#wearecatalyst

I had a bit of a forced absence when my keyboard broke. The bad part of that, is that I was unable to write for over a week. The good part is that now that I have a new keyboard, and over a week to contemplate, what I am writing about is perhaps of more substance. I have been thinking about the difference between Biblical truth and church tradition. Sometimes, I know that people who call themselves followers of Jesus hold tight to church tradition as if it were biblical truth-most likely without holding that tradition up to the Bible to see if what is being taught is what is true. One of my strongest memories as a kid in church was of my dad preaching. He would often tell people not to take his word as gospel-but to actually go to the Bible and see what it said. There were times when I did this, and times when I didn't. Sometimes, I caught a Sunday school teacher in mis-information. Sometimes, I was put in my place. But I ALWAYS went to the Bible. It amazes me how many people think they know what the Bible says about topics (marriage, love, sex, dating, parenting, etc), soley on how Christians treat these topics. Our church is in the middle of series called Uncensored. This is the heart of that series. Lets not talk tradition, lets instead look to the truth-and see what the Bible says. I would encourage you that if you call yourself a Christian-one who follows Jesus-ask yourself if the life you live is a good example to those who do not know Jesus of who He is (and the way He told us to live). If you are not a Christian-for whatever reason-I would encourage you listen to this series. We would love to have you at Catalyst, but if you cannot make it you can also listen online at wearecatalyst.org. Take some time to hear what the Bible says. It may surprise you.

This last week has been a roller coaster for our family, personally. We have rejoiced with our children in their baptisms. Rejoiced with friends who have made the decision to be baptized. We have had great times with good friends. We had moments of quality time as a family. We have walked with a little buddy who was hurt. We got angry, hurt and were saddened at the news of an old friend's infidelity. We have been stressed by finances. We made new friends. We said good bye to friends. We laughed with our kids, and held them as they cried through nightmares. All this week. Our life is anything but boring. Some days we are excited, and are ready to take on the world. Other days our hearts are broken a bit more and we do our best to remember that this is God's. Our kids-are His. Our hearts-are His. Our future-is His. This church-is His. I do my daily bible reading on my phone. When you open the app it has a "verse of the day" before you get to your specified plan. Today's is one I memorized years ago and hold on to during weeks like this. "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." (Hebrews 10:23) When I started this blog, I promised to keep it real. That my desire was to remove any mystery that surrounds pastor's wives. So, here is my reality this week. We have had some really great highs. We have had some pretty rocky lows. In both-we remember who is in control. We hold unswervingly to the hope that we profess knowing that He is faithful.

This week we start our new campaign at Catalyst called 30/30/30. A couple months ago, we began talking about how God could use Catalyst to meet the city's needs, and who He was bringing to Catalyst that could partner with us. Over the past several weeks as we have processed and prayed over our city and our desire to be a church in this city that meets people where they are and lives together in authentic community, this campaign was born. The thought is that we have been praying and are continuing to pray that God brings 30 new people, and 30 new financial partners to Catalyst over the next 30 days. We are looking toward this next month with excitement and anticipation as we know that our God has already done great things through Catalyst and is bringing people to our church that also desire to live authentically with each other. How can you participate? If you live in the San Marcos area, or know someone who does and you do not already have a church home-come check us out. We do not want 30 people who are already involved in other churches. If you do not currently have a church home, if you aren't sure what you believe about God,or if you have been hurt by the church, we would love to have you. If you do not live in San Marcos, or if you do and you already have a church home, please consider partnering with us financially. You can make a recurring donation-or you can give a special gift on our webpage. Because the people we are asking to join Catalyst are mostly people who are not currently familiar with church or how churches become self sufficient, most of them do not give.. and we are ok with that for now. If you are interested in partnering with us, or in finding out more about what we are doing in our community-including our #sandiegofirerelief efforts, just visit our webpage at http://wearecatalyst.org/303030-3/. We would love for you to become part of the Catalyst story!