AUGUST 2005

Editor: Robin Wagganer

Contents

A Note From Our D.S.

SSM Update

Centennial Faith Projections

National Quiz Excitement

A Note From Our D.S.

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."

SSM Update

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.

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

National Quiz Excitement

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.