Hello from Boise, ID June 30, 2008
Posted by Joseph Garibay in Ministry Trips, My Travels.add a comment
I’m at the Boise airport waiting for my flight to Portland. I will post more later today…
Update from Idaho June 28, 2008
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I had the wonder privilege of getting to travel with one of my Pastors to Boise, ID this weekend. We landed around 11 am Boise time and it’s been great. I’m having so much fun! A great guy name Caleb picked us up from the airport and when Pastor Marc was out doing his thing, Caleb and I got to spend some time together. We ended up going to one of the local frisbee golf courses and we played a couple of rounds. I’m happy to announce that I straight up dominated the second game. Okay, so I only beat him by one throw, but still, this is his home turf and I threw that frisbee like it was nobody’s business! Marc led an evangelism seminar for a couple of hours tonight and it went great. The church was hungry to learn and it was evident that the presence of God was working in the lives of everyone there. We’ve been on the go since our flight landed and Marc and I are both pretty exhausted. After service tomorrow a few of us are supposed to head over to this sweet frisbee golf course that has 18 holes while all the Pastors do their thing. It’s gonna be great. Till next time…
I missed my flight… June 28, 2008
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So apparently when you fly with Alaska/Horizon airlines you need to show up two hours before your flight leaves to check in. I showed up 45 minutes before. Oops! Now I have to wait until the 9 am flight to Boise, ID. This is why Southwest rocks…
Back in PDX June 27, 2008
Posted by Joseph Garibay in Ministry Trips, My Travels, PBC.add a comment
I made it to Portland safely. I’m so tired. I’ve been running off of three hours of sleep, a couple of power naps, and my own incredible hulk like strength. It’s great to be back in the dorms. I’m going to bed now. Till next time…
DREAM IT.08 comes to an end June 25, 2008
Posted by Joseph Garibay in Conferences, My Travels, Spiritual Growth.add a comment
This conference was awesome! God moved in so many different ways and it was very refreshing. The conference call this morning went great. It was really neat to watch so many Christian Pastors and leaders across the state of California unite together and rise to the challenge. There were quite a few influential voices throughout the conference call challenging all of the churches that represent California to rise up and believe that we can make a difference in the outcome regarding the California Marriage Protection Act in the upcoming election this November. But yeah, back to the conference. Here are some of the things that stuck out to me today’s sessions…
Jake Larson
- Discipleship is what we do and it never ends. It’s a life long journey.
- We must live our truths. The truths we live will speak volumes to those around us.
- We have to be people who model the life of Jesus.
- There are people all around us who are looking for someone to disciple them.
- We cannot settle just because people are in our church. We must make them disciples.
- Work and creativity are always linked together.
- Learn from everybody.
- The Bible does not deserve to be served as a watered down message.
- The church is a table and Pastors must serve great food.
- Pastors are giving samples to people who have already been fed.
- The Pastor is the “Dude with the food”.
- We shouldn’t put power into the hands of someone who doesn’t know anything about church.
- We have to think about the people who are walking through the doors of our church.
- It takes a bunch of unselfish people to grow a church.
- The greatest leaders are appointed and anointed.
Update from Sacramento June 24, 2008
Posted by Joseph Garibay in Conferences, My Travels, Spiritual Growth.1 comment so far
Tonight’s session just ended and boy did the presence of God show up! It was so awesome! This whole day has been amazing and I truly can’t thank the Lord enough for what He’s doing through His church. Erwin McManus spoke at the first session of the day and he gave a great message. It was very thought provoking but at the same time, very good stuff. After that they did a panel session with Rick Cole, the senior Pastor of Capital Christian Center, Erwin McManus and Bill Hybels. It was a very insightful hour full of questions and answers. We had our breakout sessions after lunch and I went to the session entitled “The Gutter” lead by Craig Gross, the founder of XXXchurch.com. To top it off, Israel & New Breed opened tonight’s session with a few songs of worship, Pastor Rick Cole preached an awesome message on leadership, then New Breed came back out and we had an awesome time of worship for almost two hours! Here are some of the things that stuck out to me from each session…
Erwin McManus
- We believe that Jesus is the hope of the world yet we often spend more time encouraging and equipping each other.
- If our hearts won’t take the time to reach out to the one then we have no business trying to reach out to the many.
- We need to lead people from where they are to the presence of God.
- People will sometimes have to follow us and trust us before they can follow and trust God.
- If our church’s disciples aren’t evangelizing then we are raising up the poorest disciples possible.
- Church isn’t about Sunday. We have to create multiple amounts of community.
- We should always try to focus on the good things happening across the world in the Kingdom of God.
- If we truly believe that people will be better off with Jesus then we must engage and be relevant.
- If we love a group of people with reckless abandonment, great things will happen.
- We must never underestimate the part we play in evangelism.
- We must always take the time to invest in ourselves.
- Classic Spiritual Disciplines: Bible Reading; Prayer; Solitude; Journaling.
- Why blame the dark for being dark when we should blame the light for not shining bright enough?
- Pastors are not immune to the battle of pornography.
- We won’t always have instant results when we have an impact on someones life.
- There are so many people watching us on a daily basis. How we live our life matters!
- There are so many people around us who are desperately looking for another way.
- We have to care about people more than their ministries.
- The message of Jesus doesn’t divide, it brings people together.
- Impossible odds set the stage for amazing miracles.
- It’s not about us. It’s about God and what we can do for Him.
- Bible college doesn’t prepare us for everything we’ll experience in ministry.
- Leaders need to be healthy and lead from their strengths.
- The people around us can tell when we’ve spent time with God.
- We need to become less religious and more real.
Bill Hybels: Vision June 23, 2008
Posted by Joseph Garibay in Conferences, My Travels, Spiritual Growth.add a comment
Tonight’s session was awesome! Before tonight, I’d never heard Bill Hybels speak on anything. He did such a good job communicating the importance of how a leader must own the vision. Here are some of the things that stuck out to me:
- A vision must be deeply owned
- A vision will never become a reality unless key members of the group own it
- Vision = A picture of the future that produces passion in the people
- Just because a vision is clear doesn’t mean it’s owned
- Do we own the vision only when it’s convenient, or do we own it all the time even with it’s hard and frustrating?
- The leader must always stay focused on the vision. They must never focus on themselves!
- A church that models the Acts 2 example will have endless amounts of opportunities.
DREAM IT.08 June 23, 2008
Posted by Joseph Garibay in Miscellaneous, My Travels.add a comment
Today is the beginning of a crazy week. I just arrived in Sacramento for Capital Christian Center’s DREAM IT.08 leadership conference and I’m so excited! Tonight’s session doesn’t start until 6:30 and Bill Hybels will be speaking. It’s gonna be great. I’ll write more later…
Living with discipline June 18, 2008
Posted by Joseph Garibay in Spiritual Growth.1 comment so far
“We do what we have to now so that we can do what we want to later.”
I heard this while watching The Great Debaters a few weeks ago and it’s been stuck in my mind ever since. I know without a doubt that there’s a calling upon my life. My life isn’t an accident. I’ve been placed on this earth for a purpose, a purpose with a calling. With that calling comes responsibility and with the responsibility comes discipline. I’m not going to wake up one day and miraculously become the man of God I’ve been called to be. I have to work at it, every day! The potential that lies in the deepest part of our soul is so great! The only thing hindering ourselves is us because we’re often our own worst enemy. A lot of times we’re not willing to make the small sacrifices in life so that we can ejoy the great rewards. We’ve sacrificed the journey for instant success. Where’s the fun in that? We’ve all been created with a very unique purpose and no individual is greater than anyone else. That’s the beauty of the Kingdom of God, we’re all on the same team striving to reach the same goal. But in order to reach the goal we have to be willing to live our life with discipline, and in order to live our life with discipline we have to be people of vision. Without vision people perish. People who understand that they’re a part of something bigger than themselves find it easy to live their life with vision because they realize there’s work to be done. Everything I’m doing right now is preparing me for my future. Everything from cleaning the toilets at work to assisting world class speakers at conferences, it’s all having an impact one way or another. Let’s be people of discipline, the reward is far to great to miss out on! I have no problem doing what I have to now so that I can do what I want to later.
Stay humble and seek after His presence June 15, 2008
Posted by Joseph Garibay in Antioch, Spiritual Growth.add a comment
I had the wonderful privilege of getting to spend some time with Pastor Jack Senyonga today. His church, Christian Life Church, grew from seven people at its inception to two thousand in two weeks. Today the church membership has grown to over forty thousand people and continues to grow each week. Talk about being busy! While we were driving to the Oakland airport I asked ”From all the years you’ve been in ministry, what’s the one piece of advice you can give me? After a short pause he replied “Stay humble and seek after His presence.” He went on to share with me how he doesn’t know what it means to ‘arrive’ or what success is. As he was talking I’m thinking to myself, “This guy has a church of forty thousand and he’s telling me he doesn’t know what success is!?” Talk about a guy with a humble spirit! Or on the other hand, it just goes to show how wrong my thinking is. I love the heart of a missionary. There’s so much we can learn from them. Every time you talk to one you can’t help but feel a little convicted to get back to what matters the most.
