Summer Time

Summer is finally here! There is a ton going on as we seek to continually live out our commission of - Connecting with God, each other, and the world. With so much on the calendar, we’ll be doing all we can to keep you informed as to what’s coming up. If you’re ever wondering, or having a hard time remembering, the church website is always a great place to get the information you need. The web address is: http://www.kingsfieldchurch.org.

Here are a couple of things I wanted to highlight:

• First of all, home fellowships are on break for the summer, and Wednesday nights will be starting this next week, July 2nd, at the church. Things kick off at 5:30 with a BBQ, and we’ll be serving food right up till 6:45, getting the study started at 7pm. The study this summer is entitled “Learning To Breath”. Just as Breathing is vital to our physical life, it is also vital to our spiritual life… come and learn the disciplines of spiritual “breathing” as found in Gods word.

• Second… Tatum and I often walk around the Irvine Spectrum and are heart-broken to see so many lives, which are lost, without the Gospel. Our hearts have constantly been challenged to reach into what has become somewhat of the “community hub” at the spectrum. This summer, we’re going to do something about it, and would love to challenge the body to join us. On Thursday nights (starting July 3rd) we’ll be meeting together in attempt to reach out. Some of the group will gather together to pray (like we always have on Sunday nights), while the other part of the group will head out into the Spectrum to strike up conversation, share the gospel, and invite people out to Church. We would love to have as many as possible join us; the more we have, the more we can get done. We’ll be meeting behind the Irvine Spectrum Ferris Wheel at 6:30. Childcare will be provided at the church. There’s a couple of Thursdays where other stuff is going on so make sure to check the calendar.

• Thirdly...On one of those Thursdays is the Harvest Crusade Impact Class. The Harvest Crusades are right around the corner, and so is our opportunity to get involved. In the past we’ve been involved in the Crusade’s in many different ways, and are really looking forward to stepping it up this year. Kingsfield will be hosting an Impact Class here at the church on July 24th to train follow-up volunteers in the Orange County region. This class will provide the perfect opportunity for our church to get trained to help those who will dedicate their lives to the Lord during the crusade. This class will certify you to do “on the field” counseling for new believers after Pastor Greg gives the invitation. Make sure to put the dates on your calendar - July 24th is the training and August 15th-17th is the crusade. After the training you can serve at one, or all of the nights… for more info visit http://www.harvest.org/crusades/2008/anaheim.

• Last but not least, Vacation Bible School will be July 28th – August 1st. I personally look forward to this outreach every year as we always see many kids encouraged in their faith, and many others commit their lives to the Lord for the first time. Brenda has an amazing week planned for the kids, so lets do our part and get the kids there. Sign up your own kids and/or drag some out from your neighborhood. Tatum and I have offered to buss some kids down from our neighborhood in RSM, and have had some great response from the parents. Also, make sure to keep that week in prayer.

God is so good to us, and I love what He’s doing in our midst. Keep your eyes on Him…

Serving Him Together,

Chris Norman

A Redlands Night

Tatum and I met and got married in the charming city of Redlands, Ca. We still have family and friends in Redlands and love when we get the chance to go out and visit everyone.. Today we not only had the chance to visit the family but also, thanks to my parents watching the kiddos, we were able to have ourselves a date night. So we headed downtown Redlands and walked around our old stomping grounds... It's amazing how much of our life has taken place with in only a few miles. The High School where we had our first class together, the streets we would walk/roller blade (yes we were very cool) when we were dating, the church where we had our wedding reception, our first apartment, our third apartment... and on and on. (the picture here is taken in the spot were we first danced as a married couple)

We had a great time walking and talking. We talked kids, we talked church, we talked life.. over and over again we can't help but to recognize how blessed we are as we think about all that God has done in our lives after only 10 years of marriage. When we married we committed our lives to each other and to all the Lord would have for us. We believed that God was calling into a great adventure and set sail to discover what that would be. Since then it has been nothing but the testimony of a good and gracious God working in and through imperfect vessels.

We love what God has done, and we love what God is doing. By the grace of God our kids are incredible and we're surrounded by the coolest people in the world at one of the greatest churches ever. As we talked we became more and more humbled by what God is doing in our lives and at Kingsfield... He truly is so good.

Breakfast with a special kid.

Today before I hit the books, Elias and I got up early than use to grab some breakfast before I had to take him to school. We talked about everything... Video games, friends at School, Church, Jesus, you name it. (did I mention that He's a cool kid?)

I'm looking forward to the weekend. Fathers day, Special music with Danny Larsh and 1 Corinthians 6:11-20. Were moving into a short series on sex and sexuality. The Corinthians were caught up in so much confusion concerning their sexuality and began to ask Paul for a little clarification. This is one of the ways that we know it was a new church with new believers, they had yet to learn that we don't talk about sex in church. I'm kidding of course.

Sadly though the church is often silent on this very important issue. Let me assure you however, that it is not because the bible is silent. Gods word has much to say about our sexuality and although this study in Corinthians is not meant to give us an all encompassing understanding of all that Gods word has to say. It will give us a great foundation to deal with the ever so important issue how Christianity and sexuality fit together.

Serving Him Together,

Chris

The New B

For those of you who don't know... we recently added a new staff member to Kingsfield Church. The one, the only, Carrie Allen. Carrie used to work with me in Student Ministries and I was always impressed with her passion for the Lord, insight, and this amazing gift to just get it done and get it done right. She's the kind of person that you give something to and it comes back done better than what you were thinking. Carrie gave her life to the Lord at our church, and began to grow quickly in her spiritual maturity, her hunger for the Lord finally lead her to pursue a Bible degree and we had to let her go off to Biola for 2 years. (I would often tease her that she was on leave of absence.) She graduated Biola and started in the office almost 2 weeks ago... Seriously, our church is so blessed to have her be a part of the inner workings of all that takes place around here. Whether it's writing womens curriculum, setting up lawn care, or mentoring younger women, this girls gifted to just get it done... For Tatum and I Carrie has been a God send in so many ways, and I know that the body will quickly learn to appreciate her as much as we do.

Did I mention that she's well loved and well connected. People don't stop coming by to say "Hi"... Today alone, there had to be several hundred come by the office just to see her!!! (O.K. maybe not several hundred, but definitely several.)

There is nothing greater than watching people fall in love with the Lord and open up their lives to see what it is He wants to do..


Honestly though... all our staff is amazing. I love working alongside such an amazing godly group...

coming up... Fathers Day.

It seems like we just had Mother's Day and now Father's Day is just around the corner. So if you haven't done so yet, think of dad and get him a little something while your out this week. Speaking as a dad, it's always such a blessing.

With Father's Day approaching I'm remembering that for many, this day can bring about painful memories. Maybe Father's Day does nothing but remind you of a painful childhood filled with abuse, the loss of a loved one or even an estranged relationship. No matter what our childhood was like, or the status of our family relationships today, we can always rejoice in the love of our heavenly Father. A love so great that it moved our heavenly Father to send Jesus with the task of bringing us into fellowship with Him, that we have been created to have. Jesus took upon himself the penalty of everything that separates us from our heavenly father's love, so that we could be set free to dwell in the ultimate of a Father's love. On Father's Day may we be awakened to the Love of God for each of us and respond to that love with a life of repentance and surrender...

This Sunday for Father's Day we're looking forward to our special guest musician Danny Larsh.

A Sunday with some toppings

I always look forward to Sunday's, but was especially looking forward to this one. After having such a refreshing time away being inspired by the Lord, I was already looking forward to being back on Sunday. Top that with a church picnic and I don't know if it could get any better.

Service was great... We've been switching things up a little in our format on Sundays and I love how receptive our body has been. There are those things that we can always look forward to and rely on in service... Jesus will be center, God's Word will be opened and preached, our lives will be challenged and transformed and the fellowship will be sweet. So no matter what the order, the intention is that the essentials will be hit and hit hard...

This last Sunday we were in 1 Cor. 6:1-11 and left with the challenge to forgive those that we've been holding grudges against. To free ourselves from the bitterness that takes root in our hearts. I have already begun to hear stories of reconciliation and freedom. Way to go guys!!! Take those steps of faith and watch what the Lord will do.

Church picnic? can we just say... huge success. After setting up, people started showing up and we had ourselves a picnic. Complete with BBQ, potluck (WOW!!!), fellowship, volleyball, ultimate Frisbee, water balloon toss, and all sorts of other games for the kids. Including one where the dads got to participate. Elias ran up to me and told me he needed me for a game and I thought it might be fun to go and show off my athletic skills. Only to realize that he just wanted to dump water on my head.

I personally had a great time getting to talk with people I don't normally have a chance to spend time with. In just the duration of our picnic I met many people for the first time, including two different couples who are new to Kingsfield in the past several weeks. Good stuff.

Another thing I could not help to notice in the midst of the great fellowship was the number of newborns and expecting mommies... putting a little added pressure to our already packed out kids classrooms. Seriously though, we're looking for a way to accommodate more moms in the mother's room and solutions are coming soon.

With Robert Custer closely supervising, pastor Frank was allowed to try his hand at a little BBQ action. Rumor has it that Robert was trying him out for the next Steak and Study on June 19th. The verdict isn't out yet as to whether or not he made the cut. I guess we'll soon find out.

Oh, and yes, the lemonade was pink. Pastor Frank was really worried about it being pink for some reason. I don't think there's ever been many people offended by pink lemonade, but I guess there's always a first. Looks like we made it through O.K. :)

until next time...

Chris

Study Day

I often look forward to Friday's. Tatum takes the kids out for the day and I'm able to study from the house. It's really quiet, I open the windows to let some air flow, brew some coffee, and then finish up on what I've been chewing on most of the week (message wise). This weekend were in 1st Corinthians 6 where Paul is teaching us biblical principals for "conflict resolution". As if conflict is something that we struggle with right. God knows us all to well and His word speaks so clearly to our issues... looking forward to service this weekend.

I also had some time today to look at my outlines for the next couple of studies. We're moving into a great series on marriage. Answering questions like.. Why get married, why not get married, how to be happily married and also discover together where the "bachelor to the rapture" group originated.

I had the chance to take a break at lunch and go see my son in his school play... He was a "cool cat" and trust me the kid is cool...

OK... so.. I'm blogging!

I guess the time has come for me to finally step into the world of blogging. I've put it off for some time now and I won't bore you with all the reasons why... really none of them were good enough to keep me from it... So here it is, I'm blogging.

This past couple of weeks have been absolutely amazing. Starting out with a Sunday service where we say many new commitments to the Lord... I don't think anything is more exciting then to see lives transformed by the Lord. The truth of the Gospel setting people free to live the life that they have been created to live in fellowship with Jesus Christ. Love it!!

Then it was off to the staff retreat to spend some time with some of the most amazing people on the planet. We try to get away at least once a year (sometimes twice) to seek the Lord's face together and encourage one another in all the Lord is doing in our lives and various ministries of the church. We truly do have an amazing staff of people who are devoted to the Lord and His work. I thank God for every single one of them. There was, however, one part of the staff retreat that hurts just a bit when I bring it to mind. Picture... guys team, girls team, lots of talk, and tones of competitive spirit (Tatum, my wife, has enough for all of us) and then Guesstures... yep, something like a glorified charades... tensions building as the girls had won the first game and the guys (who up to this point in all past retreats had been undefeated) were almost unstoppable in the second game... almost that is, until a tragic turn of events left me standing in front of the staff, with the weight of the world on my shoulders, as somehow the girls were now 8 points in front of us and it was up to me to pull it off... well lets just say, I gave it my best shot, but somehow couldn't communicate the word "expand" no matter how widely I stretched out my hands, and blew up invisible balloons. The timer went off and then so did the girls... I'm still trying to recover. Between that and the Kingsfield softball game, I may have to undergo some time of healing. (for more on the softball game fiasco, you can catch Frank gloating somewhere on his blog...)

After the staff retreat, we had another amazing weekend service with many people committing themselves to a life of holiness. Giving life dominating sin to the life changing God. Our pray team leader, Lori, sent me an email today to tell me that she and the others on the prayer team have been praying with more and more people on Sunday's. This past Sunday was the best response since we've started the prayer ministry... very cool.

Currently, I'm in Murrieta at the Calvary Pastors conference spending some time with good friends who love the Lord and are committed to His work. It's so encouraging to hear of all that God is doing in so many places. We truly serve a mighty and powerful God who's busy doing mighty and powerful works through weak and puny people... go figure.

As great as it is out here, I can't wait to get home to see my wife and kiddos. God has blessed me with the coolest kids around, and not to mention a wife beyond compare.

until next time

Chris