Hi, family! We are watching updates about the hurricane hitting San Diego this weekend. Currently, San Diego County is under a tropical storm warning. There will be heavy rain, potential flooding in some areas, and high wind gusts. There will be rainfall during our service. Some news reports report the most severe rain occurring Sunday evening. Still, according to another news report, “The anticipated arrival of Hilary’s most severe rainfall has changed from initial estimates of late Sunday to earlier Sunday and into the evening hours.” Either way, the initial reports appear th ..read more

A godly father is a blessing. Our culture needs more men willing to step up and be godly husbands and fathers in their households. We need more men ready to be a Christian influence in a child’s life. So if that’s you, thank you. Thank you for seeking God out in your life for your marriage, children, and grandchildren. A person’s influence can have a tremendous effect. It can shape our thoughts, the way we see the world. Unfortunately, many of these influences are negative. Negativity can rub off on you. If you hang around it long enough, negativity shapes how you see things.  As much as ..read more

This week, I flew to New Orleans, Louisiana, to attend the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting as our church’s Messenger (a Messenger is someone representing a church congregation at the annual meeting). Catalyst Church SD is a church planted from a Southern Baptist church and has aligned with the SBC since our beginning. There is nothing like being at one of these meetings. Over eighteen thousand Christians gathered in New Orleans this past week, representing many SBC churches and ministries across North America. They met to worship God together, hear reports from different SBC minist ..read more

We are entering June. This month brings us to the end of the school year and the start of summer. There are a lot of weddings in June. Father’s Day is on June 18th. But something you may be confronting in June, something pushed in society, is the celebration of Pride Month, the celebration of the LGBTQ+ community. We are dedicating an entire month to celebrating sin. Homosexuality is a sin against God and needs the saving grace of Jesus Christ. We are facing this sin in our society daily. It’s pushed in our stores, sports teams, children’s TV shows, and schools. We are facing a frontal assault ..read more

To seek means to enquire about something, to investigate, or be intent on finding something out. A doctor seeks to find a cure for an illness. A husband seeks to find a birthday gift for his wife. A child seeks to find a lost toy. Seeking involves the pursuit of a resolution. This week, we are resolving to seek out the Lord as a church. The prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 55:6, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to him while he is near.” We are in an incredible moment where God is available to his people because of his grace. Our Lord calls his people to seek him because he is near. How ..read more

Leadership is a fundamental need for a local church. The Lord Jesus Christ is the leader of his church everywhere in the entire world, and there is no replacement for his leadership. A healthy church understands that Christ is the head of the church and holds to a biblical view of church leadership. The Bible describes a structure of leadership that is necessary for a local congregation. There are two leadership offices described in the Bible: Elders and deacons. For instance, when Paul writes to the church in Philippi, he includes in his greeting “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in ..read more

God continues to use the people in our church to remind me of his faithfulness and love for his people. I received an email this week from one of our Catalyst ladies. She was reflecting on the July that we’ve had at Catalyst. Her email reminded me of all the outstanding things God continues to do in our midst. Our July was full of incredible times of fellowship at our various Family Fellowship Dinners. I’ve had the privilege of attending most of our dinners, and each one has been awesome. Each fellowship dinner has been full of fun, laughs, stories, and great food. I’m so grateful for each of ..read more

Worship is more than a song. Worship is a heart position before God, a genuine expression of an inward reality. Religious postures on the outside are just a show without a work of God on the inside. Worship is a heart communication, a place where we are vulnerable and exposed before the eyes of the Lord. One can attend church and adapt to the culture quickly. You learn that people have a particular Christian language. There are certain words to say and ways to behave. You can mimic the language, copy the customs, and quickly believe that you are following the right path because you are imitati ..read more

Prayer is a vital area of the Christian life. Our Lord constantly prioritized prayer. His prayer life was so vibrant that his disciples were driven to ask him to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1). Christians always need to go back to the Savior and learn from him how to pray. Our Lord often sought alone time with the Father in prayer. Matthew spoke of Jesus going up to a mountain by himself to pray (Matt. 14:34). Mark shared how the Lord woke up early in the morning, while it was still dark, to go off to a deserted place to pray (Mark 1:35). Luke wrote of the Lord spending all night in prayer ..read more