Big Changes All Around

An Acts 2 church in every college town!  That’s what we’re praying for and giving our lives to until Christ takes us home!  The next step toward that involves some big changes for us…

Next week, we will be transitioning to our new role as Church Planting Pastor & Director of Training for Gracepoint Ministries.  After 13 years here in Davis, we’ll be heading back to our Gracepoint Berkeley Church where we spent the first 13 years, beginning with our college years.  We’ll be working closely with Pastor Ed and Kelly, strategically coordinating and implementing our church planting and training initiatives.  (Boy, that sounds really official like some stuffy resume!)  Basically, we’ll be doing whatever we can do wherever/whenever/however to see an Acts 2 church in every college town!

Here in cow town, Gracepoint Davis Church will led by Pastor William & Esther Kang who have been leading our InterHigh and Element youth ministries in Berkeley/Alameda.  We’ve journeyed more than half of our lives together (since late 80’s) through thick and thin…  (Yes, we were way thinner back then!)  🙂  We served in ministry together in the 90’s and have been growing together as directors.  William and I got our M.Div. through Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary together and he knows more Greek than me, even though I look more geekier!  🙂

Tomorrow is our official farewell where we’ll have good food and times of  recalling fond memories shared together in this precious community.  I have a feeling tomorrow will be one of those vintage moments that affirm why we long to see an Acts 2 church in every college town…

Dead Sea Scrolls Alive!

As we’ll be sending our Gracepoint Davis Church members to various church plants next month, we’ve been having some last meals and memory making moments with them. (Okay, sometimes we’re just using it as an excuse to enjoy some great food and fellowship!)

Last night, I went with a group of peer brothers to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at Roseville (it’s ending this week). We saw the real thing–tiny fragments dating back more than 2000 years!  I was able to read one word using my knowledge of Hebrew, so I can now say “I read a Dead Sea Scroll!”  😉

One fragment that we saw had parts of Deuteronomy 8:2–5 on it.  This is the passage that Jesus cited when tempted in the desert:  “… man does not live on bread alone…”  When I saw that fragment, I immediately said, “That’s right!  Because man lives on pasta, steak, and rice!”  Unfortunately, that is missing in these Dead Sea Scrolls, but it’s a translation that I have hidden in my heart that I might not thin against you.  🙂

The exhibit also had the history of the translation process, along with the many people who gave their lives to the work of sharing this precious Word of God.  It featured people like Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, and even the great preacher, C.H. Spurgeon.  I pray that our church plant teams will likewise give their lives to the work of sharing the Gospel to the ends of the earth…

After we finished the exhibit in Roseville, we went to a restaurant conveniently located in Roseville:  Mizu!  It’s the one word that brothers translate as:  “See Sea Rolls, Eat Sea Rolls; Buffet my body, starting with my stomach; When I eat, I feel God’s pleasure!”  Yes, it was a sacrifice on my diet, but we did it for the guys going on the church plant!  After all, how can they preach unless they are sent with a full stomach?  Amen to that!