Phoenix Preacher

You, dread warrior on the march, You, lurking tiger, ready to spring, You, provoked potter against recalcitrant clay; we approach you at the outset of this day.

And while we do, we watch the old powers, church and state, fall apart and cling desperately to what was and what will not be.

We notice the seeping away of what is treasured among us, and in our eager anxiety seek to hold back the loss,we sense bewilderment on every side, to which we ourselves are more than a little participant.

Grant us courage this day,

that while we watch,

while we notice,

while we sense,

we may read our world rightly in your presence,

that we may discern your complicity in the loss,

that we may trust your terror to be purposeful,

that we may imagine the loss birthed to goodness that we cannot see or conjure for ourselves.

Stand nearby, You in your terror and be gracious,

You, in your lurking, be patient:

You, in your provocation , make this weary world new, alive in praise to you.

Amen.

Walter Brueggemann;Anna Carter Florence. Inscribing the Text: Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann (Kindle Location 1612). Kindle Edition.

Open blogging!

Don’t make things worse, please…

All,

The big jerk moderator (me) has dropped a particular name in the blocked word list. If you use that name in a post today, it will be automatically stuck in moderation. I will find it there eventually, and delete the reference. Please understand, perpetuating the fight is not something I am going to allow today. Peace. 

Dear Pastor,

As you know, last week Pastor Chuck sent out an email to the Calvary Chapel affiliates throughout the world briefly explaining the changes he has made concerning the movement. This is a follow-up email to try to fill in some of the details. While there is still much to be worked out, the following is basically what has changed.

CCOF is being dissolved and a new plan has been established. Chuck has asked a group of men that have been with him for many years to take over the oversight of the movement. The name is “Calvary Chapel Association” or CCA. There will no longer be a central headquarters or anything like that. The leadership of the movement has been regionalized throughout the United States. Soon, we hope to get working on the rest of the world and set it up with regional leadership as the states, but that will take a little more time.
The regions of the country are broken up mostly by state boundaries, with a few exceptions which will be cleared up on the new website. The names of the regions and states which they will cover are listed below. Each region has a leader of a team. The leader is listed and his team members are listed as well.

Northeast: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Washington DC
Leader – Joe Focht
Lloyd Pulley
Randy Cahill
Ken Graves
Deep South: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia
Leader – Sandy Adams
Troy Warner
Paul Lester
John Pillivant
Jerry McAnulty
Mark Kirk
John Hoppe
Florida
Leader – Malcolm Wild
Bob Coy
Danny Hodges
Gib Allen
Jim Gallagher
Kent Nottingham

Mid- West Great Lakes Area: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin
Leader: Bill Goodrich
Steve Miller
Ed Gaines
Central Region: Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas
Leader: Jim Stewart
Dwight Douville
Wes Denham
Chris Hess

Southwest: Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma
Leader – Skip Heitzig
Robert Furrow
Charlie Flores
Mark Martin
Bill Gehm
Texas
Leader – Rick Coburn
Ron Hindt
Ken Merrihew
Bill Gehm
Northwest/Alaska: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Alaska
Leader – Wayne Taylor
Bob Caldwell
Rob Verdeyen
Ken Ortiz
Central-West Region: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming 

Leader: Tom Stipe

Shaun Sells

Dave Love

Eric Cartier

Al Pittman
Hawaii
Leader – Bill Stonebraker
Mike Stangel
Rick Irons
Tim Newman
Ricky Ryan
Northern/Central California
Leader – Damian Kyle
John Snoderly
Bill Holdridge
Rich Chaffin
Tim Brown
California: Santa Barbara/Ventura/San Fernando Valley
Leader: David Guzik
Troy Spilman
Lance Ralston
Paul Berry
Rob McCoy
California: LA/Orange/San Bernardino Counties
Leader: Jeff Johnson
Raul Ries
Jack Hibbs
David Rosales
Brian Brodersen
Steve Mays
California: San Diego/Other southern counties
Leader – Mike MacIntosh
Ray Bentley
Rob Glickman
Mike Madigan
Bob Botsford
Pete Malinger
Chaz Yandal
Norlyn Kent
Erick Martin
Gary Lawton

The team of pastors in the regions will essentially assume the role in the region that CCOF used to fulfill and much more.
They will oversee affiliations and hopefully the process will return to church planting based on relationships. It will be their responsibility to see that the process becomes strong and personal and when someone comes into the family of churches they are well connected with their fellow ministries.
They will also be places for anyone in their region to go to for most any reason that a person would contact a church. The website under construction right now is very user friendly with regional team members photos and a place to go for questions.
They will handle problem letters, calls and emails that now come into either Calvary of Costa Mesa or CCOF. Any of this will be immediately forwarded to the regional team and the matter can be handled locally with leaders who are there in the area. Hopefully this will be a help and blessing to all.
They regional teams will help oversee regional conferences that help bring the Calvary affiliates in the their areas closer together.
It is Chuck’s desire that these men who have been with him for years will become looked to more and more to help guide, bless, encourage, inspire and give fresh vision to the movement.

As to the central office, yes, there will still be one of sorts, but, it is more of a clearinghouse and database for the movement. I (Don McClure) and Michelle Wright (a very capable secretary you may have spoken to in the past) Will be overseeing it. There is, however, a major change from the previous time we attempted the regional idea about 10 years ago. And that is that both Chuck Smith and I will not be having any authority over the decisions of the regional teams. Though we sit on the council of CCA, the true leadership is being handed over to the regions. My personal involvement is as an administrator/facilitator among the council members and handle planning and helping the regions all work together and oversee the home office. I will continue with my present ministry for the most part but, consider it a joy to help in this manner.

Chuck has asked the CCA council to take over the vision and leadership for the senior pastors annual conference and thus become the planning board for that.
Those men are listed below:
Chuck Smith, Skip Heitzig, Rick Ryan, Mike MacIntosh, Raul Ries, Damian Kyle, Joe Focht, Bob Coy, Bob Caldwell, Jack Hibbs, Brian Brodersen, David Rosales, Malcolm Wild, Steve Mays, Jeff Johnson, Bill Stonebraker, Wayne Taylor, Greg Laurie, Tom Stipe, David Guzik, Ray Bentley, Lloyd Pulley, Sandy Adams and Don Mc Clure.

Chuck has also asked the CCA council to oversee the pastors wives annual conference as it is Kay’s desire as well. The board servicing the pastors wives conference is as follows. Leader: Sandy MacIntosh, Karyn Johnson, Cheryl Brodersen, Debbi Bryson Cathy Dickinson, June Hesterly, Laura Jackson, Cathe Laurie, Gail Mays, Sharon Ries, Marie Rosales, and Jean McClure

Hopefully this helps answer a few questions that are floating around.

I believe that as a group of ministries, we are all truly thankful for the foundation that both Chuck and Kay have laid for us and it is a great challenge to have them pass the movement on. I am sure I speak for all the council when I ask for your prayers and patience as we seek the Lord’s anointing and blessing on this new plan. Many have been praying for the Lord to show us the direction for the future and we believe He has.
Personally I am very thankful to be a part of this family and to be surrounded by such a tremendous group of brothers and sisters. I am thrilled and blessed to see where He would lead us now.
As for the moment, the old website is still functional and we can all be found there until things get freshened up.

Thank you all, in His love

Don McClure
Administrator

1. “In a new prayer letter Billy Graham writes: “My heart aches for America and its deceived people. The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance.” (HT)
2. “Famed evangelist Billy Graham’s letter calling America and its “deceived people” to repentance is one in a series of escalating warnings that the nation is in growing danger of God’s judgment, prominent faith leaders told Charisma News.“
3. “Could it not be argued on as many bases that we’re advancing in positive ways — even particularly with regard to affirmation of the rights of the marginalized — as we can for moral decline? “
4. “You don’t need to be some sort of killjoy, sports-hating, unmasculine person to see that sports culture–clearly glimpsed in its worst, utterly-horrifying-to-the-point-of shock iteration in the Jerry Sandusky scandal–is, well, out of control in American society. “
5. “As an education journalist, I have watched Jerry Sandusky’s downfall with a mixture of horror and fascination. But as a graduate school alumna of Penn State, it has been difficult to separate my own experiences as a student and instructor from what I am seeing in the news. “
6. “This seems to be a popular idea, this notion that the evidence for faith is purposefully kept ambiguous so that people are not compelled to believe, but instead can believe of their own free will. When you think about it however, the argument is most curious.“
7. “I need my Calvinist family, just as much as I need my Openness relatives. Like a family, there will be disagreements, but we don’t disown members for disagreeing with one another. “

11. I’m amazed that the prophecy wonks haven’t heard of this yet. That article alone should be worth a month of “the Rapture is imminent” howling.

12. Here’s what’s really on my heart these days…according to my own tradition, I think I’ve become a heretic.

I get a lot of email, and in that email there are two people that get a lot of positive comments from things they write on the blog.

Sarah and Xenia.

Sarah and I have been off line friends for a long time, but she’s also been a mentor, a theological guide to people and places I had never been.

Everything in my heart and in my teaching has been touched by that friendship, always for the better, always.

I’ve seen her live the words she invited me to read…consistently… for years.

Xenia and I have been online friends even longer, before there was a blog.

Sarah invited me to read outside my box and because I trusted her I did…and my vision of God was greatly expanded.

Xenia forced me, by the testimony of her words and life…to burn the box.

You see, I’m a child of the sixteenth century, a Calvinist, a man with one foot in Oregon and one in Geneva.

I’m supposed to try to “save” Xenia from her error, not embrace our differences.

My refusal to do so, to even believe or think there is a need to do so, is heresy in my tribe.

That’s why they are taking Jason Stellman to the online stake for burning.

If I were more significant, I’d be in the back of that wagon too.

I’ve always wanted to know what was right theologically, to know with certainty the truth of our faith.

I have pursued that truth obsessively, and still pursue it to this day.

Here is what I have learned…that God has visited Geneva, Constantinople, Wittenburg, Costa Mesa, and other places great and small and called out a people for Himself.

The doctrines are different but the Spirit is the same.

This I do not understand, so I will choose to worship the God who is, at times, beyond understanding.

I love my brethren from all the traditions and thank God for their holy witness on this place and on me.

Here I stand, I can do no other.