FAITH INTEGRATION

FAITH INTEGRATION

Being that my faith is something that I am very passionate about it would stand to reason that integrating my faith into my everyday life through actions and activities is as well.  One important facet of integrating one’s faith is constantly taking in more information about that faith and the ideals through study and interaction with others. I choose to do this through worship at a church called Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California, under the teaching of Dr. David Jeremiah.

Shadow Mountain Community Church is a church that has an attendance of about 7000 people face to face on a weekly basis.  I make the face-to-face reference because, in truth, through their media and technology portals they reach over a million people every week around the globe.  Many choose to watch service online at http://www.shadowmountain.org where they can watch live or On Demand and find services from months back where the church has archived them and offered them for viewing using VIMEO.  They can also watch on television as Dr. Jeremiah is broadcast around the world on the program Turning Point Ministries.  Turning Point is also broadcast and interpreted around the world via radio.  

This church is even larger when you consider all the ministries it supports as the “parent church” to 4 other international congregations right here in San Diego, including Arabic, Filipino, Hispanic, and Iranian. It is a beautiful thing as each of these congregations holds their own service with a pastor preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all singing worship in their own language!

As a member of the Worship Team, I am also grateful that the church has decided to implement a social media tool called Planning Center.  Planning Center is the best way to plan and organize the music for services, schedule singers and instrumentalists, and store media. I will get a notification to both my email and to my phone via text when our Music Director has requested that I sing on a certain date.  When I “accept” I can then see the whole order of service, which include the songs. The Director can also post the music as a pdf and an mp3 in the order of service. I can block out dates I will be unavailable so he can see this when making the schedule.  It is a wonderful tool! Shadow Mountain puts into use other forms of Social Media to reach out and be accessible as anyone can follow the church on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/smcconline, find videos on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/smcconline), and follow the church and/or Dr. Jeremiah on Twitter @ShadowMtn or @DavidJeremiah.

One of the many reasons I love being a part of the Shadow Mountain community is because of their heart for missions.  I am passionate about missions. I hope to go back into the mission field some day.  It is truly a calling for some to be abroad full time but it is a commandment from Christ Himself that we should all experience missions first hand at some point in our lives. (Acts 1:8).  But for those of us that are not able to be actively abroad in the mission field, we can still be very much a part of the process.  We do this at Shadow Mountain by both giving (10 percent of all tithes given to the church go directly to help missionaries around the world) and through prayer (we pray for a specific missionary and his/her family every Sunday morning).  It is an especially exciting time to be a missionary in that they have more access to immediate communication than in all of history.  In the past to be a missionary it often meant leaving your country, family, familiarity behind for months, years, maybe even a lifetime, and only have mail to stay connected.  Even then that was dependent on if mail could reach you.  But in many cases they lived miles and miles from any “modern” form of communication, including post offices. Now days, in many countries they can communicate back home immediately using Social Media via email, Facebook, even Skype. They also can help to make their mission more real to those back home by introducing us to the people whom they are living amongst and telling their stories through video and posting this on blogs or YouTube for example. This has done wonders not only to stay connected with their loved ones but also to help them raise the monies that they need to be able to live as they report to those that support them back home in “real time” letting them know of the progress and immediate prayer requests. 

I spoke with a friend who will be heading back to the Philippines on a mission trip for the 3^rd time.  He said while the area he is going to is still very poor and they don’t have much in the way of clothing and other every day necessities, all the kids there have a Facebook account and know intuitively how to use it. That just blew my mind!!  They don’t have computers themselves, but they have learned to use the computers of the missionaries that pass through.  Incredible!!  It’s sometimes hard to comprehend living in a world where there are whole villages, cities, communities, that don’t have clean water or enough food to eat every day, but they know how to use a computer and we can figure out how to get internet access in those areas. This reminds me of when Christ said “For the poor you always have with you, and whenever you wish, you can do them good;” Mark 14:7. He goes on to make the point that while it is a good thing to help them; the greater good is to give them, to give everyone, the Truth.  That Jesus Christ is Life Everlasting and He meets all our needs.  With technology today that can evidently be used “even in the utmost parts of the earth”, we should be able to reach every person for Christ and that thrills me to no end!!