Triple 7 soul

another attempt......

I'm making another attempt to blog.... ugghhhh!   I'm so undisciplined and lazy.... im over it!!!!

The Hangover (Tiger song)

Testing One two... Check one two

Its been so long since I used this blog....I'm trying to figure out how to use it again.

Change is hard

Wow.... I guess this old blog is still running. I honestly thought it had expired, but I guess not. Well, for those of you who still read it, thanks for stopping bye. I have to tell you that the last 3 months have been a living hell. However on the flip side, I am seeing a vision that God gave me 9 years ago coming to pass. The crazy thing is I had no idea the cost.

I have lost partners and friends that have been in my life for many years. I have allowed my reputation, as a man of God, to become suspect to people that I have invested years in. But what I realize is that God wants me to be completely dependant on him and not on my friends. I have spent many years developing friendships at the cost of my calling to be a Pastor Evangelist. I have learned that it is a selfish thing on my part to spend God's time on developing more and more friendships, while more and more people in our generation suffer from a lack of leadership and discipleship. It's time for me to focus on reaching and teaching our generation the truth of God. I'm sorry If I hurt anyones feelings, it's not personal. I truly do love all the people that God has allowed me to become friends with. I wish you the best and am comfident that God is leading you.

The bottom line is.... Change is hard. But the reality is without change, things stay the same. And unfortunatley I am not comfortable with the way things are right now and I'm willing to make the changes necesarry to attain the bigger picture. There are thousands upon thousands of people in need of Christ in the world and God has asked me to start with the ones I know best..... The knucklehead 19-45 year old party crowd....and San Bernardino is full of them. That is the heart beat of 777 church. There will be no compromise. We will learn to love each other and to know God. We will commit ourselves to the teaching of the word, the fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer (acts 2:42) and will see God add to the church.

I want to thank anyone who has been part of 777. God has used your hard work and involvement to get us to this point. You are appreciated. I also want to thank Pastor willie dalgity "set free yucaipa" for sponsoring us, Don overstreet "sbc church planter" your 40 years of experience has been a light in our darkness, Pastor flo "new generation church, mo valley", for going through the same crap as me (: it's good to have someone who understands, Deryl Lackey "sbc missions director" the rock of wisdom and leadership in my life and financial support, Our whole financial board, those who are contributing financially, everyone who is continueing on in the battle at 777 church and special thanks to: Richard Bohlenius, Erin and Jason Karpenick and Rod and jen Merritt, more than friends... more than ministry partners. indiscribable relationship. We love you guys so much. and above all.... My family..... The Ultimate Pastor's wife "Kim O'Donnell" My best friend, lover, mother of my children, Ministry partner, life partner, most precious gift. My beautiful Children Steven, Allyssa, and jessica... you are the best kids any dad could ever ask for. Jesus Christ... Lord and Savior, I love you. Help me to take care of your things. peace.

777 childrens program

many people have questions about our Childrens program.... well, my kids came home last week telling me about shadrac, mishac, and abendigo. Do you know who they are? Below is the blog from Rod on our website 777 Church.com

What about my children?
Connecting Our Church By Rod Merritt on 4/28/2007 12:16 PM
What about a childrens program?

The answer is Yes. Your kid's are important. We have a fantastic childrens program.

Is it more than just babysitting and coloring books?

All of the senior pastors have children. They expect their kids and yours to be taught about Jesus every Sunday. We had 30 kids on Sunday and Renee Eblen did a fantastic job coordinating the volunteers and the lesson. Your kids will be taught about Jesus.

If you have any questions or concerns about the childrens program contact Renee Eblen

777 Church

Is it true? Did I branch out and start a Church? Yesss..........it is true....I am nacho, the luchador (:

For those of you who are not aware, I did Plant a new 777 Church in San Bernardino. You may have heard a lot of weird stories so I figured I would set the record straight. The first question you probably have is, "are you and Sandals ok"? The answer to that is.... Absolutley! We Have always had our ups and downs, just like any authentic relationship, we come from 2 different worlds, but I love my brothers and sisters at Sandals.
Let me just give you a little history about my journey with Christ. About a year after my crazy first meeting with Christ, God revealed to me a calling to be a pastor. I didn't know exatly what that entailed, but I knew it would be dealing with extreame people like myself who did not grow up in Church. At the time I was at a great Church called Victoria Community Church (The Grove). I trained for 2 1/2 years to be a Pastor, was supposed to be licensed, but wasn't???. I started a ministry back then called "crosswalk". I know, a little cheesy and churchy, but I was learning how to keep it real, it's taken a while. Anyways, I started this ministry out of frustration from bringing my unchurched friends to church and them not fitting in. So I began playing music and preaching at an outdoor venue, with the whole barbeque, hang out vibe. I had about 40 to 50 people attending and many people got saved. Great times... about this same time a similar ministry started. This produced a little problem.... this ministry wanted to reach the same crowd as me, only with a different strategy. Well of course the church had to make a decision on who they would support, because we couldn't have 2 ministries doing the same thing, so the support went to the "porch".

Many people in crosswalk were hurt and wanting me to start on my own, but I knew I wasn't ready and had much to learn. So for the next year I resigned my staff position, commited to a 5 year bachelors program at CBU and stayed at "The Grove".
These were tuff times for me. I would lead people to Christ and try to get them plugged in but most of them didn't really identify. So one day I was at the shop in corona and I got a call from Matt Brown at Sandals Church. I knew Matt from when Sandals use to meet at the Grove. He knew I had a crazy testimony and asked me to come and speak at the Sandals first mens retreat. Starving to do ministry I gladly accepted.
That weekend was powerfull, I preached and felt like I could be myself. I had a great response from the men and began seeing an opportunity for me to provide some help at Sandals in the area of evangelism and outreach. So I went to Pastor Tom at the Grove and informed him of my idea to provide help to Sandals Church. He was in full support.
I then went to Matt and gave him the idea. He was very happy to hear of my desire to come on board and began working on getting me there. I began attending Sandals doing outreach ministry. When I got there they had no outreach ministries, so I started a street team, Homless ministry, events team, Baptisms, follow up, blue card accepting Christs, pasos (mexico missions) ect.. all these minstries are now oversaw by full time staff members.
In the fall of 2005 I broke my neck riding motorcross and began a year of living hell. At the same time I was helping Heather Veitch advance as an evangelist and trying to oversee J.c.'s girls. This was an impossibility for me in a hospital bed so I had to release control of jc's girls to Matt. It was hard for me to do because I cared so much about the mission, but there was so much I couldn't contribute.
In the middle of all this, I got hit with the worst case of anxiety and depression imaginable. These were very dark times and I began really seeking the Lord. I went to my partner willy and said "we need to seek the Lord on what he wants to do in the future", Willy has been with me since the beginning along with joey, and Willy said " lets get back to the heart of worship. We will meet every Wednesday for prayer and Bible study". This is were the vision for 777 started.
Threw all of this I believe 100% that the vision for 777 is meant to grow beyond the boundaries of a small ministry in a local church. I have always felt called to be a Senior pastor. I want to see 777 church's grow across the world. Our mission is to "reach and teach the unreligious how to keep it real with themselves, others, and God.

All this to say that this current move is just a small part of a bigger picture. I have been truly honored to serve at Sandals Church. Matt Brown is truly a great guy. He's a man of faith and loves people. I sat back at my last Sandals Service on Easter and I really feel good about my contribution to the church. When I arrived in 04' I counted three people with tattoo's in a congregation of 700. I watched almost 3,ooo people walk through the door on easter many who you could tell came from the world and many tattooed people..... heck even the sermon was on tattoo's. I feel that Riverside is well taken care of. I now turn my heart to San Bernardino County. A very dark place who needs Jesus. To keep up with whats going on with 777 Church just go to our web site @ 777church.com. Please keep praying for me and my family as we step out in faith. God bless you, T.J. 777

The old paths

THE OLD PATHS
I liked the old paths, when
Moms were at home.
Dads were at work.
Brothers went into the army.
And sisters got married BEFORE having children!

Crime did not pay;
Hard work did;
And people knew the difference.

Moms could cook;
Dads would work;
Children would behave..

Husbands were loving ;
Wives were supportive;
And child ren were polite.

Women wore the jewelry;
And Men wore the pants.
Women looked like ladies;
Men looked like gentlemen;
And children looked decent.

People loved the truth,
And hated a lie;
They came to church to get IN,
Not to get OUT!

Hymns sounded Godly;
Sermons sounded helpful;
Rejoicing sounded normal;
And crying sounded sincere.

Cursing was wicked;
Drinking was evil;
and divorce was unthinkable.

The flag was honored;
America was beautiful;
And God was welcome!

We read the Bible in public;
Prayed in school;
And preached from ho use to house
To be called an American was worth dying for;
To be called a Christian was worth living for;
To be called a traitor was a shame!

Sex was a personal word.
Homosexual was an unheard of word,
And abortion was an illegal word.

Preachers preached because they had a message;
And Christians rejoiced because they had the VICTORY!
Preachers preached from the Bible;
Singers sang from the heart;
And sinners turned to the Lord to be SAVED!

A new birth meant a new life;
Salvation meant a changed life;
Following Christ led to eternal life.

Being a preacher meant you proclaimed the word of God;
Being a deacon meant you would serve the Lord;
Being a Christian meant you would live for Jesus;
And being a sinner meant someone was praying for you!

Laws were based on the Bible;
Homes read the Bible;
And churches taught the Bible.

Preachers were more interested in new converts,
Than new clothes and new cars.
God was worshiped;
Christ was exalted;
and the Holy Spirit was respected.

Church was where you found Christians
on the Lord's day, rather than in the garden,
on the creek bank, on the golf course,
or being entertained somewhere else.

I still like the old paths the best !

A good 777 response

Just a quick note from my friend "prinzez" from myspace.... this is what she thought of our 777 gathering..

I also wanted to give a shout out to my myspace friend TJ 's 777 souls meeting this past weekend. Its a group of people keeping it real with God and others...I felt connected when I saw the message on his page, and I had to go find out in person...It was really very cool!! Very down to earth people :o) I also brought a friend who " doesn't like church" ( normally) but, she was impressed with 777. The message was timley, and she wants to go back. ME TOO! I could see and feel the people lovin Christ and each other, and it rocks!

proverbs 12:3

Proverbs 12:3 says "a man cannot be established through wickedness, but the righteous cannot be uprooted".

This passage clearly communicates that it is impossible to be established through wickedness.  If this is the case than why do we find it so hard to truly follow God?  Are we hell bent on never  being grounded? Do we like living an unfulfilled life being tossed back and forth?  Our focus seems to always be on the things of the world.  When we focus so heavily on the things of the world, we allow ourselves to be knocked around in our mind and emotions leaving us damaged inside.  Why can't we focus and trust God?  Does anyone even care to be righteous  in Christ and live for Him?

777 souls band

Thought I'd give you a picture of our worship band at 777.