Get your shine on as you jump the night away in your boldest and brightest colors! Don’t forget to invite your friends! Dinner will be served. Registration closes on Monday, March 22. To register, click here.
Fri, Mar 27, 4:30-7:30p, Big Air Trampoline Park, Laguna Hills, CA, $20
But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved. – Hebrews 10:38
Often our feelings and emotions are mistakenly substituted for faith. Pleasurable emotions and deep, satisfying experiences are part of the Christian life, but they are not the essence of it. –
Streams in the Desert
“I’m not feelin’ it.” I’ve used that expression to describe everything from carne asada to music. It is to say, there is something about [whatever it is] that I can’t connect with emotionally (Yes, there have been burritos that have had an emotional impact on my life. They are few and far between. But, I’m certain, I’m different because of them.). It’s as if, with everything — even the most mundane — that inherent worth is directly proportional to emotional outcomes. The way we talk about anything: Coldplay’s last live show, Apple smart-watches, sedans, or Nikes — all of it evokes an emotional response. When something lacks that emotional connection, we’re quick to disregard it.
What happens, then, when God doesn’t feel the need to make us “feel?” We tend to have an expectation that God can sustain us so long as following Him can be connected to a powerful emotional experience. Sometimes we wonder, in those instances where we don’t have such an encounter with God, if He’s really there. In that moment, God’s very existence seems to hinge our ability to employ our psycho-experiential radar effectively.
And yet, what if, in those moments God intends to grow us in a decidedly uncomfortable, yet necessary way? He’ll take us on a journey that is absent of emotional euphoria. In so doing, God begins to separate Himself from all other consumable things to which we attach emotional value. He’s more interested in growing us than coddling us. He seems to be far more concerned with who we are becoming rather than what merely pacifies our need for attention. It’s in this portion of the faith-journey — a time the early church fathers called “The Dark Night of the Soul” — that many people decide that faith is no longer for them. It lacks the ever-present jubilance of other seasons. But, the long-term journey of faith is just that: long. The long view of faith is far more than a few brief moments of ebullient sentimentality. It is to be transformed by God into something we could not become without Him.
This Sunday, Doug Fields will pick up where we left off this past weekend, continuing in our series: THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. It will be a great opportunity to bring your friends and neighbors as Doug always delivers powerful truths in a compelling and humorous way. It’s going to be great!
See you Sunday,
Jeff
Relationships don’t come with an owner’s manual, leaving most couples not sure how to best enrich their marriages. Get partnered up with a qualified, trained mentor couple to discuss important relational topics and watch your marriage thrive! Free. Learn more below or visit our website.
I’ve asked Hilary McCullough, our Junior High Ministry Director, to share some thoughts on what our community has been experiencing through our parenting series with Dr. Jim Burns.
– Jeff Maguire
We have GREAT parents in our community! This parenting series, The Field Guide to Modern Parenting has shown it. You’ve been there to learn about the tough stuff. You’re trudging through figuring out how to continually have “the talk” at different ages in your kids’ lives. (Did your thought bubble just say, “Continually?” Yep. Continually.) You’re learning how to safeguard them against a world that is bombarding them with messages about what they should be, act and look like. All while simultaneously doing the same thing for yourselves. You’re asking the questions during Q&A that all the other parents wanted to ask. It’s easy to see from the emphatic head nods. “When is a good time to give my son a phone? He says he’s the only 4th grader who doesn’t have one.” “How do I see what they’ve been viewing on their phones?” “What if my child likes looking at anatomy books? A lot.” “How do I talk to my child about pornography?” You are great parents, and I LOVE being able to walk this with you as you ask the tough questions. Our conversations following the sessions are so encouraging.
I didn’t start my career in ministry. I’ve had the privilege of working in prevention education for years, arming young kids, parents, adolescents, and college students with information about sexual assault and abuse. I’ve educated and counseled hundreds of college students to reveal what alcohol abuse really looks like and how to avoid high-risk behavior with high-risk consequences. I’ve seen what it looks like when parents take the bold steps you’re taking, and when they don’t. You’re figuring out how to have the tough conversations about that stuff and actually hear back from your kids (and sometimes hold back the laughter – or the shock). Be encouraged!
It’s not over. We have one more session this Tuesday, 6:30–8p. Hear from Jim about healthy parenting strategies. Ask your questions. You ARE your child’s greatest influence. It’s not scary – it’s an opportunity. We’re with you.
Hilary McCullough
JHM Director
God wants to bring down all the walls separating people from Him and each other. And in that spirit, we are starting with the wall in our own Worship Center. Come hear the big-picture vision for this UNLEASH THE IMPOSSIBLE project. Ask questions. Consider how you’d like to engage in this journey. Find out more.
Thu, March 5, 7p
Fri, March 6, 7p
Sun, March 8, 1p
(choose one to attend)
Mariners MV Worship Center
We were 4, 7, 9, 12, 15 and 18, but we were never their age! Today’s kids experience so much, so young. Parents today need answers and ideas like never before. Join us for a four week series with Jim Burns, author of Confident Parenting and Teaching Your Children Healthy Sexuality to hear practical advice on the important issues every parent needs to know. For more info and to register, click here.
Tuesdays through Mar 10, 6:30-8p, free, childcare $20/child with maximum $50/family
The Refreshing Your Marriage conference offers you a yearly tune-up for your relationship. Whether you require a major overhaul, some minor adjustments or just a healthy tune-up, RYM offers something for every stage of your relationship. For more info and to register, click here.
Fri-Sat, March 13-14
$109 per couple, standard/walk-in
$79 per couple online with promo code MarinersMV
Faith Community Church, 1211 E. Badillo Street, West Covina, CA 91790
Grab a friend, wear a costume, and let’s play some broomball! It’s gonna be silly fun for everyone! Spots are limited, so register ASAP. We will provide the food, ice rink, and equipment; you bring the people and the costumes! Contact Jordan with questions or click here for info. Open to all high school students.
Friday, March 20, 10:30p-12:45a, $20
Aliso Viejo Ice Palace
The impact of being alone with God in prayer cannot be overemphasized. – Streams in the Desert
Being “alone” and “lonely” are vastly different things. In my own mind, however, I have a difficult time separating the two. Somewhere, deep beneath any surface-level piety about the importance of solitude, I have a lingering fear that in time spent alone, the specter of loneliness is necessarily looming in the furtive shadows, waiting to pounce. That must be why I surround myself with a nearly constant barrage of noise. The radio is on. The pundits chatter away about politics and sports. The TV emanates its softly flickering visual noise — shadow puppets I can barely recall. I create endless nearly-perfected playlists of music. Eventually, all the chords and all the drums and all the voices merge into a blurry whiteness. I do things. I do “really” important things that make me feel like I matter.
Nearly all of it points to something — a hard truth to swallow: I am afraid of being alone. In the still moments of my life, who knows what will be revealed? What horror waits in the quiet?
So, against my better judgment, for Lent (the traditional 40 day on-ramp to the foot of the cross) I gave up a portion of that noise. One of the places I’ve decided to minimize my dependence on noise is in my car. Now, I drive in my car without noise. I hear all the bumps and rattles of the road in high definition. Louder still, I hear the bumps and rattles inside myself. Those are much clearer. So far, I have had no spiritual epiphany. Jesus has yet to write to me a personal message with some unseen holy finger in the morning fog of my side mirrors.
As I’ve driven, I’ve yelled, out loud, literally. I’ve had long monologues directed at unseen passengers. I’ve become quite adept at playing the steering-wheel-drums. Apparently, even when there’s no noise, I have to make noise. The stillness of solitude, despite all I may know for the better, is something I still resist. Perhaps, by Easter, I’ll find my way to see the beauty in what God wants to teach me when I embrace more completely “the impact of being alone with God in prayer.”
This weekend we’ll wrap up our UNLEASH the IMPOSSIBLE series with a heightened focus on the poor and the marginalized masses in our community and in the world. Just a reminder: immediately following both services, we’ll have a serving opportunity for you and your family on the patio. Come wearing a t-shirt and some comfortable shoes. Don’t worry about lunch, we’ve got you covered. We’re bringing a slice of last summer’s Serve Day to our patio.
See you Sunday,
Jeff
Impossible: not able to occur, exist, or be done.
We’ve heard it our whole lives: “You can’t. You won’t. Stop kidding yourself.” It’s told to us by people who see the world only through the limits of their own ability. Their world is a fixed reality without hope. What if we stopped listening to them? What if we chased the unexplainable, the untamable, the unthinkable, and the miraculous? What if our lives were no longer weighed down by the nay-sayers and the cynics? What if the greatest and most impossible hopes needed only to be unleashed?
Sundays, 9 & 11a
Directions and info here.
