Vista Community Church

It's a mushy sloppy life where there is forgiveness, mercy, or grace without first a clear accountability for and recognition of wrongdoing. Think about it. What is being forgiven if there is no understanding of failure? What good is the mercy of judge if there hasn't first been a judgment and an impeding consequence. And how would we ever fully grow up (children sure don't have a chance) if there is no authority in our life that has the courage to declare when we're wrong, when we've been bad, when we've hurt another person?

When Djokovic was defaulted after accidentally striking a line judge with a tennis ball, I wondered how wonderful it would be if that kind of infraction-clarity and swift consequence were true in society in general. It wouldn't only be wonderful, it would be healthy, and it would be a significant part of slowing our culture's downward moral spiral. In fact, if we follow God's moral law (which only the utterly selfish disagree with), like don't steal, don't lie, don't commit adultery, etc, He promises that it leads to cultural flourishing!

Scriptures for the Week

Our core values are rooted in Jesus teaching about the two greatest commandments (Love God; Love Others) and his great commission (Go, and make disciples). We remember those this way: Worshipful, Relational, Missional. We'll cover them in details in our Sunday teachings, Sept 20th – Oct 4th, 2020, but here's an overview...

Met with the Leadership Team Thu night and kicked off the [re]church season. It was a great meeting and even better just seeing all of their faces. I realize from the discussion that it's going to be important to keep reiterating what we intend with the  [re]church initiative. So here  is...

Continuing the previous episode, Pastor Mike does a brief overview of the 5 spiritual characteristics listed in Ephesians 4:11...(A)postle, (P)rophet, (E)vangelist, (S)hepherd, and (T)eacher, often referred to as APEST.

This is a re-load of (One of the Most Power Tools...) which was errantly loaded as a duplication of the previous episode. In this episode Pastor Mike DOES actually talk about one of the greatest tools at your disposal, as well as a quick overview of Eph 4:11, commonly known as the APEST verse...

Scriptures for the Week

Ever since Jesus started the Church, he's been reshaping the Church. Mostly because only manage to trust and follow Him for short stretches of time. In any case, his mercies are new every morning, so all we have to do is [re]follow Him and he'll orchestrate His [re]church. Always has; Always will. What a blast to be entrusted with such purpose. Let's go, Vista!

Problems, challenges, impasses, trauma, change, etc...all create emotional, psychological stress. I'm no psychologist, so don't quote me on all that...just try to catch my point: The world we live in right now is internally stressful. And when people are stressed, we communicate poorly.  We "communicate" nearer to the ends of the continuum that stretches from "spewing" to "stuffing." We're going to err toward screaming or silence...depending on your particular brand of foolishness. Pastor mike reminds us of a very simple tool each of us can use...if we decide to...to land us nearer the center of the continuum...where healthy communication and alleviated stress happen!