Daily we are summoned to court. A trial occurs in our head. We hear the voices of a prosecutor (the Hebrew word “Satan” means accuser) and witnesses that testify against us. We’ve got the right attorney or advocate – Jesus, who pleads our case before God. But still, we listen to the voices accusing us. The accusing voice says things like, “You’re not good or smart enough”, “You’re a failure”, “You’re not worthy”, “You’re hopeless”, “You’ll never get better”, “You’re trapped”, etc. These phrases replay over and over in our minds.

This internal critic, a voice of inner chatter and non-stop conversations, drives our reactions. It tries to govern our lives. It’s mostly negative and focused on ourselves, and appeals to our pride. It creates a constant low-grade crisis and at times creates an all-out crisis. It’s focused on the past (usually regrets and mistakes) and the future, but rarely on the present moment which is the only thing we can affect or control. It’s driven by unexamined urges and desires that are deep in our subconscious (see Jeremiah 17:9). It judges us and others. It taunts us. It is never satisfied. It compares you and me to others. It thrives on drama.

Here’s how it works: Something happens or happened to us. We have a thought or belief about it. That belief or voice may or may not be true or accurate. If the thought goes unexamined, then we’ll feel and act on it. To change how we respond, we have to change what we believe about what we are experiencing. You see, the Bible promises that we can renew our thinking, change the way we react and be transformed (Romans 12:2).

Our thoughts are just thoughts. They are not necessarily true or based on reality and they tend to be extraordinarily negative (one research said 70% of our thoughts are negative). Our thoughts exist only in our heads. They must be examined. The Bible says we are to guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23) and take every thought captive and let it be subject to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

We are not our every thought or feeling. We have to examine the lies that fuel our lives. How do we do that? We start by slowing down our minds and reflecting on what that “voice” is telling us. We identify the thought and then let the Word of God and the Holy Spirit judge it. If it is a lie, we have to consciously choose to reject it. When we get stuck (we all do, I have), we reach out to trusted friends or even professionals to help us objectively deal with the lies. There’s also an excellent book by Jennie Allen that might help called Get Out of Your Head.

In the end, you can’t stop all the negative thoughts from popping up in your head. They come from Satan himself and arise out of our mysterious subconscious. You can, however, control how you handle those thoughts. Join us this Sunday at all of our campuses as we address this issue and explore God’s invitation to us to renew our minds.

Glen Elliott

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Sunday I watched the Super Bowl. The Chief players and fans celebrated. The 49er fans suffered in their loss. I watched the camera show some of the 49ers players after the game. You could see in their faces and body language how painful the loss was.

Loss is a part of life we can’t avoid. The list of losses is unending. We experience the loss of those we love through death. Divorce is an ugly loss. Friendships and close relationships are lost through conflict, betrayal, and hurt. We can lose the love and respect of those who are important to us. We lose things like a career or a dream. We lose our health or physical and mental abilities. We lose money and possessions that were valuable to us. Losses are non-stop. With each loss there is pain and it is added to the previous pain.

With a loss that brings pain, we face a critical option. Will we engage the pain and grieve the loss, or choose to neglect the grieving process in order to avoid the pain? Some try the John Wayne approach and just push through the loss and pain and focus on other things to avoid grieving. Others find ways to mask the pain. We might do that through drugs, alcohol, porn, cutting, eating, spending, video games, workaholism, and more. These hide the pain for a while, but they can never remove the underlying cause of the pain, so it keeps coming back.

Eventually, if we don’t face the pain and grieve our losses, the fruit of dysfunction will cause even more damage to us and those we love. Our unresolved grief can manifest itself in so many ways: addictions, worry, fear, anger, depression, chronic complaining, relational isolation, or excessive control, as well as a host of emotional, health, and physical symptoms of ungrieved losses.

I’m learning from my own experience that our ungrieved losses are silent killers. Ungrieved losses continue to have a powerfully negative effect on us. We have to find a way to grieve our losses. 

Jesus openly grieved in a garden called Gethsemane (see Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-44). When you read the story you see that he is clearly in pain and sweat like drops of blood. Because he had foreknowledge, he could feel all the physical, emotional, and spiritual pain before it happened. So, what did he do? Ignore it? Hide it? Medicate it? Fight it? No, he cried out with deep emotion, begging God to take the current and impending pain away. Jesus was grieving! He faced and brought out what he was feeling inside. He faced his pain and brought it directly to God.

Jesus modeled how we grieve. We face the pain that’s inside and bring it to our outside world. We express the pain of loss in words. We express the emotion of the loss. We share the pain with God and with safe people who can listen and not judge or try to fix us. We join a group like GriefShare. We talk to a counselor (call our church office for a referral). The point? Don’t let ungrieved losses rob you of life. Don’t face the pain alone.

Glen Elliott

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As 2020 began, we started reading Luke in our Pantano Bible reading plan. I strongly urge you to use one (you can also find various in YouVersion). On January 6th I read the sixth chapter of Luke that said…

27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Jesus started this command by saying, “But to you who are listening.” I thought, even though I’ve read this so many times, I never really listened! I just read it and agreed this was one of those great teachings by Jesus. This time, however, Jesus was telling me to actually do what he said with a sincere heart. I needed to listen. It started me on a process of meditating on his instruction.

Jesus describes four types of people in this verse. He employed the Jewish form of poetry which is not rhyme or rhythm, but rather parallelism. The four types of people describe essentially the same person. The common denominator is that these are people who have hurt us.

I started by asking myself; “Who has hurt me?” I soon realized I had a lot of people who fit that category. This part of the meditation wasn’t fun. I made myself name their names and picture their faces and identify how they had hurt me. My modus operandi when people oppose me has been to just move on and not let it burden me. It’s worked pretty well, it seemed, until the words of Jesus made it clear that wasn’t an option. It was painful to bring back up the abuse I received. The list keeps growing.

Jesus said to love your enemies. So since January 6th, I’ve been choosing to love my enemies, for love is a choice. I’ve been trying to identify the very best that God wants for each person. As I have, my heart is being changed and the surprise is that I don’t see these folks as enemies anymore.

Next is the hardest one for me – do good to those who hate you. In almost every case, I have no connection to these folks anymore. So my prayer right now is to find ways to actually do good to them. I know God will open these doors.

Then Jesus said to bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Having identified the good I desire for each person, I’m now praying that God will bless each of those that hurt me. This too has been life-changing.

Some of your “enemies” may be too dangerous for you to engage. Be wise! But at the same time, listen to Jesus’ command. When you love, bless, pray for, and do good to those who have hurt you, you’ll allow God to change you. You’ll find freedom from the offense and freedom to love in a greater way.

Glen Elliott

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I got a box of assorted chocolates at Christmas time. I loved it. And yes, I’m not lost on Forrest Gump’s famous quote in the 1994 film – “My momma always said, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.’” So my blog this week will be about an assortment of things here at Pantano. You never know what you might find out!

Feed My Starving Children

Over the last 7 years, we packed just over 2.1 million nutritious meals which are shipped all over the world to provide a healthy balanced diet for children in need. We’ve fed a lot of hungry stomachs! Way to go, Pantano!

Elisa Medina – Hands of Hope

If you missed the powerful message Elisa Medina gave at Pantano, be sure to watch her online at https://pantano.church/watch/. Yes, she talked about abortion, but she did so in such a compassionate and unique way. Her personal stories are amazing. No matter what you think about abortion, her message is worth watching. Thank you, Elisa, for your heart for Jesus that’s greater than the cause to which you’ve given your life.

Invitations

We start a new five-week teaching series this Sunday (January 26) at both physical campuses and online. We are calling it Invitations. Following Jesus is actually a series of invitations. Each invitation from Jesus is meant to help take us deeper in our relationship with God. Here are some of the invitations we’ll be looking at in this series: an invitation to follow; an invitation to encounter God; an invitation to experience freedom God has for us as we let go of our guilt, shame, and regret; an invitation to change the way we think; and an invitation to abide or to be ‘in Christ’. If we’ll say “yes” to each of these invitations, we’ll move closer to God, find greater meaning in life, and grow to be more like Jesus. And there’s one more invitation; this Sunday (Jan. 26th), we’ll have an opportunity for folks to say “yes” to Jesus and express their commitment in baptism.

Movement Day – Addressing Poverty in Tucson

Tucson ranks as one of the poorest metro areas in the United States. This doesn’t have to be this way. 4Tucson is hosting Movement Day where the church in Tucson will gather to address the root causes of poverty and find ways to make a lasting sustainable change in our city. Join us this Saturday (Jan. 25th) starting at 8:30 am at La Paloma Resort (3800 E. Sunrise Dr. 85718). To register go to https://www.4tucson.com/movement%20day/.

All In Partner

If you haven’t done so yet, please make a commitment to be an All In Partner. Cards are available at both campuses or you can “sign” digitally online at https://mypantano.church/allin

Glen Elliott

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Happy New Year! 2020 is here. Many have noticed an interesting twist to the year 2020 and it’s the idea that our new year parallels the idea of 20/20 vision. If you have 20/20 vision then you have a normal visual acuity, clarity, and sharpness of sight. I have 20/20 vision… when I’m wearing my glasses!

We want to help you start 2020 with a clear vision for what God wants for you. We want to help you focus on what God wants for you in this new year. So, we started a new series last Sunday called One. If you missed it, you can watch here.

There is power in the idea of one – focusing on one thing. Somehow, what’s important tends to get lost in the “many”. A person can get lost in a crowd. A great idea can be drowned out among many distracting thoughts. A good intention can be weakened in the midst of too many good resolutions. The idea and power of one is focus, and in a world of ever-increasing noise and distractions, we need to recapture the power of one and focus on what is truly important.

Last Sunday, in case you missed it, we looked at how we can focus on one change God wants to bring into our lives in 2020. And while New Year’s resolutions are good, we know they are not as effective as focusing on one thing for a whole year. As we begin 2020, ask this question: What does God want you to focus on in 2020? Then prayerfully pick ONE WORD that represents the change God wants you to experience. It should be more than a good change. It should be a God change. It should be more than a good word. It should be a word from God.

When we focus on one word, our mind and heart are more open to how God is at work in ways we might have otherwise missed. Once we choose one word and intentionally focus on it, then we see more of the ways God wants us to embrace that word or the idea that word carries. One word is a powerful way to focus our thinking. Focused thinking and praying rewires our brain as we cooperate with God to experience real transformation. A better 2020 is possible…with God and with a focus.

Here’s the digital link (https://mypantano.church/oneword) so that you can access the One Word card download and a social media graphic. Share your one word on social media using #oneword. The site also has the basic steps to discover your one word for 2020.

God’s Word has the power to change us. I encourage you to find and even memorize a verse that goes along with your one word. As we begin a new year, I also strongly encourage you to engage in regular Bible reading. When we are consistently in God’s Word, it gives God a much greater influence in our daily lives. There are lots of plans available. Download the YouVersion Bible app which has numerous plans. We have a Pantano Bible reading plan that is one chapter a day for five days a week. Go to https://pantano.church/biblereadingplan/ and you can subscribe to get the daily reading delivered to you. We also have printed bookmarks at Guest Services at both campuses.

Glen Elliott

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December Nights 2019 Recap

We had an amazing four nights celebrating Christmas and families during our December Nights. Because we don’t charge admission (the event is free), we have no way to know the exact number of people who attended, but here’s what we do know: 

• 3250 cookies were decorated and eaten.
• 3601 craft kits were taken. 
• 4289 cups of hot cocoa were consumed.
• 1440 sang Christmas carols on our hayrides. We were sold out!
• 477 families took a family photo.
• And a million snowballs were thrown!

Thank you to our staff and the many volunteers who are essential to make this gift to our community happen every year. Thank you to all who donated the items we were able to give away. I am so grateful for our generous giving church. You are awesome!

Christmas Eve Services

Next up is our Christmas Eve services. Remember we have five identical services at 11 AM, 1 PM, 3 PM, 5 PM AND 7 PM. Given our past experience, the 11 AM and 7 PM services will likely be the least crowded. We have childcare for ages birth to 5 years old. If you are out of town, you can watch them at pantano.online.

Sunday, December 29th Services Online

You can’t imagine how hard our staff works the month before Christmas. It starts with the work and planning going into Serve Our City day. Then we are thick into decorating the East Campus, hosting December nights (4 days, 2 weekends) and putting on five amazing Christmas Eve services (with all the planning, setup, and rehearsals). The hours are long. So in the past, we’ve given our staff the week off between Christmas and New Year’s. However, it wasn’t really a full break, because there is always a Sunday in between Christmas and New Year’s! Having perfected our online campus experience, we decided this year to have our services solely online!

This year, Sunday, December 29th at 9 AM, 11 AM, AND 1 PM – we’ll provide our services online only. There will be no services on our physical campuses at Pantano East (1755 S. Houghton Rd) or Pantano Southeast (Empire High School). We’ll have worship, a message, and we’ll guide you to partake of communion wherever you are. We’ll also have a link for a children’s specific experience (they will need to watch on a separate device).

So on Sunday, December 29th at 9 AM, 11 AM or 1 PM – join us online for “Church at Home” at pantano.online. We’ll also be passing out reminder cards with this information at our Christmas Eve services.

Remember – there are no services on December 29th on our physical campuses! Online only.

My wife and I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and may you be filled with the presence of Jesus this season. Immanuel – God IS with us!

Glen Elliott

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Thanksgiving and Black Friday have passed. It’s Christmas time! Here’s a bit of what Christmas looks like here at Pantano:

Christmas Teaching Series

The Christmas series for all of our campuses is called Unexpected: The Story of Christmas. The story of Christmas found in the gospel is unexpected. God had been silent for 400 years. The people of God felt forgotten and yet, in the quiet, dark countryside, God remembered and came to them. But it wasn’t what they expected. He came in the form of a baby; not to the king or powerful leaders, but to the lowly, the poor, the young and the old. We’ll look at five people’s response to their unexpected encounter with God as the original Christmas story unfolded. In this series, we’ll see how God showed up in unexpected places and ways – then and now.

December Nights

We’ve decorated Pantano East and we’re ready for December Nights. This public family event happens Friday and Saturday nights from 6-9 PM on December 6th, 7th, 13th, and 14th. The event is free!

Here’s what you’ll be able to enjoy and experience at December Nights: The Road to Bethlehem, an amazing winter wonderland (my favorite), cookie decorating, family portraits, crafts, horse-drawn hayrides and carols ($6 per person), bingo, campfires and marshmallows, hot chocolate, live music and more.

You can go online at christmasatpantano.com to sign up for and purchase hayride tickets, donate some of the items we give away or sign up to serve.

Christmas Eve Candlelight Services

This year we’ll have 5 Christmas Eve services on Tuesday, December 24th at 11 AM, 1, 3, 5, and 7 PM.  Each service is an identical family-friendly one-hour service. We do have childcare for kids birth to five years old if that would be helpful to you.

Pantano Southeast will be joining us at the East Campus this year, so we added the 11 AM service to make room for all. If you can, please consider attending the 11 AM service to make room at each of our services.

For more details about the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, check out ChristmasAtPantano.com. If you will be out of town or unable to join us, you can watch each service online at pantano.online. I hope to see you there!

Over the years, many folks have ended up being a part of our church after experiencing our December Nights or Christmas Eve services. Use these opportunities to invite folks who normally won’t step onto a church property. Who might you invite to join you this Christmas?

Glen Elliott

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Pantano is a non-denominational church. We do not have, nor are we part of any larger denominational organization. But we are not without leadership, guidance, and oversight. Our church is overseen by a group of godly Elders. While you don’t often see them “up front” or on the stage, they are very invested, involved, and are serving in our church. The Bible gives clear qualifications and the roles for elders who oversee the church. These can be found in these scriptures: 1Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:6-9; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Acts 20:28.

We currently have nine Elders, including me as the Lead Pastor. You can see the Elder’s names and pictures in the “About” section of our website at https://pantano.church/about/. Our Elders serve in 3-year terms after they have first completed a one year “probationary” term.

Potential Elders are considered after we have observed their life, their family, their service in the church, and most important of all, their character. This decision of who will serve as an Elder is never made quickly and is taken with utmost prayer, investigation, and consideration. The process of observing, selecting, preparing and affirming an Elder will actually take several years before one can be fully on-boarded.

Kerwin Dewberry is our newest Elder. He was recently affirmed by our current Eldership per our Bylaws. Kerwin completed a 29-question application (the same application we use for anyone asking to be ordained to ministry). Then, having passed two interviews and after his references were checked, he was invited to participate in a one-year elder preparation process. This development process included observing Elder’s meetings, studying the role and work of an Elder, and doing a deeper dive into our church’s values, beliefs, and organization. After a year of preparation, Kerwin was affirmed by the existing Elders who have been engaged and involved in his life.

Here’s how the Elders lead our church: They don’t get stuck in the details of the daily operation of the church. Rather, they “oversee” our church to ensure it is being faithful to Jesus and the Bible and moving toward our agreed vision and mission according to our values.

Let me be more specific. I realize not everyone wants to know these details, but I think it is important for you to know how our Elder Board is leading our church. The Elders lead by giving the Lead Pastor clear written guidelines in advance so that he knows where and how he can lead the staff and church, rather than react and approve. They give him the freedom to lead within those boundaries and hold him accountable for that. The Elders are a think tank for the vision and mission of our church. For example: the Lead Pastor creates a strategic plan or budget or develops programs and the Board evaluates them in terms of our vision and mission and makes sure that everything aligns with scripture. The Board is intentional in governing itself, which means it defines and enforces what is expected of members. The Board has one employee – the Lead Pastor. They support, hire, evaluate, terminate, and protect the Lead Pastor.

Almost two-thirds of a typical Elder meeting is spent sharing about the church and our lives as Elders as well as praying for each other and the church. The heart and focus of our Elders is to ensure that I, the Lead Pastor, am doing well and leading well so that our church is healthy and fulfilling the will of Jesus. I want you to know how blessed we are to have such a healthy, godly, and caring Eldership. A healthy Eldership results in a healthy church…every time!

Glen Elliott

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Like most of us, I love the Christmas season. But it’s a bit more challenging to get into the Christmas spirit when it’s sunny, dry, and 75 degrees outside for most of December! And the fact is there really isn’t much to do in Tucson that is uniquely Christmas. There’s Winterhaven! There’s going to the mall to look at decorations! But that’s about it!

That’s why I’m so grateful for our staff and volunteers who decorate our campus so we can create a bit of winter for an amazing Christmas celebration. We even have a winter wonderland with snow and snowballs. We call it December Nights. It is a gift to both our church and our community.

December Nights happens on Friday and Saturday nights from 6-9 PM on December 6, 7, 13, 14. The event is free!

Here’s what you’ll be able to enjoy and experience at December Nights…

• The Road to Bethlehem
• An amazing winter wonderland (my favorite)
• Cookie decorating
• Family portraits
• Crafts
• Horse-drawn hayrides and carols ($6 per person)
• Bingo
• Campfires and marshmallows
• Hot chocolate
• Live music

You can go online at christmasatpantano.com to sign up for and purchase hayride tickets, donate some of the items we give away or sign up to serve.

This Sunday we’ll have invite cards available for you to take and give to others. This is one of the very best ways to invite people to join you and come to our campus. Over the years, many folks have ended up being a part of our church after experiencing a December Nights event. It’s our chance to welcome and serve folks who normally won’t step onto a church property. Who might you invite?

Glen Elliott

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It’s common for folks to use #Blessed on social media to express something good that has happened or something good that they got. It is a way for folks to celebrate something good while trying to be modest about it. But, that is not how Jesus used the word. Before I get to that, what does “blessed” mean? From the original language, it can be translated as “happy” or “fortunate.” It means having favor with God, being fully satisfied and doing well. What’s clear from the entire Bible, from the beginning (Genesis 1:22) to the end (Revelation 22:7), God wants us to experience his blessings and live in a state of blessing. God wants us to be content, satisfied, and happy.

Depending on the church you grew up in, you might have missed that God actually wants you to be happy. The churches I grew up in emphasized that Jesus had no place to lay his head (Matthew 8:20), owned nothing and that we were to die to ourselves and take up our crosses (Matthew 16:24). That is all true. But there was no place for happiness in our faith. For too many years I believed that God was the cosmic killjoy. All I ever heard taught was that we were to sacrifice, suffer, and be somber in all things. I was taught that wanting to be happy was just another way to describe being uber selfish. It’s no wonder that so many people don’t want to have anything to do with church people who refuse to be happy.

Our faith is built on good news (also called the Gospel). The Bible is overwhelmingly clear – God wants to bless us. That means he will give us what we need to live in that condition of happiness. Of course, that requires that we have to trust him and follow his ways to find and live in that blessed state. Now that doesn’t mean that God will remove every challenge or difficulty. We can be blessed and happy even in trials – Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him (James 1:12).

This past Sunday I reminded our church what Jesus said as recorded in Acts 20:35 – it is more blessed to give than receive. Jesus turns the #Blessed posts upside down. Being happy is not found in getting good things, but in giving good things. Generosity is the real path to satisfaction. God wants us to be really happy and we find it in being generous.

God wants you to be happy. He’s given us the path. Learn to give generously. Give an abundance of good words to others. You can’t be unhappy when you are blessing others with your words. Give generously out of your money and possessions. You can’t be unhappy when you meet the needs of others directly or through your church or a non-profit. You can’t be unhappy when you give of your time, effort and service to make a difference for others. You can test that out by joining us in Serving Our City on November 17th. Never stop giving thanks and gratitude to God and others for how he has blessed us, sometimes even in the midst of hard times. You can’t be unhappy while being grateful. 

Glen Elliott

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There was a lot of social media stir last week about diminishing comments made by a nationally-known pastor toward the preacher and author Beth Moore (See comments and audio here). The role that women can assume in church is a live ongoing debate. At Pantano, we have women pastors and women who teach on our teaching team. How did we come to this decision and practice? We look to the Bible for our answers. But even as we do, there are honest disagreements over what the Bible permits and forbids relating to women in ministry.

The elders (I am also an elder) of Pantano spent several months back in 2016-17 studying key scriptures relating to the role of women in ministry. In humility and without a predetermined goal, we sought to both understand the biblical teaching on this matter and then how to apply to our church. I can’t report all the findings and discussions in this short blog, but here’s a summary of what we discerned. Remember that whole books have been written on this subject, so I’m doing an extremely truncated summary here.

God’s revelation in the Bible is clear that we are to affirm the value and dignity of all humans – men and women equally. And while men and women are created for unique roles, they are equal before God. We believe that God’s salvation is offered equally to both men and women (Genesis 1:27; Galatians 3:28). We believe that the Holy Spirit gifts and empowers both genders for ministry. All gifts are given to both genders by the will of the Holy Spirit. We believe God calls both men and women equally to serve, lead and minister in and through His church (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12). 

The elders concluded that women at Pantano may minister, serve, lead and teach in any and all ministry positions, contexts and roles except one; that of elder. The reason for this conclusion was that we could not find a teaching or example in the New Testament that allowed for that type of role. However, women may be ordained, serve as pastors, perform pastoral ministry, teach in groups of mixed genders of any size or location, lead departments or programs of the church, etc. We found clear biblical evidence, examples and permission for women to lead, teach and serve in all areas but that of elder. 

The crux of the discussion on the role of women focuses on just three passages of Paul. There’s a principle we used to guide us to understand these texts. To accurately understand an instruction or command of the Bible we have to look at its context and there are two key contexts to observe: 1) the cultural or situational context; and 2) the context of example and teaching of the whole Bible.

I’ll briefly look at each of the three scriptures in their cultural context asking this question for each – Were these universal commands and instructions for all churches, in all cultures in all ages or; were they addressing a specific issue in the church at that time? For example; five times we are commanded to greet one another with a holy kiss (see 1 Corinthians 16:20). We don’t do this (and other commands like hair coverings). Are we flat out disobeying the Bible? Or was this practice part of a particular culture in that time? If it was cultural, is there a truth or principle it was trying to convey that we may apply in a way that matches our culture? In my view, we are to greet each other in a warm, sincere way but not necessarily via a kiss as that is foreign in our culture. Let’s look at the three texts that some use to forbid woman teaching:

1 Corinthians 11:2-16 – The primary issues here are head covering (clearly a cultural issue), husband/wife relationships and propriety in worship. The elders of Pantano in their study learned that the idea of what “head” means is open to various interpretations. Scholars interpret “head” in the text as: 1) honor, 2) authority, or 3) source. However, this scripture is not primarily about the role of women in church ministry but it is primarily about appropriate worship and the proper relationship of a husband and wife in that culture and situation in the first century. Some refer to this scripture as proof of a timeless principle of male leadership in all areas requiring women to be in a subordinate role. Others see it as Paul addressing a situational problem. That appears to be the case in Corinth. Keep reading.

1 Corinthians 14:33-35 – The context has to do with tongues, prophecy, and order in worship. We know from 1 Corinthians 11:5 that women did, with permission and honor, prophesy and speak in worship in the Corinthian church. To assume a literal and universal ban on women speaking would contradict what was permitted in Corinth (women prophesying) as well as so many other scriptures and examples in the New Testament (see below). It is reasonable that Paul’s instruction was to correct a specific problem, not a universal ban on women speaking. The women in Corinth may have been publicly contradicting their husbands, disrupting the service with chattering, constantly asking questions that were causing an interruption, or trying to flaunt social conventions of that day. Because of the disruption, Paul commands them to have discussions at home with their husbands which would solve the problem the church was facing. It is also possible that some women were either disputing the prophecy, were interrupting with their prophecy or asking questions that were interrupting the prophecy of the males. These women may have also been trying to flaunt their newfound freedom in the church. We see this in the next passage. Keep reading.

1 Timothy 2:9-15 – The interpretations of this passage include: 1) All women (at any time, any church, any culture) cannot teach or have authority in the church. Thus she cannot have any position of leadership over nor teach men in any context. 2) The teaching and authority that women were excluded from was that of apostolic teaching and authority that eventually the New Testament was built upon, but not all teaching options. 3) The prohibition addresses a particular situation in Ephesus where women of the church were seeking authority to domineer and control. So, they are instructed to learn in quietness and submission. This also follows instructions about how to dress modestly in worship. The connection may refer to a group historically known as “new Roman women” who were aggressive, confrontational, sexually provocative, identified by their extravagant and immodest dress, and who despised marriage and childbearing while wanting to subjugate men. They were the radical feminists of the day, all of which seems to be addressed by Paul in the fuller context of 1 Timothy 2:9-15. That would explain Paul’s comment about women and childbirth in this passage.

Beyond these three texts, we find clear evidence that God used men and women in leadership and teaching in the church. Here are a few of the many examples:

• “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…” This prophecy was fulfilled with the birth of the church in Acts 2 (Acts 2:17-21).
•  Philip had four daughters who were prophets – Acts 21:9

• Junia was either recognized as an apostle or recognized by the apostles as a missionary (Romans 16:7)
• Priscilla was a teacher and co-worker of Paul (Acts 18:26; Romans 16:3; 1 Corinthians 16:19).
• Phoebe was a patron and deaconess (Romans 16:1-2)

There are many more examples, but it is clear that women had key leadership and speaking roles in the church. If you have questions or concerns, please speak to me. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this. 

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There’s a statement and truth Jesus made that actually answers so many of my questions about life and what it means to follow Jesus. It provides an answer to my many worries. It’s an antidote to my pride. It’s a check on my temptation to be religious. It arrests my tendency to compare myself with others. It sets my limits on my need to be in charge. It gives freedom and so much more. It’s a statement Jesus made in Matthew 11:28-30 – 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

What a picture! Like two animals yoked together, Jesus invites us to take his yoke and join him side by side. Together, any challenge or hardship goes so much easier. Being yoked to Jesus is a check on my pride because I can’t run ahead of him. Being yoked to Jesus means I also can’t lag behind as he helps pull the weight of whatever I’m carrying. He leads me to the right place at the right pace.

I don’t have to worry if I’m good enough. That is a worry that we all face. Regularly we all ask: Am I a good enough spouse, parent, friend, employee, student, boss, athlete, man or woman or whatever. When we are yoked to Jesus we don’t have to focus on whether we are good enough or not because Jesus is enough. We just have to trust him and walk in step with him. Wow, that takes the complication out of what it means to follow Jesus! Being yoked to Jesus is more than enough.

But the key is that I have to take off whatever yoke I’ve been attached to and let it go. It could be the yoke of performance. It could be the yoke of appearance. It could be the yoke of fear. Whatever name you give your yoke, at the core it’s a trust and dependence on ourselves. Our yoke that burdens us is in some way a yoke about self. That’s also called pride that results in self-reliance. It will wear us out and tear us down by its weight that we feel we have to carry by ourselves. But we don’t just stop at taking off the yoke of pride, we take on the yoke of Jesus. It’s easy. It’s light. It gives us rest.

I spoke with a woman this week who left a powerful group that put a religious yoke on her. It was a yoke that said she had to be perfect. It told her she had to work harder, do more, give more and be better to be okay and acceptable to God and to that religious community. It presented God as anyone but gentle and understanding. And it wore her out.

One day, she discovered that Jesus is enough. That awareness is so simple. It is so profound. Jesus is enough. Get linked to him. Walk with him. He’s gentle. He won’t push us faster or harder than we can bear. He’s humble. He’ll use all his resources to help us on our spiritual journey. The result is that we’ll find rest for our souls.

So ask this question – Am I finding rest for my soul? Religion is a heavy, tiring burden. Jesus is gentle and he helps ease the burden and weight of trying to be enough on our own. Take the invitation of Jesus – take his yoke upon yourself and see how the journey leads to a rested soul.

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I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. That’s rare for me. I’m tired. I have some people asking for help that I can’t help the way I wish I could. There are some challenges I’m facing that easily discourage me. They weigh on me. But, I’m not alone. Everyone one of us has battles. Most of those battles are actually inside us. Our battles are not primarily with others or against situations. The real battles form out of what we think and what we believe. We look at Facebook or Instagram posts and compare ourselves to others and think we fall short. Our overeating, addiction to porn, or whatever ultimately comes out of what we think and believe. What’s your battle right now?

The great Apostle Paul knew all about spiritual battles first hand. He writes about it in 2 Corinthians 10:1-6. He starts by saying: For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds (NIV).

We are in a spiritual kind of war. So, we have to use the weapons that will help us win our spiritual battles. We have divine power to break down the strong temptations or lies in our head that want to destroy us. That’s one reason why we are in our Engage teaching series on Sundays. In prayer, we engage the divine power of God to do what only God can do. We must never think we can, on our own, defeat the trickery, lies, and power of the evil one. We need divine power. In prayer, we engage the God of the universe who is all-knowing, wise, trustworthy, and who will always act for us and not against us. So ask for help. Pray bold prayers seeking God’s intervention.

The only real power our enemy has over us is the power of the lie. So Paul says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” We have to challenge the things we think and believe, as they are the root cause of our battles. Does God form our thoughts, or do they come from another source? The evil one wants us to buy his lies about ourselves, about this world, about God, and just about everything. The lies abound! Here’s just a few: “You can’t trust people!” “This is just a private sin that won’t hurt anyone!” “This sin isn’t as bad as…” “I don’t need to be in a small group; I can grow spiritually on my own.” “I have to do what feels right and authentic for me.” “I can never forgive ____.” “God can never use someone like me.” The lies are endless.

The lies we believe are often the root or foundation of the struggles we face and the trouble we get ourselves into. We fight the lies with God’s wisdom and truth that can and will demolish the damage the evil one wants to inflict. That was the very process I engaged this morning. I had to “take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.”

What battle are you fighting right now? What weapons are you using to win your battle? Engage God. Let God’s true words about you or the situation carry the day. Take captive every thought that is not of God and not aligned with the Bible and let God demolish the lie so you can find victory in the battle for your mind and your thoughts.

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I wanted to share a great blog by my friend and fellow pastor, John Beeson, who is the Co-Senior Pastor at New Life Bible Fellowship here in Tucson. The blog is called The Bee Hive – subscribe here. John, in a very creative way, describes the culture we have worked to create here at Pantano for years! The following is an excellent reminder for all of us:

“We’ve got just enough time. Let’s go!” My wife and I had run an errand on our day off and had a dentist appointment in 45 minutes. If we didn’t get caught in traffic, we would just be able to get home, brush, floss, swish some Listerine, and then head to our afternoon dentist appointment. Why? Because in our world, you don’t show up to a dentist appointment without your teeth in their best condition.

Two days later, I drop my car off at the shop. It has a strange squeak that has me nervous. I haven’t so much as popped the hood. The car isn’t washed, and a fine powder of crumbs dusts the backseat.

When I go to the dentist, I go hoping that I will get a good report. I don’t want any cavities, and I hope not to be scolded that I don’t floss enough. I have a strange desire to receive the dentist’s approval.

When I go to the car shop, I go messy. I go honest. I hope that they hear the squeak I keep hearing. I don’t know anything about cars, and I hope that the mechanic can fix the problem. I know I sure can’t.

How do I go to church? Like I go to the dentist’s office or like I go to the car shop? Do we clean ourselves up, or do we come messy?

Too many of us go to church like we go to the dentist’s office. We put on a smile we don’t actually feel. We try to avoid conversation, but if we have to have a conversation, we make sure it is as surface-level as possible. We are afraid the mess that is just below the surface is going to start leaking out.

Friends, let’s go to church like we go to the car shop. Don’t put on your best face when you walk into your connection group this week. Don’t let your “Sunday best” cover up the truth of where your heart is.

God has given us his family so that they might rejoice with us in our happiest moments and also so that they might grieve with us in our lowest moments. He has given us his family so that they might speak wisdom and hope and grace into our lives. God has given us a family so that we might receive comfort and exhortation.

Over fifty times in the Bible, we are commanded to live in a particular way with “one another.” About fifteen times, we are told to love one another, another five times we are told to encourage or build one another up. We are told to accept one another (Romans 15:7), to “carry each other’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). We are told to confess our sins to each other and pray for one another (James 5:16). Friends, we can’t do any of these things truly if we treat church like the dentist’s office.

Do you want to experience love, encouragement, forgiveness, and acceptance at church? Stop flossing your teeth. Step into Christ’s family auto-shop with humble transparency and look forward to the gift of true, messy community.

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New Series – Engage

Sunday we started a new series called Engage. Sunday was the first day our two campuses (East and Southeast) taught the same series and message! In this series, we want to go deeper and further in our desire and ability to engage with God. The focus is on prayer, but prayer is the means to actually engage with God.

Why We Pray

There was a part of my teaching where I had asked why we pray. I suggested that the best “Why?” is simply to engage God. What if you and I prayed not to influence God but have God influence us and our circumstances? That is one of the most significant reasons to pray and experience God. That’s what “praying continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) is about – asking God to influence our thinking, our attitude, our actions and responses, our conversations and words, and our decisions all throughout our day. If you missed the message this weekend, you can watch it On Demand or on our website.

30 Day Prayer Challenge

Also, I want to encourage you to sign up for our 30-day prayer challenge. Each day we’ll send you a prayer reminder that fits the theme of the message each week. The reminder is to help us all be more aware and intentional to pray during this series to deepen, expand and increase our prayer lives. On your phone, text “Praying” to 31996 to get your daily reminder.

Nothing Else

We ended our service Sunday with a song titled Nothing Else by Cody Carnes. I’m copying some of the words here to help us continue to reflect…

I’m caught up in Your presence
I just want to sit here at Your feet
I’m caught up in this holy moment
I never want to leave

Oh, I’m not here for blessings
Jesus, You don’t owe me anything
More than anything that You can do
I just want You

I’m sorry when I’ve just gone through the motions
I’m sorry when I just sang another song
Take me back to where we started
I open up my heart to You

I’m sorry when I’ve come with my agenda
I’m sorry when I forgot that You’re enough
Take me back to where we started
I open up my heart to You

Nothing else, nothing else
Nothing else will do
I just want You

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In case you missed the announcement I made on Sunday, September 22nd, here’s the news. You can also watch the announcement video here. I’m excited to announce that Revolution Church is joining Pantano Christian Church and will become the next campus of Pantano as one church in multiple locations. In other words, Pantano is becoming multisite!

This journey has been born out of a ten-year relationship of trust between myself and Pastor Josh Reich. God has been at work to bring together two churches with a shared vision and values to have a greater kingdom impact. Having had a parallel purpose and a common mission, we believe that we will more effectively bring the love of Jesus to our city by multiplying healthy, life-giving churches and campuses. We believe Revolution and Pantano are better together.

This is such a natural and good union. Revolution’s vision has been to impact our city by planting a church within 10 minutes of anyone in the city. Two of Pantano’s key purposes is to reach people not connected to God or a church and also plant healthy life-giving churches. Over a year ago the leadership of Pantano decided to become a multisite church or one church in multiple locations. When Josh learned of this and after a season of prayer, he initiated the idea of Revolution joining Pantano. As Revolution joins Pantano, it is our hope that we can accomplish more, go further and faster and more effectively.

Revolution brings so much to this shared mission. Revolution is a mature, healthy church that has experience in doing portable/mobile church over the last eleven years. We don’t think of this as Revolution going away or being swallowed up by a big church. Revolution sees this as the next step toward greater impact and Pantano welcomes the leadership and richness Revolution brings to Pantano.

Here are a few more details. Also, check out our information page – click here.

• Revolution becomes Pantano Southeast (meeting at Empire High School – 8 miles and 15 minutes south of our current building – map) officially on Sunday 9/29. All campuses will have live in-person teaching and live worship along with groups, children’s and student’s ministry.
• All of the Revolution staff will become Pantano staff on September 29th, 2019. At the same time Revolution “legally” becomes Pantano and the sermon series and messages will align. Additional changes (branding, names, signs, website, technology updates, etc.) are being made and the transition will be complete and celebrated on January 5, 2020.
• Josh is the Campus Pastor of Pantano Southeast leading his same team.
• All campuses are overseen by one Pantano eldership and directed by the executive leadership currently at Pantano.

I’m asking and challenging anyone who can or will to consider checking out the new campus. Maybe you are ready to serve! Maybe this campus is closer and makes it easier to invite your neighbors. Maybe you like a smaller venue. Or maybe God is calling you to make a move without having to leave Pantano!

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In my message Sunday I addressed the question – “Is Jesus really the only way to God and eternal life?” This is a question in a culture that has embraced complete tolerance and rejects exclusive claims by any religion or faith. More and more folks embrace religious pluralism which claims all religious paths are equal, valid and there is no one true faith.

This is often supported by a Hindu parable that describes a group of blind men who encounter an elephant. One touches the trunk and compares it to a snake. Another touches the leg and describes it as a tree trunk. One grabs hold of the tail and says it is a rope…and so on. The point of the parable is that each religion touches, feels or sees only a part of a very big god (small g intentional). The point is that all religions have a partial understanding of God and all are valid in their limited understanding. That’s the spiritual elephant in the room.

What I like about the parable is that it does point to the fact that all humans and all religions will be limited in what we can understand about God. In fact, the Jewish and Christian faith teach that a human cannot fully grasp all there is to God (Romans 11:33-36; 1 Corinthians 13:12). While God can be known, there is also a mystery to him.

But the parable of the elephant falls short. It suggests there is no ultimate right or wrong, and that every person has a part of the truth. The fact is we are not totally blind. We can see that we are touching an elephant! Following the teaching of Muhammad is not the same as following the way of Jesus. They are very different and exclusive of each other. Pure Buddhism is in fact atheist in that there is no god; and that is mutually exclusive of our faith in one true God. In Judaism, you and I, as Christians, are excluded from the covenant made only with the chosen tribes of Israel. I could unpack how Hinduism and most world religions have no parallel with our Christian faith.

The other point of the Hindu elephant parable is that we should be kind, respectful, and in fact, love those who hold different beliefs. That’s what Jesus taught – “love your enemies and those who persecute you.” That’s what Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15. When someone asks questions or even attacks our faith, we are to be ready to give an answer with “gentleness and respect.” We shouldn’t accept or even respect a belief we believe to be false, but we respect the person who holds that belief! And, we go further and even love the person with whom we disagree.

There is truth. If there is truth, then there must be untruth. There is right, which means there is wrong. What is true and not true is to be discovered in this world. We live in a spiritual world that is exclusive.

The way of Jesus is an exclusive way as Jesus declared in John 14:6 – “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is God. He came from God. He best knows who God is and how to get to him. Because he’s God he knows the truth. Jesus is the only way to God or back to God. Stating that truth is not mean, bigotted or based in hate (like many claim of us who believe this). It’s the truth and in sincere love we want all to know the truth because it has eternal consequences.

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Yes, I know the word “amazing” is overused, but I don’t have a better word to describe two amazing things that are part of Pantano. These two things make a huge difference in lives; in people they were designed to serve both in our city and in our church.

Serve our City

I’m so excited to announce that we are going to be doing Serve Our City again this year. Here’s how it works: on Sunday, November 17th, we’ll forego having regular services in our auditorium and do service in our city. Instead of gathering to worship, we’ll scatter to share the love of Jesus throughout our community. Put the date on your calendar and watch for more information on how you can sign up a bit later. We’ll have lots of serving opportunities for you as an individual, as a family or as a small group. There will be various kinds of service projects from which you’ll be able to choose. This day will be an amazing day for our city.

Our New Student Union

We had an incredible open house on Sunday as a couple thousand of us got to see the inside of the new Student Union for the first time. And this Sunday (8/25), our students will have their first full service in their new facility! Two Sundays ago, we had 305 students on campus, and it was standing room only in their old digs. This past Sunday, we had 381 – 76 more than the previous Sunday. I’m pretty sure our students will be inviting even more of their friends to join them. We couldn’t wait any longer to open and use this high tech, highly interactive environment that’s perfect for students.

I’ve been at Pantano 21 years, and in doing that math, that means I’ve been here for over 1,000 Sundays. I’ve had some great Sundays at Pantano, but this celebration of our students and the open house was my favorite Sunday of them all. Why? It was so fun to watch everyone as they got their first look at the inside of the Student Union. It was fantastic. Folks were smiling, grateful, and excited for the amazing experience this building will provide students. I was so jazzed to see the unified love and commitment for our students from those of us who call Pantano home. I love that we are a church that so values our children, students, and young people. Thank you, Pantano!

Thank you to all who helped make this possible! However, we still need to finish paying off the construction loan. It will take about $2.3 million to free us from this debt. I’m praying we can do this quickly so we can free up funds in our regular budget for more ministry and service to the people at our church, in our city and around the world. If you haven’t given or can give in addition to previous gifts, please prayerfully consider a generous one-time or regular donation in addition to your regular giving. To pay down the loan, we’ll need everyone sacrificing something. You can give on our mobile app, or online, with a check or cash, stock, or property. Just designate your gift to Room for More. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Let’s truly finish this project!

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We began our new series I Got Questions by looking at the conflict between science and faith in God. My challenge Sunday was to choose both faith in God and science. Scientists who have only trusted or have faith in science, need to be honest and admit that science is limited. It can’t answer all the questions as our human intellect and wisdom has limits. Those who have faith in the Bible also have to admit that the Bible was not written to answer all our questions about the natural world. Both have something significant to offer.

Pastor Andy Stanley has it right when he reminds us that the Bible is not a science book, and science isn’t the Bible. They both have a place in helping us understand ourselves, this world and the supernatural world.

Here are some of the limitations of science. The theory of evolution (note it is a theory) has very little evidence that shows consistent slow transitional forms in fossil records. If evolution was the complete explanation of how animals and man came to be, then we should have a ton more evidence of animals that evolved over time. The fact is the evidence shows that we have more fossil records of animals that appeared all at once and were fully formed. The honesty is that there are holes in the evolutionary theory. Scientific evolution doesn’t give a compelling explanation of how life began!

Evolution can’t answer how cognitive development happens. How did we learn to think, speak, and create as we do? A question that some honest scientists ask is this: Can they trust their ability to know the truth (including there is no God) if human minds developed from lower animals?

Science tends to believe that our world is a closed system and that nothing can ever occur out of the normal laws of that system (Newtonian physics). But that doesn’t mean that God, who is bigger than and outside of our system, can’t intervene on occasion and do things differently. Scientists have been discovering that our world is not as regular and predictable as we once believed. Hence the rise of quantum mechanics and more.

I believe that God created the laws of nature or physics. They make life work. They also help us see when there is a miracle or an exception to the standard way of life. When the natural order is disturbed, it points us to a God who is intervening into our world. God wants life to be regular and consistent because that is what is good for us. I’m grateful that every day, the law of gravity consistently works. But at times, God chooses to break in and uniquely alter things to remind us that he is God. I love how John said it in John 20:30-31 – Jesus performed many other signs [miracles] in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. The miracles were signs pointing us to the fact that Jesus was not just a man but God himself who entered our life and world. Science gives us enormous understanding that makes for a richer and better life. But Jesus is the one who actually gives us life.

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This week we start a new teaching series called I Got Questions. We’ll be looking at five of the more common questions that skeptics ask and that sometimes causes those who follow Jesus to question the validity of their faith. It’s my hope that this series will help both those who are skeptical and those who embrace faith in God to gain understanding and insight.

If you know someone who’s asking these kind of questions, invite them to join you. Here’s the questions we’ll be responding to: 1) Hasn’t science disproved faith? 2) Isn’t the Bible a man-made book of myths that’s full of errors, untrustworthy and irrelevant to the modern world? 3) Aren’t Christians arrogant, narrow-minded bigots suggesting there’s only one true God and only one way to God? 4) How can God be all powerful and good if he allows such evil and suffering? and 5) Jesus might have been a good man, but how can he be God?

The challenge is that there is so much to cover each week that just won’t fit into our allotted 35 minutes of teaching. So, each week, in our teaching notes, we’ll be adding resources you can use to go further in your understanding. We’ll suggest books, videos, classes and blogs that might be helpful. Here are a few to start with…

Blogs

Each Wednesday after the Sunday message, the teacher will use this blog to address the topic they presented. These blogs will take the subject deeper or contain additional material we couldn’t cover in the message.

RightNow Media

If you haven’t done so already, join RightNow Media. This is a free digital resource (available via computer, smart phone, smart TV, Roku, etc.) that gives you access to thousands of videos about almost any subject. There are great Bible studies, teachings on marriage, parenting, leadership, discipleship and personal growth. There are videos for kids, for your small group, and even for the holidays. Check it out. It’s free at https://mypantano.church/rightnowmedia.

Once you sign up, go to the “Apologetics” library for a wealth of resources where you can go deeper with the subjects we are addressing in this series. One resource that is helpful for our first teaching on the conflict of science and faith is the video The Search for Meaning – Science and God with Oz Guinness.

Arm Your Faith

Travis Swart will lead a class on apologetics. It’s an online class that lasts 10 weeks and starts September 3rd. Sign up here – pantano.church/ArmYourFaith

Our faith is reasonable and rational, and in humility, we welcome and want to engage in questions. We also want to be able to share with others how compelling and reasonable our faith is. Don’t miss this series, and consider inviting someone new to join you.

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This Sunday we are finishing our Intervention teaching series. Thank you for the great feedback. The content seems to have been helpful for many. The focus of this series has been on how we allow God to intervene in our lives in order to find freedom from our issues, hurts, hang-ups, repetitive sins, and addictions.

There’s an aspect to this that we were not able to speak about, but is so important to understand; to find freedom, we need God to intervene. And, he does intervene. Getting “unstuck” and changing sometimes happens quickly, even instantaneously. But most often, change is slow. And it’s that slow change that’s can feel like torture. We want to be free and we want it now!

This takes me to a profound passage in Hebrews 12:1-4: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Verse 4 is the kicker to me. Yes, we struggle against sin, but we have not had the intense struggle that Jesus faced on the cross. Jesus endured the slow, agonizing death on a cross! I think we forget that death on a cross was not just a form on capital punishment; the cross was also an instrument of torture. A person on a cross died slowly. Crucifixion was a combination of asphyxiation, loss of blood, intense pain, organ failure and more. A person could stay alive on a cross for as long as three days if allowed. The Roman soldiers broke the legs of the criminals next to Jesus so they could speed up their death and have it finished before the Sabbath.

The cross was a slow torture. So maybe that’s why Jesus used that image when he said; “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23)”. Following Jesus is a journey that means we do struggle, and it’s a struggle that doesn’t go away quickly or easily. Finding freedom and inviting God’s intervention in our lives is not without pain and struggle. To be free we also have to deny what we want, surrender to Jesus and the way of Jesus and endure hard aspects of real change.

The underlying message in both of these verses I’ve shared is the challenge to endure! Hang in there with Jesus as we struggle against sin. Don’t give up. Keep on keeping on. Run with perseverance.

Now, back to Hebrews 12; did you notice a small but significant statement in verse 2? How did Jesus endure the cross? It was the “joy set before him.” The struggle on the cross was excruciating. But the result? Pure joy! It lead to something so good for all humans. And our struggle against sin will also eventually lead us to freedom and joy… if we don’t give up.

There’s lots of significant and important things coming to Pantano as our children go back to school and our monsoons finally arrive. Take a look…

Global Leadership Summit – August 8 & 9

This event brings insight from the best leaders from around the world to challenge us to have greater influence. I describe it like a fire hose of information, insight and inspiration. You don’t want to miss it. I’ve not missed one for the last 14 years – it’s that good! For more info and to register, click here.

I Got Questions Teaching Series – Starts August 11

We live in a world that is extremely skeptical and often hostile to faith. We often get peppered with questions about the origin of the world, the truth of the Bible and the reasonableness of faith. Those hostile to faith declare that faith is irrational, irrelevant, narrow, outdated and foolish. Their questions often raise questions for us and in us. Do we have confident answers to the questions of the skeptic? This 5-week series will help us share how believable, reasonable and compelling our faith is.

Student Union Open House – August 18

Sunday, August 18th we’ll be celebrating the opening of our new Student Union! Our students will be participating in our regular adult worship and we’ll end a bit early so everyone can tour the new building and enjoy some Eegee’s.

High School, Middle School and 4th & 5th Grade Sunday Moves

On Sunday, August 25th, our Middle School and High School students will meet in the new Student Union at 9 and 11am. Our 4th and 5th grade group will move from KidZone to where the students used to meet – now called Zone45, on September 1st. Parents of our middle and high school students can park in the west guest parking lot near the student union.

Fight Night Marriage Event – Sept 6, 6:00 – 8:30 PM

Join us for a fun event filled with humor, fresh insight, and new strategies for your marriage. Fight Night is about conflict in marriage and focuses on how to fight fair. This is for everyone – newlyweds, “oldyweds,” seriously dating, and engaged couples. Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott will share with us via video why we fight with the one we love the most and how to fight a good fight. We’ve created this to be like a relaxed “date night” that will provide great information and tools to improve your marriage. We’ll have small group material to follow up on the event.

Early bird cost: $10 per person – deadline August 12. Regular price: $15 per person.

Price includes coffee, tea and dessert. Children ages 3rd-5th grade will enjoy a “Kids Night Out” with fun activities, games, and a kid-friendly movie. Childcare is available for kids under age 3. The cost is $6 per child and dinner is included for all kids. Click here to register.

Women’s Retreat Getaway – September 13-15 

The theme of the retreat is I am a Daughter of The Most High King. Women of all ages are welcome. Register here or contact Christina Fisch at 907.360.1415 if you have questions. The price of $235/Person covers the following (payment is due in full by August 17):

• Two nights (2 per room) accommodation at the Lodge on the Desert
• Four meals (two breakfasts & two dinners)

Pantano has so many great opportunities coming up.  Please consider getting involved in one or more!

The primary way that the devil tries to tempt us, trick us and trap us is though lies (see John 8:44). He wants us to believe lies about ourselves, others, our life, about God, about what’s good or fair and more. Our best defense against this is truth. Lies have the power to hurt us, and we need to know the truth and use it to destroy that power. That’s why Paul wrote this in 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV) – We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. We use the truth to evaluate every thought and take captive every lie.

I went through a two-year season where I listened to the devil’s lies about me. The core consistent message I heard was that I wasn’t a good enough leader or pastor for our church. I was stuck listening to the lies repeated in my head, so I sought help from a Christian counselor. He helped me realize I was listening to lies and then directed me to reconnect with God’s truth. After looking carefully at the scriptures and embracing God’s truth again, I was able to resist the devil and his lies and find freedom. He then encouraged me to take the scriptures and put them into a letter as if God were writing them to me. I shared part of that letter in last Sunday’s message. Here’s the full letter:

Dear Glen;

I have called you to be faithful not successful. You are not responsible for kingdom success. In the end, it is I who will be the one to evaluate and judge your work and My judgments are just (1 Corinthians 4:1-5).

Your competence comes from me. I delight in using you to accomplish My purposes. Allow Me to make you competent to be the pastor and leader I need to boldly advance the revolution of the kingdom (2 Corinthians 3:4, 5). As a carefully crafted piece of art, I will continue to make you into someone who will fulfill My purposes. I am preparing you for good works (Ephesians 2:10). Trust Me in this and fully show up.

Your focus is to first be deeply rooted (abide, remain) in Jesus. That is the only path to producing lasting spiritual kingdom fruit. I want you to produce much fruit, but only as you stay rooted in My love, truth, and power (John 15:4, 5).

So, refuse to listen to the harsh critical voices of condemnation, whether internal or external (2 Corinthians 10:5). Those voices are not My voice. I do not condemn My own children (Romans 8:1; Isaiah 50:7-9). Trust Me to help you faithfully show up with holy boldness, doing what I have called you to do without self-doubt. Cast off anything that weighs you down as you run the race I have set for you (Hebrews 12:1).

I have not asked you to do the work of ministry alone (Philippians 2:12, 13 – the “you” is plural). Trust Me to make you competent and invite others to help you carry the load. Depend on Me and collaborate with others. True collaboration is a part of your faithful service. And finally, don’t rely on yourself to make it all happen. Rather, make it a priority to invest in and equip others to do the work of the kingdom (Ephesians 4:11-13).

What are the lies to which you are listening that are damaging or ruining you? May I encourage you to re-engage with God and his truth to take those lies captive? Join us this Sunday, July 21st, as we look at how to resist the devil. I’ll also be inviting people to make the commitment to follow Jesus in baptism. You won’t want to miss this Sunday.

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Every January, for the last five years, I’ve encouraged our congregation to prayerfully adopt a One Word to focus for the entire year. This replaces the well-intended New Year’s resolutions that are usually forgotten by the end of January! If you are new to Pantano since the beginning of this year, you can watch the message from January 6th that explains the One Word idea. The basic idea is to ask God to guide you to one word that you would focus on for the year. Your one word could represent a goal, or a character quality you want to develop or grow, an attitude you want to be more prominent, or even something you want to stop doing.

It was just six months ago that many of us sought God and discovered the one word in which we would focus. So, how’s it going with your 2019 one word? Maybe you forgot about it. That happens and that’s why I’m writing about it – to remind us! You still have six months to give that One Word real attention.

Maybe you haven’t forgotten, but find yourself a little stuck. This has happened to me in the past also. Well, this is a reminder to reconnect with God about your one word. Ask him to help you get unstuck and take your journey deeper or further than you have over the last few months.

The value of this one word idea is that we keep asking God to reveal new or deeper ways to embrace or live out our one word. Don’t be discouraged, but use the reminder as a way to get back into the conversation about your one word with God. Remember, this is a year-long journey. We want to use our one word to connect with God in order to seek growth and transformation.

My one word for 2019 is the word “present.” I’ve been trying to focus more on the folks around me at the moment. I’ve tried to listen more and be more attentive to what’s being said and not being said. To better connect with people, I’ve tried to notice how people are feeling using their non-verbal cues. I’ve had some success, but I still miss too many opportunities. So, I took my focus in a different direction last month; I took some time to be alone (I did a short road trip and went camping and hiking) to be more present with God. I’m looking forward to seeing where God will take me as I continue to focus on this word in the second half of the year.

I’m a part of a wonderful life group. I hope you are part of a group of folks that you share life with. Our group shares our one word with each other at the beginning of the year. Then we review it with each other a couple times during the year. If you are a part of a group, I highly recommend this. It’s not too late to start! Or, find a good friend that you can share your one word. Or, you might think about giving an update through your favorite form of social media. The point is this – keep it alive!

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One of the crazy things we struggle with in our modern world is to what extent should we intervene in the lives of others? There are too many folks who seem to stick their noses into other people’s business who have no right to do so. Then there’s the polar opposite where folks should intervene, but fail to do anything.

I was watching a news clip this past week that showed two men attacking a guy in a New York City subway. They started hitting him, and when he fell down, both guys started stomping on his head. It was brutal. Someone was taking a video of the event. Two people stood a couple of feet away watching the whole attack. It hit me that at least three people were recording or watching, and no one helped the man being attacked. There are times when we are in trouble, and we need someone to intervene.

Many of us have had friends, family members, neighbors, or co-workers who were in trouble. Maybe they made some bad decisions about a relationship, about money, or about how to manage their pain and hurt. Their bad choices led them to a place of real danger causing more suffering and harm. Someone needed to intervene to help them change course and direction. Interventions are hard because so often the person hurting is blind about their addiction or bad choices, or are in denial that they have a problem. When we try to intervene and help, we are often pushed away.

The fact is, we all need an intervention. We all need God to intervene and save us from the power of sin that wants to destroy us. We are all sinners. We all live in a world where we are surrounded by the temptations of sin and can’t escape sin’s power. We all have issues, bad habits, hang up, addictions, and hurts that cause us to do things we hate doing. The sin in and around us also keeps us from doing what we know we should do. There are times we wonder if we’ll ever change. Can we change? The answer is yes, but only with God’s intervention.

This Sunday, we’ll start a new series called Intervention. Are you ready for a change? Have you been stuck in something that you want to stop? Is there something you know you need to start doing that should be a consistent part of your life? Is your past continuing to sabotage your present? Do you have an addiction? Often we are blind or in denial about the stuff in us which traps us. Sometimes we need an intervention to help us recognize what’s enslaving us so we can find freedom. God is always ready to intervene to help free us from our captivity. God has shown us the way to freedom. In one way or another, we all need God’s intervention in our lives. Join us in July for this incredible series of hope. Invite others who also need an intervention by God.

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Sometimes someone will win or pay extra for a backstage tour to see the artists up close and see how things work behind the scenes. There is so much that goes on at Pantano that the average person doesn’t see. Here are a few important things that happen out of sight.

Baptisms

As I write, we’ve have had a record 425 baptisms in the last eleven months. We want to make sure each person understands the commitment they are making. For many of the people, we’ve had in-depth conversations before the day they are baptized. For those moved by the Spirit on the day of the invitation, we have conversations backstage before a person makes their profession of faith and is baptized; that’s why we have changed our schedule to allow more time between the invitation and the actual baptisms at the end of the service. We follow up with each person baptized to encourage them to continue the discipleship process. Also, we offer a regular class for parents and their children to learn about baptism so the parents can determine when their child is ready to make that decision.

Teaching Team

We work hard to present a quality message each week. We want our messages to be relevant, engaging, biblical and applicable. The teacher has to do a lot of work to accomplish this, but none of our teachers do this alone. We use a teaching team to help in this process. The team reviews the message and gives feedback to the teacher three times in the two weeks before it is delivered, and one of those is after live teaching on Thursday. And the teacher also gets feedback from the team on the Tuesday after they deliver the message. That’s a lot of great feedback. We have populated the teaching team with a diverse group of folks who can give feedback from a number of perspectives. There are both staff and non-staff, male and female, younger and older, and feeling and thinking members on the teaching team. All of us on the teaching team feel like we are better teachers because of the great feedback and evaluation.

Curriculum for Children

Did you know our children’s ministry team has begun to write the curriculum we use on Sundays? By writing our own, we can personalize it to our unique community and the needs of the kids and our families.

A Warning

I hate to have to add this, but it seems a group of thieves are fraudulently sending out emails in my name with an email address that seems close to my real email but is not my actual email address. So far, they have been posing as me asking for gift cards for cancer patients. If you get an email asking for something like this, and you have any doubts, check with me directly or through the office. I’ll never ask you to provide help in this manner. I’ve just discovered that two more of my pastor friends have been used this way too. Our IT department is working on this, but please use caution and be careful!

I’m grateful for all the behind-the-scenes teamwork that makes ministry at Pantano happen!

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I like to use a lot of abbreviations. One of my favorites is MAD which is short for Making A Difference. That is part of our mission – Loving people to Jesus, launching passionate people to make a difference. I believe we are saved not just from hell but saved to make a difference in this life, too.

Thanks to the generosity of our church, we helped fund an evangelism and discipleship school in Ecuador. God is doing incredible things through our partnership with Compassion and the local church Plenitud de Dios. Here’s some of what’s happening…

Background

In this community, many families are broken and hurting. Families are in conflict, abuse is common, and alcoholism and drug abuse is evident in many young people and parents. Teaching the gospel is important, as the community typically practices idolatry. Additionally, families are in need of hygiene training to promote health and reduce the spread of disease.

Achieving Positive Outcomes

Our partnership with a church in Ecuador has created two centers to conduct a program for parents of children in the Compassion program. Over 700 people have been affected by our generosity, and many more will continue to be educated in the future.

The discipleship school has implemented 3 main programs. First, they have hosted events for the parents of children in the center, such as a couples dinner, parents retreat, and other community-centered events. Workshops have included teaching on topics like health, abortion, family, violence, God’s purpose for marriage and family, and vocational skills. Second, the staff members at the center have been monitoring and evaluating the families in their development. Finally, the center staff has been discipling, giving spiritual guidance and sharing the good news of Jesus with the parents.

The gospel has changed this community. Many parents have accepted Christ and have been baptized. Parents are taking a more active role in raising their children to know Jesus. The church community is growing and becoming more known in the area, and the church staff is committed to continuing to disciple and guide these new believers.

Thank You

The Compassion project in Ecuador recently wrote us these words: “We are so grateful for your support of parents and children in Ecuador. Join us in celebrating what God has done to provide for the practical needs of this community, and most of all celebrating the ways that he has drawn them to a saving relationship with Jesus. Thank you for your partnership, and may God bless the ministry of Pantano Christian Church!”

This week, our high school team leaves for Ecuador to continue to support and engage in our partnership in Ecuador. Check out more about our Empower Ecuador project.

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This year, we are hosting our 11th Global Leadership Summit (GLS). Over the last 10 years, I’ve learned so much from the GLS and applied so much of what I learned in my own life and leadership as well as how we do things here at Pantano. I think it was 2011 when I was at one of my lowest points in leadership and there was a particular Summit talk that ended up helping me develop my life motto – “Faithfulness, not success!” The GLS is powerful, inspirational, practical and always has something that I take away and use. You don’t want to miss the 2019 Global Leadership Summit. The theme this year is “Everyone has influence.” Join over 400,000 people who want to do better with their influence at home, at work, at church, or in the community.

We host the GLS for three main reasons:

• It makes it as easy as possible for many people and staff to participate.
• As a host church, we can offer you the lowest price possible, which is a bargain for the quality of speakers we get to hear.
• We want to better equip leaders from other churches, non-profits, the social sector, and the business world.

Everyone has influence! Everyone can improve how they influence! More importantly, God has commissioned us to bring his kingdom influence to our world. So, come sharpen your skills with us. Sign up now for the rock-bottom price.

Here are the details:

Date and Time: Thursday, August 8 & Friday, August 9, 8:30 AM – 4 PM (both days)

Locations:

Pantano Christian Church – 1755 S Houghton Rd, Tucson, AZ

Desert Hills Lutheran Church – 2150 S Camino del Sol, Green Valley, AZ

Price: The Pantano rate is $89 until 6/25 (9:59 pm), then $119 thereafter. You’ll need a discount code to get this price. We can’t give this code out to the general public, so it will be posted before and after services or you can call the church office at 520.298.5395 and ask for the code.

The PARTNER rate through 4Tucson, or our other GLS Partners, is $109 until 6/25 (9:59 pm), then $139 thereafter.

Student/Faculty/Active Duty Military pricing is $89 (with no cutoff dates.)

Registration Link: Pantano GLS Registration Link

Check out the speaker lineup link here. See you at the Summit!

 

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I just did a memorial or celebration of life service on Friday for an 11-month old that died from a rare kidney disease. He died one day before his scheduled transplant. What can I say to that grieving mom and dad and family? There are no words of comfort.

There is rarely a week when I don’t hear about a heartache, a tragedy, about suffering and pain. It might be a scary medical diagnosis. It might be a financial setback. It might be an accident. It might be the breakup of a marriage. It might be a student who took their life. I’m telling you, they come to me with such frequency that find myself having to fight the temptation to just go numb. I pray and my heart breaks, but I’m left with the age-old question that we all ask: “Why?” It was the question Job and Moses asked of God. It’s the question I asked God about my mom getting Multiple Sclerosis.

I think I came to begin to understand this better while we lived in Ukraine. You see, Ukraine has no natural boundaries (mountains, rivers, oceans, etc.). For thousands of years in their history, they have been conquered, beaten down and suffered at the hands of enemy after enemy. In more recent history Stalin manufactured a famine that killed over 10 million Ukrainians. Nazi Germany walked right over them. Recently the Russians walked in and took the Crimea away. They’ve known suffering for centuries as a people.

It was living with them that taught me that there is meaning and purpose in suffering. I had known it in my head as an intellectual idea. But they showed me how suffering deepened their faith and their relationship with God. With a deepened faith and connection to God, their character was powerfully formed to be more like Jesus. That’s what I want. But I don’t want it at the price of the pain. You see, the thing we hate is often the thing we most need. It’s one of those many spiritual paradoxes.

I came across a statement Randy Alcorn made. It offers huge wisdom in helping us understand the meaning and purpose of pain. He said; “There’s no nearness to God without dependence on God. And nothing makes us more dependent on Him than when the bottom drops out.” Being near to God is of far greater value than any struggle we face. It is in the struggle that we are most likely to do draw near to him. That’s what he wants. That’s what we need.

Of course, Paul said it the best in Romans 5:3-5 – Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

The thing we hate the most…is often the thing we need the most.

This past Sunday, I introduced our new series: This Is Pantano. We looked at the first value that we hold as people of Pantano – What matters most is loving people to Jesus. I made a strong case that it is God’s will that because all people have value and matter to him, we have to love all people, even the messed up, misinformed and misguided folks, no matter how difficult they are. However, there’s a fuller picture to love. How are we to love those who abuse us? How are we to love those who pose a real danger to us and those we love?

Back in 2017, I did a whole series called Peopling that addresses this. If you missed it or need a refresher, you can watch the four-part series on our message page and go to previous messages or click here. The idea is that the Bible teaches there are three basic kinds of people. The Bible labels them as Wise, Fool, and Evil. Each kind of person requires that we respond in a way that matches who they are. There is no “one size fits all” way to engage and love people.

There are some people who outright reject God and the truth, and are intent on hurting us. They are called evil. Their only intent is to hurt you. There are some people who refuse to deal with truth and reality. They are called fools. In their denial of truth and reality, they blame you, others and circumstances for the trouble they are in. They are selfish, self-centered, and won’t take responsibility for their actions. They refuse to listen. Then there are the wise who want to know the truth and listen to the truth and allow God’s wisdom to transform how they live. In the Peopling series, we saw how the book of Proverbs (for example, see Proverbs 9:6-9; 4:14-16; 18:2; 19:19; 27:12) describes and gives us wisdom on how to respond to each type.

The point of the Peopling series is that you can love a wise and healthy person by seeking to serve them, engage with them, be kind, etc. This was what I was focusing on this last Sunday. When you genuinely try to love and give grace to a “fool,” you’ll discover that they continue in their negative or hurtful ways. Your “normal” kind of love doesn’t help. In fact, it might actually enable them to hurt you and others more. That’s when love has to change.

My simple definition of love is to seek the best for someone. The way you do that with a fool is to set “boundaries.” You want to love them, but they make it almost impossible to love them in the “normal” ways. Boundaries are the best way we can LOVE them. Boundaries define what will be accepted or not and gives consequences for their behavior. They will only change for their own good and for the good of others when it costs them enough to change. What’s best for a fool (that’s love) is often not what they want – that’s why the Bible calls them a fool. Some call this tough love.

Finally, there are evil people and the Bible tells us to avoid them. An evil person has one focus and purpose – to hurt and destroy you. Evil people abuse and injure people. You can’t help or serve an evil person. All you can do is confront them (which only makes them more hurtful) and then pray for them. We praying for what’s best for them. Then, forgive them. We forgive them more for ourselves (they don’t care). We let go of our hurt in forgiveness. You can’t be friends with them because they will only use that to hurt, abuse and damage you more. With an “evil” person you lock the door, defriend them on social media, get a gun or get a lawyer (just kidding….sort of). You have to separate from someone whose evil and pray for God to rescue and transform them.

We are called to love all people. But that love will look differently depending on who we are trying to love.

New Series

My wife and I watched a TV series called “This Is Us” about the struggles of the Pearson family. I’ve appreciated the acting, the reality of family dysfunction, and being reminded about the joys of being family. The drama is attempting to expose or unmask the reality of family drama and be honest about that fact that “this is us.”

Sunday we are beginning a new series we are calling “This Is Pantano.” The focus isn’t on our church family drama or dysfunction (though I’m sure we could find plenty!). What we will do in this series is to expose and look at what we value as a church. Every person, every organization and every church has values. Sometimes we are not aware of them and often they are not clearly articulated, but everything we do or don’t do is driven by a value. Values drive behavior and create our life. They influence and characterize everything that happens in and through us.

This Is Pantano will help us see the six key values that give our church community its unique “flavor” and feel. For many of us, the values of our church are what we love about being a part of Pantano. So, values matter! In this series, we’ll look at the values that reflect who we are and the biblical basis for each value. This series is about who we are (not the organization), but you and I who make up Pantano. You won’t want to miss This is Pantano!

Faith in Action

The first value we’ll look at this Sunday is What matters most is loving people to Jesus. We’ll see how Jesus speaks directly to this concept. We’ll also have an opportunity to put our love and faith into action; we partner with ministries who love others to Jesus in practical ways. Sunday you can look into how you might join and support one of these groups to make a difference. They will be in the outdoor covered court. Each of these groups are serving in ways that are truly making a real difference for people who matter to God and should matter to us.

• 4Tucson – seeking to bring biblical solutions to our city problems
• Arizona Baptist Children’s Services – providing foster and adoption services, food ministry and more
• Kingdom Enterprises – doing evangelism training and outreach
• Hands of Hope – providing help, support, and services to those facing an unplanned pregnancy
• Teen Challenge – a faith-based addiction recovery environment
• Love Thy Neighbor – caring for those confined to a nursing home

Be sure an join us this Sunday for our new series, and see how you can put your faith into action!

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Hope for the Homeless

We see the many homeless that are in Tucson. If you have a heart, you ache for those who suffer from mental illnesses that cause homelessness. You also ache for the mom and her kids who suffered setbacks or abuse and can’t get on top of things, consequently finding themselves out of their home looking for a safe place to stay. Or, the many other people who couldn’t afford medical costs, ran out of money and faced eviction. But, there’s hope for those who want help.

Tucson has an answer. It’s called the Center of Opportunity! The wait is finally over. The Center of Opportunity is finished and ready to begin transforming lives! The Center of Opportunity is a converted hotel convention center that has been remodeled to provide housing and services to the homeless in Tucson. The goal of all the services is to help the homeless be able to become self-sufficient and live healthy, productive lives. It is a one-stop shop for medical, social, job, recovery services and more. It is run by the Gospel Rescue Mission and both nonprofit and governmental organizations will be serving the homeless at one location.

At our Christmas Eve services we collected a special offering for the Center of Opportunity. Because of your generous support, we were able to send them $56,698. That, along with almost 250 folks who served there on our Serve Our City day, have been able to help make this place of hope a reality.

You are invited to attend the Building Dedication Ceremony of the H.S. Lopez Family Foundation Center of Opportunity on Saturday, May 18th from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm

at 4550 S. Palo Verde Road, Tucson, AZ 85714. Tours will be available and refreshments will be served.

Safety

We take our safety seriously at Pantano. We’ve all heard about the attacks on churches, synagogues, and mosques in the US and around the world. Last Sunday, at the 11 am service, a man walked down the aisle holding a Bible and speaking to Pastor Brian (we later learned he intended to take the stage from Brian, who was teaching). Immediately our security team took him and sat him down, then escorted him out.

I want you to know that we do have security measures in place and continually add more as needed. We have installed bollards at all the gate entrances so a vehicle cannot enter the courtyard. We have monitored security video surveillance throughout the campus. We have Pima County Sheriffs on campus all day Sunday who are in contact with our security team. We have a trained and committed security team that has in-ear communication. Because backpacks have been used in attacks around the world, our security team has started searching all backpacks to protect us all. Please cooperate with their search if asked. The team is stationed all around our campus in order to provide the most coverage possible. They are also on campus for other events in addition to Sunday services. They are here to address medical and fire emergencies, protect our children, as well as look for possible threats. I’m grateful for our team for protecting and serving us! We are trying to make our church as safe a place as possible for all who come to explore and grow their faith.

Thank you to all that serve the needs of our city, whether on or off our Pantano campus. You are appreciated!

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Upcycle

We started a series called Upcycle on Sunday. In this series, we are learning how to allow God to take the regrets of our past and free us from them, then transform those regrets into something better. This three-week series is designed around the three key steps to freedom – 1) Recognize your regrets; 2) Release your regrets; and 3) Redeem or upcycle your regrets. We’ve provided a worksheet called Upcycle – Living Beyond Regret that is available at MyPantano.church to help you work through each of the three steps. You can add your notes then email the worksheet to yourself. You can also pick up a printed copy at Guest Services any Sunday. Be sure to share your journey and discovery with others.

Global Outreach

Michael Goodwin is our new interim Global Outreach pastor. Michael will serve in this role at least through the end of the year. His focus will be to serve and support our volunteer global ministry champions as well as oversee our Rocky Point trip in October 5-8, 2019. In the meantime, we are looking for a person to fill this role long-term.

For many years Michael has had a passion and the calling of God to be a church planter or campus pastor. We’ve come alongside Michael and have been mentoring him to fulfill his calling. And, it looks like we need to plant another Pantano campus. We grew 26% last year and there doesn’t seem to be a slowing of such growth. To continue to reach people, we are anticipating we’ll need to make more room by adding a campus. We are praying about and looking at opening a new campus sometime in 2020. Please pray about this and pray about being a part of starting and joining a new Pantano campus! I’ll keep you updated as plans and details become clearer.

Room For More

The outside of the Student Union should be finished this week, then we start work on the interior. We are still anticipating and hoping to occupy the building by the end of July – right as school starts up again. If you are able to give a generous gift, now is a critical time. With our loan and the funds already given, we have enough to finish the building, but we need to order the technology (sound systems, lights, etc.) and furnishings right away for it all to be installed by late July. We need an additional $300,000 sooner than later to completely finish the project. You can give digitally, by check or bank transfer. We are also able to process stock, vehicles, and property. Thank you for helping us make room for more students and children here at Pantano.

1 PM Sunday Service

And thinking about room for more…with our growth and with the heat coming, our Sunday 1 PM service is a great option. If you can attend the 1 PM service, that would make room for more at our other services. The service averages about 275 people so it provides a less crowded venue and lots of parking. And with summer here, you can do your chores or outdoor activities in the morning, come and have lunch in our cafe, then worship in the cool auditorium. And, I think my message at 1 PM is the best of the three services!

We are in a great season here at Pantano, with many exciting things happening!
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God commanded a Sabbath for physical rest but also because we need to pause at least weekly to reflect back and see all that God has done. Otherwise, we just keep running ahead and forget all the big and small ways God has guided, provided, blessed, and protected. In our work and effort, we easily miss his amazing grace. Now, Jesus and his apostles made it clear that we don’t have to legalistically keep a Saturday or Sunday or any particular day as the Sabbath. But, the principle is still important to observe. And here’s why – we need to slow down, quiet our frenetic agenda, and be still so we can practice and experience gratitude. Gratitude is a vital path to experience the fullness of God’s grace.

So as I write, it’s the Monday after Easter. I put in over 40,000 steps, climbed over 30 floors, walked more than 18 miles on Saturday and Sunday and burned almost 7,000 calories in those two days! Gotta love the Fitbit! So it’s time to slow down and take some time to reflect. Here are a few of the many things I’m grateful for:

I’m grateful for the man baptized on Sunday who decided he had his last drink. And an older gentleman was baptized Sunday who came to our church deeply wounded by the ugliness of religion and found grace and a renewed relationship with God. And a man came up at the last minute to be baptized who had been fighting surrendering to Jesus for months. I’m deeply grateful for the 94 people baptized and for the life change and new beginnings for each precious soul loved by God and the people in their lives.

I’m grateful for all of you who invited people to join you at our Family Fun Fest and Easter services. I spent a good part of both days meeting the people who were your guests. That is one of the best parts of Easter for me. I love it! Thank you all for caring enough about people to invite them and to love them to Jesus.

It’s amazing that we gave away 50,000 Easter eggs filled with scripture verses, candy, and small toys. But, what blows me away are all of the folks who spent hours filling them and taping them shut! Folks also donated water, soda, candy, and all the supplies so we could make the Family Fun Fest a free event. Wow! And how great are the hundreds of people both Saturday and Sunday who volunteered and put in long hours to serve the 5000 people who came on our campus for the Family Fun Fest and the 6780 people who attended Easter services… Wow!

I’m so grateful for our staff and volunteers who put in long hours preparing, long before Saturday and Sunday. I’m grateful for our leaders who love people and will do what it takes to make every experience the best it can be and be done with excellence. On Saturday and Sunday, I was overwhelmed by the creative gifts exercised and used by so many of our artistic folks. I’m just so proud of our whole church. I love our church!

Don’t forget to join us and invite folks to hear our new teaching series that starts Sunday – Upcycle. In Upcycle, we’ll learn how to move past our past to start again with God. We’ll tap into the transforming power of God that makes beautiful things from the ruined, used, old, or worn out pieces of our lives.

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This Sunday we will celebrate that God raised Jesus from the dead. It is a big deal! The resurrection changes everything, in every way, for everyone who believes. There are two passages from the Bible that I love to reflect on at Easter time; each has a special meaning to me and I want to share them with you. The first is found in Matthew 28:5-6 (NIV) – The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”  Because Jesus is alive and because Jesus conquered death there is nothing we have to fear in the present, for he is with us, and nothing to fear at the end, for death is only a door to life that never ends. As God raised Jesus from the dead, we too share that same hope. If we really believe in a risen savior, fear no longer has to rule in our lives.

Last Sunday I read from Romans 10:9 (NIV) – If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Paul describes our salvation as based on surrendering to Jesus and making him “large and in charge” of our lives as Lord. It is also based on the deeply-held belief that Jesus is alive. God raised him from the dead. He is our living Lord who guides us in our daily lives. But that hope is based on the fact Jesus is alive!

Join us Easter Sunday as we celebrate the risen Jesus. Services are at 7 am, 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm. Children’s ministry is at all services except the 7 am. We’ll have free breakfast and lunch between services. Our team has created an amazing service to celebrate the resurrection, including baptisms. We’ll have two baptisteries on stage this year!

On Saturday, from 8 am to 2 pm, we’ll have our Family Fun Fest on campus. It’s a FREE event that features family-friendly activities and a 50,000 Easter egg hunt. There will also be a petting zoo (the largest we’ve ever had at an event), an illusionist, train ride, crafts, games, inflatables, a slip ‘n slide (if you want to get wet, come prepared!) and more! It’s not too late to sign up to help us serve either Saturday and/or Sunday.

He has risen! Indeed! And that changes everything.

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I love Easter! It isn’t the trapping of the holiday that much interests me; I’m not an Easter egg or chocolate fan. I’ve never been much amused by the Easter bunny. But I love Easter because of the reason for the special day. Jesus rose from dead and he’s alive. That’s huge. That changes everything! That is THE basis of our faith. That is the basis of ALL hope! Put in the negative, if he’s still in the grave, then we are hopeless. But, we have a hope that death can’t shake; and that’s the message of our Easter services this year.

We’ll have four Easter Sunday services at 7 am, 9 am, 11 am and 1 pm. We’ll have children’s ministry at all services except the 7 am service (it’s hard to get kids up, in their Easter best and arrive to service that early!). Our middle school and high school students will be with their families at all four adult services.

May I ask you a huge favor? Given the history I’ve followed for years, I can pretty much predict that the 9 am and 11 am services will be full. If you can, would you please consider attending the 7 am or 1 pm services? You’ll have a much easier time finding a seat and parking at those services, which also makes room for our guests at 9 am and 11 am. Thank you in advance.

We’ll be having baptisms at all four services. This year, we are upgrading that experience. We are going to have two baptisteries on stage. It will be amazing! The view and video will be so much better. If you or your friends or family have been thinking about being baptized, this will be a great day to make your promise to follow the living Jesus.

We’ll continue our tradition of a free Easter breakfast and lunch. We’ll serve pancakes and sausage for breakfast between the morning services (8 – 9 am, 10 – 11 am) and free hot dogs and chips for lunch (12 – 1 pm). The free meals and beverages will be available in the outdoor covered court area.

And, don’t miss our annual Family Fun Fest (formerly called the New Life Celebration). We are extending the hours from 8 am – 2 pm and have increased the fun things to do as well. We’ve added a water “slip and slide,” expanded the petting zoo, and more.

The Family Fun Fest and Easter Sunday service are great events to invite your family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors to attend with you. We have invitation cards available at Guest Services.

Jesus is risen…indeed! And our living Savior is THE game changer! Join us in celebrating the most important event that ever happened!

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Last Sunday I talked about values. I said that if we say we value something, if we think that something matters or is important, then we’ll actually take what’s valuable (our time, money and effort) and invest in it! Our marriage should be a top value and priority. If your marriage is truly a value then you need to invest in it.

We have two marriage conferences or retreats coming up that can help an engaged couple build a great marriage, or help save a marriage, or make a good marriage better! Consider making the investment!

A Weekend To Remember Conference

Jolene, my wife, and I have been to two of these and they are so helpful and encouraging. We highly recommend this conference.

Dates: June 21- 23, 2019

Location: Loews Ventana Canyon Resort

Cost: $350 per couple or $175 per person. NOTE: Couples can save $100 if they register with the group name: PantanoChristianChurch. There are also a limited amount of complimentary conference registrations available for couples in financial need. Contact Shawn or Andrea at saduerkop@msn.com for details or for any other questions.

Register online at www.familylife.com/weekend or by phone at  800.358.6329

Hotel: If you want to make the conference a retreat, there are discounted accommodations for $139 per night if booked by June 6th. Make reservations at the Loews Ventana Canyon 800.234.5117. Mention the “Weekend to Remember Conference” when making hotel reservations to receive discount room rates. The event is so much more impactful if you can stay at the resort.

“And They Shall Be Called One” Marriage Retreat 2019

This marriage retreat is hosted and led by Pastors Jamie and Pamela Benjamin of Greater Faith Church. Both Jamie and Pamela helped lead in our amazing Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday celebration this past January. These two are an amazingly gifted couple.

Dates: Thursday, July 11, 2019, 6:30 PM – Saturday, July 13, 2019, 4:00 PM

Location: Hilton El Conquistador Tucson -10000 North Oracle Road, Tucson, AZ 85704

Cost: $200

Register online at Eventbrite – click here.

Invest a few dollars and a little bit of time in your marriage! It’s worth it!

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Every person, every organization and every church has values. Sometimes we are not aware of them and often they are not clearly articulated, but they drive how we live and shape who we are. Values are the foundational motivations for what we do. They provide our inspiration as non-negotiable guiding principles. They shape what we say “yes” or “no” to. They influence and characterize everything that happens in and through us. They give our church community its unique “flavor.” And for many of us, these values are what we love about being a part of Pantano. So, values matter!

Over the last six months, our leadership team has prayerfully and carefully looked at what we truly value in our church. After lots of healthy discussions and rewrites, below are the newly clarified values of Pantano Christian Church. I doubt that there will be many surprises at what you’ll see. And remember that these values do not replace what we believe (see our Statement of Faith) but are built on those beliefs. We’ll do a deeper dive into these values and their biblical basis in a series that we’ll launch in May. The six main values are in bold type below, followed by short descriptions in italics. What do you think?

We are unapologetic grace givers.
We are all broken, incomplete people in need of God’s grace. We meet people where they are and generously give away the grace we’ve freely received.

What matters most is loving people to Jesus.
Loving God = Loving People. Everyone has value and matters to God. We pursue those who don’t know Jesus to help them write a new life story with him.

Kingdom first.
Being “kingdom first” drives us beyond our own church community. We strive to join God wherever He is at work. Church is who we are, wherever we are.

Radical generosity reshapes our world.
As a kingdom first church, we share our resources and people selflessly.

The Bible transforms how we live and who we become.
The Bible is our primary source for transformation. We move beyond information to practical and relevant application.

Connected people are changed people.
Community is essential to connect with God and others in order to be transformed.

We pray you would consider how each of these values could be shown in your own life.

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Change.

We are making some changes to our parking and café here at Pantano. I know most of us don’t like changes, especially if we can’t see the immediate benefit! I finally learned where to find things at Target and then they remodel the place and move everything around. What was wrong with the way things were? So, yes, I know and feel your pain and frustration.

“Why” Shapes the “What” and “How”

Before I tell you about the “what” and “how” of the changes, let me tell you the “why.” If there is no compelling why then why change?! Right?! The why is not for most of us already at Pantano; that can make the change a bit frustrating. The change is for those we tend not to focus on, or even see, like those with disabilities and those who are not yet a part of our church! The why behind all the changes is to help us serve our handicapped better and reach folks not connected to God or a church. These changes are part of a bigger plan to make Room for More and add a Student Union.

Parking

Research shows that people make an impression of a new place, like a church, within literally the first few minutes they enter the property. So, starting on March 31st, the first change you’ll notice is how we do parking. You can see a full explanation with maps and directions on our website at mypantano.church/parking. Basically, we are asking all regular Pantano folks to park in the back (east) parking lot. We’ll have folks help you find a place to park and we’ll also help expedite the exiting process. We want to reserve our lot to the south (which central to our campus) for those with disabilities. The lot nearest Houghton road (on the west side of our property) is for first, second or third-time guests as well as for families with middle school and high school students (that lot is and will be close to the student building). We want for folks who are new to Pantano to know they are welcome and we have space for them. This change is about and for them, not us! We’ll have signs and attendants to help our guests and everyone else find a place to park.

Café

The other change we are making is in our Pantano Café, which also serves as a venue during our services. To make room for more, beginning March 31st we are going to pull out 5 rows of the stadium seats for all three Sunday morning services. This will reduce the tables by one row but will gain more seating overall in the café. With these stadium seats out, this also means that the location where folks order and pick up food will be too crowded, so we are relocating the food serving and ordering station under the screen (in front of the movable wall). When you order food, the order will be sent electronically to the kitchen, and when it is ready, our great volunteer team will deliver the food to your table. While you are waiting, you can still access free drinks in the same location. The café changes will actually work better for everyone.

Please give us feedback if you face any challenges with these changes. We want to make any and all adjustments before Easter. And, thanks in advance for your help through these necessary changes. Don’t forget the “why!”

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Hospitality! It’s an interesting word. There are many words related such as hospital, hospice, host, hotel, and hostel. They all come from the Latin root word “hospes” which means host, guest or stranger. The core idea is welcoming a stranger and offering food, shelter, and safety.

There are many scriptures that encourage hospitality like Romans 12:13b – Practice hospitality. 1 Peter 4:9 – Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Then there’s the fascinating instruction found in Hebrews 13:2 – Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. When this was written some 2000 years ago, there were few motels and restaurants. So when people traveled, they relied on others, often strangers, to provide food and housing.

Let’s dig a bit deeper. Who is a stranger? It’s someone you don’t know, for sure. 2000 years ago, they were from somewhere other than your village and even from a different culture and background. The stranger was usually different!

In our day, a stranger can be someone we simply don’t know. But they could be someone very different from us. They may be “strange” to us because they are from a different racial, cultural, economic, political, religious or educational background. Why would we be guided by the Bible to open our lives to someone very different from us? Could it be that as we open ourselves to those who are different, God might be teaching us how to love our neighbor who is different? Could it be the Spirit might be opening us up to ideas, values, and insights that are “foreign” to us? Maybe the practice of true hospitality could help us learn to be open to others and welcome differences, welcome the dreams of others, be hospitable and generous with grace, and be a host to something surprising that God has for us and our “guests.” We don’t have to agree with or even like all that a stranger brings, but we can learn to welcome them and expand our perspectives.

Did you catch the end of Hebrews 13:2 – some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. I believe in literal angelic beings and I’ve assumed this passage was asking me to entertain anyone because the guest just might be an actual angel. However, could there be a second meaning to entertaining angels we are unaware of? The word “angel” means messenger and that’s the role of some angels like Gabriel. Could Hebrews 13:2 suggest that these “strangers” could be real human beings who bring us a message from God? Could this different kind of person we welcome into our lives open a door of understanding? Maybe if we intentionally connected with the stranger, someone different from us, we might learn something new about ourselves, about God and about faith and grace that we would never learn anywhere else. Just maybe….

Here’s a chance to enter the world of someone different. Our mission partner, Heartbeat for Africa is having a short-term trip to West Africa on July 15 -27, 2019. There’s an information meeting THIS Sunday (3/17) at 10:15 am in Discover (room 2 off the courtyard). Go and check out this opportunity to show hospitality to a stranger and see what God might do!

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No, we did not, nor are we having twins. But I’ve sure enjoyed getting to know some twins. I’ve gotten to observe several sets through our church as well as watch some twins who are athletes, writers, and speakers. Whether identical or fraternal types, there seems to be a very special bond and connection between the two. That bond is strong regardless of the fact that they can have very different personalities, likes, and hobbies. That bond is visible whether they like to dress the same or not.

For several years now I’ve been on a spiritual journey of learning about and growing what seems like spiritual twins. These “twins” are character qualities that also manifest themselves and are grown through practice and action. These “twins” have been two of the powerful forces shaping me lately. The “twins” are gratitude and generosity. There is a strong bond between them. They feed off each other and enhance each other. They are not identical twins, but they clearly are close to and related to each other. Yes, in a spiritual sense, they come from the same heavenly Father.

Here are some random reflections of some things I’ve learned, am learning and continue to explore about the twins of gratitude and generosity:

• Giving is what we do. Generosity is who we are.

• The more time we spend with Jesus, abiding in him, the more grateful and generous we become.

• Generous people give. But not every giver is generous.

• A generous life is a direct result of living a surrendered life which is essentially giving up and giving away all to Jesus.

• Generosity creates more generosity which grows our grace, compassion, and gratitude.

• Gratitude turns the “law of scarcity” into the “law of plenty” that opens the hand of generosity. The more grateful I am, the more I realize how much I have to give.

• An attitude of gratitude leads to generosity that creates a gratitude-generous loop – one feeds the other and the attitude and actions grow stronger.

My wish for you is that you intentionally grow the twins of gratitude and generosity. What I’ve discovered is that it doesn’t matter which you do first. With intentionality, one leads to the other. So, get started! Find a way daily to practice both generosity and gratitude…and watch God grow you in wild and crazy ways.

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David Thoresen has served as our Outreach Pastor for the last 12 years. Recently we made the very difficult decision to transition David out of that role. He has done a fantastic job of setting the strategic foundation of the Outreach Ministry and developing a terrific group of international partners. We have some of the very best global partners you could wish for – check them out here. However, we also believe we need to advance our global outreach in ways that don’t play to David’s strengths. Any change is hard. David did not want this change as he loves this ministry. This change is particularly hard because we deeply love and respect him.

When I say we respect David, that needs to be unpacked more. David has the deep respect of myself, our Elders and staff, as well as from many, many people here at Pantano, Tucson and around the world. Here’s why; David is a godly man who authentically follows Jesus well. He’s a man of prayer. He has impeccable integrity and character. He is a terrific husband and father. He has served our church and global partners well.

There’s a part that only a few know about him; David has struggled with constant headache pain. At times the pain is so great that he can’t control his reaction. Yet, I’ve never heard him complain. He does the best he can to manage it and do his job well, including international travel. We all marvel at David’s resilience. He’s learned the very rare but undeniable skill of suffering well. No one wants to suffer, but David has modeled for us how to live out the way of Jesus in and through his suffering. I’m in awe of how David handles his pain and is able to do what he does.

Here’s what David has done to set our global outreach on a terrific foundation for an even greater future. I already mentioned that he’s helped develop a terrific group of global partners. In order for that to happen, David, with his team, has developed an incredible model to determine who we partner with and support. He’s created a priority grid taking into account the things we value as a church like church planting, reaching unreached ethnic groups especially among oral peoples, working with national indigenous leaders, community development using healthy principles that are sustainable and respectful of the culture and so much more. He’s put together a system to help manage all of that.

Thank you, David, for continuing to grow and develop our global outreach ministry to a greater and better level than what you inherited some twelve years ago.

Finally, God has already blessed David and his family by providing a very good job in international finance. David will also be able to serve and lead in the very global outreach program he designed here at Pantano. We are looking now at how we want to restructure our outreach and for the next person who will serve in that ministry. Please keep the Thoresen family, our global partners and our search in your prayers. Thank you.

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It’s common for people to love Jesus, believe the Bible, be basically good and serve others, but stop short of the radical kind of life that Jesus invites. Well, what more is there to faith? I’ll get to that shortly. Now, I’m pretty sure most of these folks are saved (only Jesus knows for sure). They obey Jesus, but often do so reluctantly and mostly out of a sense of obligation. They will be dutiful and go through the motions, but their obedience has limits. They have faith, but it is not a fully surrendered faith.

Jesus invites us to an uncommon level of faith. What does that mean? He calls us to a radical abandonment of that which is safe and predictable and where we are, in the end, still in control. Jesus wants us to embrace an uncommon faith that is so mature that we are sold out, fully devoted and “all in” as we follow him. This kind of faith sets no limits on what we’ll do in obedience to Jesus. This Sunday we begin a new series called Uncommon. I’ll be challenging all of us to join a group of uncommon folks who embrace an uncommon faith. This is going to be good!

One of the places I see this is in a story recorded in Luke 5:1-11. What we see in this story is that Simon Peter responds to Jesus in two different ways. The first occurs as he’s living out of a common kind of faith. Jesus asked Simon Peter to go fishing but he really didn’t want to do it. That’s a characteristic of ordinary faith. We know what Jesus wants, but we drag our heels, question why and often complain (even if only inside). When Simon Peter reluctantly agreed to do what Jesus asked he addressed Jesus as “Master” (see verse 5). The word “master” means one who has status and authority or someone who is perceived as important. Simon Peter saw Jesus as a great person and obeyed him because of his status.

Simon Peter and his partners put out the nets and had a miraculous catch of fish that filled the boats. In response to the miracle, Simon Peter addressed Jesus as “lord” (see verse 8). “Lord” is a different word than “master.” It means owner. There’s a huge difference between Jesus being an important person with status and Jesus as the owner of our lives. Peter moved from a common, normal faith to an uncommon one.

So, I want to invite you to renew or embrace a commitment to live an uncommon faith. We call that All In Partnership here at Pantano. Every year I ask you, as one who’s part of our church, to declare your commitment to surrender to the lordship of Jesus. 2019 All In Partner cards will be available this Sunday or you can sign it online.

Don’t sign up to be All In unless you are sincere about it. Not everyone is ready to embrace an uncommon faith – that’s why it is uncommon. And, declaring you are All In doesn’t mean you will do this perfectly. Join me, and many others, in being All In. Being All In means you affirm that your whole life – your time, your skills, and your money belongs to Jesus. Because he’s Lord, you’ll do your best to follow him in how he leads you to use your life to make a difference, wherever and however. Being All In means you’ll seek to love people to Jesus and help us transform our world and populate eternity.

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Things are really picking up and there is a lot of movement happening in order for us to make Room for More! While things have taken much longer than I ever anticipated, we are moving now! Our new building is called the Student Union so we can make room for our high school and middle school students. And, the new building will free up the old Student Center to become home for our 4th and 5th graders, which will make more room for our children in KidZone on Sundays. We also need room mid-week for students, large groups, classes, and events. We needed this new building yesterday!

With permits in hand, work has begun on the foundation. The building has been ordered. It should arrive around March 4th and it takes about 40 days or so to erect the sprung structure. The outside could be done before Easter! Then, we do the work on the inside and we hope to occupy it in July as our students and children return to school.

Check out what the building will look like by going online to our Room for More page. You’ll be able to see an amazing video and pictures of the new building, inside and out. You can also join as a prayer partner and give at that site as well.

The total cost at occupancy will be about $3 million. We’ve already raised a half million, so we are 17% there! It is my hope and daily prayer that we can pay off the entire cost by the time we occupy the building this summer. We can do this. We need to do this. We don’t want to add debt to our budget, even though we have projected that we are able to manage that, if necessary. Some might think it’s a miracle to raise two and a half million dollars in six months. That’s why I’m asking you to join me in prayer asking God to work in and through us to make this “miracle” a reality. We are the people God will use to make this happen. So, please consider giving a generous gift. I’m praying daily for some very large gifts combined with lots of sacrificial gifts from all of us. Pray with me, please!

You can give online or use any of our regular means of giving and identify that the gift is for Room for More. And, you can be creative in how or what you give; some folks are making items and selling them; we’ve had people already give possessions, like a car; our Seniors group is taking up a weekly offering; or you can give stock. Maybe you have an unexpected source of income that would allow you to give. Or, consider giving your tax return. Be bold and ask God to supply so you can share in putting up our building debt free.

This building is a tool that we need to continue to reach people and help them follow Jesus well. It is a kingdom asset that will be devoted to serving and helping people, especially our emerging generations; they are the church of today and will lead the church of tomorrow. The building is a vital tool that will help us make a difference right here in Tucson and for all eternity. I truly believe that, and that’s why I’m sold out to helping make the Student Union a reality. Join me! Together we can do this!

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It’s one of those things I like least about my personality; once something great happens, I’ve already moved on to work on the next good thing and don’t take time to celebrate. The fact is, we all need to celebrate more and it’s a key part of gratitude which is one of the most spiritually healthy things we can do! So, let’s celebrate a few “Wows!”…

Let’s Celebrate Feed My Starving Children!

We finished another Feed My Starving Children mobile pack. We packed 287,712 meals which brings our church’s grand total to 1.7 MILLION MEALS sent to children in need!

This year we had 1,148 participants from 23 schools. Robin Blumenthal, who leads and organizes this event was invited to give 15 school presentations from November to January to tell the students about her trip to the Dominican Republic, where she got to see how these meals make a difference. In addition, we had 267 youth and leaders at the Wednesday night pack from 5 churches.

We had a total of 1,818 volunteers participate in packing this year. And, there were another 50 or so volunteers serving with the schools and behind-the-scenes! THANK YOU, Robin and Pantano! WOW!

Let’s Celebrate Unite4Africa!

Unite4Africa is one of our global partners and is led by Okongo Samson. Their ministry is currently working in six countries in Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Sudan, Uganda, and Togo). Here’s what happened in 2018 through this ministry:

• 7,836 people gave their lives to Jesus
• 4,276 people were baptized
• 149 small groups or house churches started
• 8,169 people trained to transform their communities
• 7,792 patients treated in Kenya
• 4,541 patients treated in Ethiopia
• 5 water systems installed
• 1,839 orphans received animals (for income and/or food)
• 310 orphans adopted in their villages

That deserves a WOW!

Let’s Celebrate What I Can’t Name!

Due to the dangers and obstacles it might create, I can’t tell you the country and the details of what is happening. But, one of our global partners is now working with hundreds of new believers in a dangerous, conflict-ridden, predominantly Muslim country. We are praying for an outbreak of the Spirit of God and a church planting movement to emerge. WOW!

Let’s Celebrate Care Portal!

Our church helped launch and supports Care Portal. This organization helps provide families with needed supplies to help parents or family reunite, rather than send kids into foster care or group homes. In 2018, we helped bless 29 families, 59 children and accounted for nearly $25,000 of items for these wonderful people! WOW!

We have so much to celebrate. To God be the glory!

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We began a series on fear last Sunday called What Keeps You Up at Night? You can watch a replay of the entire service weeknights at 6 pm on our opening page at pantano.church (scroll down to the “Watch Live” section). Or you can watch just the message anytime – click here.

The cost of fear is very high. Sustained fear causes stress that over time can erode our health resulting in diabetes, cardiovascular issues, infertility, and so much more. Fear disrupts a healthy emotional balance as it robs us of peace and often results in things like depression or outbursts of anger. Fear can hinder us from taking important and needed risks that are a normal part of life and that help us grow and move forward. And, one of the seldom mentioned consequences of fear is that it can keep us from living out our true self that can make a difference in the place God has put us.

God created each of us unique. Our true self is made up of the characteristics, desires, motivations and our unique gifts that reflect God as we were created in the image of God. The person God created us to be has been damaged by our sin but has also been redeemed and restored in Christ. Fear often causes us to back away from our true self that best reflects God, and that he created to make a difference in his name.

Here are some of the costs of fear that we too seldom reflect on or talk about: When we fear not being loved, cared for, or included, we selfishly seek ways to get love instead of looking for even imperfect ways to love. When we are afraid that we can’t make things right, the way they should be, we can react in anger rather than looking for our best or better response that might make a small difference. We are afraid of failure so we’ll choose dishonesty to get a good outcome or fall into self-doubt that paralyzes us from being a positive contributor. We fear not having enough (of anything) and rather than sharing whatever we do have, we hoard it and ironically prove in action that we have nothing to share.

Fear keeps us from giving away the gifts God gave us to help others. When fear causes us to doubt, what we have to offer won’t be seen as valuable and worthwhile, so we withdraw and others lose out on the less than perfect gifts we could have given. We fear anything that might cause us pain or suffering, so we overindulge in the things that make us happy or numb the pain and become disengaged from contributing to others. We can be afraid of being controlled and manipulated so we refuse to be vulnerable and approachable which are amazing gifts in themselves. We are afraid of change or conflict so we become neglectful of or withhold the actions that might make a difference.

There is a very high cost of living in fear. Fear is one of Satan’s best tools he uses to try and stop love, hinder service, and neutralize God’s people. In the end, we choose fear or we choose faith. It is actually easy and quite natural to choose fear. But it takes prayer, effort, courage and lots of help to choose faith in the face of fear. Faith is a deep trust and confidence that God is with us to help us be the person he made us to be…no matter what. Faith is choosing to be like Jesus…no matter what. Choose faith!

We all have fears. Some cause us nightmares that literally keep us up at night. Or, out of anxiety, we have trouble sleeping. Sunday we’ll start a new series called “What Keeps You Up at Night?”  We’ll be looking closer at our fears and how God wants to lead us out of our anxiety into a place of peace.

Maybe you have struggled with fear, in general, most of your life, or at least for a long time. Maybe there is one key fear that keeps showing up. Maybe you are facing a fear that is tied to your situation right now. As I said, we all have fears. That’s part of being human. While we all will face fears, God does not want us to live or get stuck in our fears.

As we enter this new teaching series, I want to give you some hope when it comes to our fears; I love the wisdom found in Proverbs 3:21-26 (NIV):

My son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight,

preserve sound judgment and discretion;

they will be life for you,

an ornament to grace your neck.

Then you will go on your way in safety,

and your foot will not stumble.

When you lie down, you will not be afraid;

when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

Have no fear of sudden disaster

or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,

for the Lord will be at your side

and will keep your foot from being snared.

 

Now again in the Message version – Proverbs 3:21-26:

Dear friend, guard Clear Thinking and Common Sense with your life;

don’t for a minute lose sight of them.

They’ll keep your soul alive and well,

they’ll keep you fit and attractive.

You’ll travel safely,

you’ll neither tire nor trip.

You’ll take afternoon naps without a worry,

you’ll enjoy a good night’s sleep.

No need to panic over alarms or surprises,

or predictions that doomsday’s just around the corner,

Because God will be right there with you;

he’ll keep you safe and sound.

 

God’s truth and God’s wisdom, which results in clear thinking and common sense will help us have correct thoughts about life and our fears. God’s truth and wisdom help keep us from spiritual danger. God’s truth and wisdom help us to sleep well at night. We put our faith in God and his wisdom to help us to overcome our fears because we know God will not abandon us, his guidance is sure and trustworthy.

Next Monday (January 21) is the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. It’s a time when we remember not just the past racial injustices in our country, but the continual challenges we have with racism, bigotry, and discrimination.

This Sunday, we are going to remember that for those of us who follow Jesus, the issues of racial injustice are bigger than race. These are issues central to the kingdom of God which I spoke about last weekend! The Kingdom of God is made up of people from every race, nation, language, tribe as well as from all economic levels and genders (see Revelation 5:9-10 and 7:9-10).

The Bible is so clear that we are all children of God and thus brothers and sisters by faith in Jesus… period. In Christ, we take on a new and deeper identity without having to abandon our racial heritage or tribe. I am born again or re-born first as a child of God; that is my primary identity. I am secondarily the gender, race and social status to which I was born; that shapes my secondary identity. I seek first the kingdom before all things and only secondarily I seek my moral and legal rights as a ________ (you fill in the blank).

One of the pivotal passages that emphasizes this concept is found in Galatians 3. Paul was addressing a race that thought they were the only legitimate people of faith because they were descendants of Abraham – the Jews. So in verses 7-9 he writes: 7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Our access to God, our standing before God and our participation in the Kingdom of God is dependent on one thing – our faith in Jesus – no matter who you are.

Then Paul comes to a glorious conclusion in verses 26-29: 26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. It is our faith in Christ that makes us one in Christ. Race, socio-economic standing or gender is not a factor on who is a part of the Kingdom of God. This was revolutionary 2000 years ago. It is revolutionary today! It is what we celebrate.

So, this Sunday, we are having Jamie Benjamin from Greater Faith Church join us to celebrate how the kingdom of God is bigger than any divisions that our culture continues to embrace and tries to challenge us to engage in. Our brothers and sisters from Greater Faith Church will also be joining us for our services and our worship team as we give glory to God together. You won’t want to miss this Sunday… I’m just telling you!

Christmas Eve Offering

Wow, Pantano, you gave $73,213 for our Christmas Eve offering. That will help make a huge difference in getting the Gospel Rescue Mission’s Center of Opportunity to become a reality this spring. In addition, over 250 folks showed up on Sunday, 12/23 to help with the remodel and upgrade. Thank you all for your generosity. That’s making a difference!

One Word

We launched our fifth year of doing One Word on Sunday. One Word is a way to replace New Year’s resolutions. You ask God for one word to focus on for the entire year. Pick a word that will challenge you toward transformation. If you missed Sunday, we’ll have One Word cards with instructions available at Guest Services. You can watch the message here. Post and share your One Word – #oneword.

Feed My Starving Children

It’s coming back to Pantano on Tuesday, Jan. 22nd – Saturday, Jan. 26th.  We’ll be packing 280,000 emergency meals this year. We shifted our focus to engaging schools with 23 schools joining us this year. We are going to have two public packs (Friday night and Saturday morning); we have dropped the price to $15 per person, and you can sign up here. We are hosting over 1,000 students from 23 schools, so we need many volunteers to help – check out the FMSC table in the courtyard on Sunday.

Pantano Classes, Wednesday PM Children’s and Students Resume

Classes start this week on Wednesday – 6:30-8pm! Go to mypantano.church or click here to find out what classes to join and sign up. Check out our great Bible, parenting, marriage, financial classes and more!

Red Cross Blood Drive – Sunday, January 20th

Pantano Christian Church and the American Red Cross have partnered in a joint effort to help save lives by hosting a blood drive on Sunday, January 20th from 8 am – 1 pm. It will be located by the main west gate entrance. To schedule your appointment or for more information, please call 1-800-RED-CROSS or visit redcrossblood.org and use Sponsor Code: PCC.

Live Service Rebroadcast

In case you miss a Sunday, did you know that we rebroadcast the full Sunday service Monday through Friday each week at 6 pm? Go to http://live.pantano.church

Sunday, December 30th

Well, this is my last blog for 2018. The year is coming to a close and we are looking forward to 2019. This Sunday, December 30th, Brian and Mandy Lucas will bring an incredible message about the rhythm of looking back and looking forward. I’ve heard their message and it’s terrific – it’s practical and encouraging. With them speaking in our adult services, I’m freed up to get to speak to our students! I love having that opportunity. It’s important that I get to connect with our students every once in a while.

Transform Series

On January 6th we’ll start a new teaching series called Transform. God is in the business of transforming what currently exists to become something that has his imprint. He wants to transform us to become more like Jesus. But, he doesn’t stop with us. He wants to use our church to transform our city in unity with and through other churches of all kinds. In this series, we’ll look at God’s transformative work in us, through us and with others in our city. We’ve got a great series planned, with something special each week. Come each week open to God’s Spirit. If you do, you might find yourself being transformed!

One Word

Transformation happens best when we focus on one thing at a time, so we’ll start the Transform series by looking at the use of “one word.” This is the fifth year we’ve done this project. We seek God and ask him for the one word that captures the most important change or transformation he wants in our life. One word allows God to do his laser-focused transforming thing in us. You’ll get to hear a story of one person God transformed last year through their one word. I’ll guide you through discovering and then living out your one word for 2019.

Serve Our City

In my first blog for 2019 as well as during service on January 6th, I’ll update you on our Serve Our City event that happened on Sunday, December 23rd. As I write this, about 1,000 of us have signed up to Serve Our City on December 23rd. Way to go, Pantano!

I truly hope for all of us a blessed New Year as we follow Jesus.

I want to wish you a very merry Christmas. In the midst of all the activity of this season, may we all remember that God came to us to be WITH us to show us how much he is FOR us and loves us. May we find gratitude in God taking the initiative to come to us to draw us back to him.

Serve Our City – Sunday, December 23rd

Remember, there are no regular Sunday services this coming Sunday, December 23rd. Rather, we are taking our church to our city. Most of the pre-planned service activities were filled by last Sunday but check the website here as some spots have opened up. Or, look for a person or family in your neighborhood or your circle of connections that you might serve; check our “Serve Your Neighborhood” option (here) to get some ideas and register. Be prayerful (ask God) and creative! Don’t just take the Sunday off; use the time to be WITH someone and show them you and God are FOR them.

Our basic serving times will be 9:30 to 11:30 AM. Don’t forget to wear your t-shirt and post your pictures with #serveourcity and #pantanochristian. Children’s programming is available on campus (BY RESERVATION ONLY) from 9:00 AM-12:00 PM for children birth through 4 years old. Children 5 and older should plan to join their families for appropriate projects as noted in descriptions. Please RSVP for children’s programming here.

Christmas Eve Services – Monday, December 24th

Our services are at 1, 3, 5, and 7 PM. They are one-hour, family-friendly services. We’ll have songs we can sing as well as some special songs. I’ll share a short message. We’ll end with candle lighting. And, every year we add some sort of surprise! We’ll have children’s programming up to age 6 (no registration needed), if that is helpful for your family. It’s not too late to invite folks to join you. And as usual, we’ll have cookies and hot chocolate in the courtyard and photo booths in the lobby for family Christmas photos. Plus, it is the one time of the year you’ll see me in a tie!

Sunday, December 30th

I’m really excited about the message that Brian and Mandy Lucas will be sharing the Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s. They’ve developed an amazing teaching to help us look back to 2018 and look forward to 2019.

Thank You

I am so proud of our church. Pantano is a generous church! Literally, a thousand of us at Pantano serve in some way at our church, in our community or globally over the course of the year. We couldn’t do what we do and make the difference we are making without you. THANK YOU!

As a church, we give away about half a million dollars every year to local and global organizations and missions. These organizations have been vetted as trustworthy and are making a difference in their communities. And, that dollar amount doesn’t include the service time we provide. THANK YOU for making that possible.

Christmas Eve Offering – The Center of Opportunity

Every year we give our Christmas Eve offering away. Sometimes we’ve given that to international projects and sometimes we’ve given it locally. Often we’ve split it between groups. This year, I’m excited to announce that our Christmas Eve offering will go to the Center of Opportunity. This is a one-stop center run by the Gospel Rescue Mission. A generous family in Tucson bought the old “Holidome” (the Holiday Inn Conference Center on Park, south of Ajo), and gave it to the Gospel Rescue Mission for $1 a year for 99 years!

Hoping to open in the Spring of 2019, the Center of Opportunity will provide about 300 emergency beds and over 30 Christian social service and government agencies will be serving our homeless population in Tucson in this one location. These agencies will help the homeless move toward self-sufficiency by providing emergency housing and meals, job training and placement, health and dental services, government and veteran assistance and so much more. And, the Gospel Rescue Mission will make sure that each person is introduced to Jesus and will disciple those who are ready to follow him.

Year-End Giving – Room for More

It is normal for folks to evaluate their giving as we come to the end of the year. If you are planning to make a year-end gift, please focus your giving toward our Room for More project. We are just getting started with construction for the Student Union to provide room for our students and children. We must make Room for More. We took out a construction loan to get started, but I’d like to pay off the entire cost by the time we occupy in the spring of 2019. That will only be possible if we all give generously and sacrificially.

How To Give

The easiest way to give is to give online. You can give your regular gifts as well as your Christmas Eve offering and Room for More giving online – https://pantano.church/give/. Or, you can use our envelopes (they have a place to mark regular giving or Room for More) or use the special green Christmas Eve offering envelope that will be in the seat backs on Christmas Eve. Another option is to have your gift sent from your checking account; call us if you have questions and need help – 520.298.5395. THANK YOU again and in advance for your amazing generosity, which allows us to make a difference in the lives of people both now and for eternity.

My wife and I took a couple of days off to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We did our first “staycation.” We stayed in town, saw four movies and went out to eat for lunch and dinner. We got to sleep in a bit. And, one afternoon, I even went out by the hotel pool to read a book!

I’ve had a book of short stories on my shelf for years; written by Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy (1828-1910) is an interesting character himself. He was a Russian born into the wealthy class, became an orphan at nine, was socially awkward but became a world-famous writer (War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Resurrection, etc.). It was in the second half of his life that he found faith by reading the New Testament and decided to follow Jesus. I like Tolstoy because I share his dislike for religion and his passion to simply follow the teachings of Jesus.

There was one conversation in the short story Where Love Is, There God Is Also that grabbed me. The story is about a shoemaker who meets a little old man. The shoemaker tells the old man of his despair in losing his wife and their three children. He was alone and says to his guest; “I have no desire to live any longer.” The old man replies; “You are in despair because you wish to live for your own happiness.” The shoemaker replies; “But what shall one live for?” The little old man said; “We must live for God. He gives you life, and for his sake, you must live. When you begin to live for him, you will not grieve over anything, and all will seem easy for you.” I had to stop reading. So much was said in that dialog. There is so much wisdom and hope there. Please re-read the conversation in this paragraph again.

What do we live for? For our happiness? Few of us will admit to that. But really, what do we live for day in and day out? Sometimes we fool ourselves and say that we are not living for our own happiness, but the happiness of our family and friends. But in the end, if our family and friends are happy, then that brings us happiness. When we lose the things that are important to us and make us happy, like the shoemaker’s family, where then is our happiness?

We all need to reflect on the shoemaker’s question – “But what shall one live for?” What do I really live for? Am I living for my happiness? I will admit that far too often, I am living for my own happiness. It shows when I internally complain about my long days. It shows when I have a sort of envy for others whose lives seem easy and free of conflict. It shows when I want to complain about not being able to do more of the fun stuff. And, it mostly shows when things, big or little, interfere with my happiness agenda. I hate to confess this, but far too much of my life is still focused on my own happiness. I want to learn to live for God, more and more. Yes, I am living for God…some of the time, maybe even most of the time. But when I fully live for him, as the little old man said, then I will “not grieve over anything, and all will seem easy…” That’s the blessing that Jesus wants to give us: Full surrender to him is the only path to full freedom. May we remember this as we enter a Christmas season that tends to draw us to focus on our own happiness. May we choose to live fully for God.

Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have passed so at Pantano we are officially entering our Christmas season! Here’s an overview of what we have planned for Christmas this year. This Sunday we’ll start our three-week Christmas series called Bring Christmas Home. And that just kicks things off!

December Nights

December Nights are back and we’ve expanded it one night and added some new things to make it even better. The event is free (except for the hayrides and food for purchase). We are adding a new live “Road to Bethlehem” experience. And of course, you’ll be able to roast marshmallows, sing Christmas carols on a horse-drawn carriage, get your free family Christmas portrait (those are often such a pain to schedule…right?!), or join us for a snowball fight. There will be crafts, cookie decorating and a whole lot more including live entertainment.

This year we’ll have the event on Friday and Saturday nights from 5:30-8:30PM on December 7, 8 and 14, 15.

Go to mypantano.church to sign up to serve as we still need volunteers and/or some of the supplies so we can keep this a free event. And, you can sign up and pay for hayride tickets. Just click here for all things December Nights! Don’t forget to invite family and friends to join you!

Serve Our City – December 23rd

I’m so excited about how we are going to bring Christmas home to our city in a unique way this year; on Sunday, December 23rd, instead of having our usual church services on our campus, we are going to “be” the church by going out and serving our community and neighborhoods. We’ll be doing some work projects (cleaning, painting, etc.) at both the new Gospel Rescue Mission Center of Opportunity and GAP Ministries. We’ll also have a variety of other ways you, your family (and yes, kids too!) and friends or small group can serve. We’ll also have a few projects on our campus if you are unable to drive to another location. We’ll have special Serve Our City t-shirts for anyone who signs up. You can sign up at mypantano.church. We’ll be talking about this all of December and more information will be coming soon. Plan to use that Sunday morning to bring the spirit of Christmas to your community.

Christmas Eve Services – December 24th

As you’ve come to expect, we put on a terrific one-hour Christmas Eve service for the whole family with a short, clear gospel message, singing, and candle lighting. This year we’ll have 4 services at 1, 3, 5, and 7PM. We’ll have children’s programming available for children up to 6 years of age. Invite others to join you at this great event!

Christmas Eve Offering

Our annual Christmas Eve offering will go in its entirety to support the new Center of Opportunity (4550 S. Palo Verde – south of Ajo Way); it will be a full service, one-stop location for those who are homeless or in crisis. The organization has been given the old Holiday Inn conference center that has over 300 rooms and a lot of space for all the critical services necessary to help the homeless become self-sufficient. We are excited to actually serve there for our Serve Our City Sunday and provide funds to help them convert the rooms and spaces to serve the homeless in our city. You can give online or at the service.

We hope you are able to join us at one or all of our Christmas season events, as we “Bring Christmas Home” this December!

Happy Thanksgiving! It’s my favorite holiday. Why? The turkey is great. I love family time. There’s usually great football. But the best part is the focus on gratitude. I’m convinced that gratitude is a lost spiritual discipline in American Christianity. There are too few of us that make gratitude a daily practice and choice. If we were to rediscover the art of gratitude, we’d experience a transformation of our attitude that would result in continual satisfaction and contentment.

But our natural response to life is to complain. It has always been that way. The people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years because they just kept complaining against God. Why? They focused on their hardship rather than in all the ways God had and was providing for them. We’ll always have hardships and we’ll always have much to be grateful about. We get to choose which we’ll focus on.

The fact is that we have become experts at complaining – out loud and in our heads. As long as we are ungrateful, we can’t help but complain. And the more we complain, the more we focus on what we lack and find even more to complain about. It’s a cycle and a trap. The very act of complaining and being discontent keeps us focused on what we wish was different. And that ingratitude which leads to complaining interrupts our experience of God’s goodness and grace.

I recently read about a pastor who has A.L.S. – an incurable, debilitating disease. Most of what he used to be able to do, he can no longer do. But he recounted how grateful he was that he could still walk to the bathroom. While he can’t use his right hand, he’s grateful he can still use his left hand to feed himself. Daily he chooses to focus on what he can do rather than complain about what he’s lost. He said his gratitude helps him see God’s goodness and grace in his ordeal.

I’ve tried to make gratitude a planned part of my day. I even have a chair in my backyard that I’ve dedicated to use for my Bible reading and for gratitude. I’ve found that the practice of gratitude changes my attitude. Studies have shown that folks who regularly practice gratitude are healthier both physically and emotionally and a lot happier. I’ve found that the more I intentionally focus on what I’m grateful for the more I discover what I have to be grateful about. The well for gratitude is endless!

And most of all, God commands that we be thankful (Here are just a few scriptures – Ephesians 5:20; Philippians 4:6; Colossians 3:15; 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). So choose to be thankful. May your Thanksgiving holiday be the beginning of a season of gratitude that lasts long beyond the holiday.

Last spring I listened to a nationally-known Christian leader tell his story of how he almost ruined his family and his life. Unfortunately, that is not uncommon for Christian leaders these days. But what was so unusual was how God led him through his mess to find hope and freedom.

I can’t wait for you to meet the man – Carlos Whittaker. Carlos will be with us this Sunday (November 18) at all three of our Sunday services (9 AM, 11 AM and 1 PM). You don’t want to miss this and you still have time to invite others to join you.

Carlos was in trouble and he knew he needed help. Just as he was entering a week-long intensive counseling, he had a conversation with his dad. His dad’s words provided Carlos direction to help him find healing and freedom. His dad’s words were: “Carlos, don’t just keep getting rid of the cobwebs. It’s time to kill the spider.”

That idea not only helped Carlos kill his spider, but it provided him a story that resulted in a book by the same title – Kill the Spider. It was this spiritual metaphor that we used for the series that we’ll finish on Sunday. Not only is Carlos an author, but he’s also a nationally-known speaker and worship leader. He knows how to tell a great story that God will use to help all of us find the resolve to kill our spiders.

As an author, speaker, pastor, and blogger at Ragamuffin Soul, Carlos has lived much of his spiritual life in the spotlight. But, like any Christian, his faith story has its ups and downs. He spent decades trying to figure out how to be a “better person.” Time and time again, he strived for holiness only to get caught in the web of destructive habits, behaviors, and thought patterns.

You’ll find Carlos to be honest and hilarious as he shares his story. What you’ll experience is a self-deprecating man with passion-filled wisdom. He’ll remind us what we know – that it’s not enough to try and “stop sinning.” Rather, he’ll teach us that knocking out deep-rooted habits and issues comes by treating the issue, not just the symptoms. He’ll help us to kill our spider and finally be free from the cobwebs.

Diana, a long-time member at Pantano and a teacher by profession has taken this series to heart. She shared with me a worksheet she made to help her do what I challenged us to do last week – Identify, Reject and Replace the lie with the truth. Here’s the link to the worksheet. Print it out and use it to help you discover and replace your lie with God’s truth, which leads to freedom. And, don’t miss Sunday and invite someone to join you.

Voices

We all hear voices. And I’m not suggesting we all have a physiological condition of auditory hallucination caused by a psychotic disorder. We all hear “voices” in the sense that there are statements or beliefs that go through our head, sometimes over and over. We have beliefs that govern who we are and how we behave. We listen to, trust and give power to various “voices.” Those voices that are true, and especially those from God, help us live well. Those voices that are lies, hurt us and those in our lives.

Kill the Spider

That’s the basis for this important teaching series we are in right now called Kill the Spider. Be sure to watch each of the three messages in this series. The “spider” in our series is any lie we believe and make an agreement with. The “cobwebs” that spiders weave are the sins, bad habits or attitudes, reactions or behaviors that result from the lies we buy.

My Cobwebs

I had a lie that began to surface about 8 years ago. The cobwebs (the results of the lie) were regular days of depression, huge self-doubt and self-questioning which also caused me to be defensive at times. The biggest cobweb was the continual “voice” that I kept hearing – I was a failure as a pastor and leader. I tried all I knew and was stuck in the cobwebs. They wouldn’t go away. I had to go to a professional Christian counselor and pastor to get help to discover the lie.

Replacing My Lie

The basis of the lie was that our church had not grown much in the few years prior. I had bought the lie that growth and recognized success was the fruit of being a great pastor and leader. So if there was not much growth or success, then I was a failure. What a lie! I was committed to the journey to discover the lie, reject it and finally replace it with the truth. I discovered it through the example of the life of the prophet Jeremiah and the wise counsel of others. It became my life motto – God has called me to be faithful, not successful.

Keeping the Spider Away

It’s a huge task to discover, reject and replace a lie with the truth. It’s another thing to keep the lie away. We might kill the spider-lie, but the Evil One wants to bring back it’s cousin.

That’s when I understood the powerful truth Paul makes in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV) – 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  A stronghold describes how powerful lies can be. But we can demolish the lies by taking captive every thought or lie and kill it with the truth of Jesus. When the lie starts to raise it’s voice, we kill it again and again with the truth of God.

After I discovered my lie, rejected it and replaced it; I wrote a letter. I called it my “Capture Letter”, after this verse. I wrote it as a letter from God with 10 specific scriptures to remind me of the truth that would kill the spider-lie each time it tried to get access to my thinking. And it worked! I’ve been free from the lie for years and reject it each time it tries to speak. If you want you can read my letter here. We can be free and stay free from the destructive power of our lies. Be free! That’s the focus on the message this weekend.

Today is Halloween. Our life group, along with many other groups in our church, are doing what we’ve called the “Halloween Challenge”. Years ago, I challenged our church to make a difference on Halloween. We are serving our neighborhood on this night that has been a bit awkward for Christians. We are not celebrating evil or the devil for sure. Rather than run from or try to hide from the “holiday”, we are choosing to engage with people. Our group will be giving away hot dogs, drinks, candy, and this year, we are adding a hayride. We’ve found serving in this way is a great way to engage and connect with people and have the possibility of opening up spiritual conversations.

Several houses around us have decorated for the day with spider webs. What’s interesting to me is that you see these massive cobwebs, but you rarely see the fake spider! But that’s the way life is; we see cobwebs all the time, but rarely see the one who made the sticky, messy web.

Sunday we are beginning a three-week series called Kill the Spider. I got the idea from a book I read earlier this year with the same title by Carlos Whittaker. Spiders and their cobwebs are a great metaphor for the spiritual struggle we all face.

Do you struggle with bad habits, sin and personal junk that never seems to go away, messes up your life, and those in it? Maybe it’s constant worry, anxiety or fear. Maybe it’s the need to medicate away the pain of the struggle which manifests as an addiction like porn, overeating, drugs or alcohol. Maybe it shows up in things like anger, isolation, or the various ways we seem to continually sabotage relationships. Maybe it’s the constant effort to change by reading self-help books, attending classes or conferences. Maybe it’s an obsession with how we look, wanting others to like and affirm us, or the tendency to be codependent.

These things are like cobwebs. We keep trying to clean them out, but they come right back sooner or later. Why? Because in order to get rid of the cobwebs, we need to kill the spider that is making them.

We have to kill the spider! The spiders in our lives are the lies from the Evil One that we believe and agree with. The lies of the Devil will cause us to act in ways that we know are not good for us nor will they honor God. These lies create spiritual cobwebs that we and others see. But behind them is the real problem: the spider-lies.

When we are willing to identify the spider-lie in us, it is then, and only then, that we can finally replace the lies with God’s truth. We don’t kill spiritual spiders with insecticide. We kill the spider and find freedom by replacing the lie with God’s truth. We live by that truth. Jesus said that the truth is what sets us free (John 8:32). God’s truth allows us to really live and thrive, free of the cobwebs that are so despised.

Join us the next three weeks for this incredible series and teaching. Join us each week if you are wanting to experience freedom or know someone who needs to be free from their cobwebs. This is a great series to invite others to join you. Carlos Whittaker will be with us on Sunday, November 18th. You won’t want to miss his message or the series.

In military terms, retreat is generally a bad word. It can be a sign of defeat or maybe even cowardice. But sometimes, the smartest commanders know that a tactical retreat at the right time can position you for future victory.

There are times when we need to retreat personally. It might be going to the park, Mt. Lemmon or taking a hike for a few hours. We need to change our normal routine and scenery to clear our head and open our heart to God. I try to take personal retreats on a regular basis, and what I’ve learned over the years of this practice is that God often speaks to me in profound ways when I unclutter my life on retreat. Sometimes I get a personal insight or an inspiration that helps me embark on a new path. About twice a year I take a retreat in town to work on future teaching series so I can pray, study and reflect on what God wants to be taught to our church.

There are times when leaders need to retreat. I’m in that season now. I just got back from our annual elder’s retreat. Our elders have the final oversight of our church and I’m accountable to them while also being an elder myself. We use our annual retreat time to do lots of praying. We’ll tackle issues that require more time to process. We take the time to apply God’s truth to policy decisions while embracing and practicing grace.

And, we do something very few elder groups or boards do; we evaluate ourselves as a group and as individuals. I want you to know that our elders are very humble and very vulnerable and transparent. I love our openness to get feedback that is sometimes hard to hear, but always constructive and well intended. I’m so proud to be a part of the Pantano elders. They are the best. We are lead by a very godly, wise and compassionate group of men who truly love Jesus, his Word, Pantano, and our city.

I’m writing this in Prescott at our camp (United Christian Youth Camp) while on retreat with our pastors and directors. We too are doing a personal evaluation as well as how we are doing as a church. We just reviewed our progress in year two of a five-year plan. By the way, we’ve accomplished the majority of the five-year plan in just two years…amazing. There’s more to do for sure, but wow, our team with God’s blessing and leading has accomplished so much. We’ve identified some of the things we’ll be focusing on in 2019 (more on that later).

Here’s the thing that is hard to measure, but so important about retreats – both our elder and staff retreats; these are quality times for strengthening our relationships and in the end, that is more important than strategy or other things associated with leadership. Jesus prayed for our unity knowing that is a spiritual power that can withstand the schemes of the Devil. On a retreat, we share at more personal and deeper levels. We get to eat together, pray together and have fun together more than at any other time… and that’s why I think we have the best church leadership team anywhere. I mean that, and I can quantify that.

We just were recognized as a Best Christian Workplace for the fifth year in a row! Annually our staff takes an extensive survey of 55 questions and we get a detailed report that measures our health. A church that is healthy and thriving scores high in areas like having a fantastic team, uplifting personal growth, a sustainable strategy, work that’s life-giving, having rewarding compensation, healthy communication, having and keeping outstanding talent, inspirational leadership and overall engagement. On a scale of 5, we scored 4.46 (4.0 is considered a “Best Christian Workplace”). There are a lot of factors that have helped us get and stay there over the years, and our annual retreats are one key piece of that.

In our remaining time at the retreat this week, please pray for continued unity and that our pastors and directors would be led by the Holy Spirit to achieve that goal.

We started a new teaching series Sunday called Interrupting Grace. We looked at how our sin and brokenness and the resulting guilt and shame can interrupt God’s grace. If you missed the teaching, you can watch it online.

Broken

In the message, I referred to a condition I call “brokenness”. We are all broken, which means we are not whole and will never be perfect in this life. We all have weaknesses. None of us are the complete package. All of us are sinners (Romans 3:23) and fall short of God’s ideal. And, our brokenness won’t be healed until we enter heaven for eternity.

Guilt and Condemnation

Our brokenness makes us guilty, but in my message, I quoted Romans 8:1 – Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Note the sentence begins with “therefore.” That means this profound spiritual truth and promise is a summary for what preceded. What preceded was chapter 7 where Paul unpacks how we are all guilty and feel the condemnation for our failures.

In chapter 7 Paul talks about the principle of the “law”, which in this context is all of God’s revealed truths and commands. But, he admits that even though he knows what is right and wants to do what is right, he fails over and over. God’s ideals, intended for good, makes him “guilty” and brings condemnation because he continually falls short. Here’s how he describes himself in verses 14-19: 14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature [flesh]. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.  That last phrase is a great description of brokenness – I keep doing the wrong things!

Such a Mess

The frustration of Paul’s own brokenness comes out near the end of the chapter in verse 24 – “What a wretched man I am!” My paraphrase is this: “I’m such a mess!” We’ve all thought and felt the way Paul did. We know what’s right. We know how we want to live. But we fail over and over again. We are all broken. We all have a weakness that the Devil tries to exploit. We all have a particular kind or set of temptations that are more constant and harder to resist. We all have a particular sin or set of sins that we struggle with and give into. And there are moments we just cry out the words reflected in the Message version of verse 24 –  I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?  The answer is in verse 25 (NIV) – Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Grace – No Condemnation

This brings us full circle. In our brokenness, Jesus gives us grace. His grace is the full forgiveness of all our wrongs and failures. His grace offers us the full rights of being an adopted child of God. In spite of what we’ve done or not done, in grace he loves us, he is for us and will not abandon us. In grace, he has removed all condemnation for our continual ongoing failures – Romans 8:1! Grace is greater than our brokenness. Thank you, Jesus!

Every safe home has circuit breakers. They are usually found in the breaker box, usually outside the home, apartment or building. The newer style breakers act like switches. If there’s a short or an electrical overload, the breaker will trip or turn off the power to a particular circuit to protect the appliances, devices and even the house or building. The whole purpose of a breaker is to break the flow of electricity to keep something bad from happening.

The old style of breakers were the type you would screw in. They were actually called fuses, and they were one and done. If there was a short or overload, they would just burn out, stop the flow of electricity, and you would need to replace them. My family and I once lived in the Soviet Union in a 5-story Soviet-built apartment building. The breaker box was in the hall across from the elevator. One day the breaker blew. Back then, everything was a deficit; sugar, butter, socks, and shampoo were all in short supply. So, when the fuse burnt out, I spent a whole day going from store to store and every open-air market I could visit to find one. Finally, after a whole day of looking, I found one and the power was restored. I spent the whole day looking because you really can’t function well in our modern way of life without electricity.

Without electric power, appliances won’t work. The food in the refrigerator will go bad quickly. There are no lights to be able to see at night. And, in Arizona in the summer, no power means no air conditioning – yikes! No electricity also means no internet and maybe even no entertainment through a TV. We need electricity, and when it is interrupted, we have chaos.

In the spiritual world, there are also breakers that stop the flow of God’s power (which is grace). The Bible says that we face a dangerous spiritual condition when grace is interrupted from flowing into our lives, causing us to miss it. Hebrews 12:15 says that it’s toxic if we miss grace. Without grace, we can easily be spiritually poisoned (that’s what “bitter” means in Heb. 12:15). And when grace is interrupted, then it is nearly impossible for grace to flow out of us to others. It’s absolutely vital that we make sure the flow of grace is not interrupted.

Starting this Sunday, we are beginning a new teaching series called Interrupting Grace. We’ll explore three of the main things that attempt to interrupt the flow of grace – our mistakes, our hurts, and difficult circumstances. God’s grace is free and powerful. It is life-changing. We need to be alert and not allow anything to block grace from filling our lives or impede the flow of grace through our lives.

And this Sunday, we are going to give everyone an opportunity to say “yes” to grace. Saying yes to grace is saying you are ready to trust Jesus, ready to follow the way of Jesus, ready to accept the grace, love, and forgiveness of Jesus. If you are ready to start the flow of grace that’s greater than your mistakes, hurts or difficult situations, then say yes right now. And, plan to make a promise to follow Jesus to the best of your ability and commit to living in the grace of Jesus through baptism this Sunday.

It’s time for a Room for More update. Room for More is what we are calling our new building project. The new building, called the Student Union, will go where the old modular classrooms were. They are gone. We gave one to Desert Lutheran Church and the other one to Move City Church in Sierra Vista (which we started in 2008). We hope to start moving dirt and preparing the site in the next two weeks…Lord willing!

Originally, we were going to build a 19,000 square foot building. Half was to be for our high school ministry and half was to be a two-story staff office complex. Because of our continued significant growth, we realized we needed even more room not only for students but also for our children. So, the new building will have two high-quality meeting venues with a lounge and cafe between the two venues. The venues will house our high school and middle school on Sundays and will also provide large rooms for classes, events, weddings, funerals, and groups throughout the week. This is also a need because we are currently using every room on our campus on Wednesday nights!

And, this is so important; we’ll move our 4th and 5th graders to the existing student center in Towne Hall, which will make room for more children in our KidZone building. So, the new Student Union will make lots of room for our students and our children – two groups that are very important to us. They are the emerging generation of faith.

With this revised plan, we are going to build a 13,000 square foot building called a sprung structure. This building has a strong aluminum structure with an R30-rated insulated value two-layer surface. The exterior surface will match our campus paint scheme. It is maintenance-free, meaning we’ll never have to paint it, it will last as long as a typical roof and the replacement cost will be the same as a shingle roof. It is a sturdy and cost-effective way to build.

May I encourage you to go to the website at http://roomformore.church. You can watch the full video there. You can also download the Room for More app with a 3D virtual tour. Text the word “go” to 520-447-2777 to download the app. Enter the code “pantano.” Use the app on your phone to show and tell others about what we are building here at Pantano.

The cost of the project will be around 2 million dollars. We’ve set aside and saved some money from our general giving and folks have already started giving. We need to get this built as soon as possible. We are out of room now. People come first. Making room for students and kids and their families is the main thing! So, we’ve taken out a loan to get the work started, but we want to be able to pay off the entire loan by the time we get occupancy for the Student Union. Doing so will keep us from bearing the extra burden of debt. We think we’ll have all the work done by March 2019 and we’d love to do an open house with the loan paid off. So, let’s join together as everyone participates in any way they can. Please prayerfully consider how you can help us build the Student Union debt free.

You can give online. Choose “Room for More” in the “Giving Fund” drop-down box. You can give a one-time or regular gift. You can be creative. One lady gave us her car, which we sold for $3500. One person is considering giving some gold coins. We can receive stocks as well. Please consider how you can give a generous, significant, sacrificial gift.

Be Hospitable

A church that is healthy, Bible-believing, and Christ-honoring will attract guests, and weekly we have many guests who visit. That is part of why we are growing so much. I don’t know if you have noticed or not, but on Sunday mornings, besides teaching the Word, my “job one” or focus is to look for, greet and get to know our guests. This is one of the most enjoyable things I get to do. I love to hear the stories of why people were willing to take the risk to visit a church for the first time ever, or at least in a long time. These are the folks I want to reach. Sometimes visitors are new to the area and once in a while someone has been deeply hurt by a church and is looking for a healthy place. It is so much fun to hear the stories of how folks have sensed God is leading them to our church. God still guides and directs people, often in miraculous ways. The question is… will we truly welcome our guests and be great hosts? Will we be hospitable as the Bible commands (1 Peter 4:9; Romans 12:13)?

Helping Guests Find Their Way

It takes a lot of courage to come to a large church like ours. Our size, while it has many advantages, can be intimidating. Yes, we have a level of quality and excellence that is hard to find. We have so many groups, classes, events, and programs that meet so many needs. We have an abundance of opportunities to serve and make a difference. We are a place where folks can find a place to belong and get help as they journey toward or deepen their walk with Jesus. But, how does a new person feel welcomed and stick around long enough to discover all the good we have?

First Impressions

20 years ago, one of the world’s greatest experts on the customer experience found that a company like a hotel had 30 seconds to make a good impression or the client would be disappointed. Today, that expert says the time has shrunk to 5 seconds… that’s crazy! Now, I haven’t found the research for a church, but the point is we have only a short time to make a good impression and usually only one chance to help someone feel welcome. Why do I care about that? Because I don’t want to, in any way, hinder a person who is finding God from being open to his Word when they come to visit. I don’t want anything to “shut them down” before the Holy Spirit can speak into their heart. I want us to do all we can do to help them find, follow and flourish as they follow Jesus. I want anyone who’s currently a part of Pantano and makes the effort to bring a guest to be proud of how their guest was treated.

New Parking Ministry

That’s why we are starting a new Parking Ministry. We have enough parking, but a visitor might not know our campus well enough to navigate finding those places. So, job one for our new parking lot servants is to help visitors find a place to park, lead them in the right direction and answer any questions they might have. We want this new service to help all people feel welcomed as well as direct them to find an open parking space.

Your Help is Needed

We always need more folks who will greet at the gates and entrances, usher folks to open seats in the auditorium and help out at our Guest Services kiosk. If you are willing to help in any of our Host Team positions, please contact nfarr@pantano.church. We especially need to find a few people who will develop and lead our new Parking Ministry. If God is nudging you, please take the next step and let us know you are open to talking about this. For all who make our church such a warm and welcoming place, I can’t thank you enough. THANK YOU!

Tucson – 5th Poorest City in America

I’m sure you’ve heard this by now, but Tucson is listed as one of the poorest metropolitan areas in the United States. That’s not the kind of notoriety we want. About 25% of our city is identified as living below the poverty rate. As Christians, we can’t just stop here and say, “Wow, that’s too bad!” and do nothing.

What the Bible Says About Poverty

Some Christians are tempted to quote our Savior at this point; after all, Jesus said, “You will always have the poor among you…” (John 12:8). Christians will causally take this to mean that Jesus said poverty can’t be overcome, so don’t bother. Actually, Jesus is saying the opposite; He’s quoting Deuteronomy 15:11. Jesus would often quote a part of an Old Testament text, knowing that his hearers would not only know the whole verse but the key ideas of the section of scripture around what was quoted. There is a “therefore” after what Jesus quoted; that “therefore” is how we are to respond to the poor around us.

Here’s the full text of Deut. 15:11 – There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open-handed toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. Then, go back to verse 4 of the same chapter – However, there need be no poor people among you! In fact, read the whole text of Deuteronomy 15:7-11 which states that it was God’s plan that generous, God-fearing people would respond to the poor. Flat out, the Bible commands that we be generous to the poor. Do an internet search and you’ll discover an overwhelming amount of Bible verses on helping the poor and needy (the words poor or poverty occur 446 times). So, what can we do?

Cost of Poverty Experience

Christians in Tucson through 4Tucson are committed to reducing poverty in our city. David Thoresen and J. Michael Davis on our staff are working with the Poverty Reduction Task Force of 4Tucson. Click here to read more about their work. The task force is promoting a Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE) simulation here at Pantano on Saturday, November 10, from 9am to 12pm. This is an opportunity where you’ll experience what it means to live below the poverty line. This will be eye opening! You don’t want to miss this. It’s a free event and you can register here.

Faith In Action

This Sunday, September 23, is our next Faith in Action event. After each of our three services, you’ll have an opportunity to see how you can be generous with your time, skills, effort and money to reduce poverty as you put your faith into action. We’ll have a number of our ministry partners whose focus is to make a difference in the lives of those who live in poverty near and far away. You can check out the local ministries like Haven Totes, Diaper Bank, Gospel Rescue Mission, Habitat for Humanity, Care Portal, and Interfaith Community Services. And, you can make a difference for a child in poverty through our work in Ecuador with Compassion International. Go to the Café after services on Sunday to see how you can do what God commanded when he said:  Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to (Deut. 15:10).

Please join us in one of the various ways we can truly make a difference in our city and the world!

This past week in our series called Contrast, Roger Blumenthal spoke about the idea of being shaped by the cravings we feed 1 Peter 2:1-3. If you missed his message, you can watch it here. Just the day before Roger spoke, I was listening to a podcast as I was driving to the west side of Tucson. The podcast was a conversation with Erwin McManus. Erwin said something like this – What you long for you become. I spent the rest of my drive and afterward reflecting on this. This is what Peter was writing about when he said “crave pure spiritual milk” so we can grow up in our salvation.

First, what this reminded me of is that we CAN CHANGE! I was watching a TV show the other day and one of the characters said this about himself – “People don’t change.” Most of us believe that deep down. This is the prevailing view of our culture. This is the experience of too many of us – we just don’t seem to change in those deep areas of dysfunction and brokenness. We’ve lost the hope of real change.

But God through Peter, Erwin, and many others remind us that what we crave or long for will, in fact, shape us. That is a spiritual truth found throughout the Bible. That gives us hope that we can change. With that hope, we can actually begin to align ourselves with God to allow real change to happen.

The next question is this: “What do you want or need to change in you?” How do you want to be different from your older self or different from your family or the culture around you? Do you want to get rid of fear and worry and live in peace and contentment? Do you want to get rid of anger and consistently express patience and kindness? Do you want to be free of your addiction? Do you want to stop sabotaging your relationships and in vulnerability connect authentically with people? What do you want to change? Then follows an equally hard question – how? But maybe that’s not exactly the right question.

Maybe the better question is this – “Who do you long to become?” Change doesn’t happen because we become hyper-disciplined and follow a bunch of good rules, like, “I’ll never be angry or worry or whatever…” One of the keys to change is to look at who we long to be like. Have you ever noticed what the Apostle Paul said about this? In 1 Corinthians 4:16 he said: Therefore I urge you to imitate me. Then in 1 Corinthians 11:1 he said: Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. This is so powerful! Who do you long to be like? Who is your example? What is it you crave for your own life that you see in someone else?

Now the fast, easy, and right answer is “Jesus.” But did you notice what Paul did? He said to imitate him or his example AS he followed the example or imitated Jesus. It’s okay to long to be like someone who’s real and who we know and can see and hear and talk to. Throughout my faith life, I’ve longed or craved to be like my mentors, coaches, godly friends, and well known public figures. I long to be like Billy Graham and Henri Nouwen as I observe their character which shaped their lives. I long for the courage and faithfulness of my mentor, Dick. I long for the awe of life and God found in quiet suffering and reflection by my friend Vladimir. And my longing to be like them has caused me to watch and observe them and ask them why or how they do what they do. I listen to them (or read them) more carefully than others. I’ve become more like Jesus as I’ve “hung” around people who are far from perfect but are also further along in being more like Jesus.

Who do you long to become? Ultimately, we want to be like Jesus for sure; but also look for those who are living what you long to become. Label and identify who you long to be. Then crave it. What you crave and long for will shape you. Feed your longing and craving with what and who you really want to become.

Our last teaching series called Mixtape – The Soundtrack for Marriage was based on Ephesians 5:21-33. What struck me in the passage was the strong theme of oneness. As individuals, we are to be one with Jesus. Husbands and wives are to be one. And couples together are to be one in Jesus. Oneness is an amazing thing to experience. It is God’s will for us. Oneness is being united; on the same page; sharing all of life together; being with and for each other; having a common purpose and so much more. This is what we want in marriage more than anything. Yet, so few actually talk about this.

But how do you get to oneness in marriage, and maintain that? As I was studying the passage, I noticed a second key idea that answers that – love and respect! Look at what Ephesians 5:33 says:  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Husbands, love your wives as you love yourselves. Wives, respect your husbands. It was no mistake that this instruction comes at the very end of the long passage on marriage and oneness in Ephesians 5.

I devoted a whole message in the Mixtape series to love and respect. If you missed it, you can watch it here. There are so many questions about this verse like:

• Why were different instructions given to husbands and wives? Shouldn’t both love and respect each other?
• Why are husbands called to love and wives are not given that same command?
• Why are wives instructed to respect and husbands are not included in that?
• How can a woman respect a man who does disrespectful things to her?
• What does it mean for a husband to love his wife as himself?
• What does it mean, in practical terms, for a wife to respect her husband?

I tried to answer some of these in my message, but time would not allow a deep dive into these important questions and understandings. But, help is on the way!

We’ve invited a Christian man, Dr. Emerson Eggerichs, who has devoted his life to helping couples learn to love and respect each other. I’ve read two of his books and watched a couple videos of his teaching on this subject. His research, insight and practical teaching are outstanding. So I want to BEG you to attend our Love and Respect Marriage Event. Why would I “beg” you? Because oneness in marriage is so important, so needed, so rewarding, so rich and such hard work! This three-hour event will provide you with actionable ways to grow your marriage. It is a great opportunity to move deeper into oneness. Here are the details:

WHEN: Friday, September 21, 6:30-9:30 pm
WHERE: The Pantano auditorium
COST: $60 per couple, $30 per single.
REGISTER: https://mypantano.church/marriage

Maybe you know a couple who are struggling in their marriage; invite them to join you. Maybe you know a couple that want to improve the oneness of their marriage; invite them to join you… You might even buy them a ticket! I’ll be there. I hope to see you also.

It has been said that the shortest story ever written was six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” This “story” has been attributed to Ernest Hemingway, but there is doubt about that (check out the full story here). The point of this story isn’t its author. The point is that those six words create in us various kinds of stories. Maybe the story you thought of, created, or felt was tragic and filled with the grief of loss. But, your story could have been one of joy, as the parents were gifted with too many shoes.

Everything is driven by a story… everything! Even our Bible. Our Bible is true. It is based in true historical reality. It conveys spiritual truth that guides how we live. But it also a story. Don’t hear “story” as a fable. Hear the word “story” as God’s story that helps us find out who we are, who God is and what’s important.

The short six-word story I started with isn’t a story told for the author or storyteller’s sake. It is told for our sake. A narrative isn’t primarily about information, it is about the values or what matters that are a part of the story. Stories are ultimately about us and they tap into not only our thoughts but more important, our feelings.

This is perhaps the greatest short story in fourteen words – “For God so love the world, he gave his one and only son…” (John 3:16). It is a story of rare sacrifice. It is a story of outrageous giving. It’s the best love story ever. It is a narrative of hope.

If everything is driven by story, then we have to look at our story. Are we letting others or situations write our story (think victim)? Or are we purposefully writing our story (think intentional)? What are the values that our story tells? Remember that a story is not for the storyteller, but for the reader and audience. What does your story do to and for other people? What values do others “read” or “hear” in your story? What impact is your story having on God and others?

This past weekend, Pastor Joe Stull taught in our adult services and opened our new teaching series, “Contrast.” I hope you didn’t miss it. As Joe shared the story of his struggle with PTSD, he invited us to see what was driving him. For a while, the story was about denial, hiding his wounds, and how it was destroying and defining him. But, that was not the end of his story. He is now writing a story that allows God into the deepest places of his soul. He is writing a story that lets others into those vulnerable places. He’s allowing God and others to help him write a new story, a better story, out of the trials he experienced.

What’s your story? Are you letting your story define you? Or do your godly values push against the story and change the narrative? Does your story allow God to have influence and presence? Are you writing a story that, because God is a part of it, is a story that’s different and worth reading and listening to? Take some time to reflect on your story. With God, you can author a better story!

Did you know the Bible talks about legal aliens, foreigners, and exiles? It speaks very clearly about these kind of people. And probably your mind already jumped to the political debates over immigration and border security. That’s NOT what I’m talking about, and I’m not so foolish as to jump into that debate in a blog. You and I are described as legal aliens!

Yep! Those of us who follow Jesus are called “aliens.” And no, not the ones who visit from time to time from outer space that make for sci-fi documentaries and conspiracy theories. The word “alien” shows up three times in 1 Peter 1:1; 1:17 and 2:11 (depending on the Bible version it might be translated as “exiles,” “foreigners,” “strangers,” or “sojourners”).

What is an “alien.” The word used by Peter, in general, refers to one who comes from a foreign land to live side by side with the natural or indigenous residents. Modern language translates the word as “resident alien.”

A “spiritual” alien then is a follower of Jesus who lives in this world. The language, values, customs and lifestyle of this world feel foreign and unnatural to the believer. You see when we began to follow Jesus we were reborn or born anew (see 1 Peter 1:3), not as citizens of this world, but as citizens of the kingdom of God. And we realize we have the hope that this world is not our final home (see 1 Peter 1:4). We know this life is our temporary home. We live as aliens – longing for our real home where our Father and real spiritual family will spend eternity – heaven.

But for now, we live as aliens in this world. As aliens, we are different. And guess what? All through history, and yes even today, anyone who is really different is often mistrusted, disliked, excluded, treated different from the rest of the “normal” people and even persecuted by the majority. And that is true for those of us who truly follow Jesus. We are “different” from the world. Jesus said we live in the world, but we are not of the world, and that will cause us hardship (see John 15:19). It is difficult and costly to be genuinely different!

So, it is God’s will for us to be aliens! Why? God wants and needs us to be different from the world. We are to be a contrast to our culture in the ways that matter. We are to be light in the dark. We are to be salt in a flavorless world. We are to love when others hate. We are to forgive when others hold grudges. We are self-sacrificing as others are self-serving. We are to offer hope when others are skeptical, pessimistic and jaded. We are to offer good to others when others only seek good for themselves. We are to be Jesus in our world.

Starting this week, we’ll spend six weeks looking at the letter in the Bible called 1 Peter. We are calling this teaching series Contrast. We’ll see why we are to be a contrast, how to be a contrast and how to maintain being a contrast to and in a world that wants us to compromise and blend in. This is going to be a powerful life-changing and encouraging series. Our Bible reading plan has us reading 1 Peter starting Aug. 29th – you can find our Bible reading plan on our website. May I encourage you to read 1 Peter as we begin looking at this letter.

I didn’t know what else to title this blog. Integrity is a crucial part. But so is humility and maybe a dozen more words. What am I talking about? I’m talking about the recent scandal involving Bill Hybels, the former founding pastor, of the Willow Creek church. Hybels has been accused of sexual misconduct by several women. He resigned in the spring. Last Wednesday night the elders and key staff of Willow Creek church resigned for not responding well to the allegations. You can search online to get the bigger sad, disheartening story and videos.

The Global Leadership Summit (GLS) we hosted last week was started and hosted by Hybels. However, since his resignation in April, he is no longer a part of this event. Fortunately, the current leaders of the GLS owned up to their own slow and inadequate response at first and have made the right efforts to correct things. The GLS is entering a new and even better season. I think the 2018 GLS was the best yet.

I used our GLS hosting opportunity to offer a lunch-time teaching on how we at Pantano create a safe environment free of harassment or abuse at any level: physical, emotional, sexual or spiritual. You can watch the teaching and Q&A here. Here’s part of what our policy states: Pantano Christian Church is committed to providing a work environment that is free of discrimination. In keeping with that commitment, Pantano maintains a strict policy prohibiting unlawful harassment, including sexual harassment. The policy goes on to spell out what behaviors among our staff and leaders are not acceptable. We require all paid staff to sign a document agreeing to these policies. We also do an orientation and a yearly reminder of what we value in this.

Further, I remind all staff and now declare to our entire church, that if you feel like you are being harassed or abused in any way by any staff or identified leader we urge, encourage and even beg you first to confront the person. That’s the biblical way (Matthew 18:15-16). If there is no change, repentance or resolve, we want you to report that to the appropriate leader(s) UNTIL you are heard!

I also talked to the leaders attending the GLS about how they must follow some policies and principles to protect themselves from or in case of false allegations. For example, for our married leaders and staff here are a few of our policies and practices:

•      Do not conduct private meals or meetings alone with persons of the opposite sex.
•      Do not drive, travel or visit alone with a person of the opposite sex.
•      Do not share your marriage issues or have discussions of sexual problems with a member of the opposite sex alone.
•      Be careful in how and with whom you use physical touch.

Finally, we have developed a governance or leadership system designed to protect the church. One of the great dangers that has prompted the #MeToo movement and was a factor in the “scandal” at Willow Creek Church is that leaders are tempted to abuse their power. The Elders of Pantano Christian hire, evaluate and fire me, the Lead Pastor. The Elders do staff 360 reviews of me, and they get the report. Without me, they meet with the Executive Team leaders and their teams regularly to ensure that Pantano is a safe and healthy church moving toward its vision and mission. I am never the chairman to ensure the elders set the agenda for all our meetings. These and many other things are the policies and systems we’ve created to protect people and our church and create a healthy safe environment.

I have known and believed all my life that in the end, my leadership doesn’t rest on how skilled I am, how good my leadership is or how much I know. My leadership and your trust rest on my authentic relationship with Jesus that results in strong integrity based on humility. I will do all I can to protect my integrity and embrace humility. I appreciate your prayers for all our staff to serve and lead in ways that respect and honor all people.

We are making progress on our new high school space (we are calling it the Student Union) and office building to make Room for More. Here’s the scoop on what has happened so far: The modulars, where the new building will go, are being moved as I type. Our loan is approved. We have our general contractor. We hope to have permits by the end of August. Lord willing, we’ll be able to occupy the Student Union in November; completing the offices and remodeling the current office spaces might take longer.

We are building a 19,000 square foot building to make room for our high school students. Our state-of-the-art Student Union is a necessary tool to allow us to serve our students well. Because we are out of room for our students, our high school and middle school are currently meeting together, which is not ideal. Further, we have filled our current student center at 9 AM and 11 AM. We need to make Room for More.

By moving all our offices (currently in 3 locations) into the new building, we’ll make room for children and students in the spaces where our offices currently are on our campus. Here’s how you can find out more about Room for More:

New Website and Video

We have a new website dedicated to making Room for More here at Pantano – RoomforMore.church. Check here for updates. Soon, we’ll post the link for the app that will allow you to take a virtual tour of the new building.

On the website, you’ll find information, pictures, a helpful video giving you a tour that shows what the new building will look like inside and out, and a place to give financially. The website allows you to share the excitement with your friends and family.

Information Meetings

We’ll be hosting 20-minute information meetings this Sunday, 8/12, and on Sunday, 8/26, after each service; after the 9 AM and 11 AM services we’ll meet in the current Student Center (Towne Hall) and after the 1 PM service we’ll meet in the auditorium. We’ll also have an information meeting on Wednesday, 8/22 when our student small groups and adult classes start up. The Wednesday, 8/22 meeting will be at 6:30 PM in the Student Center.

Talk to Glen or Roger

If you’d like to talk to Glen or Roger about the project or about giving options, please contact us through our Administrative Assistant, Liz Marko – lmarko@pantano.church. Either of us are more than happy to talk or meet with you.

Giving

Folks are already giving. To date, $132,580 has been given and we’ve saved and designated $169,000 from our general giving, making our fund total $301,580. We are still working on the final costs, but it will be somewhere near 2.5 million dollars. So, we are over 10% of the way there.

Please pray and consider how you can give a generous gift so we can pay for the building and not have to carry any debt as we begin the new year. You can give in all the usual ways – online or use our new offering envelopes. Or, maybe there’s a creative way you can give… for example, one person gave us a car which we were able to sell for cash; another person is giving some gold they inherited; some might consider stocks. Together, we can make Room for More.

In the old days (I can’t believe I’m using that phrase) “fall” started on Labor Day and school started right after. Not any more. Schools start in July and August, depending on the school district. And with school starting already, it feels like fall, except we still have triple-digit heat and there are still no football games! My point? It’s August already, and we are starting things off for our version of Fall Kickoff. So get ready, as “fall” is here.

Global Leadership Summit

It’s not too late to sign up for our 10th annual Global Leadership Summit event. Really, you don’t want to miss this. I think this is my 13th year attending the GLS and I’ve learned so much and have been able to apply and use so many practical insights. For me, it has been life-changing, and in one season of my life, it was life-saving. The Summit is Thursday and Friday, August 9 & 10. Find out more and SIGN UP HERE.

Classes

Our adult classes are starting soon. Check out the amazing and practical classes like Financial Peace University (required orientation is Sunday, 8/12 at 9 & 11am and Wednesday, 8/15 at 6:30pm). Starting August 22nd, we’ll offer Bible Basics, Coping with Anger, Parenting the Love and Logic Way, Smart Stepfamily, SHAPE, Tuesday Morning Women’s classes and 2 classes for engaged couples or those considering engagement (Prepare and Enrich and Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts). Check out the classes and REGISTER HERE.

Wednesday Nights

KidzGroups: Our children’s programing, called KidzGroups, starts Wednesday, August 22nd (6:30pm-8pm). The preschool theme is “Treasure Island.” Kinder-5th grade will study Philippians looking at joy. There is also a leadership training class for 4th and 5th graders called WILD Bunch (Working In Leadership Development). The focus of this class is on servant leadership, learning how to lead worship, teach puppets, going deeper into God’s Word and much more.

Students: Both middle school and high school student small groups start August 22nd – 6:30pm-8pm.

Adults: Check out all the great adult classes also offered on Wednesday nights at 6:30pm.

Love and Respect Marriage Event

We wanted to follow up our current series Mixtape – the Soundtrack for Marriage with an evening with Dr. Emerson Eggerichs, who will share his practical insights on the basics needed for a great marriage – love and respect! This is based on what the Bible teaches in Ephesians 5:33. Love and respect, what we are focusing on in our current series, are the keys to developing oneness. Don’t miss this. Grow your marriage! Find out more and REGISTER HERE.

THANK YOU!

Finally, thank you all for your very kind responses to our 20th anniversary here at Pantano. Jolene and I are very grateful for the notes (which we are still reading) and for the gift of a vacation. Wow! I have loved being a part of Pantano for these 20 years and I’ve loved sharing life with you all. THANK YOU!

Our family had just finished our mission work in Ukraine and we moved to Tucson in June of 1998. It was so good to be back in Arizona, as both Jolene and I grew up here. I was the first mission’s pastor that Pantano had ever had. I can’t remember why, but my employment didn’t start until August 1st. I remember I had a mission’s related meeting that Saturday morning. That afternoon of my first official work day, my daughter had 3 grand mal seizures that ended up requiring surgery. That’s how my life and work started here 20 years ago.

I served as Mission Pastor for a few years and then became the Executive Pastor. I loved both roles. It was during a season of genuine gratitude in 2003 that I sensed God calling me to be a Lead Pastor somewhere. Now, the number one rule of an Executive Pastor is to not desire the role of the Lead Pastor. So, I had a conversation with Tim Coop, the Senior Pastor at the time, and told him I loved working with him, I loved Pantano, I loved my job and I loved Tucson – but God was calling me to serve as a Lead Pastor, which at that time was a bit out of my comfort zone. I told Tim I wanted to honor him and Pantano, why I would start looking for a Lead Pastor job, and that I didn’t want to surprise anyone in the process. It was then that Tim offered to do a planned succession. I became Lead Pastor in January of 2007.

I would never trade these last 20 years for anything. Yes, there were some really hard seasons. But, those pale in comparison to the amazing people I’ve had the opportunity to share life with at Pantano and the amazing things we’ve accomplished. I love our church. I’m so proud of our church. I’m so honored to be the 8th Lead Pastor (over the 57 years Pantano has existed).

Here’s what I love about our church: It is a place of grace, and I mean real grace. Pantano is a loving, safe place where anyone can be real and authentic and still be loved and appreciated. That is rare just about anywhere and is even rare in churches. We don’t have to put on a mask and pretend to be anywhere near perfect at our church. I love that Pantano is focused and passionate about reaching people not connected to God or a church. I love that we are invested in making a difference in our city and in key places around the world. God is using us to bring the influence of Jesus to so many people and places. I love that we are a church that has embraced change and are willing to eliminate anything that will hinder a person from finding Jesus, without giving up our commitment to the truth and the Bible. We are externally-focused and not just consumed by our own church’s needs. We are launching our own Pantano folks to all kinds of ministries, organizations and churches around Tucson and beyond. And, there is so much more that I love.

I’ve been in full-time ministry for a total of 41 years. Just about half of that has been here at Pantano. Thank you for allowing me to serve you and be the Lead Pastor. Thank you for sharing your lives with me and my family. Thank you for truly understanding our vision, mission and purpose. Thank you for making Pantano one of the healthiest churches in the country (I mean that!). Thank you for supporting me, encouraging me and loving me, even when I’m not always easy to love. THANK YOU for a great 20 years!

“Together to make a difference.” For many years I put this phrase at the end of my letters and emails. Our mission is to make a difference and as a church we’ll only make a real difference if we all do something! That’s why, as a church, we ARE making a difference here and around the world. For example, our church helped start and sustain Care Portal which has helped literally thousands of families be able to reunited after the Department of Child Safety determined it was safe to do so. And, we helped start a movement that is now in 16 states! There are so many more stories like this. Together we DO make a difference.

God is moving in and through our church. So many of you are DOING our mission. You are loving people to Jesus. You are inviting people. THANK YOU! In the last 12 months, 326 people were baptized. And, we’ve been experiencing significant growth consistently now for well over a year. On campus, adult attendance growth is over 10%. Add our online attendance and it nears 30%! Middle school and children have grown significantly, but our high school ministry has declined by almost 40% and that is because of space issues.

We have combined middle school and high school in the Student Center on Sundays. At 9am and 11am the room is completely full. There is no room to grow. We have to build, and it is in the best interests of the students to separate middle school and high school so they can each have their own service and focus. We are in active search for a middle school pastor to allow Brian Lucas to focus on high school. But, we also need more room!

This Sunday, we’ll “officially” launch Room for More. We are going to build a 19,000 sq. ft. “sprung structure.” We have loan papers signed. Our architectural plans are almost finished. Once finished, we’ll hire a general contractor and submit for permits. This next week, we’ll start preparing the site by removing the storage units, the old ramada and the modular units. We are giving the modulars to two churches. So, you’ll start to see some movement soon.

I’ve been a part of building in every church I’ve served (Yuma, Cincinnati, Ukraine, and Pantano). Every project always took longer than promised! Right now, barring any challenges, we hope to occupy the new high school auditorium no later than November.

While final costs are never guaranteed, it looks like the cost for the preparation, construction and furnishings will be about 2 million dollars. We will be both wise and frugal as we proceed. This not only gets us a state-of-the-art high school room, but we’ll move all the offices to one place and that will free up more rooms on our existing campus for our adult, children and student growth.

Together, we can do this. Please prayerfully consider giving a generous gift above your regular giving. My prayer is that we can pay off the loan by the end of the year. I don’t want to add debt to our budget. Pray and think through how you can make a gift sometime before the end of the year. I began praying about this back in the winter. God provided, so that my wife and I were able to make two gifts already, and I’m trusting we’ll be able to give more. Join me so we can make Room for More. Starting Sunday, we’ll have new offering envelopes where you can identify if your gift is a regular gift or a Room for More gift. You can give online where you have the option of where to direct your gifts (options under “Giving Fund”). Thank you in advance for helping us reach people to introduce them to Jesus, in order to follow Jesus.

We are in the middle of a teaching series on Sundays called Trust. We are taking a deep dive to better understand this core part of our faith. And as we think about trust there is a pesky word that reflects our struggle to trust; it’s the word “if.” When it comes to trusting God, our “ifs” reflect that while we love God and believe he wants good for us, we are uncertain IF he can do what seems impossible in us (changing us) and through us (in how we respond to the storm or crisis we face).

We all, at times, experience genuine doubt. If we are honest, there are times we all doubt and wonder IF God will show up or IF he’ll be faithful to his promises or IF he really loves me like they say he does. I’ve been following Jesus for 48 years now and there are moments when I still deal with doubt. They don’t last as long and not are as frequent as they used to be. So, let’s be spiritually honest and admit that doubt still shows up.

We are in the middle of a teaching series on Sundays called Trust. We are taking a deep dive to better understand this core part of our faith. And as we think about trust there is a pesky word that reflects our struggle to trust; it’s the word “if.” When it comes to trusting God, our “ifs” reflect that while we love God and believe he wants good for us, we are uncertain IF he can do what seems impossible in us (changing us) and through us (in how we respond to the storm or crisis we face).

We all, at times, experience genuine doubt. If we are honest, there are times we all doubt and wonder IF God will show up or IF he’ll be faithful to his promises or IF he really loves me like they say he does. I’ve been following Jesus for 48 years now and there are moments when I still deal with doubt. They don’t last as long and not are as frequent as they used to be. So, let’s be spiritually honest and admit that doubt still shows up.

As I’ve been preparing for the series on trust, I spent a long time looking at and studying a situation Jesus encountered in Mark 9:14-29. In the end, I couldn’t fit it into our four-week teaching, as much as I love this story. Jesus just came down from what we call the “transfiguration” where he appears with Moses and Elijah. God affirms Jesus to Peter, James and John and said for the second time, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

They come down the mountain to encounter the other nine disciples who can’t drive out a demon that has caused a boy to be mute and face constant lethal seizures. Read the descriptions of what the boy endured and your heart breaks. But the story is clear – there is a lack of faith and trust in the disciples, the crowd and the boy’s father. Jesus declares this in verse 19 – “You unbelieving generation.” We too are the generation that struggles to fully trust God.

The boy’s father begs Jesus and says in verse 22, “But IF you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” There’s the “if” word. Jesus replies; “If you can?” I can hear Jesus emphasize the word “if” when he repeated what the father said. Then Jesus says; “Everything is possible for the one who believes.” Jesus is inviting the father of the boy and you and me to believe that Jesus is God’s Son who can do anything. Please catch this. Our faith and trust believes that Jesus can do anything. There are no limits to his power. That of course doesn’t mean that Jesus is our genie who will grant our every wish. We don’t control Jesus. He is both loving and wise and knows how best to respond. We trust there are no limits to what Jesus can do in us, in others and in situations. But we also trust that how Jesus responds is what’s best and it will always be consistent with the character of God.

Then the father says what we all should probably say to Jesus; “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.” That’s honest! That’s real. What we have here is the result of an IF kind of faith – guarded hope. In my storm, in my crisis, when I’m challenged to really obey and submit – will I trust him? Do I believe that he can help me do the hard things that require I trust him? The hard thing is to forgive someone who did terrible things to me. The hard thing is to obey him when it seems it might cost me a lot to obey. The hard thing is to really give generously first to God even when I don’t seem to have any extra. The hard thing is to take a risk and follow Jesus in serving or going on a short-term mission to Rocky Point. The hard thing is to invest in someone and look for a way to invite them to get to know Jesus. The hard things do require trust.

I do believe the ways of Jesus are good and are the best ways. I do trust you Jesus! But help me in all the ways I still struggle to trust you!

Happy Independence Day!

In terms of the history of the world, America is a still a young experiment in democracy and true personal freedom. Having travelled and lived in other countries and systems, I’ll tell you that what we have is very unique and special. There are very few places in the world where freedom is cherished, protected and actually experienced like it is in America.

No, we are not perfect. In humble honesty, we must acknowledge that there is so much in our country that is still wrong and needs to be fixed. And, we are free to even disagree on what needs to be fixed and how we do that. We will have imperfect freedoms as long as humans are a part of the system!

And while our legal freedoms are still not equally distributed, underneath the parts that are broken and even unjust, there is an amazing value and provision of personal freedom. The Bill of Rights is still an amazing protection of personal freedoms. I love our country and the freedom and opportunities it offers.

There is even a greater freedom offered to every human, despite the system they live in. Paul says is so well in Galatians 5:1 – It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. The context is regarding the religious slavery of having to follow certain rules to be accepted into the community of faith. Paul boldly announces that we are free of religion. We can’t gain or earn God’s love by trying to be good and by following certain rules. We don’t have to jump through a bunch of religious hoops to be forgiven. In Jesus, there is no condemnation. God loves us… period. We get to become a free child of God as we trust Jesus and engage in an authentic relationship with him – no matter who you are or what your past looks like. And when we invite Jesus to have primary influence in us, that’s called faith, then Jesus will transform us in ways rules and religion could never change us.

Later in verse 6 Paul says – The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. That’s profound. That’s a clear statement about what really matters. That is the result of the freedom we have in Christ. We are free from the boundaries of religion to let Jesus’ love flow through us. Freedom, in terms of personal rights or spiritual experience, was never meant to just be for our own benefit alone, but to allow us to be free to love and serve others.

I sort of wish the official name of the holiday on July 4th was Freedom Day. No, there’s no campaign forming here. But that’s the heart of what this day is about. Freedom! Priceless in value. But it always costs. Our freedoms cost our early founders dearly. Our spiritual freedom cost God his one and only Son. I’m grateful for freedom and those who sacrificed to make it available. Yet, on this holiday, I’m also reminded of how very few people get to experience both personal and spiritual freedoms.

My vacation has ended. I should insert a “sad” emoji here! It was great to unplug for the last 3 weeks. I used some of the time to do major projects at my house that needed attention. Working with my hands is a great way to unplug and refresh. That break and rest gives me energy to jump back in with my all for the next 11 months! And this Sunday I’ll be starting a new series called Trust. Why “trust?”

As many of you know, at the beginning of the year I challenge people to pick one word to focus on for the year. How’s it going with your one word focus? My word for 2018 is “legacy.” What I’ve noticed over the years is that the most commonly picked word is likely the word “trust”. It can be easy to trust God when life is going great and we have everything under control. But will we trust God in the unknown, the obscure, the unsure, the undefined? Will we trust God when things are out of control or where we have little control? Will we trust God when there’s a total lack of clarity and when the future is ambiguous at best?

The Bible says that without faith or trust, it is impossible to please God. In Hebrews 11:6 we find these words: And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

What does it mean that trust is essential to please God? Does this mean we must do religious things for God to like us? No. Not at all. God is pleased when we seek him! God wants us to trust him to direct our lives. He wants us to experience that he is worthy of our trust. He wants us to have that kind of deep authentic relationship with him.

Trust goes beyond believing that God exists, as many many people do, to actually saying “yes” to God in both the normal and challenging aspects of life. Trust is the only path to experience a full relationship with God. We trust God that he is for us, he will guide in the right ways, and that he has our best interests in mind all the time. So in trust we say “yes” to God. The more we say “yes” to God the more we’ll experience the depth of a relationship with God.

So, for the next month, we’ll explore what trust means, the benefits of trust, and how we can actually stay on this journey of trust through all the things that attempt to crush our trust in God.

Also, this Sunday we’ll be honoring Robin Blumenthal, our Family Pastor. Robin is completing almost 14 years here on staff. She has clearly sensed God calling her to trust him to lead her to her next challenge. She’ll be sharing about what’s next and how God has guided her to this new ministry. Join us as we honor her!

As Lead Pastor, my head is in what and why we do what we do all my waking hours. So I take a lot of things for granted. It hit me that we do some things on a regular basis that you might not know about. Fact is, there is so much that happens at our church I don’t actually know everything that happening…and that’s okay too! But here some things you might not know about…

Did you know that before folks are baptized we have conversations with them about the meaning of baptism? We want to make sure each person understands the commitment they are making. Sometimes we have long conversations before the day they are baptized. Sometimes they are just prior to baptism. And we take each person’s confession of faith so they can carefully reflect on what they are committing to. We also follow up with each person being baptized. Baptism is a big deal for each person – one with deep spiritual implications, so we do our best to help each person fully grasp the meaning and purpose. And I’ll bet you didn’t know that since July 1st last year we’ve had 316 folks choose to be baptized – that’s about 17% more than last year at this time.

And did you know that we have a special baptism class for children and their parents to help both the child and the parents have a good understanding and be able to determine if and when a child is ready? The next class is Sunday August 5th at 11 AM and it takes place in Towne Hall 5 (TH5). Click here to register.

I love that we practice communion every Sunday. Did you know that we offer gluten free communion bread? It is available in the lobby in the bookshelf by the ushers door or just ask any of our greeters.

Did you know that this year we launched what we call our Next Level Leadership development process? We’ve developed a plan and the resources and training to help our staff mentor leaders who want to grow into the next level of leadership. Leadership development is one the most important things we do to be able to continue to grow and offer great spiritual opportunities for people. I hope that by next year we’ll be able to open it up to anyone who wants to mentor and/or be mentored.

Did you know that in addition to our Pantano online campusthat is live, we also make the sermon available online (usually by Tuesday – without the music for copyright reasons)? And our sermon notes with discussion questions are also available at the same web location. This is great if you forgot a scripture or illustration mentioned. Just go to “watch” at the top of Pantano.churchand to the right there are several options like the sermon notes, downloading the audio message (mp3) or downloading the video (to share with others!).

There’s lots more. I’ll bet you didn’t know that every weekend message is reviewed and the teacher gets feedback from the teaching team 4 different times and we debrief it after we’ve taught. That’s a lot of feedback and review, but so worth it. Just thought you’d like to know!

Every once in a while, I get a comment that I (or we at Pantano) don’t talk about the gospel or at least don’t focus on it enough. I find that interesting because we actually plan to share at least parts of the gospel in every weekend service. The word “gospel’ means good news. It is the good news that God has responded in love through Jesus to our spiritual needs.

There are a lot of significant aspects to the gospel: Jesus came, Jesus died for our sins, Jesus rose from the dead and is alive, God offers grace and multiple chances, he loves and seeks the lost, we have total forgiveness in Jesus, he offers us new life now and for eternity, God adopted us as his very own children, he has come to live and dwell in us and so much more. There is SO much to the good news that a few words or ideas can’t capture the depth and beauty of God’s gift to us.

When I teach on Sundays, I always intentionally find ways to share at least some of the gospel. If you are looking for it, it is always there. So, that’s actually my challenge to you – look for the fresh ways I (we) share the gospel. I try not to only use “church” language that folks who don’t know the Bible or who rarely attend church might find difficult to understand. I try to communicate the gospel in ways that reach where folks actually are. I see every Sunday service as an opportunity to mention that in Jesus our sins are forgiven, and to remind us of God’s love and grace, but say it different ways like this: God is for us, he is with us, and he never gives up on us.

Sometimes I’ll spend a whole message on just one part of the process of responding to the gospel. Back on March 25th, I did a message in our “Bad Ink” series on repentance. “Bad ink” was a way to talk about our sin and God’s grace. Repentance is one aspect of how we respond to the gospel. Knowing that many folks don’t really get the idea of repentance, I spent the whole message focusing on it. If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Approximately once a month we offer invitations for folks to be baptized. In the message the week we offer an invitation, we always share a significant part of the gospel message.

And, every week we practice communion. The very core to the communion experience is the gospel. When we take the bread and grape juice we are proclaiming the very heart of the gospel.

My point is that the gospel is at the heart of all we are and do at Pantano. We don’t exist without the good news. We have no hope without it. We have no motivation to fulfill our mission of “Loving People to Jesus” apart from it. But the good news is alive and fresh, so it may not sound how it was communicated years ago or how it is talked about in other churches. The core meaning never changes, but how we communicate it must be new, fresh and appealing for every generation.

Paul wrote the book of Romans to give what became a 16 chapter explanation of the gospel. I love how he sets up that book in Romans 1:16-17– For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes…“The righteous will live by faith.”

This year, we are hosting our 10th Global Leadership Summit (GLS). Over the last 9 years I’ve learned so much from the GLS and applied so much of what I learned in my own life and leadership as well as how we do things here at Pantano. I think it was 2011 when I was at one of my lowest points in leadership and there was a Summit talk that ended up helping me form my life motto! The GLS is powerful, inspirational, practical and always has something that I take away and use. You don’t want to miss the 2018 Global Leadership Summit. The theme this year is “Everyone has influence…”

We host the GLS for three main reasons:

• It makes it easy for as many of our leaders and staff to participate as possible
• As a host church, we can offer you the lowest price possible and it is a bargain for the quality of speakers we get to hear
• We want to help the leaders from other churches, non-profits, social sector and business world lead better.

Everyone has influence! Everyone can get better at how they influence! More importantly, God has commissioned us to bring his kingdom influence to our world. So, come sharpen your skills with us. And sign up now for the rock bottom price.

Here are the details:

Date and Time: Thursday, August 9 & Friday, August 10, 8:30AM – 4PM (both days)

Locations:
Pantano Christian Church – 1755 S Houghton Rd, Tucson, AZ
Desert Hills Lutheran Church – 2150 S Camino del Sol, Green Valley, AZ

Price: The Pantano rate is $89 until 6/26, then $119 thereafter. You’ll need a discount code to get this price. We can’t give this code out in print or to the general public. It will be posted before and after services or you can call the church office at 520.298.5395 and ask for the code.

The PARTNER rate through 4Tucson is $109 until 6/26, then $139 thereafter.

Student/Faculty/Active Duty Military pricing is $89 (with no cutoff dates).

Registration Link: Pantano GLS Registration Link

Check out the speaker lineup link here.

We hope to see you at the 2018 Summit!

Back in January of this year, we did a series called Making Room. In that series, I did a message in which I talked about how vital it is do develop a system of Sabbaths; the message was called Put the Brakes On. I believe that God made us to need Sabbaths. We were made for pauses, breaks and rest. In fact, God made a series of Sabbaths. There was the weekly Sabbath – work 6 days and rest on the 7th. He made financial and land Sabbaths where debts were to be forgiven and the land was to rest every 7 years. And finally there was a Sabbath called the Jubilee where after 49 years slaves were to be freed and land returned to original owners.

We need Sabbaths. Just like muscles and joints, our brain gets overwhelmed and tired when it has too much stuff to give attention to for too long. The warning sign that we need a Sabbath is anytime we experience “too much, too long.” Add “too hard” and a breakdown is coming.

Here’s what a Sabbath is using words that start with “R” – Rest, Remembrance, Relationships, Replenish and Restore

• Rest – we all need regular physical, mental, emotional rest and breaks from our routines.
• Remembrance – we take a Sabbath to remember God, his calling and purpose as well as our identity in him. We too easily forget what’s so important!
• Relationships – Sabbaths are times to pull away from work to connect with family and community.
• Replenish and Restore – that is the result of regular Sabbaths.

Here’s my Sabbath system. I share it not that you should copy it exactly, but to get you thinking about how to develop your own Sabbath system:

• Daily time in the morning to connect with God – Bible reading and prayer
• Daily time in the evening to be grateful
• A weekly day off from my regular work routine
• Every quarter, I take a day to give focus and attention to prayer
• Yearly, I take 3-4 weeks of vacation and totally unplug from the church and my work there

One of our greatest challenges these days is that we have 24/7 connectivity. We can always check our phone, computer, or tablet. That means we no longer have good boundaries of white space and quiet for a true Sabbath and spiritual pause. It is really healthy to have a regular technology Sabbath as well. Maybe start with an hour a day of no texting, email, social media, etc. Try using the “airplane mode” or turn your phone completely off!

As you are reading this, I’m starting my June vacation/Sabbath. I work non-stop and hard for eleven months and I’m very ready for this month off. I’ll unplug for 3 weeks. I’ll do some projects around the house and go the lake as often as I can. I’ll end the month with a conference. I’ll be back July 1st full of energy, fresh and ready to go!