Join us for a giant night of fun for the whole family! Enjoy food, live music, games, inflatable slides, obstacle courses, hay maze, bounce houses, face painting and more! You won’t want to miss this family-friendly community event that is open to all ages. Contact Kim with questions.

Friday, October 24, 4:30-7:30p
Viejo Elementary School field
26782 Via Grande, Mission Viejo, CA 92691

What would happen if we got serious about loving the people in our communities – wherever that might be? What would happen if we broke through all the barriers that keep our communities as merely a collection of polite strangers? What would it look like if we stopped dreaming about our next move and…

…truly loved where we lived?

during the weekend services
Sun: 9 & 11a
map and directions

Click here to find out ways you can love where you live and love your community!

I have a special concern for you church leaders. I know what it’s like to be a leader, in on Christ’s sufferings as well as the coming glory. Here’s my concern: that you care for God’s flock with all the diligence of a shepherd. Not because you have to, but because you want to please God. Not calculating what you can get out of it, but acting spontaneously. Not bossily telling others what to do, but tenderly showing them the way.  1 PETER 5:1-3

Mariners Church, Mission Viejo has GREAT volunteer leaders. Last Sunday night, a few hundred volunteer leaders and life group members gathered for our first Vision Night. We ate together. We celebrated what God has been doing here at Mariners. We took a glimpse at the future of Mariners Mission Viejo — the local expression of God’s church. We prayed for each other. We celebrated together in song.

For me, as the lead pastor, the most compelling picture of God-at-work at Mariners wasn’t the event, per se, it was the unmistakable dedication of volunteers who “care for God’s flock with all the diligence of a shepherd.” The church — this church — is built on the tender-hearted commitment of leaders to Jesus and to the people to whom He calls us. Sunday night was a gathering of ushers, greeters, coffee makers, prayer teams, men’s and women’s ministry leaders, marriage mentors, local outreach volunteers, student ministries and children’s volunteers, weekend tech team members, and so many others. It’s true, I suppose, God doesn’t need people to accomplish his work in the world. But, he does choose to utilize us: broken, worried, scared, fumbling, work-in-progress us. Somehow, when we join him in his work, we get to share in His joy.

For those of you who missed Vision Night but would like to hear the talk, click here to be redirected to the Mariners Church Mission Viejo iTunes podcast page. It will available by the afternoon on Friday, October 17.

This weekend we’ll continue our new series: LOVE WHERE YOU LIVE as we ask the question: “What makes a great party?” Continue to be the great inviters that you are. Remember, people, even when they can’t make it, love to be invited. It’s going to be a great Sunday. Don’t forget to use #LWYL to post pictures of you with your pin. There are tons of great pics of people “loving where they live” across all five Mariners campuses. Search the hashtag and post some pics of your own.

See you Sunday,
Jeff
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This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”  JEREMIAH 29:4-7 [NIV]

Remember when you were younger and you were made to sit in a bus, a minivan, or in a school assembly next to the one person with whom you swore you’d never associate. That person was mean. That person said and did things, at times, that may have crossed the line from teasing into outright bullying. So, whether it was a field trip, a long car ride, or the 3rd grade production of The Little Engine that Could, you were going to have to figure out how to live with that person made to sit next to you.

The two worlds you intended to keep separate now overlapped, spilling onto each other. Your noble rightness and that other person’s vile unkindness breathed the same air. With a quick cost benefit analysis you weigh the merits of taking the opportunity for a quick and unexpected attack on the evil-other before they get to you (It’s only a matter of time, after all, before they get you), versus your usual pattern of kindly goodness. Such is the dilemma: Attack and become the person I hate, or, sit and wait to be attacked.

During the time of the Babylonian exile, a time when God’s people were taken captive into a far away place by an “evil other,” God gives his people the most surprising instruction. He doesn’t say: “Attack them.” He doesn’t say: “Roll over and silently suffer.” Instead, he tells his people to build a life and “seek the prosperity of the city… because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

In other words, it is better that everyone would prosper – wherever that might be – than the suffering of all those who have done wrong. What the Bible records, in Jeremiah, is not that everything the captors did was good, rather that the response to to being held captive  isn’t retribution, nor is it hidden isolation.

“Seek the prosperity of the city.” In short,
LOVE WHERE YOU LIVE.

We live in a world that is, clearly, far from kind. We have been mistreated, at times. We’ve been the mistreat-er at others. What might God be saying to his Church (the people who belong to Him) about how to live in a complicated world? Over the next few weeks we’ll take a look at the idea that God has given to us a unique responsibility to seek the prosperity in whatever place we find ourselves in a new series we’re calling: LOVE WHERE YOU LIVE. It will be a great opportunity to bring friends as we talk about how the church ought to be (despite its somewhat checkered reputation) in the communities we live.

See you Sunday,
Jeff

P.S.: Reminder: for those of you in life groups, those actively serving, or those who have recently joined a volunteer team, THIS SUNDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 12 AT 5-7PM IS VISION NIGHT AT MARINERS MISSION VIEJO. Spots are filling up quickly, so RSVP here. It will be a great night of dinner, vision-casting, and worship. Vision Night will be a critical point in the life of our church. If Mariners MV is your church, you won’t want to miss it.

Later, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance of the Temple of God. The king said to Jeremiah, “I’m going to ask you something. Don’t hold anything back from me.” Jeremiah said, “If I told you the whole truth, you’d kill me. And no matter what I said, you wouldn’t pay any attention anyway.” Jeremiah 38:14-15

We often say how we wish we knew the truth — that ambiguity is where we suffer the most. Kids at the doctor’s office worry far more about the shot they’re going to get than the shot they actually get. But, sometimes the shot DOES hurt as much or more than we anticipate. The truth, can be difficult, sometimes so difficult we deny it altogether.

Jeremiah, the prophet, has been telling the truth to God’s people throughout his life. Generally, he winds up beaten, attacked or thrown in jail not for ambiguity, not for vagaries about the mystery of God. He’s punished for revealing God’s truth to God’s obstinate people.

Whether it’s medical results, relational conflict, or news about work that might not be positive, I tend to run. Sometimes I deny. Other times I question the veracity of the findings (whatever they may be), or the integrity of the source, itself. I find myself doing this more often than not with God himself. My own response to whatever not so comfortable thing to which God might be directing me (however He does that) is denial, fear, and hesitation. But, it is the truth I need and it is as the Gospel of John records, the truth that enables us to live “free, indeed.”

To what is God calling you? How is He nudging you? In what areas is He confronting you with the truth, however disquieting it may be?

This Sunday we’ll wrap our our YOU MAKE THE CALL series as we look at something to which we can all relate: perseverance. I can’t wait to meet the people you’ve invited to join us this week.

See you Sunday,
Jeff

Interested in joining the Prayer Team? We believe that every believer is a minister. One of our passions as a church is to train and equip our people to pray on behalf of those in need. More info here.

Sunday, October 5, 12:45-1:20p, in the Worship Center

When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”  EXODUS 20:18-19

Holy Smokes!

I still use that phrase. Even thirty years ago, it was old. It harkens back to that campy bygone era of a caped crusader and his boy-wonder-sidekick fighting crime with clever and often ironic superhero skills. That show, Batman, was a success because it was so goofy. Long monologues from villains always preceded Batman and Robin’s unlikely escapes. The fight sequences were intentionally bad. Every brawl was highlighted by notoriously goofy punch-impact onomatopoeia: thwack! zok! pow! fa-thud! Each episode had the audience waiting for Robin’s clever variation on “holy smokes!” Check out some of the more priceless selections from actual episodes:

Holy uncanny photographic mental processes!
Holy non sequiturs!
Holy diversionary tactics!
Holy hardest metal in the world!
Holy sudden incapacitation!
Holy knit one, pearl two!

I don’t know, specifically, if the etymology of Robin’s catch-phrase has its roots in the Bible. But, the wording does bring to mind the idea that God’s appearance — holy and frightening — was often as a cloud of smoke. “Holy smoke,” if you will. Smoke has mysterious and shapeless property. And, we’re told that wherever there’s smoke, there’s also fire. Smoke is an apt description for the nebulousness of God — particularly, the part of the trinity with which we tend to have the greatest difficulty getting our heads around, the Holy Spirit.

Tonight, Thursday, September 25th at 7p, there’s an event Mariners is hosting at our Irvine campus that will highlight what is often called “life with” or “participation with” the Holy Spirit. We were given a preview of the event yesterday as a staff. In short, tonight will be a night of worship and teaching centered on encountering God’s inexplicable power and incendiary love through the Holy Spirit. While I’m a person who is easily weirded out, the guest teacher, Mike Pilavachi (a humble Brit of Greek descent), spoke in clear, compelling, and accessible biblical truths. The mysterious nature of God was neither apologized for, nor was it minimized. But, I was able to experience Him (the Holy Spirit) in a fresh way.

Holy Smokes!

See you Sunday,
Jeff

P.S.: This Sunday, we’ll continue in our series: YOU MAKE THE CALL. This will be a great opportunity to bring friends who are unfamiliar with Bible and wonder (as we all tend to do) about the practical relevance of what it has to say to our daily living. I’ve talked to a number of people at the door every Sunday — people you’ve been inviting — and they’re so grateful you include them. They’ve loved what the Bible has to say to their lives and the friendliness of the community here at Mariners MV.

Over the summer, our worship volunteers recorded a collection of songs to encourage our church to worship God with freedom and excitement.

Available on the patio this weekend
$10 suggested donation