with John Mark when he departed, or rather deserted Paul on the church planting road.

Third, is change.  Change is not comfortable, it is not easy, and takes faith in the context of church planting.  In my tribe, Calvary Chapel, we are used to starting a home study, watching it grow, and after a time starting a Sunday service.  Now, I know that God moves in that method of church planting.  But, at the cost of sounding like the young guy that I am, He does move through new wine skins.  I can remember reading, and listening to Pastor Chuck over and over again speak on the topic of letting the Spirit move through new ways, or new wine skins.  I still go back to what Chuck said and let those words sink in, and teach me on the moving of the Holy Spirit, from sermons from the 1970's and 1980's.  They are still true today.  One of the things in Acts that should be noted by any church planter is Paul's willingness to change.  In Ephesus Paul gets kicked out of the synagogue, but he does not let that stop the church plant in Ephesus, he then rents out a school and raises up a body of believers.  There are times when our models and methods of church planting, are not going to work.  Even our ideas about exactly where to do things are not going to work.  Remember when Paul wants to preach the Gospel in Asia, and the Holy Spirit forbids him.  This does not deter Paul, he goes on to get a dream about a man in Macedonia, and goes there to plant another church.  Here is the connection.  If the Spirit is not working in something, find out where He is moving and working, and do that.  In our culture, if someone is going to go to church, they want to go to an actual church on Sunday morning.  This is not true of all cultures, but it is in mine.  So because of this, we are going to launch on a Sunday morning.  No momentum building, just do it, so to say.  Thursday nights are not what I thought them to be, but I have had many Gospel conversations, and will continue to do so on Thursday nights.  How is this change?  It is change because I no longer look to our Thursday night study to be the start of the church plant, to be the things that brings people, and other leaders to the church plant.  We now go out with no specific expectations, just that the Holy Spirit to move and work.  Now if we will look at the book of Acts as not only a historical and theological text, but a how to, and what to expect in church planting.  We can be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit in planting the church.  

In Calvary Chapel, there is a book that I believe really defines us.  It is Harvest.  The starting of the movement is amazing.  Read about how Applegate started, and baptizing naked people.  Starting a church in a Karate studio, and a young dude that came late to a baptism and preached the Gospel to other hippies and baptized them, with no formal training.  I am of course speaking of Jon Courson, Raul Ries, and Greg Laurie.  Not the methods, but the heart of them.  To bring Jesus to new cultures, requires us to leave behind our presuppositions, and some sensitivities of that culture.  If Pastor Chuck has taught us anything, it is that all matter to Christ.  Reaching out to our "hippies" is what we are about.  I love what Peyton Jones says about this, "To reach the ones that no one else is, we have to do the things that no one else is willing to do, and go to places that no one else is willing to go."

There is a measure of faith that we are asking for in this new endeavor.  Please pray for us while we go through time.

In Him,

Cam

Tossing Tables...

Normally I hold myself to a strict no politics policy in Calvary South Sound, neither endorsing or condemning either party or candidate.  I watched the debate last night, saw some more debate on facebook this morning, and watched the twitter shouting match pop up on the bottom of my screen.  Let me first say that I live and minister in one of the most liberal places in the country, the northwest.  I see many, many political signs that I would never have dreamed of seeing in New Mexico.  It has led me to one conclusion, this is not a spiritual debate, but it has been made into one.  Confused?  Let me explain.  The presidential debate has polarized our country.  Both sides calling the other names, and thinking evil thoughts.  I have heard things like,"I don't believe that you can be a follower of Jesus and a democrat!"  I have heard that Christians/Conservatives have no compassion on the lower class in our country.  I have heard one angry outburst, and ridiculous accusation after another.  So here is what I believe the Word is telling us.

In Ephesians chapter two Paul addresses two groups in the city that are at each others throats.  The Jews and Gentiles of Ephesus had been arguing and arguing about one issue after another and causing such unrest that the Gentiles had been kicked out of the synagogue.  Now on the streets they are calling each other names like little children on the playground.  Ephesians 2:11 says, "Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh--who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands-"  Literally meaning foreskin and cut-around.  What they were doing was deliberately dehumanizing the others.  Sound familiar to anyone?

Back to today.  As we lob verbal grenades to the other side, both are throwing them, we are thickening the veil over our eyes to what is truly important.  It was said that the greatest trick the Devil ever did was convincing the world that he does not exist.  I believe he us up to a new trick.  One that is just as dangerous.  By convincing us that evil is the form of a Donkey or Elephant, we are blinded to true evil.  We are missing the fact that we are sons and daughters of Christ, and the ones that we make inhuman, are also loved by Christ.  He gave His blood for them.

We know that Jesus got angry on earth when He came into the Temple and saw that the Pharisees had turned it into their own personal extortion ring.  But, at the heart of the account of Jesus' anger, is that the Pharisees were keeping people from God.  By extorting the poor, and the widows out of what little they had, they misrepresented the love of God.  So, Jesus went tossing tables.

Today, by dehumanizing the other side we are misrepresenting the love of Christ, and dividing people instead of uniting those who look and think economically different that you.  Paul concludes this matter in Ephesians 2:13-18; " But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, [that is], the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man [from] the two, [thus] making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father."  Do we not see?  That we are made one, by the blood.

Just some things to ponder as you go out into the world this week.

In Him,

Cam

Rumors Are Such Terrible Things... It Doesn't Rain Here At All

Lakewood Towne Center Entrance

Hello to all the people who are keeping up with us and welcome to another update from Calvary South Sound brought to you by Landon! So I moved up here three weeks ago and its just been awesome! I'm all settled and love living with the Barbers and playing with the kids. I love how green it is and how many bodies of water are so close. And also, as the title suggests, I have yet to be convinced it rains here. Three weeks and not a single storm, clear and bright, shiny skies. Its been pretty awesome.

This is where we host our Bible study.

Some really cool stuff has happened in the last couple weeks so I want to share a couple stories. First off was our study last Thursday. As you know, last week one guy showed up, and this week, no one showed up. So after the kids went home Cam and I did a short study on the beatitudes (Matt. 5) and decided to go out into the town center to see who we could find and see if the Lord wold bless our efforts. We spotted a couple people but they were completely uninterested in talking to us and actively avoided us. Then we found a guy sitting outside of Safeway charging his phone. We asked if we could talk to him about Jesus and he told us that he knew Him as his personal Lord and Savior already, but gave us permission to talk to him. His name was David and He began to show us pictures of his 6 year old son back in the Philippines. We offered him some food and after some deliberation, he said he wanted a hot dog from the nearby Seven Eleven. We agreed and as we walked he began to spill his life story. In February he had started doing meth and since then had lost his apartment, his job, his truck, he had missed a court date, and was obviously kinda new to this whole homeless thing. He had even tried to commit suicide in Seattle by jumping off a bridge, but he heard his son call his name and as soon as he got down, his son called him from the Philippines. He told us that he felt like God was punishing him somehow. Cam was talking and I was praying and literally as we were walking down the street some guys pulled up in a car and yelled at David offering him "crank" aka, meth. Cam just kept on encouraging him and we were able to walk away.  By the time we got back to Safeway so he could continue charging his phone, he had been completely encouraged by us.  He said that he was sitting there and had just thought, "Man, i'm hungry" when Cam and I walked up and offered him some food.  He said that he was going to call his wife, then flag down the nearest police officer and turn himself in, do his time (60-90 days), get out, get a job, and turn his life around.  He said that he thought he just needed a bolt of lightning to get back on track and he thought that God used us to be that bolt.  We've been looking for him and can't find him so we believe he really did what he said he was going to do.  The Lord used us to bless David and we were blessed in return.  This is front line church planting. God is moving here.

...because all other right turns cost you something?
(This is my favorite sign in all of Lakewood)

Okay, one more story for you guys.  Cam and I have been talking about how we want to try and do free breakfast on Sundays before service when we launch.  One problem we were facing was the cost.  As you guys know, Cam is a cashier at a local Walgreens, so he gets to see a LOT of people during the day.  But there was this particular lady who was buying a peculiarly large amount of milk and Cam asked her if she wanted each carton in a separate bag.  She said yes because she is part of an organization that drives around in a delivery truck and gives food to homeless people.  Cam thought that was pretty cool and told her that he was a church planter who had just moved here.  She was astonished and asked if we did anything with homeless people.  Cam said he would love to help her out sometime and mentioned the breakfast thing.  She was ecstatic and asked for his business card so she could email him a bunch of information.  She said that when we get started she wants to help us with breakfast, that she can help us get food, cost covered, and tell everyone about it who needs to know about it, and she is totally cool that we are a church and want to do this.  Can you say Godsend?

Well, those are my stories for this blog update.  Thanks for all your prayers and we're continually excited to see how God moves up here.

Here are some things you can keep in prayer:
1.  Kenzie and her school
2.  Britt's headaches and the two young ones
3.  I'm on the job hunt and Cam is looking for one with more consistent hours.

- Calvary South Sound Church Plant Team

He needed to go through.....

Last night was the first meeting that we had for the church plant.  We wanted to get into the Lakewood Town Center and hold something there.  We decided on the coffee shop in the Barns and Noble book store.  It always has people and is a great place to sit and talk, open a book, and hang out.  I had been planning this for a few weeks and had gone back and forth about exactly what to do on these nights where we are out looking to find people and introduce them to Jesus.  At first I wanted to just hand out some flyers a few days before and show up totally open to what God wanted to do.  Britt really felt that the Lord was wanting us to hold somewhat of a Bible study.  I was kind of mixed up and did not have a clear direction about what to do.  After some time in prayer I decided to just show up and see if we could meet new people and make some friends.

But then a funny thing happened.  On my way home from work I was listening to the radio and the lyrics of a song really hit me.  "I want to heal, I want to feel, like I'm close to something real, I want to let go of the pain I felt so long, somewhere I belong."  Through this "secular" song, the Lord started to speak to my heart.  I immediately was reminded of Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well.  When I got home I told Britt and Landon, my wife and church planting partner about what the Lord was speaking to me.  When we got there we were the only people who had showed up, which did not surprise me, but I got a phone call from Ian, a guy I met at the Harvest America event last month and prayed with, telling me that he was running late and would be there soon.  After Ian got there the three of us sat and chatted over coffee and studied John chapter 4.

There was no real breakthrough day for us.  Just three guys sitting and talking about Jesus, studying the Word.  What was significant though was what was communicated to me through the story of Jesus and a sinful woman of Samaria.  John 4:1-4 describes Jesus leaving and making His way to Galilee.  The funny thing is that most if not all Jews would go around Samaria because they were an odd sect of their religion and wanted to go around them.  But John 4:4 says that, "He needed to go through Samaria."  Jesus certainly did not have to go through there, He would have gone around, but He needed to go through.  After that He meets this woman who has been passed around from man to man her whole life and is probably that lady in town who everyone avoids.  Jesus sits right down at Jacob's well and waits for her, has a conversation, and reveals that He is her Messiah.  She then has the honor of sharing this news with her whole town, and her life would never again be the same.

Why am I going over a passage that all Christians know?  Because it spoke to me in a new and profound way.  I have been wrapped up in thinking about how to get the Gospel to this young hip, and eastern spirituality obsessed culture the surrounds us in Washington.  But, what about the culture  beneath that one?  The one that I see every day at work, yes I work in the hood.  I have witnessed more drug addicted and destitute people in one week than I ever have in my life, granted I have lived in a pretty well to do culture for most of my life, but by most standards, it's pretty bad.  So what if we went to those, "women at the well."  There is no bring the law to the proud conversation with these people, they are not proud, they know they are sinners, it's written on the shame I see in their eyes.  What they need is hope, and to come back to the song, "somewhere I belong."  What if this church plant created the place that they belong?  What if we actually went to the one's that are not the cool, trendy, and spiritual, but the down and outs, drug addicts and sinners like Jesus did right here in John 4?  The nice thing about being the new guys in town is that we don't have to worry about what the other churches are doing, and what they might say.  We can provide that "somewhere I belong" place for them.  And in case you might wonder just what it might look like, I believe in a God who can radically change lives, and have seen it before.

So while I thought I just accepted the first job offered to me , God was working, and placing me right where He wanted me.  It's not pretty, it's not trendy, it is hard and people already let me down and don't fulfill my expectations.  But it is what I believe Jesus wants to do with us in the Northwest.  It's what we are called to do, and we are so excited to watch Jesus move!

Oh, and we are working with the slogan of, A Refuge from the Storm, because Jesus truly is just that.

In Him,

Calvary South Sound Church planting Team.

Living on faith...

I know that I said I would shortly write from Lakewood, but I kind of put it off for a while to wait for something to write.  So I thought I would give you all an update.  We are moved into our new house that the Lord has provided for us.  It is really amazing, it has an awesome room for Landon to live in when he gets up here in a week or so.  The kids are really loving the beach, and all the wildlife around our house.  We live about 5 min. from the sound, and in between two lakes, big difference from NM.  Britt is having some good days with no headache and we are praying for a complete healing for her.  I am still on a job hunt, and have had some interviews, but no job yet.

So while I am looking and praying for a job, the Lord is really confirming that this is where He wants us.  I am going to a gym in the center of Lakewood and meeting new people and sharing the Gospel around town.  We are attending a Calvary in Gig Harbor across the sound from us.  The pastor there is really supportive and has asked me to help with Harvest America over there.  We are praying about where to have church, and where to hold services.  I am sure that we will get some direction soon.  In the meantime we are praying for the town and studying the culture up here.

There really is nowhere else we would rather be right now.  We have faith that God will move and direct us to the people that we are supposed to build relationships with, and those who are ready to accept the Gospel.  I have had lunch with some guys from the local army/air force base, about ministering to our troops that are coming home from overseas.  The spiritual state of the towne is not exactly what I thought it would be.  I thought it would be more mystical, and that is here, but it really is a blue collar hard working culture here.  There are a lot of trade workers, and military personnel in Lakewood.  There is also a darker side to the city.  I regularly see gang members hanging out by the freeway, not where we live for you concerned moms out there, and there seems to be a large homeless population here.

We have really been blessed to have some family up here, my Aunt and Uncle live about an hour away, and have visited some friends near Seattle.  Truly we are just trying to meet people and establish friendships and Gospel contacts in our area.  We really rely on all your prayers and support right now.  We are truly honored to have this opportunity.

I am currently working on our newsletter to send out along with some church planing stuff.  Please continue to pray for us as we are drawing close to God, and seeking to follow His path for His church.

In Him,

Cam

God loves Ruben too...

Sorry I have not been able to update anyone for a while.  We are finally in our new home in Lakewood Wa.  Just got the internet turned on and settling in.  There are so many differences here it is amazing, like 70 degrees being hot!  We have been having fun, meeting people, and seeking ways to get into the city of Lakewood.
This afternoon I went to the Town Center to find some people to share the Gospel with.  Had a few conversations go almost nowhere, made one connection with an older guy, but nothing really happening.  Frustrated, I left, went to a nearby gas station grabbed a water and was about to get into my car when I saw a guy sleeping on the sidewalk outside.  I had been praying for an opportunity to share the Gospel, and this seemed pretty good to me.  I asked him if he was ok, or needed anything.  He told me that water and some beef jerky would be good.  After getting him some food and water, we sat and talked for a while.  He told me his name was Ruben and had been drinking some.  Ruben is covered in shingles, and has a limp which restricts his mobility.  After talking for a while I asked him what he thought about Jesus.  Ruben is a native American, and believed that Jesus was a "good spirit in this world."  He said that, "Jesus makes the red and blue come together in your heart, he opens your mind and makes you see."  I thought this would be a good time to share the love that God has for Him, and explain that Jesus died for his sins, and that there is only one true God.  He listened to everything I had to say, then I asked him if I could pray for him.  After I said "Amen" he wanted to pray too.  Ruben prayed to Jesus, the one true God.  He is really needing a lot of help.  We talked about ways to help him get back on his feet.  He told me that he was going to a shelter, and take a shower.
Please keep Ruben in your prayers.  Please keep us in your prayers also, as I pray for God to reveal the best ways to help him.

In Him,

Cam

I cannot believe how faithful God is.  My family has said for the last year that we would be leaving in July.  We put our house on the market about eight months ago.  It has seemed hard at times, waiting for a sale.  Praying for strength in this season of our life. 
Well in the depressed market of Los Alamos, God sold the house!
It looks like we will close at the end of the month, and then up to the great northwest.  I am in the process of finding a house to rent in Lakewood. 

God is so good and faithful in fulfilling His promises.  We should all give God glory in all the works of His hands.  We are encouraged by yet another confirmation of his call.

I will be preaching at our home church on July 1, 2012.  I don't usually ask friends and family to leave their home church, there are so many great churches in Los Alamos.  I would love to give one last encouragement, and preaching Christ from this pulpit which Pat has been gracious enough to both allow me to speak the word of God, and teach me the service of ministry.

The next time I blog, will be from LAKEWOOD WASHINGTON!!!

In Him,

Cam

Pushing through...

Yes, this is my second blog of the day.  But I have not given a practical update in a while, so I thought I would give an update on how things are progressing.

No, our house has not sold yet.  It is frustrating, but we are working hard to sell it.  Here are some great encouragements.  First, my wife Brittney, still is not in need of monthly procedures, God has fulfilled His promise of that.  I have actually seen  Lakewood, which I am in love with.  I went up for about a week, and met with church leaders, businesses, and generally got in touch with the culture up there.  Landon has graduated from NMSU and we have been meeting to establish the foundation of the church plant.  It is great to see that God has given him the same vision that He gave me, and in the correct capacity, to help, follow, and lift up Jesus in the northwest.
I am currently still looking for a job, not a career, in the Lakewood/Tacoma area.  Waiting upon the Lord to see exactly how we are follow the Lord.  Please pray that we are sensitive to His leading, and see the doors open. 
In 1 Corinthians 16:9 Paul says, "For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries."  I think that is true in most cases.  It is our job to "fear not" as we are commanded to do so often in scripture.
It seems that all our plans are laid to waste, if we are not sensitive to the Spirit.  In my previous post I spoke of the importance of loyalty, and keeping our word.  We still believe that we are to leave in July, and by God's will, we will. 
It is not all tough, and we are so excited for the adventure.  The people in Lakewood are very different from the culture of the southwest.  Open, friendly, misguided, and  spiritually abused.  There are many hurting people, many people are in great need of Jesus.  We are expecting things to progress quickly as the time before our expected departure.  There is no question in my heart that we will leave, in July.  If we need to rent out our houses, we will, and leave it in the Lord's hands.
Landon will be joining us in early August, as his internship will end then.  He will join our family in Washington, in the house we will be renting.  We are so pleased to be live together, serve together, and plant together to the Glory of God..

Thank you for all your prayers and support.  We will soon continue to hold support meetings in our home.   

In Him,

Cam

Temptation, and loyalty.

There is something to be said for the trend of church planting in America today.  Networks are springing up like the weeds in the front of my house.  Almost every week I see a new network, a new way of planting, and more resources.  When we went to "fit for the field" a year ago now, I met Peyton Jones, and learned of New Breed Church Planting.  Right away we hit it off, and I knew that I was called into the New Breed Network.  Over the past year Peyton and I have become close, built a relationship, and I have learned much from a seasoned veteran church planter.  New Breed does not charge me, does not pay me, but equips me to plant a church.  I am grateful for all of these things.
I have heard my Senior Pastor, Pat Kestell, give wisdom on church planting, and the importance of servant hood.  He has also said that some have a brand, mine is the Calvary dove, hidden somewhere in their heart, or as he says, on their butt. 
So that brings me to the point I want to make.  I have seen the Calvary Church planting network grow and mature into something great.  Kellen Criswell, whom I met at "fit for the field", is highly involved in this movement, and I see a great network emerging to meet the needs of the new generation of church planters.  Namely through money.  It is tempting for church planters like me to jump ship and follow the money, to make things as easy a possible.  Or to take the edge off the cost of planting.  I can't get around the need for some support, but I also cannot get around the the call of God, and the fit with New Breed. 
Church Planting is not about church hoppers.  It is about unbelievers, spreading the Gospel, and seeking those far from God.  In turn, if we were to hop networks, what does that say about the mission of Calvary South Sound?  If we hop onto to the latest and greatest thing, we would be network hopping, and that is not a good thing.  God is not poor, those guys that portray that really cheese me off, and He will provide. 
We are blessed to have so many people that love us, coach us, and support us.  Thank you to Pat, Peyton, Kellen, and Kevin, that have taken time out of their lives to pour into mine.  I cannot say enough about these men. 
So I see that I do have a brand in my heart.  First and foremost the cross of Christ, but that needs to be a given for any that love Jesus.  I am talking about the method, and kind of church that God has placed on my heart.  So the dove is there, and has been since He called me to preach, and New Breed as a Network. 
This is not to promote or pull back from any network.  Just to say, loyalty matters.  Our word matters.

In Him,
Cam

It's the deep breath before the plunge...

On the eve of battle Gandalf said of the silence, "It's the deep breath before the plunge."  almost immediately afterward a startling fire shoots into the sky as the armies of Sauron are marching against the people of middle earth.  His words resonate within me.  We are about two months out from our move to Lakewood.  It seems that all is quiet, all is still.  My children are in anticipation of moving, but do not understand the war that we are stepping into.  My amazing and supportive wife gently encourages me as so many things still have to happen, by the hand of God, for us to move.  All is quiet, all are still.
Yet in the distance, in my soul, I see the armies of Satan preparing for war, beating their drums, howling hideous screams of discouragement at me.  All this, and in my flesh, I cower.  It's a hard thing to admit, that you are scared.  That you have fear, as a man.  I should have the Holy Spirit fill me like an adrenaline surge, in defiance to all those that would oppose the mighty work of God.  Yet, I can't help but wonder, who am I?  Who am I that I should do battle for the Lord?  I'm not David, standing in defiance before the mighty Goliath.  I'm not Elijah, mocking the enemies of God, with the steadfast confidence in the power of the Lord God.  I am certainly not Paul, preaching before great men of power, opposing Peter to his face, ready to suffer, ready to be humiliated, stoned, and shipwrecked, all for the glory of Jesus.  I feel more like Periguin Took, who says that he does not want to be in a battle.  The shame of disbelief runs through my veins.
In the Bible, the number one command is, "fear not."  Fear not, because He is with me.  I wish that there was some sore of ruckus happening, some noise, something to distract me from this command.  Fear not, Jesus tells me, for I am with you.

No Fear, the power of the Living God, is with me.

In Him,

Cam

Making Jesus Known,,,,,,,

Church and business share many of the same principals.  Good money management, investment in a product, good time management, and serving your customers.  All of those principals are true in church and business.  Think about starting a restaurant.  Start up costs, quality of food, and getting the word out.  If the food is the Gospel, then we know that we have a good product!!!! A free product!  People both love and are skeptical of free things. 
Last summer I was led to hand out water at the summer concert series in my hometown of Los Alamos.  I found out a few things.  First, even when you are giving things away, the average person in leery of accepting it.  That first night, we could have sold more water than we gave away.  The second is, the word spreads.  As we kept showing up, people were more inclined to accept the free gift. 
So why did I share a story, and compare churches to businesses?  To illustrate the point of how the Gospel spreads.  It is through talking about Jesus, and walking out His teachings.  A business does not grow it no one knows about it, the Church is Jesus' chosen tool to dispense the Gospel.  We have got to get the word out.  Yes, that might mean advertisement.  Yes it means putting yourself in uncomfortable situations, but all for the Glory of God.
"If we will not evangelize, the church will fossilize." -Greg Laurie
Keep preaching, step out of your comfort zones, for the glory of God.

In Him,

Pastor Cam

Rhino Skin????

Before we left for California to attend the "Fit for the Field" church planting course, someone gave me some weird advise, that has only recently become prophetic in our lives.  Just before we pulled out of the parking lot of the church, I was pulled aside and told that I would come back with the skin of a rhino.  I had no idea what that meant, or how it would apply to my life, ministry, and desire to plant a church. 

One of the main points throughout the course, was nailing down our call.  Make sure of the calling, to the point that if we do not go, it is sin.  I wrote on the front of my notebook "home with the skin of a rhino."  Often, vision from God, is met with initial favor from man.  When I first knew that I was called to leave and plant a church, we had a lot of favor and encouragement from man.  As we draw closer to our departure day, D-day, there are so many people that, love us, and seek to help, by showing how hard, and nearly impossible this really is. 

I see a few roads that I can take.  First, I could choose to look at all of the hurdles in front of us, and not run the race.  I could bow out, and call the whole thing off.  While all of the hurdles are real, and some are high hurdles and some seem like jumping a ten foot, barb wire fence, they are real.  Trials await us, pain will be expected.  I must say, that there are times that I look forward and have great discouragement because of all the things that have to happen, to ensure that we can leave.

Another road is to become bitter, withdrawn, and spiteful.  I could take an attitude of spite, wanting to show how wrong everyone else is.  But, looking down that road, there is only destruction.  This will lead me away from God, away from His plan, and resting on my own anger and spite to fulfill my own ambition, not His.

The road, by the grace of God, that I seek is to step out on faith.  Yes there are trials, yes there is hurt, and no I am not prepared for everything.  I am not qualified, I don't have all the knowledge that maybe I should have, but I am called.  Not everything that comes our way is for benefit, but much is.  So, what should I do.  Take those things to prayer.  The Spirit will lead us into all truth and conviction.  We cannot safeguard against all things.  We know the enemies objectives are to distract and discourage.  I can say with conviction, that I am nothing, and Christ is everything.  So, no matter what, I pray, we will do the will of the Lord.  Not look left, right, or behind, but ahead to those things that God would have for us.

There was a time that I would not have this conviction.  There was a time that I would have become bitter, and spiteful.  God, has blessed us with faith.  Not to boast, but to glorify Him.  He has blessed the skin of a rhino upon this time.  While this time may be hard and seem impossible, the Lord has a plan that we need to walk in. 

Blogs can often be clarifying, and therapeutic for the writer, but sting others.  This is not the point.  I pray that this is an encouragement.  I welcome questions, clarifications, even those that come is harsh ways.  I welcome them because through them vision is refined, rhino skin is toughened, and dependence of the Lord is deepened.  God wants to make us holy, more than happy.   There are three types of spiritual storms that come the Christian's way. 

First there are perfecting storms.  Storms of life the God allows to perfect us, to make us more like Jesus, to strengthen our faith.  Job went through this type of storm.  God allowed terrible disaster in Job's life, to conform him to the will of the Father.  The second is a correcting storm.  These come about because of our sin.  Jonah experienced this type of storm.  As he fled the will of God to preach repentance to Nineveh.  Jonah left in the opposite direction to escape the will of God, and brought about a literal storm on the sea.  The third is a protecting storm.  Sent His disciples away on a ship by themselves, to protect them from the crowds that would seek to force Jesus to be king.  Jesus protected them not only from the mob, but from the result of what the crowd's wanted to do.  If Jesus were to be crowned king, they would become powerful men.  They were already bickering, the whole thing could have ended in disaster. 

While in the midst of the storm, I usually do not have joy in them, this outlook pushes me toward Jesus in the eye of the storm, and not be thrashed in the wind and waves.  Sometimes I need to have some waves crash into me before I turn to God, but He is there, waiting, for me to turn to Him.  In storms, my rhino skin is tested, and sometimes torn off, so that I am humbled for Him.  As I have heard Driscoll say, "you are either humble or humiliated," as I need to be humbled, I have often been humiliated for the glory of God. 

Rhine skin is necessary for me to fulfill the calling of God.  Rhino skin will get me through storms.  The thing is, you cannot get rhino skin without getting skinned.  You can't get it by everyone being nice to you, you have to get cut.  You have to heal, and be cut again. Rhino Skin, just sayin.
 

The icky stuff

There are so many things about church planting that I am totally sold out for.  I am excited to see the people that God will bring into His new work.  I am excited to move to a new place and meet new people.  I could go on and on about all of the things that are so exciting about church planting, but I feel I need to talk about the one aspect I cannot get around.  Funding.
Let me first say about this, I wish that God did not want me to do this.  I asked Him to allow His work to happen without this step.  But, He said no.  So even when I don't want to, I will obey.  Money and church has got to be one of the most uncomfortable things for a pastor/planter.  I believe that I can do all of things on my own.  I have a superhero mentality when it comes to all of the things that I can and cannot do.  But, I am not Superman.  So the church plant needs help.  Financially.
The hard truth is that the Gospel is free, but getting this free thing out there is not.  Probably dozens of times I have written support letters, read them, thought it was stupid, and deleted it.  A friend gave me some good advice.  He said, "all support letters are cheesy, that's just the way it is."  Thanks Steven.  So I sat back down and wrote out a support letter.  Sounded less cheesy.  Prayed over it, and am now printing it and preparing it.  We are starting tonight to have families over to talk about the church plant and financial support.
The exciting thing is, we get to see the prayer support in this.  Which I think is infinitely more important.  We get to talk to people about praying for God's kingdom.
So while this might really be, "the icky stuff."  It is part of God's design.  We don't need to feel manipulative, or like beggars with cardboard signs on the street.  We get to be blessed with what God has for us.  That is truly exciting.  That is why I can ask for support.  It's God's support, and not anyone else.

In Him,

Pastor Cam

God is sovereign through it all

Hey all, my wife Brittney wrote a blog about her health, and really about God working through any situation.  I am so grateful for her, and her heart to serve the Lord.

  

So many of you have been praying for my health, I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you and also give you an update and info for those who don't really know all the details. Having a migraine everyday is the hardest thing that I have ever gone through, and I am so blessed to be able to rest knowing that I am being prayed for. Just today a sweet friend asked me how I was doing and told me that every-time she sees me she prays for me. Wow! God has used this to show me the blessings of having such amazing people continually praying for me. I know that because of your prayers I have grown so much in my faith, and been able to lean on the Lord to help me through. I feel so humbled because of all of you!

Here is a a recap of whats been going on and some testimonies I wanted to share: In July 2011 I got a migraine that wouldn't go away. I had some shots and medicine to help but it didn't work.

After two months of a daily migraine I went to my doctor and he put me on some preventative medicine and did a CT scan just to check and make sure nothing was abnormal. God is so good- not only did the scan come out fine as far as my brain, me-who is a bad worrier was not stressed at all about the results. He gave me His peace. They found that I had a sinus infection. At this point I was so excited and I remember calling my friend and telling her “Good news, I have a sinus infection!”. Strange way to react I suppose, but I figured that some antibiotics and then...bamm no more headache. I felt like I had had enough headache to last the rest of my life. I then got referred to an ear nose and throat doctor because of the severity of the infection. At this point we had no health insurance. Cam had just switched jobs, and because of that we didn't have coverage. I was feeling so horrible that we decided that I would go ahead and see the ENT doctor anyway and see what he said. I met him and he was such a blessing, he didn't charge us very much. Then he said I would need surgery and it would be fixed! Okay, surgery is more than just antibiotics but still, an answer. Then he told me that the infection was actually more serious than I thought because it was in the upper sinus close to the brain. He explained some bad things that could happen if I didn't get the surgery (bad is my best explanation, if I tired to explain I would just look dumb and it would be clear I don't understand a lot of doctor talk!)

We had no insurance and I needed surgery. This surgery was going to cost about $20,000. This is where I started to see that God had is hand in the whole situation. Cam and I decided to wait things out until we had health insurance. Then, the headaches got worse and worse and Cam finally said it needed to happen. I happened to be at Community Bible Study when this was decided. I am not the first person who I have heard of being there when bad news came! God placed me there for strong Christian ladies to encourage me and tell me that I wasn’t robbing my family of all that money, that I needed to get taken care of. So Cam and I trusted God that somehow we could pay that money. I had the surgery and felt better for a couple days, then it all came right back!! I needed another surgery. God then showed us he was providing us the money- we got a letter in the mail with the option of paying for the health insurance that we used to have, and they would backdate it to Cam's last day of work! God used this to show us that He will take care of us, and we can trust Him. I know when we live in Lakewood there will be times we feel like we don't have the money, but I can look back to this and trust God. He is not poor!!

Starting at New Years I got health insurance, which was good because I was not better. My sinuses still looked bad, and they needed to figure out this problem. They ordered tests and found out that I had something wrong with my immune system, this is why my body couldn't clear the sinus infections, even with antibiotics and surgery. They also told me my wisdom teeth needed to come out because they were in my sinuses. I had that surgery (which was horrible they had to do a bone graph to repair the whole they made to get it out), then two weeks later I had the 3^rd surgery on my sinuses, then started me on immune therapy.

They told me that this therapy (which even with insurance costs so much) would probably be forever. At this point we knew we were called to Lakewood to plant a church. I was worried about moving, and needing to be at the hospital once a month, and no help with the kids. Cam said that God had put it on his heart that I would not need the therapy in Lakewood. So yet again we got to see God work. About 3 months ago they tested my immune system and it came back normal! I no longer need these very expensive and time consuming treatments! Thank you Lord for healing me! I don't know if this is a permanent thing, or if some day I might need them again, but I do know that God worked and I got better.

So about 9 months ago my sinuses finally were better, but I still had a headache. The headache didn't get better once they were better. Since then I have been to tons of doctors, had tons of tests, and they can't fix it. This is so devastating. But God tells us in 2 Cor 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." I have been resting, trusting, and knowing that Gods grace will get me through, and his power is perfected, because I am so weak! Only through Him I have been able to “handle” this, and He gave me the faith to trust Him. Now, I have cried a lot, and questioned Him why even more, but I do know that He is sovereign, and He has a plan. I do believe that I will get better, but He has had to show me that He is God and I am not! Ouch! He gave me 2 Cor 1:3-6, which tells us He is our comforter and we can now comfort others with the same comfort he has given us. I can now pray and truly understand how others feel who have headache problems, or have some kind of daily pain. I have been blessed to be able to pray for a friend who has daily headaches, a friend who's son had daily headaches for at least a month (which God healed Him, yea!), and pray for another friend who has no health insurance and gets headaches often.

The last part of the story is what is going on now: A doctor is doing pain therapy (I guess is what its called) with a new method called a PSTYM. He told me he is one of 10 doctors in the US doing it. Gods timing here too, we wanted to leave for WA late last summer, but God told us to wait. So I am in the middle of two 12 day periods where I wear the PSTYM, and it appears to be helping! I will update you all on how it is working, but for now it looks good!

I want an answer, I want to know why this all happened to me- then I look at others much worse, or going through much worse things, and I can pray. God keeps reminding me. Prov 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. I don't need to know why, all I need to to is trust and obey!

Thank you thank you thank you for praying for me!!

Love,

Brittney

Wait......Not yet.......

Waiting has to be one of the most frustrating things for church planters.  Here's why; we have vision, energy, passion, and the will, from God, but not the time.  It's like waiting for the Super Bowl to come on, at 8:00 a.m.  Where I live the game didn't come on until 4:30 p.m.  We woke up this Super Bowl Sunday, and my five year old told me, "this is going to be the best day, it's Super Bowl day!"  She had other motivation, we had gone to the store on Saturday to get snacks and she got a cupcake, but not until game time.  So all day, through church, and lunch, she was waiting until game time to partake in the cupcake.  But, we had to wait.

In looking at the calendar it is getting close to being a year since I experienced the call to plant a church.  I have been given vision, and direction, more team members, and a burden for the people of Pierce county.  Yet I have not set foot on the soil that I am going to live.  I seek to do the will of God, but have not yet been allowed to leave.  So what do church planters do when they cannot yet go?  I believe that we can do many things.

First, get ready.  We get ready to go.  I have heard it said, "set your feet in the direction of your church plant."  Boil what you do through what God has given you.  Church planters need to plant a church.  If what you are doing is hindering you to plant the church, stop doing it.  Stop it.  We need to be used in the place where God has us, but it is not of God to sway from the call of God to plant a church.  There will be a time when each planter will have to choose to travel the road away from the life before the call, and start down the road to planting a new church.  Everything you do, ask if it is hindering the church plant, or helping it?  Get ready through prayer.  Ask God what He wants you to do.  There may be some stuff that you may think is hindering you from leaving, when God wants you to do it in preparation of leaving.

Next, raise support.  This may be way outside of what you think of.  There are two main types of support in church planting.  First, and most important, is prayer support.  If you are planting a church, you are going into enemy territory, and you need prayer to accomplish this.  You need people that are consistently praying for our physical, and spiritual well being.  We should be be resting on those prayers.  Second, is the physical support.  The fact of the matter is, church planters are missionaries.  They, we, need some support.  This could be something that church planters shy away from.  Frankly, asking for money is not the most comfortable think you can do.  Most look to Paul and "tent making" to support the church plant.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Look closer at what Paul was doing.  Paul was working in the cities to meet people where they were.  When his team came later, Paul would usually stop working in the town square, and started working on preaching to the people.  So both is really the answer.  Get out there and get some support, and get out and work in the city that God has you in, to work, and meet people. 

Third, is learn what God is doing in the meantime.  I have had my house one the market for almost six months, and it still has not sold.  This does not mean that we are not called, only that He is waiting until His perfect timing.  So what is it that I should be doing?  That is the question that every church planter needs to ask himself in this sort of holding pattern.  Don't think that you have nothing to do if you are not physically in the city of the church plant, God has stuff for us in the meantime.

Don't forget to research the place that you are going.  Ask Pastors what the spiritual state is of the place that you are going.  Call the local Pastors to start a relationship with them.  Don't think that you are the anointed gunslinger, coming to town to save the day.  If you do this, you insult the workers that God already has there, and you need to repent.  As I have heard it said, and written of before, God wants to do something in you, the church planter, more than He wants to do something through you.  There are anointed men in the area that know more than you do.  Draw wisdom from them.  Instead of thinking of building a building, think kingdom minded, and show the Pastors in the area that heart.

So there is much work to be done, before church planters set foot on the soil of the city of the church plant.  Don't let it be overwhelming.  Seek to do God's will each day.  He will tell you what He wants you to plan, work on, and spend your energy on.  Cherish your time that God has given you.  Ask Him for patience.  Enjoy the place you are in.  Personally I love New Mexico, and will miss it.  I plan to do several things before I leave, to enjoy this last season.  I would advise others in this situation to do the same.

In Him,

Cam

Wait Me Too?!

Hey guys! I'm Landon and I'm excited to share with you how I got called to go on this crazy adventure.

I'll tell you a little bit about myself.  I'm 21 years old, I have one brother and one sister, both younger.  I will graduate in May with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from New Mexico State University.  I've grown up in church my whole life, but I didn't start walking with Christ until my freshman year of college.  I'm an adamant believer and follower of Christ and He teaches me new stuff everyday.  I'm the core leader of our freshman ministry at the Christian Challenge (BSU) at school.  I play guitar and bass guitar on two different worship teams: my church and the BSU.  I have a wonderful girlfriend that I have been dating for 2 1/2 years.  She loves the Lord and we walk together trusting in Him in all things and seeking His glory always.

I am convinced that if you are really comfortable where you are... then there is a good chance you aren't listening...  I had a pretty good plan for my life.  I was going to finish school this semester, then possibly get married over the summer, then start into graduate school at NMSU where my girlfriend still has at least one semester and my young sister would be joining us as a freshman.  It seemed pretty solid... then my plans got sucked down into a giant blue vortex of destruction and... What? It was an experimental textbook shredder I was working on. Okay just kidding.  God just called me to go with Cam and plant a church, basically the same thing.

I spent 2 months this past summer with a team of 6 people from the BSU in South Aisa studying the language and culture, and sharing the gospel as much as we could with anyone who wanted to be our friend. God taught me SO much through that.  At the same time my girlfriend was on a different mission in East Asia that lasted for 6 months starting in July.  This was a huge learning experience for us both.  What we learned most during the 7 months of separation was that God is faithful.  If we trust Him with our lives and follow Him in anything that He calls us to do, then He will provide for all our needs.  This sounds cliche but how many of us actually live that way?  In COMPLETE surrender to whatever the good Lord may have for us?  It is by no means an easy thing, and by no means can we do it by ourselves, but it is the ONLY way to truly live.

This all came about right after I got back from my mission to South Aisa.  Cam said they were looking for people to go with them to Lakewood and he asked me kind of in passing and slightly jokingly if I wanted to go with them.  I kinda shrugged it off but I realized that when he asked me, something tugged at my heart.  So I began to pray.  Then a couple days later Cam told me that in his prayers, my name kept coming up...  So I went to a big collegiate conference with the BSU for the next week and it was one night during the worship I just felt a huge burden to go.  I said, "Okay God, I'll go." And instantly I felt this huge peace come over me, and I knew that I had to tell Cam right away.

I'll tell you this, I'm scared. I'm not sure what is going to happen with my girlfriend.  I don't have a job lined up.  I'm not sure if i'm supposed to go to grad school or not.  I don't have the money to up and leave like it looks like I'm going to do.  But, this is what I DO know,  if God calls you to do something, and you follow, HE WILL PROVIDE! Period.  Would make sure you took care of your children?  Then He will even more so.  I am not worried.  I am excited.  This is going to be fun and I look forward to seeing what He is going to do in us, through us, and for us, but more importantly for Himself and His glory.

Peace!

Landon

It's on!!!!!

There is part of church planting which I think is really not spread enough.  Let me first say that church planting is about reaching lost people.  We are not leaving everything in Los Alamos, all our family, and friends, to preach the Gospel to saved people.  Planting Churches is about shining the light of Jesus to the dark places in the world.  What I want to warn and encourage other church planters, and really everyone who has the desire to spread the Gospel, is that Satan does not just retreat when we turn out into the dark places that are his kingdom.

Jesus did not tell us that taking enemy territory would be easy.  Or that we would be protected.  He told His disciples they would die in this endeavor, and they did.  When you yourself decide that the way things are, are not the way that things have to be, you have just placed a target on your back, and your family's backs.  Satan does not play fair.  He hates your children, as much as he hates you, and the vision God has for the church.

When my family got home from "Fit for the Field" we expected to have some spiritual attacks.  But, what happened, we never expected, or were prepared for.  Our children were terrified by demonic presences in their room.  They would wake up in the middle of the night terrified at something in their room.  My wife on several occasions felt demonic presences in our bedroom.  If you have never experienced casting out demons and that they are real, read the gospels.  Jesus and His disciples cast out demons, and demons are still at work in the world today.

What I failed to recognize was the demons sent to me.  To blind me to what I was going through, and let me see what my family is going through.  Let me say this, if you have not nailed down your call, as a command from God, you will abandon it.  If it is not sin to abandon your call, you will abandon your call.  You will see all the things that the enemy is doing, and shrink back.  Open your eyes to see the forest, and not just the trees. The way I have been attacked, is very different from the way the demons attacked my family.  My focus on their well being and their attacks, blinded me to what was happening in my own spiritual life.  I had become so obsessed with church planting, and all the things that go into planning it, I was doing everything on my own strength.  I knew that hard work needed to be done, in so many areas, I ran around like a chicken with it's head cut off, doing a little in each area, but getting nothing accomplished.

I was so blinded that God used my wife to both rebuke me, and lead me back to a submitted relationship to Jesus.  Men, your wives are invaluable in this journey you are about to undertake.  Your wives will pray for you like no one else will.  Learn to lean on their prayers.  To cherish their prayers.  In turn, realize that they need your prayers as much as you need theirs.  Wives need comfort, leading and relationship, to assure them, that you will be their husband, before you are the pastor of a new church.  If you allow your relationship with your wife and family to fall apart, the church will fall apart.

So why do this?  Why subject yourself to all of this?  Why put targets on your back, and your family's back.  I think there are several reasons.  First, God built into you a radical heart to do radical things.  Church planters are those kind of people that stand at the foot of Everest and say, "I need to climb that."  Church planters, and those that shine the light of Jesus in new and dark places, take the spiritual risks and adrenaline rushes that others just cannot comprehend.  Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane, or jump off that cliff with only a parachute.  They just don't understand.  Second, it is a sin to disobey God.  If you have been called by God to go, you have to go.  He knows your situation.  He knows your needs.  If you have young children, God already knows that, He still wants you to go.  If you have financial burdens, God knows, and will provide a way to fulfill them.  Don't use those things as an excuse.  Last, and of utmost importance, God wants to do something in you, more than He wants to do something through you.  He could call more qualified, more submitted, more experienced people, but He called you.  Not because you are so great, but because He is.  Nothing will ruin your ministry faster than believing your own hype.  If you start to think that you are so great, sprint into repentance and submission.  Read Psalm 51, several times, and realize the heart that you need to have.  The person that you are, is not the person you will be, when God turns your world upside down.

This catches most people up to date with where we are.  I will continue writing as things progress, and hope to be writing to all from Washington soon.

In Him,

Pastor Cam

I have no Idea how I do this...

Last blog we talked about the call of God to plant a church.  This time, I am going to talk about our journey to Murrietta, and learning to plant a church.


Shortly after my wife and I started to let people know that we would be leaving to Lakewood to plant a church, a first time class became available to us.  Pastor Pat told us about a class in California called, "Fit for the Field."  The course was for church planters by church planters.  There was only one problem, it was a month long.  I had a full time job, a mortgage, and no vacation time to take.  So we prayed and took the first step of faith.  I asked my boss for the month off unpaid.  I still cannot believe that I was allowed to take the month off.  So now I had the time, but still needed to have enough money to pay for the course, food, housing, my home mortgage, and other bills.  So again we prayed.  We started an announcement for the need, prayed some more, and got the money for the course covered completely.  Later the money would be supplied for all our needs.

So we set out for California to try to learn how to plant a church.  Now, if I were to write down all the things I learned, it would fill more than the thick notebook I filled while out there.  So we will hit the high points.  Several things I took away.  The first was confirmation.  One of the first people we met there were the Williams.  They were from Olympia Washington, just down the road from Lakewood.  Daniel's father is the Pastor of Calvary Chapel of Tacoma, and they had children around the same age as ours, who loved playing together the entire month.  So right away I knew that we were in the right place.  The Williams are in Del Ray Beach Florida planting a church, please keep them in your prayers.

I then started taking the daily classes under Pastors like, Jimmy O'Keffe, Daniel Fusco, Rob Salvato, Peyton Jones, and Sandy Adams.  The entire course was led by Kevin Fitzgereld, who planted in Dublin Ireland, and whose time and wisdom I will never forget.  The training I received there was like trying to take a drink of water out of a fire hydrant.  On Wednesday nights we attended Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, and had private question and answer sessions with Pastor Brian Broderson.  In short, all that attended "Fit for the Field" had a great training and were blessed.


There were several people that made an impact on me and my family.  One of them was Peyton Jones, the head of New Breed Church Planting.  I knew that we saw eye to eye on most things, and had offered his coaching for free, which is good because over and over we were told that church planters are poor, we decided to take him up on his offer and have had regular conversations ever since.  You can find out more about New Breed on www.newbreedcp.org.

After a month of staying in a place where all we did was focus on God and learn about church planting, we were ready to go.  On the way home, Brittney and I decided to pray about a plan that God would have, because we were ready to pack our bags and go!  After prayer and discussion we set July of 2012 to be the time that we would leave for Washington.  We still have this plan today, it is getting ever closer, and we are more and more excited to see what God is going to do in Lakewood, Washington.

We have had others join our team, Landon Sutherland, who I am going to let tell you about his calling and decision to join the team.  We are so blessed to have a man of his caliber, and so submitted to God to come with us, I know that I am embarrassing him now, but I am thankful.

I want to take the end of this blog to thank some of the people that have impacted me and my family.  Kevin Fitzgereld, for his hard work, patience, and wisdom, that I will never forget.  Jimmy O'Keffe, whom I will never forget the passion and love for church planters.  Daniel Fusco, who has inspired many ideas and am excited to know that will be in Vancouver, Washington, near us.  Brian Broderson, for making this class available to us and making it a great experience, as well as setting aside time to talk to a bunch of armatures about church planting.  Peyton Jones, who knows that his words made an impact, and are still treasured to me.  Sandy Adams, whose love for young Pastors and church planters still gives me courage.  Demitri Nikiforos, who has impacted my prayer life forever.   Rob Salvato, who taught us that we have to sacrifice our time to take care of our families.  There are so many speakers that made an impact that I cannot mention them all here, but I am so grateful for your time and wisdom.

Next time I hope that Landon can share his calling to the team.  I will move on to the part of church planting that no one talks about, which is your life falling apart.....


In Him,

Pastor Cam