Happy Easter...He is Risen
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Pacific Church Network April 2014
Grandparents Jim & Vicki Smith with
 Sutter Warren Greenwood
Nicknames
"...And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it." Rev. 2:17 A new name? What will our new name be? Last month, I had the great privilege of holding another new grandchild, number 6. Each one is special and unique. Little Sutter Warren Greenwood was named after his great grandparents and his paternal grandpa. Already his brother has a new nickname for him. Sutter Butter. Love those cute nicknames. The good ones. Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter, Jacob to Israel, Saul to Paul. It's kinda fun for me to realize that God has a nickname carved out in stone for me, and I will get the meaning completely when I receive it. Ever wonder what nickname your behavior might trigger? We pray that someday little Sutter will receive his new name from the Lord. We pray for his salvation and that he will glorify God throughout his life. For all our grandkids, we really don't know what their future will be like, but we pray every day for them all to be in line for a new name.

Jim Smith, Executive Director
Pacific Church Network
"Between Sundays" Training Event
On Tuesday, May 20, Pacific Church Network is offering another free training event at San Antonio Heights Community Church in Upland, CA.   

The training will address "doing church during the week," what/how you can be doing to make a significant impact for the Lord and the systems that encourage behavior to make it happen. Speakers will be Jeff Vanderstelt, founding pastor of Soma Communities in Tacoma, WA; National Director, Soma Communities; Former Youth Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church and Shaun Garman, the founding pastor of Seed Church in Ventura. Register Now.

"Volunteers"  Spanish Training Event
On Saturday, May 17, Pacific Church Network is offering another free training event for our Spanish-speaking church leaders on how to find, train and empower leaders in your church. It is entitled, "Right Team, Right Place."  Dr. Octavia Esqueda will be our speaker. Dr. Esqueda is an Associate Professor of Christian Education at Biola's Talbot School of Theology and teaches undergraduate Spanish courses. Before landing in California, he moved to Dallas, Texas, from his hometown of Guadalajara to complete his doctorate; spent a semester in Spain; and traveled to Cuba 12 times to complete his doctoral dissertation. This event will be held at Calvary Baptist Church in Whittier, CA. Register Now.
Church Plant in Fountain Valley Growing
It has been an exciting season at Citylights Church OC. They have been seeing God do some amazing things in Little Saigon. Pastor Thein Doan writes, "Just in the last three months, we have seen six new believers come to faith through a Bible Study that I lead for not-yet-believers. Four of the six new believers were Buddhists. It is actually a pretty rare thing to see a Vietnamese Buddhist embrace Christ, and it usually takes a long time to break through the barriers of faith.  We will be holding baptisms on April 27 and will be baptizing 9-12 candidates. Please pray for us. Our new church is growing with seekers and new believers, but we don't have many mature people to disciple and to lead groups. Pray that God would give us more leaders and workers, either from within or from outside." 
New Pastor at Shorelife Church
On Sunday, March 23, the members of Shorelife Church in Huntington Beach affirmed Andrew Garland to be their Lead Pastor with a 100% vote. Although he is the new Lead Pastor, Pastor Andrew has faithfully served the ShoreLife body as Associate Pastor since 2007 and filled the role of Interim Lead Pastor since November of 2012. After a recommendation by the Search Team and Elder Board, they presented Andrew for the members' affirmation. Congratulations to Andrew and Shorelife Church.  
cross.jpgChurch Plant M316 Needs More Room 
Mission 316 in San Marcos is avidly pursuing a new facility to continue its growth. Prayer is appreciated as the church explores various buildings, schools, etc. They are also looking for a part-time worship leader and candidates are being considered. In order to reach kids in their community, Mission 316 is also developing a program to combine the Bible with the arts on Sunday mornings. A part-time position is being established and resumes are being considered for this exciting ministry. Pray for them as the explore new possibilities.
Mapleview Baptist Reaching New People  
John Miller, Interim Pastor at Mapleview Baptist in Lakeside, CA has seen 7 baptisms along with a continued increase in attendance over the 11 months he has served as their interim. The search team is working diligently to find their next pastor, but during this transitional time, they appreciate Pastor John, who was recommended for the interim position by Pacific Church Network.  
Huntington Beach Celebration
On Sunday, March 23, Calvary Baptist Church was packed as they held one service to celebrated their 50-year anniversary. Many people were there to join the celebration including Huntington Beach Mayor Matthew Harper, California Assembly Member Allan Mansoor, US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and PCN Executive Director Jim Smith. Pastor Pat Cottrell brought a great message as he looked back over the church's history and also looked to its future ministry. Back in the 60's, many churches were planted by CB Southern California, and as a Pacific Church Network board member, Pastor Pat is excited about the refocus on church planting currently happening at PCN. 
New Dates for Fall Men's Retreat
Our Pacific Church Network Men's Fall Retreat will be October 3-5 at Pine Summit in Big Bear Lake, CA. Thien Doan, who gave such an inspirational message at our annual meeting, will be our main speaker for the retreat. Thien is a graduate of Talbot Seminary, MDiv, DMin. He has been working in the area of church planting in various roles for almost a decade. Currently he is the Lead Pastor of CityLights Church in Little Saigon, Orange County, which is among the first church plants targeting one of the least-reached people groups in North America. Thien and his wife Kerry have been married for 15 years, have three children and live in Fountain Valley, California. Both Kerry and Thien are huge Lakers fans, and spend many nights yelling at the television together due to the Lakers' lack of interior defense.Save the date and start signing up. 
 Brian Howard Ways to Increase Your Church Giving

Brian Howard, our Church Multiplication Director, writes in his recent blog: "In 2012, American individuals, corporations, and foundations donated 316 billion dollars to charities. In 2012, charitable giving was up for the third year in a row. 72 percent of this giving came from individual contributors. Religious giving, however, has been steadily decreasing since 2004. Many churches have experienced this decline. What can you do to increase giving in your church? Here are 6 strategies for increasing financial giving in your church. " Read More.

LA Finally Approves Parking Lot
Cornerstone Church in West LA finally got their parking lot approved by the city of Los Angeles after 11 years of negotiation and permits. That is a lot of waiting. They had to jump through many hoops to get this done. In a crowded city neighborhood, the added parking space has come as a welcome relief to the parking problem they have had for over a decade. It's just a parking lot, but it is well worth the wait. Congratulations!
700 Attend Women's Event
On Saturday, March 8, over 700 women attended Sunrise Church Rialto's Women's Conference entitled, "Once Upon a Time...Then God; Trusting God from Tragedy to Triumph." Noe'l Robbins, pastor's wife from Sunrise Wrightwood was the guest speaker. Twenty women accepted Jesus as their Savior and many benefited from the practical advice and Biblical teaching on how to grow as a Christian and make an impact for Christ. Noe'l will be the guest speaker at Pacific Church Network's Women's Spring Retreat in April.
Noe'l Robbins
Spring Women's Retreat in April
Just a few more weeks until the Pacific Church Network Spring Retreat at Murrieta Hot Springs featuring Guest Speaker Noe'l Robbins. We have contacted the Conference Center to get a few more spaces for those interested in still attending. The retreat will be on April 11-13.  More information and registration.
Montebello Blessings 
Pastor Paul Taylor of Montebello Christian Fellowship is excited and thankful for the significant financial gift the church has received to improved their facilities. The church also hired Aaron Logan as their new Student Ministry Leader. He will be working with the Jr. High and High School Students. Aaron and his wife, Anna, are from Bakersfield, CA. Aaron is also currently a student at Talbot Theological Seminary. 
World Vision Reversal

In case you didn't see this news item, on Thursday, March 26, World Vision U.S. reversed its ground-breaking decision to hire Christians in same-sex marriages after weathering intense criticism from evangelical leaders. "The last couple of days have been painful," president Richard Stearns told reporters this evening. "We feel pain and a broken heart for the confusion we caused for many friends who saw this policy change as a strong reversal of World Vision's commitment to biblical authority, which it was not intended to be."  Read more.  

Church Governance

Paul Bordon, Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Network (formerly CB Rocky Mountain), writes...
"I recognize that no matter how good the model of governance might be, it still depends on the character of those doing the governing. Ultimately it gets down to character and integrity, and in congregational contexts, the Biblical and theological acumen of those governing.

The model proposed by John Kaiser in his book, Winning on Purpose is to date the best model I know to try and achieve Kingdom effectiveness in a fallen world. It hopefully provides the best checks and balances between the concepts of responsibility, accountability and authority. If implemented well, it enables capable leaders to lead the community in the achievement of God's mission for the Church and create an exciting motivating vision for the congregation to live out in service to the Lord of the Church. However, the model still assumes that those governing are people of high character and integrity." Read more

 

He is Alive
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Matthew 28:5-7
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. Then go quickly and tell his disciples."
 
Importance of Easter
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Two thousand years ago, in the Middle East, an event occurred that permanently changed the world. Because of that event, history was split. Every time you write a date, you're using the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the focal point.


What's so important about Easter? It's important because it proved that Jesus was who he claimed to be. He was God in the flesh, and he came to earth to save us.

Three events occurred in a dramatic succession on that Easter weekend:

read more


Movies

There's a flood of biblical proportions this year in Hollywood: Noah, starring Russell Crowe, floated into theaters this past month. It followed Son of Godanother Bible-based movie released by 20th Century Fox. And later in 2014, we'll see Exodus, a 3-D epic based on the story of Moses from director Ridley Scott. Over the next 11 months, Hollywood is planning to release more big Biblical movies than it put out during the previous 11 years combined, Here are a few of them:
Son of God
Son of God opened up in February, 2014 and was produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. The film was adapted from the ten-hour miniseries The Bible,[3] which aired in March 2013 on History channel. The Movie has made over $56 million.
 
God's Not Dead

The movie everyone is talking about is the independent faith-based movie God's Not Dead.

Pulling in $8.5 million on the first weekend and amassing an impressive $10,979 per-screen average, the movie stands as further proof of the desire to see faith-affirming movies on the big screen.

God's Not Dead is a movie about Josh Wheaton, a freshman college student who is forced to defend his Christian faith against an angry philosophy professor.  The movie has already made over $22 million and is still in the theatre's, #5 last weekend in March.

 

Irreplaceable
  Focus on the Family wants you to know about an upcoming feature documentary that will be coming to theaters across the nation for only one night.

 

In 700+ theaters nationwide
May 6, 2014

 

Irreplaceable is a feature length documentary produced by Focus on the Family that esteems the first institution of human society-marriage, the one upon which all other human institutions have their foundation.Tickets and theater locations for the event are 
available HERE.
 
Noah
WIth mixed reviews and way off the Biblical story, it still earned $44 million at the box office through Sunday, March 30, and was the #1 movie, topping GLADIATOR'S first weekend.

Heaven is for Real
  Coming soon is the movie version of the popular book.
Heaven Is for Real 
is the true story
 of a four-year-old son of
 a small town Nebraska pastor 
who experienced heaven 
during emergency surgery. 
He talks about looking 
down to see the doctor 
operating and his dad 
praying in the 
waiting room. - 
See more
Pacific Church Netwok Covenant
 
We would like to remind our churches to sign our new covenant.  This covenant affirms your desire to continue partnering with us to plant new churches, and equip and encourage our member churches. It is a covenant that says you agree with our doctrine, that you will financially support us and that you will make every effort to participant in and promote our events. So far, 33 churches have already signed their covenant and many have significantly raised their financial support to PCN. Thank you, and our church planters thank you.

Contact Information

Pacific Church Network
www.pacificchurchnetwork.com
2520 North Euclid
Upland, CA 91784
909-944-5900

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