Life at Gracepoint

Exodus 38:21-31 Every material used for the tabernacle was meticulously recorded and examined for accounting. What can I learn about how I ought to spend my life, time, money and energy as a Christian? Am I good steward of the resources provided by the church?

Seeing from this text how the people gave lavishly, freely and spontaneously all their resources to build the tabernacle, I am reminded of our church in action. As we're raising funds through Element Café for the youth and various other ways, I see how similar this picture is to the members of our congregation again. Week after week, our youth are there selling coffee, and sure enough, there are people who continue to purchase from Element Café regardless of the same old pastries we sell every week. They come, and they continue to support the youth generously and freely. though they are free to purchase better pastries and better coffee down the street each morning, they come and tell me, even almost apologetically, "Oh man, I almost forgot about Element Cafe this morning and almost went to Mudrakers today. I'm so glad i remembered to come here." Or others will say, "I'm so glad you have this cafe now. Now i can spend my money here and better yet, know that it's going to help support the youth." The deliberate effort people have made to support our youth every morning, the willingness of everyone to help out and purchase whatever we sell; this is something that our youth should not take for granted from the members of our congregation. They need to see the generous giving our members do to support each and one of them, not only from Element Café, but through the various fundraisers we've done the past 3 years. From all the Sunday lunches, to the yard sales, to the Italian sodas, to smoothies, to even helping the youth recycle, they have helped support the youth so much and as long as we continue to have mission trips for youth, these fundraisers are never ending! I don't think our youth realize how rare it is that they have so much support from such a young congregation as us.

January 28. This was going to be the first and the last chance I got to visit Joyland before we launch two worship services. Starting from February, Joyland time would coincide with the 1st service, in which my current ministry group would join. So I had to visit Joyland before that happens. My heart was eager to see how much it has changed.

I was once a teacher when Joyland was just starting to blossom into an exciting ministry at our old Alcatraz building. There was so much joy in serving our children, teaching them about God, and working with all the teachers. These fond memories really got me excited at the thought of visiting the "new and improved" Joyland at Willard school gym.

So with much anticipation, I literally counted my days until that Sunday. And as soon as I stepped into Joyland, I couldn't believe my eyes. Wow! So much room and so many kids! A brand new stage with lighting, much enhanced back drops and stage props! I just couldn't believe that this was a school gym. What about praise? It was rocking. I felt so old because I couldn't keep up with all the cool moves. And the whole crew of people in the back doing sound and other techy stuff, multiple tables set up for registration and ride coordination, and just the amount of food for the children! Friendly faces and so much joy… well ok, that hasn't changed…But remembering the old days of Joyland, I couldn't help but thank God for his goodness. It was truly an awesome experience witnessing the growth of Joyland and seeing our children being bathed with God's love through all the teachers and volunteers. I look forward to all that God will do through this precious ministry in the years to come.

There's never a dull moment in our Joyland and ImpACT ministries! Earlier this month, we had our first ever Kids in Training program for all 80+ of our kindergarten through 6th grade students. What's Kids in Training, you ask?

KIT is a bunch of different opportunities rolled up into one. It's a fun-filled 45 minutes, where our kids can learn a variety of skills, from how to act through drama class to how to knit a nice scarf in knitting class. But it doesn't stop there. KIT also gives our college students a chance to get involved in the day-to-day activities in our church. Several small groups within the UC Berkeley Koinonia, Acts2Fellowship, and Kairos Christian Fellowship ministry groups have volunteered their precious Sunday mornings to spend time with our kids as they teach them how to expand their skill sets.

We've already seen God work in amazing ways to ensure KIT's lasting success. Brother Ray and a few of the college students in his small group ran into a little league coach while shopping for child-sized baseball gloves and bats. The coach told Ray that he receives donations for supplies for his team and that he has too many gloves, bats, balls and even an extra child-sized catcher's outfit! He donated the extra supplies he had in his car that day for our use and promised to contact Ray to send over the rest of the supplies. Amazing!

Just a few days before, I had been quite nervous about everything because I wasn't sure if all the small groups had a curriculum set for the 5 weeks or enough supplies ready to teach their KIT classes. But after seeing the kids' excitement on Sunday right after their classes and hearing Ray's testimony about the miraculous provision of supplies, I realized that God simply wanted whatever we could offer up so that he could work through us. I couldn't help but give thanks to God for providing yet another opportunity for our church to serve others in such a meaningful and loving way.

Who would've known the amount of work, detail, and energy involved in making Joyland Festival possible? It started with Joyland teachers brainstorming for games/booth ideas, their themes, and creative titles for each of them. Spreadsheets were created to organize all the work that needed to be done.

For our Thursday/Saturday workdays, eager volunteers from every department of our church came to help us out – from college to ISM to Praxis group sisters and brothers. People were working wholeheartedly, giving their best in painting, cutting, constructing, drilling wood, painting life-sized cars, treasure maps, and various signs, making a pirate boat, and more. The eagerness and willingness of people to serve was so delightful. No one was doing their work drudgingly, but people were having such a good time, laughing and conversing with each other while working, enjoying each other's company. People didn't even seem to notice the time passing. We literally had to kick people out as they wouldn't stop working even when it was midnight. As I serve, I experience again and again the joy and excitement of giving myself and serving together with others as one body of Christ. Though our church is composed of many parts – people from different ministries, different skills – the fact that we have all come together for the sake of these kids is truly a picture of the community in action.

Friday, 10am – we met at our Alcatraz building to work on various things we still needed to do before the weekend. Website content to write, brochures to publish, food to plan for.

Saturday, 3am – back at Avondale house we’re still working; we’re getting delirious, but it’s so fun. The laughter and banter around the table and our laptops, everyone writing or combing through our archives for pictures to use, some doing photoshop work, some cleaning, some baking cookies for us to eat, and some just plain fooling around.

Saturday, 10am – back at it at Ulster house, Conrad’s place (he’s our main web guy). I’m with a bunch of brothers, intently and intensely staring at their screens. They don’t talk much, just once in a while, a shout of, “It’s live, ‘Life at Gracepoint’ is up guys.”

Saturday, 10pm – still here, we were supposed to release at 3pm, then 8pm, then 10pm.
“One down, a few more to go guys.”
“Okay, I’m done, what next?”
“Yes! I am the man! It’s working.”

I have these experiences often these days. Days turning into nights, into daytime again. I can’t describe the experience. We’re tired, but running on adrenaline, running on the excitement of getting these brochures out, getting the website up and running, making sure all the links work, wording every brochure just right, anticipating the 800 people streaming in to Willard, anticipating the 12,000 per month who visit our website. If I experience what it means to honor God passionately through our service, this must be something like it.