Prison Fellowship: The Art of Starting Over

All people are created in God's image, and no life is beyond His reach.For more than 40 years, Prison Fellowship® has served prisoners, former prisoners, and their families on the road to restoration. Through an amazing awakening to new hope and life purpose, those who once broke the law are transformed and mobilized to serve their neighbors, replacing the cycle of crime with a cycle of renewal.At Prison Fellowship, we "remember those in prison." We believe in second chances, and that prison should be a place of rehabilitation. Through our programs, we offer incarcerated men and women hope, encouragement, and support, so that people like Anthony can be transformed.[gallery type="slideshow" size="full" ids="2730,2732"]Photos: Prison Fellowship The story of Anthony Ramirez by Emily Andrews published on the Prison Fellowship website is a jaw-dropper, both in writing and photography. Read the full story and see the photo essay by clicking here.

 Every time I got out of jail, my time on the outside got smaller and smaller. My fourth time on parole, on the seventh day, I broke into someone's house in the middle of the day. I ran, hid, got caught, and was taken to jail. I thought I was looking at home invasion—that's a life sentence in California.I was coming down off a three-day high when I woke up in my cell, and I knew something wasn't right. Something had changed. Normally I'd been in there, and thought, OK, back in the yard, it's program time. Earn some more tattoos, meet some more fellas, and get to a higher-level yard. But that day it wasn't the same. I felt really, really low. I thought, Man, this is it. I'm done.

THE ART OF STARTING OVER

What could make a hardened prisoner break down sobbing in his cellmate's arms?

Entrepreneur's Program Prepares Youth With Shark Tank-Like Panel

A free 2-month youth program teaches students the power of entrepreneurship and concludes with the challenge of presenting themselves before other local business professionals in a Shark Tank-like panel.The Young Entrepreneur’s Program presented at World Impact Los Angeles Teen Center also teaches business ethics, budgeting, marketing, design, and other skills.

The program had its start in the summer of 2016 by way of some grant money that was given to the center. Through a long chain of conversations with many interested people, it was decided that the center should invest into the youth by teaching them the basics of a t-shirt business, including logo design and screen printing.The initial run for the class was so successful, program leaders decided to retool for another round of students. This time they developed a curriculum, modified the process to be more financially sustainable, and bought some more screen printing equipment.The students now apply for interest-free loans for all of their materials, which they qualify for by showing up on time, participating, and developing a solid business plan.It is a powerful thing for them to see, hear, and interact with other entrepreneurs like them who are just a few years ahead of where they are at. This program fits right into the holistic model and focus of World Impact to empower indigenous urban leaders. It gives them practical skills that can be built on for life, helps to network them with other local business professionals, progresses them financially, and shows them the power of entrepreneurship for community development — all through the filter of being a Jesus-follower.The program has now graduated nine students, and is preparing for another cohort in June. The deadline for all Summer 2017 applications is June 2. You can find out more at the Young Entrepreneur’s Program webpage at World Impact Los Angeles Teen Center.

What is Men Standing Against Trafficking (MSAT)?

Men Standing Against Trafficking (MSAT) is an initiative birthed from the CARE 18, a multi-sector collaborative committed to mobilizing faith and community advocates to support the efforts of service providers, government and law enforcement agencies fighting local human trafficking.The idea came from Brad Fieldhouse, who is currently the executive director of City Net, and based on some initiatives that were done years earlier and centered on ending or at least reducing homicides in Compton. The idea to get men involved in the fight against human trafficking is key and strategic, as they provide most of the demand side of sex trafficking. There is a lot of work being done on the other end of things as well, including but not limited to legal advocacy, policy change, rehabilitation and healing for survivors, job training, etc.However, when it comes to actually preventing human trafficking in the first place, there is room for improvement. That is where MSAT comes in.The idea is threefold:• To stand at or near trafficking hotspots to raise awareness in communities where trafficking is happening so those communities will engage in the fight against it as well.• To stand as witnesses against the perpetrators in those communities who are paying money to have sex with trafficking victims (many of them underage...or were when they were coerced into it).• To provide a first experience and next steps for men who want to get involved in this battle but have traditionally been on the sidelines, or worse, the main perpetrators.The actual process of a stand involves gathering men for a brief introduction to the issue of sex trafficking and how they can fight it. They then grab some signs (e.g. Men Standing Against Trafficking, Real Men Don’t Buy Girls, etc.), go to an intersection, and stand as a silent witness for an hour and 18 minutes. The timing is specific to remind the men why they are there — to stand for the victims of CSEC (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children), kids 18 and under. They have flyers available for people who want to know more, and they are usually well-received. There have been incidents with people countering the groups, but even more examples of people who have been inspired, educated, and blown away by this grassroots movement.The initial stand was in June 2015 at MacArthur Park. For the first year, it gained momentum with numbers and circle of influence, moving from hotspot to hotspot monthly: Hollywood, Long Beach, South LA, Pomona, Pasadena, Van Nuys, and Santa Ana. Eventually, the organization came to a point where it could multiply — meeting at various geographies in the same month.Currently, there are five MSAT sites which meet quarterly: Pasadena, Orange County, Pomona, Long Beach, and South LA.If you are interested in starting a new MSAT in your community, please contact Bryan Cullison at bcullison@worldimpact.org or visit the following websites to learn more:www.care18.org/msatwww.care18.org/fiatHeadline banner photo: Toviah Photography/Albert Halim.

Men Like To Get Together, But Can They Go Beyond 'It's All Good, Bro?'

In a study by Men’s Health it was revealed that the top two ways men stay connected with friends are 1.) texting, and 2.) “get togethers.”The reason we prefer these ways are twofold: texting fits the factual, short, bottom line style of communication we appreciate and “get togethers” feed our need for closer, interpersonal camaraderie and connection with each other. Whether it’s just the guys or the guys with the gals we usually huddle by gender and “dive deeper.” Guys usually assemble around wherever the meat is being grilled and sample it with a beverage in hand. At the same time, the girls keep it real in the kitchen while prepping for the meal and talk about, well, everything. That’s where the similarities end because guys do not talk about everything.In fact, guys prefer to keep it on the surface when we get together. We stick to sports, work updates, kids sports, house projects, power tools, cars, working out, and our favorite recreational pursuit. So let’s get this straight: in the one setting with the most potential power in our lives to build strong friendships we, by habit or by choice, keep things on the surface? Exactly. Like a bunch of icebergs, we present the tips of our lives while the big stuff causing emotional heartburn, relational pain, or spiritual darkness (like our marriages, temptations, families, finances, and inner demons) stay buried, unprocessed, and unresolved. We leave with full stomachs and empty souls, more lonely than when we first arrived because no one knows what’s really going on in our lives. The irony is that most of us spin it at these gatherings and say when asked “It’s all good bro.”Every Man Ministries research shows that 9 out of 10 men have a current issue they are facing that feels “out of control” in their lives that they would love to resolve. That fact combined with our willingness to “get together” should get us rethinking what it means to connect and help each other. Specifically, we need to stop limiting getting together just to “grill and swill” and start banding together to help our closest friends defeat what is defeating them. We have to help our friends get from the “red zones” of life as men into the “end zones” of victory as men, husbands, and fathers. We have to help them score touchdowns in life versus settle for field goals or, worse, go “three and out.” But how?The good news is that the recipe for having a men’s small group meeting at your house today looks no different than it did over two thousand years ago. Tell the guys your having them over, light the grill up, serve some beverages, eat like you mean it, and feed the soul while you feed the body. In fact, do it like Jesus and become a “Red Zone” friend who gets his buddies into the end zones of victory with God and people. Study Christ’s film and learn.“When they [his friends] landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it and some bread…After they had finished eating Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you truly love me?” (John 21:9,15)That’s what you call “meating” with the guys and then “meeting” with the guys for the purpose of bringing a man from the red zone to end zone of life. And we all know what happens after men successfully cross the line into the end zone.They dance.

DO THIS:

Get Started Today

SERVE THIS:

Kenny’s Guamanian Rib Marinade

2 Cups Soy Sauce1 Cup Fresh lemon juice24 oz. of your favorite Beer2 tablespoons of black pepper2 tablespoons of minced garlic1 Tablespoon Sesame OilMarinate pork or beef ribs overnight. Grill and serve. Expect moaning.KENNY LUCK is an ECPA Platinum Award Winning Author, who has authored and co-authored 20 books for men. Kenny is the president and founder of Every Man Ministries. As the former men’s pastor at Saddleback Church in California and current leadership pastor at Crossline Community Church, Kenny has found the proven way to improve men’s ministries around the world. Sleeping Giant is this blueprint, and gives men the tools they need to lead and understand their own men’s ministry. Watch Kenny’s teachings at EveryManMinistries.com and start your men’s group today!Follow Every Man Ministries now on Facebook, Twitter (@everymm,) and YouTube.

Former Miss USA To Host 'Crowned: An Encounter With the King' Women's Event

Kristen Dalton Wolfe is a former Miss USA turned Mrs. Wolfe who believes that every woman is made to sparkle with the radiance of God’s romance, Together LA learned at the She is More website. Though she wore the Miss USA crown, her life was changed when she realized her true identity was rooted in being a daughter of the King. Since then, Kristen has used her passion for women coupled with her background in Psychology to launch SheisMore.com, an online magazine to spread God’s message that every woman is royalty. 400,000 readers are impacted every month by the site. Kristen and her husband, Kris Wolfe, founder of GoodGuySwag.com are based in Los Angeles and speak regularly in churches, conferences, events and universities.Wolfe along with Sheri Rose Shepherd and Jen Lilly will be speaking at the Crowned: An Encounter With the King event planned for Friday and Saturday (April 21 and 22). Below is her recent post, Do You Want to Encounter God and Renew Your Sparkle?Do you want to tangibly encounter God and renew your sparkle? Many women are experiencing burnout, staleness and stillness in their lives and relationship with God. It’s time to get your radiance back.It’s happening! The Lord has told me for a while to do a women’s conference for His daughters. This past December, I spent the day soaking and praying for God to show me what to dream and plan for in 2017.He showed me a vision of a women’s conference. I felt Him say, “My heart is for my daughters to be reconciled back to me and to brighten the sparkle in their dimmed eyes.”I asked Him who He wanted speaking into the women. He showed me a picture of Sheri Rose Shepherd’s face. Sheri Rose is a best-selling author of the His Princess devotionals, which I have devoured. They helped me when I was discovering my royal identity, when I was going through a break-up and healing from depression. I have given so many of her devotionals as gifts because they are transformational and speak to the heart of every woman in a powerful way.I hadn’t even met Sheri yet, but I had an interview on TBN coming up with her in a few weeks. I knew she’d been battling stage four cancer for the last two years, so I wondered if she’d be up for doing a conference. But I trusted that I didn’t need to know the how in all this would work out. The how was up to God.I met Sheri in January when she came in the studio as a guest on my show. She told me it was her first public appearance and interview since leaving her speaking tours to fight cancer. She wasn’t sure why she said YES to me because she had said NO to all other inquiries. But, she felt the Lord had told her to say YES.We absolutely hit it off. She is a kindred spirit and even more full of God in person than on the pages of her books. After our interview, we started texting regularly. A few days later, I boldly told her the vision God had shown me of her doing a conference with me. It wasn’t even a minute later that she wrote me back and said YES.I sat there staring at the screen...Before I wrote her, she explained that God had shown her the same thing and she was going to invite me to do a conference with her. I sat there for a few minutes thinking, what world am I living in? That one of my favorite authors is texting with me for starters. Not only did she just say YES to me, but she was going to invite me to minister alongside her???I could feel God smiling down on my dumbfounded state. The thing is: This conference wasn’t and isn’t my idea. It’s His. And your King cares way more about encountering you than letting anything stand in His way.I am excited to share that the vision God gave me three months ago is coming to pass on Friday, April 21 and Saturday, April 22nd with Crowned: An Encounter With The King.God has laid out the framework and you are invited to an exclusive live audience experience at TBN studios in Irvine, CA for a one hour show and meet and greet with Sheri Rose, Jen Lilley, and I on Friday evening.Saturday is encounter day at the Hyatt Regency in Newport Beach from 10 AM- 2 PM.I can’t even tell you the supernatural ways God has worked to make this weekend so obviously orchestrated and anointed by Him. This is a weekend of renewal, revival, refreshment and for you to remember who you are and what you have as a chosen daughter of the King....so be sure to get your tickets ASAP as there is very limited seating. Use your influence, voice, heart and invite all the women you love. God loves who you love and wants to encounter each one of you in the way you specifically need.I can’t wait to see you there!Kristen Dalton Wolfe's article was originally published at SheisMore.com.

Hillsong's Colour Conference Los Angeles [PHOTOS]

Imagine — if one woman can change her world imagine what one company of women can do. — Bobbie Houston

Bobbie Houston and the women's ministry of Hillsong Church (Sisterhood) hosted Hillsong's Colour Conference at the Orpheum Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles on Saturday.The ministry is about "women from all walks of life, young and old, coming together to build friendship and champion one another to flourish in all that we do.""We are pioneering new territory with the Colour experience compressed into an exciting 'one day, power packed event' in three locations - New York City, Phoenix and Los Angeles," stated Houston on the conference website. "Our own Hillsong team will bring their unique leadership distinctive to the table, and I’m excited to host Colour in not only one city - but three."The Los Angeles conference was the last of the three scheduled.Photos: Dever Creative/Anthony Dever

Piles of Bureaucracy; Does God Care About Spreadsheets?

Work has always been a tricky environment for me when it comes to dealing with questions like “How does God use what I do?” or “Does what I’m doing day in and day out really matter?” or “Am I making God’s world a better place?” What I spent most of my career years doing looks nothing like the work we do at church, on mission fields, in hospitals, or in inner-city work for the poor or marginalized.Editor’s Note: Contributing writers at Pacific Crossroads Church in Los Angeles recently announced a blog series for this month that “seeks to address the struggle so many of us feel in connecting our workplace lives to our walk with Christ.” The writers state in their introduction to the series: Pacific Crossroads Church has partnered with PCC members Steve and Margaret Lindsey to start an exciting new project called the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles to minister to this need. The center will launch this month and the 1st Annual Conference is Saturday April 1st. You can find out more and register for the event by clicking www.faithandworkLA.com.Previous articles in the 4-part series can be read by clicking: The Daily Grind, Get Rich (and/or Die Trying); But What Is God’s Will? and here: ‘I May Have Carpal Tunnel and Tennis Elbow.’  Also, Together LA’s interview story on Steve Lindsey and the center is found here: Ministry Launches to Help Firmly Place Faith Alongside Your Work. 'Piles of Bureaucracy'is the final article in the series.I remember being mid-career as a systems engineer designing satellite communications electronics. As one project wound down, I transitioned to a new group to work in an unfamiliar area on a large research and development project full of future cutting-edge technology. It was an exciting challenge but a bit daunting, as there was so much to learn. I was surrounded by world-class talent, and I wondered whether this narrowly trained engineer could broaden enough to keep up. It took about two years of learning, design work, and trial and error before I saw results confirming my work was paying off. Needless to say, I was elated! My boss, a brilliant systems design engineer himself and pioneer in this field, was also pleased (though I often wondered if he inwardly smiled to himself “What took that guy so long?!”). But something bothered me. Did it really matter?I think, as Christians, many of us experience the struggle of a long-fought-for-result, pouring our life’s energy and passion into our work, feeling the hopes and fears of whether or not our labors will be accepted, and sensing the nagging concern along the way: “Does God really care about all this?” That was certainly a question I struggled with. Sure, I knew that we work in relationship with a bunch of people God loves and cares about in whatever our work context, and that God can use those relationships for his Kingdom. But what about all those thousands of hours of diligent and focused engineering, the results of which remain mostly unseen by anyone? Certainly no one would ever see the details of my contributions with hundreds of lines of simulation code, massive data files, test results, volumes of work stored on some server somewhere, backed up on another server somewhere, likely never to be accessed again. And what’s worse is all that work was likely to be repeated in the fairly near future by smarter engineers with better tools on a newer project that will outperform the best work envisioned in my project.The words of the preacher in Ecclesiastes haunted me during times like these: “All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” (Eccles. 1:8-9)But, then again, there were also those moments... pure joy, deep satisfaction, a sense of worth and purpose, being part of a larger enterprise, building something, something new, better, more efficient, more capable, and never done before. I could have sworn that in some way God was there, he cared, and it mattered. But why would he care? Yet a gnawing sense that my contributions somehow did matter was very present and very real. Though I’m perfectly capable of regular self-aggrandizement and pride, I don’t think most of what I felt was rooted in a sense of superiority or selfishness. It’s hard to describe, but I think it was closer to a sense of deep gratitude. In some way, I wanted to thank God. To sing about it. Party over it with my believing friends, and not just the office buddies. But I didn’t feel like I should. It didn’t connect well with my concept of what God wanted from me. I didn’t have a language yet for what God thinks of the daily grind of our hard work. You know, the stuff you do when you’re not sharing the gospel, you’re not showing compassion to a colleague in need, you’re not doing some extra-curricular service project, and you’re not leading or attending a workplace Bible study. The stuff you do well when no one is looking; hours fly by and you are buried in a spreadsheet, a complex problem, or tedious piles of bureaucracy. In fact, for a lot of us these kind of efforts take up much of the best of our actual career life. Is it possible the Lord of Glory cares about this too? Is my joy somehow a sharing in his joy?I now think so, and have been on a journey exploring God’s good purposes for our work. Come share the journey with us at the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles.Note: This post originally appeared on Pacific Crossroads Church website blog.On The WebCenter for Faith + Work Los AngelesMinistry Launches to Help Firmly Place Faith Alongside Your Work

'I May Have Carpal Tunnel and Tennis Elbow' [Faith + Work Los Angeles]

Editor’s Note: Contributing writers at Pacific Crossroads Church in Los Angeles recently announced a blog series for this month that “seeks to address the struggle so many of us feel in connecting our workplace lives to our walk with Christ.” The writers state in their introduction to the series: Pacific Crossroads Church has partnered with PCC members Steve and Margaret Lindsey to start an exciting new project called the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles to minister to this need. The center will launch this month and the 1st Annual Conference is Saturday April 1st. You can find out more and register for the event by clicking www.faithandworkLA.com.Previous articles in the series can be read by clicking here: The Daily Grind and here: Get Rich (and/or Die Trying); But What Is God’s Will? Also, Together LA's interview story on Steve Lindsey and the center is found here: Ministry Launches to Help Firmly Place Faith Alongside Your Work. Below is the third article in the series.What line of work are you in?I’m a graphic designer specializing in branding and packaging.Have you ever struggled with finding meaning in your work?Prior to becoming a designer, I was trying to build a successful career in something that would utilize my expensive math/econ degree. It was a struggle to put so much energy into a vocation I didn’t connect with. It’s one thing to not like your job, but it’s another when you feel passionately for something you can’t seem to pinpoint.Now that I’m currently doing work in line with my calling, I struggle with expecting it to bring more meaning to my life than it was meant to. I use it to replace other aspects of my life that are lacking (such as relationships…and sleep hahaha). Life was meant to be an amalgamation of different things that bring meaning, and many times I cherry pick those things.What are the challenges you’ve encountered being a follower of Christ in the workplace?In terms of being a designer in the industry, I struggle with wanting to be accepted as knowledgeable and relevant in our post modern society that often promotes poly/a-theism and praises a life without restraint in order to experience life to its fullest. While I believe it’s important to understand the world around us in order to create effective brands, it can be very hard to decipher when to engage and when to pull back. My job is to creatively find ways to communicate messages, and if I don’t believe in the message, it’s hard to design well.Naturally, I want recognition and affirmation as a designer because it is to some degree reflective of who I am and what I care about. Thus, there are times I’m not able to fully engage with other designers or work on projects because there is a conflict of worldview. This can lead to feeling ostracized and “not with the times.”How would you like to see your faith better integrated with your work [life]?I would love to meet more Christian designers who I could grow with not just in faith but also in design skill. I would love to be with fellow believers to attend events where we are the minority. We are called to be salt of the earth and not in a Christian bubble, but sometimes it would be encouraging if I had some fellow “grains” by my side. Do you sense God in your workplace as mostly present and active or missing and passive?For the most part, I get to emulate what the Father did best: create! Thus, when I’m working on projects that I love – and when I feel that my role as a designer isn’t being denigrated to a slave or a machine – I feel the joy of creation that connects me to God’s world. While I love working for pro bono projects that have a direct philanthropic cause, I find just as much meaning in designing for the marketplace as long as the process in doing so remains humane (which often it does not. Ha!).Does sharing your faith feel easy and natural or hard and awkward in your workplace?Sharing my faith feels like all of those things: easy, natural, hard and awkward.The easy and natural part: I’m social and don’t have a hard time talking about life and sharing the same hobbies as non-believers (in LA, I love the urban hip hop and art scene). I love narratives and love to engage people in their passions. I also love to see coworkers be surprised that I am a Christian and that they, too, can have Christian friends and not feel conflicted or judged. As a woman in my mid 30s, I’ve realized that the types of conversations that I have with my coworkers have slowly become deeper. It’s exciting when the Lord creates an opportunity to dialogue about the meaning of life with people.The hard part: It’s one thing to share, but it’s another to invite someone in. Though I will take every chance I can get to talk about God’s role in my life, it’s not often that I can get to engaging the listener to converse about how it may impact their life. There is a strong resistance to faith/religion in secular urban cities, and I will sometimes “not go there” due to my own insecurities and fears. During the past couple of years, I’ve discovered a vibrant relationship with the Holy Spirit that has changed my life. I often pray to the Holy Spirit, our Helper, to work in these microscopic seeds of evangelism that I often feel get tossed in the wind. Thus, whenever a coworker is receptive and inquisitive about God, I find my own faith awakened and excited by hope!Is it ever hard to connect your actual work with God’s greater kingdom purposes for this world?OF COURSE. As much as I love to create, I have to bring home the bacon and don’t always get to choose how to do it. I have many global corporate clients that abuse their power and often make my work feel meaningless and even stupid (i.e. treating designers like robotic hands rather than creative thinkers). It’s always hard to put in endless time and effort into a product that I don’t believe should exist on the earth.Do you experience your job as mostly “just a job” or a “calling” in life?It’s both. With soul-sucking corporate clients, I have to tell myself that it is just a job in order to stay sane and not make a bigger deal about something I can’t change (because if I dwell in my annoyance, I will get fired in a hot second).I ultimately know that this is my calling. Some examples proving this: I can work 70-80 hours a week and still feel energy. I think I may have carpal tunnel and tennis elbow, and yet I can’t help but keep going (my 50 year old self regrets this already). I dream in vivid colors and wake up in the middle of the night with ideas for projects. Every time I can’t solve a design problem for days on end, all the madness is still worth it once the breakthrough occurs and something finally comes to life. Only a calling would allow me to continue working so hard and sometimes without return. I thank the Lord time and time again for the arts that are not just my vocation, but also the source for beauty and freedom that has brought much healing into all aspects of my life. Our God is SO COOL!!! 😀Note: This post originally appeared on Pacific Crossroads Church website blog.On The WebCenter for Faith + Work Los AngelesMinistry Launches to Help Firmly Place Faith Alongside Your Work

Ministry Launches to Help Firmly Place Faith Alongside Your Work

God cares for every area of your life, and although it may seem obvious, He cares about how you live out your faith at work and inside the workplace. That's an area of our lives that could use more attention from churches, said Steve Lindsey, who is the visionary behind the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles (CFWLA).CFWLA is a gospel-centered non-profit dedicated to transforming our relationship to work, fostering human flourishing, and renewing Los Angeles, states the organization. Lindsey recently shared his vision with Together LA, and about the group's first conference to be held in Santa Monica on April 1. The CFWLA is partnered with Pacific Crossroads Church for "cultural renewal to equip, connect and mobilize the church, sent out to care for the world of work."Lindsey's answers to four questions about CFWLA from TLA are below.TLA: What inspired you to start this ministry?Steve Lindsey: My interest in integrating faith with vocational life goes back to the '80s (though I'm not really that old). I loved early exposure to Francis Schaeffer’s teachings that God cares about every area of life. Yet my vocational work seemed under-addressed in church contexts and ministry, and felt lacking any ultimate value or purpose to God beyond providing for my family and church or being a platform for evangelism. After much reading, prayer, research, and discovering the pioneering work of the Center for Faith and Work in NYC at Redeemer Presbyterian Church (Tim Keller's vision), my wife Margaret and I saw that such a center located in Los Angeles could be just such a catalyst for transforming our view of work and it's pivotal place in God's kingdom.TLA: How is the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles unique?Lindsey: CFWLA is unique in its addressing the needs of working believers in three primary ways: 1) In-depth theological and spiritual formation tailored to our vocational calls, within a rich and transformative community environment, 2) Envisioning God's redemptive purposes for our life's work inclusive of our vocational careers, and 3) Enabling the initiation of concrete expressions of social, cultural, and spiritual renewal in our city through our world of work.TLA: What is the most important thing people interested in attending your conference need to know?Lindsey: Come prepared to be fully engaged and receive an exciting vision for your vocational world and the future vision of CFWLA! Also, our website www.faithandworkLA.com is designed to make information and access simple to all of our events and offerings.TLA: How can Christians in LA come together to love on the city in terms of CFWLA goals?Lindsey: Loving the city well involves seeing God's love for all of creation more clearly. Our cities, communities and places of work are all extensions of God's creative work in the world. But so much has been broken and lost and in need of His restoration and redemption at the individual, social, and institutional levels. At the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles we believe that the gospel affects everything, and as Chuck Colson once said, "Transformed people transform culture." Anyone longing to see God's hand more tangibly at work through their vocational contexts is encouraged to seek us out.

Get Rich (and/or Die Trying); But What Is God's Will?

Editor’s Note: Is this a 'get rich' story? Read on to find out! Contributing writers at Pacific Crossroads Church in Los Angeles recently announced a blog series for this month that “seeks to address the struggle so many of us feel in connecting our workplace lives to our walk with Christ.” The writers state in their introduction to the series: Pacific Crossroads Church has partnered with PCC members Steve and Margaret Lindsey to start an exciting new project called the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles to minister to this need. The center will launch this month and the 1st Annual Conference is Saturday April 1st. You can find out more and register for the event by clicking www.faithandworkLA.com.The first article in the series can be found here: The Daily Grind. Below is the second article, which was written anonymously, in the series.

Get Rich (and/or Die Trying)

No one is paying me to write this blog.This being a guest weekly blog for a church, that shouldn’t surprise you. But what may surprise you is I do get paid to ghostwrite about 100 blogs a month, which more than meets my daily bread needs. It surprises me at least, as, two years ago, I didn’t even know this was something one could get paid for. And it’s not what I expect to be doing two years from now. It’s my classic LA “day job” as I work on my own artistic projects, and I thank God daily for providing me with plentiful freelance work that uses my talents, pays my bills, rarely if ever stresses me out, and gives me the time to pursue the creative projects that I believe God has led me to pursue, knowing that whether I ultimately make bank on those projects is an outcome I cannot control.Sounds kind of serene when I put it that way, doesn’t it? It certainly does to me, but of course I do not always choose to put it that way. I’m about to hit the big 4-0 and haven’t had a full-time job since I left a 250k/year position with full benefits and stratospheric mobility almost six years ago to pursue a creative life of unrelenting uncertainty, no job title, and very high co-pays every time I need to roll into Kaiser. And, if I haven’t hit my 10,000 hours of doing creative work for “free” yet, I’m awfully close. Which, depending on your perspective, is noble or kind of stupid from the outside. From the inside, it’s often head-against-the-wall infuriating. When I see someone’s brand new condo or house or family vacation across the world, I wonder if those monuments of the good life will ever be within my reach and if maybe, just maybe, this six-year, headlong campaign in the war of art has been little more than a kamikaze mission in a losing battle on behalf of the unsympathetic cause of boy-who-wouldn’t-grow-up artistic vanity.But then I remember what it was like when I was about to hit the not-as-big 3-0 this time ten years ago. I was six months into a career that I had spent years in school for and knew at my deepest core was wrong for me from day one. To put it bluntly, I was miserable doing it, and while the money was great, the job was all-consuming in the worst way.So why did I do it? Because I didn’t know who I was back then – and I certainly didn’t give a second thought to God, much less his will and how my work might fit into it – and so “work” (with no preceding “Faith &…”) all came down to making the most money I could. Which meant no following the creative trail of breadcrumbs God has always set before me, and certainly no pro bono church blogs. To quote Lucinda Williams’ “I Lost It,” the prevailing attitude in my life back then was, “Everything’s paid for. Nothing’s free.” And the prevailing result of that approach was perpetual failure in beseeching the counterfeit gods of all-that-money-can-buy to grant me the fulfillment I so desperately sought.How I got from there to here is too long of a story to tell here, but the most important shift was in my attitude. I’ve gone from “nothing’s free” to “I don’t want nothing if I have to fake it.” That’s a change that’s occurred in my life through learning to let go of what I thought was a need for certainty, earthly riches, and the adulation of others (all colossal works-in-progress, friends) by letting the Holy Spirit in to put the spotlight on God, not me.That too is a topic worthy of volumes, but a line that pretty much encapsulates it for me is one I recently read in Experiencing God by Richard and Henry Blackaby, which implores the reader to stop asking, “What is God’s will for my life?” and to start asking simply, “What is God’s will?”When I get anxious that all my “free” work won’t lead to my preferred outcomes, I have to make that mental shift away from “my career” and back to what I can do to accomplish “God’s will. Period.” It’s an hour-to-hour practice for me. Ideally, over time it will move steadily towards a moment-to-moment practice. I don’t know the future, but I hope that this will be a lifelong pursuit of true riches.Note: This post originally appeared on Pacific Crossroads Church website blog.On The WebCenter for Faith + Work Los Angeles

Faith + Work Los Angeles: The Daily Grind [First in a Series]

Editor's Note: Contributing writers at Pacific Crossroads Church in Los Angeles recently announced a blog series for this month that "seeks to address the struggle so many of us feel in connecting our workplace lives to our walk with Christ." The writers state in their introduction to the series: Pacific Crossroads Church has partnered with PCC members Steve and Margaret Lindsey to start an exciting new project called the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles to minister to this need. The center will launch this month and the 1st Annual Conference is Saturday April 1st. You can find out more and register for the event by clicking www.faithandworkLA.com.

The Daily Grind

A few months ago, I was on the phone with a customer service agent for my cable company. To pass the time, the agent asked, “So what do you do for a living?”“I’m an ER doc,” I replied.She then paused, and apologetically whispered, “Oh, I’m so sorry.”I seem to get that response from just about anyone who asks, but the job is not all bad. It is a privilege to participate in God’s work of bringing the chaos of post-Eden existence back to wholeness and peace: setting broken bones in place, quieting the ravages of an infection on a body, reversing the course of heart attacks and strokes.Yet, the job takes its toll.“Hey doc, your first patient is an 85 year old male here for altered mental status. We don’t have any information about him other than that he became confused and vomited an hour ago.” It could be a head bleed. We need to check a sugar level and get him to the scanner. What’s his code status? Is his family coming? No time, get him to CT. “Doc you have a patient in room 16. She’s a 75-year-old female with blood in her stool. She feels weak and dizzy.” The most common cause of her bleed would be the colon, not to mention the blood thinners she’s on. What’s her blood pressure? Low. She’s going to need a blood transfusion. I’ve got to keep a close eye on her. “Doc you have a patient in room 43, a 3-year-old boy who ran into a coffee table and has a laceration on his forehead.” Sigh. Why do boys love running into coffee tables and cutting their foreheads? He’s screaming so loud I can hardly think. His parents are debating and now arguing if they’re ok with him getting stitches. I’m going to have to come back. Is that CT scan back yet? What’s the blood count for the bleeder?“Hey doc, your patient in 3 wants to talk to you. He’s wondering why he’s not getting a MRI today, because he looked up on Google...” Sigh. I was just there and explained in length. “Hey doc, that patient in hallway G is getting agitated and wants Ativan because she thinks she’s in alcohol withdrawal.” Sigh. “Hey doc, can you write a work note for room 9?” Sigh. Yes, but not right now. “Hey doc, the parents of the kid with the forehead laceration are wondering why you haven’t sutured it yet.”SIGH.Sighs are the sound a soul makes when it’s pressed and squeezed by the day’s trials. Sighs are the brain’s reminder to the lungs, “You haven’t taken a deep breath in a while and we’d really appreciate the oxygen up here.” Sighs are the sound the Israelites collectively exhaled when they heard from Pharaoh what many of us hear in our work, “Work is hard? Too bad. Now do more, with less.” (Exodus 5:7-8)Work existed in Eden before the fall (Genesis 1:26, 28) and therefore work itself is not a curse. Yet it sure feels like one. Not only that, when the shift gets busy and stress increases, so does my irritability, impatience and anger. Complaints rise and cynicism grows. By the end of a 12 hour shift, my mind and soul are drowning in toxicity. Burnout lurks right around the corner. So what’s a doc to do?Rankin once spoke on how the pressures of life reveal our true selves – “When you squeeze a toothpaste tube, toothpaste comes out.” Stress reveals who I am. The difficulties from my job don’t make me impatient, unkind and angry, they show me that I am those things. Ouch. That’s hard to accept. Yet, the gospel is first bad news about self, before it is good news about what God has done.As I continued to process these thoughts, shift after shift, I stopped blaming my job for my anger. Instead, I started to ask my community group for prayer. I confessed to close brothers how embarrassingly deep my sins run. Through gospel community, I began to see in my own context, that God was using my most difficult days for my good (Romans 8:28). Like a construction excavator, with each trial, God was taking a deep scoop out of my self-reliance, creating more space for his grace to fill.As I’ve started to see that in my very trials, God was not punishing me, but rather teaching me to sing, “Lord, I need you, oh I need you, every hour I need you,” I’ve learned to receive the grace portioned for that day (Exodus 16:15-16), especially on days that I fail. From that fullness, though I work in the chaos, I begin to find my purpose aligning with his – not working for a paycheck, or because I see work as a necessary evil, but for his purpose – to use my time, talents and energy to share the grace that I’ve been so richly given.What grace indeed.Note: This post originally appeared on Pacific Crossroads Church website blog.On The WebCenter for Faith + Work Los Angeles

Is the Gospel Making a Run in High Schools? ‘The Jesus Club’ Author Says ‘Yes’

At a time when Christians in America who are living out their faith, especially within institutions such as public schools, often feel threatened, One Voice Student Missions has successfully established lunchtime Bible studies at more than 70 high schools in Los Angeles, other areas of California, and in other states.It is because of youth groups such as One Voice that high school students in the L.A. area and beyond are being exposed to the gospel at a greater rate than many may presume.Enter The Jesus Club.Brian Barcelona, 26, who is the One Voice Student Missions founder and author of the book, The Jesus Club - Incredible True Stories of How God is Moving in Our High Schools, leads the youth organization by example, teaching Bible study in four L.A. high schools weekly. He said that his success in sharing the gospel is not so much about his own words or preaching style but the fact that he “shows up” on a consistent and regular basis.In the book, Barcelona recounts that in 2009, at the end of Spirit West Coast, “a huge weekend event, with some of the best Christian bands and speakers from across the country,” he had an encounter with God during which he received his marching orders—It was like a stern order from a general to a soldier, yet His words also felt like a father asking his son for a favor.“As I listened closely, the Lord said, ‘Brian, I want to release a movement that will save the high schools of America. And I want to use your life to do it. This movement will take your city. It will take California. So goes California, so goes the nation,’” writes Barcelona in the first chapter of his book. Farther on, he states, “God continued to speak: The movement I am about to release is going to restore prayer in public schools again.”Barcelona told Together LA that students have many of the same issues today, such as drug abuse, gang participation, family problems, and emotional trials such as depression, as in previous generations, but also face a different problem.“This generation faces a unique hurdle that no other generation has faced and that is social media,” Barcelona said. “Adding to their own problems, people are now going through other people’s feeds and seeing what’s going on in their lives. Studies have shown that this is the ‘loneliest generation’ ever but no one feels lonely because everyone is connected...If that makes sense. The relationships are not really that deep. That’s what I see going on at schools.”When asked how he approaches high schools for the first time, considering that the current political climate includes a large adversarial component, he said, “I don’t think that there is as much hostility towards the gospel as there is towards religion. I think defining those two (gospel and religion) and separating them from the beginning and realizing that a religious agenda is not the same as living out the gospel.“What we find in going into a campus is that we bring the Good News of the Kingdom,” he continued. “The Good News at its core is that we don’t have to be bound and linked the same as we once did. There is freedom in Christ. That’s not just modeled in a sermon or ‘Let me do worship in your school’ or ‘Let me go preach to all your kids.’ That’s modeled first in my response to how I will serve an administrator or my willingness to obey even some of the laws that already exist.“Sometimes, it’s not even [about] laws, but confusion about what separation of church and state really means. When we go into a campus we are there to serve… whether they let me preach the first week or let me preach in 5 months, I’ll do whatever I can to serve that campus and to bring the love of Jesus onto that school.”The Jesus Culture’s church and movement lead pastor, Banning Liebscher, states in an endorsement of Barcelona and One Voice: “I am so encouraged by the work that Brian Barcelona and One Voice Student Missions is doing to impact campuses across the nation. Nothing is more critical in this hour then to reach the youth of America where they are at every day. I am grateful for the heart and passion to lay down their lives for the next generation.”On the WebJesus Club Author Talks to Together LA [VIDEO]One Voice Student MissionsThe Jesus Club - Incredible True Stories of How God is Moving in Our High Schools

Nation Ripe For Alternative Solution to Unrest Says Every Man Ministries President

People living in cities and communities throughout the United States are ripe for an alternative solution to the current unrest in the nation and the answer does not lie within politics or culture, Every Man Ministries Pastor and President Kenny Luck recently said.

NEWS RELEASE

“At Every Man we believe that our nation is finally ready to address the chaos and dysfunction happening in our cities and communities. But the root of that chaos and dysfunction is not political, it’s not ethnic, it’s not even cultural,” said Luck, whose ministry has helped thousands of men with their spiritual journeys for nearly two decades. “It is a spiritual breakdown of the family and the vacuum of spiritually and relationally healthy men leading those families.”Los Angeles Radio Show Plans to Expand Into Chicago, Philadelphia MarketsThe Every Man Show, which was launched as a radio program last year in Los Angeles (99.5 KKLA), has produced phenomenal results in reaching the city of 10 million people with the message of Jesus Christ specifically targeting men. Now, Every Man Ministries is seeking support to expand the show into the Philadelphia and Chicago markets.“At Every Man we know that when a child comes to Christ, 3 percent of the family will follow,” Luck said. “When a mom comes to Christ, 17 percent of the family will follow. But when a dad or father comes to Christ, 93 percent of the family will follow.”The act of men becoming believers in Jesus is an agent and catalyst for family health.“For the last 16 years Every Man Ministries has been building a grassroots network of churches,” Luck explained. “We’ve been building an ecosystem of resources and web platforms and curriculums to support and fuel a community-based revival of Christ-centered masculinity in the home.”Expanding into Philadelphia and ChicagoEvery Man Ministries seeks to secure broadcast time for the next 12 months in Philadelphia and Chicago. “We need to drive the grassroots, social media, and church campaigns to begin movements of transformation partnering with the churches of those major metro urban cities to reach and transform the hearts of men,” Luck said.Where do you come in?“Here’s where you come in. We are sponsoring over the next two weeks the Matching Grant Challenge for the Every Man Show. The good news is that we’ve already have had $100,000 come in of the $250,000 that we need to raise to get these two new time zones online,” he said.What do you do?You go to EveryManMinistries.com/challenge and join this unprecedented, historic movement of God through the Holy Spirit that’s going to transform the hearts of men, families, homes, communities, and cities from the inside out because we know that’s the real solution.Media contact: Alex Murashko - Email: alex@togetherla.net Phone: (949) 547-0907

How to Put God in Charge of Your Ministry

Work dominates our lives — especially those of us in ministry.The typical American spends about 150,000 hours — or 40 percent of his life — at work (I suspect that for pastors, the number is even higher!)In other words, you’ll spend more time working in ministry, thinking about ministry, and commuting to your ministry than you will eating, relaxing, and vacationing — all combined — this year.Now, God wants you to succeed in ministry. In fact, in the Bible, God offers this guarantee:“Put God in charge of your work, then what you’ve planned will take place” (Proverbs 16:3 MSG).What does it mean to put God in charge of your work? There are three steps I’d suggest:

Seek God’s Direction

Ask him to guide you every day: in your planning . . . your organizing . . . your decision making . . . your implementing . . . and in relating to everyone you come in contact with. “The Lord is pleased when good people pray” (Proverbs 15:8a GNT).

Sharpen Your Skills

Be the best you can be for God’s glory. Never stop learning. Look for ways to cultivate the talents he’s given you.“If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success” (Ecclesiastes 10:10 NIV).

Stay Positive in Your Attitude

Refuse to be infected by the worrying, the complaining, or the laziness of others. Remember, enthusiasm comes from the Greek phrase (en theos) that means, “to be in God.” “In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were doing it for the Lord, not for people” (Colossians 3:23 NCV).These are the conditions that guarantee God’s blessing on your work.The above article by Rick Warren was originally published at Pastors.com.ALSO READ: 8 Reasons the Church is the Greatest Force on Earth by Rick Warren. 

Fantasy Island: Every Man Ministries' Founder on Porn Epidemic

One of the most popular TV shows of back in the 1970s was “Fantasy Island,” starring Ricardo Montalban playing the role of Mr. Roarke, a suave, tuxedo-clad host who, along with his sidekick, Tattoo, greeted his visitors by proclaiming: “Welcome, welcome to Fantasy Island.”Let’s talk about Fantasy Island.The story lines, weaving extravagant fantasies of the newly arrived quests, didn’t always work out the way they wanted. In fact, their fantasies actually brought them back to reality, making them want their reality more than the fantasy. This “ah-hah” moment is sorely needed by male guests visiting the new fantasy islands of today.Someone has to talk about this idea of fantasy because it has become an epidemic – not only here in the United States, but globally. I’m not talking about innocent fantasies, childhood dreams, like the Disneyland fantasies. I’m talking about millions – more likely billions – of men chasing manly fantasies, mainly pornography and extramarital sex. These guys are experiencing the same thing guests on the fictional show did — the promise of fantasy only delivers a moral hangover, a cheap release, and a numbing shame that exposes his lack of character.  The “ah-hah” in front of today’s fantasy islanders is resolving to accept our responsibilities as men and reject the double life of Fantasy Island.Today, pornography revenues in the United States exceed the revenue of ABC, CBS and NBC combined. Indeed, the revenue of the pornography industry is larger than the revenues of Apple, Amazon, Google, eBay, Microsoft, Netflix and Yahoo! – combined.This problem is so large it’s not only plaguing men globally, but it’s creeping into the lives of our mothers, our wives, our sisters, our daughters – even our grandchildren. There is nothing more obviously evident than the New York Times best-selling trilogy called “Fifty Shades of Grey,” three books which chronicle the dark secrets of Anastasia, a college student who desires to be dominated by Christian, a tortured man who has particular sexual tastes (fantasies).  The caricature of “Christian” is stunning.  He is so lost and needs so much help.  Where have all the good men gone?These disturbing cultural trends should hit every Christian man in the mouth and reboot his moral compass as this country heads towards moral, spiritual and cultural implosion.…But I’m not discouraged. As we go through our series called Fantasy Island, you will embrace reality and reject fantasy. We can turn things around. We need, however, to turn to God for spiritual direction and revival. Our reality is the reality of God’s glory: His redemption, His love for us.Men, let God bless you!  Pray about your decisions to embrace reality or live a life of fantasy. The choice is yours, and God is waiting for you to make the decision.Join Every Man MinistriesFantasy ranges from innocent to indecent. From Disney dreams to dark diversions, it is the wallpaper of popular culture offering every man an alternative relief or escape from reality. Why is fantasy so powerful? Why is it so destructive on so many levels? Most importantly, what does fantasy reveal about a man’s relationship to reality? Watch this eye opening session with men’s expert and pastor Kenny Luck and learn why fantasy is an island.GO DEEPER:  Watch the Fantasy Island videos from Kenny.Try the 30-day Free Trial and sign up for the Every Man Ministries Newsletter.Kenny Luck is the president and founder of Every Man Ministries. As the former men’s pastor at Saddleback Church in California and current leadership pastor at Crossline Community Church, Kenny has found the proven way to improve men’s ministries around the world. Sleeping Giant is this blueprint, and gives men the tools they need to lead and understand their own men’s ministry. Watch Kenny’s teachings at EveryManMinistries.com and start your men’s group today!Follow Every Man Ministries now on Facebook, Twitter (@everymm,) and YouTube.