The Personal Pain of Public Gain. (Part 1)

I heard a preacher once say, “They know the glory but they don’t know the story.” I could not agree more. Often when we are on the verge of a breakthrough in our ministry, we must endure some of the toughest times of our personal life. Usually people can see what is taking place on the outside of us, but they do not see what is happening on the inside. Pain.

I want to talk about the type of results I love to see in my life and ministry when I have endured a season like this:

1. I want get closer to Jesus. Jesus was the greatest example of endurance when he endured the cross for us all. I cannot even imagine what he had to endure for my salvation. That is why I want my trials and tests to draw me closer to him. Not farther. The more trials I face, the closer I feel to Jesus.

2. I want to see results in my personal ministry. The question I ask myself. Am I growing? Is the ministry growing? Are people growing? I think it is so sad to see leaders who endure trials and never see results. Or to see leaders who allow their trials to cause them to lose momentum. I refuse to allow trials to divert me, I want those trials to give me more traction in my ministry.

3. I want to get closer to those who really love me. People can be so fake sometimes. They stand by you in the good times, but they are nowhere to be found in the tough times. I want my trials to point me to those who are truly important in my life. I thank God for them. You should too.

What have you been through lately? How have trials drawn you closer to God? Who do you thank God for when you are facing tough times? Leave a comment. Let me know.

Pastor Al

Momentum. Changing the Culture.

Monday morning is a time of reflection for me. My thoughts for this morning is momentum. I want you to know that momentum doesn’t just happen. Momentum doesn’t just appear. Momentum doesn’t just come by some supernatural occurence. Momentum is created. It is created by hard work. Good old fashioned hard work. And it must come from the top down, it never comes from the bottom up. I can remember when we stepped out to turn the tide here in San Diego. I saw it first hand.

Pastor Sonny & Julie felt the call to come to San Diego. The church was up against a wall and in desperate need of  pastor. A church of 500 people had shrunken down to about 100 people. The church not only needed restoration, but it needed a change of momentum. How was it done? OK get ready….here comes some heavy duty revelation. You ready? 

Pastor Sonny & Julie would come to the church 1 hour before service on Friday nights and on Sunday nights to pray at the altar with the men’s and women’s homes. Now just picture, a pastor and his wife with 40 years of experience, who could be traveling the world preaching and inspiring leaders to become greater for God, nursing a church of 100 back to health by simply coming early for prayer. Ok what was really happening?

They were turning the tide. They were creating the momentum. They were modeling. It was not too long before the entire leadership team was early for prayer. Green room was empty, coffee pots were clean. People were in the business of modeling. Modeling makes the difference in creating a culture.

Momentum is created by changing the culture of your church. This means a bunch of things but I will give you a few:

1. Culture change means-behaviors change. What is the behavioral culture of your church? How do leaders act? What is the accepted behaviors? How can our behaviors set a new pattern? Bottom line: If people see you doing it, they will do it. This applies to all things.

2. Culture change means- the rules change. The old rules don’t even matter. People have a tendency to say, “we used to do it that way.” Don’t get me wrong, because it is easy to think you are doing something new, but your not changing the culture. New things don’t change the culture, but it is in our exampleship not our activities. The rules are: “What is important now not What was important then?” Realistically, that could also mean “Who is important now not who was important then.”

3. Culture change means-language changes. Language is so important to culture. Just think every culture in the world is united by their language. So it is clear to us that language is important. Here are a few words that were eliminated in our culture, they were wiped out of our cultures dictionary.

“Problems”- VOSD doesn’t have problems, we do have challenges. Challenges promote achievement. When we over come the challenge we gain momentum.

“Can’t”- There is no such thing as can’t. We CAN do all things in Christ Jesus. Our culture allows for people to exercise their ideas without feeling micro-managed.

“Somewhere”- Where is somewhere? And do you ever arrive? We like to say, we are on a journey for God. This journey will lead us to our final destination. Our journey is manifold. I will explain later…

“Jackets”- This is saying that you know someone. Or that they have come as far as they ever will in God’s plan for their lives. It is a way of boxing in someone. Our primary mission is to see people reach their fullest potential in God’s kingdom.

This past Sunday, our church witnessed the culmination of 6 years of hard work. A day to day battle of culture creation. From the atmosphere to the mentality. Our reward? Witnessing hundreds of decisions for Christ, over 1600 people in attendance and a brand new momentum for God. It never comes easy, but it sure is fun when you hit your stride.

Thank you Jesus.

Pastor Al

Congratulations to the Women of VOSD

You did it. As Easter Sunday approaches, I want to congratulate the women of our church for completing your 40 day fast. I can only imagine the times of struggle and the times when you might have said, “God give me strength!” Fasting is an exercise that causes us to become more like Christ. As we deny ourselves, our flesh takes a back seat to our spirit, and our mind becomes more and more fixed on Christ-likeness. Our sensitivities our heightened. Our spirit is strengthened, and causes us to be aware of the spirit realm as we have never experienced it. The fruit of the spirit, is the strongest evidence of our time with God. Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruit.”

As you bring your fast to a close, I encourage you to do a few things:

1. Reflect upon the journey. What have you learned, What has the Father revealed to you.

2. Recover slowly. Don’t engorge yourself with food. I know that you might have been dreaming of what you would eat when it was all done, but use moderation. Come back slowly.

3. Resist temptation. Satan is always lying in wait. He want to eliminate a woman who has a lifestyle of prayer and fasting. Because that type of woman does real damage to the devil’s work.

Your the best.

Pastor Al

5 Painful Events of Good Friday

Passion Week means a lot to us all. Jesus paid the ultimate price for our salvation. We cannot make it more clearer than that. We were sentenced to death until Jesus came and stood in our place, becoming the propitiation of our sin and freeing us from an eternal damnation. Basically, He endured the pain that we all deserved. I mean, think about it: Could you endure that kind of punishment? Could you even fathom what He took upon Himself for our freedom? I have been reflecting upon these exact things this week. Here is my reflection from the most obvious to the least obvious.

5.The pain of the cross. The cross was a gruesome punishment. It is said, that victims usually took days to die. Recently, I saw a documentary about the cross on A&E, the reporters duplicated the experience without the spikes. The person could not even stay up the cross more than 5 minutes without feeling faint and in excruciating discomfort. Our Jesus endured that for us. This form of punishment was designed to be painful as well as a spectacle for others. It was a warning. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.” Our savior knew what the cross would be, He knew what was a stake.

4. The pain of carrying the cross. The cross was not believed to be as we see it on film and in pictures. Roman authors use the word, “crux” or “patibulum” meaning the crossbeam. This is probably what Jesus carried on his way to Golgotha. It was said to have weighed 50 to 75 pounds. Also, it was probably not a “brand new” beam. Others must have died on that beam leaving it slimy, worn, splintery and waterlogged. Imagine having to carry this “patibulum” to Golgotha.

3. The pain of a brutal beating. John 19:1, NLT, says, “Then Pilate had Jesus flogged with a led-tipped whip…” Take a piece of leather and tie a marble into the end of it and lightly slap that against your thigh. Hurts huh? Imagine Jesus being beaten by battle ready Roman soldiers who spend their days punishing criminals and preparing themselves to protect and serve the kingdom. They did it with a device that would bruise and tear the flesh.

2. The pain of obedience to His Father. In the garden, we see that Jesus struggled with the decision of going to the cross. The inner battle was on. I don’t think that there is anyone who cannot relate with the inner-battles we face. Some years ago, I watched an HBO special that followed a man on his last 2 days before his execution as a death row inmate. I have never seen anything more impacting than that. From the family visits, to his last meal of Steak and potatoes, it was heart wrenching. I almost forgot the crime that he committed because I was so impacted by his sorrow for his crime and the misery of his life. He knew he deserved death and asked God for forgiveness. He was put to death. Just think. Jesus endured that struggle being completely innocent.

1. The pain of Peter’s denial, and sub-sequential reinstatement. We should remember that Peter was Jesus’ premiere disciple. From profound statements, to walking on water, to Pentecost’s guests speaker. Peter was the man. I wonder how Jesus felt when Peter betrayed him at the most critical time? It reminds me of our failures. How often do we fall short of God’s love for us all? Even to the day of Jesus’ death, we could not get it right. You would think, we could but we didn’t.

This Passion Week, let’s reflect upon the price that Jesus paid for us all, and let us also reflect upon how we have fallen short of His love, time and time again. Jesus did not deserve to die, and we did not deserve his love. Aren’t you glad He loves us anyway.

Pastor Al

2 Ways Church Websites Fall Short (part 2)

Here is a thought: You would never give out an old flyer to promote an upcoming event. There are reasons for this beyond being absurd.

1. Our website is a reflection of our church. There was a time when churches would use their church window or an outside sign to promote themselves as well as upcoming events. Today, websites are those windows, except they are more far reaching and powerful. When people see that your website is not updated they think your church is not updated. When people see that your website is shutdown, they think your church is shutdown.

2. Our website is our cyber address for all thing informative. I have found that there are 2 old staples that are faltering, newspapers and television news. People no longer look to television or news print to find information any longer, where do they look? They look to the web. Now you may say, “Well, I still read the paper or I still watch the news.” Well you are probably someone that still says, “We need to reach the ‘young people’”. You get my point. The church needs to put serious thought into their web identity. A friend of mine who works for NBC in Los Angeles told me something interesting the other day. NBC is canceling their 5pm news report because it was viewed by only 15,000 people in all of Los Angeles County. I was like, Whoa! He said, “It’s because of the internet. People can get their news there. And they can get their news quick.”

If we are going to stay effective in the internet arena, we need to put serious thought into our web identity. People fear what they do not understand. You better believe, they are going to get their understanding through the web.

Pastor Al

2 Ways Church Websites Fall Short

This blog is for the tech-heads.

There was a time when Victory Outreach was the best at promotions in church material. In the 80’s & 90’s our church flyers were the best. Everyone would say it. People were mesmerized at the things we put out, especially when it came to our dramas. I can remember when people would grab our flyers and post them on their bedroom walls, lockers at school, or tape them to their jail cells. People saw us as a cutting-edge innovative ministry…then.

Not so much today. Here is an example: Go to Yahoo, Google or MSN and type in Victory Outreach Church or Victory Outreach. What you will find is a list of Victory Outreach Church Websites in a certain order. Now this is encouraging because VO pastor’s are somewhat embracing the internet as a means of communication to a dying world. However, you will find certain challenges. There are 2 imparticular:

Challenge #1- Many VO church webpages are either expired, under-construction or badly outdated. Such as promoting events from last year or even 2 years ago.

Challenge #2- Most VO churches do not use the internet as a means of promotion. There are only a hand-full of churches attempting to use the internet.

You may ask, what is the big deal? I say, it is a huge deal.

The internet is no longer the wave of the future, but it is the now, the right now. What flyers were to the 80’s & 90’s, the web is what is happening now. If we do not take it seriously, we will be left behind. I am afraid this is already happening for some.

Georgina and I have been pastoring in San Diego for exactly 16 months and one of our first priorities was to embrace the internet as a mean of valuable evangelism and promotion. I want you to know, it has worked. I cannot tell you how many times people have come up to me and said, “I saw you on the webcast, I came because I found your website.” The results are clear, people are spending tons of time on internet and putting TV, and literature in their rear-view mirrors. They just don’t have the time for it anymore and the web is way more accessible at work and on their cellphones.

The other day, I was greeted very warmly about a member of our church that wanted to thank me for keeping our website fresh and updated. She told me, “It makes me so proud of my church. I am not ashamed to point people to the website.”

If you are a member of a Victory Outreach Church, do 2 things:

1. Ask your pastor to pay to set up a website for your church and explain the importance of it for evangelism.

2. If your church has a site, ask your pastor to keep it freshly updated and looking good.

Believe me, your church will not regret it.

Pastor Al