Josh K. Departs

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

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

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:

1. Are you taking advantage of a brother or sister in Christ? Monetarily, emotionally, sexually, whatever?
2. 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.
3. 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!

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!

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

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

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...

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...

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

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