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Mission Viejo

A Note From Jeff

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MsgFromJeff

One of the defining characteristics of Mariners MV is that we’re a church seeking to live in community for the community. In other words, we believe that the beauty of the church is best expressed outside of the walls of our worship center on Sunday mornings. How we are known as neighbors, coaches, friends, school volunteers, and community leaders is a critical expression of the church to the world. Central to that effort is the relationships we cultivate with the people we live around — the people in our neighborhoods.

If ever there was a time to meet your neighbors or generate some goodwill, tonight is it. Give out the best candy. Be outside amid everyone else. Feel the freedom to ask people’s names if you don’t know them (After all, you can use the costume excuse to ask the name of someone you’re supposed to know). Be the neighbor you hope your neighborhood can become. You don’t have to love everything about Halloween. You don’t have to go over-the-top with any decorations. You don’t have to feel the pressure to staple a Bible verse to a Tootsie Roll before placing it in a kid’s “pumpkin bucket.” Simply extend genuine friendship to the people who live in your community.

mvstaff

Over the past few weeks, it’s been so good to hear the stories and meet the people who have been invited to our church by their neighbors. So many people are finding that the OUTSIDER’S GUIDE TO JESUS series has been a great entry point to Mariners MV. Perhaps, there are people in your neighborhood (people you’ll see tonight) who have felt like outsiders to the church and simply need an invite to a new community. Consider inviting them to join you this Sunday morning.

See you then,
Jeff

Families, Men, Mission Viejo, Women

A Note From Jeff

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MsgFromJeff

“In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace [shame] among the people.” Luke 1:25

Elizabeth says these words after many decades of shame. The Bible describes Elizabeth and her husband, Zechariah, as people who were righteous in every way. They had the right pedigree. Zechariah, a priest, served the people in a clearly righteous capacity. Yet, they had no kids. Different than our world today, people living in the first century in the Mediterranean, could not possibly understand how someone righteous couldn’t have any kids. Having kids marked God’s favor. The inability to have offspring marked God’s curse. Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous, old (also a sign of honor), but they were without kids. They had come to know this constant public shame as their “normal.”

But, what is normal anyway? For so many of us, normal is simply how we have come to expect things to be. Normal is the less-than-ideal way things are. Normal is what we have come to accept as the de facto condition of our lives. Normal is our way of explaining that, while we may have the experience of pain, suffering, or shame, it is somehow legitimized by the fact that it is always there. Normal can become (in its most insidious form) the condition of shame and despair we believe God intends for us to have.

This past weekend, we saw that God hears us and longs to grant us His favor and lift us from our shame. Clearly, we don’t always understand His timing, nor His means. But God, as we read from the Gospel of Luke, is unveiling His intention to enter into our shame with us. This weekend, we’ll continue in our series: THE OUTSIDERS GUIDE TO JESUS. It will be a great opportunity to invite people who have questions about Jesus, who are uncertain about the Bible, who are tired of their normal lives.

See you Sunday,
Jeff

P.S.: This weekend is PUMPKIN FEST. I’m told that, in addition to $5 pumpkins, there will be a giant slide, and a patio full of treats. Bring a friend.

Mission Viejo, Students

HSM Pumpkin Carving

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MVPumpkinCarving

All pumpkin, all the time. Bring a pumpkin, dress like a pumpkin, carve a pumpkin, bowl with a pumpkin – it’s a real pumpkin fest.

Entry Fee: One friend, bag of candy to share, pumpkin, or all three!

Purchase a pumpkin after morning church services (the Sunday before) and bring it with you!

Tuesday, October 29, 7-9p

Contact Hilary with questions.
Open to all high school students.

Mission Viejo

A Note From Jeff

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MsgFromJeff

The “Compass” is back! Over the past few weeks our communications team has been working feverishly to streamline all the ways in which Mariners’ information is conveyed. What that means for us: better web design, smoother communication, easier interaction, and the reintroduction of the hotly anticipated Compass note.

Last week, Doug Fields introduced us to the Gospel of Luke. Luke begins his gospel without fairy tale fluff or mythical fantasy. He talks about conveying to his benefactor with certainty the things that he has been taught about Jesus. In so many ways, Luke’s gospel is for us. It’s about regular people who weren’t eyewitnesses to Jesus, trying to understand if he really is who he says he is. That’s why this series, THE OUTSIDERS GUIDE TO JESUS, is such a great one to include friends who have “been taught” or who have heard things about Jesus, but aren’t yet fully convinced about him.

When people encounter Jesus, they find that he calls them to a life of adventure. And, while we really do like the idea of adventure, we’re a little scared off by that idea. To make the point, Doug gave us the image of three different kinds of bikes (Perhaps you remember that video of the father helping his kid to take his first bike ride).

For a lot of us, we choose a tricycle kind of faith where life is unmistakably safe. It’s a life filled with predictability with very little challenge to our present way of living. Others of us choose a “big girl/big boy bike” with training wheels. It’s the kind of faith where life is full of a lot more motion and activity. The training-wheels-faith has the illusion of being fully adventurous without any of the risks associated with adventure. But there was one more model: a real bike without training wheels. It’s the kind of faith requiring trust. It’s a faith that Jesus calls his people to choose. It’s a faith where there is more freedom and more danger than all the others. But, it’s the kind of life we were intended to have. It’s the life of fullness we have been seeking.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll encounter Jesus calling people to follow him. We’ll see the way in which Luke talks about God’s intention to “enflesh” Himself amid people who suffer shame and grief, pain and abandonment, and loneliness and isolation. Regardless of what people think about the Bible or whatever impression they’ve been given about God, it is very difficult to argue about the goodness of Jesus and His ministry in the world. I’m excited to continue in that journey with you this Sunday.

-Jeff

P.S. Don’t forget that October 27th is our 2nd Annual Pumpkin Patch here at Mariners MV (after each of the Sunday services). Plan on treats, games, $5 pumpkins, and making new connections. It’ll be a great time to invite your neighborhood friends to join us.