
AUGUST 2005
Editor: Robin Wagganer
by Rev. John Calhoun
"A Missional Church
Invents New Ways to Love Others" Remember that? It is not a slogan on the
dust bin of ecclesiology yet. One example to tell is that of Vallejo Korean
Church of the Nazarene under the leadership of The Rev. Samuel Choi.
This pastor and
congregation has invested in several computers in order to offer free classes
using Windows XP in the Korean language. These classes are held at a local
hotel conference room and given on a first come first served basis. After the
first series of classes, they have already received and baptized 4 new members
by profession of faith that came through this ministry.
Let us all remember that
before we can expect unbelievers to come to church, the church must first come
to them."
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Rev. Tim
King, Salinas
This is just a reminder of the upcoming Sunday School 2005 Fall Emphasis. In June, all churches received a promotional packet with posters and information about the emphasis. You can also encourage churches to go to the website for more ideas of how to implement this important emphasis:
Connecting a New Generation
2005 Sunday School Emphasis for the Local Church
Weekly Emphases & Activities:
September 25 Preparation Sunday
October 2 Bless the Babies
October 9 Promote the Preschoolers
October 16 Cherish the Children
October 23 Treasure the Teens
October 30 Focus on Families
A letter from David W. Graves, Director, Sunday School
Ministries
As I’m sure you are aware, this is a critical time in history for reaching out to children and youth. Demographically, more than one-third of the world’s population is children and youth. Statistics show the prime age to win a child to Christ is the "4/14 window" – the ages between 4 and 14. However, the number of young adults who profess to be Christian is decreasing markedly. Pluralism and postmodern thought are influencing many young families today.
Growing out of a mutual concern for children and youth, Children’s Ministries, Nazarene Youth International, and Nazarene Compassionate Ministries have partnered in a Decadal Emphasis on Children and Youth – "Connecting a New Generation," an emphasis that will run until January 2012.
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Centennial Faith Projections 2009
Dr. Jerry Porter challenged all of us at our recent District Assembly in his message, "Taking Responsibility for Results." He then asked for each church to present its Faith Projections for the year 2009 (the end of the denomination's centennial year.)
Some are still working on this and we will add their's to the chart as they come in.
|
Church |
Members |
SS Att |
Sunday Worship Att |
New Ministry Initiatives |
Daughter Congre-gations |
|
Alameda New Beginnings |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Antioch Family |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Arcata |
100 |
120 |
150 |
1 |
0 |
|
Castro Valley |
200 |
300 |
300 |
20 |
2 |
|
Clearlake |
100 |
100 |
200 |
0 |
1 |
|
Concord Christ Community |
1000 |
750 |
|
40 |
|
|
Crescent City |
90 |
50 |
100 |
2 |
5 |
|
Cupertino New Life |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Daly City El Shaddai Spanish |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Daly City Western Korean |
|
|
|
|
|
|
East Bay Korean(Hana) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Eureka First |
800 |
400 |
600 |
12 |
2 |
|
Fortuna |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fremont Central |
|
|
|
1 |
|
|
Gilroy Cornerstone Spanish |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hayward Casa de Oracion |
400 |
600 |
400 |
5 |
5 |
|
Hayward First |
300 |
300 |
250 |
2 |
3 |
|
Hayward First Samoan |
|
|
|
|
|
|
International Christian Center |
300 |
150 |
200 |
5 |
1 |
|
Livermore Discovery |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marin Hamilton Community |
200 |
|
200 |
1 |
1 |
|
McKinleyville Nazarene Family |
125 |
75 |
100 |
5 |
2 |
|
Monterey Living Hope |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Napa |
350 |
600 |
500 |
2 |
2 |
|
Oakland Bayview Fellowship |
350 |
150 |
250 |
4 |
3 |
|
Palo Alto CrossRoads |
125 |
100 |
150 |
10 |
1 |
|
Petaluma Hillside |
350 |
400 |
500 |
40 |
1 |
|
Pittsburg First |
85 |
80 |
140 |
5 |
1 |
|
Salinas Iglesia
del Naz. Oasis |
2000 |
|
2500 |
25 |
10 |
|
Salinas New Life |
200 |
300 |
500 |
5 |
1 |
|
San Bruno |
120 |
100 |
100 |
3 |
1 |
|
San Bruno Samoan |
|
100-300 |
200 |
1 |
|
|
San Francisco Chinese |
100 |
90 |
100 |
1 |
0 |
|
San Francisco Chinese Gospel |
300 |
100 |
200 |
5 |
1 |
|
San Francisco Golden Gate Com. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
San Francisco New Life |
120 |
|
100 |
|
|
|
San Francisco New Start |
|
|
|
|
|
|
San Francisco Sunset Chinese |
|
|
|
|
|
|
San Jose Cambrian Park |
200 |
200 |
200 |
2 |
1 |
|
San Jose Valley |
200 |
75 |
150 |
3 |
1 |
|
San Ramon Christ Community |
80 |
100 |
160 |
2 |
1 |
|
Santa Clara |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Santa Cruz |
450 |
450 |
200 |
5 |
1 |
|
Santa Rosa |
450 |
300 |
400 |
3 |
2 |
|
Sonoma Valley |
120 |
120 |
200 |
5 |
2 |
|
Sunnyvale |
200 |
100 |
300 |
4 |
2 |
|
The Point |
800 |
800 |
1,200 |
20 |
2 |
|
The Point Spanish Ministry |
700 |
600 |
800 |
10 |
4 |
|
Ukiah Valley First |
50 |
60 |
65 |
|
|
|
Vallejo First |
150 |
120 |
180 |
3 |
1 |
|
Vallejo Korean |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vallejo New Life Filipino |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Watsonville |
125 |
150 |
130 |
5 |
1 |
|
Willits |
60 |
50 |
50 |
|
|
|
Willow Creek |
60 |
85 |
100 |
5 |
1 |
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by Abe Powers, Napa
As a sixteen-year-old
guy, I'm pretty competitive. I want to win. So in preparation for Bible
Quizzing Nationals, I really had to work and pray very hard that my competitive
spirit in Quizzing would not take precedence over my desire for the Lord's will
to be done in everything-including competition. I continually had to remind
myself that Quizzing is not primarily about competition. It's about getting
into the Word of God and finding a deeper relationship with Him. I also had to
stifle the desire to quiz for myself, not thinking about the team. So I
determined going into nationals that I would quiz for God first, my team
second, and leave everything else to fall in its place.
I was on a team of five
youth who earned their way onto the national team through a grueling process at
our regional competition. Since we made the team, we had the responsibility of
representing the Point Loma region for nationals. In the English tournament,
there was one team from each of the 8 Nazarene colleges and universities, plus
a team from the Caribbean.
Nationals this year were
at General Assembly in Indianapolis. As I walked into the Convention Center
where quizzing was to take place, I was very excited. Four years ago, I had
walked into the same Convention Center for my first national tournament. That
year our team, the PLNU region, took first place for the first time in its
quizzing history.
The way the competition
was set up this year, we were to quiz two round-robins, and then teams would be
seeded for brackets, based on their win-loss record. In more understandable
terms, we were going to have two "regular seasons" before getting
placed for the "playoffs." Our team got off to a great start. On the
first day, we won seven out of our eight quizzes, losing only to the Olivet
region.
The second day was much
of the same. We won six of eight, losing again to Olivet and to Mount Vernon.
Although we had suffered two losses that day, I had the best day of my
national-quizzing career. I usually answer an average of two questions per quiz
correctly at nationals, which is good for a forty-point average. For the first
five matches the second day, I had remained pretty true to that. But the Lord
opened up my mind, and I answered four questions correctly in each of the last
three quizzes, which gave me a much higher average than forty. That night, I
figured up my total score and determined that I had a fifty average for the two
"regular seasons." That made me pretty excited. I knew, in years
past, a fifty average was usually what it took to be the number one quizzer in
the nation. However, I tried very hard not to get my hopes up. I had seen the
quizzers from the other regions, and they were very good.
We walked into the
convention center on Friday, the last day of quizzing, walked up to the stat
sheet. I looked to find my name, and when I found it, I saw that there weren't
any names higher than mine, And then I realized what it meant. "I got First-Place!"
I couldn't believe it. I walked over to my parents, who had already seen it,
gave them each a hug, and thanked them. Without their dedication to helping me
study, I never would have come close to this success.
As great as that
accomplishment felt, I quickly turned my mind to the team. This was it, the
last day of quizzing. Playoff time had come. You lose; you're out. So we as a
team had to be focused. Even though our record had three losses, we still had
the best record overall from the round-robin and were the first seed going into
the brackets. Our Round #1 was a "bye," but the second round we were
right back in it with the lowest seeded Caribbean team. They were hot coming
off of a first round upset over a higher seeded team and accomplishing their
very first win in an International Tournament. It was very close, but we pulled
it off by two questions. Onto the third round and semi-finals. If we won, we
would have a shot to contend for a national title. If we lost, our best finish
would be third. Eastern Nazarene College was our opponent, and again it was
another close quiz. But our team rallied around one another and won again.
Now, we were in the
finals against the only team we hadn't yet beaten: Olivet Nazarene University.
The finals were set up to be a best-two-out-of-three series. To win, you'd have
to prove you were the best twice. The first quiz was a nail-biter, neck and
neck the whole way. We would get a question or two and take the lead, but they
would storm back and take the lead. Then we'd do the same, and so on. On the
last question of the quiz, we were up by one question. One quizzer on their
team could jump and not only tie us, but by virtue of a bonus he would receive
(if he got it right), they would win the quiz. I had answered two questions
correctly and gotten two wrong. If I jumped and got it wrong, we would lose
half of a question and I would err out. They would have an opportunity to
answer a bonus question, also worth half of a question. We would tie and go
into overtime. I knew this, but I also knew that the quizzer on the Olivet team
who would get the bonus was a very good quizzer. He was more than capable of
getting the question first and sending his team to victory. So I jumped. I was
a little early and got it wrong. They got the bonus, we were deadlocked, and
overtime would now ensue. Overtime is do-or-die. If you get the question right,
you win; if you get it wrong, you lose. I couldn't do anything since I was now
out of the quiz. However, one of my teammates, Cheri Kruse, jumped perfectly
and nailed it, getting our team halfway to the national championship.
Since the finals were
best two out of three, we still had to beat them one more time. We knew the
pressure was on them to win, so we slowed our jumping. Olivet simply errored
themselves to death, sending Point Loma to its second national championship in
five years.
I first of all want to
thank God for his blessings upon me, then my family for their help in studying,
and my church, Napa Nazarene, for their prayer and financial support.
If you are in a position
of leadership in your church and you are searching for creative ways to get
your youth into the Word of God, I can think of no greater tool than Bible
Quizzing. If you are a youth in a church and you want to try quizzing out,
please, give us a call, and we'll get you involved. My Dad, Rick Powers, is the
Quiz Director for the NorCal district. Either he or I would love to talk to you
about joining the program. Please feel free to call us at our home any time.
Our number is: (707) 557-1833.
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