2008 Glendora Mayor's Prayer Breakfast

I just come out of a quick planning meeting for the Feb 27 or 28 Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at Classic Coffee. Looks to be a great gathering that will build off of the momentum of last years breakfast. Details are still coming together but I am excited to be a part of this gathering and hope to serve the vision in any way that we can. Part of our role will be to help rally many of the local church leadership and community leaders that we are bumping into to come out. We are looking for any and all tangible ways to support the prayer focus here in the city and this is a major one.

I have been wanting to meet Doug and Cindy Tessitor and I finally got that chance this morning. I have heard great things about them as people and about their heart/commitment to this city. It took all of about 3 seconds to see that ooze out of them! I look forward to sitting down with them soon and hearing more about their heart and about how God has stirred their hearts to love and serve their neighborhoods here.

Mayor Ken Herman was also there and I look forward to grabbing a cup of coffee with him as well in the weeks ahead.

*(Btw, the barista behind the counter at CC suggested that I make my spiced chai Tea Latte into a 1/2 spice 1/2 vanilla chai Tea Latte. Good call! Man, that was tasty! If chai is your thing too, I would strongly pass on that suggestion!!)

These girls can sing!

I have decided that this is one of the most exciting places for me to come and learn about what is going on here in the city. This too is where I met Debbie Deal (or THE Debbie Deal as I now affectionately call her because there are only 2 degrees of separation from me to anyone in the entire city). Since Kingdom Causes has a "coordinating council" heart as well, this is a natural group to seek partnerships/collaborations with. What a great asset this group is to Glendora! I'll save a seat for you if you are interested in coming!

The treat of the morning was the Glendora HS Tartan Silhouettes. This group or 30 or so singers came and performed for us and knocked it out of the park! They have some serious skills! Great job! Very inspiring season music.

My connection at my table for the morning was John Lundstrum. He works with the historical society locally and I am going to find a way get some sort of a presentation for many of the younger leaders here in order to facilitate their growing understanding of the place in which they serve. He was up for it so I told him that I would be in contact in the new year.

Hey, Pastor Bruce Butler (Glendora Friends) was there to provide the invocation. Good to see you again!

Kingdom Causes Presents at Glendora Ministerial Association

When Pastor Doug Hodson, who is the current President of the Glendora Ministerial Association (GMA), asked us to be the program for the month of May, we jumped at the opportunity. What a great chance to meet some of the leaders of the Church of Glendora!




Brad was unable to attend, so Rachel VerWys (Operations Director for K.C.) and Shaun went to the meeting to share the Kingdom Causes story. We told the pastors about K.C.'s vision to see cities everywhere transformed as God's people live out the Great Comission locally. We also talked about our mission to be a catalyst that inspires, connects, and mobilizes people towards personal and community transformation. For each aspect of the K.C. mission, Rachel shared a story of transformation that has occured in one of our four other cities. This was a key way of telling what can happen when God's people join Him and one another in Kingdom work in a city.




It was especially fun to watch what took place as the meeting drew to a close. Some of the pastors around the table began to share stories of transformation which they had personally witnessed in Glendora. Others began to share needs which they observed in the community. Had the meeting gone longer, it could have transitioned into a task force meeting around several key community issues.




We had people write their contact information if they were interested in learning more and/or being part of the K.C. Glendora conversation. We're excited to get in touch with these people as we continue to partner together as the Church of Glendora.

Meeting with Carol in Glendora

Today we met with Ms. Carol Simpson from Glendora United Methodist Church. She is on staff there as a worship leader. She also helps coordinate outreach efforts. When she agreed to meet with Brad and I (Shaun), I wonder if she knew we'd ask so many questions. We wanted to know as much about her work in Glendora, and her insights on the city, as possilbe. She gave us a lot of helpful information. Did you know that there is actually a fairly significant portion of the Glendora population that is homeless. She also shared that there is a high occurance of methamphetamine use at Glendora High.





We shared with Carol what Kingdom Causes is doing in other cities in Southern California, and what we've been up to in Glendora. She expressed that she has concerns about some of the same things. In fact, she recently gave a presentation at her church about the effect of Aids in Africa. Coincidentally, Kingdom Causes has an Aids task force in Long Beach.

Carol mentioned two things toward the end of our meeting that really stood out to us:

The first is that the types of conversations we are working to spark in Glendora are, in her opinion, long overdue. By this we are encouraged.

Second, she said to count her in. For this, we are truly grateful.

Kingdom Causes Invited to Share at Glendora Ministerial Association

When we met with Karen Davis and Doug Hodson, they invited us to come share about Kingdom Causes at the Glendora Ministerial Association at their May gathering. This is an exciting opportunity to share our story and build new relationships with some city pastors!

Meeting with Karen Davis & Doug Hodson

Today we met with Pastor Karen Davis of First Christian Church of Glendora and Pastor Doug Hodson from the United Methodist Church of Glendora. These two individuals are leaders not only of local congregations, but also in the Glendora community. Karen is a member of the City Council and Doug is on the Board of Trustees of the Glendora Library. Together they have helped gather citizens to talk at Reconciliation Services, hosting these in their church facilities. They also worked together to organize an effort to provide gun locks free of charge to gun owners of the city.

Some of the "signs of hope" they mentioned about Glendora: Whitcomb High School and the work of Principal Marc DuBois; the Glendora Teen Center; the Senior Center, which serves an active senior population.

We are grateful for the chance to learn from these two leaders in the City of Glendora.

Steps Towards A Glendora Leadership Team

Today we hosted an information gathering meeting at our regional office in San Dimas.
Glendora citizens brought information about the various happenings going on in the city currently, they shared stories of how broad efforts for positive change have occurred in the past and they shared names of people in the city that we could support and collaborate with for the good of the whole community. It was encouraging to hear about many of the already existing signs of hope in the region!

Meetings like these are essential for our process of discovering a leadership team who will help lead the way to Inspire, Connect, and Mobilize the Church of Glendora. One of the fundamental values of Kingdom Causes is INDIGENOUS. For Glendora, this means that this emerging team (just like in other cities around LA) will steward and serve the city-wide vision for wholistic community transformation. The emerging vision will be locally owned, locally led and locally supported!

We are grateful for each person who came out for the meeting. We stand with you as you seek the welfare of your city! In the future we will starting having some of this growing group of people begin posting on this blog as well. Our next informational gathering meeting will be Sunday the 29th of April at our KC regional Office located at 910 W Gladstone (MAP).

"It's a small world after all!"

Wow. It turns out that Karen Davis is friends with Mary Glenn who is our KC Alhambra Catalyst. They are both police chaplains in their respective cities and have even done some training together. Being a Long Beach Police chaplain myself, I have a special place in my heart for people in those roles. I can't wait to meet Karen one of these days!

Mr. Tom Sakiyama

Today we had a good conversation with Tom Sakiyama, a long-time resident of Glendora. We were introduced to him by Mary Moody of Living Faith Fellowship church. Even before we met him, several people were telling us he would be a key person with whom to connect.
We enjoyed getting to know Tom and hearing his story. He shared about his experiences in Glendora and what he has been learning about the Church and about himself.
Over the course of our conversation we learned about one of his values, by which I was inspired in a very specific way. The essence of what he said is this:

In all that we do in ministry and life, a key question with which we ought to wrestle is,

"Does it change lives?"

Our prayer for Glendora is that God's kingdom would come and His will be done in this city as it is in heaven.

What would Glendora look if this happened? How would lives be changed?

Glendora Ministerial Association

The Glendora Ministerial Association meets every month at Foothill Presbyterian Hospital. Those who attend share a meal together, hear from a guest speaker, and update one another about what is happening in their ministries.
I had already met with some of the pastors who participate in the group, and so we thought this would be a great place to connect with leaders who are engaging the community. And today we were welcomed by the group.

The guest speaker was Dr. Charles Gomer. He attends Glendora United Methodist and is also on the Board of the Glendora Unified School District. He spoke about the relationship between God, faith, and science.

One of the people we met is Carol Wagstaff of Reconciliation Ministries, a Christian organization which seeks to help and support inidividuals and families who are dealing with the issue of homosexuality. (http://www.livingstonesministry.org/)

We had a good time at the Ministerial Association gathering. We are grateful for the welcoming spirit and hospitality we were given.
It was great getting to know some leaders of the Church of Glendora and hearing a some of their stories.

Local Congregation Gets On Board

On Sunday, March 11, we met with members of Living Faith Fellowship. They are making significant contributions to Kingdom Causes Glendora as they share their knowledge of the city.

A little history of Living Faith Fellowship...

In 2004, the people of this congregation (at that time called New Hope Church) sold the property in Glendora on which their building was located. Their vision was to turn brick and mortar into kingdom work. They did this by taking the money from the sale of the property and founding the New Hope Network - a non-profit organization separate from the church - to do kingdom work in the East San Gabriel Valley. The congregation still exists, and has since changed their name to Living Faith Fellowship. They meet in the offices of the New Hope Network in San Dimas.
The New Hope Network is now partnering with Kingdom Causes to seek God's kingdom for Glendora.

All of this began as a small group of people sought to follow Jesus and committed themselves to His work in the East San Gabriel Valley.

Meeting with Pastor Bruce Butler

Today we met with Pastor Bruce Butler at Glendora Friends Church (http://www.glendorafriendschurch.org/). I (Shaun) met with him last Fall when we were first beginning to investigate what God is up to in Glendora. Bruce graciously answered all the questions about Glendora.
Since that initial meeting, Kingdom Causes has done even more research, and we were thankful for the chance to share with Bruce what we're learning. More importantly, we wanted to listen to his thoughts and heart for the city.

Here are some names of people who were mentioned in our discussion. These people are involved in broad-based Christian efforts in Glendora:

• Dusty & Sue Yarberry
• Sue Mooney, Moms In Touch
• Tom Sakiyama of Glendora
• Judy Shoemaker, Glendora Friends Church
• Sarah Sumner, Life Pacific College
• Dave Metzker, Pastor at New Community Foursquare Church in Glendora
• A gentleman who works for YWAM and is engaging students at Glendora High School

Do you know any of these people? Do you have any information about their work and/or ministries in Glendora? If so, let us know by adding a comment to this blog. Thank you.

Thank you to Pastor Bruce Butler for meeting with us.

Meeting at Azusa Pacific University

Today we met with Matt Visser, the interim director in the office of Ministry and Service (MAS) at Azusa Pacific University. A.P.U. contributes a minimum of 160,000 hours of service to the community every year. There are 1,200 students who go to the MAS office to get connected with various ministry opportunities in order to fulfill their service. What a fantastic tool and resource! Check them out at http://www.apu.edu/mas/.
It was good listening to Matt talk about his heart for justice, and for seeing the kingdom of God established on earth as it is in heaven. Matt shared about the ministry opportunities available through MAS, and spoke about his vision for future opportunities.

A couple names that came up in our discussion: Ann Croissant, Cliff Hamlow
Do you know either of these people, or know about their work and/or ministries? Let us know.

We are grateful to Matt for his willingness to meet with us.

The journey begins...

Kingdom Causes Glendora...the journey begins. We are excited about our partnership with the New Hope Network and are starting our journey here in the ESGV in the city of Glendora. We are eager to discover how God IS ALREADY AT WORK all across this city. Over the next few weeks and months we hope to accomplish a few specific things:

1. Pray that God would guide our steps as we seek out Signs of Hope in Glendora.
2. Develop a citywide research team that will do our initial scouting.
3. Begin asking the 5 key questions that we help Christians ask in all of our cities.
4. Meet with as many key city stakeholders as possible to learn from them and share what we are working towards.
5. Work towards a date (probably early May) where we will have a city-wide learning conversation with Christians from around the city. The question we will be asking is one based on the Lord's prayer in Matt 6 which reads "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in GLENDORA as it is in heaven". What might that look like in the days ahead? Join us as we stand with you in asking that question!

This blog will serve as a running record of our learnings here in the city of Glendora.

Check back often!!

An Online "City Conversation"

Check out this link: www.shatteredpeace.com

Anyone else know of conversations about Glendora happening online?