Come join us as we build relationships with the homeless through games, dessert and stories. As we build relationships, we can help those who are ready to take the next steps to get off the street. Register here or search “Homeless Ministry” on our website for info.

HOMELESS MINISTRY
Sat, Oct 15, 5:30-8p
Salvation Army, 1710 W Edinger Ave, Santa Ana

100% Yoga, 100% Jesus. Holy yoga is a wellness ministry that combines yoga, music, and God’s Word to deepen our connection with God. More info on our website here or contact Brooke, Brooketh@holyyoga.net

HOLY YOGA
Mon, Oct 3-24, 7-9p, Children’s Theater
$5 suggested donation

They broke bread…and ate together with glad and sincere hearts…
– ACTS 2:46

For people who grew up in a typical American church (of which I’m not one), there is a constant fixture in their experience of weekly worship gatherings. While it could be a pipe organ, a robe wearing preacher, a hymnal, or even an esoteric architectural feature like a narthex or a nave, the most universal feature of the American church is something most often known as the “fellowship hall.” In many cases the fellowship hall is named after a founding member of the church or a generous person who donated the carpet several decades and multiple fruit punch spills ago.

In every fellowship hall across the vast expanse of the church universe, on any given week, people engage in the same activity: they eat together. This is the site of the casserole and the pecan pie. It’s where people show off their Mid-western “hot dish” or their ambrosia salad. It’s the place where you can find several different varieties of mac-n-cheese and Texas sheet-cake brownies. It’s also the place where the life of the church is shared. Eating together provides a kind of backdrop for allowing those people we sit around every week to be invited a bit deeper and more personally to our lives. In that sense, food becomes merely the means to an end.

But, to talk so someone who grew up in that world — a world of proud grandmas with generations-spanning family recipes that reach all the way back to the American Revolution — their greatest moments in the fellowship hall didn’t involve a potluck. The best moments always occurred when the Pyrex and the Tupperware stayed locked away in their under-the-counter homes. The best of the fellowship hall was when no child was forced to smile a kind “thank you” after sampling someone’s disquieting “tuna surprise” dinner. The best experience was unequivocally when a ton of pizza and a boatload of soft drinks met eager appetites post-church.

While there is a certain down-home appeal to the church potluck — one which we occasionally resurrect — there is a measure of relief on all parties when we can eat together and not have to cook or clean up (except for the disposal of whatever plates and napkins we use). For the rest of October, we’ll provide pizza at $3 a plate (2 slices and coke) after the Sunday at 5pm service. No, not every day calls for a pizza-and-coke deviation from our better nutrition-minded sensibilities. But, once a week, pizza night feels like a win for the family. Bring a few bucks and lets eat “together with glad and sincere hearts.” Relax, eat, chat, and feel free to save the “tuna surprise” for another day.

See you Sunday,

Jeff

Come join us for a morning of food, fun and conversation. Learn about Men’s Ministry and see how we encourage and challenge each other to be a better “Man of God” in the home, workplace, church and our communities. Register here or search “breakfast” on our website for more info.

MEN’S BREAKFAST
Sat, Oct 15, 8-10a
Cost: $10pp 

Dive into God’s Word in a supportive community of women eager to learn in grow together in Christ. Click below for more info or search “Women” on our website. Email lmorgan@marinerschurch.org with questions.

WOMEN’S MINISTRY: FALL STUDIES
The Armor of God – Priscilla Shirer
Thursdays, Sep 29- Nov 17, 9:30-11:30a, Lobby

Breaking Free from Fear – Kay Arthur
Thursdays, Sep 29-Nov 17, 7-8:30p, Lobby

“…I was very much afraid, but…”
– NEHEMIAH 2:2b-3a

Do it afraid.

As a kid (and admittedly as an adult) I was mostly fearful. It took me a long time to finally ride on a roller coaster. I didn’t try new foods often — a  resistance that I think came from my first-ever encounter with flan at a Mexican restaurant… big mistake. I was far more likely to run from a fight than get into one. I’ve never outgrown my disdain for scary movies. I still put on my seatbelt when people offer to drive me from their car to mine after an event… even if it’s in the same parking lot. I was glad when foul weather prevented me from skydiving a few years ago (that way I got credit for trying, but never had to go through with it). So, as a mostly fearful kid (and adult), I repeatedly found myself at a crossroads, either: A) avoid all things that cause me fear or B) do things while still being afraid of them. I’d have to learn to see, identify, and acknowledge fear and then do it (whatever it is) while still feeling the effects of fear.

Being afraid of something does not render it less necessary, important, or meaningful. Think about how it felt when you asked “her” to dance. Remember, when you met that coach for the first time. Consider the excitement-fear convergence of your driver’s test. Remember your first job interview. Or, think about that time someone introduced you to your now-spouse. Try to imagine all over again, how it felt to give your first oral book report in fourth grade. Fear, trepidation, sweaty palms, clumsiness, awkwardness, and stammering speech all made their appearance. But, you did it anyway.

Remember that time you thought about stepping out in pursuit of something that was personal, emotionally charged, divinely inspired, and not guaranteed to work out in the way you planned it? Some of us once knew this feeling in our past. Some of us are living with this sensation now. Still others of us have yet to experience this sensation at all… because we’ve been so afraid. This, however, is at the core of the big dreams God plants in people’s lives. More than likely, we’ll have to do that thing he’s called us to, without the luxurious absence of fear. What if we all did it afraid?

We’ll talk more about this idea Sunday, as we continue in our series: FAVOR with KINGS. These past few Sundays it’s been so great to meet the people you have invited on this journey with you. I’m so excited for each of us, in the unique ways God has called us, to take bold steps through our fears and into the future he’s invited us to.

See you Sunday,

Jeff

Our next Child Dedication is Sun, Oct 16. This is a special time for parents to dedicate and bless their children with the church community during our Sunday services. Click here to register for the Child Dedication Class. Please note, the Child Dedication Class is mandatory if you wish to dedicate your child during the service. Email shulse@marinerschurch.org with questions.

Prepare for a successful marriage with our six-week interactive program for couples who are seriously dating or engaged. Materials and light lunch included. More info here and register or search “relationship” on our website.

RELATIONSHIP FOUNDATIONS
Sundays, Oct 2-Nov 6, 1-3p
Upper Room, $120/couple

“…If you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen…”
– NEHEMIAH 1:

I can recall a recent occurrence of that rarest of occasions — a Saturday without sunrise-to-sundown planned activities: no shuttling kids to and from birthday parties, no practices, no finding a lost shinguard, no buying something we didn’t need at Target, no trying to avoid a fast food lunch stop, and no forgetting that it was our turn to bring team snacks. Instead, we loaded our car with no real time constraint for a family outing.

As I got in, I looked at Amanda and said, “Do you have my phone?”

She looked back and said, “I don’t. I haven’t seen it.”

“It doesn’t really matter. We’re all together. Whoever needs to call me can wait,” I said confidently, swelling with a sense of paternal pride about abandoning my digital tether to the world.

Amanda smiled and we drove off.

When we finally arrived at the parking lot, the kids filed out, eager to stretch their legs. Amanda and I followed after them. As I came around to the rear of the car and reached to pull the handle on the tailgate, I saw something on the bumper that gave me pause. It was like a parent discovering that their own child had been unintentionally abandoned in the toy aisle at a department store: where a momentary distraction meets a tight timeline and a shopping list — poof! a kid vanishes and no one notices. With nothing wrong and with no signs of wear, I saw it there — that digital tether to the outside world, that thing I had so self-importantly left behind for the sake of my family — my phone. It was as if it had wandered off to sit on the bumper as a matter of its own will (Incidentally, this is what I tell myself when I lose things). I didn’t hear the phone ask permission to do so, it just did. Bad phone. “The little iPhone that could” had managed to take a ride from our house along busy freeways and side streets for about 15 miles, blissfully unaware that its final digitized transmission was more than imminent.

That phone belongs in the safety of my hands. Phones, in case you were unaware, do not belong on the exterior of cars-in-motion. Shocking, I know. There is a place for a phone — a right place. Yes, this phone did get a little uppity and wander off on its own. While I’d like to punish it — we know it deserves a good talking-to — most importantly, I just want it to be where it belongs.

That is the story of God revealed in the Bible. The Bible is, at minimum, the story of God returning things (people) who have wandered off to those unknowingly precarious places, to their rightful home, to the place where they belong — the place “[He] has chosen.” This week as we continue in our series: FAVOR with KINGS, we’ll align ourselves with that story of finding, recovering, and restoring that which is lost. And somehow, in the midst of it, we’ll get one step closer to living out the lives we were made for — lives of significance.

See you Sunday,

Jeff

P.S.: Each week, I get to meet people who are checking out Mariners MV for the first time. And, those first-timers are always so grateful you’ve invited them. Great job. This Sunday,  after the 5pm service, we’ll have $5/plate tacos along with a few activities on the patio to help us in getting our new service off the ground. It’s so great to see there is now new space available for you to continue to be the warm, inviting church you already are.