Golf Marathon Update

Great news!

We just this morning confirmed our 8th and 9th players for our Golf Marathon. That is amazing! We still have spots open if you are available/interested! More = Merrier

To learn more about this annual fundraiser or to sponsor one of our current Long Beach golfers click HERE (if you don't know who is golfing for Long Beach, you can use 'Jim Schorr' as a default golfer name)

Our goal for this event here in Long Beach is to raise over $25k for our ongoing work. Part of this money will be used to hire an intern here in Long Beach for the next year so that we can have someone to help us administratively but also focus 1/2 of their time on creating an online database of Information and Opportunities for Involvement that exist around various other local causes than the ones that we are strategically involved in (Youth education, HIV/AIDS, Homelessness & Emergency Preparedness). Once this list is compiled it will really serve as a great resource for people and/or groups to get mobilized locally.

Know anyone looking for an 1 year (or so) internship in community development/city reaching!?

Mustard Seed Foundation is coming to town

On Tuesday, October 23rd, (the day after our Golf Marathon!) Kingdom Causes will be hosting a meeting for Brian Bakke from the Mustard Seed Foundation here in Long Beach. This foundation was the one that gave us our first grant to help us get things started with Kingdom Causes here in Long beach!

The are actively (did I mention ACTIVELY?) looking for local churches that are interested in applying for MSF matching grants. Come and hear about the possible options for the grants that are currently available for local churches only! They are encouraging each local church to bring 2-3 decision making people from any local ministry (and the senior pastor does not need to be one of them).

Details...

Time: 12:30 - 2:30 (they will stay until 3:00 to answer ?'s)
Location: Antioch Missionary Baptist Church (map)

We will need a rough head count so if you are interested in coming please email us at longbeach@kingdomcauses.org. We will also do our best to answer any additional questions that you might have but most of your questions could be best answered by checking out their web site.

See you there!

Well deserved recognition!

Bianca Sovich, our Kingdom Causes Emergency Preparedness Task Force leader, received an award last Sunday at the Good Neighbor festival in the 5th district where she lives. She got this award for ALL OF HER HARD WORK in her community from her local councilwoman, Gerrie Schipske. You and Peter are awesome!

Reminder: Our next task force meeting is next Tuesday eve from 7-9 PM at our offices. Come and learn how local congregations are being mobilized and how you might get involved!

Well done good and faithful servant

What do you say to thank someone for 40 years of selfless service in the inner city among gangsters and the homeless? On October 6th at 3:00 PM there will be a celebration honoring Fred Newkirk and the 40 years he has dedicated to ministry as a missionary in the heart of Long beach.

You are invited to help Long Beach Friends Church thank Fred & Mardella and recognize how God has worked through them. The celebration will be held at:

Long Beach Friends Church
850 Atlantic Ave
Long Beach, CA 90813

The celebration will include a service in which they will recognize Fred's ministry. Afterwards, dessert will be served and you can thank him in person! All are welcome and for those of you who have also been around a while (ahem, those that some us younger folks are standing on the shoulders of!) might want to come and/or pass along word of this special afternoon event to those that have had the pleasure of working with Fred over the years!

(for more information see Long Beach Friends Web Site)

I'm excited about what I've seen in the last weeks

Over the last weeks since hanging out with Brad, I've met, talked to and observed so many young people with vision, purpose and energy to see God's Kingdom established in their cities. I had opportunity to be at the meeting at CSULB Wednesday eve and saw young people from various campus ministries gathered together to worship the same Lord I do. I met two of the young people and we prayed for each other. My prayer request was for this week-end when I will be with my daughter in her journey toward sobriety and H wanted to pray for me and wound up telling me of her journey with her alcoholic father. I had dinner with a young woman who lives in the City near a rest home and wants to have a prom for the residents to bless them! I met a young man with a totally God-inspired plan for a business venture to serve the Kingdom like I've never heard before! I was at a meeting where I heard from a high ranking LB police officer speak of his heart for the pain gang violence between the Rollin 20 Crips and the Insane Crips (please forgive me if the names are wrong) in Long Beach is causing the innocent and also the gang members themselves. I heard his love for his city and the people in it. I saw young church planters being connected with older church "fathers" and encouraged in their vision. I talked to a young man and heard his vision for a small church in our City and his journey to get there. Then last night I heard from the wife of a pastor who runs a recovery house for women in the city. I heard her journey and how God has met and is meeting her and using all the things meant to destroy her and turning them into gold to use for His kingdom.
My vision is to somehow broker prayer for the City in a way that will invite the Kingdom and pave the way for revival. He is at work! and I want to join with others to pray HIS vision and plan for Long Beach into completion.
One of the ways I want to do this is to pray with people in their established meetings and also to publish the places prayer is happening around the City. If you have a prayer meeting that is open to everyone would you let me know at longbeach@kingdomcauses.org? If it isn't open to the public I would still love to know about it and what your focus is so I and my friends can pray for you. Let me know at the same address.
My life took a radical left turn about 10 years ago and I am feeling alive and hopeful for the first time since then. Take heart all of you who have suffered severe disappointment and loss!
God redeems everything in His own time!

Long Beach Rescue Mission Celebration

Tonight is the night where we get to celebrate one of the MANY great organizations that we have here in our city. This one has actually been around for a while now! I am excited to be going out to support this organization as they share their vision with the broader Church of the city and also raise needed funds to advance their work. I am privileged to be able to offer the closing prayer this evening to wrap things up!

Here is a Press-Telegram article about the banquet and the new Executive Director (Jim Lewis) that came on board there about a year ago. He is a great guy with a great heart and is bringing a wealth of expertise to the growing ministry team there. He is also working with his team to create a positive image in the surrounding community for both the mission and for those that are served through the mission. As you can imagine, this is not always an easy task for an organization that ministers in such a field! Pray for them.

We actively work with the rescue mission staff on our homeless task force and we are grateful to have such a great group and a great work here in our city! They are a key piece for bringing hope to many that are currently not feeling very hopeful. We trust that they will be encouraged by this evenings banquet and feel supported by the greater faith community. If you are unable to attend but would still like to support their work in any number of ways you can go to their web site here.

Rivive!

John Lockmer and the collaborative campus ministry known as Christian Students Unite (csulb.net) is hosting a Unity Prayer meeting this evening at CSULB. We have some people going and will be documenting the momentum that is happening on campus there in our October E-Newsletter (sign up here if you are not on our "opt-in" mailing list yet!!). It is another one of those stories that you have just got to hear about!! God is doing a wonderful thing on the CSULB campus by bringing many of the various campus ministries together to pray. Could these students be living out God's heart for the broader city at-large!?

See the web link above for more details about the gathering!

Thanks for the encouragement!

A quick shout out to a few great friends (Brittney & Mike) here in the city who said that we really should make more contributions to this blog because they actually check in and would love to have us share stories about how God is on the move in Long Beach. You never know who is actually reading blogs so we were very encouraged.

The dream was to have this blog be a place that stories of hope and transformation from our city could be posted, by those connected with Kingdom Causes in various ways, and serve as a daily place for people to check in on and see what God is doing in parts or arenas of our city that some may not be as familiar with.

Having been encouraged, a new story will be posted now...

PS - This is also a test to see if they really do check the blog :)

North Long Beach is W.O.W.'ed!

W.O.W.! What an awesome time in North Long Beach! On June 26th W.O.W., Kingdom Causes and Lighthouse 4 Square Church joined with 15 other churches in North Long Beach host a party for the people living around Houghton Park. Over 5000 people attended and were blessed by:

• 2780 meals served
• 2200 plants given out
• 146 family photos taken
• 400 corn on the cob
• water for everyone

In addition to:

• fixing 120 bikes
• cutting 110 heads of hair
• doing 129 sets of nails and
• 58 makeovers

This was a great party and great to see the churches come alongside Steven and Linda Tavani, the President and Founder of Winning Our World, (WOW) to bless this part of our great city. Steven gave a strong salvation message that saw 1014 people sign cards and give their lives to Jesus as their Lord and Savior for the first time. The churches that participated were given the cards and are calling on each one and encouraging the new members of the family of God to come and become part of one of the many great fellowships in that area.
Next year we will be doing two dates in June again in North Long Beach and on the West side at SilveradoPark. We would love to have you come and be part of this great blessing to our city. Watch for further updates.

Pray-ers from around LA gather to compare notes

On Monday, July 30 there was a gathering of pray-ers from Southern California for the purpose of sharing information about what they are hearing from the Lord regarding Long Beach. Praying people from many points in the Southland are hearing God’s heart for the City and have joined forces for a more directed effort to pray in the Kingdom here.
Being in a group of intercessors from as far away as Azusa and San Gabriel and as near as Torrance and Lomita as well as local people is amazing. We were sharing our personal impressions and found that the Lord is speaking parts and pieces to many and as we gathered, a whole picture began to emerge. There was a wonderful spirit of unity and service in the room; people gathering in order to pray together “in one accord” has to delight our Father’s heart. Each person went away encouraged and more focused, connected and directed than when they came.
So much prayer has gone up over our harbors and it was wonderful to see that God has heard and is directing His people to “seek the peace of the City where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.” Jer. 29:7
We, at Kingdom Causes, will be hosting a monthly prayer meeting on the second Saturday of each month at our offices on 21st and Cherry, Signal Hill from 6:30 to 8 a.m. in order to sow into what God is doing here in prayer. All are invited and welcome.
We believe, and the consensus of the July 30 gathering, was that God is hovering over Long Beach to protect and bless.

May Leadership Prayer Gathering

I continue to be awed by our great God as He sends quality people into a city that I love. Today we gathered at Fountain of Life church with Pastor John Teter. John is a church planter on the West side of town who moved to our city in 2001 and has services at Hamilton Middle School. It was exciting to hear how God moved he and his wife Becky to Long Beach and how he and his team use sports and family issues to reach people. John is the director of More Than Conquerors, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Dominguez Hills and Compton City College, authored "Get the Word Out" and co-authored "Jesus and the Hip-Hop Prophets."
In ministering on the west side and in north Long Beach, John's prayer request are these.

* For strength, as a team they are very tired due to intense giving out, torn ACL, and a fire in one of the leaders buildings
* For their core team that has an average age of 27 to be empowered by God
* For their ministry of evangelism in the city through sports and family needs
* For continued good relationship with the Principal of Hamilton Middle School

This hour and a half we spend with leaders is one of the best times of our month. Hope you can joins us next month
Jim

LB Fire in Galaxy Towers

Here is a message from the Origins Church Planters who live next door to the burned out unit. They hosted our last church leadership prayer gathering there in their apartment.

"Last night was a sleepless night. For those of you who have not seen the news, our apartment caught on fire but we are ok. About 9:30pm we discovered a fire in the room next to us. We went inside and screamed for people to evacuate, but no one answered. We could not see past the first 3 feet inside due to the smoke, and the lights would not turn on so we assumed all were out of the room. The fire dept. arrived and we evacuated the building. After 3 minutes of being outside a man emerged on the balcony of room 1820 and screamed for help. To no avail he had a choice to be burned or jump. He chose the latter and we watched him descend from the building. Please pay for us that our minds would be healed from this tragedy and that we would offer hope and restoration to many grief-stricken people in our complex. This is an opportunity for us to love these people and pour the love of Christ in these residents.

Here is a link to the video. If you look to the far right you will see our apartment (1840) is the one that is fully lit. http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_088022239.html We love you all and are asking God to somehow get glory from this broken event." a.j.sherrill

Homeless Community and LB Police Dept Dialogue

Open to the Public!

Objectives:
· Provide a setting for increased understanding and improved relationships between those
experiencing homelessness, the Police and the community at large
· Raise awareness among homeless/community at large and the Police Department about the
laws (spirit and letter) that impact homeless and the resources available to assist them
· Explore specific solutions to improve the conditions surrounding people experiencing
homelessness

Sunday March 25, 2007 @ 3p-5:30p

First Congregational Church - Patterson Hall
241 Cedar Ave.
Long Beach, CA 90802

For further information contact Mary Coburn at (562) 485-3133

Does the Church of LB ignore the poor!?

At our recent Homeless Task Force meeting someone shared the following quote from Roberta Hestenes. It comes from a plenary session address that she did at The Spiritual Formation Forum in May of 2006 here in Long Beach. It is quite a powerful statement!

Any focus on Christian discipleship which persistently ignores or neglects the poor is a defective discipleship. Any spirituality which persistently neglects or ignores the needs of the poor is not a truly biblical spirituality. It is not a Christian spirituality following Jesus. Any adoption of spiritual disciplines to receive the blessings of God or as away to draw closer to God while ignoring, neglecting or mistreating the poor, the hungry, the lost, the stranger in the midst, the widow, the orphan- any use of spiritual disciplines while neglecting or disobeying God in this area is to run the risk of spiritual self-deception and even the danger of the judgment of God. God cares about the poor - not just about the spiritually poor, although in the cross of Jesus Christ he made provision for the full redemption of a lost and broken world. God cares about those who are really, physically marginalized, neglected, broken, diseased, impoverished, forgotten, living on the margins without enough resource to live life as God intended it with dignity and joy. Any spirituality that misses the poor is inadequate, deficient, and needs correction. This passion that God has for the poor runs through the scriptures so pervasively that you almost have to be willfully blind not to see it.

Do I hear any amens? Or other!? Reply if so!

Save the Date!!

On Monday, October 16th, Kingdom Causes will be hosting our 2nd annual Golf Marathon here in Long Beach. 100 holes of golf in a day! But, this is actually not really about golf. You don't even have to be a 'professional' golfer to get involved. You can sign up to come and play or you can help a golfer out by sponsoring them for every hole that they play. This event will help us advance the local work here. More information to come soon!

"His Nesting Place" on Cable TV

One of our local ministries is going to be on TV in a "30 Day" Actual Reality Documentary. The title of this specific episode is "Pro-life - pro-choice"

The show can be viewed on FX cable

The time and date is Wednesday, August 23 at 10:00 pm E/P

The episode features a pro-choice women from Georgia who had an abortion six years ago. She spent approximately 30 days at His Nesting Place Maternity Home interacting with the mothers, children and staff.

Let's encourage others to watch the program and pray that God will use this to help others become pro-life as His Nesting Place gets exposure.

Long Beach Rescue Mission Tour

Yesterday afternoon I went and met with Jesse Krohmer at the Long Beach Rescue Mission. After a recent difficult season in the life of that ministry, he is one of the new faces there working to advance and expand the work. It was great to tour the facility and hear about some of their hopes, dreams and plans for the future. What a tremendous Kingdom resource they are to the city!! Great work! Keep it up!

Also, if you are interested in learning more about their work and/or how you might get involved yourself they are hosting a 2 day revival/open house for the neighborhood on August 18-19. They are looking for more support for the activities of that day. If you are interested you can contact Jesse at 562-591-1292, ext 13.

Praying for Revolution Church Family

This morning we gathered as a group of local Church leaders at "The Hub". This is the new ministry center for the Revolution church family. As a relatively new church plant here in Long Beach it was encouraging to see, hear and experience their passion for spreading the Good News of the Gospel. Creativity abounds here! They shared with us and asked for prayer primarily in regards to their expansion efforts. The vision of this ministry is to be "one church with multiple locations". Our prayer was that the Lord would continue to stretch them, mature them, multiply them and continue to grant them passion for the local harvest fields. For more information you can check out their web site.

"In Jesus Name I Pray" is back

In Carson that is... I have heard a number of local leaders express their frustration that they are not allowed to pray in Jesus' name locally here (still have not heard otherwise) at the city council meetings. Check this out:

California Mayor and City Council Restore Right for Pastors to Pray "In Jesus' Name"Gene Maddaus/TN (Daily Breeze, Jun 27, 2006)"Jesus is back, by order of the mayor."

In 2002, the Carson, California city council voted to obey a 2002 state appellate court ruling barring ministers from "invoking the name of Jesus" at public meetings. Since that time, area pastors have stayed away from the meetings. But, according to a report in the Daily Breeze, Mayor Jim Dear changed his mind, and the council voted last month to "allow Christian pastors to invoke their Savior at the beginning of City Council meetings." "Jesus is back, by order of the mayor," Dear proclaimed, adding that he invited clergy members to pray "the way they do on Sunday morning." Reporter Gene Maddaus noted that when asked if he would pray to Jesus, Buggs said, "Of course."

Maybe our new mayor will have a change of heart as well!?

Long Beach Leadership Prayer Breakfast

Every year in our city there is a Leadership Prayer Breakfast. The prayer time is actually patterned after the National Prayer Breakfast which is held annually in Washington D.C.. It is designed to gather local civic and business leaders for a time of personal reflection to our Creator, as well as affirm the Spiritual Heritage of our Nation. Every year locally here there is a keynote speaker that comes and shares an encouraging message of some sort. Into that story is woven their personal testimony and a presentation of the Gospel message.

This year's speaker is going to be Judy Martz. She was elected as Montana's 21st Governor in 2000 and was the first woman to have been so in that state.

I have been blessed to have been a part of these for the past 4 years now. Prayerfully consider coming. Start by saving the date!

Details:
Thursday, September 7th, 2006
7:25 am - 9:00 am
$30/ticket (includes breakfast, program and parking)
Hyatt Regency Long Beach (200 South Pine Ave)

Shoot me an email if you need more information.

Brad