Reflect

But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

To behold the glory of the Lord is to be transformed by it — and then to reflect it into a dark world.

The Goodness of God at Work in Us

It's hard for me to come up with a better word than amazing when I consider the goodness of the Lord. I begin nearly every teaching by saying God is good, and I say it with sincerity because I recognize His goodness. As lead pastor, I'm afforded the opportunity to see God's goodness in very tangible ways week in and week out. Having an oversight position, I know what's happening across the many ministries of this church, and I receive reports from people serving throughout Escondido, San Marcos, the surrounding areas, and to the ends of the earth.

The Lord commanded us to go into all the world, and our church has had the privilege of fulfilling that commission in many ways. Much work remains, but He has allowed us to be part of it in a wonderful way. Ultimately, if the Lord doesn't build the house, those who labor, labor in vain. If God is not in it, we're idly doing something with no lasting impact.

This is what Gamaliel told the religious leaders in Acts who wanted to shut down the early church. He said, "If this work is not of God, it will fail. But if it is of God and you fight against it, you'll find yourself fighting against God." I love that, because what is happening in and through our lives, corporately and individually, is a work of God. In Philippians 2 we're reminded that God works in us to will and to do His good pleasure. In our own strength, trying to make ourselves pleasing to God is futile — but God works in us to do what pleases Him.

Expecting Great Things from God

Never has there been a need presented to this church that has gone unmet. As 2012 closed, we wanted to share with the body some of what the Lord is doing through this church — which is why you received this brochure titled Reflect. (Yes, the title is backwards on purpose; I'll explain as we go.)

When I stood at this pulpit on January 1st, 2012, I shared that our leadership was anticipating great things, and God's word says He does exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). As we go in obedience to Matthew 28, we get to see Him work in miraculous ways. And that doesn't just mean a short-term trip to Africa or China. It means waking up Monday morning and praying, "God, be with me at work, at school; let me see as You see, let me be Your hands." If you start your day that way, you will see Him move in tangible, miraculous ways. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us day to day.

Sometimes we disregard that — like a little kid who takes off the training wheels and says, "I can handle this," and ends up with skinned-up knees. We do that in our walk with the Lord. God is so gracious that He'll sometimes say, "All right, let's see how well you handle this," and then He fixes the fixes we get ourselves into.

The missionary to India, William Carey, was known for saying, "Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God." That was our posture going into 2012, and God met us every time.

Show Yourself Mighty: A Whole Heart Toward God

In 2 Chronicles 16, the nation of Israel faced a spiritual battle manifesting in physical war. The king was tempted to rely on earthly allies, and the prophet Hanani came to him and said he needed to trust in the Lord. The king chose unwisely, trusting in man instead of God. The prophet told him in verse 9:

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself mighty on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to him.

He added, "In this you have done foolishly, O king. From now on you will have wars." There's a great promise here — God looks to show Himself mighty for those who put their trust completely in Him — and a great exhortation: if you don't, He'll graciously allow you to trust in whatever you put your trust in. And we saw the Lord work mightily in 2012.

What God Did Through Your Giving in 2012

If you open the brochure, you can see how the Lord provided through this church. This body gave $1.35 million to the work this past year. That's awesome when you consider we're not a huge church. Of that, $964,000 came through general fund offerings, and nearly $400,000 was given above and beyond to designated outreach, missions, and benevolence — a full 12% increase over 2011.

Grasp the reality of that increase. From 2008 until now we've been in one of the most difficult economic downturns in a generation. I know many pastors whose budgets have been down 10, 20, even 30%. Yet every single year since 2008, the Lord has provided more and more through your giving. It blows our minds when the elder board reviews the finances. Then we remember our God is an awesome God, and He provides for our needs. In my house, when an unexpected expense hits — like a water heater spewing all over the floor — my wife and I say, "Our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and He just needs to take one to auction." The "auction" part we added.

Reaching the Community and the World

That commitment is having an impact, locally and to the ends of the earth. This church gave 160 gifts to children worldwide through Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child, and 180 gifts to nursing home residents through Angel Tree. You helped the youth ministry purchase an outreach motorcycle for Cross Connection Outreach in Africa, and you donated a ton of items for the rummage sale, the proceeds of which went toward missions.

This body also serves. At the end of 2011 our missions board earmarked excess funds — about $10,000 — to launch an ESL program at Rose Elementary School, purchasing Rosetta Stone software. Corey DeAndo sought help from other churches, but none could get involved. Still, the money was there. The principal, with tears in her eyes, has watched what this church has done to help her school reach the community. Every Tuesday and Thursday, morning and night, a group of our people — including many on the worship team — teaches English to the Hispanic parents of those students, helping them step into our culture.

You continued outreach to nine nursing homes in Escondido every week — leading worship, teaching Bible studies, ministering to residents. The church supported Shane Nelson serving in China, where a short-term trip became long-term as he stayed to teach English; he's now in Bible college there. Simply growing up speaking English opens doors for missions worldwide — a beautiful open door for building relationships and sharing Christ. We sent Anna Kohler to Israel to serve with Shevet Achim, and we helped Josh Wise, serving at Crossroads Community Church in Vancouver, go to Africa when an unexpected opportunity arose. We sent an additional team to China and supported other overseas ministry.

We started a homework club at the Crossings, a low-income housing complex here in Escondido built by a Christian-owned company that wants church-centered outreach. Our young adults ministry now runs an after-school homework club there on Tuesdays, and the parents are tremendously blessed. Our Vacation Bible School reached 160 kids over two weeks, and roughly 1,500 people attended our Harvest Celebration — now in its 31st year.

Conferences, Church Planting, and the School

We hosted a Life Skills Conference twice this year — in April and October — for high school girls in our community who are single moms, with well over 100 girls attending. In October we held a church planting conference at Twin Peaks with the Calvary Church Planting Network, on whose board I serve. The vision is 500 healthy Calvary Chapel church plants over five years. As of yesterday, over 102 potential church planters nationwide are being mentored by 60 mentors. One I'm mentoring attends here and is preparing to plant near Newtown, Connecticut.

There's real urgency. Three thousand Protestant churches in America close their doors every year. One study determined that, accounting for population growth and closures, 70,000 new churches need to be planted between now and 2050 — just in America. Calvary Admin Services, the ministry Pastor Richard is launching, is a key part of supporting this work. Our Easter outreach at the Center for the Arts drew about 1,200 people, and our Christmas outreach, partnering with five other community churches, drew over 1,200.

You may not know that Cross Connection Escondido has a school. About three years ago, Jared Beck shared a vision to develop an online Christian high school. It's now a full private school reaching students anywhere in the world, with about 75 full-time students and four teachers. Remarkably, it's WASC accredited — one of the largest accreditation agencies in the world. Most private Christian schools don't have WASC accreditation, yet Jared secured it after only a year with about 15 students. Educators told me that's not possible. Our God is an awesome God; I don't know what else to tell you.

Several of our students are children of missionaries on the field, for whom we offer a special tuition rate. Missionaries often homeschool their kids but struggle at the high school level, sometimes leaving the field as a result. Now we have students in New Zealand and Brazil whose parents are missionaries. One of our first graduates finished high school through the online school while working with the underground church in China. It's awesome to see what's possible now through technology — and it's all because this is a body whose hearts God sees as loyal to Him, on whose behalf He shows Himself mighty.

Words of Vision Over the Years

At the start of each year for the last four or five years, I've shared words of vision. In 2009 they were simplify and focus. We brought in a huge dumpster — we're the only nation with a TV show called Hoarders — and emptied it five or six times, paired with the rummage sale, all so we could focus better on what God has called us to.

In 2010, from Micah 2:10 — "Arise and go, for this is not your rest" — we were reminded this place is not our eternal home. I'm thankful for that. This world took seven days to make; the other place He's been preparing for a couple thousand years. When you put your faith in Christ, you become a dual citizen, with your citizenship more firmly fixed in heaven. We're sojourners and ambassadors, not to set our roots here, "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." God wants a people on mission — Oscar Mike, on the move for the kingdom.

In 2011 we talked about loving God and loving one another — the Great Commandment to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. They will know we are His disciples by our love for one another. Then in 2012 we spoke of enjoying God's grace and extending His glory. We don't just get a dinky pink-spoon sample of grace like at Baskin-Robbins — we receive it in full measure, pressed down and overflowing. Having received it, we extend His glory.

Reflect: Beholding and Mirroring His Glory

The word that stayed in my heart for this year is reflect. One definition is to look back on and consider the past — which we've been doing. But the more important definition is to display, show forth, or cast back light upon something. That's why the brochure cover is backwards: hold it to a mirror and it reads correctly. We are reflecting the glory of the Lord, both to Him and to this world. The prophets say the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea — God glorifies Himself in His people. He wants to shine upon our lives so He can shine through them, just as Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden."

The theme comes from 2 Corinthians 3:18:

But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

In verses 7–18, Paul contrasts the glory of the first covenant with the second. Don't misunderstand — the first covenant was glorious. When God met Israel at Sinai, Moses went up into the cloud, into the thick darkness surrounding the Lord, and received the law over forty days. That cloud, I believe, was more to contain God's glory than to display it — a veil shrouding His glory. God meeting with man and seeking to tabernacle in his midst is glory.

It was so glorious that Moses, enraptured, said in Exodus 33, "Show me Your glory." The Lord answered that no man can see Him face to face and live. So God made provision: in Exodus 34 He placed Moses in the cleft of the rock, covered him, passed by, and let him see His afterglow presence. Moses came down the mountain physically changed, his face shining. The children of Israel were afraid to come near, so Moses veiled his face. There was a veil even between God's residual glory and the people — and that glory was fading. Paul implies Moses, perhaps out of some pride, kept the veil on so they wouldn't see the glory disappearing.

Transformed from Glory to Glory

Then Paul describes the surpassing glory of the new covenant. "When one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (v. 16). Under the old covenant the glory was always covered; under the new covenant, all of us — not just one man on a mountain — with unveiled face behold the reflection of God's glory. And in beholding, just as Moses was transformed, we are being transformed into the same image: the image of His glory. This is not a fading glory, for it goes "from glory to glory," and it is by the Spirit of the Lord — not by our works of righteousness, but something God does in us as we come and behold Him in His word and in worship.

This is God's purpose for every believer. Romans 8:29 says, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." Before the foundation of the world, God purposed that you would be conformed to His image and reflect His glory. Romans 12 adds, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice... do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The world wants to conform you to a different image, but God wants to imprint His image on you and show it to this world.

D.L. Moody is credited with saying, "The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him. By God's help, I aim to be that man." By God's grace, we desire to be what He desires us to be. As Paul said in Philippians 3, "that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me."

Looking Ahead to 2013

In the brochure you'll see some — not all — of our goals for 2013. Our proposed budget is 6% above last year's, and we're trusting God for it, asking Him to do even more, exceedingly abundantly above what we ask. We're launching Calvary Admin Services and continuing to grow our connect groups. We want to extend the ESL program beyond Rose Elementary — and we could really use volunteers, especially Tuesday or Thursday nights. You don't need special training: just sit with a non-English speaker at a computer and help them read through Rosetta Stone. If you're available, let the office know after the service, and Corey will follow up.

We're developing community chaplaincy, hoping to raise up chaplains for Escondido's more than 100 nursing homes. We're launching a young adults ministry called Nexus, and continuing our "Rewirement" ministry. The idea behind Rewirement: don't just retire and check out. If you're stepping out of your career, you have time, training, and experience to impact the kingdom like no other generation. The greatest potential for ministry in the next 25 years is retiring baby boomers — I guarantee it, and I don't think the church has recognized it yet.

We'll be recording the Palawan New Testament with Cross Connection Outreach next month; Terry Moody is going to the Philippines with Luke and Kristen Ryder to work on it, alongside missionaries Bill and Donna Davis who translated it. We want to expand community outreach including the Crossings, grow Calvary Online School, and much more. We also have missions opportunities to Tecate (about every six weeks — Dave Bossie runs that ministry at Rancho San Juan Bosco), Belize, Mozambique, the Philippines, China, and Israel.

Sending Out Kari and Kristen

In just a few weeks, two young people who grew up in our church and youth ministry are heading to the field: Kari Richardson to China to teach English, and Kristen Lane to India.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You for the way You are extending our influence as a church and raising up people within our body to step out into territories unknown, into works that You've called them for and prepared before the foundation of the world. Your word says we're saved by grace and not by works, but You've prepared good works that we should walk in them.

We pray for Kari and Kristen. As they step out into the initial steps of the life You've prepared for them, pour out Your Spirit upon them and protect them. Be with their families who will miss them. Make them effective for Your kingdom; use them in ways that blow their minds, that they would see Your hand mightily working in and through them. Help them not to be fearful or anxious, but to put their trust in You and to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Your Son. Enable them with power they can't understand, because it is purely from You. As they see they're not sufficient of themselves, may they find their sufficiency in You. Equip them beyond what they feel able to do, give them wisdom beyond their years, and the ability to shine Your light wherever You carry them. When they return to us, may they come with joy filling their hearts, rejoicing in the good things You have done. We commit them into Your care, trusting that You will keep that which we have committed unto You until that day. We praise You in Jesus' name. Amen.