The last two weeks, we’ve been digging into 1 John and learning who God is and how God wants us to live.
Until we know who God is, we will never know who we are. So who is God? God is light!

We are encouraged to step into the light, walk in truth, and live life knowing that once we step into the light, God's grace will meet us right where we are.

1 John 1:5-2:2

Light reveals and darkness conceals.

How many of you have left with two different color socks because you probably got dressed in the dark. You couldn’t discern dark blue with black but the moment the light hits it… You are like… “hold up a second…” Then you spend the rest of the day self conscious because light is revealing what you chose in darkness.

That is the epitome of what light does. Light reveals the blemishes that only light can expose.

We tend to want to hide the things we don't like about ourselves but you can’t change that which you won’t expose.

Christianity is a lifetime of exposure because it’s a lifetime of change.

God loves you and will forgive you, extend mercy, extend grace, but he loves you too much to keep you the same way. He requires change from us. That is what 1 John tells us.

‘This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. but if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. but if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.‘My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins
of all the world. 1 John 1:5-2:2 NLT

Here John is basically speaking to the Jewish Christians and telling them what it looks like to be in fellowship with God.

‘This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. (vs.5)

God is a difference maker. When God arrives everything changes! When you allow God in, your darkness is exposed but not to embarrass you… It’s exposed to fix you. God reveals truth in order to heal and give us a chance at living.

What truth do you need to practice? Not be perfect at but “practice”?
Practice makes better. What Christian practices are you practicing?

Life group (fellowship), Giving (generosity), Serving (Compassion), evangelizing (Hope), praising (trust in God), learning God’s Word (killing temptation) fasting (Building your faith), worshiping (loving on Christ)?

Light doesn’t just reveal what is missing in us, but what is available in Christ Jesus!

REAL life is available now is Jesus! Not this fake whoohoo facade that we
project to the world around us, but this real, meaningful, work-in-progress, deep and honest life that is not always pretty, but it is real. It’s revealed. It’s not hiding behind religion, or yesterday’s experiences. but it’s looking for good, meaningful experiences with Jesus today, and every day!

To live in the fullness of Life that God has for us, we must read on through 1John 2:11-17.

We all face cravings that are not from God and though our appetites cannot be seen, they are powerful. We naturally tend to crave things that end up only being an illusion from the enemy and do not even come close to what God has for us. The Lust of the Flesh (or Desire to do something apart from God's will), the Lust of the Eyes (or deep desire to have something) and the Pride of Life (or the desire to be something apart from God's will) are real temptations
we all face on a continual basis. But do you manage your appetites or do they manage you? We are ruining our appetite for God with lesser things.

Romans 6:12-13 tells us to to deny our flesh...so it is possible! None of these things lead to a good future but with God, there is always a next place. He wants us to Grow in freedom and experience that REAL LIFE he died to give us.

Come join us tomorrow as we continue LIGHT IT UP and celebrate dads!

Hello, church fam!
I want to start out this letter by saying how much I enjoy being your pastor.  I am comfortable to say that these last 3-years of church planting, I have poured my heart and soul into this work alongside so many wonderful servant-leaders and I don’t regret it one bit.  
We have done our very best and have seen some incredible glimpses of our vision come to fruition.  We have enjoyed seeing lives changed by Jesus (in some cases even leaning-in towards Him more) when that was not even an option for them before!

Our model for ministry is one that is very relational and up-close and personal.  We believe that our job is more than just preaching and teaching. We believe our job is to do life together with people and to just be present.  That is what I consider life-giving and fun in ministry. However, on top of that, I also have the responsibility of meeting financial benchmarks for our denomination, training our leadership, working with the national conference who has supported our ministry over the years, creating processes for ministry, taking seminary classes, leading our vision and mission, maintaining proper documentation for statistical reports, and more.  In addition to this, we have moved 4 times in 3 years, though I’m extremely glad that it led us to where we are at now. All of this has led to issues with work/rest balance and with that comes the tiredness and exhaustion.
The reason for this letter is to inform you that Celines and I have decided to take a 2 weeks renewal leave starting in June.  In every church planting training that I have been part of, it is recommended that after 3 years of church planting work, that the planting pastor and family, take a renewal leave to give them a chance to replenish their energies, reconnect in their relationships, and reinvent their strategy for the work ahead.  We intend to do so and come back with an even greater determination to see our mission and vision come to fruition for the Glory of God.
We will take 2 weeks starting June 4th and be returning June 18th.  During these 2 weeks, we will continue our Light it Up series with Laura Santiago and Temo Rios, it would be awesome if you all can support them!

Here are four things that I would like you to do for us in our absence:

1. Be in community with each other: This is not the time for all to go our separate ways.  Instead, gathering for worship services, life groups, and ministry in general, will be more important now than ever before.  This is a time to strengthen the community that God has created with this church. Meet new people and invite them into your circles. Do fun things together. Pray for one another, and become part of a Life Group.  It will be great to come back to an even better and united community of faith.
2. Serve the church: Becoming a stronger community of faith in our absence comes by way of serving one another.  Making sure that every ministry is well served, and all our leaders have your support, so our ministry can be done with excellence and grace to each other and our visitors.
3. Be generous to the ministry:  When we come back, I’m praying to have a greater vision for the years ahead.  One of my greatest burdens is the finances of the church. It will take a miracle to be able to do what we plan to do when I get back.  But we believe in a God of miracles, however, faith without our action is dead. We must give generously, so when I get back, doing more for Jesus would be a natural extension of our generosity and passion to reach one more for Jesus.
4. Pray for us:  Your prayers now are extremely important.  They are valued and very much needed. Now more than ever, we are going to lean on you.  We need God and we need you! We are not afraid of saying that, hoping you would model the same thing with each other.

In our absence, our wonderful, dedicated, and talented Lead Team will be in charge of the day to day operations at church.  Any concerns, please contact Laura Santiago and Temo Rios for any type of pastoral support, guidance, and prayer. Any other concerns, outside of spiritual support and pastoral needs, please contact anyone in our Lead Team.

​(click on the download file below for access to our leadership team contact form)

Love you all and I pray for even greater things in my short leave

In His Grip,
Pastor Juan

What is your fighting disposition? When the enemy comes at you, how do you respond?

Some people have been intimidated by the devil so much in life that all they do is run. So, most Christians are better runners than fighters.
When fighting in the Spirit, we are empowered by the tools of the Spirit. If we don’t use the tools of the spirit, then we are fighting with our own strength.

Your fighting disposition tells the story if you are going to fight back, or run away. If the devil can intimidate you enough, you will run and run and run and never figure out that you have the tools, the strength and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to fight back.

We must remember, we are not fighting for victory, we are fighting from victory!! Many times we fight with a victim disposition. God has given us the victory, so fight as a victor, not a victim!

In Ephesians 6, Paul is speaking of fighting dispositions to the churches in Ephesus because the aim of Satan was to cause disunity of the body of Christ.
You know why the devil wants to disunite the body Christ?
Because good soldiers make impenetrable armies.

Stand firm, and put on the belt of truth. Then, the body armor of righteousness. The body armor protects your heart. If your heart is right, you will do right.
Then the shoes of peace, because wherever you go, you can have peace through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The belt of truth, the body armor of righteousness, and your shoes of peace is something you need on ALL THE TIME. Helmet, shield, and sword is on an as needed basis. You pick it up to fight.

What do you do in order for your fighting disposition to be right?
1. Hold up (the shield of faith)
2. Put on (the Helmet of salvation)
3. Take up (or Receive the Sword which is the Word)
4. Pray up (in the Spirit).

In other words, put on Jesus! Let your disposition, your attitude, your stand tell your bully that you are not gonna take it anymore because you are about to put on some Jesus! Let the bully know that your Heavenly Father gave you the green light to fight and you are ready.

Don't do it alone! Let’s stand as the army we were called to be in unity. Call up a friend or neighbor and join us tomorrow at 10:15 am!