Pastors gathering together?

So about a month ago I get a call from Monty Sharp. Monty has been in the Temecula Valley forever and knows everyone through his work with Student Venture. He tells me that a small group of Pastors and community leaders have been meeting for about a year, talking about different ways that churches can join together to help families. They are calling this group "Families that Soar", and would I want to be part of their next meeting.

Out of respect for Monty I say sure, put me on your list. My expectations were pretty low... I have seen efforts to get churches together come and go during the 12 years I have served in vocational ministry.

I was a bit surprised then to get a letter a couple weeks back inviting me to a luncheon. The purpose of this meeting (the letter stated) is to invite a larger group of Pastors and church leaders into the mix... and (according to this invitation) there is a big group of guys, from all the major churches in the area, who have already committed to come. With a bit of trepidation I RSVP for the lunch.

Still feeling skeptical, the day of the lunch arrives. As I drive over to Linfield, I am convinced that there are only going to be 4 or 5 other guys there and I'm going to end up feeling like an idiot (I told all this to Monty). As I walked in to the room, I realized for the first time that something really different was going on... there were 5 or 6 tables in the room, all full, and the people attending were all Pastors, with other ministry leaders joining them.... there were at least 20 different churches represented.

I sat at a table with Brian Bell from Calvary Murrieta, Lamont Lawson from Mountain View Community Church, Ron Baum from Cornerstone Wildomar, Don Hallworth and Mike Johnson from Rancho, and Shawn Nelson who is the City Manager for Temecula. We had a great discussion about different things going on in our churches and how we might work together to more effectively serve families in our community.

It was a really good time, an incredible blessing and an encouragement. This isn't a program, there is no big event being planned, and we didn't talk about money... just the desire to serve people and love people and help families grow and prosper in the love of Christ.

Pray for us! There will be another meeting in June.