Upcoming Shows

I am looking forward to the next couple months. I get the privilege of leading worship with a lot of very talented musicians at some awesome venues in Ventura County.

Here is what's ahead:

Weekly
I lead worship at the best church venue in the county every Sunday morning at www.riverparkcc.com.

December 11
Leading a worship set at "An EPIC Night of Worship" in Ventura, CA. There will be four other bands playing. Music starts at 6pm and I'm on at 9pm.

December 22, 23 & 24
Playing with the band and leading a couple Christmas songs at Camarillo Community Church's family Christmas event called "Gifts". Nick Vujicic will be speaking. Each show is expected to sell out with 1,000 people in attendance. I heard Nick speak this past spring at Catalyst West Coast. This guy is an incredible communicator and God has opened doors for him to speak to millions of people around the globe. Check out his website and learn more about him! Here is a 2 minute clip of him on 20/20.

Hope to see you at these events! If you need a great worship band for your next event email me at jameslaingmusic@gmail.com. Listen to a few songs I recorded a while back and check out my EPK (Electronic Press Kit).

Eph 4:16

"...according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." Eph 4:16

Effectual: producing or capable of producing an intended effect; adequate.

Strongs Concordance:

Word: energeia

Pronounce: en-erg'-i-ah

Strongs Number: G1753

Orig: from 1756; efficiency ("energy"):--operation, strong, (effectual) working.

Are you producing an intended effect where you sit? If not you may be decreasing the body from building itself up in love. That's a sobering thought. We can read a lot from what we produce. We can choose to read into what we produce instead of reading what we produce. Every situation does have a context but we need to be self-aware as to whether we are painting our own context or really seeing the context at hand. Speaking the truth in love to ourselves is an opportunity to "grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ." (Eph 4:15)

Healthy community can help to diminish our own self deception. A community infused with trust, with invitations to evaluate on a macro level and personal level. This level of vulnerability is not easy but it's worth it. Imagine a whole community functioning on this level of vulnerability. Every part playing the role it was designed to play. Every part NOT playing the role it was NOT designed to play.

God calls all of us to speak the truth in love to ourselves and honestly evaluate what we produce in our personal, family and vocational roles.

Just a few thoughts God has brought to mind to kick off my week. Does your team communicate on this level? How can you contribute towards this level of health this week in your life, family and work?

66% of You Would Choose the Hard Way

What if they did this on the streets? Would people drive less? ;)

Get In the Ring!

Had a great community group tonight. We discussed Rom 12:18 in the context of family relationships. Every family has some level of dysfunction in it. There are no perfect people, no perfect families. The bottom line of our conversation and the DVD we watched is that within our imperfect families it's always worth fighting for relationship. Even when it will turn out to be a losing fight is still WORTH the fight! Too many family members give up and stop fighting, they quit pursuing relationship and before they know it it's multiple years without communicating and something inside of them feels dead.

I know there are some relationships where physical or psychological abuse is taking place and those relationships just need to stop. But when personality differences, annoying idiosyncrasies, or pride cause friction you've got to stay in the ring. Even if you're the only one fighting, even though who you're fighting for has no interest in reciprocating any kind of relationship... it's worth the fight.

A great application tonight was writing a letter to a parent or child with one goal in that letter: To share all the good memories with that person. Even in all the mess, there is usually something redeemable. There may be tons of dirt between you but it's worth digging through all that to find the gold of great memories. And gold always shines a little brighter when shared with another.

What are you waiting for? Go write that letter.

Orange Tour/Call Update

Last night was not as good. I made 195 calls and secured 7 addresses. Most of the numbers didn't exist. :\

Today I attended the Orange Tour with Reggie Joiner in Burbank. It was a great reminder of what our mission is and how we're implementing our mission. It also reminded me why I left a comfortable position to take a risk and start a new church. "Change will only take place when the pain of the status quo is bigger than the pain of change."

It was a boiling 105 degrees in Burbank today... so nice to live on the coast and be protected most of the time from that kind of heat! (And smog!)

Calls, Calls & more Calls!

I hate telemarketers. I used to try and mess with them. Sometimes I would set a timer and see how long I could keep them on the line before they hung up on me. ;) I'd ask them question after question like I was really interested in their product but never buy. What a jerk I was!

I actually had a job as a telemarketer for 3.5 hours. I was selling AT&T long distance a few years back. They asked me to not come back because I didn't make one sale... well, actually I had one guy wanting to buy but he was an Iranian student without a credit card and we could only sell to those with a credit card. A funny: I'm freaking nervous (and hating myself for actually being a telemarketer!), while trying to keep up with the automatic dial system. Every time I hung up a new caller was on the line... in fact most times that person had already said hello before I was connected with them! So I'm looking at all the names quickly pop up on the screen and saying, "Hi! Is this Mr Brown, Mrs Green etc..." In the fray I looked at the next name without thinking and ask, "Is this Mr. Jehova?" The computer had dialed a Kingdom Hall. :)

Anyway, this week I had my third evening of taking part in a calling campaign to get the word out about RPCC. Our goal is to call about 30,000 people! The calling is going a little slower than anticipated because many of our volunteers are freaked out about doing this. Our calling has been overwhelmingly successful thus far and I've actually been enjoying it a lot! The cool thing is that we're not selling anything and we're actually not even asking people to go to church. It's a very 'soft' sell. We just tell people we're a new church in the area and ask if we can send them information to keep them updated on our progress. That's it! So every address we get we're sending them information.

Here are my numbers so far.

Dialed: 652
Addresses received: 53
That's 8%.
(Keep in mind that the majority of the numbers dialed were answering machines and we will call them back. We anticipate that we'll get addresses of at least 10%.)

If we call 30,000 people that's 3,000 people who will receive a few mail pieces from us and a follow up call! I'm excited to see what God is gonna do with this! We're inviting all these people to come out Oct 24 to a special Saturday evening service at the barn. If you want to be a catalyst for life change for people you don't know come and make some calls with me. I'll be doing it again tomorrow night and at least two nights next week. It's really fun because you never know how people will respond. I'd say 95% are very polite and are not put off by the call. I get a few hangups and a few "I've got my own religion... click" but I've also had great conversations with people including one guy who is a Hindu, attends a Hindu church but asked me to send him information. How cool is that???

Joy in Sorrow

I celebrated twice this weekend. Yesterday a wedding, today a memorial. Both events were for friends. I cried a lot at the memorial for Kim, for what could have been and especially for her 5 year old daughter who will now live with a distant memory of her mama. I cried for Shanna because at one time she was very close with Kim and cherished their friendship. We met Sean, Kim and Robyn at the end of August in 2004... both our daughters less than a month old. In fact, we learned that our daughters were born on the exact same day. They came by to start a small group with us that actually ended up being just us four. We spent a couple months together going through Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Life" book. Yes, I did actually mean that I celebrated at the memorial too... Kim loved Jesus and I know she's with Him, with a new healthy body, quizzing Him like crazy about things we don't get answers to in this life.

I met Nick & Rachel for the first time in January. They came to check out our church and were heading out of the service when I shook their hands and asked them about their story. They were brand new to town from Washington State and I know moving to a new area is hard at first. Shanna and I had them over for dinner that Thursday and while talking about the Office we became good friends (Thanks Michael Scott!). That led to marriage counseling and yesterday I officiated their wedding. A perfect day for a great couple!

I played with my kids a lot tonight, gave them extra hugs and am reminded of the amazing gift that life is... something that should be cherished and lived to the full because it's gone too soon. Tomorrow is a new day and really a new season. I have been part-time at RPCC since March while Shanna has been working full-time. We made a commitment to do this at least until September and that is now here. She is now part time (and a full time mom!) and I need to fill that gap in our budget ASAP. I've applied at many places but now that I'm not playing "Mr. Mom" full time I can get more aggressive in my search. I'm actually looking forward to getting a part time job because I'll get to meet new people and invite them to check out RPCC.