God has called Ebony and I to join a team of two other couples that will be planting a church in the Mission Valley area of San Diego. We are very excited for this next season of ministry and are supremely confident that God has clearly spoken to us. The community will be called Restored Church and will officially launch in September of this year. I will be providing leadership in the areas of discipleship, worship, and music with my primary goals being to train teams that will serve Restored Church and develop and train a team of leaders to be sent out as part of a church planting team. Over the course of the next two months Ebony and I will be fundraising our salary for the first year of the church and we are confident that God will provide what we need both practically and financially. If you would like further information on how you can support what God has called us to please EMAIL ME. You can also visit www.restoredsd.org where you can watch a short video about Restored Church.

Church planting has been something that has been on our radar for the last couple years now. In an effort to determine if planting was something Ebony and I had a desire to really pursue we started a discipleship-training program with Porterbrook Learning. It is a two-year program that provides Bible training with the purpose of equipping Christians for everyday Gospel ministry. We are currently finishing up year one. Year two of the program is optional and is specifically geared towards church planting. We met Andy and Jackie Rodgers when they were guest speakers at a Porterbrook gathering. They shared their story with the group and about God’s call in their life to plant a church in San Diego. Long story short we started to develop a relationship with Andy and Jackie that centered on our love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a developing love for each other. Over time Ebony and I began to sense God tugging on our hearts to investigate the possibility of joining Andy and Jackie and the rest of the Restored team. On a recent date night the four of us drove over the bridge to Coronado to overlook downtown San Diego and pray together. While standing on a dock facing downtown I felt a massive amount of darkness and, frankly, evil. Prior to that night my thoughts of joining the Restored team were selfish in nature. God gave me grace to see that what he wants to do in San Diego is going to painful, that it will involve suffering, and that its not going to be easy. San Diego has a lot more going on than beautiful beaches and phenomenal weather. It currently has the largest homeless population of any city in the nation. Add to the mix massive drug and sex trafficking issues along with the fact that San Diego State University has more STD’s and date rapes per-capita than any University in the nation and you can get a sense of the darkness I felt that night on the dock. We can look back now and see that God has been preparing our hearts for the literal war that awaits us and we feel so privileged to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel. We are selling most of our stuff including our home. I have resigned from my position as Associate Pastor at Cornerstone where I have been on staff for the past eight years. We are so grateful for our Cornerstone family and everything God has allowed us to be a part of the past eight years.

Please keep us in your prayers, as we will be on the front lines in a cosmic war for souls. Please pray that God will continue to provide for us both practically and financially, that he will continue to guide our steps along the way, and that ultimately, people in San Diego will be restored by the radical grace of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday was September 11th. It is hard to believe that it has been a decade since the attacks. Like most Americans I can still remember watching the news that day and that feeling of “now what?”. All the different emotions from anger to sadness and everything in between. The reality that moms and dads, sisters and brothers, daughters and sons, were murdered in such a dramatic and devastating way was a powerful reminder to me that evil really does exist. I can remember several times in my life where I have been confronted with the existence of pure evil and the feelings and emotions that are associated with those experiences. September 11th, 2001 was certainly one that sticks out in my mind. All the questions surrounding the occurrence of 9-11 always seem, for me at least, to come back to one very honest inquiry… now what? How should I respond? How should we respond? How should the church respond? Naturally a heavy dose of prayer is in order. Prayer for the families that lost loved ones. Prayer for the representatives making tough decisions regarding how we as a nation will respond. Prayer for service men and women who risk their lives for the safety of their neighbors. In praying for all the parties mentioned above I couldn’t help but feel like I was forgetting something, like something was missing. Then it occurred to me. During His own murder Jesus’ prayers were a little different than my prayers. In fact, Jesus prayed for the very people who were murdering him while it was happening. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Really Jesus?! I can think of no greater definition of an enemy than someone who attempts to murder you. There definitely is such a thing as righteous anger. And I believe most of us experienced that very emotion on 9-11. But Jesus blows my mind. His love is so much deeper than mine. I never once thought “Lord forgive those men who killed all those innocent people.” Not once. I am a sinner. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth. I can just picture Jesus going to the Father on my behalf and saying those same words “Father, forgive Tom for he doesn’t know what he is doing.” The truth is, without Jesus, I am an enemy of God. My sin is the very thing that caused me to assume that role. But Jesus has paid my debt to the Father. I once was an enemy of God and now I am his child. I am so grateful that God loves His enemies. I pray that I will too.