This is where I'll be

Second Billion Souls

Letter from Ruben Sanchez:


Pastor Steve,

I just got back from Atlanta with Dr. J. Doug Stringer and Pastor Paul Louise Cole along with several hundred delegates from around the globe meeting for the Synergize conference where they are discussing reaching the second billion souls. Pastor Paul spoke yesterday and hit a home run in making the case for reaching the men to truly change the culture. Dr. Stringer is ministering today and I'll have to wait for your report to get the scoop!
Pastor Steve I do believe that we are going to see this men's movement multiply in this city because we are intentional about the discipleship of men and challenging them to stand "shoulder to shoulder" as Pastor Paul Cole said, to battle together to slay the giants in the land. One of my greatest mentors Dr. J. Doug Stringer in his book Somebody Cares wrote about the net that works and how that together we could catch a greater harvest than alone. Gentlemen, we must stand together like the great Red Wood Tree. I was reading a book on discipleship and in it was a story about the red wood tree. It said that the redwood tree is a top heavy tree who's roots are not so deep as some of the other large trees, But the secret to it's strength to weather the storms is that they grow close together and their roots intertwine with each other and together they stand against the raging storms. Men Let us stand together with the roots of Christian character binding us together in Christ Jesus. Marriages, fathers, sons, and daughters will be restored. To God be the glory!

God blessings on you!
Ruben P. Sanchez

Embrace the Grace dummy

There are times when everything that can go wrong does and then some things go wrong that you didn’t even know could. Then there are times when things seem to go right. I spoke at The Get Together today, a gathering of over 60 business professionals with whom I am a partner ministry of. After I presented, key connections were made with people who can really impact our ministry. I am sitting on a plane right now headed for Atlanta to meet Doug Stringer at the Synergize Conference. Christian leaders and delegates from all over the world are coming together to (Synergize) develop a campaign to reach the “Second billion” souls. What an honor to be connected with such a historic event. I return Friday and then two days later I’ll be off again for Peru. Pastor Robert and Camino de Vida are hosting the 2008 Corazon Conference. There I will be commissioned in front of thousands as a minister to men.

So, I’m on the plane and I’m thinking, I must be going something right, for God to be moving in my life the way He is. Before I can catch myself in this theological fuax pa, it hits me. I still haven’t embraced grace. Why do I insist on trying to identify behaviors that merit favor? Perhaps If I can learn what actions trigger God’s favor, I can reproduce those actions to always stay on the good side of God. Maybe God is satisfied with the amount of time I have been spending in prayer lately? Maybe God is happy because there is much discipleship in the ministry? Or God is extra satisfied with my exegetical positions of late. Then I feel the Holy Spirit chuckle, (can He chuckle?) as if to say “You big dummy”. Just embrace the grace. Why can’t things be going good because God is in control? He is sovereign and it’s all His divinely orchestrated intelligence, doing what He wants, when He wants, how He wants, with whom He wants. I can accept that. A calming peace pours over me as I recline my seat and crank up my ipod. I am loved by God and it feels good. Is it sometimes hard for you to embrace the grace?

-PST

My Two

I am in my kitchen this morning, drinking espresso, getting ready to leave for a conference. I just finished praying and reading my Bible.

I thought to my self, why am I a man of God? Two reasons came to mind, here they are;





















My two wonderful girls, Alyssa and Audrie.

Divorce Urban Legend

Have you ever heard that, eating carrots improves night vision, a duck’s quack doesn’t echo, mixing Pop Rocks and Soda can cause an intestinal implosion, chocolate causes acne, or if you swallow chewing gum, it remains inside your body for seven years?

These are a few examples of the thousands of silly myths that are floating around. Here is another one you may have heard that isn’t so silly. Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. I can remember hearing that statistic from some mystery source and thinking, wow, half of the married people I know are going to divorce. The truth is that the 50-50 statistics are really more of a prophecy than accuracy. One that I refuse to receive in my church and city. It’s a misrepresentation of the numbers. For example, one year it may show that one million people were divorced in American last year and two million people got married. At first glace this may seem like fifty percent, but you have to take in account the fifty million already existing marriages.

The real numbers show that more like 35% of marriages end in divorce. Lower, but not low enough. Especially when you consider what divorce does to our children. Forty years ago, ninety percent of children were raised by their married, natural parents. Today, that figure is 68 percent. More than one in four children are living in a sole-parent family or step/blended family from which one natural parent is absent, mostly the father.


Look at these true stats:

• Children of divorce (whose parents divorced while they were children) are 62% more likely than children of non-divorced parents to no longer identify with the faith of their parents when they grow up.

• Rates of child abuse are eight to 10 times higher in step/blended and sole-parent families than in natural, two-parent families.

A recent study showed that:

As the number of family disadvantages increases, the likelihood of a young teen having sex increases correspondingly.

Among females, 7% of those with no family disadvantages first had sex with older individuals when they were 15 years old or younger, 12% with one disadvantage, 20% with two disadvantages, and 23% with all three disadvantages.

(Family disadvantages include low parent education, family structure other than two biological parents and being born to a teen mother)

-Source: National Survey of Family Growth 2002.