Maui Bible Conference Closes

After months of prepartation and anticipation the 2006 Maui Bible Conference has come to an end. Pastor Mike Fabarez preached 10 sermons on the topic of "What the Church Needs Now". Pastor Mike's sermons were an attempt to share with local pastors the need for churches to return to the roots of Biblical-centered teaching as well as outlining the role of congregants and leaders in local bodies.

Compass Bible Church, which has been founded on the premise of always planting churches, had 27 people fly to Maui and attend the conference.

Each night the conference was attended by an estimated 125 people, some of whom are leaders in local churches here on Maui and the rest local congregants, many of whom listen to Pastor Mike on 91.3 fm daily from 11:30 - 11:45 on Focal Point's radio broadcasts.

Maui has a very laid back attitude and the local churches are no different. So, it took them a couple of days to warm-up to Pastor Mike's style of teaching, but by Wednesday night with Pastor Mike's consistency of preaching from the Word of God (and doing it in a well organized and clear way) we could sense the crowd starting not only to warm to Pastor Mike's sermons, but start to embrace them and hunger for more. By Friday night, the congregants were giving very loud ovations at the beginning and the end of each sermon! It was something else to see! The Word of God is alive and causes people to stir when it is preached, and I will bet that from this point on, these congregants will demand that their pastors teach from the Word as well.

Please continue to pray for the people on Maui, especially the believers on the island. As a group, I know we have been impacted greatly (almost like a missionary team, I guess) by these people and wanting to see them become on fire for Christ.

We will be back in So. Cal on Sunday, Aloha and Maholo for your prayers.

Pastor Dale

Bible Conference Update: The enemy is not happy we are here

Aloha from Maui! It has been an extremely interesting few days here on the islands. Everyone from Compass is getting along great with each other and having fun exploring the island, and the people on the island have been very friendly and welcoming. However, there has been one group that has not been very welcoming to our presence on Maui, and that seems to be our enemy in the spiritual realm.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph.6:12)

There have been attacks on our Senior Pastor and strange things going on with our technology (computers crashing, etc...). Last night Pastor Mike delievered the most powerful gospel presentation that I have ever heard and he did it while relying on God to protect him from a blood vessel in his nose from bursting open. Pastor Mike had a nose bleed for over three hours straigth right before the conference was to start. But, God heard and answered our specific prayer to protect Pastor Mike from another nose bleed and He used Pastor Mike to deliever, again, the most powerful Gospel message I have ever heard.

There was a comment by one of the local pastors claiming that was the first time many of the people in attendance have actually heard a 'Biblical' Gospel message. Honestly, that made me scratch my head a bit. Apparently, there is a 'universialist' feel to many of the churches on the islands. There have been comments made by one pastor in particular that Compass Bible seems to be setting the bar too high for the local islanders to understand. My take on that is this, we don't set the bar...God does. All we do is preach His Word. Please continue to pray for Pastor Mike as he delievers his last 4 messages of the week on Thursday and Friday nights.

I will have a more comprehensive update when we get back to the mainland.

Maholo,
Pastor Dale

Triology in Maui

On Tuesday afternoon, the Compass Clan charted the Triology III and toured the Northern coast of Maui. We were all stoked about the killer scenes, aqua experiences and the grinds were extra special. From top to bottom, we have the clan hanging out on the trampoline located on the front of the boat (although, no jumping was allowed). Then we have Pastor Dale trying not to lose his lunch on the way back to shore...just kidding, nobody got sea sick. Pastor Mike and his daughter Stephanie are basking in the Maui sun and finally, the kids enjoyed jumping ship in Honolulu Bay in North Maui.

Maui Trip: Four in the Morning?

Well, it's Sunday morning in Hawaii...4:00 in the morning! I am still on California time, so I am WIDE awake. Yesterday was a long day of traveling, yet it went very smoothly. Upon check in at the hotel we saw several Compass Bible Church congregants who were already enjoying Hawaii. Today is a free day for us, meaning there is no conference schedule.

A group of us are going to go over to Calvary Chapel of South Maui for church this morning. They have a beautiful church in Kihie Town.

Aloha,

Pastor Dale

Ponderings for Tuesday

Life of Christ at Talbot

Well, it is day seven of our ten day journey through the Synoptic Gospels in Darrell Bock’s “Life of Christ” class at Talbot Seminary. While much of the material is review for us, it has been a great experience to plunge into the Synoptics and get a refresher on the revealed ministry of Christ on earth. I say revealed and not complete, because John the Apostle made this statement: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” - John 21:25(NASB)

Remembering the Charge

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom; Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance of their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” - 2 Timothy 4:1-6 (NASB)
As a pastor, I read this passage a couple of times a week. I don’t want to ever forget the charge that I have been given as an appointed leader in the Body of Christ. I truly believe we are living in the times that the Apostle Paul is referring to when he said, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance of their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
I will not in this space speak to the issues of the ‘seeker-friendly church’ or of the new Emergent Church movement however, it is obvious that Paul’s exhortation to Timothy has immediate application for us as pastors today. As pastor/teachers of the Gospel of Christ, we need to be diligent in our preaching of the word. We need to continue to train ourselves to be ready (in and out of season) and we need to be sober minded in all things. We must fulfill our ministry regardless of what the culture is asking from us – we should only give our congregants and our culture the Jesus revealed in the Holy Scriptures. That is the charge.

Maui Preparation

The Checklist:

My Bible, my wife, my laptop, shorts, Hawaiian shirts, Rainbow sandals, sunglasses, sunscreen and beach towels; I’m ready! Shawna and I will be going to LAX early Saturday morning (June 17, 2006). Shawna’s dad, Dennis will be driving us. As I stated in an earlier post, this trip is part business, part pleasure. We are going with a group from Compass Bible Church to the Maui Bible Conference where our Senior Pastor Mike Fabarez will be teaching a group of pastors from that part of the world. The conference is open to anyone on the islands (vacationers or residents) as well.
We are praying that it will be a week of opportunity to experience the beauty of God’s creation, and the opportunity to reach out and engage the Hawaiian culture with the Truth of Christ. Please pray for those of us going to Maui. Pray that we will be effective witnesses for Christ and that our time spent on the island of Maui will be remembered eternally. Aloha and Mahalo.

Rejoice and Pray!...Always?

According to the Scriptures, we as Christians are to "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

What happens when I don't feel like it? What happens if I just don't want to because I am tired or depressed from a trial that I am facing? Well, we have all certainly faced this dilemma in our walk with Jesus and we have all failed at sometime or another (probably even recently...like today!) in obeying this imperative command.
Hypothetically speaking, what if I lose my job tomorrow? I probably won't feel like rejoicing (although I may pray without ceasing) and I probably won't feel like giving thanks to God for His will in my life. So what should be our response to this passage? Does it show up any where else in Scripture? Let's look at what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:4: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"

Always? Really? How!?

Because we are created in God's image (Gen 1.) we have emotions and feelings. However, because we live in the "post-fall" world it is sometimes hard to trust our emotions and feelings. So, we need to be extremely careful how we respond to any life situation (good or bad) and make sure we are not responding from what I like to call an "emotional only foundation." What do I mean by that? I think Jesus said it best in Matthew 7:24-25:

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock."

Jesus is the "ROCK"! We can rejoice always, pray constantly and be thankful for God's will in our lives because we are identified with Jesus! He has already conquered our trials. Romans 5:8 says: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." And in Luke 12:6-8 Jesus says this, "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. "I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God."

So, do we rejoice in our afflictions? Yes! Do we pray in good times and in bad? Yes! Do we thank God for His will in our lives? Yes!
Why?
Because regardless of what situation we find ourselves in, good or bad, He is with us. We can do it by focusing on Him, and not on us. We can do it by trusting He is who said He is (John 14:6). We can do it because He promises the following in Matthew 28: 20(b) "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
The way I look at is like this: I get to rejoice by His power; I get to Pray by His strength; and I get to be Thankful for His will, because He offers us (those who believe) the gift of salvation and the opportunity to mature in Him through trials of all kinds.

Remember His words:

Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End - Rev. 22:13-14

Amen. Come Lord Jesus.

June 12, 2006 - Hanging out at Talbot

Well, we have completed the first week of a two week Summer School course at Talbot School of Theology! Dr. Darrell Bock (visiting professor from Dallas Theological Seminary) is teaching a class called "The Life of Christ". We are going through the Synoptic Gospels (and touching on the Gospel of John) in two weeks! Dr. Bock is best known for his apologetic stance against the Gnostic Gospels and the Da Vinici Code. He has a blog of his own that you can read here http://dev.bible.org/bock/.

I am attending the class with fellow Compass Pastors, John Goodrich and Luke Pace. Women's Ministry Director Stephanie Schwartz is also in this class. This is Stephanie's first class at Talbot and she is doing great.

Summer classes are a lot more intense than the normal 16 week semester, as you can imagine. But I have worked ahead and completed my 12 page paper that is due this Thursday. So, I can get the most out of the lectures now, without thinking about the impending deadline of the paper.

I wrote a paper on "The Rich Man and Lazarus" in Luke 16:19-30. It is a great parable that is rich with many insights into the first century Jewish culture. The main conclusion of the parable is that "the first will be last, and the last will be first". I am banking on that!

Back to class I go!

Happy 1st Birthday Compass Bible Church!

Today we celebrated the 52 week of ministry at Compass Bible Church. On June 5th, 2005 God lit a lampstand in Aliso Viejo, CA and in one short year He has grown our staff and our congregation in order for us to take "The Next Step". Over 600 people joined in the celebration and the festivities on what turned out to be a very nice Southern California day (forecasts had predicted record temperatures, but they did not materialize). The event was held at Saddleback Valley Christian School and those who attended enjoyed food, fellowship, music and then heard a special message from Pastor Mike about the plans for our second year of ministry. Pastor Mike exhorted all CBC'ers to answer the call of Ephesians 4:11-12 and become "people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up". As we enter into our second year of ministry I am personally excited about the mercy and favor that God has shown to us as a congregation and I am very excited to be a pastor on this great staff. I look forward with great anticipation for the opportunities that God will bring to us to reach our region with the Truth of Jesus Christ. I also look forward to the church plants that are close to being launched and I am praying for those plants we aren't even aware of yet! God has shown us this year that if we think big, and plan well, He will meet us and bless our plans. Let's go Compass Bible Church! We have a lot of work to do before our Lord returns!

Maui Bible Conference/Biblical Counseling

My wife Shawna and I will be returning to Maui in two weeks for the Maui Bible Conference. We took this picture at CheeseBurger in Paradise in November 2005 in Lahaina on a vacation to Maui. This summer we are traveling with a group from Compass Bible Church to attend the conference where our Senior Pastor, Mike Fabarez, is guest speaking. He will be preaching 10 messages in 5 days! Yikes! We our praying for you Pastor Mike!

I haven't posted a message for over two months, but at the prompting of my new friend and fellow Compass Bible Church pastor, Bobby Blakey I am going to give blogging another shot. I hope that this space can turn into a meaningful discussion on the reliability of the Scriptures, the Truth of Jesus Christ as savior and the sufficiency of the Scriptures to counsel the Saints of God. It has become an increasing passion of mine to take a stand against the integration of man-centered Psychology and God-centered Theology. To try and integrate the two is like trying to put a square peg into a round hole! It just won't work, no matter how hard you try!

The simple truth is this: If the Scriptures aren't sufficient and we need to turn to man-centered thinking, to solve man-centered sin issues then it would seem to me that we are in big trouble as the Body of Christ. But thankfully, the Scriptures are sufficient to handle any issue in the life of the Saint and thusly should be used without apology to correct the sinful behavior of the Saints.

Christian counseling should be based on the Bible and not on man-centered Psychology, deriving its understanding of who man is from Scripture. The counselor must be committed to the sufficiency of Scripture for understanding and resolving sin-related difficulties of man. God's Word makes it clear that the church is the primary means by which God accomplishes His work in the world. God uses the local church as an instrument to help His people to put off the old manner of life and to put on the new self (cf. 1 Timothy 3:15; Ephesians 4:1-32). That is why we must be committed to Christ-centered Biblical Counseling.