Summer 2011: New Beginnings

Better Life Conference

14 people gave their lives to Christ. Today is the day after our third annual Better Life Conference. Every year we hold this event to bring the Gospel to our unsaved friends and family of La Viña, especially the many Kidz XL families that are so much a part of who and where we are. Things went well but didn’t go exactly as I planned but that’s okay…14 people gave their lives to Christ! Here are some of their stories:

“I’ve been thinking for a long time that I needed to do this [give my life to Christ]. Today, it just made sense and I didn’t need to wait anymore. I’m glad I did.” Adrian and his friend Natalie became Christians Friday night.

“My dad raised us to hate religion. But, he was a very mean man. So, I’ve decided to see what this is all about. He was wrong and I believe now.” Jordan gave His life to Christ on Friday

“Yes I did.” Miriam’s response to when I asked her if she prayed with me to give her life to Christ.

Summer is winding down…finally!

The last five weeks have been crazy for me. The third week of June, I spent a whole week training at my new part time job as a rural mail carrier. I’ll only be delivering once or twice a week but my supervisor is a believer, it pays well and is totally flexible with my schedule. The end of June found me away for a week at the EFCA Leadership Conference. It was a great time. Great message from Bryan Loritts. Check it out here: http://stream.efca.org/general/conf_11_byran_loritts.mp3. Great time playing music with Bobby Simmons and Free Church friends, dinner with Steve Sammons, speaking at Brent’s college group, Padre game with David Smith, La Jolla cove with Bobby and Glen Schrieber, meeting with EFCA Board of Director friends and, most of all, quality time with my mom and dad. The first week of July started off with a great day of church with a fun day with my family, Morgan, Jace Hunter and the “young” Hurtado family watching and dancing to Robert Vicens “Blue Brothers” band at a fireworks show in Miami Lakes. The rest of week was focused on being in charge at Kidz XL as I wanted to give Nic a little break by running the camp for him that week. For those of you who remember Jr. Camp, it was a 9am – 3pm version that was whole lotta fun! The following Sunday, we had church and a baptism at the beach. I think this might be an annual event that, like last year, ended up being an amazing time of encouragement and church family time as we celebrated the spiritual birthdays of 13 people who were baptized in Key Biscayne. My monthly trip to New Orleans for Gateway was canceled and a project with Miramar Free Church was postponed giving me a little break the next week but still ended up delivering mail three days that week in addition to catching up on a ton of Gateway and church stuff. Last week, we hosted a group from Jeff Jensen’s Free Church in Geneva, Nebraska for our first Miami X. Great time being with them for devotions in the morning and sharing Christ in South Beach late Wednesday. They were a huge help with Kidz XL and in Homestead with Pastor Mike Babst and the Radiant Christian Community church plant. They led the Friday Better Life Conference “Crazy Kidz Night” with the K-5^th graders and led two children to Christ! The Better Life Conference was a full three days that included two days of me delivering mail on two of those days. I ended up losing my voice but had enough to give the Gospel on Friday and preach a message on Sunday. These past five weeks make me appreciate Sarah and her support even more through these seasons. She has always championed the crazy things and seasons that God has called us to. I have no regrets about anything in the past five weeks. There were so many glorious moments that I would never trade for anything. 13 people were baptized. Most of all, 14 people gave their lives to Christ. I’m tired but never too tired to treasure the joy of seeing God at work in my life and in the people I love and seeing the eternal destinies of people’s lives being permanently turned to God through my church and my life.

What’s next?

• Well, again, I’m going to try and blog more regularly…hopefully weekly. But, we’ll see…
• Getting ready to send Hudson to La Viña’s first summer servants. But, that’s kind of misleading since I feel like we’ve been living Summer Servants since we moved here in 2004. After that, a long road trip to take Hannah and Matthew to school in Chicago, visit Kela on the way and visit Mark on the way back.
• Gearing up La Viña for a fall focused on getting our people in groups intentionally focused developing their foundation to spiritual maturity.

Thanks for praying!

The desert blooms and the National Day of Prayer

Barren desert. That's what most people see when visiting the Tucson Desert. In fact, "barren" is probably the first thing that most people think of when talking about any desert. I don't blame them. That's all I saw when I first moved to Tucson in 1994. But then, Bill and Lois Stallo came for a visit.

The Desert Blooms
At the time, Bill and Lois made an annual summer drive to Texas to visit family. They always made sure they drove through Tucson. Why? They loved the "beauty" of the desert. Now that we were living in Tucson, it also allowed our dear friends and mentors to visit with Sarah and I. I remember driving with them through the Tucson Desert listening to Lois go on and on about the glorious scenery. All I saw was barren desert. They saw beauty. Confused, I interrupted a conversation midstream to ask them what in God's created earth they were seeing. I vividly remember pulling over and the four of us taking a short walk into a typical barren part of the Tucson area. Like a kid in a candy story, Lois pointed out the magnificent colors of the desert blooms, the brilliance of some tiny blossoms on some desert shrubs and all of this painted on the fluorescent canvas of the desert sky. They pointed out the glorious beauty in the little things. Shamefully, I had overlooked some of God's best artwork simply because it wasn't big enough for me.

God is in the Little
That day changed my life. From that day forward, I began to realize that God's glory is also found in the little things--the small things that are constantly overlooked. Today I Pastor a small church. We have a small room that we meet in. If we add twenty more people on a Sunday morning, we're going to be in big trouble. We have a small budget, small Bible studies and a lot of small children. But, God is moving in the little things. There is life transformation that is happening with each week. Like the magnificent colors of the desert blooms, it's absolutely spectacular at times. I've grown up a little since then. I find myself pulling over a little more often in life to stop and glory in the small things that get lost in the "barrenness" of my life.

Small Movements of God
I've been reading a lot about movements recently. The only that troubles me with everything I'm reading is this emphasis on movements being big events with lots of people and lots of dramatic change involved. I am challenged to see the powerful and majestic movements of God in the small things. You will find that those simple and often overlooked and unnoticed things are just as glorious as those large events of grandeur that often become the inspiration for best selling books and movies. On this National Day of Prayer, many of us will pray for God to move in our families, church, communities and nation. Before you think that God is silent and not answering your prayers, make sure that you are not overlooking the powerful and lasting move of God that is more like a rip tide and not a tidal wave. Before you know it, that rip tide is going to sweep you away into the glorious story for His glory.

(1 Ki 19:11-12 NIV) The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. {12} After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

(Psa 46:10 NIV) "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

A new season for blogging

In winter, so many things lay dormant waiting for spring to arrive. Then, the sun burning through the winter clouds ushers in the arrival of new life and new things. Like many things in my life, I had noble intentions about setting up this blog but the urgency of other things put blogging in the back end of my list of priorities. Now a new season has arrived which has awakened me to a real purpose for blogging.

God Still Provides
As many of you know, my church has been in a season of financial struggle. This has not been reflected in the work of our ministry. Despite our financial challenges, God has been at work in so many glorious and wonderful ways that defy the significance of money and magnify the power of God working through His Spirit in the lives of His Church. The glory that God has revealed has been so worth the struggle. In light of all this, I have been looking for another job to supplement my income. It's been tough to find that perfect job that accommodates my schedule to pastor a church. But, God, as always, has provided!

A New Job and Some New Lessons
Tonight, I begin my first night on the job working in the office of the Census Bureau. It's from 9:00 pm - 3:30 am. This may seem crazy but for those of you who have known me, these are perfect hours for me. I have always been a late night person. It's temporary of course but should carry us through a season until we figure out another game plan. I'm excited about being a Pastor in the world. There are a variety of people working with me from every generation and every ethnicity you can imagine. I'm excited about the lessons that God has to teach me through all of this.

For example, yesterday I had my first day of training. I ended up sitting for the last 3 hours of my day doing nothing because the people who were supposed to train me were too busy. I went home really frustrated and complaining about what a waste of a day it was. But, the Sarah reminded me that this was National Day of Prayer week and that I could have used that time to pray. Wow! She was soooo right! There was an office full of people that I could have prayed for during that whole time. I have a lot to learn. I will go into this new day of work and so many things on my schedule with a reminder of (Eph 5:15-16 NIV) Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, {16} making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Part of my application of Ephesians 5:15-16 is to do this blog. I know that my time will be even more limited in being in contact with people. So, I'll be writing this blog so that I can stay in touch. I want people to know what God is teaching me. I want to be an encouragement. My hope is that this blog will help me do that more efficiently in this busy season ahead. I don't know how often I'll get to this but I certainly will be a lot more consistent than ever before!

Press on! Hosea 6:3

The Mission of La Viña Community Church

We believe that God has moved in the hearts of people from different corners of Miami to build a church in Westchester of people from Westchester.

The mission of La Viña Community Church is to serve among the people of Westchester as a loving community of celebration and worship that journeys into every opportunity and uses every resource to bring God’s peace into every dimension of every person’s life.

Our mission is our pathway to become a church that will bring spiritual life change to the rest of Miami and beyond.

This is what God has been doing. This is where God is leading.

It’s really beginning to make sense now. Why did God keep La Viña in Westchester for 18 years, almost 13 years before I came in 2004? Why did He call me and my family from a very comfortable life in San Diego? Why did He open the door for us to start Kidz XL? Why did He open the door to the lives of so many wonderful students from FIU? Why did He call Nic and Laura here from Chicago? Why didn’t He send Pastor Art and Kyle to Brooklyn, Belize or New Orleans? Why did He call Michael and Rocio to move here from New Orleans? Why did He call the individual families currently now at La Viña to join us in this ministry?

There is one answer for it all: God wants a church that is willing to serve among the people of this community of Westchester for His glory and name. Among the 60% who claim no church affiliation. Among the 95% who do not attend church on Sunday. Among the 90,000+ who live within a 3 mile radius of where we are sitting right now.

But, as obvious as it seems to me, this mission statement must speak to each person in my church personally. It cannot be embraced because I said to. The Holy Spirit must reveal such things. So, please pray for God to open the eyes of this mission to everyone in my church. God has certainly invited us to be part of His story to spiritual life change to this community that so desperately needs it!

"...this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven." Matthew 16:17

Maximum Clarity

Welcome to one of several additions to my life to provide "maximum clarity" to my world of influence! As I am learning to develop my leadership abilities, I have recognized that I have a need to improve on communicating where God is leading me and my church, and to provide opportunities for comments and feedback. I've been learning that you can't assume people understand what's going on in your world and in your head. Many are oblivious to the things that seem so obvious to me and so I've got to work at making where God is leading me as obvious to everyone interested as it is to me. Thus, the birth of this blog! For all of you who love cyberspace and social networking, this is for you. But, it's going to be good for me, too. Writing things out really helps me clarify my thoughts. I can't say that it's all going to be profound or even entertaining but it will be pretty honest. "...the LORD replied: 'Write down the revelation and make it plain...'" Habakkuk 2:2