The response to our first video of CPD blessings was so positive, I am sharing another video compilation of our pastors who shared a ONE MINUTE video. I encourage you to take six minutes to watch it. I’m positive it will be a blessing to you!

I’ve already got some more ONE MINUTE videos, but I can use more! Please send me a video of an unexpected blessing that you have experienced to our Dropbox folder by clicking here.

I will share another compilation next week. Will yours be a part of it?

Let’s encourage one another during this challenging time.

Mike

On Thursday, April 16, 2020 several of our workers, including the District Staff, attended the EguippingU webinar entitled, Leading the Church in the Post-COVID Era.

This webinar was the best discussion I have seen so far about planning for the changes that will inevitably come to the church after the crisis has passed. When will that happen? The answer to that question is far from certain, but it is certain that this COVID-19 crisis will come to an end at some point.

In the “CPD Blessings” video that was sent out yesterday, you heard Jim Blake briefly describe how Alliance Redwoods Conference Grounds has been blessed to serve the homeless in their community. One minute, however, can hardly do justice to the impact that our camp is having. This is the “rest of the story.”

ARCG has partnered with the Redwood Gospel Mission of Santa Rosa, welcoming eighty men and women in their residential addiction recovery program to shelter in place at the Camp. They have done this without any commitment of funding from the government as of yet.

I have been blessed by the response of our pastors to my call to share a ONE MINUTE video of an unexpected blessing during this challenging time of ministry. This video is a compilation video including six of our district leaders. I encourage you to take six minutes to watch it. I’m positive it will be a blessing to you!

I would like to keep this going! Please send me a video of an unexpected blessing that you have experienced to our Dropbox folder by clicking here.

I will keep compiling and sharing them with our CPD family.

Hoping you too are being blessed in this challenging time,

Mike

At Council this year, I purchased A.B.: The Unlikely Founder of a Global Movement, by David Jones. I started reading it by the pool in Orlando and had almost finished it by the time the plane landed back in Sacramento. It is worth reading for those of us in the CM&A family.

I got into my car, looked out the windshield and I see she has been there.  I sit down in front of my television to turn it on, and I see she has been there.  I sit down in my dining room and look into the back yard.  She has been there too.

It set out to be a normal shopping trip. It was cloudy when I left the house. Just as I arrived at my destination the clouds burst open and a drenching rain poured down. As I parked the car, I watched as people scurried to avoid getting soaked. Most were dressed (as I was) in summer clothes not expecting such a drastic change in the weather.

Do you want to hear a true confession? Sometimes over the course of the last twenty-four years I have not always liked being in the ministry. The professional ministry I mean. I love it now (honestly!) but there have been times in the past where I have said in frustration, “I would rather be pumping gas!”

Other pastors I know have expressed a similar sentiment from time to time. It seems that the long hours and the conflicts in the congregation take an emotional toll. One gets tired and asks, “Why am I doing this?” In the weariest moments the answer may not be apparent.