At our annual meeting in January 2015, we announced that we are now supporting a new church plant in Aiea, HI. Victory Aiea has recently made a significant shift from a Sunday evening gathering to a Sunday morning gathering. They now meet in an elementary school in their community. Pastor Dane Tokushige writes, "We praise God for the favor we have seen in this move. Our facility expense is now cut in half, we have excellent facilities for our kids' ministry, and the school has accommodated us with onsite storage of all of our equipment. We have also been able to begin to develop a relationship with the administration of the school as we will be helping them with various school projects, interacting with faculty, students and parents. This shift has also proven to be helpful as many of our families are now able to attend our Sunday gathering more consistently. We have also seen the addition of a number new families begin attending since the shift."   

Donna and Barry Stever with Rob

For the last 9 years, Barry Stever has faithfully pastored, part-time, at Cornerstone Community Church in Big Bear City while also working as a hospice chaplain. As of March 2015, Barry has started working full time at the Veteran's Home in Barstow. Pacific Church Network contacted Rob Graham, a Navy Reserve chaplain, to consider leading the church after Barry's job transition. After meeting with Barry, Jim Smith, and the church, Rob was excited to start preaching as of March 1. Rob will also be helping with the hospice needs in the Big Bear area while continuing as a reservist Navy chaplain. Congratulations to Cornerstone for this new chapter in their lives and for the smooth transition.

Andy and Myra Meverden.

PCN supports the CBAmerica Chaplaincy ministry. At times our chaplains have been limited on how much they can share about the Bible, God and faith to others. Last year, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014 was signed into law. CBAmerica Director of Chaplaincy, Andy Meverden, writes that the NDAA14 "specifies and codifies into law that both the religious freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights (First Amendment), indeed, apply both to service members and their chaplains. It also directs the Inspector General to survey service members and chaplains over a specific period to verify whether such violations have occurred, and is to present to the DOD and Senate and House Armed Forces Committees a report on their findings in 2015. It reinforces current law and puts the Department of Defense on notice that Congress is watching enforcement of religious freedom in the armed forces, for service members and chaplains, alike. The latter concerns relate to the ways chaplains pray in non-religious settings, and to ensure that chaplains are not coerced into performing any services that are against their religious convictions, to include same-sex marriages, and to ensure that refusal to perform such services does not reflect negatively in a chaplain's evaluation, promotion, or utilization."

Andy can be contacted at chapandy@cbamerica.org.  

Desayuno de Mujeres

The Spanish women are having a spring breakfast on Saturday April 11, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. at Iglesia Bautista de Bell Gardens, 7301 Perry Road, Bell Gardens, CA 90201. All interested women are invited to attend.
 
Cost is $10 per person. For more information, contact:

Norma Bustos: marbu10@yahoo.com
Patsy Mazariegos: patsy.mazariegos@aol.com

Mali Reguerin: mali@pccsc.org

Info Sheet

A group of 13 church leaders from some of our larger churches in Pacific Church Network sat down with Pastor Daniel Montgomery of Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY to discuss issues that large churches face, such as multisite, board polity, executive teams, media attention, elders, theological vision and more. Pacific Church Network K-Club meets twice a year with church leaders from churches near or over 1,000. 

Carey Nieuwhof is Lead Pastor of Connexus Church north of Toronto, Canada and wrote an interesting article in ChurchLeaders on making your communications skills better. With these seven mistakes, he gives some helpful ways to fix them. He writes, "If  you've ever spoken in front a group, tried to motivate a team or if you prepare messages almost every week like many of us do, you've probably wondered what makes for a great talk. What's the difference between a merely good message and incredibly great message? What's the difference between a sermon that changes someone's life and one that no one can remember even as they drive out of the parking lot? If you're like me, those questions might even bother you. I hope they do. They haunt me. And yet every week gifted communicators kill the messages they bring by making at least seven predictable, fixable mistakes. The good news is that once you identify the mistakes, you can address them.

read the rest of the article  

No Longer Just a Fad

Ed Stetzer
 

About three-fourths of online adults are on some form of social networking. This means that for the sake of the gospel and the mission, your church needs to have a voice there as well. Social Media is the New Town Square.

Throughout history, people of all generations have gathered in town squares-public spaces where the local community gathers for social and commercial purposes. In the old days, it used to be a literal "town square," and it still is in some places. Until social media came around, town squares were shopping malls and other social areas. Social media is the 21st century town square.  read the rest of the article

Sources: Voice of the Martyrs  

The believers had been kidnapped around the Libyan city of Sirte in separate incidents during the months of December and January. On January 12th, the Libyan branch of ISIS released a statement that they were holding the Egyptian men in captivity. (For more information about these abductions, you can read a previous prayer alert.) The murdered Christians came from villages in Egypt's central Samalut region in northern Minya. This region suffers from high poverty rates due to a lack of job opportunities, causing many inhabitants to move to other Arab countries in search of work. Pray that His peace will greatly comfort them during this difficult time of tragic loss and that His healing will be ministered to their wounded hearts. Please also remember in prayer the many other impoverished Egyptian Christians working in Libya, asking the Lord to protect and sustain each one.

Spring Forward

Daylight Saving Time Begins March 8th