The lunches formerly known as 1st Sunday of the Month Lunch are now known as 3rd Sunday of the Month Lunch. Might be a little more confusing, but the important thing is that we’re going to lunch tomorrow at Shakey’s (Lunch buffet here we come) on Los Alamitos Blvd. It’s just a little south of the intersection with Willow. There’s no way you can say no to a lunch buffet!

Have you joined a gym? No? Well then join Amy Naluai and others as they get their exercise on each week (to TurboJam I think). Here’s a little blurb from Amy:

“We meet Saturdays from 10am-12 in the 300 modular to work out (and laugh) together.”

The 300 Modular is in the back parking lot behind the main sanctuary on our Heartwell Campus. If you’re New Year’s Resolution to get in shape has already faded, here’s a great way to revive your resolution.

I am very excited and pleased to announce that there will be a mission trip to the Dominican Republic this summer! If you scroll down and click the link under pages entitled “Dominican Republic Trip” you can find out all the information you’ll want to know to take the first steps towards going on the trip.

The trip isn’t until the end of May into the first week of June, but there is a meeting next month (February 23) regarding the trip, so if you are interested, not sure if you’re interested, or are on the fence, make sure you take a look at the page and show up for the meeting.

Before I graduated high school, I had no idea what the concept of the “emerging church” was, nor had I ever heard the term. But since I’ve become more aware of this broader movement, I’ve read many blogs and seen many web pages that bemoan the emerging church and label it as heresy.

I’m not here to engage in the debate about who’s right and who’s wrong because frankly, I don’t think it’s worthwhile, but I saw this post over on Under The Iceberg, the blog of Sam Metcalf, President of Christian Resource Ministries. Apparently he got a letter criticizing the “emerging church” and wrote a response to that letter that was really well put. Here’s an excerpt:

“What God is undoubtedly doing is raising up, on the cultural fringes, a new generation of people who are faithfully and wholeheartedly followers of Jesus and true to the bible, but they are committed to living that faith out in an increasingly secular, postmodern world. From my experience, what I believe is most unsettling to the traditional Christian establishment is not primarily the theological nuances and questions that emanate from emerging churches, but forms and ecclesiological expressions that are outside the acceptable box. While some would attack the emerging church on theological grounds, my suspicion is the real backlash is primarily cultural. In most respects, the emerging church movement is profoundly biblical…”

Our monthly First Sunday of the Month Lunch will occur this Wednesday. We’ll be having lunch this Sunday @ Baja Fresh on Bellflower and Stearns.  Meet there at 1pm and hang out with some other Somethings.

Yes I know it’s the day of the SuperBowl, but the game doesn’t start until 3pm, so you’ve got plenty of time to make it to your parties after hanging out over some tacos. See you there!

This weekend at Parkcrest was the Annual Vision Weekend at Parkcrest. It’s kinda like a State of the Union address for the Church, letting people know what Parkcrest has done in the last year, and where Parkcrest is moving towards in the next year. It’s also a time where we confirm the group of elders that will assist Roger (and Mike) in making important decisions about the direction of the Church. In case you missed this weekend though, you can always check out the Parkcrest Podcast to catch up on the weekend’s message. Here’s a few of the highlights from this weekend.

• My favorite line in Roger’s entire sermon: “Don’t get lazy when things get crazy” (I wonder if he stole that rhyme from LL Cool J)
• Another week of rain doused the southland again — and I think the baptisms that were supposed to happen this afternoon didn’t happen
• Easily the funniest thing that happened this week was this.
• Mike got the chance to visit each of the Heartwell Campus venues, and you read more about his thoughts on the venues over at his blog (with a new look, too)

Remember we’re going to lunch next Sunday at Baja Fresh @ 1pm. Yes, I know it’s Super Bowl Sunday. But lunch is at 1 and the game isn’t until 3. So you can still swing by.

In case you were wondering, the new site design truncates the lengths of all posts to about 4 lines so that only 4 lines of a post will display on the main page. That way you can easily browse through all the posts, and if you feel like reading a particular post, you can just click on the title and you’ll be able to read the entire post.

Hi friends,

As you may have read in Fausto’s posts, El Circulo is in the process of buying a permanent church building in the Dominican Republic. This is very exciting!! EC has been bumped from place to place over the past few years so you can imagine how stoked they are to be getting a permanent spot.

As plans are being made for our 2008 trip to the Dominican Republic, we got the bright idea of focusing our efforts on EC’s #1 goal. The hope is that EC will have purchased a building by June of this year. Our project during this year’s trip will be to help renovate the new place.

For up-to-date information about the trip, visit the Dominican Republic page on this site.

Here’s the latest trip info:
Trip Dates: May 31-June 7
Cost: Around $1500 (this will include flight, housing, food, transportation & project materials).
Goal: Renovate El Circulo’s church building

The first trip meeting will be on Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 3:00pm
Parkcrest Christian Church, Room 511
5950 Parkcrest St., Long Beach 90808

If you are interested in attending the meeting, or would like more info, please contact Jaime:
jaimerose1982@aol.com

Maybe you heard about the shooting that took place Saturday night at the Masonic Lodge Building right next door to Parkcrest or maybe you didn’t. Either way, Mike has posted all the details of what happened. So you can get caught up on the crazy happenings near Parkcrest. It’s hard to grasp that something so violent could happen in this area.

Our prayers go out to the families and friends of those that were shot.

I wasn’t altogether pleased with my first attempt at redesigning the website, so this is the beginning of my second attempt. I think I tried to get a little too cute with the first try, so this time I’ll stick more with a solid base theme.