I read two amazing sermons from great preachers of the past last night for some homework. One was from Billy Sunday, the other from A.W. Tozer. Both blew my mind and increased my understanding of God. Ironically, they are both about authenticity and I picked them not knowing they were in sync with one another.

"What does converted mean? It means completely changed. Converted is not synonymous with reformed. Reforms are from without - conversion from within. Conversion is a complete surrender to Jesus. It's a willingness to do what he wants you to do. Unless you have made a complete surrender and are doing his will it will avail you nothing if you've reformed a thousand times and have your name on fifty church records... Maybe you're a drunkard, an adulterer, a prostitute, a liar; won't admit you are lost; are proud. Maybe you're even proud you're not proud, and Jesus has a time of it. Jesus said ‘come to me,’ not to the Church; to me, not to a creed; to me, not to a preacher; to me, not to an Evangelist; to me, not to a priest; to me, not to a pope; ‘Come to me and I will give you rest Faith in Jesus Christ saves you, not faith in the Church.’… God says: ‘Let the wicked man forsake his way.’ The instant that is done, no matter if the man has been a life-long sinner, he is safe. There is no need of struggling for hours – or for days – do it now. Who are you struggling with? Not God. God’s mind was made up long before the foundations of the earth were laid. The plan of salvation was made long before there was any sin in the world. Electricity existed long before there was any car wheel for it to drive. ‘Let the wicked man forsake his way.’ When? Within a month, within a week, within a day, within an hour? No! Now! The instant you yield, God’s plan of salvation is thrown into gear. You will be saved before you know it, like a child being born." –Billy Sunday

So ironic wouldn’t exactly be the word to use because God is never ironic. He has this theme intertwined within my day, whether it has to do with morning prayer, homework, or class, and it’s in these moments that things are strung along together through my day that I know He is there and working in my life. No detail is too small for Him. I know I don’t need some big church service or even the church to know Him. It’s in my every day life that I find Him when I’m looking for Him.

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. – 1 Thess 1:5

“The man who has received the Word without power has trimmed his hedge, but it is a thorn hedge still and can never bring forth the fruits of the new life. Men do not gather grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles. Yet such a man may be a leader in church, and his influence and his vote may go far to determine what religion shall be in his generation.” – A.W. Tozer

2 Corinthians 5:27 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” I know that I don’t just want to be reformed. Anyone can reform their habits and ways. It is only the power of God who can make me new. There should be no remnants of my past self hanging around. I want to have a genuine, authentic relationship and knowledge of God. The proof [fruit] of that is an inside conversion.

So I encourage anyone who reads this… let God be the center of your life. Let Him be your focus. He knows all and is all-powerful. And if you don’t have the faith [trust] that you can be converted into a new creation just look at the little things He does through your day. Look for Him! He is there waiting to create you! Let Him form you into the masterpiece He can only paint.

-Amanda Wilgus XI

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." -Marianne Williamson


What a powerful thought. One of my favorite parts of our MCS Creed states that "we are set free to set others free." And that sums up this great insight. That as you live and become the best version of yourself and you allow your light & the glory of God shine through you, it will liberate others to do the same! So stop hiding! What is it that you KNOW God has made you for? He purposed YOU for something GRAND. It may not seem grand when you compare it to another's dreams. Which reminds me of a passage in Corinthians:


"Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present. We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the field God has assigned to us, a field that reaches even to you." 2 Corinthians 10:11-13


So GO and let your own light shine and watch as it domino effects others into giving them permission to do the same!

Loving Life! Nicholas Whitestone

My Second Year at Masters Commission Sacramento has set sail. It has been an interesting journey thus far. A wise man ounce told me, that leadership is the only thing scarier than hell. Leadership actually can put people in hell if done the wrong way. I have come to the conclusion that he was correct. Being at this place and position in my life,it brings lots of challenges on my plate. God reworking my habits and qualities, so I can be the most effective in this program. My main goal of this year is to get closer to God, trying to find His heartbeat, and hoping I can bring others across the finish line with me. I am privileged to be apart of seeing God move in young adults lives. Class 12 has their work cut out for them, but I know they will succeed.
MCDQ XI

“We never know what’s wrong without the pain”
Maybe you’ve heard the song these lyrics are from. Today I was listening to it, and thinking about some conversations I have been having lately. So many people have been saying they just want to be happy, they don’t want to deal with the pain. And I started to wonder... Why do we try to medicate ourselves so much from reality? If there is something wrong with our reality, shouldn’t we face it and try to fix it instead of running and hiding from it? Yet we are so afraid of the process it takes to be made whole. Why is it our natural response to run from anything that causes us pain? Why is it our natural response to find every excuse in the world not to be in uncomfortable situations? Doesn’t it say in James to "consider it pure joy when you face trials"? And in Hebrews it talks about how "no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful"? In both of those scriptures, what does it follow up with right afterward? The pain is going to develop something in you that is priceless. The struggle is what makes us who we are meant to be. Sometimes, facing the uncomfortable situations is the only way we are ever going to grow. Personally, I want to be known as a woman who is willing to fight through anything to become who God created me to become and really live out His purpose for me.
So, God help us not to run from the pain, help us not to be afraid of it. Let us choose to face it so we can fix it instead of numbing it. And make us who YOU created us to be - whole, free, powerful men and women of God that have the potential to CHANGE this world!

A captured heart

"Apart from Christ let nothing dazzle you." - A.W. Tozer

Many of the problems with the Christian church today come from the root of being so enamored with pop culture. Many of our professed Christians have their attention captured quicker by a catchy magazine headline then they do by a move of God. We have been more than dazzled by the culture around us we have become a part of it. Our hearts and minds have become so fascinated with the movie stars, musicians, and athletes that God is very often lucky to be an after thought in our lives. We say He is first but our time calls us a liar. We use the excuse that there is just no good Christian music but years ago people were very committed to God without even the possibility of recorded music. The media and not God has truly captured the heart of the Christian. We are Christian only in the cultural definition of the word not the devotion sense. We must identify that there is a problem, when, the events of a cultural icons life is our conversation topic while very few of our conversations are centered around Christ. We wear pictures of men and women on our shirts proving that Jesus is barely in our hearts or on our minds. We will seek Him and find Him when we seek Him with all of our hearts, the problem is that the desires of our hearts are pointed in so many directions i fear many of us will never find Him. I am not questioning salvation, simply providing an answer for dry Christian living.

Cole Zick

Reconditioning

Something nailed me in the face today. I felt God gave it to me for our MC group and He did but it was just as much for me. That is the need for our minds to be reconditioned. I fully believe that we diagnose way to many kids with ADD and ADHD that don’t really have it. The problem is that media has conditioned their minds to only pay attention for 7-10 minutes at a time. Commercial breaks are every 7-10 minutes and cartoons and TV shows are what raise America. All of our communication is visual. We watch movies, browse the web, and text message. Everything coming in is media driven and visual. Then we come and sit in a place to connect with God and wait for Him to show up. Without our movement and action nothing will happen. God is not like a good movie, meaning his purpose is not to entertain us. If we truly want to connect with God we need to understand a couple things. First, our minds have been conditioned to have a completely different type of communication then the type that we will have with God. satan has done a very good job at conditioning the minds of America and our world through the media. He doesn’t even have to get us to watch or listen to bad things he just needed to get us dependent on movies, music, and the TV so that we want to spend all of our time in these arenas. I mean look at where we are at, as soon as our prayer time gets boring we pop in a Hillsong CD and all of sudden God’s presence is there? I wonder if its just that our mind is conditioned to be entertained with loud noise and good music. It begs me to ask the question if it is really even God’s presence at all in that moment or our emotions. All of that to say this, we must understand that to authentically connect with God we will have to recondition our minds and what they are dependent on. God is not here for our entertainment. He is hear for our soul. This also means that we need to drastically restrict our media intake levels. Again I am not just speaking of the bad stuff I am talking about everything that has conditioned our mind to be so dependent on visual stimulation to feel enjoyment. Without restricting this area of our lives we will continue to allow it to condition our minds without us every realizing it and thus making it virtually impossible to ever truly connect with God. satan knew how to counteract the ability to connect with God, just make us dependent on an opposing type of communication. So now much of our Christian church today is filled with empty, yet entertained people wondering why it doesn't really seem real. Second, do something. Now that you see what is preventing you either act or remain the same.

Cole

The Bible

The Bible is not forcing us to do something, it’s inviting us to be a part of something. God says, “obedience” not to force us to say yes sir, but rather so we can be healed of the pain that life, as an imperfect human, creates. The Bible is not full of men and women that lived, unattainable, perfect lives, as a model for the perfection that we must strive for. It is rather a testimony of what life can be when lived for God. God is not telling us that we must, seek him first, refrain from sin, pray continually, or any other bit of advice in order to gain salvation. Rather God tells us to do these things so that we can live and operate in the beauty of His presence. It’s not that He won’t speak when we are choosing to sin, listen to secular music, watch an unedifying movies, or doing anything else in our media driven culture, but its just that with all of these voices his is drowned out. The beauty of the Bible is that its amazingly up front. God very clearly communicates what life with Him will look like. It’s not meant to be a book of rules but rather an exciting vision casting for what your life could look be. God is clear, He says in order to experience him in a powerful way there are things that must be present in our lives. It’s not because He is so insecure that He doesn’t want us to see the other options. God just knows that we are so easily distracted by things and our flesh is so weak that many times we would not choose the right option. The Bible is a beautiful dream of what your life could be. It will be destroyed for you when you allow it to become a religious manual. We read verses like, “Jesus prayed early in the morning” and say we need to be disciplined to pray like Jesus did. But Jesus met with God early in the morning because there was nothing in his day more important to Him. It was not out of obligation but rather a deep passionate desire to be with the father. The life of Jesus is not a picture of perfection that we must work to obtain, but all the time knowing that we never can. The life of Jesus is a wonderful example of what a life can be. David’s intimacy with God is not meant to create a mandate to seek God but rather to show what close relationship with the father looks like. King Asa’s destruction of the idols is not an insecure god’s need to be worshiped but rather an example of a heart that is fully committed to Him. We take what I believe God meant to be exciting, motivating, and fascinating and turn it in to a burdensome yoke that creates rules and regulations. For 10,000 years God has been trying to motivate us to live fully in the capabilities that we are able, to not obligate us to pick him. Consider me motivated.

Funny the way it is

Life is so much bigger than me. Something that is not new to my thinking, but I don’t know if I really took this into being a part of who I am, making that something I live by daily. Funny the way that is. I think to myself how beautiful life is and how great my GOD is but I forget at times and get wrapped up in doing rather than being and think that the world is collapsing in on me and my problems. Something that I have been hearing a lot lately is to “stop asking God why is this or why did this happened to me but how can I grow from this situation”. My problems look like specks of sand to God, but He still cares and loves me enough to guide me through the situation/problem and help me grow from it. God has done so much in this life that He has given to me. I have to realize that Life is about Life and not so much what the world has for me, but what God gave to me to share to the world.

Life, Puddles and Other Aquatics

One time, in the midst of a stressful and emotional time in my life, I was day dreaming and I imagined that I was drowning. (Sounds morbid, but just keep reading) There I was, in the middle of what seemed like this giant body of water and there was no one else to be seen. I was alone, flailing and gasping for air. When all seemed lost and the end was in sight, I put my feet down and stood up. Suddenly, I realized that the giant body of water that I had just been exhausting myself to stay alive in was actually a 2 ft. pond. Funny, I know, but what's scary is that this is sometimes how we live life. We get ourselves stressed and burdened about our circumstances and forget that we serve a God that helps us see our GIANT body of water for what it really is; a tiny, little pond.
Luke 11:28 says, "Then Jesus said, 'Come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.'" What would our lives look like if we lived this verse out? It's the times when we carry our own burdens that life seems too "big" for us to handle. Our little puddles of life progressively grow out of control and seemingly start drowning us--all because we try to do it on our own. I have learned this lesson once, twice, three times, yet still haven't mastered the art of allowing Jesus to give me rest. It is a choice, and it's not one he will make for us. I may not be great at it yet, but I know that's what I want, and I can only get better with each attempt.
So when the waters of this life start to suffocate you--remember to let Jesus give you rest. He will unmask your puddle--revealing how small it really is.

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL

  I recently saw an art collection that was entitled YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL... It was all about how, who you are, just right in this moment is just what it is and that;s beautiful. the artist whole goal was for people to have an Ah-Haa moment in their lives. Where they meet themselves, and see the beauty within. yet also look ahead to see the potential beauty in sight. I see that now... Our group is beautiful just the way they all are, yet there is so much more to come. We have been to Washington, Montana, and some have even gone to Ireland, seeing God show up when we didn't know His plan or working along side the plan that God had always had, people are growing and seeing. Weather they are looking at the lives that God can change through them, or looking in a mirror to see how much they have changed, it is beautiful. As the months come closer to the end of this Master's year, I see the flower blooming... and the best part is, I think the students see it as well in themselves!! :)

Depression

Lost in darkness
Logic is not to be found in your thoughts
Wisdom flees from your actions
Impurity shrouds your eyes
Unable to move freely for the shackles of lies are clasped tightly round your feet
A dark veil hangs draped over your face
Others see that the light has gone from you eyes
People flee from you as if you were a plague
However still one remains
A man with true love in his eyes
A man with truth reaching out from his words
A man with comfort in his hands
A man with peace abiding in his presence
A man that can restore all that is lost
This man stands before you as your friend
Will you curse him or will you welcome him

Holiness

Holiness has been the call of God’s people since before Abraham, and since before Abraham God's people have struggled to be holy. God has always spoken to the ones he has chosen and told them to live separate. To be consecrated to His plan, and since before Abraham we have never really truly been set apart. The word holiness means to be consecrated or sanctified. In Romans 12 and 1 Peter 1 it is also used to distinguish what God’s people should look like as opposed to what the world looks like. Romans gives us the charge to not conform our lives to the pattern of this world. Another definition for holiness is to be set apart or be separate. It means there is an obvious life style difference. In 1 Peter it says to “prepare our minds for action” it goes on to instruct us to be, “self-controlled.” These are powerful instructions, ones that demand an intentional life change, not a mere good intentions. Romans says that,” we are not to conform to the evil desires we had when we lived in ignorance.” This is another instruction that takes work. We are to have our minds renewed, which means a complete reboot of our software. I believe that the modern church is in a world of hurt in this area. We are so afraid of legalism that we have forsaken God’s wishes for His people to be holy. Many of us have conformed to the desires we had. Now I am not saying that the Christian church is a free for all with sin, but you would be hard pressed to find much difference in the life style of some, common, Sunday morning church attendees and their, “unsaved” co-workers. Allow me to give to examples, and I will add that I am incriminated myself while I do so. Our culture is a very powerful thing. I will mention to of the most powerful idols that we have on this planet, sports, and music. I am sure that you have heard the expression, “music makes the world go round.” If that is true we are in trouble. Take a moment and evaluate what you have in your ipod. If you were to break down with a percent, what would be greater? The amount of music with a Godly topic or music without a Godly topic? For most people the majority is not Godly, I would even bet that many, “Christians,” have some pretty vile stuff on their ipod. We say things like, “there is just no good Christian music out there,” or , “It’s the edit version.” That one always gets me, because basically what that means is that they bleep the cuss words while talking about sex, drugs, and alcohol. Two things with this, first of all, if music really is powerful enough to make the world go round and the majority of what you are putting in your mind is not Godly, even if it’s not bad, then can you really ever expect to have the mind of Christ, how will your mind ever be renewed. We have the powerful force of music and are using it to fill our minds with ungodly things. Take a moment and evaluate what level of Godliness you intentionally put in you mind on a daily basis. Is it an hour’s worth? Half hour? I would venture to say that few of us put an hours worth of Godliness a day into our minds. So if we sleep for 8 hours that means in a day we are allowing our minds to be filled with 15 hours of junk and 1 hour of Godliness and then expecting to be everything God has called us to be. These seem like unrealistic expectations, wouldn’t you say? Secondly, think about who the devil is. While in heaven he was the worship leader, and now, as the prince of this world music is incredibly powerful. True we are never to fear the devil but my fear is that we have underestimated his plans and abilities. He has taken the gift he has and put it in the forefront of almost every environment that we walk into on a daily basis. He has created all levels of it. He has mellow levels that are not as noticeable, and deeply demonic levels that are obvious. No matter how you look at it music can be strongly demonic. Next, are sports. If we had modern day golden calves this would be it. Think about it, most true sports fans have spent way more money on going to games, clothes, and memorabilia then the would ever give to a church or ministry. On game day across America we have millions of people that flock to stadiums to yell, scream, and cheer for other humans to win a game. Some even dress up like absolute idiots. We spend more time overly praising our teams than we do truthfully and spiritually worshiping God. Many men that are addicted to sports spend more time surfing ESPN.com, while their wives feel disconnected, than they do learning about their spiritual growth. If you are getting angry that I am tearing apart sports and saying that I am so over board and a legalist, I challenge you to evaluate the amount of time you have spent this week following sports verses the amount of time you have spent building your relationship with God. This is the tough one for me because I am coming to some hard truths about myself. I have always been a huge sports fan. But anything that masters us is wrong. I used these two examples because of there incredible power and our ability to write them off as, “not big deals.” But to truly live a holy life means that the smallest areas matter. To be holy as He is holy means to live for him in the smallest areas of life. Lastly, I want to state that this is not a matter of salvation. In 1 Peter 1-12 it basically says that we are saved by grace and that salvation is free. This theme is woven throughout the New Testament. Time and time again it is stated that we are saved by the power of the cross and now our own works. Then in verse 13 it says, “therefore, prepare your minds for action…” He is saying that since you have received your salvation for free live a life that is passionately after God’s heart. Please remember this, a life style that is set apart for holiness is not to be a burden or legalistic. It is not to purchase salvation or receive the promise of heaven. A life style set apart for God should come out of a response to the understanding of His love. When we truly understand what He has done for us then we will desire to live fully for Him. I agree that legalism is wrong. I prefer to look at it like this, it’s the difference between obligation and desire. God does not obligate us to live right, His hope is that we will desire His will for our lives.

Surfs up

WOW now we see why surfing is so cool. We had a great time today surfing, riding bikes, and long boarding on San Diego beach. Thank you San Diego Master's Commission and Cheap Rentals. You guys are awesome! We will be posting pictures.

All Over The World

Well we have two teams literally across the world from eachother. The team in Ireland is doing amazing. God is moving and has been showing up daily. They are definetly being worked though. Most days are about 12-18 hours long. The other team is in San Diego at UCSD this week and we head to Vegas on Saturday and then to the LA Dreamcenter on the following Saturday. In the mix of all that we are going surfing in San Diego. Man ministry is fun! We will be with Brian Orme on the campus tomorrow and are excited about what God is going to supernaturally to do through our group. Be praying because life is crazy right now but we know God is good and is going before us.

The Prize

Setting my mind on things above. I just read an amazing chapter in “The Discipline’s Of A Godly Man.” It was about perseverance. It talked about having our eyes set on Christ just as a runner watches the finish line. The bible talks again and again about thinking about things that are Godly. We are to set our hope on the grace to be given us when Jesus Christ is revealed. I think about Peter in the water, and how if He had just kept His eyes stuck on Jesus He wouldn’t even have noticed the waves and the storm. In that moment Jesus wanted Peter to experience the supernatural, but for that to happen Peter’s focus needed to remain on the face of Jesus. The same is true for us. Our culture is full of distractions and things that capture the attention of our hearts and minds. Many times we are like children, still drinking milk, our attention span to God and His presence only lasts for a few days, couple weeks, or a month and then something comes along that again draws our attention away from his presence. We look at our troubles, or possibly the good things that capture us, money, love, etc., and forget about the amazing things that God was speaking and doing through us. We turn stuff and people into gods. It’s the same thing that the Israelites did throughout the bible. When ever the faced problems they doubted God’s power, even though He had brought water from a rock, parted large bodies of water to evade attackers, and oh yeah delivered them from 400 years of slavery in a truly miraculous way. In quite opposite circumstances they had very similar responses. When ever the land and country was prospering they turned to pleasure and false gods. They began to have sex and marry out side of their belief system. They threw drunken parties with orgies and worshiped other gods, giving them credit for their blessings. It seems that throughout history God has kind of gotten ripped off. Rather than our minds being on Christ they are mostly on everything but Him. The thing that we must all see and understand is that the only time that Peter successfully walked on water was when His gaze was locked on the face of Jesus. He was only able to navigate the storm when Jesus was all He would allow Himself to see, and boy was it brief. The same will be for us; we will seek Him and FIND HIM when we seek Him with all of our hearts. This is a very hard thing to do in our culture. Picture being in a room with 200 people that are all talking directly too you and you have to push through the crowed to speak to Jesus. Now if at any time you stop and talk with somebody in the room you are able to drown out the other voices so that they become one constant sound and isolate the words of the person you are speaking with. You can see Jesus and in reality He looks very different than every one else in the room. He is very identifiable. The struggle is getting to Him without engaging with anyone else. Now all of these other people have name tags on. They are; depression, worry, money, sex, fame, etc. Some of them are even good when used in the right measure. The problem that most of us have however is we lack the self-control to keep our eyes on Christ and experience good things at the same time. Rather than being mastered by nothing many of us are mastered by what ever person engages us in the moment. Since the enemy knows this he tells all 200 people exactly what to say to get our attention and before we know it we are 18, 25, 30, 40 years old and have spent our lives in a conversation with someone that has prevented us from truly living. We have spoken with Jesus from time to time but never for and extended period of time and so now we become callused and hurt that Jesus wasn’t who the bible said He is. But that is exactly who He is we just need to learn the practice of putting the focus of our heart on Him.

Love: For real

I read a quote by Mother Teresa the other day that said, " When you know how much God is in love with you then you can only live your life radiating that love". Oh to know the height, depth and width of his love for me. Not just a flowery, delicate love, but a roaring waterfall-love; a blazing inferno love! It cannot be grasped by even the strongest of hands. It cannot be contained by the greatest of walls. It can not be comprehended by the wisest of scholars. Yet he lavishes this raging love upon the weakest of vessels; me. And I wonder why I don't love more. I wonder why I feel, at times, like I have nothing to give. If only I knew how much God was in love with me--then all I could do is love; all I could see would be love; and all I could be is love.

The Choice

I sing to the heavens
I shout to my Lord
I worship my God with everything in me
But what am I when the spotlight goes away
I watch things I should not see
I listen to voices I should not hear
I do things I should not know about
But still what am I when the spotlight goes away
I am a child of the King
I am a warrior
I am a prince
I am a servant not a slave
And most of all I am beautiful just as I am
My father sees all, everything I do in light and in dark
Nothing is hidden from him
My King knows all my disobedience
Yet still he calls to me,"Come my child, I love you still, just come to me."
Now knowing all this what will I choose
Will I run to self-satisfaction, instant pleasure, and death
Or will I run to an everlasting love, a worthy fight, and life?
. . . I choose life everlasting, I choose love never ending, I choose a personal relationship, I choose the rough path, I chose the fight!

What will you choose when you life feels like it is coming down all around you? Will you rember that God knows everything already and still loves you? Will you rember that his arms are always open and ready to embrace you with an overwhelming love? Will you remember who you truely are? Will you be willing to push forward? What will you do when your world is crumbling under your feet?

Montana trip

Montana was amazing. God showed up again. We were able to see Him do amazing things in people's lives. We were at Catalyst youth group in Polson, MT and Church On The Move in Plains, MT. It's amazing to see what God will do through people who are totally sold out to passionatly making God known. A special thanks to Ken and Stephanie for taking such good care of us. MONTANA ROCKS!!!

Back from Washington with Montana on the Horizon

The team returned safe and sound from several exciting days of ministry in the upper northwest. From youth services to ministering one-on-one, it's amazing what seven days can do in the life of a Master's student. The reports that we've heard from individual students are amazing. God show's up when you give your life in service to him.

To continue this trend, in February we are taking the group to Montana. Last year's trip up there filled the classes with memories for the rest of their lives. Matt Biklian, who interned with a church in Montana, is scheduling services as we speak. The students in Montana are in need of ministry just like the students in the urban areas of Los Angeles. We are committed to taking the Gospel where it's needed.

Washington!

Just a quick note . . . MCS is Washington-bound!  Pray for us for the next week as we're on the road!  Stories and photos to be posted to our Facebook site when we return.

Who We Are

We are Master’s Commission Sacramento. We were established in 1997 by Pastor Jason Harper. Over the past 11 years we have had over 120 students come through MCS. Of those students over 50 of them are in full time ministry. We are apart of Capital Christian Center in Sacramento, California under the leadership of Pastor Rick Cole. We focus on personal growth and ministry training. Our goal is to train and send out the Christian leaders of the future.

What?
We are an intense discipleship program. Our purpose is simple and two fold. Our first and primary focus is personal and spiritual growth. Secondly, we also focus on training people for full time ministry. We use biblical teaching and real life experience to train people for life and leadership. Master’s Commission Sacramento is a nine month program. After nine months the students have the possibility of coming back for a 2nd year and then possibly a 3rd year as well to continue to get pointed ministry training. We are here to send out God’s chosen leaders of the future.

How?
We fulfill each of our two purposes through two separate but closely related venues. With any job or field in life there are two things that are needed to succeed. Those two things are the knowledge that it takes to understand and the experience that it takes to know how. At MCS we use both to give students great personal growth and exceptional ministry training.

1. We seek to grow students.
• We use various experiential based group and individual exercises. These are designed to place students in high pressure situations in order to stretch them and grow their character. These exercises focus both on spiritual growth and practical life skills.
• The students will participate in various character building classes that will challenge them to think and live different. This is done through our core values class, life lessons class, and our chapel services. These classes are taught by the MCS staff and other church leaders.

2. We seek to train students for ministry.
All students attend Capital Bible College. Three days a week the students are in class and being taught by some of the top leaders in the Assemblies of God. The students receive a will round, Christ centered biblical education.

We then allow the students to put into practice the principles that are taught in the class room. As the students are learning academically they also train experientially. As the student progresses in our three year program, they have the opportunity to track, as a 2nd year and then APEX as a third year or a 4 year college graduate, in a desired area of ministry. The areas of ministry that we currently offer this pointed training are; college ministry, high school ministry, junior high ministry, children’s ministry, worship, media, and Master’s Commission.