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God Provides

Posted by justinfox on Aug 23, 2011

God provides.  It’s His nature, it’s what He does.  God and His loving action are inseparable.  Dogs bark and wag their tails – God rescues and saves – it’s who He is.  One incredible thing about God’s provision is that it is coupled with His wisdom, which is higher than ours, and we’re sometimes left in mystery as to the why and when of His care.  For those of us who’ve walked a while in God’s ways, though, we’ve seen over and over that He’s always right.  His love for us is perfect, flawless.  He’s like a master chess player, making each move with every other move before and ahead in mind.  He knows.  He knows everything.

It’s interesting to read the stories of God’s provision throughout the Bible.  Most often, His action occurs just in the nick of time.  He seems to be partial to the cliffhanger rescue.  In fact, when He rained down bread from the sky for His people wandering in the desert, He didn’t even allow them to collect and store it.  He made it good for one day only, leaving them to rely on Him every morning just to eat.  Jesus taught us to pray; “give us this day our daily bread”.  He knows this sense of dependence is the best thing for us and our relationship with Him, and He plays the theme like a catchy, pop chorus – repeating again and again and surprising us every time.  The Red Sea, water from a rock, a ram in a thicket, a baby in a manger – God’s specialty is the dramatic, last-minute save.

No wonder we experience His provision in our lives this same way.  For us, as a missionary family in Southern California, we often find ourselves praying for God’s provision in the quite literal sense; finances.  It seems even with all our budgeting and planning, we still meet many months with not enough money for the bills, and we’ve learned to trust in the unpredictable, recuing love of God.  A couple weeks ago, my wife and I were going over the finances on a Sunday afternoon.  Our accounts were slim, and we decided by faith to cut our grocery budget in half for the week.  We’ll see what happens, we said, maybe we can make it and God will help us…  Not more than fifteen minutes later, my wife got a text from a friend who owns a catering business.  She had just cooked for a massive wedding, there were tons of leftovers, and did we want any?  That food fed our family of six for half the week!

A few years ago, our house payment was in danger of not getting paid.  Our mortgage was due the next day, and we were a couple thousand dollars short.  We needed a miracle.  We prayed and put our cares into God’s hands.  We surrendered it all, and I slept like a rock that night.  In the morning, I waved to our kids from the porch as they walked the couple blocks to school.  Lingering on the step, I was at peace even though I wasn’t sure of God’s plan.  I drank in the warm, sunny morning and noticed something in the bushes near my feet – a dirty, frayed, grass stained piece of paper.  I picked it up, realizing it was an envelope, fallen from the mailbox, who knows how long ago…  It was a check for the entire amount and then some!  He had provided.  My heart leapt with thankfulness once again to a God who loves us, who rescues, who saves.

SHARE YOUR ENGLISH

Posted by justinfox on Aug 2, 2011

As a pastor in our city of Costa Mesa, I’m always looking for needs that can be met and people we can help. My wife and I have been making friends with our Hispanic neighbors on Baker St. for several years and our appreciation for their rich culture continues to grow. We’re amazed at their warm family bonds, their passionate work ethic, their exuberant generosity, and of course, the incredible food! Some of our neighbors live with economic hardship, and yet their simple joy and giving hearts inspire us.

We have seen that many of the moms in these homes speak very little English. They’d love to communicate better with their children’s teachers, understand the computer more fully, and have a more confident grasp of the language, but there are obstacles; inconsistent ESL classes, limited childcare, lack of transportation, and intimidating environments. This scenario sets up an incredible need and a powerful way to be a blessing. We have a profound opportunity to share ourselves in the simplest way possible; sharing our English! It’s really that easy. Do you speak English? You can join in!

Along with our community partners, we’ve developed a weekly curriculum that any English speaker can use to facilitate a fun, casual, English class which builds relationships, embodies God’s call to care for others, and impacts the life of a parent, potentially shaping the course of their family for generations to come. On one of our first “Share Your English” nights, we had almost 10 adults (and a battalion of kids) come over to the house. We set up different seating areas, told them to imagine themselves in a restaurant, and had them sit at each table depending on English proficiency. We then went around the tables as “waiters”, taking their “orders” and guiding them through conversational English according to their skill levels. It was a blast! All the while, the children were finding places to run and play in the background. Another time, we had a couple older Hispanic moms practicing English by telling my friend and I (two six foot-plus white guys) how to clean a kitchen. They bossed us around with glee and lots of laughter…and they gained some valuable life skills, too!

Our Spanish speaking friends have been blessed and cared for by this effort in profound ways, and so have we. It’s been such a hit for all of us. A request has been made for a class each week, but our small leadership team can only host one night a month. In order to pull off a weekly gathering, we’d need three more teams to come forward and help in the effort. Would you and a few of your friends be willing to give one night a month toward this Kingdom cause? You don’t need to speak Spanish, and you don’t need to be a trained ESL teacher to jump in. We’ll equip you, walk you through the curriculum, set up the venue, time, and location, and in no time you’ll be experiencing the joy of generosity, making new friends, and joining a brand new dance that you’ve already known the steps to all along; sharing your English!

To help out, contact Heidi or myself…

Justin Fox / jfox@rockharbor.org / 949-294-7039

Loving Our City

Posted by justinfox on Jun 5, 2011

As my family and I dove into the ROCKHARBOR community five years ago, we were struck by a risky dependence on God. It was electrifying to rally around “giving ourselves away” and the wave of missional service as thousands stepped into the first “Go” campaign. The weekend we cancelled services for Serve Day was a time I’ll never forget; my kids actually washed windows in a trailer park!

Although our outreach efforts of late have not been quite as high-profile as things like The GO Campaign, our posture as a church has not changed. We are still a faith community marked by gutsy dependence, risky generosity, and radical service. One of the ways our church has continued to press into this posture is by creating the new volunteer position of “City Pastor”.

What is a City Pastor, you ask? It’s a journey in process, but the main idea behind it is to seek out, create, and participate in mission endeavors within the city, and to invite our church community into the action.

The big question City Pastors are asking is; if ROCKHARBOR were to end today – if we were to close our doors and shut down, would the cities of Costa Mesa, Laguna Hills, Fullerton, or Huntington Beach miss us? Sure, a couple thousand church goers might be disappointed, but would the city miss us? Would the public schools miss us? Would our civic leaders, immigrant families, homeless population, at-risk teens, or neighborhood children really miss us? This is a haunting question, and one we continue to wrestle with…

There are a few other local churches that have aslo felt a similar call. And we began talks about what it would look like to be involved more in our cities. Two weeks after I officially started as Costa Mesa City Pastor we were called into action.

As many of you know, a Costa Mesa city worker committed suicide after learning he was going to be one of hundreds to be laid off. We responded with a network of churches for crisis care, a city-wide prayer gathering encircling City Hall, and a memorial service followed by a hospitality area for prayer, refreshments, and a listening ear…all on city grounds. Something started that day, and the ripples of it are still being felt at the civic level in many ways as the relationships built continue to grow.

A month later, another tragedy struck; a student at Costa Mesa High took his own life. He was a well-liked sophomore on the volleyball team. As the school community reeled in shock, we had another invitation to respond with many pastors on site for prayer and counseling, and I was able to sit down for an hour with his team as a mentor, chaplain, and friend – quite a change from when, just a few weeks ago, I was told no pastors would ever be allowed on campus.

In the midst of pain and brokenness, God is moving in this city.

As a church, we now have invitations from this school and several others, the city council, and MIKA Community Development to invest in relationships like never before. Beyond a summer service project or a single mission trip, this is our chance to begin making a sustainable, deep, long-term impact in Costa Mesa. There is a dynamic balance in giving and receiving, of caring and being held, of comfort and risk, and I believe God is calling us once again toward a season of daring adventure.

If you live in Costa Mesa, we invite you to love our city with reaching arms, quickened feet, and open hearts. Let’s love the people around us in such a way that God’s grace is compelling and the Gospel is heard loud and clear. As Jesus followers, this is what we do.

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reblogged from http://www.rockharbor.org/2011/05/city-pastor/