Vol.033.Dec.2006 Editor: Kay Clark, E-mail: kay@norcal.org, 925-680-0538

Northern California District Church of the Nazarene,

1866 Clayton Rd., Ste. 200, Concord, CA 94520, Web page: http://www.norcal.org

Contents

Page 1 Dr. John Calhoun & New Pastors on District

Page 2 New Pastors on District, NYI News

Page 3 God Moving in Santa Rosa Church

Page 4 NMI News

Page 5 SSM & Prayers for Capt. Abner Valenzuela

Warmest “thanks” for your generosity at this Christmas time. We are honored to serve Christ among you.

John and Jan Calhoun

We “welcome” the Schreffler Family from Michigan! Pictured are Pastor Victor and his wife Becky, with their kids, Stephen, Andrea and Jonathan.

Pastor Victor Schreffler will be pastoring our Concord Christ Community Church. His first Sunday will be December 10^th.

“Welcome” to the Pound Family! Pastor Marvin, his wife Becky, and four of their five children. Back right is Sarah M., (left to right front) is Noelle, Anna, Sarah.

Pastor Marvin Pound will be pastoring the Pittsburg First Church. His first Sunday will be January 21^st.

Southwest Region NYI Winter Meeting

Date: Jan. 29-31, 2007

Location: Concord Church

Who: NYI District Presidents and other leaders.

What: Regional Planning Meeting

On Monday evening Jan. 29th we are inviting all Northern California Youth Workers to a catered dinner at the Concord Christ Community Church.

Mark your calendar, our next NYI Council meeting is on Saturday January 27th from 10AM-3PM in Petaluma.

Thanks so much,

Donabel C. Martin

Vallejo First Nazarene

707.648.1986

707.712.9408

Mark your 2007 calendars for:

NYC 2007 July 8-15 St. Louis, MO

M7 Event Feb. 19-21, 2007 in Kansas City

It has been four years this last Sunday now that I have been at Santa Rosa Nazarene Church and God has been doing some amazing things along the way.

One of those things is when about six months ago, two students named Michael Lumb and Jacob Alfaro (pictured below) walked through the doors of our church. They had both just graduated from Jr. High, and were two very lively boys who were invited by some friends to “check out youth group”. Within two months, both boys were introduced to the Gospel and had made commitments in their hearts to follow Jesus Christ. Jacob ended up coming to Sr. High Camp (Lake Shasta) and continued to grow, and Michael became a huge witness on his high school campus. I have had the privilege on Wednesdays, picking them up from school and discipling them for three months where they have learned Inductive Bible Training to study the Word on their own, and we also talk about everyday struggles they might face.

We also talked about Baptism, and I explained to them that it was something they should think about doing and invite their family and friends. Both boys were excited about being baptized so on October 22, 2006, they were baptized and twenty one of their family and friends showed up that Sunday for their baptism (17 of them non-believers!!!)! Since their baptism, one of their friends (Kelly) that came to the baptism has started coming to youth group and has accepted Christ! If you think of it, be praying for Michael and Jacob, God is planting big dreams in their minds on how they can impact their campus for Christ!

In Christ,

Joel Tippitt, Youth Pastor

www.santarosayouth.org

Compassionate Ministries

There are many ways that we as Christians can show compassion. It is one of the facets of Nazarene Missions that set us apart. Choose one or more of these ministries and be Jesus to someone in a special way.

“Dime A Day”

Have you been saving and collecting dimes for Africa? One dime will allow one African to live for one more day, by giving him food to eat. One more day may give that African the opportunity to meet Jesus. Save those dimes! Send your check to the General Treasurer using the code: ACS=1011 on the memo line. Have you checked out the “Dime Web site”at http://dimes.norcal.org/index.htm ? There are some great stories and statistics about our Dimes for Africa? For example in the 2005-2006 church year 43 churches gave 1,417,000 dimes, fed 3,882 people for an entire year. It takes $37.00 to buy 100 pounds of corn meal. Your heart will be affected by just spending a few minutes on the web site. Hearing from one of our missionaries from Africa as well as just how the Lord uses ordinary people to do extra ordinary things.

“Crisis Care Kits”

The General church now has a collection point for Crisis Care Kits on the Western side of the United States. If you are planning to send your Crisis Care Kits, it will cost about ½ the postage if you send them to:

Nazarene Relief Shipments

Attention: Liz Murtland

Hands of Hope

1201 South Powerline Road

Nampa, ID. 83686

Make sure to follow up with a check to the General Treasurer for $12.00 per banana box to help get the crisis care kits to the destination of the disaster.

“Missionaries and Christmas”

Have you sent your LINKS missionary a Christmas package yet? It is not too late if you do it this week and send it by air. Remember them somehow, whether a package or a blitz of cards, or a gift of cash sent to the General Treasurer for them. Maybe you will choose to do all three, but please do something. Let them know that the Nor-Cal Nazarenes appreciate all they do on the mission field.

Also make sure you have sent your “Christmas Missionary Budget” into headquarters so that all 465 of our missionaries are remembered with some Christmas dollars to help them celebrate the birth of Christ where they are serving.

“Looking for a few Good Men and Women”

Are you bored and looking for some unique way to serve the Lord this summer? How about a trip to Russia to use the talents the Lord has given you or to share Jesus with our Christian brothers and sisters overseas. If you have just a speck of interest, e-mail our District Work and Witness Director, Bob Kilpatrick for the details, bobknaz@yahoo.com.

In his book Creating Community, Andy Stanley tells this humorous story about his church (which met at the Galleria Convention Center)...

"I'll never forget coming to the Galleria one Sunday afternoon to help with setup.  The Galleria is located at the intersection of two major freeways in Atlanta, I-75 and I-285.  As you might expect, the Galleria has a state-of-the-art electronic marquee advertising its venue and the group that is currently using its facility.  Thousands of cars pass by the convention center every day, so the impact of the marquee from an advertising and awareness point of view is very high.  As I drove into the facility that night, I was amused by what I saw.  On the marquee were these words:

"No Point Church"

Not "North Point Community." Not "North Point CC." Not even "North Pt. CC."  But "No Point Church." Ouch!  The sign engineer obviously couldn't get North Point Community Church all on one screen, so he took some creative liberties."

Norcal Leaders, what is the POINT of your church?  More specifically, what is the POINT of your Sunday School and Discipleship Ministries?  I'm sure you have a POINT, but do folks know what it is?  How do you communicate the POINT to people?  Effective leaders clarify the mission and goal of their organization.

Thank you to those who faithfully report your monthly average attendance for Sunday School (including small groups) and Worship!  If you are one that finds it easy to forget to do this, why not delegate it to a computer literate student?

Tim King

New Life Church of the Nazarene

1164 Monroe St. #5

Salinas, CA 93906

831.444.6064

Please pray for Abner (Elder on the Norcal Dist., and son of Andy and Ricareda Valenzuela) as he will be deployed to Afghanistan for four months with a departure date of January 3^rd. He’ll be part of the hospital team when the Air Force takes over from the Army in January.