KingdomBuilders

Men's BBQ Oct 3rd

2009-09-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

Face it men...we love to hang out and eat. Let's do that!

First: the food. This isn't going to be the usual tri-tip, garlic bread, beans (although that is SO good!). One of the chefs in the fellowship (Ray W.) will be Q'ing up something RAD!

Second: the fellowship. We'll be watching a REALLY cool film about God, the Bible, AND Astronomy. It's fascinating stuff, regarding the STAR the Magi followed, what was going on with the moon during Jesus crucification. Definitely good geek out time and then we'll worship the Lord who created the heavens!

Last: more fellowship. If you are interested in more fellowship (through competition), join us at Meadow Park for some Marrieds vs. Singles sand volleyball @3pm.

PLEASE REGISTER FOR THE EVENT!! Those who pre-register and pay will eat first!!!! (meaning you don't run the risk of us running out of food)

What's on the Menu?
-Marinated and seasoned grilled boneless chicken thighs
-Locally custom made to order sausage (prob chicken, may be pork or beef not sure yet)
-Marinated and seasoned grilled fresh veggies
-Cold Soda's for drinks

-Home made (Julie W's special recipe) chocolate, chocolate chip, fudge cake!
-We'll brew some coffee for the occasion!

Men's Bag Lunch Bunch

2009-06-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

Some of us men at CalvarySLO will be starting a men's group this Wed June 17th at noon. We'll be studying together through the parables that Jesus told.

This will be a little different as we will be requiring something from each of you that want to join us. Please read these guidelines carefully and make sure you agree before joining up with us. We look forward to meeting up with you.

Active Participant: We will not have "teachers" per se, Rob Fitler and I will be facilitating. We need each of you to commit to:
a. Reading the parable scheduled daily between each meeting.
b. Study up on the parable (listen to a sermon, read a commentary or study guide, etc)
-We are looking for God to speak into your life through each of these parables and to have you bring that to the group.
Volunteer at CalvarySLO: We at KingdomBuilders are committed to not only equipping, but also calling you to advance God's Kingdom. So if you are already officially volunteering somewhere within CalvarySLO, come on out. If you are willing to find what opportunities are available and will commit to serving before the 10 week session is up, come on out.

Here are the particulars:

When: Wednesdays at 12pm
Where: CalvarySLO Building
What: The Parables Jesus Told
Who to Contact: Patrick Zalamea or Rob Fitler

Hope to see you there! I have found there is nothing like hanging out with a group of men humbly coming before His written word and serving along side each other...

PLAY BALL!!

2009-02-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

Gentlemen

It is that time again, February is the month for us to register for softball if we all want to play again. A new year brings a "new" season which means the initial fee is a little steeper than later in the year when we will be a "returning" team.

Registration ends Friday Feb27th which means we need to work quickly if we are going to form a team. League Play begins March 16, below are the details we need to establish:

Monday Men's Lower is no longer available so we would have to decide between:

Monday - Men's Recreation (one step below Men's Lower, t-ball basically)

Wednesday - Men's Lower

Thursday - Men's Lower

Depending on how many guys we get to sign-up the fee for this first season will be:

12 players: $48/person

11 players: $52/person

10 players: $58/person

If you are interested email aaronmcfarland@hotmail.com and I'll start collecting a head count. If you want to play but not every week consider splitting time and entry fee with another player. We will need the money by Feb 27th.

An Opportunity to help a Brother

2009-01-14T16:49:00.000-08:00

Hello men of CalvarySLO. We have an opportunity to help a local family that calls CalvarySLO home. Saturday January 31st this family will be moving from the Laguna Lake area to the area behind Vons off TankFarm and Broad. Without any family in town they are glad to call the people of CalvarySLO family and so they are looking for 8 or 10 guys (especially if you have a pick-up you would be willing to bring) to help them move that Saturday morning. Starting at 10 in the morning 8-10 guys can probably move a 3 bedroom/2 bath house in just a few short hours. A lunch of pizza will be provided when all is said and done. If you would be willing to come and help please comment to this post and I ... er this beautiful family ... would be extremely grateful.

Building Help Update 1/12/09

2009-01-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

We need a few helpers tomorrow 1/13 for the 2nd coat of the Bonded Sand Concrete floor. If you have a few hours to spare PLEASE stop by!

James, Nick, and the Concrete crew will be starting at 9am. Show up any time! It is not daunting or intimidating work...so come on out if you can...

Thanks.
pz

Fishers of Men and MENtoring Year in Review

2009-01-05T19:41:00.000-08:00

To begin, everyone pretend that this was posted last week. That way the Grand Master of Men's Ministry will go just a little easier on me.

Fisher of Men took a hearty blow with the exodus of Aaron Wise who's job transferred him South into the lonely desert. We're hoping one day he manages to find his way out. In his absence the Fishers of Men dominated the SLO City parks and recreation lower division Softball League on games played during the first week of October. Currently in the offseason we're hoping to make some blockbuster deals in free agency and bring in some heavy bats and fast wheels. The Season starts up again in March and sign-ups begin in February. If you want to play, it will be around $50 to sign-up to begin a new team at the beginning of the year.

Fishers of Men also sponsored a few Marrieds v. Singles. There was the run/walk for FCNI in which ... oh I can't remember who won that one. There was also a Futbol game in which the marrieds dominated and it has hence taken us 4 full months to recover. Fishers of Men will be kciking off 2009 by sponsering a Marrieds v. Singles Flag Football game THIS SUNDAY at Meadow park across from Hawthorn on South Street after Church. Bring your food, your cleats, any flag football gear you have, your game face and your medical insurance card.

MENtoring kicked off late in the year. We've had plenty of interest but as is usually the case we've more people interested in being mentored than being a mentor. Needless to say we still have a few stragglers out there looking for men of God to take them under their wing and mentor them. Let this serve as one more reminder that if God is prompting your heart to be a mentor to a young man who wants to draw closer to the heart of God to take that step and contact Aaron McFarland or Patrick Zalamea.

Help Update 1/1/09

2009-01-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

If you have the day off on Friday, hope you'll consider coming over to the building. We will be applying the 2nd coat of the Bonded Sand as well as the Whitish Gray squares in the Theater.

Don't be intimidated, most of the application thus far has been done by non-skilled labor!

I believe we will need help on Saturday as well, I'll send an update as soon as I know...

Need Help...

2008-12-30T21:04:00.000-08:00

If any of you are available tomorrow between 8am and 3pm or so please stop by the new Building. We'll literally be throwing stuff on the floor!

In the 2nd - 3rd Grade room (Theater) we'll be throwing down paint chips that will stick in the Epoxy that is being laid on the floor in a checkered pattern.

In the hallways we will be throwing down a custom color blend of sand that will stick to some epoxy as well.

Hope you can make it...we can use as many hands as possible to spread the epoxy and throw down the medium that will stick to it.

We may need help Friday and Saturday as well. I'll let you know here.

Worship thru Service Year in Review

2008-12-29T15:16:00.000-08:00

Well men, its been an extremely exciting and busy year for the Worship through Service portion of Calvary SLO's Men's Ministry. We started out the year with a huge sense of God's calling and high expectations of what he can do through us. Let me say God,. as always, did not disappoint!

2008 started with a couple of WtS breakfasts. In the morning we would meet, eat a hearty meal and listen to one of our elders give us an encouraging message from the Lord. Special thanks to James Rey, Sean Brennan, Marc Ammese and Joey Hill for speaking...you all were truly inspiring! Also to thank is Ken Krall...he cooked and tutored the rest of us on how to prepare the perfect breakfast. After breakfast the men broke into groups and went out into the community worshiping God through Serving his people. We were able to build a metal shed, tear out a spa, landscape, pain, provide oil changes and car washes. It was so amazing to see each family so grateful for our church body helping them with the things they could not do on their own. All the glory goes to God!

Just as exciting, the WtS ministry was also able to participate in the local Habitat for Humanity project in Atascadero. In case you were unaware, our church partnered with H4H to finance and construct 4 new homes off Traffic Way in north county. As anyone who came with us can tell you we were worked extremely hard. We went through over 8 palates of pavers to finish construction of the driveway. The sweat and grit payed off immeasurably when we attended the home dedication in December. The 4 chosen families were prayed for, given bibles and finally cut the ribbon on their brand new homes! It was indescribable to see God work through a community to help out those who need our help the most.

As we head into the new year we are looking for the Lord's leading as to where he would like to take this ministry. It is obvious that the Calvary SLO church body is passionate about worshiping our creator through the service of his people. We find our calling in I John 3:16-20:

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

Please keep our ministry in mind when you or others you may know might need assistance. It is not only our calling but our passion to display Christ's sacrifice by helping others.

Happy New Year!

Big Buddies Christmas

2008-11-23T11:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas is around the corner and we thought one way we can celebrate and show the love of Jesus is to bless the families that participate in the Big Buddies program. The Big Buddies program matches people from our church with "at-risk children in single-parent homes who need a positive adult role-model in their life." We would like to provide needed services to these families (such as yard work or fix a household item that's broken) or bless them with a meaningful gift (such as a gift certificate to Boomer's so they can go have fun as a family). We are currently asking the families what needs they have, so more information is sure to follow. If you'd like to sign-up to help or have any questions, please email Christion at crichert02@gmail.com. Thanks!

PS: The idea for this was partially inspired by the Advent Conspiracy. Here's one of their promo videos:

A FoM Victory ... of sorts

2008-11-03T21:43:00.001-08:00

You know when the Raiders or 49ers have a bye week it's celebrated as a huge victory, because, well, they can't lose. Cause they didn't play. Well tonight the FoM Softball team got themselves a Bay Area Victory!! Our game was rained out. The troops had rallied, we'd a team ready to take the field and 2 hours before the game was to start I got a call saying they were calling the game on account of rain.

So to you FoM Softball players I say, good job and well done. There is hope of a make up game scheduled so stay tuned. The excitement is palpable.

FoM Softball Team Wins 29-6

2008-10-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

You heard it here first folks. The interesting thing is the team sent Coach AMac (Aaron McFarland) to the minors in Guatemala...and then they won! Addition from subtraction? j/k

Great job men! Greg or David can you comment on who was playing last night so we can congratulate them? And also any anecdotes you'd like to share.

MENtoring Lunch @ Buona Tavola

2008-10-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, we met at Buona Tavola for breakfast, then helped some people out in the community for Worship thru Service (WtS). The owner, Antonio, goes to CalvarySLO and hosted us to a beautiful breakfast that was second to none!

He's blessing us again! Nov. 8th, at 12pm he will open his doors just for us men, for a MENtoring lunch. He sent me the menu and I'm so bummed, because I'm have motorcycle safety training, towards my motorcycle license, that day at 1pm in Santa Maria. Oh if only we could be in two places at the same time...because he just sent me the menu and it ROCKS!

Buffet

Insalata Mista: a mix of organic baby lettuce, tomato roma, red and yellow bell peppers in a balsalmic vinagrette topped with fresh goat cheese

Penne al Pomodoro e Basilico: a short tube pasta with tomato sauce and basil

Scaloppe alla Milanese: a center cut bonelss pork loin chop lightly breaded pan seared with organic sage

Erbetta Parma: a baked swiss chard with parmasan cheese and garlic

Frutta di Stagione: a basket of seasonal fruit

Tiramisu: (to me needs no definition) a classic northern Italian dessert with lady fingers dipped in espresso coffee, mascarone cream cheese, topped with shaved chocolate

Water, ice tea, and sodas will also be served.

I would give one of you my left kidney for a doggie bag!

When: Saturday Nov. 8th @ 12pm

Where: Buona Tavola

How Much: $15 (With plenty of scholarships available, Aaron M. and Austin will be doing sign ups soon so let them know)

We'll have an elder speaking and some worship, then finish up with some MENtor/MENtee fun and details. We'd love it if everyone that came was signed up for the MENtoring deal, but everyone is welcome to the Lunch part.

BTW we could really use some MENtors...so sign up on Sunday or e-mail Aaron M. at aaronmcfarland@hotmail.com.

Men's Advance 2008

2008-10-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

This is a little video of Sean firing a .22 Rifle at the range. Unfortunately I messed up the sound, by muting the microphone on my camera instead of the speaker...oh well. You can see the little plume of smoke after he fires the gun.

This years Men's Advance was a real blessing. Overall, I think we've finally found a home since we left Koinonia camp in Santa Cruz 3-4 years ago. Although the group was small, I believe God worked in a huge way! Praise be to the Lord.

The attacks were very strong last week leading up to the Advance. Last Monday/Tuesday I was convinced we should just cancel/postpone the whole thing. I was fighting against amazingly strong discouragement, I'm so glad the Lord prevailed and we decided to push forward.

Friday Night
On the drive up, the Lord showed up. We were talking about homelessness and loving the less fortunate when Andrew, who was in the car, said that's weird I brought this song, Break My Heart by Ryan Delmore to listen too. Here is the first line of the lyrics "C

an I see my brother, with nothing to eat, and say God be with you, while I go to a feast?"

Oh yeah, the Men's Advance was going to be good, if God was showing up in a conversation on the way there! It was such a gift, from God, after the battle the week before. Praise His Name!

After the obligatory/traditional/absolutely necessary stop at In-N-Out we got to Rancho Alegre and got to work setting everything up. We would be starting our first session at 8pm. Our worship leaders for the weekend, Austin and Ryan, showed up about 7:59PM and got us going!

The theme for the weekend was Giving up Childish Ways from 1 Cor 13:11. So Bryan gave us a word from 1 Cor 13 and all the men were blessed. We shared communion and during the worship/response afterwords many of the men were broken with their need for God's healing and restoration of life. We prayed fervently for them and it was a sweet time.

But the Administrative (sometimes evil) side of me was wondering, "What will we do

the rest of the weekend?" Generally speaking we have the kind of response we had on Friday, during the Saturday night session! The Lord must have been shaking his head at me, "Oh ye of little faith!"

Saturday Morning

I generally don't sleep at these things, and this weekend was no exception. I just don't do well with sleeping away from home and having lot's to think about. So I guess you could say I woke up at 6:40AM and took a shower and went to the Hall to see what the Lord had for us that morning.

Well the first thing was some of the most amazing sausages I'd ever tasted. Along with some good french toast and the crispest grapes most of us had ever encountered, we had a hardy breakfast to start it all off.

Our Saturday morning session started with Austin and Ryan leading us in a couple of songs and then Joey, one of our Elders, shared a word with us...from none other than 1 Cor 13! The highlight of the morning was when Joey told us about the time his wife Katie texted him, "After we talked Judah [their son] pooped on the floor." Note to self, it's always a crowd pleaser at a Men's event when you incorporate the word poo.

Joey ended his message with some great questions from 1 Cor 13 about whether or not we are

patient, kind, selfish, etc. Right before Austin and Ryan gave us a few more songs of worship we sat in silence, really thinking about those questions. It was a great start to the morning.

The Competitions

Just to mix it up, the last few Men's Advances we've put the men in Platoons and then had some fun competition (usually on Saturday morning). This Advance was no exception. We cut the Platoons in half and sent half of them with Aaron to play Kajabi Kan Kan and the other half came with me to shoot .22 rifles!

If you don't know what Kajabi Kan Kan is, it's a bunch of people in a circle all holding knotted ropes trying to get each other to touch an empty trash can stuck in the middle of the circle. You get eliminated by touching the trash can or letting go of the rope. It's almost as much a crowd pleaser as the word poo.

In the first session, Chris and Jacob got first and second getting their Platoons 75 and 50 points respectively. In the second session, it was a show down between Sean and SupermAnselm with Sean prevailing.

Over at the shooting range, Bullfrog pictured above, gave us a wonderful run down of shooting .22 rifles safely and accurately. Many of the men had never shot a .22 rifle before so this was a real treat. The first session shooters were kinda weak, including me. Many of us had scores in the high 30s to low 40s. The second session was much better, all except one dude scored more than 40 points, and even he scored a 39. It's no surprise that the high score 49 out of 50, nice Scott, came from that session.

Lunch/Free Time

During Lunch, ham and cheese sandwiches, Aaron and I tallied up the scores to see who won. It was a tight competition between Pastor James' Platoon and Deacon Jeff's, with Jeff's prevailing in the end. They actually scored a tie in the Shooting competition (344 total points).

SevnOne donated some hats to us and these were the spoils of the competition. Jeff's Platoon could be seen proudly wearing them throughout the rest of the weekend!

After the prizes were handed out we had Morgan share with us his testimony and the vision God has given him to reach a group of Tibetan people in China. He told us how growing up he was a bit bored with just being told to be a good boy, when he was really looking for an adventure that God could calm him to for His glory. He went on to tell us that the Tibetan people group is one of the least reached people groups in the world, with 50 known believers! He let us know he was going to go as an Agribusiness man, since they are very wary of outsiders, with the hope of also planting a church.

Afterwards, Morgan had led a discussion group during the free time to talk about how we all could reach people groups who have not been reached yet with the gospel, just by using the talents and gifts that God has given us. Many of us also signed up to get his newsletter. Morgan and his wife will be going overseas in Sept 2009 after he graduates from CalPoly. Morgan's Platoon layed hands on him and prayed for God to do amazing things in and through him and his family that are going. We can't wait to see what God does.

Everyone kinda scatters during free time. Some go away to be alone with the Lord, others take naps, and some play sports or Nintendo Wii. Me? A group of us went off to shoot some more! Bullfrog, who is retired, told me he was pretty much retired and bored and if we wanted to shoot some more he wouldn't mind. He had quite a bit of wisdom (shooting wise) to impart and we were blessed to take part! All in all, I think he stuck around for about 3 hours so 8-12 of us could shoot a bit more...it was so much fun!

I shot for an hour or so and then headed to my bunk for a short nap, which ended up being a 1.5 hour one! So about 20 minutes until dinner I got to the Hall and found a bunch of dudes playing Risk and Tiger Woods Golf on the Wii, and the aroma of sweet BEEF was coming from the kitchen. I just love Men's Advance!

Saturday Night

Dinner consisted of Tri-tip, clam chowder, salad (yuck I ate some honey!), and for dessert...apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. Oh I forgot to tell you, about halfway through free time a huge tray of brownies came out of the kitchen! We were fed well. During dinner we discussed the most disgusting things we've ever eaten. I'm pretty sure I trumped even Antonio with balut. Antonio and I both agreed that Beef Tongue is one of the best tasting foods that people don't know about.

In the Dinner line, Steve and I were discussing what we would be teaching on (he was on that night and I the next morning). Guess what Steve was going to teach on that night? Yup, you guessed it 1 Cor 13. Now I've been helping or leading Men's Retreats/Advances for Calvary for a while now, and we never talk about what each of the speakers are going to share. And never have 3 speakers spoke on the same passage! God was really trying to get through to our thick skulls!

The Saturday night session was amazing. Pastor James, accompanied by Greg, led us to the throne room right away. I just love the way James leads worship, God has truly gifted him and he has such a servant's heart in his leading. As I said before Steve spoke that night and gave us yet another angle on 1 Cor 13. He challenged us not to think of the heart of that chapter as a list of to-do's as men easily do, but to truly ask the Lord to give us love for the people in our lives and the fruit would be patience, kindness, etc.

The Holy Spirit came in a mighty way during the response time and we were all so very blessed. It is very evident that God wanted us all to know that Giving up Childish Ways meant to selflessly love. We cannot selflessly love without His power and many asked for that power that night. We closed with many men asking for prayer in the realm of loving God with all of their hearts and souls. It is somewhat easier for men to love God with their minds and strength, but more difficult emotionally. Praise the Lord! He moved so mightily that weekend.

Sunday Morning

The food was very good at the camp and Sunday morning was indicative of that. We had scrambled eggs, nice thick cut bacon, tater logs (not tots), and some fruit. During the waning parts of breakfast I asked the men for some brutal and truthful feedback on the weekend. I specifically asked, "What was your favorite part of the weekend, and your least favorite?" This was a good session with mostly positive feedback and just some tweaks that we could do for the next one. I was so thankful for each of the men that stuck around till the very end.

We easily transitioned into sharing what God was doing in their hearts that weekend; confessions, decisions, and prayer requests. And we had a great open session. With many decisions (to rely on God's power) to change made and many sharing that God was definitely moving in their lives. We also prayed for those that needed physical and mental healing.

We took a break and then we had the Sunday session. Austin and Ryan led us in worship and I taught through 1 Cor 13...no I taught through Ex 18 when Jethro brings Moses' family back and gives him some advice on governing the Israelites. We learned that Moses humbled himself to listen to his father-in-law and took action. We would all like to not just listen to what God was saying that weekend, but actually take action!

To think, just a few days ago I was saying things like, "I'm gonna cancel/postpone this Advance." and "I'm done doing Men's Advances." I love to watch God work in the hearts of men...this was an amazing gift. Thank you Lord!

A special thanks to Aaron (Nessie) and Austin (DreamBoat) for their help in putting this baby on...couldn't a done it withoutcha!

Thanks to Bryan, Joey, and Steve for speaking and Austin, Ryan, James, and Greg for leading the men in worship through singing.

Thank you Jesus for dying and then rising from the Dead! You continue to heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free!

What to Bring!

2008-10-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

For those going to the Men's Advance here is a short list of things to bring. I'll keep adding to this list as I think of things.

What to Bring?

-Toilletries (sp?) including your own Towel

-Sleeping stuff like you are camping; Pilow, Sleeping Bag, Air Mattress or Sleeping Pad (We have cabins, but the bunk beds look pretty uncomfortable)

-Mosquito Repellant

-Cool clothes (it's gonna be hot!)

-Free time stuff: Hiking boots (there is a 4 hour hike), fishing stuff if you wanna fish at Lake Cachuma, Basketball and net for hoop if possible (there is a portable hoop in the loading dock), the rifle range will also be available if we want during the free time (please bring $5 or so if you want to do this)

-Board Games or Wii/PS3/Xbox360? Something to do Friday and Saturday night?

For those not going, please pray for each of us. Here's a list by name as up to date as possible. We'd love to see each man leave with more of Jesus, more life, ready to grow up and make a difference for the Kingdom!

Platoon 1
Cabin: Anacapa

Platoon 2

Cabin: Anapamu

Platoon 3

Cabin: Sespe

Platoon 4

Cabin: Sisquoc

Did I mention the food?

2008-10-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention in my last post about visiting Rancho Alegre that they have a full commercial kitchen there! I asked about the menu and this is the info that I have:

Both Breakfasts (Sat & Sun) should be grub pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, etc etc
Lunch (Sat) can be salad bar or sandwiches...I told her this was a MEN'S event and she said oh yeah we'll do some big sandwiches or something like that
Dinner (Sat) she said they were open. I said three words Bar B Q...she said oh yeah, we'll work on that

I love this place!

My guess is if the weather holds up we'll be having most of our sessions in the outdoor chapel and/or bonfire area.

I'm super excited...I hope you are too!

FoM Softball League Standing

2008-09-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

By virtue of an improved offense providing more RBI's and some solid defense your FoM CalvarlySLO softball team is in 2nd (to last) place! Way to go gents. With hard work and a few more games under our belt I know a victory is right around the corner!

MENtor Myth I

2008-09-23T21:57:00.000-07:00

I'm not qualified to be a MENtor

I had the opportunity to be a Resident Assistant my senior year in college. Each new R.A. had an outgoing R.A. from the previous year as a Mentor. I’ll never forget the advice Mike gave me which I still practice to this day. “Aaron”, he said, “there will come a time when a guy on your floor is going to knock on your door at 2am and at that moment you need to say, ‘God, Help!’.”

Feeling inadequate in the capacity of leading and mentoring is a common ailment that afflicts many Christian men all the way back to the early days of man. Moses, standing before God at the burning bush, told God he was unqualified to lead others. Gideon asked God to perform not 1, not 2 but 3 miracles before he undertook the mantel of leading other men. The prophet Jeremiah attempted to claim youth as making him unqualified. Often we’ll think because we don’t have the right education (or any education), the experiences, enough Biblical knowledge, we haven’t been a Christian long enough, etc that we are unqualified to be a mentor.

Yet looking at these men who’ve gone before us, they were not the biggest, the best, the most educated or the most “qualified” in the eyes of men. They were men willing to share all aspects of their relationship with God, with the men around them. Being a mentor is not about knowing everything or even knowing more than most, it’s about being a friend.

Fishers of Men Softball BoxScore III Sept 22, 2008

2008-09-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

Last night the FoM played an incredible game, one which, for most of the game they had the lead. Multiple goals were accomplished both in the field and at the plate during the 3rd game of the season.

1. Pitcher Dan Hofstee recorded not 1 but 2 strike outs
2. The team batted around in not 1 but 2 innings
3. We scored first
4. We scored double digits

About the only thing that didn't go the way for the FoM was leading at the end of the game. It was a tough fought battle and a hard 15-14 loss in the bottom of the final inning. But we have to be encouraged since we only fielded 9 players (out of a possible 10) and had the lead for most of the game. BIG kudos go out to Kurt Gloeckler (a reserve from last season) and John Kozina (a friend from Aaron's work) for getting us to the required 9 players to avoid a forefit.

Aaron brought/used his MANteen (pictured above) which all men who attend the CalvarySLO Men's Advance will get. I don't want to say that the MANteen was directly responsible for the stellar performance of the FoM, but the way it performed in keeping the water cold for hours certainly provided inspiration.

Game ball goes to James and Kate Johnson for homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies and JuiceBoxes

Men's Advance Location

2008-09-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, a few of us went up to Rancho Alegre, Boy Scout Camp in the Los Padres forest near Santa Barbara to...well scout it out. I have been to the camp about half a dozen times, but never got an extensive tour due to other parties being at the camp when I visited.

This time it was abandoned so we were able to walk through:

all six (4 overflow if needed) dormatories (not great but clean, you'll w ant to bring an extra pad to sleep on or there should be extras to double up on, each man will probably get their own personal bunk bed)
the meeting/dining hall (pretty cool way better than Cambria, the PA works, but probably not for worship...we may do a lot outside)
the pool we won't get to use (long story)
the pond that is dried up until it rains again
the campfire area (think of the typical Boy Scout Camp bonfire area...yup that's it)
the outdoor chapel (pictured above...it was at least 12 levels of aweso me)
the archery and shooting range (um 12 levels of awesome cubed!)
someone there told us about a 4 hour hike! (yeah 3 hours up 1 hour down...boooya)
oh yeah...the mosquitos scouted us...(note to self, bring mosquito repellant)
on the way I kept thinking how sweet it would be to ride my motorcycle there...

We ended our scouting trip with a time of prayer. That the Lord would annoint this place for all of the men that he calls to go Oct 10-12. That our time there would be "a kick in the pants." Meaning both a great time and an opportunity for God our Father to give us a swift kick in the pants where necessary. The theme is "Giving up Childish Ways (1 Cor 13:11).

I can't wait to see what the Lord does!

This is the actual sign you should look for, right after Lake Cachuma entrance...it's on the right hand side when going towards Santa Barbara on the left hand side if coming from SB on HWY 154...

Fishers of Men Softball BoxScore II Sept 15, 2008

2008-09-15T21:23:00.001-07:00

The CalvarySLO Fishers of Men Softball team went out and totally crushed their goal of scoring a run. CalvarySLO FoM crossed Home plate 4 times. While another close game eventually got away from the FoM, the improvement in play and performance was highly evident in the 4-16 loss.

FoM recorded 2 double plays, 1 of the (by Sterling Higgins) was unassisted at 1st base. A special thanks to Kate and Maddie Johnson for coming out and watching us play ball. Game ball goes to Dave Norris and Dan Hofstee. Dave came off the bench and filled in for a traveling Greg Squires and Dan pitched a great game filling in for Greg who pitched last week for us.

Kudos go to all the men who come out and play, have a good time and encourage one another.

Its all tied up: Married vs. Singles soccer

2008-09-14T16:07:00.000-07:00

After a grueling 2 hours of soccer, the married's team win it 6 to 4. It was 7 on 7 soccer with a few subs throughout the game. We played 20-30 minute quarters. There were a couple patches of dirt on the field, but everyone had a good time. I think this the first Kingdom builders event were we had ZERO injuries...I think thats unheard of. Praise the Lord. We grilled up about 40 brats after the game and reminisced middle school soccer games with CapriSun's. It was a good time of fellowship, meeting other men, and using muscles that never get any exercise.
In the overall Married vs. Singles soccer matchup, we are tied up 1 to 1. You know what this means. Keep your eyes open for the next MvS soccer match: The Championships.

Fishers of Men Softball BoxScore Sept 9, 2008

2008-09-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

CalvarySlo - Dominate(d)

The inaugural game of the fall season for Lower Division Single A City Parks and Recreation Softball League has officially begun. The Calvary Men played their hearts out in a very close game that was lost in the waning minutes of the final inning. CalvarySlo almost took it to extra innings in the 18-0 loss but tonight it was not to be.

Though unmatched in heart, they were outmatched in runs though it is suspected that the opposing team was using performance enhancing softball skills as evidence by their ability to score more runs than us. While the win was illusive, the "jock"ularity had by the men and both fans who came out to watch us rivaled any mid-week afternoon SLO Blues game.

This season we had to say goodbye to a few of our players from last season:
1. Joey Hill was traded to his family for a season to be named later
2. Sean Brennan was placed on the 15 day DL until he realizes softball is part of his DNA
3. Ty McCarthy also on the 15 day DL until his hiatus is complete
3. Dave Norris, John Brandenburg and Jordan Vargas were sent down to the minors to further their education
4. Aaron Nesper was traded to Home Builders for a plate of brownies and a carafe of milk

In the absence of these fine gentlemen we've added some fresh players to this season's roster. Please help me welcome:
1. Sterling Higgins - playing with his left foot stitched to 1st base
2. John Depry catching everything hit into Left Center and throwing them out at home
3. Derek Rosenstrauch covering Short Stop like Jeter and Rodriguez put together
4. James Johnson dominating Right Field

This season holds a ton of promise and expectations are high that FoM Softball will be able to repeat the 2 win season from last year. So please, if you aren't doing anything on Monday nights (let's face it, with MNF airing games including Arizona, Oakland, SF, Cleveland and Houston they aren't making much of a case to stay home and watch football) please come out and support your local Lower Division Single A City Parks and Recreation CalvarySlo Softball team.

**Game ball goes to Carrie Squires who fearlessly retrieved a foul ball from behind the backstop.

FoM Softball Fall 2008 Schedule

2008-09-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

Our CalvarySLO Men's Softball team will be in full effect (that's a term from the 80's I think) this Fall 2008. Below is the schedule.

Please come and support our men. There are lot's of opportunities to witness to others in the stands as well as fellowshipping with the other CalvarySLO peeps. Sometimes they bring a cooler full of drinks and hang out after the game.

They could seriously use a few more guys (even if you share your spot with someone). Contact AMac at aaronmcfarland@hotmail.com

Game Date Time Location

9-8 6:30 p.m. El Chorro 2

9-15 7:10 p.m. Santa Rosa

9-22 6:30 p.m. El Chorro 2

9-29 8:20 p.m. Santa Rosa

10-6 6:30 p.m. El Chorro 2

10-13 8:20 p.m. Santa Rosa

10-20 7:40 p.m. El Chorro 2

10-27 7:10 p.m. Santa Rosa

11-3 8:50 p.m. El Chorro 2

11-10 8:20 p.m. Santa Rosa

Fishers of Men BBQ

2008-08-04T21:25:00.001-07:00

So Josh and I crashed the Fishers of Men BBQ @ the Brennan's house. While the team was eating I was watching the kids play on the dirt slide. This is Josh showing his sweet secret agent ninja moves...

We later played a sweet game of Wiffle Ball. I had to have a designated runner because I'm still very unsure of my back. A fun time was had by all!

Our vision for FoM Sports teams is both outreach and fellowship. I think both were represented tonight...Amen.

MvS Soccer Style: Marrieds Lose...Again

2008-07-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

I wish I had snapped a pic with my cell phone, but try to picture 7v7 soccer, Singles:Skins/Marrieds:Shirts, the ladies (and those of us men on doctor's orders to take it easy for a while) cheering them on the sidelines. It's a really cool picture actually.

I love seeing the men "fellowshipping" in this way. I find that:

they meet other men in the fellowship they normally would not have met
they get to know the men they normally just smile and shake hands with on a Sunday morning
As a side note: Men also get to show off in front of their significant other

It's so cool.

Ok I've been avoiding it, but the Marrieds lost...big time to the Singles. The Marrieds I saw afterwards at the Parents meeting couldn't even say what the score was. We had way more Marrieds there than singles, but as one married dude said, "they didn't get tired after 3 minutes of playing!"

Needless to say Soccer/Futbol is VERY popular even here on the Central Coast of California! We'll be doing this again...and we may let the ladies play...maybe.

Thanks AMac (Aaron MacFarland) for coordinating. Thanks Greg Squires for borrowing those sweet nets. I pray that God is glorified and Jesus would smile on the relationships that were started or strengthened!

BTW i just got word that the injury/ER streak continues...Nessie (Aaron Nesper) landed on his thumb in a valiant effort to get a much needed Marrieds goal. Well he's going to the ER tomorrow morning and thinks it's broken: 6 events 6 trips to the ER.

Father/Son Campout 2008

2008-07-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

I finally got a chance to upload these pictures from the Father/Son Campout 2008.

Through a few little trials (or potential trials) like the fires surrounding Big Sur, flooding in the Brennan home, and a very brief lightning/thunder storm; we had a GREAT time!

If you know nothing about this, every year for the last three years a few of us Dads take our sons up to Pfeiffer Big Sur campground during a summer weekend. It's a great time for some male bonding, as well as some teaching.

This year I got a few calls from some moms about the fire in King City. After a little bit of checking we realized the fires were far enough and heading in the opposite direction; so we headed out. I got to hang with Sean Brennan who drove us in luxury in his Toyota Sequoia...trailer full of gear in tow.

When we reached camp at 2pm on Friday it was 90 degrees...in Big Sur! So we left all of our gear and headed for the river gorge. The water must have been in the 60's it was wonderful.

The rest of the weekend was filled with: dips in the river, Eric Fitler jumping off the man cliff into the river, Sean and Steve jumping off the Superman cliff into the river, exploring the gorge, attempts at squirrel catching, smor's and deep fried pancakes, Steve teaching on being quick to listen and slow to speak/slow to anger, the Ring of Fire where we affirm our sons, I taught on how Joshua (from the Bible) was a hero by being a servant, humble, and responsible.

As we left Big Sur we found out we were under a voluntary evacuation due to a lightning strike forest fire a few miles south of us. Also due to that fire, Hwy 1 was closed going south. So we had to go around Monterey and to the 101. If you look at the slides I took some pictures of the billowing smoke behind us. The weird thing was we were maybe 2-3 minutes north of our campground. That smoke sure made the fire look a lot closer to the campsite!

Thanks to Rob Fitler for taking most of these pics, risking his sweet Canon for posterity. Thanks to all the Dads: Sean, Steve, Christian, Tom C., Tom H., and Rob. It was great to share the weekend with you men!

Singles Won

2008-05-10T20:33:00.001-07:00

Preliminary data indicates the Singles won @ Miracle Miles on all counts:

Fastest time: Wise and Christion came in at about 45 minutes each. Linda and I on the other hand 2 hours and change, so unless the Whitacres ran like the wind I think we lost that category
Most Pledges raised: See that trophy? That's was awarded to CalvarySLO Singles for Most Money Raised by a Group! So I'm guessing they won that category as well.
Tie breaker: even if needed, it looks like they had more sign ups unless a bunch of marrieds did walk up sign up...but like I said it looks irrelevant

I'll have the official verdict next Sunday, but it doesn't look good for the Marrieds! The only consolation is that we pretty much blew Calvary Shoreline out of the water.

It was a fun event. I'm glad we as a church could make such a big impact. Props to Nick Enns who raised over $1200 to get the Singles the trophy and some sweet gift certificates to Mo's Smokehouse.

Thanks everyone!

Nehemiah 8: Biblical R & R

2008-05-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. (Neh 8:12)

It took us a couple of weeks, but we got through chapter 8. This is now my favorite chapter (have I said that before?).

In summary, after the people had built the wall (so now they felt safe) and God through Nehemiah had organized the people with giftings and callings (remember chapter 7?) they now wanted to hear the scriptures read and preached [screeching sound]. Yeah, they actually asked for a church service (and it went for about 6 hours!), pretty amazing huh?

Ezra reads the Pentateuch, first five books of the Bible from early morning until mid-day. The Levites walked around the congregation (50k people, think Dodger Stadium) to explain what was being read. The people respond with weeping and mourning, either out of respect for the written word of God or out of repentance for how far they had missed the mark God had laid out for them.

Imagine a packed baseball stadium full of people, listening to preaching and teaching, and they all fall face down on the ground and start weeping! God showed up in a big way to pierce the hearts of the people. This is an amazing miracle! I like to say it doesn't happen every day...is God speaking? Yes. Are we always open and listening? No.

Nehemiah and Ezra both tell the people to stop weeping and mourning, but instead to celebrate the fact that God had pierced their hearts. How may I ask does Nehemiah "encourage" them to celebrate? In the ESV it translates it, "Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready".

Many might be shocked that Nehemiah's response or way of celebrating is basically BBQ and Alcoholic Beverages, but I think the key is in verse 12 quoted above. It says that the people went to celebrate with food and wine, "because they had understood the words that were declared to them." In other words, they didn't go eat and drink to be gluttons or drunkards, to find pleasure in the food or wine in and of itself, they went to worship and praise God for showing up.

It's an amazing distinction. Colossions 3:17 says, "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." That means, with a few exceptions, that whatever we are doing can be an act of worship to God. I think the main thing is the motivation. Are we doing [fill in the blank] as an act of worship to God or to the thing he created? There was quite a bit of discussion that was awesome.

We finished the chapter discussing the amazing results of MEN responding in obedience to God and leading the people in spiritual things. Verse 13 tells us that on the second day the men wanted to dig deeper into God's written word. Uh-huh another miracle. What they found out is that they should be celebrating the Feast of Booths, Sukkot, right then. So guess what? They did!

The men, the leaders of each household, lead in the collection of branches and leaves and the building of booths and the daily rituals.

This is what KingdomBuilders is all about. We want men to be ignited to follow Jesus with all of their hearts, minds, strength, and will! This is the way to a strong family, church, community, nation, and world is the men. I won't bore you with all the statistics, because we know it in our hearts and the scriptures bear witness, men are meant to lead spiritually.

This might mean taking risks for Jesus, going on an adventure with him, and definitley forming bonds of brotherhood with the other men at CalvarySLO. That's what we at KingdomBuilders are all about!

CalvarySLO in the OT?: Nehemiah 7:5-73

2008-04-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

The priests, Levites, security guards, singers, and Temple support staff, along with some others, and the rest of the People of Israel, all found a place to live in their own towns. (Neh 7:73 MSG)

Well we did it...we studied through Nehemiah 7, the equivalent of the Jerusalem phone book!

We actually learned quite a bit; that God chooses to use People, their gifts, talents, and generous giving. We also learned that the way God organized the people of Jerusalem is very similar to the way he has chosen to organize CalvarySLO.

Here's what I mean This information is my understanding of CalvarySLO organization as of right now, which often changes:

Verse 7 mentions men of the people which equates to the congregation, those who call CalvarySLO their church home. This is everyone who gets their nourishment on Sunday and all of the other ministries that are offered at CalvarySLO.

Verses 39 and 43 mention the priests and the Levites which equates to the paid staff of CalvarySLO. These are:

Bryan - Senior Pastor
James - Associate Pastor
Nick - College Pastor
Ben - Youth Pastor (High School & Jr. High)
Leah - Children's Ministry Coordinator
Melissa - Office Manager
Cole - Accounting

Verse 44 mentions the singers which equates to our worship team at CalvarySLO. This is lead by Kris Stipech, but there are many more who lead us to the throne on Sunday morning and in our other ministries and events. Isn't it cool that thousands of years ago there was Worship through Song?

Verse 45 mentions the gatekeepers which equates to our elders at CalvarySLO. These are:

Steve - Evangelism and Outreach
Marc - Children's Ministry
Sean - Just came back from Sabbatical...Youth Ministries before
Dave - Missions
Joey - Deacons
Albert - Sunday Morning Services
Patrick - Men's Ministry
Larry - Finances

Verse 60 mentions Temple servants and Solomon's servants which equates to the deacons at CalvarySLO. These are:

Jeff - Community Groups
Gabe - Sunday Morning Services
Tim - Sound Ministry
Eric - Floating Deacon
Jonathan - Children & Youth Worship

Hope that is helpful. The men leading and coordinating KingdomBuilders with me thought so.

It's super amazing that God chooses to use us, normal and sinful people, to move and build his Kingdom here on earth. He has called us to use the gifts and talents he has given us to serve and love the bride...even giving our lives for her. It's sobering and exciting at the same time.

As the verse above states everyone listed in this long list of names found a place to live, and might I add serve, in their towns. We all should find our place to live and serve at the church we call home!

Thoughts on Spring Training 2008

2008-04-12T23:46:00.000-07:00

I wish I had some pictures to show you! Hopefully Stupar will upload some soon that I can steal.

My day started at 4:30am...couldn't sleep, usually can't right before a big event. So I practiced my message on my dog, Sophie. Pretty sure she's going to be Playing for Keeps real soon.

Then I headed over to the local donut shop, for a dozen, and then picked up James and Steve at James' house. We headed over to Pacheco for the sound equipment and picked up Austin as well.

We arrived at 8:45am and there were already men there! We quickly setup and were on our way at about 9:45am. Nick led us in a couple of songs and I spoke about "How Invested Nehemiah was in God's Kingdom." We sent everyone out for some reflection time asking:

Am I Playing for Keeps?
What does God want to do in my heart today?
What does God want me to invest my energy, passions, time, and life in?

At about 11:10 we got back together. Aaron Wise ran us through the rules of the Softball tourney and broke the news that even though some of the men didn't want to play softball we were going to have to ask them to, because there just weren't enough men to spare. Thank men!

The first games were Team Nesper vs. Team McFarland on Field 1; Team Wise vs. Team Gardner on Field 2. I was on Team Gardner so I don't know what happened on Field 1, but we had a very competitive game that saw us come back from a 9 run deficit. I do know that Team Nesper won on Field 1 (I heard that Steve had to learn how to catch the ball on first base though.)

Also on Field 2 Patrick Malloy took one for Team Wise. As he was touching 3rd base he twisted his knee. We prayed for him and he started to ice it, but ended up going to the emergency room: Thanks Aaron Enstad! I didn't get the official report, but I heard that his knee was hurt, but as we continued to pray for him the pain was decreasing.

We had some lunch at about 12:45pm; three 6 ft Subway sandwiches, chips, soda, and cookies. We had way too much food so we invited the SLO Heavies who were practicing in a field next to ours. The SLO Heavies are a team of really big mostly Scottish men in kilts that throw huge logs, boulders, and hammers in what's called the Scottish games. They were fun men.

At about 1:25pm or so the KB Leaders/Coordinators told me if we didn't get something going everyone was going to fall asleep! So we started with some worship from Westberg and then a message on Grace by Steve. I could see there were a good amount of men that were moved as men were split up into small groups and prayed for each other.

Sometime around 3:15pm or so we got started on the second game: winners vs. losers. Team Nesper vs. Team Wise on Field 2; Team McFarland vs. Team Gardner on Field 1. It was a very heated game on Field 1 as a couple of our players had to leave or just decided to stop playing. McFarland's team played catcher for us and missed a couple of plays...and I have to confess I started losing it. I ended up apologizing for my sinful competitiveness.

At around 4:45pm we started our last worship/teaching session. Nick lead us in worship and Bryan taught on the Curse on Men due to the Fall. We were all ready for some dinner when that was over and the food showed up at about 6:15pm. Also about that time some of our families, wives, and girlfriends showed up to share in the copious amounts of food and to watch the Championship game.

As we unwrapped the pig I heard a lot of comments, mostly about how people didn't really realize that we were actually going to see a whole roasted pig. I thought I was pretty clear about that so I thought that was funny. We all enjoyed whole roasted pig (Lechon), Filipino Eggrolls (Lumpia), Filipino Chow Mein (Pancit), and white rice. Along with the Lechon was a secret sauce, which many were game to try. I'm honestly not sure what it is, but my guess is it's cooked innards and drippings somehow turned into a sauce. But man was it good!

Championship game was Team Nesper vs. Team McFarland. I heard these men really wanted to win the Championship and the knives. The consolation game was kind of a farce as both teams were short players so we did our best. The Championship game saw a blowout 18 to 12 with a huge rally at the end from 18 to 6 or something like that. Team Nesper won, with an undefeated record. They played their hearts out.

We had a bit of a ceremony after that where I handed out the knives and congratulated the winners. We gave knives to the MVPs of the 2nd thru 4th place teams: Dan from Team McFarland, Gavin from Team Gardner, Will from Team Wise. They were pleasantly surprised. Last, we were going to raffle off the rest of the knives but there were enough for everyone that stuck it out until the end so everyone got one.

Thanks to everyone who stuck around to help clean up. We were like zombies walking around not talking to each other, just cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. It was crazy! On our way home we found out that a bunch of men were going to soak in Jeff Little's hot tub...every muscle in our bodies was saying, "Please go!" So we did...I don't know what kind of condition I would be in now if we hadn't.

All in all in was a really great day. I'm starting to realize that I need to (and can) rely on the KB Leaders/Coordinators. See I've been doing KB alone for so long I forget I have men that really want to serve as well. All day they just owned it and kept telling me to let them do something.

Thanks Nesper, Wise, AMac, and Austin for your help...it means more than you'll ever know. Same to James and Steve...you guys stuck it out with us to the very end! A huge thanks to Jerry and Lorie Apilado, who cooked everything but the pig for dinner...from scratch! BTW these aren't professional Caterers they are my neighbors sister and brother-in-law that willingly spent hours making and frying each Eggroll for a very good price. Thanks also to Manong Eddie who cooked the pig, probably starting at the crack of dawn!

Praise the Lord! I just love hanging out with the men and learning to Play for Keeps, both through the worship/teaching and realizing that the competitiveness we felt during the tourney is how God made us. We just have to redeem that and use it for the Kingdom of God!

If you were there I'd love to see your comments...so leave one!

Venue for ST08

2008-04-07T23:09:00.001-07:00

Men...I was in A-town for work today so I stopped by the Venue for ST08, aka Paloma Creek Park Atascadero. Let me tell you, this picture cannot convey how sweet the park is. See I'm used to Santa Rosa Park where the diamonds are so close you can hit a dude on the back of the head in the outfield of the next diamond over...while bunting. Or Soto Sports Complex in AG where the grass looks like mowed over weeds and well dare I say ghetto?

So that's what I expected when I got to Paloma Creek Park...oh I thought no parking too, boy was I wrong on all accounts! Seemed like plenty of parking available, not that we shouldn't carpool because Al Gore told me the globe is warming. Well I got out of my car and what was I greeted with but green; green grass everywhere. Two huge sunken soccer fields to the left and a little league diamond (we didn't rent that...apparently you can't).

And a path down the middle to two (2) sweet softball diamonds. They are totally separate entities. They were chalked and had bases like they will on Saturday and they looked great like the pic above shows, but in person even better. Get this they even have real dugouts! I am pumped...I hope you are too.

I can't wait.

It is Finished? Neh 6:1-7:4

2008-04-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. Neh 6:15

We (KingdomBuilders leaders) have met twice since I updated you last on our journey through Nehemiah, so I am combining both studies here.

The main deal I got out of Chapter 6 and part of 7 is that Nehemiah doesn't rest on his laurels, you know what I mean? Here he is, he's completed what many before him have tried and failed to complete; restoring the wall around Jerusalem. Some would say it is THE work he was put on this earth to do. It's a huge structure requiring hundreds of people to clear rubble and burnt doors and THEN build the wall. On top of that he was hounded by constant opposition from within and without.

With all that he uses 16 words (at least in the ESV) to describe this massive work that only took 52 days. I think I'd have used at least 52 words, you know what I'm saying? What we came up with is that Nehemiah was able to deadpan the whole thing because:

Nehemiah knew the work wasn't done yet. This part of it was done, which I'm sure he was glad about and rejoiced, but there was more work to be done to organize the people and to point their hearts towards Jesus. Alas, the leader's work is never done.
Nehemiah found complete satisfaction in God rather than his job. Sure it was neat that they accomplished so much in so little time, but it sure pales in comparison to our great and awesome God!
Nehemiah wanted ALL the glory to go to God. Waxing eloquent about his accomplishments would have taken the focus off of God and put it on him and his team.

This is a hard word from the Lord who gives us Nehemiah as an example of working hard for the Lord, finding satisfaction in only him, and not being a glory thief. We'll find there is quite a bit more work for Nehemiah to do and he continues to be faithful. It's so hard in this day and age with Yahoo banner ads telling us our dream job is a mouse click away, to be content in the job God has given us and to only find satisfaction in him...not a job. Most of all as selfish sinful broken people that want attention and accolades, it is very difficult to not be a glory thief.

AMEN?

Clarification on Spring Training 2008

2008-03-18T22:07:00.001-07:00

Hey men of CalvarySLO,

I've been getting a lot of questions about this event, mostly surrounding:

1. Are we just putsying around playing softball?
2. Why would it cost me $40 just to play softball?

3. Are we playing against other Churches? No.

So here's some more background on the event.

The KingdomBuilders leaders felt lead to do 2 not 1 but 2 Men's Advances this year. The first one would be a 1 day Mini-Advance in the Spring to accomodate those that just can't take a whole weekend away and the full Advance would be in the Fall. We also wanted to keep the cost the same ($100-120) in case some men wanted to go to both. I think we accomplished that since Spring Training is $40 and we think the Men's Advance will be $70.

So we came up with Spring Training as a cool name that kinda ties in with the baseball Spring Training. But our Spring Training is so much more than just softball. Here's what we got going:

1 Fully Rented Park (Paloma Creek) w/ 2 Softball Diamonds and 2 Soccer Fields
1 Set of Headband/Wristbands with event logo
2 Meals Lunch (Subway) and Dinner (Filipino BBQ or Luau)
3 Sessions of Worship/Teaching
3 Sessions of Sports including Softball Tourney, Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee and/or Football etc

Atascadero parks and rec will chalk the baseball fields for us and rent us real bases. I'm working on getting real Umpires to spend the day with us, but not sure. Nick will be leading worship and Bryan, Steve, and I will be sharing from our hearts what it means to Play for Keeps.

The $40 goes to pay for the park (a bigger expense than you'd think), 2 meals (food, drinks, plates, forks, napkins etc), headband/wristbands, maybe some umpires, etc etc.

I hope you come out!

Josh K. Departs

2008-03-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well we are losing one of the KingdomBuilder team, Josh K. He's been helping me with events for a bit now and we'll miss him. He's applied to a few Veterinarian schools across the country and he hopes to get into one. I guess there are only 28 in the USA!

He hopes to be able to take the skills that he will learn into the mission field either full-time or short-term missions. Join me in hoping him the best.

Last night was his last study night with us so we held hands and sang the following song while we cried and passed each other the tissues:

I'm crying just thinking about it ;)

Just kidding...we sent him off in manly fashion with all you can eat pizza at Klondikes and the smallest amounts of frozen yogurt we could force down our throats at Yogurt Creations.

Take care Josh! Godspeed...

WtS Breakfast II

2008-03-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

How can I describe this morning? We had great food, fellowship, worship, and teaching. What else can you ask for?

Antonio, owner of Buona Tavola where we ate, cooked up a wonderful feast with his crew. We had fresh squeezed orange juice; fresh strawberries, apples, and tangelos; prosciutto, salami, and cheeses; wonderful potatoes and peppers; amazing chicken sausage; both vegetarian and ham frittatas (I had both! they were fantastic!); last but not least some spectacular biscuits with lemon zest. Oh the coffee was so good...I couldn't put cream and sugar in it with a good conscience. We couldn't thank Antonio enough...in fact he told me to stop! Praise God for his ability to worship through cooking!

We had a couple of men step up to do worship, Austin and Ryan. They were lead to start us out with "More than Enough." Marc, one of our Elders, came up to speak and said the Spirit must have lead them to start with that song because it was perfect for the message the Lord had given him...and it was. Marc spoke to us out of Number 10-14, about how God's men are fighting men. They fight to be lovers of God, holy devoted to him. We were all blessed.

I have to say there is nothing like 25 or so men singing praises to God at the top of their lungs! Especially in such a public area as the outside patio of Buona Tavola...

We ended with a few more songs then went off to our assignments. Some went to a single lady's house from CalvarySLO to dig some fence posts and set them in concrete...mmmm concrete! Others went to a single mom's house to break down a desk and take some stuff to the dump. Still others went to a Little Buddy's house to help get his mom's house ready for a new baby to come; cleaning carpets and helping with some landscaping. The rest of us, including myself, went to worship thru service at home. Linda and I did some serious subduing of the earth at Casa Zalamea.

I can't thank Christion and Nesper enough for committing to these WtS Breakfasts. I'm only sorry our next one isn't until June! Joey, from the Elder Board, will be speaking. I hope you'll join us!

Pictures on the right --------------->

Nehemiah 5: Actions Speak Louder than Words

2008-02-19T11:42:00.000-08:00

So I said, "The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?" (Neh 5:9)

Have you ever met someone that says one thing and does something else? Ever been taken advantage of? If your answers to those questions are Yes, it is really sad. But if your answer to those questions is Yes and the person we are talking about is a Christian and so are you, it is insidious, heinous, or worse!

That's what we are dealing with in Chapter 5. Some nobles and officials who are part of the community of God, Israelites, yet their actions towards their fellow brothers shows different. They are taking advantage of their fellow Jews to make a profit off of them during the wall building and a famine. It's sad really, but a reality all too often, that God's people greedily take advantage of each other instead of lovingly blessing each other monetarily.

In chapter 5 there is a great outcry from the people that threatens not only the building of the wall, but Jerusalem and the nation of Israel as well. Basically, the regular working schmoes, like me, can't feed their families because they have been volunteering to build the wall. They then start mortgaging their farms, vineyards, etc. These mortgages are from their brothers and they are charging high interest even though it is against God's law to charge interest to a brother. Then they can't pay the high tax that King Artexerxes exacts from his kingdom, so they start selling their sons and daughters to these so called nobles and officials.

Nehemiah gets ticked off (aka righteous anger) and holds a good old fashion public church discipline session. He formally charges them all of sin and then drops a bomb by publicly admitting that he too has been doing the same thing (v 10)! He repents and asks the nobles and officials to repent as well. But he doesn't stop there he also says, "Let's pay restitution not just repent!"

The officials agree to follow Nehemiah's lead and repent as well as pay restitution. Nehemiah doesn't stop there...he brings in the priests to witness the nobles and officials swearing to pay back all the interest, return all the property, and return the sons and daughters. It's a contract basically, which he further strengthens by shaking out the dust and whatever is in his pockets (aka folds of his cloak) to show that God will do the same thing to them if they don't honor the contract.

The people obviously rejoice and the situation is taken care of. Nehemiah finishes the chapter by showing how repentant he was by describing that when he became Governor of Israel he did not collect the allowances from the people (food and 40 shekels of silver a day) that normally come with the office. He feared God and loved the people too much to do so (are you listening Washington, DC? This is a great economic stimulus plan!).

Actions speak louder than words. We can say that we are Christians, but "they will know us by our love!" I'll leave you with the 3 questions I left with the KB leaders:

Are you taking advantage of a brother or sister in Christ? Monetarily, emotionally, sexually, whatever?
Have you been taken advantage of by a brother or sister in Christ? And have you forgiven them? Bitterness is one of the worst things this side of hell. It imprisons you in a prison cell that is almost impenetrable. Don’t let yourself be caught in it’s trap.
How are you managing God’s money? That’s not a typo, it’s not your money, it’s God’s and he lets you have some of it. Depending on your answer that will actually show where your heart is at, where your faith is even. It let’s you know if you have greed in there or love!

“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” 1 John 3:17

New Poll!

2008-02-14T15:58:00.000-08:00

So here's a question for ya...

We are changing it up this year and will have a mini-Advance in April, we're calling it Spring Training, and a full Advance in October...Lord willin' and the crik don't rise.

Spring Training will be a full Saturday of worship and teaching, sports, AND FOOD! Thus the poll to the right.

I'm looking into doing either a full Filipino Lechon Baboy (which means roast pig, the filipino version of a Luau) or all you can eat Carne Asada and/or Al Pastor soft tacos. Just to clarify the Filipino Lechon or Luau would have egg rolls (we call them lumpia) and chow mein type noodles (we call it pancit, the c is like an s) maybe some rice. The all you can eat soft tacos is just that tacos with all the fixins...I think the tortillas are hand made and completely authentic salsa etc etc.

So let me know what you think...does the thought of a pig looking at you gross you out or are you man enough to deal? Maybe you just don't like Pacific Islander/Asian food...whatever just let me know ;)

Thanks!

Nehemiah 4: Building AND Defending!

2008-02-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. (Neh 4:16-18)

Sorry it's been a few weeks since my last update. We did have our study with the KingdomBuilder leaders last week and we went through Chapter 4 of Nehemiah. It's one of my favorite chapters of scripture. I even asked the guys if we could change the name of Kingdombuilders to Trowel & Sword! They obviously didn't take to the idea...

It's one of my favorites because of the beautiful picture of building and defending at the same time. These men knew that they needed to defend themselves, but they also knew that they equally had to keep building. See their neighbors were surrounding them. Verse 7 tells us Sanballat (coming from the north); Tobiah and the Ammonites (from the east); the Arabs (from the south), and the Ashdodites (had just joined in from the west) were planning a surprise attack.

Nehemiah and the people caught wind of it and decided to pray AND defend themselves while they kept building. So awesome the wisdom God gave Nehemiah to lead these people. Yes he prayed and he prayed earnestly at the same time he took practical steps to continue building and defend at the same time.

Here are some gleanings from the chapter:

We are at war - it's easy to forget in the ever comfortable US of A that there is a roaring lion who is seeking to devour us (1 Pet 5:8). Another passage tells us that a dragon makes war against those who obey God's commands and hold to the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12:17). The lion and the dragon are Satan our enemy who often surrounds us as the Israelites were surrounded and is waiting to spring a surprise attack. Let's not forget, no matter how comfortable and quiet it seems...that's exactly when a lion attacks.
Learn the balance of prayer and planning - so far this theme runs through all the chapters we've covered in Nehemiah. He was a man of prayer, leading on his knees as one commentator put it, but he also lead with his head...in the here and now. He was a master of prayer AND planning at the same time. So often we miss one or the other...well I do. Mostly on the planning side, I'm a terrible prayER. But some just pray and don't plan for the prayer to be answered or think that God may want us to act and pray for his continued guidance and strength.
Learn the other balance of Building AND Defending - It's so hard to multi-task isn't it? These men were doing it, one hand on the trowel one hand on the sword. I find that I've become a specialist or too compartmentalized (not sure which). I want to either be wielding the trowel or the sword not both. But God's call is to do both! We need to be Kingdom Builders and Defenders. Evangelists and Apologists; Prayer Warriors and prone to Good Works; daily confessing and repenting of sin as well as gaining some ground on that sin.

I recently found out that Spurgeon had a newsletter or magazine (not sure what to call it) that he started in 1865, and apparently continues to this day! Guess what he named it? He named it Sword and Trowel. He announced the new magazine by saying, "We would ply the Trowel with untiring hand for the building up of Jerusalem's dilapidated walls, and wield the Sword with vigour and valour against the enemies of the Truth."

Amen.

WtS Breakfast Thoughts

2008-02-09T16:41:00.000-08:00

I have some pictures, but I can't seem to get them off this camera. I'll post them as soon as I can.

What a great time! We kicked it off with a great breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes, and some muffins. We had the usual OJ, Coffee, and milk too. Nesper, Wise, Josh, and Christion did a great job catering. Thanks guys!

Nesper announced the three jobs we had; A Family Care Network home that needed a shed built, a single mom from the fellowship needing some paint and landscaping, as well as the Grand Location needing some odds and ends.

I announced some of the upcoming things within KingdomBuilders that you can see in the last blog. Then James gave a great message out of Proverbs 4...an exhortation from Solomon to seek/pursue wisdom and understanding for it will keep us on the path of blessing and off the path of destruction. So good!

Then we broke off into our groups, about 8 men per location (a little less for the Grand Location). I headed for the house that needed painting and landscaping. I'm REALLY good at cutting in while painting, just ask my wife! Just kidding I'm horrible, but my heart is in the right place.

We laid two coats of paint in the hallway. The guys doing landscaping did a great job on her hill, backyard, and side yard trimmings. They had three small pick-up truck loads full of clippings. Brennan Landscapes saved the single mom a bunch of money by letting us add to the burn pile at their headquarters.

We got fed homemade lasagna for lunch to round out the day. One of the guys remarked, "I'll do this once a month!" The single mom thanked us profusely and was super blessed. It was a sweet deal. I'll let Nesper post about the shed build but we heard that went really well.

Thanks to all the men that served! Praise the Lord we can worship him through getting dirty and sweaty with some other dudes. Amen?

We'll do it again March 8th with Elder Marc Amesse speaking. Hope you can be there!

KingdomBuilders 2008 Calendar

2008-02-06T20:41:00.001-08:00

I meant to post this a while back but I hadn't gotten the thumbs up from Rancho Alegre for the Men's Advance. Well they finally got back to me and we now have it reserved for the dates showing on the Calendar.

Let me back up...most of you know that the KingdomBuilders Leaders try to meet once a week. We are going through Nehemiah. Well one of the meetings we got to talking about KingdomBuilders and felt like God was leading us to do more in 2008. After much praying and brainstorming this Calendar came about. Lord willing we will have a lot going on...hope you can all make it!

As you can see we've tried to make everything on a Second Saturday of the month. We have a variety of things going on, mostly WtS Breakfasts, but also a Marrieds vs. Singles Breakfast where we'll eat and then compete. Last we have Spring Training, which is an all day Advance, and the regular weekend Advance.

Can't wait to see what the Lord will do...

Been Sick...

2008-01-31T12:54:00.000-08:00

Hey guys (whoever is helping us avg 13 hits a day), sorry for no posts in so long. I got REALLY sick last week or we would have had a Nehemiah 4 posting.

I was ready to deliver it to the guys and my wife went down...104+ degree fever the whole works. I got it the next day and we were both averaging 102 degree fevers until hers broke on Sunday and mine broke just this last Tuesday. Whatever you do don't get this thing...it's bad!

We have a lot going on over here in KingdomBuilders land. Nesper is planning a great WtS Breakfast coming up not this Saturday but next (Feb 9th I believe is the date). I think you will be blessed with food, fellowship, teaching (our very own James Rey), and hard work as we go bless the community.

The plans are coming along nicely for Spring Training: Playing for Keeps. We rented the park and have an agenda set. We are just looking for some food since we'll be doing Lunch and Dinner together. Oh and trying to figure out some cool handouts other than another T-Shirt!

Hoping to get together with the guys next Wednesday and you'll get the Nehemiah 4 post we've all been waiting for...yeah right!

Take care...seriously don't get this bug, it's bad news.
pz

2007 Gone; 2008 Here we come...

2008-01-10T14:56:00.000-08:00

Calling and equipping men to boldly build God's Kingdom.

That's our mission, it's what we, at CalvarySLO KingdomBuilders, are here to do. We've seen great growth in 2007 and we look forward to God doing even more in 2008, but it's all about building God's Kingdom. First in our hearts so that it will overflow into the lives of those in our sphere of influence; Family, Friends, People we work with, etc.

Let's look at what happened in 2007 and what we are looking forward to in 2008.

BROTHERHOOD
This is the area of Men's Small Groups and MENtoring/Discipleship.

There are a handful of faithful, let me say very faithful, men who lead three Small Groups and those are strong in the Lord. Mostly they are teaching through God's written word, but there are also book discussions. Either way they are all about strengthening Men's knowledge of God's word and their relationships with each other. So thanks Howie/Tim, Rob/Kevin, and Larry!

MENtoring/Discipleship is less strong. Honestly, I'm convicted about this area as I have neglected it. Pastor James has taken the charge and we have 2-3 men matched up with a MENtor and that's about it. But he is too busy to take this on long term.

The KingdomBuilders leaders got together and brainstormed some really cool ideas addressing this and also other parts of the ministry for 2008...look for a blog article about it once it solidifies a little more, but I'm real excited about it. Please pray that God would confirm that this is him and not us.

WtS
Aaron Nesper, our leader over Worship thru Service, has given a great perspective on 2007 as well as a preview for 2008. This is a great area within CalvarySLO KingdomBuilders praise God. It gives men a chance to worship by being handy or worship through using their muscles and sweating. It's great.

We look forward to the Habitat build coming up. I know that you keep hearing about it with nothing tangible, but we are all waiting for permits and stuff like that. Once we get the sign up sheets we will announce it to church and our mailing list.

We look forward to broadening this ministry in 2008...it goes along with the MENtoring comments above so look for a blog/e-mail (if you are on our e-mail list) in the next week.

EVENTS
Part of our calling as leaders of CalvarySLO KingdomBuilders is to hold events that, well, build God's Kingdom. We had some great events this year; the first Super Bowl party, Father/Son campout, Married's vs. Singles Competitions, and of course the Men's Advance.

If you went to any of those events you know they were all special times with other men and God. I especially remember the Men's Advance evening service to this day, when Pastor Steve Stump Calvary Paso brought us God's message and so many of the men responded in a huge way. That is KingdomBuilding!

We have set plans for 2008, which we have given over to the Lord. In those plans are the annual Father/Son campout June 20th-22nd in Big Sur.

The big news is we are planning/praying about doing two Advances in 2008. We would do a mini-Advance in April that we are calling Spring Training and the theme would be Playing for Keeps. It's kind of like the Men's Conference we did a while back with the other Calvarys but we'll just do it with CalvarySLO. More to come on that, but the idea is spending a whole Saturday together. We have an application in to Paloma Creek Park in Atascadero for April 12th or any Saturday in April.

The full Men's Advance would be in the fall, in October (possibly weekend of the 11th). We have an application at Rancho Alegre, which is right off of the San Marcos pass in the Los Padres National Forest. The theme will be Putting Away Childish Things. Of course, more of this to come, but this will be the full weekend Friday night through Sunday morning.

One of the reasons for offering the two, Spring Training and Men's Advance, is to give more diverse opportunities (ie all day format and all weekend format) to grow closer to the Lord and the other men at CalvarySLO.

Josh Krumheuer has been a big help in this area. He has taken any task within events or even a whole event and run with it! He looks to be leaving for Vet school in the Spring so please pray for another helper to take his place in 2008. Thanks Josh and I can't wait to see what the Lord does in your life!

FoM
Aaron Wise has taken the ball and run with this area (pun intended). He too has posted his perspective on this. We've seen Men's basketball and softball teams compete in city leagues. The aim for this ministry is to be a witness to the other men that we'll be playing as well as grow closer to the other men at CalvarySLO on the team.

We look forward to continuing and expanding this ministry next year. I know that Wise wants to get a paintball day going so e-mail him if you are interested. I hope you'll consider joining one of the teams!

Last Word
I had the opportunity to visit a lot of church websites this last year for (mostly to invite them to the Men's Conference that didn't happen). The interesting thing was that Men's Ministry was not represented on most of them. Women's, Children, Youth Ministries they all had web space and prominent links on the main page as well as cool websites and things going on behind those links.

I'm glad the Lord has blessed CalvarySLO with not only a Men's Ministry but one that is strong with leaders that are serving and ministries that are...well ministering. I'm especially glad because I'm the first to admit I need KingdomBuilders more than it needs me!

So for 2008 I feel like God is saying more. He wants to bless us more, he wants more of his Kingdom in our lives, he wants us to bring the Kingdom to SLO and beyond. He wants us to find more ultimate pleasure in him...

I love this old praise song and I'll close with it.

More love, more power
More of You in my life
More love, more power
More of You in my life.

I will worship You with all of my heart
And I will worship You with all of my mind
And I will worship You with all of my strength
For you are my Lord
You are my Lord.

Year in Review 2007: Fishers of Men Sports Ministry

2008-01-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

This year we kicked off Fishers of Men, a sports fellowship part of the CalvarySLO men's ministry. Our aim is to create a fun atmosphere of fellowship within the men's ministry where men can meet within the body of Christ, as well as minister to other teams through our words and actions.

We kicked off 2007 with a basketball team that played in the SLO city league. The word "domination" comes to mind when I think of our 10-2 season. Our team, mixed with strangers old and young, meshed well and had the skills to pull off some great wins. Though we didn't claim first place, we're hoping we can repeat the great playing in years to come.

Continuing into 2007, we had back to back softball seasons in the SLO city league. God decided to humble our teams after our great basketball season, with only allowing us to win a few games between the two seasons. Our team improved immensely as the season went on as we became more comfortable up to bat and out in the field. Regardless, we had a blast out there. These teams birthed new friendships between some men, and rekindled some old friendships with others.

This inaugural year for Fishers of Men will be a great stepping stone to many years of competition, fellowship, and fun. I encourage everyone out there to consider joining one of these teams in the future, regardless of how athletic you are. Come meet more men, be competitive, have fun, and sweat a little bit. As we begin 2008, I'm excited to see what God wants to do with this ministry. I'm aiming to have multiple teams per season, and maybe even add some new sports/events to the Fishers of Men line up.

Please let me know if you have any ideas for this ministry or if would like to get involved with Fishers of Men.

God Bless! See you in '08!

Aaron Wise
aywise@gmail.com

The Age of Manhood

2007-12-27T14:17:00.000-08:00

I've recently been pondering the question, when does a boy become a man? Three things started this thinking, which I will describe below. Feel free to answer the (redone) poll to the right.

1. I recently heard a preacher say that "Adolescence" is not a Biblical term. He sited 1 Cor 13:11 where Paul only refers to 2 stages of growth childhood and adulthood (he says man in the verse but you know what I mean there's no adolescence.) The preacher further states that we in America, or the western world, made that term up. HHhhhmmmm...

2. I was reading an article in an online Hockey magazine and the writer referred the 17-18 year old players that would be going to the World Junior Championships as...boys. He was referring to how tough the media was on them and said something like, "remember these are just boys." I thought really? Huh....

3. I was reading a review on a book, I forget which one, but the reviewer described the fictional book as a beautiful picture of passing from "adolescence" to manhood at the ripe age of 34! I'm serious. And it seemed the reviewer had no problem with this, so I commented on the website asking when he thought the age of manhood was. He replied by saying something like, "whenever someone of the male persuasion gets married and has kids or turns 30; whichever comes first." Wow...

So I pose the question to you that come to this blog (which looks like it's getting quite a bit of traffic lately ;) Go ahead and answer the poll to the right and/or comment on this post. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks!

Nehemiah 3: Workers Are Few

2007-12-20T13:04:00.000-08:00

And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord. (Neh 3:5)

Last week we finished Chapter 2, where Nehemiah had unveiled God's vision for rebuilding the wall and therefore Jerusalem. He further sealed the deal with the people by giving personal testimony of how God's hand had been with him to secure the king's favor and resources for the job.

The people responded by saying they would join him in the rebuilding. In other words, they caught the vision and were enthusiastic to join Nehemiah in the hard work ahead. This is significant given the history of failed attempts at that point to rebuild the wall and Jerusalem.

Chapter 3 is interesting because it's basically a list of names, I think someone counted about 37 of them...that could be wrong, but is probably close. Think of this as a list of volunteers or lay leaders that have taken up God's cause to rebuild. Nehemiah has given them all assignments and each of these lay leaders have also given the vision to their families and servants to take up the task of rebuilding the wall.

It was great to see that assignments were given out by a person's passion or if that person had a stake in that section of the wall. The priests were given the Sheep Gate, because traditionally that is where the sheep given for sacrifice and their portion enter. So you know they will build that portion of the wall well. Towards the end of the chapter families were given portions of the wall near their home. Likewise you can see them building well there.

This is a beautiful picture of how the Church should function. God has given a Senior Pastor and Elders a vision and the congregation embraces that and according to passion and/or giftedness fills in the needs...aka goes to work/volunteers gladly.

Sadly verse 5 is too often true. There are those who will not stoop to serve the Lord for whatever reason. Pride? Sure just like the nobles. Past hurts? Sure just like the people who are volunteering here had heard it before, "Let's rebuild!" then "Nope we have to stop."

We finished the night praying:

1. First praise the Lord for those that have taken the call and work their portion of the wall with vigor and passion. May the Lord sustain each and every one.

2. That the congregation of CalvarySLO, especially the men, would rise up and lead just as the men listed in Chapter 3 did. And that the Lord would use KingomBuilders to call and equip men towards that end.

3. The good hand of the Lord would be upon CalvarySLO to spread the good news that ultimate pleasure can only be found in God's greatness.

Amen?

WtS: Year in Review!

2007-12-13T16:54:00.000-08:00

WOW! What an amazing inaugural year for the Worship through Service Ministry!

Over the past year the men of Calvary SLO have faithfully volunteered their time to help people in need from our community. We got our first call to help from Family Care Network asking us to round up a group of men to help one of their clients move. That day more than 5 men showed up with trucks and, and most importantly, servants hearts to move the family of 4. Other highlights include moving Heather McMillan's mom into a new home, moving the Ramirez family into a new home, helping the Brennan's paint their home, painting the interior of another FCN family, painting the new prayer room @ the Pacheco location, fixing the plumbing and installing doors for other FCNI families, and also teaching a youngster how to fish!

Also as you may have heard, we've taken on a huge commitment with the SLO county Habitat for Humanity chapter in building 4 new homes in Atascadero. We are one of 12 "apostle" churches that are giving our time, strength, construction, cooking skills, and money to the building of the houses. As mentioned in a previous post, the ground breaking ceremony was last weekend which has risen our excitement to another level. The actual building/volunteering will be starting in early '08...I'll keep you informed!

On somewhat of a tangent, have you seen the old Harrison Ford movie "Witness"? He plays a cop that goes into an Amish community to protect a young boy who has witnessed a murder. The most amazing part of the movie (and why I write about it) is when Harrison is a witness to a barn raising. Basically, all the Amish community members come together as a body to construct a house for a newly married couple. I think it is one of the most inspiring events that I can imagine. What a perfect model for what this ministry hopes to accomplish...coming together as men to meet the needs of our community all the while worshiping our creator and all the blessings that he has given us! We're even getting to literally build a house this coming year!

Finally I want to personally thank every single person who has decided to put aside the normal weekend schedule to given their time and energy into serving our community and consequently, worshiping our Lord. As a church we often times focus our thoughts of worship to the playing and singing of music. While God certainly calls us to worship through those modalities we must also remember that God intended us to worship him by serving others. In '08 I hope to serve along all of you men! God's ambition in you has blessed our community more than we can ever know!

See you in '08

Nehemiah 2: 9-20 Let's Get Going

2007-12-12T07:34:00.000-08:00

And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, "Let us rise up and build." So they strengthened their hands for the good work. Neh 2:18

I hope you like these synopses of the KingdomBuilders Leaders Bible Study. We go much deeper in the 1.5 hours that we have together than I can write here, but hopefully gives you the gist of what we discussed. This is actually the first time I've done an actual Bible Study. I usually do book discussions. It's been a real good learning experience for all of us!

Do you remember the old "Just Do It" campaign? I'm definitely that kinda guy and it has it's advantages and disadvantages. Yes things get started and going, but sometimes as far as the longevity factor it's just not there. So I've learned a great deal from Chapter 1 and the beginning of 2 about the wisdom of planning and praying.

In this passage, Nehemiah finishes up praying (for three days it seems) and planning (taking a recon tour of the wall).

Towards the end he finally unveils the plan to the people and gives his testimony of how the Lord's good hand has been upon him. This encourages the people because they've all lived a roller coaster ride of building the city/wall, stop building, build again, the king gives a decree to stop building. But hearing the miracles God has done through Nehemiah's life strengthens their hand and they start the work.

Praying and Planning is good, but some people get what's called paralysis by analysis and never act (or if we want to keep the P theme going they never Perform). I like the approach the Lord has given Nehemiah...all the Passion, Prayer, and Planning was all a prelude to and a focus toward Performing...actually getting started.

Praise the Lord he had a plan for our salvation and life...Jesus. Praise him still that in His timing he executed on that plan. With Christmas looming around the corner we celebrate the start of the salvation plan with the birth of a baby in a manger. I want to celebrate also by not merely being a hearer or planner, but also a doer.

Amen.

Ground Breaking Ceremony

2007-12-08T18:49:00.001-08:00

Maybe you are like us in CSLO KingdomBuilders...wondering when we get to swing hammers and build those houses up in Atascadero! Well we are one step closer.

Today Aaron and Sara Nesper as well as my son Josh and I went up to Atascadero for the Ground Breaking Ceremony. The slide show is on the sidebar so check it out...

It was great to see how all four families were so blessed to have been chosen. It was really cool to see the Mayor of Atascadero there and representatives from various churches, businesses, and other government agencies.

I hope we, as CalvarySLO as well as the other Christian churches, shine the light of Christ not just to these four families, but to the entire community of Atascadero and beyond.

Amen...

Nehemiah 2: 1-8 The Good Hand of God

2007-12-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. (Neh 2:8c)

The KingdomBuilders Leaders got together again last night. We looked at Neh 2:1-8 and marveled at the exchange between Nehemiah and King Artaxerxes. Let me recap:

Nehemiah is sad in the kings presence and didn’t get his head chopped off
The king just gave Nehemiah probably a year to a year and a half leave of absence from his job, don’t forget now the king has to find someone else…good help is hard to find
The king also just changed a law he had in place for a long time and if we turn to Daniel 6:8 we see that the laws of the Medes and the Persians cannot be revoked, that’s why the satraps were so hot to get King Darius to sign the law that would trap Daniel into praying to God and then being thrown into the lion's den
King Artexerxes, not a believer by any stretch of the imagination, just agreed not only to give Nehemiah safe passage to Jerusalem with a letter and later we’ll see an army escort, BUT he is going to give Nehemiah all the lumber he needs from his own royal lumber yard

All this and what does Nehemiah say? "Yes, I am the most awesome servant that God has ever had!" or "Man I am just that good of a negotiator!"

No he says, "The king granted everything I asked for because God sovereignly intervened." No other reason...nobody else gets the glory. I love this Nehemiah guy.

Have you ever watched as someone took all the credit for a great idea or a task being completed? Never once acknowledging the fact that they got the idea from someone else or could never have accomplished the task without the help of their team. In the corporate world, it happens all the time.

This gives me a glimpse of what God must feel like, when in his sovereignty he provides for his creation and they take the credit...never acknowledging that God's hand was actually in it.

I was telling someone the other day about my career...how I went from security guard at a major corporation to Systems Analyst then went to another company and went to Project Manager and eventually IT Manager...blah blah blah. You know what I realized? I hadn't once mentioned God or the Lord Jesus. I told the story like I pulled myself up from my bootstraps...so lame!

This passage from Nehemiah came to me and I was so convicted. I told the person, "You know this story is not true. To tell you the truth the only reason I'm standing before you with any semblance of a cool career path is because God's good hand was upon me each and every step of the way."

Lord Jesus, I want to be more like Nehemiah. When major or minor things happen in my life I want to acknowledge you in my speech and in my heart. Thank you that your good hand is ever upon me. Amen.

New (Used) Trailer

2007-12-03T14:14:00.000-08:00

Wow, this just in! The Lord provided us a trailer. The Kochs who go to CalvarySLO heard the announcement yesterday and tripped out. I guess they tried to sell the trailer last week and had no takers. Sweet...we'll buy it.

I post this not just to update you guys, but also to say to God be the glory. This kinda thing happens and I think ho hum praise God what else do I have going today? No this is major! The Lord provided.

Just another reason he most worthy of all of our praise, adoration, and devotion. Amen?!?!

Nehemiah 1: Passionate Prayerful Response

2007-11-21T22:46:00.000-08:00

As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. (Neh 1:4)

I started studying Nehemiah with the other CalvarySLO KingdomBuilders leaders a couple of weeks ago. We finally got into Chapter 1 last night.

It felt like the chapter hinged on the verse above. Nehemiah just heard news that his fellow Israelites were "in great trouble and shame" (v.3) and verse 4 was his response. See it so moved him that he wept and mourned...for days!

We reflected on what moved us to such a passionate response and we all struggled. Mainly because we were ashamed of what really elicits emotions from us...sports. Yes that hit us all right between the eyes.

Sports will drive me out of my seat and wake up my wife when my team wins a game. Sports will make an "unemotional" man cry when his team loses. Sports will make the quietest man all of a sudden become animated when you ask him about the last professional game he saw live.

Nehemiah? He wept over his people who were in distress and being slandered. The Israelites who were under foreign rule and told they could rebuild Jerusalem and then later told they can't because of some lies told to the king.

This was no game...God had promised in Deut 30:1-5 that if his people turned back to him he would not only restore them but make them more prosperous than their fathers. This is what moved Nehemiah to tears.

The fact is sports are fine, emotions are fine. I think we need to see sports as far less worthy of our emotional investment, though. There are many people who are in "great trouble and shame." People that are in our sphere of influence and beyond.

God give us a Holy passionate response to the things that move your heart. May that passionate response drive us to prayer, a prayer like Nehemiah's...a prayer that leads to action. (Even jumping out of one's seat and waking up one's wife for a Godlier cause than a puck going into a net.)

Amen?

Dream Center I

2007-10-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

You enlarged my path under me, So my feet did not slip.

It's been so long since I posted on here...anyways here's an update on how the Dream Center trip went.

In summary, it didn't go the way I had planned...but it did go the way the Lord had planned which is always better! I felt like God told all of us on the trip that he wanted to stretch us, challenge our way of thinking, basically get us out of our comfort zone. Not just on this trip but in life. That's exciting because the Bible is chock full of people used of the Lord that were challenged and uncomfortable.

We left AG at 6pm Friday a man down, since Christion Richert went to his uncle's funeral. He had been battling cancer and succumbed last week.

From left to right are Austin (aka Dreamboat all the young women at the Dream Center followed him around), Aaron W. (aka Dorms his company is building the dorms at Calpoly and he liked to sleep on the trip), Nate W. (aka Prom King or PK since he was homecoming king at Pepperdine Univ), Aaron Nesper (aka HeavyNes...he's actually skinny so that's sarcasm), Josh and brother Seth (aka Mango and Pineapple because they ate a huge bag of mango and pineapple from a street vendor and because they are brothers).

Oh and that's me...next to the Dream Center's donated Hummer. Rumor has it a member of the group Korn donated it. It's a sweet ride! They named me Helen Keller or HK because I kept driving by braille...you know running over the little reflectors on the highway. We were in deep discussions and I kept turning around to talk so the men in the 3rd row seats of my minivan could hear me...then I'd hit those little reflectors and swerve to get back in my own lane. It was a harrowing experience especially for those in the 3rd row seats.

So you know our trip down was full of conversation. I had asked the men to think about the following three questions and we discussed them all the way down.

1. Howz your joy? Remember in Nehemiah: the JOY of the LORD is our STRENGTH! Much of the time I feel like I'm just surviving...not joyful or abundantly living.

2. What's God refining in your life? If he isn't refining something you are stagnant or worse dead.

3. What are you doing with your life? God gave us this great gift...life and it's so short let's make sure we aren't wasting it.

As you can imagine the conversation was great and surprisingly deep. We got into some controversial topics like the emerging church, service vs. street evangelism, are we supposed to just live a comfortable life...those are always fun too!

We got to the Dream Center a little after 10pm and got settled in our room, which was 6 bunk beds side by side in a large hospital room. Let me tell you the facility is massive...it's a huge complex with the main building being a huge hospital...I'd say about the size of Sierra Vista maybe even a bit bigger.

The plan was to go with the Street Ministry at 11pm but by 11:40pm we realized it wasn't going to happen...nobody showed up. From what we heard the leader was a bit burnt out from going out 6 nights in a row and was in deep REM sleep. We walked around the neighborhood, which was a little scary, and talked some more and ended praying for each other. Then we headed for bed (Aaron W. was asleep before we turned the lights out).

We woke up in time to hit the cafeteria for some breakfast...pancakes stacked three high some nice crispy bacon and all the fixins. When we got back to our room we had to search for a shower because the one on our floor was being hogged by the women.

There is a rally before the Saturday ministries, which are Adopt-A-Block and Random Acts of Kindness. Let's just say the worship portion of the rally was VERY celebratory. We were like lost little puppies in that environment. We got our assignment, which was Random Acts of Kindness. We were assigned to pass out free hot dogs and fliers on the corner of Sunset and Echo Park. The above picture was of HK, um I mean Nate holding up a sign saying Free Hot Dogs.

This was fun but not what I had thought we'd be doing. Adopt-A-Block is a great program where buses full of people, food, and water are taken to some of the poorest areas in Los Angeles. They offer the people hope in Jesus by also giving them tracts and offering to pray for them. I so wanted to experience this but it was not to be.

Meet Francisco on the left and Richard on the right. Richard was our leader, he testified to me that God used the Dream Center and Angeles Temple (the church that owns the Dream Center) to free him of many addictions and a lifestyle that was not pleasing to God. After talking to him I was convicted about my thoughts about this ministry during the rally and worship time. The good fruit of the ministry was standing right in front of me. Richard now disciples 10 people who struggle with the same addictions and lifestyle...simply amazing!

I gave away the hot dogs (that's perros caliente in spanish good huh?) and the bottles of water with new vigor, making sure each one had a flier with them. I prayed for each of those hot dogs and bottles of water...hoping that if the recipient needed Jesus that they would go to a service at Angeles Temple and/or knock on the Dream Center's doors, which by the way are open 24 hours a day 7 days a week!

We left the Dream Center a little earlier than we had hoped 12pm vs. 2pm, but a lot wiser. If you ever get a chance to go the Dream Center takes volunteers just about anytime. Check out their website and go to the STM or Short Term Missions and make arrangement.

I hope to take another team in the future (thus the title of this blog Dream Center I). If for no other reason than to get to know some of the men of CalvarySLO...

Whatcha doing this summer?

2007-05-22T09:28:00.001-07:00

What 'er you doing this summer? Anything along the lines of the great commission?

I got an e-mail from a KingdomBuilder who, along with 9 or 10 others, is going to teach English in China. And it got me to thinking what are others doing?

Nothing has totally solidified for me yet, so I'm still open. Below is one thing I know that is going on.

Nogales, AZ Rescue Mission
These folks totally live on what the Lord brings them...literally every day they pray and food shows up to feed homeless people.

Right now they are praying for about 10 men to show up and finish up some Drywall and other clean-up type projects. Lodging (bring your own air mattress and sleeping bag) and food are provided. The only cost would be transportation down there which everyone can share.

Christian Henderson is connected with these good folks and is leading the trip. If you are interested please contact him at xnh@lifemap.net or 431-7535.

Well either comment or e-mail me to let me know what you are doing and I'll post it on here. I think it would be encouraging for all of us to hear what us men at CalvarySLO are up to.

Men's Advance 2007

2007-05-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

See my Tabblo>

As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Jms 5:11

So many weeks prior to the Men's Advance this year I wanted to quit...to just cancel the whole thing. It felt so real, to just quit, that it would make everything so much better for everyone. I'm not being overly dramatic, this is how I really felt. It was weird...

Steve Anselm and I were praying the Thursday before the Advance and he felt the same way. All of a sudden lethargic not wanting to study for the message on Sunday morning. We both felt that if we were getting attacked this much the weekend was going to be amazing. And it was...

FRIDAY NIGHT
Friday night I spoke on 2 Kings 5 relating Naaman's story to how this weekend could go. It was an attempt to Set the Temperature or Tone for the weekend. As Anselm said the temperature that night was hot! We continued the evening by responding to the Lord in song and ended by praying for each other in groups of 3-4. It was a great start.

SATURDAY MORNING
We woke up Saturday morning to the smell of breakfast burritos. They were pretty dang amazing if you ask me. We then tried our best to keep the burritos in our stomachs while at the same time competing for some sweet prizes as platoons at Tug-O-War and Kajabi Can Can.

For those of you unfamiliar with Kajabi it's a game where you stand around in a circle with trash can(s) in the middle, hold ropes, and try to pull each other into touching the trash can. It goes last man standing style but in this case we went last team standing won. Curtis N. was a force to be reckoned with. Bryan said it best, "There seems to be force field around the trash can that keeps Curtis from touching it." He made a valiant effort, but in the end succumbed to Joey H's team, who won the screwdriver sets.

Next came the Tug-O-War. Unknowingly I put the four biggest men in Anselm's cabin and they pretty much annihilated everyone that tried to compete against them. They finally won best two out of three in the finals to win the DeWalt gloves and eye protection.

It was great to compete but we reminded the men that we ought to be competing for the heavenly prize. "I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us." (Phil 3:14 NLT)

Next thing we did was have Bryan give us a message on being More than a Conqueror. He talked to us about John 14:16 and how the Father would send us another Helper not just after a battle but for the battle. Best take away for me was finding out comforter, another word for Helper, means coming with strength. Even though we as men will fear what the Lord calls us to do...we can be assured and even have courage that he is coming with strength to help us in our time of need.

Last thing we did Saturday morning was have some Platoon time. Most talked about what was going on in their lives and then prayed for each other. One platoon leader told me,

"each of us shared specific burdens we were carrying... It was awesome! We had a great discussion and ended in prayer. By the time we left on Sunday many burdens like self reliance, arrogance, discontentment, shame, and envy (to name a few) were left at the foot of the cross, and many men were liberated this weekend. Now, we can run the race. Now we can advance and be more than conquerors."

That pretty much sums it up right there...and that's all I have to say about that.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON
Most of us enjoyed the splendor that is Main Street Grill (Firestone North). For those of us that are hockey fans we enjoyed the San Jose Sharks vs. Detroit Red Wings game with our ABC burger, fries, and a root beer. Then I headed back with a few folks and I for one took a nap...

While I was asleep men went mountain biking, surfing, played whiffle ball, and soccer. All kinds of activity. Next thing I know I'm awaken by shouts of laughter echoing from around the camp. See a couple of men had these shock games. Literally where the game gives you an electric shock...for all the ladies and sheepish men reading this they weren't plugged in the wall (unfortunately). I played one of the games a few times and man was it fun!

SATURDAY NIGHT
Pastor Steve Stump arrived around 6pm just in time for the grub. We had Carnitas for dinner and boy was that good. One of the guys I was eating with had spare ribs at the Grill and we had bacon for breakfast the next morning so he had the pork trifecta. I made him an honorary Filipino since the main food of the Philippines is rice and pork.

We started the evening service at around 7:30pm not knowing we'd be there for 4 hours. Yes...the men were in a 4 hour service and I'm here to tell ya it didn't feel like 4 hours to me. I was ready for 4 more. Stump taught on the story of Jonathan when he and his armor bearer took on 20 Philistines (not to be mistaken with the Philippines or the Philippians).

He talked to us about hearing God's voice when he calls us to do something amazing. He did this with 7 P's, which I can't remember all of them but some of them are: Purpose, Precarious, and such things. Sprinkled in were his testimony of being used by the Lord to lead some from Calvary Paso to smuggle tons of Bibles into China as well as many other adventures while in the service of the Lord. For me personally it was exactly what I needed to hear!

We went into our response time...after such a revelation we felt like we had to go into responding to the Lord. Then it happened, one of the men came up and confessed his sins publicly to the entire congregation. It was a beautiful thing...not prompted by anyone but the Holy Spirit. And guess what? It started a chain reaction. Men were coming up and asking for prayer, for release from captivity, one prayed to accept Jesus.

It was the most beautiful thing I've witnessed since I started helping out with Men's Ministry...heck maybe since I became a Christian! It brings tears to my eyes just remembering it. I fell face down on the concrete in worship to the Lord for all he has done and will do in each of these men's lives. I'm humbled and honored to have witnessed it.

SUNDAY MORNING
Sunday morning was surreal. It was difficult to wake up the next morning and put my mind around what happened the night before. We had some pancakes and stuff for breakfast which were also grub. Then we started our Sunday service at 9:15am to close out our time.

Steve Anselm spoke that morning...for 2 hours! And it was great. He spoke to us about knowing who our Alpha Male (Jesus) really is, about how meekly and humbly he walked on this earth as we should. He also talked to us about the fact we have an Adversary, we need to have our Armor, I think he was impressed with Stumps 7 P's but he could only come up with 5 A's.

To wrap things up we asked men to talk about what God is doing in their hearts. To be honest we stopped doing this about 4 years ago, because men tend to think this is preaching time rather sharing what God is doing in them time. This time was amazing. Many men spoke their hearts about wanting to be more than a conqueror, about wanting more of the Kingdom life. One man said, "I want to go into the heart of the enemy camp and fight!" That's it!

So to wrap things up I really feel like the enemy was after us because he didn't want men to be set free to fight him. It was so sweet to persevere though...so sweet! And my prayer is that each of you that were there whether you publicly or privately made commitments to the Lord can also persevere! What is on our dog tags can be SO true! It says, "I'm More than a Conqueror!"

I told everyone there that I would go wherever God calls me to go...not knowing if I was supposed to go with Stump or not to smuggle Bibles. Well God has called me...up the street! This Saturday I'm doing a little funeral for my neighbors sister who lost her baby. Pray that the Lord gives me the words to speak and each of them has ears to hear. I'm not sure where they are coming from faith-wise.

To everyone involved in being used of the Lord this weekend (you know who you are) thank you...from the bottom of my heart, thank you!

KingdomBuilders Ministries

2007-05-09T16:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks for your interest in Calvary SLO KingdomBuilders, our Men's Ministry. Below are short descriptions of the areas within the ministry and who to contact if you want more info. Also, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
-Patrick Zalamea, Overseer Men's Ministry, 474-8130, mrz09@yahoo.com

FRATERNITY
Small Groups
It's all about brotherhood. We have three small groups that meet throughout the week. Check out the bulletin or calvaryslo.com for the most up to date info.

igKnight
We try to answer the questions, "What does it mean to be a man, Biblically?" and "When did I become a man?" We try to do this in a one on one setting teaching about the differences between Jesus and Adam as well as requiring each squire to serve in some capacity.

If you are interested contact Christian at 431-7535 or xnh@lifemap.net

MENtoring
We are in the process of collecting applications for men that want to meet with an Elder or Deacon for 10 weeks this summer quarter. It can be as formal or informal as you both want it to be.

If you are interested contact James at 543-8516 or james@calvaryslo.com

WtS (Worship thru Service)
This area of KingdomBuilders is very close to my heart. I've found that men love to worship God through their service (undefiled religion, feed the hungry, visit prisoners, etc). So we offer as much as we possibly can.

Ongoing you can help out one Saturday every 2 months. There are non-profit organizations that always need help moving, light construction or repair, etc. If nobody needs you the Saturday you are signed up there will be nothing to do. Just sign up with Aaron (contact below) and let him know what Saturdays are usually good for you.

Habitat for Humanities - KingdomBuilders is leading the charge to have CalvarySLO join 11 other churches to bless a family on the central coast with an affordable home. We have committed to:

Sign up to help build the home for at least 6 Saturdays during the build process
Sign up for 6 Saturdays to provide lunch for the workers
Raise $8,000 to help fund the build

If you are interested in WtS contact Aaron N. at 234-1531 or aaron.nesper@gmail.com

EVENTS
Events are one of the best ways I know to grow closer to God and other men in the church. We've done Conferences, Breakfasts, and Competitions (Marrieds vs. Singles). Of course, we also do the Men's Advance (formerly known as the retreat) every year (as the Lord leads).

If you are interested in helping out with an event or have a cool idea for one contact Josh at (951) 805-9634 or joshkru@gmail.com

FoM (FISHERS OF MEN) TEAMS
FoM Sports Teams have a vision to both grow in fellowship with each other and be a witness for Christ to the other teams. We recently completed our first Basketball season and I think we placed quite high (tied for first?).

If you are interested contact Aaron W. 440-8001 or aywise@gmail.com.

Advance 2007 Feedback

2007-05-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

We forgot to hand these out Sunday! If you have any feedback please leave it in the comment section (you can be anonymous or be a man and put your name on it). We'd love to hear what you thought.

If you are interested in any of the things we announced during the Advance go ahead and e-mail me at moveme3@gmail.com.

Thanks men...hope to have a recap and or some pictures up soon...

HouseBuilders in Atascadero

2007-03-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

KingdomBuilders will be HouseBuilders this summer! Not changing the name...but actually building a house.

I'm pleased to announce that KingdomBuilders WtS will join Habitat for Humanities Apostle Build program (details below) for their Atascadero Project.

I'm so excited about this opportunity for a few reasons:

1. It sounds like a kick (I sit at a desk all day)

2. We as a church can help at least one family that is struggling with the insane housing market in our county.

3. Habitat requires the family that is buying (not getting for free) the house to build it along side us and the other churches that are helping out. (What a cool testimony!)

So here are some things you need to know for now.

Habitat through the Apostle Build is seeking 12 churches to partner with them to build the home(s) in Atascadero. (As of right now they only have 8 including us...if you know of any Church leaders in the area encourage them to join us! They can even team up to make one church...share the load.)
CalvarySLO, in faith, has committed to donating $8,000 towards the building of one of the Atascadero homes. If you feel led go ahead and send a check to CalvarySLO, PO Box 1463, SLO, CA 93405 or drop it in the agape box with Habitat Apostle Build in the memo line. (Just as an aside there are approx. 85 men on the KindomBuilders mail list. If we average $100 each we could meet the donation plus some!)
We've also signed up for 6 work days possibly starting in July 2007 and hopefully ending in December 2007. Like I said above we'll be able to build this home alongside the families that will be purchasing the home (at way below market value and very low interest rates). So look for this announcement coming this summer.
Last, we've also committed to feeding workers for 6 days through the building process. You can also help with this if you know any restaurants that would donate meals or you want to coordinate one of the meals. It can be when we have CalvarySLO men there or not.

Ok that's it for now. I can't wait until ground breaking! Hope you are as excited as we are!

We (Aaron Nesper and I) will be keeping you updated through the blog, Constant Contact, and church announcements. Also, check out Habitat SLO's website especially the part about Apostle Build and About (so you can see what Habitat is about and how they qualify home buyers).

Marrieds vs. Singles III

2006-12-03T19:23:00.000-08:00

Who knew that Ultimate Frisbee was such a popular "sport"? I sure didn't but there were some men who played today that were "totally into Ultimate"!

We had what seemed like 30 single men show up and to say a dozen married men showed would be generous. (Maybe we should play shuffle board next time?)

Anywhoo regardless of the fact we were outnumberd 3 to 1 the Marrieds pulled out the victory. Marrieds = 10, Singles = 7 (I think that was the official score...if not e-mail me and I'll correct it).

GAME RECAP

The game started by each side sizing each other up. Marrieds were a little worried since they were so outnumbered. So worried in fact they were asking me to play! I hate running...that's why I play Roller Hockey.

Each team kept trading touchdowns...or are they called goals? Whatever...marrieds were getting tired but kept battling while the singles just kept getting fresh legs on their team. Then came a shot in the arm by the name of Murdoch...yes Dan Murdoch came to the rescue. He was all over the field blocking passes and generally jumping 12 feet in the air to play offense or defense.

Tim Whitacre got the "Took one for the team" award this year. He made a sprawling in the air catch that we believe separated or at least severely injured his shoulder. He went to the hospital I believe...if anyone knows anything comment on the blog and let us know. Before he left we all huddled up and prayed for him (I sent a silent one up that his injury wouldn't be in vane and that Marrieds would still be victorious).

Other random memories were of Jacob and new Kyle not Lind (who I think yearn to play Ultimate professionally) basically showing they have ultimate skills. Whether it's the way they calmly pass, block, jump, catch etc or whatever they showed they play this game a little too much. Cody had some amazing catches that he didn't complete but a spectacular one that made the crowd cheer. Oh and I happened to be in the end zone (is that right) for a couple of touchdown/goals. (remember I don't run so i just kinda hung out there)

Ok I'm tired and itchy from the grass so I'm gonna sign out. Check in later as I'll post some pics that I took with Lori Thompson's camera if they came out. All in all we had a great time and I hope we all got to know someone new.

A HUGE shout out to my Talmidim (the guys I disciple) Josh Krumheuer and Aaron Nesper for totally running with this event. One of the requirements Christian Henderson and I have for igKnight Disciples is to serve in some capacity. It was sweet for me to watch these guys go for it!

Next competition? Bocci ball...think we could get some marrieds out for that?

Transitional Housing Apt - Phase I

2006-08-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

Here we are in Phase I of the renovation project...demolition. The
CalvarySLO KingdomBuilders went to town right away as you can see
above. Matt went straight for the shower in the upper left corner. Gary
started on that wall top middle and you see his work in the upper right
corner. My son Josh got in on the action and you see a great shot of a
great deal of the demo done to the left. ... See my Tabblo>

Non-Profit Apt Demolition Day

2006-08-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

It's official, we are going to demolish an apartment. If you don't already know this is a project KingdomBuilders has adopted to benefit the Family Care Network and it's clients. They were blessed to purchase it, in Arroyo Grande, through grants and public housing funds. It is mainly used for their Transitional Housing program which teaches 16-20 year olds coming out of Foster Care independant living skills.

The 9x30 studio apartment we are going to "love" on will be used for the Resident Advisor (RA) to live in. Check out the pics to see the current picture to see what walls we are taking down this demo day.

If you are interested in helping out please let me know. I'll e-mail you the particulars but here is a general gyst of what we are looking for:

Date: Saturday, August 26th
Location: Arroyo Grande
Bring: Sledgehammers, gloves, goggles, saws-all, wheelbarrows whatever you got
Provided: We'll provide the drinks (Gatorade, water) and LUNCH!
Men: We'd love to have 10 men to commit to be there till the job is done but we understand this is your day off so come for a morning or afternoon shift (even if you come in the afternoon come for lunch)
RSVP: I need to know if how many we are feeding/hydrating so let me know by Thurs Aug 25th if you are coming and for what shift.

Thanks men. I know this is gonna be a fun time! Here's the Tabblo pictures and before and after drawings...

See my Tabblo>

El Salvador Crew the Return

2006-08-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be posting some of the quotes from the guys that went on this trip here for the next few days. Enjoy...God was tremdously glorified and worked on each of these men's hearts. Rejoice!

"It’s hard to believe I was only in El Sal for a week. There is so much opportunity down there. The people at the church in Zacatecaluca have few material possessions but they are rich in Christ! They are genuine, hospitable, and their joy and perseverance in difficult times is inspirational. God is faithful. He provides more than they hope or imagine, and it stirs my spirit to be a part of that." - Tim Romano

"We came, we saw, we came back healthy! God provided throughout the entire trip and it was so evident in everything from getting through police checkpoints without trouble to keeping us safe with all the crazy food we ate! Despite some very different labor practices like mixing cement on the ground and pounding the ground flat with cement posts, I think a lot was accomplished and the people were very encouraged. They were the most amazing people and made us all question whether we truly wanted to come back to the States or just stay down there and work. Awesome trip overall!" - Nate Watts

---------------------------------------------
Just wanted to give you KingdomBuilders the inside scoop on some CalvarySLO men who are going down to El Salvador to do some work on the church in Zacatecoluca (hope I spelled that right!) Here's the scoop:

Who: 6 men from left to right Jacob, Tim, Kevin, Howie, Nate, Brandon, Bryan

When: First week of August

What they are doing: They hope to extend the foundation and roof of the church (which is a concrete slab, tin roof, and no walls right now.) The goal is to double the size of the church right now. They will also be repairing the existing structures as well as helping to build the orphanage onsite.

How can you help: PRAY! These men will need our prayers as they experience language barriers, fatigue, and such. ALSO, please pray about supporting this effort financially. All checks sent to CalvarySLO (El Salvador in memo line) will go towards the above mentioned construction. As far as I know each of these men are paying their own way and going on their own time so the funds collected will buy concrete and other building materials.

I don't know about you but I'm excited to see what the Lord will do with these men's hearts as well as the help both for the Church in Zacatecoluca and the poor orphans that will eventually be housed on premises. This is true Worship thru Service!

Father Son Campout 2006a

2006-07-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

This will be officially known as the Ring of Fire (you know that Johnny Cash song?). I had just finished talking about how God the Father publicly blessed his Son Jesus on two occasions; at the beginning of his ministry and towards the middle. After I was done Steve Anselm had us all speak blessings to our sons. These are the men and their boys as best as we could picture them. It was an amazing and poignant time!

... See my Tabblo>

We got home from the first Father Son Campout of the year (we might do another one depending on rain and all those kinds of considerations) and it was a blast!

Here are some highlights:

-Tent camping with our sons
-The constant danger of 3rd degree burns as boys played with the campfire
-My all meat diet all weekend long, interupted only by Steve Anselm's deep fried pancakes (they were fried in bacon fat so I figured they counted towards my diet plan)
-Our boys braving a seriously rocky trail to get to the gorge waterfall and pool
-Sat morning we talked about speaking blessing to our sons as God the Father did for Jesus...twice. Then we followed His example and with our sons on our laps except for the teenage sons we spoke a public blessing to them.
-Sun morning we learned about Trust, Obedience, and Discipline both from a father and son percpective
-Before we packed up we risked danger one more time on a trail no mother would love as it featured rocky and poison oak sheer cliffs on one side the entire time

I'm hoping to have pictures up soon check in this week...as I get them i'll post them as Tabblo's. Thanks to all the men and their sons who participated. I know God is smiling!

Men and their boys:

Frank and Gabe Martin
Mic and Kyle Weedon
Tom and Marc Hadjiyane
Steve and Nate Anselm
Tom and Justin Cook
Noah and Ollie/Xander Brehio
James and Mitchell/Daniel Rey
Albert and Mason Ybarra
Larry and Christopher Zech
George and Riley Garcia
Sean and Ryan Brennan

Great Quotes:
"I just realised there are no girls here!" Ryan Brennan with a very wry look on his face...
"Are you sponsored by Coleman?" Albert to SuperCamper Noah who epitomized the saying "Be Prepared!"

See my Tabblo>

Hawaii

2006-07-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

My family and I got the chance to check out the Big Island of Hawaii. It was truly a wonderful time. I kept thinking if this is the BEST a fallen world has to offer I can't wait to see what Heaven will be like!

See my Tabblo>

Men's Advance 2006

2006-05-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting here, sick as a dog, just contemplating this weekend in which some of our Men set aside some time to draw near to God, as well as some food, fellowship, and fun. It was powerful and beautiful and worth being sick right now, all the administration necessary, and hard work. God showed up.

Above is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. The men decided to risk diving into shallow water…for fun! In all seriousness, we do not condone the breaking of the law, but the fact is these men of ours threw caution and fear to the wind and dived in anyway. And I think it’s a great example of what men are made for…maybe the enemy, the flesh, and the world are telling us men to be overly cautious, even fearful. In those instances we need to throw caution and fear to the wind and GO FOR IT!

Let me give you some of the highlights from my perspective from this amazing weekend where God truly showed up. But first a huge thank you goes out to:

Joey H. for his amazing graphics skills on the flyer
Paul C. (and crew) for a tremendous job on sound and other various requisitions (tents, Gatorade, etc)
Eric S. for heading up the ever important morning meal
Jonathan S. who lost his voice taking his duty as our worship leader very seriously and practicing all weekend!
Howie J. and Jacob L. for putting themselves out there and being very honest about what God has been doing in their lives
James R. for hitting the ball out of the park with a message on Josiah

Friday Night
Men started arriving sometime between 4-5 pm and kept trickling in until we hit critical mass around 7pm. But they still were trickling in even after that. Howie showed up sick as a dog along with Kevin P. who was suffering from a major allergy attack. Needless to say this was a problem since Howie was to give his testimony that night…but he was powering through it. We started around 8pm it was just starting to get dark.

I opened with an exhortation from Psalm 95 challenging the guys to not harden their hearts if they hear the Lord’s voice this weekend. Then Howie gave his testimony of our powerful Lord who had been teaching him brokenness through Howie’s inability to be perfect and self-dependent. The Lord moved us to form into our platoons and cry out to Him whatever God was speaking to our hearts. Men cried out what hit them about Howie’s testimony, what they needed from the weekend, and praise and worship to our great God.

We then switched gears to the game. Each platoon had two teams of three in which the middle man was blindfolded and held the flashlight. The other two men had to, at all times, hold the middle man’s shoulders. The object of the game was to collect the most silver crosses hidden in a large grass field. The catch was the middle man had to pick up the cross and the other two could not let go of that man’s shoulders. If they did they would have to let go of one cross. They had ten minutes to gather as many crosses as they could and the platoon that had the most crosses won Leatherman “type” tools (kinda the modern day version of a Swiss army knife generally coveted by men.)

As usual, the men were very competitive and rowdy but a great time was had by all. In the end, Christian H’s team won and collected their prizes. One man Josh P. wore his Leatherman “type” tool around the whole weekend. I guess he was proud of that win or it was a badge of honor for him…whatever the case it was on his belt whenever I saw him. The message of the game was pretty much no man is an island. I asked the guys if they could imagine doing that game by themselves blindfolded on their hands and knees. Of course they all groaned yet we try to do just that! Following after Jesus by ourselves with nobody to imitate or spur us on towards righteousness.

We ended the night with a great big bonfire, some cool games in the meeting room, and I believe a night game of ultimate Frisbee. Oh and lot’s of cookies and snacks were eaten as well. Somebody asked me where the milk was and I said I don’t believe in milk and they left me alone after that. Did you know that cow’s milk is designed to make an 80 pound calf into an 800 pound cow? Just some “food” for thought.

Saturday Morning
The morning started for some of us pretty early as we started setting up for breakfast. First off…coffee! Thanks to Molly and Be Aroma for providing some great coffee it helped start the morning off for those that drink that stuff. It was a bit chaotic but the eggs got scrambled (by yours truly), pancakes got flipped (Jim B. and Jordan C.), and sausage was heated up (Tim R.). It was a wonderful hot breakfast after a cold night in our tents, cars, and some slept outside. Some people thought I was the food Nazi but I’m not really sure why. I just need my plate of food or I go crazy! Is that wrong?

We started the morning out with another Psalm reading and Corey T. lead us in a few songs. We then heard from Jacob L. on what God has been doing in his life since last retreat. It was a powerful testimony even though everything isn’t perfect in his life he sees that bringing darkness into the light has allowed God to work.

We then had a bit of reflection time. We handed out a list compiled by James MacDonald in his book “I Really Want to Change…So Help Me God.” He compiled it from lists in the Bible where the author would say, “Put off…” as well as from his years of ministry as pastor of Harvest Bible Church in the suburbs of Chicago. Each man had about 30 minutes or so to quantify where they were with putting off these things.

The last part of the morning was Platoon time. I’m not sure what the other platoons did but my platoon went for a walk! Two by two we walked from our campsite almost back to the entrance of the park. As we walked we discussed our lists openly and honestly with our partner. My partner had a pretty long list and he was glad to have had the time to really take stock on where he is with the Lord right now. It felt as if he would be able to go home and have much to pray over between now and next Advance. My prayer is that God would use the list to change his life!

The final hour I had with my platoon we divided up the four gospels between the eight of us. Two took Matthew, two took Mark, etc etc. We scanned the scriptures for about 15 minutes or so to find passages that showed that Christ was a man worth imitating. In other words, answering the questions what in Christ’s life and teaching shows us how to be a man? I was expecting each of my platoon members to struggle to even get 2-3 passages. I was pleasantly surprised to find most of them had more than double that when the 15 minutes were over.

We went around in a circle and shared our favorite passage. Let me tell you either I had a great platoon or these guys are geniuses cause they found some tremendously deep passages! A passage about “narrow is the gate” and how that’s so true also about being a man…it is a narrow path. Another one about servant leadership and how Jesus didn’t just tell people to suffer for God He actually did it. He was an example! All of it was good and I learned a great deal from those men.

Saturday Afternoon
Lunch was a sandwich bar and because I didn’t pre-order the sandwich catering package from Costco we had a mix of sandwich meats trays and wrap trays. I tried to convey that they need to pick either the wraps or the sandwich but I’m either not a good communicator or men don’t really listen. I think it’s a little of both! It was fun though we had enough food for all in the end so it all worked out.

The rest of the afternoon was free time. I hit a brick wall in fighting my cold so I lay in my tent while the men played. And I mean played! As I lay there listening in the grassy area there was a whiffle ball game AND an ultimate Frisbee game going on at the same time. In the horse shoe pit there was a spirited game of horse shoes happening. Picture if you will men with their shirts off thoroughly enjoying themselves. It’s kinda like Lord of the Flies but without all the weird stuff. That’s what I’m talking about!

A little later when everyone was hot and sweaty we headed to the lake to cool off. I stayed behind resting and some of the guys prayed for me to feel better. I finally did and headed to the lake after jumping Nate R’s car…his battery died from recharging his camera battery or something. When we get there I see them jumping off a table and having to run to clear the 2-3 foot shallow area and into the 5 ft area. And I heard Bryan yelling if any of you get hurt CalvarySLO is not responsible! It was kinda funny.

I got in the water only to find some of the men decided to put the tables in the 2-3 ft area so they didn’t have to jump so far to get to the 5-6 ft area. Well the first table they put in was under water so they put a 2^nd and 3^rd table on top of that one. Bryan asked me when I was gonna stop this and I said at 4 tables. They never did put a 4^th table on cause 3 was pretty cool! Kyle L. must have taken diving lessons cause he was the best diver out there.

Then the ranger showed up. Some of us saw him call for reinforcements the minute he parked his truck. He asked us what we were doing with his tables and one guy said we were diving off them and did he want to join us. He wasn’t amused yet. Then he asked us if we were all over 21 and how many of us were drinking. He was flabbergasted to find out none of us were. He checked every one of us out and just could not comprehend that we weren’t drunk.

Right about then the A-Team military boat come roaring into view…I could have sworn I saw a 50 Caliber machine gun on it. I guess that was the ranger’s backup cause he started talking to them over the radio. I think he was saying things like nope they aren’t drunk…really I checked…no they seem like pretty ok men…over. B. A. Barracas and Face took off in the A-Team military boat and we all collectively sighed some relief. Mr. Ranger told us to put the tables back before 4pm when he was off duty. We said yes sir and he shook his head in disbelief and took off. After that some of the guys lead by Dan M. swam to the buoy just off shore. It’s pretty hilarious to see 4 grown men all trying to sit on top of a buoy…I prayed the A-Team wouldn’t see them and try to shoot them down.

Back at the campsite there was much rest taking place. Half a dozen or so men were snoozing under a shady oak tree on blankets in the grassy area. Another half a dozen or so were in clusters under the other shade trees talking about lofty things like bird flu and To Kill a Mockingbird…huh is that related? Weird. I was worrying that the BBQ guys weren’t there yet to burn the wood for dinner. I finally called Ribline and they said they had already cooked the food and the guys were on their way up. Whew!

Saturday Evening/Night
The dinner was amazing. Johann W. is from Sweden. I had breakfast with him Sunday morning and he said, “That dinner last night was amazing!” I agree! If we do this again we will be calling Ribline up to cater dinner for sure! I pulled out some Lemon and some Chocolate bundt cakes from Costco to complete the meal and we were some happy campers let me tell you.

I had a great conversation with Jordan C. who is vegan. I found out that he chose this lifestyle out of a conviction he has about world hunger. I was both amazed and convicted as I was shoveling cow and chicken products into my belly. And I realized that men have strength of conviction that is amazing. Whether it’s choosing to be vegan or deciding to put away some money for retirement or train for a marathon/triathalon. The challenge is to allow God to use that strength of conviction for the Kingdom…like Jordan has. He put it well, “This is my small contribution to World Hunger.” Wow!

We then had a Saturday Night service with Jonathan starting us out with some worship songs. I was happy he added my request for Hail Jesus You’re My King! I love that song! James came up and gave his now world famous message on Josiah. I’ve already got much feedback on men wanting to turn their idols into powder. We had a little after glow time after that and some words were spoken and heard. It was sweet to be sitting there in the dark worshipping and hearing from our Lord under the stars.

That was it…the men were good enough to help clean up and there was very little for me to do the next day. It seemed as if our goal of having guys grow closer to God and with each other was met. Many of the men stopped to say good-bye before they left and let me know that all our efforts were worth it.

The End
I know finally huh? I usually don’t like to write this long…long but not this long. Five of us stayed the night Saturday. I know I got some good rest that night. I had a little sunrise service for myself at 5:30 am or so. It was a trip to see the sun rising in front of me and the almost full moon behind me. I felt like Luke Skywalker for some reason I don’t know why. In some ways I’m relieved the weekend is over but the area of my heart that longs for heaven sure wishes it could never end! Some day it won’t. Until then I’ll continue to enjoy being overseer of KingdomBuilders as long as God sees fit to keep me there. It’s hard but it’s always worth it!

Sheep or Goat?

2006-04-26T01:45:00.000-07:00

Check out Matt 25:31-46

To follow up on Bryan's Message this last Sunday (If you didn't catch it check it here it will be up soon) here's a question: Are you a Sheep or a Goat? In other words are you Worshipping thru Service (WtS)? As Bryan put it is your Map large enough...is it the same Map that God has? We can so easily become self-centered and forget there is a family, neighborhood, world out there that needs our help!

Jesus is coming, if not death is. At that time the King will seperate the sheep from the goats. The sheep will be those who have fed the hungry, given water to the thirsty, invited strangers to their home, clothed the naked, helped the sick, and visited prisoners. The goats will have done none of that. Are you a sheep or a goat?

The reason we stress WtS (Worship thru Service) at KingdomBuilders is because we believe that men are uniquely designed to selflessly serve! We were designed to risk our lives, give our blood-sweat-tears, lend our strength to a cause higher than ourselves.

Just look at our bodies for goodness sake were we made with all this muscle mass to sit around and play X-Box? To be truthful many of us are bored out of our minds. We have nothing great or heroic to live for and the things we do live for don't fulfill. That's because we were made to serve...we were made to be sheep but we're living like goats.

So with that in mind and Bryan's Message still echoing in my soul here are some great opportunities to man up for the Kingdom. This is by no means an all inclusive list just stuff that might be more along the lines of being a sheep than a goat!

CalvarySLO - We have so many options just within our church body! (Most of these can be found on the CalvarySLO website)
-El Salvador: This is a great opportunity to put your muscles to good use for the Kingdom. There are some needy orphans and those that want to care for them that could use your help carving out a place of refuge! We will keep you updated on this project and hope that this can be something that KingdomBuilders can send men to.

-Big Buddies: Mentor a child right from the school that we meet in for Sunday services!

-KingdomBuilders WtS: From time to time we host WtS Events like Oil Changes for Single Moms/Ladies in need. We're working on some other ideas like helping AIDS patients with their home needs, feeding Homeless people in the Park, etc etc. If you are interested in heading something like this up let me know!

Samaritans Purse
I've recently read a couple of books by Franklin Graham, President and CEO of Samaritans Purse and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Believe you me this is a REAL mans man. He has a policy of never sending anyone through Samaritans Purse either volunteer or employee anywhere unless he is willing to go! And often he goes to places in the middle of civil wars or ethnic cleansing first ahead of any teams and before he asks for any support. These places usually hate Americans and bullets and land mines are the daily norm.

-Katrina Cleanup and Repair: The one opportunity they have for short term help is domestic. Samaritan's Purse has a real workload on their hands...they believe that it will take them through 2006 and well into 2007 to complete in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. They are especially needing guys with construction skills and even Architects and Engineers! If you are willing to lead a team of up to 15 for at least 3 days let me know and fill out the form on the page link above.

-Employment Listings: Get a load of some of their US and International Employment listings. One of the jobs posted internationaly requires "ability to operate for extended periods in very austere conditions, including travel on horseback." Sounds like an adventure to me!

Open Doors
This ministry was started by a man called Brother Andrew who smuggled Bibles across closed borders in Eastern Europe. They have many opportunities to strengthen the Persecuted church around the world. Some examples include Bible Courier (smuggling) in East Asia and giving your testimony in home churches in a persecuted country through an interpreter. It sounds very exciting and I hope to be able to do it some day.

Operation Mobilization
They have multiple opportunities to do all kinds of stuff all over the world! They are very creative in their approaches to evangelism from working the crowds at the FIFA World Cup in Germany to living/volunteering at a ski resort in Australia and witnessing to tourists! Check it out...sometimes they even have family type trips!

Lifewater International
Right here in San Luis Obispo an organization is dedicated to getting sustainable water to those who are thirsty around the world. Check it out!

Again this is a very small list of things that I've been able to look up. Whatever you do I would encourage you to widen your net and expand your domain. If you are a single man these opportunities are even more open to you!

Let me know if you are interested. I'll do anything I can to send KingdomBuilders all over the world to be sheep and not goats! Let's get out of our comfy seats and kick butt for the Lord!

Amen?!

Lake San Antonio Details

2006-04-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Lake San Antonio South Shore, Redondo Vista E-loop where we are going to have our Men's Advance May 12-13. This shows all 35 campsites and where I have the platoons stationed at this point.

Once the registrations are a little more sent I will send you an e-mail telling the drivers which campsite number they are going to have and each individual Advancer which platoon they have been assigned to. For the most part your Roadtrip group will be in the same platoon but we may separate some into different platoons.

If any of you have access to an RV feel free to bring it on up...all 35 sites are full hookups.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me!
CoachZ

To Bring List

2006-04-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

This is list [above and beyond the obvious sleeping bag, tent, pillow, towel etc] to help you plan for the 2006 Men's Advance:

Lawn Chair (for campsite and Saturday night service)
Sports/Games (Bocci Ball, Volleyball, Ultimate Frisbee, Horeshoes, Football, Mountain Bike, Lord of the Rings Risk etc etc)
Cooler full of drinks (We will only be providing drinks during the meal times on Saturday)
Flashlight(s) and/or Lanterns
Guitar for the Bonfire Friday night
Get something for your Mom or wife if you have children (Mother's day is May 14th)

Did you know?:

You CAN stay Sat (5/13) night and check out Sun (5/14). We have paid for two nights but only have Advance schedule stuff going through Sat night. So if you can plan on staying. You can wake up early, shower, and be at church by 10:30am!
If you bring a pet it cost $4 extra. Pay this at the ranger station when you enter.
DIRECTIONS: To get to Lake San Antonio head N on the 101 to Paso Robles. Exit on Highway 46 and turn left. Continue for miles and miles following the signs that say LAKE SAN ANTONIO. (This is very important as you could get very lost if you don't look for the signs.) Later look for the signs that say Lake San Antonio South Shore. You will enter there and give the drivers name and they will direct you to the Redondo Vista - ELoop. Park in the space I provided you but you can set up your tent wherever there is space in the Platoon you have been assigned.

If any of you can think of anything else e-mail or comment and I'll add it to the list. Thanks.

check this out

2006-04-01T07:51:00.000-08:00

Patrick, check out this looney-toon basketball image. I placed this up hear because i've been made aware of your affinity for this type of clipart
-b

3on3 Tourney Postponed

2006-03-31T11:26:00.000-08:00

3 on 3 Tourney in South County home of Tom Adamski.

Due to the weather this event has been postponed...come back for an update on the new date.

Playing for Keeps?

2006-03-30T10:47:00.000-08:00

I love this song from Jonah33. It's called "This is it (You Instead of Me).

Because I’m playing for keeps this time around
I’m in too deep
To think about falling down
And giving up again
I want to live each day just like
It was my last chance to prove
You’re all I have
And that is all I need

This is it—it’s what we’re waiting for!
This is it—it’s all we’re fighting for!
I finally get a chance to show the world
What You have done for me
So let this moment be
You instead of me.

Tired and bruised—every broken bone
Reminds me that I’m far from home
And these scars remind me who I am
But You’re the one
the Reason that I run
And I won’t stop until You’re done
You’re the only hope I have

I’ve counted the cost and I know
Everything that matters is
Everything worth fighting for

What are you struggling with?

What are you fighting for?

What are you living for?

This song reminds me that it's worth it! Reminds me to play for keeps...no do overs. And the reason I run, fight, play for keeps is Jesus Christ my Master and Commander, Captain of the Guard, High and Mighty King of the Angel Armies. Who wants to complete the good work He's started in me! Amen.

Men's discipleship/employment opportunity

2006-03-29T13:39:00.000-08:00

Hi guys--

If you or someone you know has a passion for discipling college-aged guys, please read on! Help spread the word...this is a great opportunity to learn hands-on what "doing life" in community looks like.

Thank you!

--Christian

------------------------------------------------------

We need your help in hiring 2 new house leaders (HL) for Alpha Academy, a SLO mentoring/discipleship program.

Our current HLs are approaching the end of their one-year commitment. They have been great and are moving on to God's next call on their life.

The HLs are mentors and disciplers to our students (2-5 men) who are usually guys 18-22 years old. They need to have a heart for one on one relationships. They need to be patient and strong enough to lead the students in responsibilities and enforce discipline when needed. (Handyman, ag, and construction experience is a plus but not required.)

They need to be mature men in Christ, be realists in working with guys who are seeking to learn and grow and get a plan for their lives. Often our HLs have come through their own struggles and can relate well to what our students are going through.

Our 2 house leaders are responsible for Alpha Academy from 5 PM to 8 AM weeknights and Saturday and Sunday all day. They split the days and evenings- each responsible for half the days. They can trade as needed. They are also involved in our dog kennel operation.

These are usually early 20's guys just graduated from Cal Poly although we have had some who were finishing classes at Poly too. They can have other 8-5 job or class commitments.

Benefits are...

Making a real difference in students' lives
Free room and meals at the Ranch. (The Ranch is NOT remote. It is by SLO Airport)
$200 per month
HL's receive one-on-one mentoring to develop personal growth and leadership.

This is a great leadership lab experience.

This job is great for someone who has just graduated and wants to stay in SLO.

Please let me know of any potential folks you can think of. Call Christian or Jack at 805-506-0433. Thanks!

Game Over!

2006-03-26T15:39:00.000-08:00

Marrieds vs. Singles Basketball
I just got back from the game(s) and they were fun. There were twice as many Single guys as Married so that made for a change in plans. We ended up going tournament style. Winningest Married team (2 teams) vs. winningest Singles team (4 teams). It was a little chaotic but it worked out.

Final score: Singles 15 to Marrieds 7...sorry Marrieds looks like Single guys have bragging rights. Here were the men that played the championship game (sorry if I misspell):

Singles:
Jeff Little
Dave Walley
Nate Watts
Dan Whistler

Marrieds:
Jeremy Cobb
Aaron Nesper (wins award for most banged up!)
Josh Payne
Chris Warren

Thanks to EVERYONE who played not just these guys. Special thanks to Jason "Schmitty" Schmidt...who played with a cold and Chris Warren both these guys helped put some organization to the games.

The game was close for so long with Marrieds looking like they were gonna take the title again. Then the Single guys decided to steal the ball ever chance they got with some aggressive play. When the Marrieds were down Chris Warren tried to pull a Michael Jordan and was doing a great job bringing some hope to the Marrieds. But in the end youth was served! Good job Single men!

Thanks to all you men that competed...it was great to see so many men having a good time...at church!

WHY?
Some of you might ask why we compete...isn't that unspiritual? I would answer you that I believe we as men were designed to compete, to answer the call, to work hard after a goal. These events are for men a metaphor for how we should live the Christian life! The Bible continually exhorts us to run the race, to fight the good fight, to finish well. We want to celebrate that in the men at CalvarySLO and ask you as men to compete even harder for the Kingdom of God!

I pray that the fire in your bellies, the competitive drive that you have would not diminish but would be turned for the advancement of the Kingdom. Figure out what God's call in your life is and GO FOR IT! Go for it like there is a crown at the end even higher than bragging rights here on earth, as cool as that is. Amen!

Until next time Single men! Next game: Ultimate Frisbee?
-Patrick (aka CoachZ)

PS - Don't forget to sign up for the Men's Advance...we'll have 5+ hours of free time and a grassy area at the camp to compete against each other again! Sign up by Apr 9th to save yourself $10!

Men's Advance May 12-13, 2006

2006-03-23T12:57:00.000-08:00

Picture of Lake San Antonio Camping not our actual campsite

Are you Advancing or Retreating in your walk? Join us as we learn what Paul meant when he said Imitate me as I also imitate Christ (1 Cor 11:1). Oh we are gonna have a great time too!

Sign up by April 9th and you'll pay less. No sign ups after April 23rd. Get a registration form and more information at Church on Sunday or from the Church office.

Look forward to learning together through interactive learning times with your Elder or KingdomBuilders leader, 5-6 hours of free time, great food from Franks and Rib Line, and an awesome Saturday night service under the stars!

Here are a couple of pictures of maps that the park sent me:

We'll be on the South Shore

Camp Redondo Vista, E Loop

KingdomBuilders

2006-03-20T17:03:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the CalvarySLO KingdomBuilders blog. Here you can find what's on our minds as well as events and dates of interest.If you have no idea what CalvarySLO KingdomBuilders is it's our Men's Ministry and here is a quick blurb about us:

CalvarySLO: KingdomBuilders
Calling and equipping men who will boldly build God’s Kingdom.

Do you have what it takes to be a KingdomBuilder? Like the Apostle Paul who sacrificed everything and endured hardship to further the cause of Christ? Or like Jesus, “who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:2b) Do you want to strive after their example? Then join us, here’s how:

FRATERNITY
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Prov 27:17) As Kenny Luck wrote in Every Man God’s Man, “Men become men in the company of other men.” We agree! So we offer both discipleship and small group opportunities where you will sharpen others and be sharpened by them as well.

We have a new option opening up in the next year called igKnight. It’s all about Biblical Manhood Discipleship. Coming soon!

WORSHIP THROUGH SERVICE (WtF)
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. (1 Peter 4:10) Men generally aren’t super comfortable singing out loud. Good news…worship is not meant to only be singing. We offer opportunities for men to use their gifts and talents as worship for the Lord. Look for opportunities to serve our church, our community, and the world in the bulletin and during announcements.

EVENTS
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. (Job 8:21) Most men like to work hard, but love to play even harder. So we offer events that are fun, competitive, and challenge you to follow hard after God. We have an annual Men’s Advance (not retreat), Conference (BBQ, Sports, Worship, and Word), and sometimes the married men challenge the singe men to some friendly competition.