It is so good to be back home. It’s always good to be away. But, it’s great to be back.

As the Maguires spent the last 10 days in Texas with Amanda’s family (and the mosquitos… and the suffocating humidity), I spent time praying and dreaming about the future of the Mariners MV community. What kind of impact will we have in the surrounding neighborhoods? How many people will find repair for their troubled marriages? How many estranged friends will find reconciliation and forgiveness? How many people might be released from the power of addiction? How many people will discover a community overcoming the cynicism of the world with a vibrant hope in Jesus? My time away has given me such a powerful sense of optimism about the next season of life and ministry together.

I am so excited to be back teaching this weekend. We’ll get a tangible look at one of the most compelling pictures of the Kingdom of God. We will give people an opportunity to come forward to receive prayer for healing — emotional, psychological, physical, spiritual, relational. This is a weekend requiring the triumvirate virtues of courage, humility, and faith. Consider in your own life what might require healing. But, also consider the people in your life who are in need of healing. What might it look like to include them this Sunday at Mariners?

Then, after church we’ll celebrate together at our 39th annual Mariners MV beach day on Sunday afternoon at Doheny. What a great opportunity to bring, not only your own family, but also your friends and neighbors who are looking to find a way into the church. Let’s surf together. Let’s get a sunburn together. Let’s be clever, ambitious, and winsome about the ways we enfold people from our community into life of the church.

Grateful to be home,

Jeff

Each summer, my family and I take a trip to San Antonio, Texas. And, while there isn’t much to do in the ultra-humid, mind-numbing heat of Texas in July, there’s always eating Texas-style barbecue and swimming in the backyard pool. Today, Molly, my seven-year-old daughter, found the motherload of bubbles that were begging to be set aloft adjacent to the pool deck. Dylan, her older brother, discovered a virtual armory of water guns that resulted in a nearly unavoidable splash-battle. And my four-year-old son, Scotty, continued in his education on how to “surf” a boogie board from the side of the pool.

While looking at the pool, full of sun bleached rafts and foam noodles floating listlessly in the water, I was faced with the constant reminder of the subtle power of DRIFT. This past Sunday, we talked about how easy it is to drift from the life we were intended to live in a series of countless micro-decisions and tiny indulgent permissions leading us into the middle of the proverbial deep end. What is it that God might be reminding you of during this week that might be causing some drift? How might you resist it?

I can’t wait to be back together with all of you soon. I miss my MV family. Each Sunday, I’ve been meeting your friends — those you’ve been inviting to join us — who all say how welcome they’ve felt among our church body. They keep using the words “family” and “home” to describe us. There are so many great opportunities to include your friends and neighbors with you and your community over the next few weeks: baseball games and beach days to name a few.

See y’all real soon,

Jeff

It’s true what they say: “God doesn’t bring you half-way around the world to bring you back the same.”

In the past eight days, in Africa, we’ve laughed harder, prayed longer, shared more vulnerably, and gone deeper than we ever could’ve imagined. To see God at work through new friends and new relationships has been nothing less than remarkable. We’ve been able to see how God is beginning to move in massive reconciliation projects in Congo. We’ve seen a professional clown who turned his attention toward impoverished victims of cancer. We’ve heard from the head of Google-Africa and saw a vision for a rapidly industrialized Africa. To tell the stories and to show the pictures still couldn’t capture all of what we were able to experience God do here in Nairobi, Kenya.

I’m leaving for the airport as I write this – grateful for the experience here in Africa, and looking forward to a lengthy sleep on the plane where visions of IN-N-OUT hamburgers occupy my dreams.

– Jeff

It’s nearly ten o’clock in the evening, I’m writing this note from my hotel room in Nairobi, Kenya. Today, leaders from around the globe gathered to share in the experience of serving and leading together in a conference called the FEARLESS SUMMIT. We sang songs in languages we don’t speak. We danced awkwardly. We clapped concertedly, but conspicuously. And, we realized we’re a part of a global community. Every country, every worship style, and every language represented pointed to one thing: Jesus.

Today, I led a small breakout session about building and teaching messages that call people to live counter-culturally. I couldn’t help but to think about you. I thought about last Sunday. I recalled Joshua’s words to his people as he renewed their covenant with God: “Now then… throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” There is nothing more counter-cultural than to yield to Jesus and his call to love, to reconciliation, to forgiveness, and to humility.

You can continue to pray for our team as Mariners senior pastor, Kenton Beshore, will teach all the gathered leaders in tomorrow morning’s general session.

Looking forward to God’s continued work here in Nairobi and back home at Mariners Mission Viejo,

Jeff

A thrilling summer camp experience for kids, K-5th grade in the fall. Enjoy a week of games, fun surprises and live music. Contact Becky for more info or click here to register.

Mission Viejo and Ocean Hills 
July 8 – 12, 8:45a – 12:00p
Ocean Hills Campus, $55

Thank you for an amazing response to VBS.  There are still items needed.  Check out our website for updated list of things we still need!  Click here to see the list and donate.

Mariners Life Groups are crashing the party! Pregame tailgate – bring your dinner or plan a potluck with your Life Group. Snacks and giveaways begin at 5:30p under the Big A. Email with questions.

Friday, July 19
$20pp (tickets on sale on the patio this weekend after services)

Last Sunday, as we celebrated the beginning of summer with a boatload of pancakes, I got to thinking about this season. As people begin their “official” summer, plans start to unfold, the slow pace of summer seems to pick up. Kids have summer camps. Sports teams begin to start their summer workouts. We make travel plans and start worrying about the fall. We get a little over body-conscious about having to be at pool parties with our neighbors. In all of it we can lose the great gift that we hoped summer would be — rest.

As we looked at the story of Moses and the exodus out of Egypt last Sunday, we got a glimpse of the way our highly sophisticated and instantly gratified world can enfold us into its systems and ways of living. Perhaps, we connect most with the notion that the world’s success is predicated on our fear of stillness and resting. Maybe, the most revolutionary thing we could do in any worship service is the brief pause we give ourselves from all the things clamoring for our attention and energy. In our staff meeting this week we talked about how difficult it is to be still long enough to hear from God. As we all looked at our summer calendars, we were struck by the idea that rest is something we have to, somewhat ironically, fight for. There is so much to be done — great things God has called us to do: Our Uganda team will spend another week working on the front lines of poverty in HIV/AIDS relief with our partner church in the Ugandan countryside. I leave on Sunday afternoon with a Mariners team headed to Nairobi, Kenya. Our children’s ministry is looking forward to hosting our VBS (church day-camp) at the Ocean Hills campus. Junior High and High School ministry are thinking about their summer camps…

All of it is so good. And, very little of it is restful.

How will you carve out the time (which may already be committed to a number of really good things) to be with the ones you love, to connect with God who loves you, and to restore your own beleaguered soul this summer?

I look forward to seeing you this Sunday,

Jeff

Prepare lunches every Sunday during the 11a service in MCMV kitchen. Kids invited to decorate “Jesus Loves You” lunch bags! Questions?

Last weekend, in honoring dads on Father’s Day, we looked at the quintessential father-figure in the Bible: Abraham. What is so incredibly shocking to us isn’t that Abraham would even consider the sacrifice of his own son, Isaac on an altar, it’s that every one of us is all-too-willing to sacrifice the things God has entrusted to us on any number of other altars: career, need for attention, fear of being alone, unhealthy relationships, or addictions. It is on God’s altar, with our whole lives directed toward Him, that he provides. The god’s of all other altars make promises about providing, and all of them leave us empty, disappointed, and deceived. Father’s day was a beautiful picture of surrender and release; of prayer and vulnerability; worship and freedom — it was an opportunity to make courageous decisions about our own altars.

The true beauty of the church isn’t the bricks and mortar of its four walls (or in our case, five walls). It’s always expressed in the community of the people who follow Jesus. It’s in the community of people who, as the Bible describes them, are the “radiant bride of Christ…the church”. It has been such a great joy of mine to meet your invited friends each week — the ones who are finding their way into the church. They, like all of us, are looking for a group of people who are committed both to each other and to an authentic, uncomplicated relationship with God. The more we enfold people into our lives: acting and living as neighbors and friends together, the more our church community becomes attractive and unified. This next week will be a great week to invite a friend to join you as we continue in our “THE BIBLE” series.

NOTE: Be sure to come hungry for a pancake breakfast on the patio.

See you this Sunday at 9 and 11,

Jeff