It’s hot… Well, hotter than it has been. Right now, someone is scanning Pinterest for a home sunburn remedy likely involving “essential oils.” Sand has become the unwelcome stowaway in car backseats after this Sunday’s recent all church trip to the seaside. Working parents of elementary school aged kids are grappling with the every-morning jealousy of the their children. Because, despite what they know about the proverbial real world, they can’t help the feeling that they’ve been robbed of an entitled three month vacation.

No matter how we approach it, summer is upon us. I have to wonder, looking out at the next few weeks of my time with family (more camping), traveling (Today, I’m renewing my favorite love-hate relationship with Texas. It’s the place where every meal is like state fair faire. It’s remarkable how much can be served fried. People are friendly. Everything deemed truly astounding by someone necessitates that he or she says, “Man, thass aw-sum!” Any gathered group addressed in the second person is ALWAYS referred to as “y’all” — sometimes as “all y’all” for added emphasis. But, never is any group of people “you guys.” Everyday, is a miserable, stifling heat that Texans seem to wear as a sweaty badge of honor. Something, I’ll never fully understand.), visiting churches, and hearing from God about the future of Mariners MV.

A critical part of that future, is a Mariners Church without a central dividing wall in our worship center. On Monday, crews began their prep work. The picture below was taken from the stage, looking out, up the aisles. Clearly, some of you have now lost your favorite seats.

This “retrofit” as it’s technically called, signals the beginning of a new era for us as a church. I guess, in a lot of ways, it’s more of a recollection of who we have always intended to be. Mariners MV is a place for people longing for the power and connection of real relationships in the midst of a life often filled with struggle. It’s a place for people wrestling with the big questions of their purpose and significance. And, foremost, it’s a place where people can discover what a life with Jesus looks like — perhaps for the first time.

It is often in participating in our collective worship (sometimes merely observing it) where apprehensive outsiders and open-minded, curious skeptics discover something that couldn’t otherwise be expressed in words. The writer, Anne Lamont says it this way about her first experience in church:

“…And this time I stayed for the sermon, which I thought was ridiculous, like someone trying to convince me of the existence of extraterrestrials, but the last song was so raw and deep and pure that I could not escape. It was as if the people were singing between the notes, weeping and joyful at the same time, and I felt like their voices or something was rocking me in its bosom, holding me like a scared kid, and I opened up to that feeling — and it washed over me.”

Our divided worship center is something we can grow somewhat accustomed to. Remember what it was like when you first came into the room? Remember how you thought it was crazy? Then, slowly and almost imperceptibly, you discovered ways of making it fine — another idiosyncrasy that when repeatedly overlooked through the passage time, becomes mostly invisible. But, it undeniably interferes with the ability of people looking for an authentic experience in worship. And, it unknowingly divides us — those on the inside — from each other.

I’m grateful for a church so committed to seeing this project through to the end. While there is much work to be done, I can’t thank you enough for your generosity in this endeavor. If you’d like to join in this project and have not yet done so, visit our website, select “MV Impossible Project Campaign” from the drop down menu. Or, if you have more questions about the project, please contact Wendi Kato (wkato@marinerschurch.org) to receive a packet with more details. I’m overjoyed at all that God is doing in our midst. I’m grateful to be your pastor.

I’ll be seein’ all y’all real shortly,
Jeff

Everyday, the world promises to meet our needs, flooding us with messages. But with so much noise in the world, how can we really hear anything? In our new series, LISTEN, we’ll begin to distinguish the world’s voice from God’s so we can find out what it is we truly need.

during the weekend services
9 & 11a
directions and service info

“…We were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.”  – PSALM 126:1-2

God’s work is serious. The world is, at a minimum, difficult. But, over and again, throughout the biblical narrative, two things are being called upon repeatedly: one is gratefulness and the other is joy.

There’s no record of Jesus laughing in Scripture. The Gospel of John famously records that “Jesus wept.” But, there’s no corresponding, “Jesus laughed.” For some, this absence of a laughter-account evidently creates an assumption that Jesus longed for the perpetual somberness of His followers. But, I highly doubt it. The Psalmist writes about a hopeful anticipation of a future event — an event in which God rescues His people. Notice that the language is curiously written in the past-tense (an expression of faith): “Our mouths were filled with laughter.”

Play and laughter are a part of joy — even future joy. This Sunday after church, we’ll play together. We’ll head to the beach (Doheny State Beach, near lifeguard tower 12 at around 1p) for a Mariners beach day. The Maguire’s van will arrive at church packed with surfboards so we can hit the sand immediately after church is over. We’ll eat hot dogs likely to be unfortunately “gritted” with sand. We’ll build castles. We’ll play volleyball. Maybe, in the midst of teaching our kids how to throw a frisbee or brave the surf, we’ll become “like those who dreamed.”

We’ll continue in our LISTEN series this Sunday and then head out to the beach. Bring some money for parking and whatever you want/need at the beach. Look for the Mariners flag and a crowd of people who could probably use more sunscreen and “whose mouths [are] full of laughter.”

See you Sunday,

Jeff

Join our Homeless Ministry team as they care for the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of homeless population in Santa Ana. Come share in stories, dessert, and board games. Our desire is to create relationships, provide an opportunity to get to know Jesus, and take steps to get off the streets. For more info or to signup, contact Danielle at danielle.libring@railpros.com

Saturday, June 27, 5:45-7:30p, 818 E. 3rd Street, Santa Ana

…“Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

JOHN 14:8

If there is one thing I have come to realize upon recollection of my recent trip to Kenya and Uganda — it’s a universal and timeless thing — it’s that the world needs dads. Ten thousand miles away, people are in need of a father. Ten feet from my doorstep, people are in need of a father.

Dads matter.

We’ve become a fiercely independent world. We find our way without ever having to need fathers and father-figures. Our television sit-coms feature fathers that are little more than unnecessary and often troublesome appendages somewhat regrettably attached to a capable and occasionally condescending matriarch. As a society, we live in a dual world of needing to grow up and not really knowing how. Because, somewhere within us, we wonder if we’re really grown up enough at all. It’s a soul-seeking spiritual reality we long for. Whether our father could be painted into a Norman Rockwell lithograph or he left some big gaps in our need for a dad, the words of the disciple, Philip are equally potent: “…show us the Father.”

We all need that thing that father’s bestow upon their children — identity. We need it as men and as women. We need our own father to stare us in the face, standing close enough to us that we could feel the warm breath of his words, and we need to hear him say without hesitation, “I believe in you. You’re not on your own. I have always, and will always, love you.”

This Sunday, as we honor the best of our fathers, we’ll look to God, called “Father”, and continuing in our LISTEN series, we’ll tune our hearts to hear Him say, “[I] carried you, as a father carries his son.” It’s going to be a great Sunday. Bring anyone who is a dad, or, maybe even more so, is in need of a dad.

See you Sunday,

Jeff

Dads. They show us that being a man is more than just eating your body weight in bacon. They help us build forts and our confidence. When life knocks us around, they pick us up and dust us off. Dads love us unconditionally through the trophies and the tears. Join us as we celebrate the fathers in our lives.

MISSION VIEJO
Sun, June 21, 9 & 11a
after services

There is an oft-repeated question used among church leaders. It’s used at conferences and ministry gatherings. It’s intended to provoke people to action and spur pastors to greater vision. Some resist it. Some embrace it. But, few deny the truth within it. It has many forms, but this is its most common and most alarming one:

“If you and your church were to disappear off the face of the earth tomorrow, would anyone in the community around you notice you were gone?”

My answer to that question is unequivocally, yes!

If you’ve been around Mariners for any length of time, you’ll undoubtedly have heard us use the phrase: “in the community, for the community.” It’s part of who we are. We are a church committed to ensuring that the church isn’t only for the insiders and those who are “in the know.” We are a group of people focused on how the world might be influenced, changed, restored. We believe in serving without expecting any kind of quid pro quo — the joy of serving people alone is sufficient. We believe in following Jesus (as best as we can) in demonstrating love and self-sacrifice.

So, I say “yes” to that hypothetical question of our disappearance. Emphatically, I say yes. I say yes because of the countless volunteers I’ll never hear about. I say yes because of all the volunteers I do know about. I say yes because every so often, the church gets to put on display our intention to be unmistakably “for the community” on an epic scale.

This Sunday is SERVE DAY. After the 11a service, starting around 1p, we’ll head over to a local elementary school — one of the oldest in Mission Viejo (Cordillera) — a school with an optimistic and dedicated PTA and a great first-year principal with big vision. However, it’s school that has been run-down over the years. It’s in need of a refresh — a facelift. That’s where we step in — 1300+ strong. Last year, Serve Day shaped our church and changed the local community.

So come this Sunday in shorts and old shoes. We’ll provide you with lunch and a t-shirt. Show up, ready to serve. Let’s be “in the community for the community” together. Check out the video from last year to get a sense of what Serve Day is all about. Or, for a picture of the projects we’re tackling this year, take a look at the video conversation with the principal and some of her students. For several weeks a volunteer prep-team has already begun work on the school campus getting things ready for this Sunday. So, don’t miss it. Bring your kids. Bring your neighbors. Bring your neighbors’ kids. There’s something for everyone to do. We need you. Your community does, too.

Doug Fields will be speaking in our current series, LISTEN. I can’t wait to serve alongside you.

See you Sunday,

Jeff
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Join us for a beautification project and community celebration! We will spend the afternoon at Cordillera Elementary School building playgrounds, renovating a garden, installing a fence, painting handball courts, serving food, and more. For info and to register, click here.

Sun, Jun 14, 1p, Cordillera Elementary School, 25952 Cordillera Dr.

We’re looking for awesome volunteers who enjoy good coffee and serving others. If you’re interested, please contact Kim, kalexander@marinerschurch.org for more information.

3am: Roosters

In any other early pre-dawn circumstance, roosters making such an announcement of a new day would be met with fatigued, angry curses. But, I’m awake anyway. Wide awake. I’m awake in a timezone ten hours away. It’s late afternoon back home. But, despite all appearances to the contrary: monkeys roaming the trees like squirrels, impala and zebra grazing in the open green spaces, it’s really not a different world.

This is my second visit to the FEARLESS conference in Nairobi, Kenya. There are speakers and leaders from all over the world. I’m finding that the global church is in full bloom and God is at work in places and in ways I had never expected. And, I’m discovering something within me that may have been unknowingly destructive — something hidden in the subtlety of my language and thinking — that Africa is truly a different world. If Africa, like so many other places that are unfamiliar, or unknown, or even unwelcome, is a different world, it can be neatly categorized in a box labeled “not me.” The joys, triumphs, struggles, and dreams of people that live in the “not me” box don’t concern me.

Slowly, that kind of thinking — that particular kind of thinking that tends to grow and fester over time is eroded by the most familiar, often messiest, and most abundant resource available: relationships. To identify a personally known individual in any place (no matter how far away that place is), makes that place matter. Winter storms in Michigan or tornadoes in Oklahoma take on a different meaning when your relatives and friends live there. So, Kevin and Anthony, Agnes, and Muriithi, Winston, Miriam, Towella, and others I’ve come to know, make Kenya, no matter how distant, a place that isn’t a different world. It’s the place where my friends live…

…the roosters, too.

I’m excited for all that God is doing while I’m here in Africa. I can’t wait to see how it impacts what we’re doing at home in Southern California.

See you very soon,

Jeff