Great time this morning!

We had 15 people at our ministry facilities forum this morning. This diverse group represented church leaders who have been working in the city here for more than a decade all the way to one person who is praying about planting a church here in the city. All of these leaders in one way or another are wrestling with facility space issues.

Harold Richardson, a retired local business owner (and the father of Doug Richardson who is the pator of Long Beach Christian Fellowship), gave us a first hand account of someone who has worked with the city to identify and secure ministry facility space locally. Great stuff! He painted a realistic picture of the potential challenges that anyone might face along these lines.

Two quick take-aways for me: 1) One really does need to do their homework (local community by-in, functionality of the site, etc...) before bringing your Conditional Use Permit (CUP) Application before the Planning Commission and 2) as a collective Church here in the city we need to make sure that we are approaching the process, as challenging and frustrating as it might be at times, with the upmost integrity (not trying to skirt the CUP system, not flying under the radar, etc...). There is a lot at stake here in terms of credibility and we need to have a clean conscience if we are going to fight for this and/or any other justice issue in our cities. The other reality is that it only makes life more difficult for those that come behind us if we don't.

If you want any more of the brainstorm details check under the "Forums" link.

And, oh yeah, thanks Harold!!

Identifying Local Ministry Facilities Forum

This Wednesday Kingdom Causes will be hosting a forum on "Identifying Local Ministry Facilities" for any local church leader here in the greater Long Beach/Lakewood area. This can be a challenge no matter if you are a new church planter or have been ministering here for years! We have heard many of you talking about this issue lately and we want to serve you by helping get many of your questions answered that no doubt come to mind with this issue.

We are inviting a special guest, Harold Richardson, to come and share with us out of his years of expertise in working with the city in this regard as a local pastor. He has REALLY DONE HIS HOMEWORK on this issue and will be giving us a first hand account of the process of working with the city, the numerous challenges that we face locally and even suggest how you (we) might proceed from here. We will end the time by brainstorming about what next steps there might be to help you proceed from here.

When: Wednesday, March 8th
Time: 7:30 AM (sharp) - 9:00 AM
Where: Bixby Café & Pizza (3900 Atlantic Ave, Long Beach, CA 90807)(Atlantic Blvd just South of Carson. Across from Washington Mutual)
Cost: Free other than the cost of your own breakfast The Bixby Café is providing us with a separate back room free of charge but will be providing staff to take our breakfast orders.

In order to attend this forum you will need to RSVP!! Please contact Judy Wilson at jwilson@lbcf.org or at 562-989-6000 before Noon on Tuesday, March 7th if you plan on attending. If you get this message after this deadline give me a call. We will make it work!

Praying for Citylights Community Church

Another incredible morning discovering how God is mobilizing His people locally. This morning we were hosted by Pastors Thien Doan and Tom Demorest for our local monthly church leaders prayer gathering. These two brothers are the leaders of Citylights Community Church. What an exciting time of story telling and prayer! This church is yet another one of the Church PLants that has recently come into the city. They shared about how God drew them here and how there are navigating some of the challenges that face ministries in a complex and diverse urban center such as this. They were extremely encouraged by having other leaders from around the region come and pray for them. The rest of us were encouraged by their faith and their passion for the city that we also love dearly.

One of the exciting aspects of their story was how they are partnering with Parkcrest Church which is letting use their facilities on 7th and Obispo. They currently have their offices there and have just begun a program called Kids Stuff for the local kids in the neighborhood. What a great example this is of churches in the city not caring about their "own territory" but rather creatively seeking out ways for Kingdom resources such as these buildings to be maximized for the greatest Kingdom impact.

They specifically asked for prayer in the following areas:

1. For their Kids Stuff program
2. Word to spread throughout the neighborhood about this safe place for kids to come and play
3. Their Sunday evening church gathering at the Blue Nile coffee shop in the East Village Arts District.
4. Team dynamics with their core team - a few people doing a lot of work
5. More strategic partnerships across the city
6. Financial advancement for their ministry
7. Clear sense of direction and organizational development as they move forward

Next month we are heading over to West side Long Beach to see and hear how God is at work there as well. Email me if you are a local church leader and are interested in joining us!

Dinner for LB Pastors & Spouses

Last night we hosted an evening of blessing, connection, dinner, and entertainment for pastors and their spouses of the Greater Long Beach area. Enjoying a wonderful dinner at Khoury's Restaurant, pastors and ministry leaders representing 40 distinct churches and organizations had an opportunity to meet and/or reconnect with each other while being entertained by a very funny comedian named Thor Ramsey from Outreach Comedy. Six professional counseling ministries helped to sponsor the dinner and collectively made a commitment to support the marriages and families of these pastors.

Click Here to View The Photo Galleries

Kingdom Causes would like to thank the following 27 businesses, organizations, and individuals who partnered with us as sponsors and contributors for the dinner:

A McNabb Design
Aquarium of the Pacific
Bianca's Divine Costumes
B.J.'s Restaurant & Brewery
Break Thru Ministries
Center for Individual & Family Therapy
David Zabalaoui
El Torito
Family Outreach Counseling
Foursquare, LA South Coast District
Futas Design Group, Inc.
Hiatt & Peek
Hyatt Regency Long Beach
Islands
Khoury's Restaurant
Kingdom Causes
Lighthouse Christian Stores
Mark Giraud
Michele Jarosh
New Hope Grief Support
Olive Garden
Outback Steakhouse
Outreach Comedy
Pathos Christ Centered Counseling
P.F. Changs
Promo Direct
Restored Hope

"Seeking the Welfare of the City"

4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

I am presently in Iowa sitting at a BILD conference hanging out with some friends and potential benefactors of our work here in Long Beach and they just read one of my favorite passages. Jeremiah 29:4-7. How does this passage speak into how we should live our lives in Long Beach in our day? What does this look like? How could you pattern your daily life so that you are actively seeking the welfare/prosperity of our city?

Metro Kids Ministry

My son and I went down today to see firsthand a ministry that I have been hearing about for over a year now. I first heard about this ministry from numerous people that working together in the mutiple church task forces in North Long Beach. The large converted van in the picture with the drop down side and the p/a system is the home base for a mobile ministry that reaches out to kids with the Love of Christ. You can find Calvin and Sarah Tatupu regularly stopping at places where kids like to hang out. Today they happened to be at the Carmelitos Housing Projects here in North Long Beach. What a joy it was to seeing these kids listening intently to the word for the day about King David. The message: "say NO to temptation".

If you would like to learn more about this outreach ministry you can view their web site at www.metrokidz.org. They currently do this ministry full time are always looking for weekly sites, special events, and other creative ways that the can use this ministry to serve the youth in the area. Feel free to email them at sidebyside2004@yahoo.com for further information.

Eric at the Long Beach Leadership Prayer Breakfast

38 people decided to trust and follow Christ this morning! I always have had mixed feelings about these breakfasts that are patterned after the presidential prayer breakfast but I can honestly say 'What a great prayer breakfast this year!'. In spite of some technical difficulties there was definitely a sense that God wanted to stir many of the hundreds of hearts in the roon this morning. The guest speaker today was Ken Blanchard (Author of The One Minute Manager) and he really did an excellent job sharing his personal testimony and also about how he has come to believe that Jesus is the ultimate model of leadership.

Also, well done Eric. This year Eric got the opportunity to read the NT passage at the breakfast. Here he is eating his luke warm eggs and bacon before the program started. He was there today representing DeVry University as their Fall 2004 Valedictorian. He is in the background there at the table with the white shirt. Nice tie!

Church being mobilized in Torrance

Eric, Mary and myself joined our Torrance Catalyst, Evan Chase, at his home church for the initiation of a couple task forces for that city. One of the joys or our calling is to travel to neighboring cities to see how God is moving there. There was about 60 people who stayed after the morning services to hear about how God is mobilizing the entire Church there (as individuals and and as a collective body) and how they are a strategic part of it. There was definitely a buzz in the room as God's people really began to sense how they could further take responsibility for their city. It was so exciting that us "city outsiders" almost joined one of the teams ourselves! Keep up the great work Evan as you lovingly serve the Church of Torrance and beyond.

North Long Beach asking for a "healing of their land"!

It was great to see many people from a number of local ministries come out to Houghton Park to lift up the Name of Jesus in North Long Beach. I forgot to count but there must have been around at least 50 people there. One of our stated goals for the day was to spend more time talking to Jesus than to each other. I know that may not sound like a revolutionary concept for a "prayer gathering" but many times gatherings like this aren't actually as much about prayer. I was encouraged to see various sized groups walking around the park talking to King Jesus asking Him to "heal our land". Thanks to all of you who helped out behind the scenes and/or took a lead role in making this time happen. God's desire, as both you and I know, is to "hear from on high" the prayers of His people when they intercede on behalf of their neighborhoods like we did and continue to do. Lord, may your will be done in North Long Beach as it is in heaven!

Hope to see many of you out tonight at our Community Mobilization Meeting at Glad Tidings from 6:45 to 8:30 PM. Tonight we will be breaking out the Strategic Planning Process and will be laying the groundwork for some action plans for the next year.

Our Golf Marathon was a success!

I know EXACTLY how that guy feels! I too spent much of my day wandering around looking for my golf balls!

I did it though! I actually played 100 holes of golf in one day. I shot a 25 under par. Not bad for a 4x per year golfer/hacker! Here is how I did it. We all teed off at 8:00 am. It couldn’t have been a nicer day. We were the only ones on the course so we had the run of a top notch golf course. We each played 5 balls off of each tee. We would then round up our four terrible shots (actually, we only rounded up the ones that weren’t in someone’s backyard, under 10 feet of green water or left resting somewhere in the “I’m sure I saw it land over here somewhere” parts of the course) and then hit 5 shots again from where our best shot was lying. For you golfers, this would be known as a ‘personal best-ball scramble’. At the end of each hole we would count our shots as if we had just played that hole 5 times.  5 balls x 20 holes (plus 8 band-aids, 3 granola bars, a nice box lunch, 30+ lost golf balls, 3 bananas, gallons of water and juice, and a week long recovery from sore muscles) = 100 holes of golf in a day! Simple as that! For the record, my mother-in-law says that this was cheating! Technically, however, I did hit 100 tee shots, 100+ approach shots and 100+ puts.

What a blast! What a great way to spend a day. What a great way to raise some money for a worthy cause. We were able to raise just over $40 thousand dollars to support our work across the LA Basin. Thanks to all of you who helped to make that happen! We are deeply appreciative! All of us as Kingdom Causes Catalysts are dependant on raising monthly financial support for our work so the investment on your part will go a long way! It was such a success that we plan on doing it again next year and would love to have you join us out on the links!

Busy day of planning for the North Long Beach Charet

Tommorow night is our North Long Beach Community Forum. We are polishing up many of the last minute details today. We are hoping to have another gathering with a diversity of local ministires there. In addition to helping to mobilize God's people there we are also looking to learn from this Charet (strategic conversation) and see if this might not be a model that can be reproduced in other areas.

The purpose of this meeting is to find ways to identify, celebrate and even initiate signs of Hope and Life in the community. The meeting will be held in their social hall from 7:00-8:30 PM. Doors open at 6:30 and light refreshments will be served. Childcare will also be provided. All are welcome!

Weekly Intercession For the City

Many of us gathered to pray tonight to intercede for the city. It was a fresh time of humbling ourselves before God and worshipping Him on behalf of the city. We asked for God to reveal Himself to the residents of Long Beach in awesome and creative ways. We know that He will surprise us as we will begin hearing peoples testimonies of how they were drawn to Christ.

Every Monday evening at 7pm intercessors will be atop Signal Hill at Hill Top Park to pray for the city. Every Tuesday evening at 6:30pm intercessors will be at the Kingdom Causes office in Signal Hill to pray for the city. See the "Prayer Gatherings" link at the Web site home page for listings and details.

Long Beach City Watch Monthly

This morning, many intercessors from different churches gathered together for Long Beach City Watch. We shared about the things that God was placing on our hearts regarding the city and we spent time in intercession. It was a wonderful time too of connecting with the other intercessors.

Every 4th Saturday of every month, the strategic intercessors of Long Beach will gather for Long Beach City Watch at the Kingdom Causes office at 9:00 am to pray for the city. See the "Prayer Gatherings" link at the Web site home page of listings and info.

The Battle is Real

"For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore we need to take up the full armor of God..."

I was reminded of this truth today after the prayer walking we did yesterday. Turns out that there were 5 shootings and 1 stabbing across the city later on that day. In fact, I just read that there was a 16 year old that was shot and killed walking on one of the very streets that we were covering in prayer.

The battle is real. What is at stake is the very lives of people whom Christ died for. What is at stake is the enemy overtly and covertly having his way in our cities. The battle is all around us. The battle is waging for the hearts and minds of my neighbors at this very moment. We will continue to work to bring sustained prayer over our cities as we try and serve our King by finding ways to mobilize His people. Let's go! It is worth it!

God is mobilizing a united front in North Long Beach!

Great news. God is on the move in North Long Beach! One of the things that we have been working on locally here is to develop a team of key leaders (pastors, community organizers, etc...) to bring some focus and attention to a broader Kingdom focus here in North Long Beach. This emerging team was called together as a response to many conversations that we had been having about the need to identify, organize and mobilize people to work for the good of the community there. Using our KC language, we would call this a Neighborhood Development Task Force.

This afternoon, we rallied together a team of people to do some prayer walking all over North Long Beach. This was our first mobilization step. We wanted to bring the Lord's blessing to the streets and continue to "break up the soil" for the reception of Good News. We were excited to have confirmation of almost 25 people by noon on the Friday before. We planned on lunch for 30 just in case. Turns out that we almost had 60 people show up. These people represented 15 different ministries! Wow! What a time that we had together praying in unison as a representation of the bride of Christ! What an opportunity that we had to spread out in teams throughout the region praying on the very sites that we were seeking the Lord's response to our prayers! What a representation this was of the hunger that is in God's people for positioning and mobilizing for His purposes here!

Connecting With Other Regional Networkers

After our time of prayer for the city last night, we met with Liel from Jesus Revolution Now! (Los Angeles) and Michael Dalton from PrayCal. It was a great time of connecting and sharing of common vision. They have such refreshing passion - it's awesome! We all first met at last month's LA City Watch in Hollywood. We had such a great time connecting that we wanted to make sure we remained in contact so that we can continue to be available for what the Lord would have us do in this region. We all shared about what God was placing on our hearts for the region and we're excited to see how God would continue to bring us together for the purpose of mobilizing prayer throughout Southern California.

Intercession For the City

We decided to begin meeting for prayer every Tuesday at 6:30pm here at the KC office in Signal Hill. We spent time interceding for the City Council (who also have their council meetings every Tuesday evenings). I spoke to a few other people and they will be joining us on Tuesdays too. Many of us are gathering to prayer walk this coming Saturday in North Long Beach. At first, we were planning on a community picnic at the park but now it's going to be a barbeque at one of the churches up there for the pastors and prayer walkers/intercessors. It'll be a great time!

Update on the Global day of Prayer

This was an interesting experience for me. I first heard about the Global Day of Prayer (GDOP) in early February and I had a strong sense that God was stirring His church around the world to be praying through this effort. It is a high value for me to have a globally informed faith and this call from my african brothers to pray struck a chord with me. We tried to spread the word as much as possible here locally in the LA Basin but there was no real traction with our efforts. It was not really on people's radar so it was difficult to get things moving as quick as they needed to. None the less, we made it a part of our 40:24:7 effort to stimulate prayer for our region and we even participated in two different GDOP events on Penetecost Sunday. We drove to Hollywood for one and a stadium in Orange County for the other. It was definately worth it. We joined with over 200 million Christians worldwide that day interceding for our cities!

Here are few links if you want to see how God stirred things up that day all around the world. We are going to be a part of this next year as well!

www.gdopvideo.com
www.globaldayofprayer.com
www.cityrenewal.com.hk

As a side note, I know that God honored my desire to be a part of this event in a special way. While driving around the LA freeways that day I was joined by a dear brother named Jonah Okechukwu. Get this. He is a pastor/evangelist from Cameroon! I had met him only days earlier and we spent much of the day sharing and praying together for God's heart for all nations. What a blessing!!

Pastors pray for Friday Study Ministries

This morning we had a great time gathering at the home of Pastors Ron and Genevieve Beckham. We met at their home because that is where they faithfully serve the "First Church on the Net" which is also known as Friday Study Ministries. We heard testimony of how God uses this ministry to touch the lives of 10's of thousands of people all around the world each and every month. It was truly a blessing to be a part of a group of leaders from 13 other local ministries that were standing in the gap for this innovative church community. One of the primary purposes of these monthly gatherings is to hear stories of how God is working in various contexts around the area. I was filled with joy this morning as I heard the Beckham's share and as I had the opportunity to pray with them. I have long felt that these servants of the Lord are truly a blessing from the Lord to our city here. Keep up the great work!

Tour of Long Beach

Well the 15 Intervarsity interns from USC are officially here. Two teams of 7 and 8 are staying at Covenant Presbyterian Church and New Life Church and will be serving at various sites in the city. Brad and I took them on a tour of Long Beach today to give them a broad perspective of the city.


We first started at the top of Signal Hill. Have you ever been up at the top of Signal Hill Park? It's an awesome view. Except for the east side of Long Beach, you can see practically all of Long Beach (and on a clear day - all the way out to LA). We spent some time hearing from them about why they are on this urban mission project. Many of them felt led by the Lord here. Many of them felt like they wanted to develop God's heart for the inner city. Many of them have recognized that they need a new type of lens in which to see the world. One guy was actually from Long Beach and when he decided to go on an urban mission with Intervarsity, he was expecting to be sent to Los Angeles or Santa Ana. He was surprised to be sent here to Long Beach - his own hometown. After asking the Lord, he realized that he doesn't need to go elsewhere to find the "real" problems - his own city has issues of its own in which the Lord can use him. I thought that was awesome!

We took them along the East side around to Naples, through Belmont Shore, through Broadway, the Pike, the rescue mission, and city hall in the downtown area, then over to the West side at Camarillo High School, then up to North Long Beach. At each stop, we shared with them various stats and info about some of the needs, issues, and concerns of the city. We had lunch at a great place called M & M Soul Food on Cherry Ave & Market Street. Great food! The teams are on a tight budget so they ordered just a few plates, shared and ate family style. Of course the Lord provided and multiplied with more than enough because they ended up with leftovers! It was kewl to see them try to plan out how to spend their money. I heard them considering money for gas, food for next week, laundry, etc. During the tour we had given them statistics regarding the amount of people that are considered below the poverty line. These families often have to make decisions about whether to buy food vs. other items. Here these interns were having to do the same thing. It'll be exciting to see these students grow in their understanding of life in the city.

As with any project or mission, it's only a snap shot of what's really going on. It's important for all of us to really consider the things we see, then to be able to apply what God shows us into our every day lifestyles. Living out the Great Commission - living out our faith all the time whether in the inner city or in suburbia - that's the objective!