Trim up the tree with Christmas stuff like bingle balls, and whofoo fluff...

Fall Photos

Auntie Danelle visits from Minnesota and is very popular with the kids.

Eliana's self-portrait.

Mikey and Danny help out.

Daddy keeps the kids happy on mommy's weekend away.

Statement Concerning Capitol Ministries and Ralph Drollinger

UPDATE: See this news article by Capitol Weekly

In the past we have encouraged your support of Capitol Ministries. Sadly, in light of recent developments, we are now compelled to do the opposite. The following is an abridged version of a statement issued by the elders of our church:

As most of you know, over the last few months there has been a difficult and grievous situation developing with Capitol Ministries and Ralph Drollinger, President of CM. Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA (John MacArthur, Pastor-Teacher), where Ralph has been a member for many years and a sent-out missionary in his work with CM, recently issued a final statement regarding their relationship with Ralph and CM. With this final statement from GCC, and because of [our] long history and relationship with Ralph and CM, we believe it appropriate to pass this information on to you.

Our intent in sharing these things is three-fold:

1. To warn you, and encourage you to warn others, that Ralph Drollinger has been determined to be biblically disqualified for spiritual leadership by the elders of his home and sending church. Inasmuch as we agree with and support the determination of the GCC elders, we believe Ralph is not to be trusted or regarded as qualified to be in a place of spiritual leadership. Because Ralph is continuing in his role as President of CM, in spite of GCC’s determination, we believe he is a deceitful and divisive danger to the body of Christ (Rom. 16:17,18; Titus 1:10,11; 3:10,11). Therefore, neither Ralph nor any ministry endeavor he presently leads should be supported financially or otherwise.”

2. To encourage you to continue praying for God to be glorified in this situation, for God’s grace to be extended to Ralph in granting repentance, and for the Gospel to continue to go forward, particularly in capitols around the country and around the world. Likewise, please continue to pray for God’s sustaining grace to be provided for those directly and indirectly impacted by this situation...

3. To give you perspective and understanding regarding why Sean, Lynne, David, and Nora were compelled to resign from their full-time work with Capitol Ministries, why Pastor Greg resigned from the Board of Directors, and why we as a church no longer support or endorse Capitol Ministries.

GCC’s final statement follows some previous statements they had given concerning the situation. Here are GCC’s statements, which have been available to any who ask:

1. From July 17, 2009 –
“The elders of Grace Community Church have agreed to temporarily suspend our affirmation of Ralph Drollinger, pending the resolution of our inquiry into allegations made against him.”
2. From Sept. 24, 2009 –

“In the summer of 2009, five of the Capitol Ministries Board of Directors resigned. These men are well known to us and we have no reason to question their wisdom, discernment, or integrity. One of those former board members, John Anderson, is a respected member of our church in good standing; the other, John Bates, is one of our elders. It is the estimation of these men that Ralph Drollinger is not biblically qualified for spiritual leadership.

“We, the Grace Community Church elders, stand behind the assessment of these former members of the Capitol Ministries Board of Directors about Ralph’s disqualification from leadership in Christian ministry. The attacks Ralph has continued to make on the character and motives of these men, as well as our elders, regrettably affirms to us this determination.”

3. From Oct. 15, 2009 (this is GCC’s final statement) –
“After much observation of and interaction with Ralph Drollinger, we, the Grace Community Church Elders, maintain that he is not biblically qualified for Christian ministry. Consequently, we do not endorse Capitol Ministries under his leadership. Ralph Drollinger no longer has any relationship with Grace Community Church.”
These statements from GCC follow a lengthy process over the last 7 months which has resulted in the following within CM:

• 4 full-time staff of the Headquarters Office in Sacramento have resigned;
• 2 part-time staff of the Headquarters Office in Sacramento were effectively terminated;
• 6 of 8 Board of Directors have resigned, leaving just Ralph and his father-in-law Dan Madison (Note: the 6 who resigned did not all do so at the same time, and 2 new members were added a few weeks ago);
• 17 of 21 full-time State Directors have resigned.

....
We...are in agreement with the assessment of the Grace Community Church elders. Consequently, we likewise no longer endorse Capitol Ministries under Ralph’s leadership.

....

P.S. The majority of former CM State Directors who have resigned have formed a new organization called The Capitol Commission, through which they purpose to continue their ministry in state capitols. If you have previously been financially supporting CM, we encourage you to direct your gifts to this new ministry.

The Housing Boom and Bust by Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell's new book titled The Housing Boom and Bust sheds light on the origins of the recent financial crisis. If you are open to considering that government intervention in the housing market may actually create more problems than it solves, this is the book for you.

Sowell begins his argument by showing that a variety of local land-use restrictions are at the root of high housing costs, which he points out aren't truly a national problem. Even so, those higher costs lead to calls for federal government intervention, ignoring the fact that often government policies (at a local level) were largely to blame for unaffordable housing in the first place.

Sowell then shows how the resulting federal affordable housing policies, championed by both Democrats and Republicans, pressured banks and other lending institutions to loosen their lending standards so more people could participate in the "dream of homeownership." Whether these people could reasonably afford to repay their loans was for the most part ignored as the resulting speculative housing bubble grew and grew.

A few excerpts to pique your interest:

The decade of the 1970s saw a rapid spread of laws and policies in California severely restricting the use of land. Often these laws and policies forbade the building of anything on vast areas of land, in the name of preserving “open space,” “saving farmland,” “protecting the environment,” “historical preservation” and other politically attractive slogans. Moreover, these restrictions were extended to more and more land over the years....

While California was different from most of the rest of the country in the extent and severity of its land use restrictions, it was not unique. The same kinds of land-use restrictions...spread through various other places around the country... But, in whatever years building restrictions were tightened in various localities, those were usually the same years in which housing prices skyrocketed....

When the political crusade for affordable housing took off and built up steam during the 1990s, the share of their incomes that Americans were spending on housing in 1998 was 17 percent, compared to 30 percent in the early 1980s. Even during the housing boom of 2005, the median home took just 22 percent of the median American income....

Statistical studies about disparities between blacks and whites in mortgage loan approval rates might be said to have “jump-started” the housing crusades that began in the 1990s. Politicians and the media led this crusade, with many community activists following in their wake, much like scavengers, able to extract large sums of money from banks and other institutions by raising claims of discrimination, whose power to delay government approval of bank mergers and other business decisions made pay-offs to these activists the only prudent course for those accused....

When you open the floodgates, you cannot tell the water where to go. Housing speculators — “flippers” — found the new and looser home mortgage rules a bonanza. So did many others. It is by no means clear that the poor or minorities came out ahead at all, after the housing boom turned to bust and many were left with mortgage payments they couldn’t meet on homes they couldn’t afford.

If you want to understand the recent housing bubble, Sowell's new book is definitely a worthy read. Still not convinced? Take a look at this recent review at Kiplingers.com.

Note: I also recommend Irrational Exuberance by Robert Shiller, which I blogged about earlier this year.

Happy Birthday, Danny!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Danny!

And just so your baby pic won't be confused as one of Mikey... or even Sammy...

You are a gift from God... we love your twinkly eyes and mischievous giggle. We love your joyful, exhuberant hugs and your love for cuddles. (And yes, I love that as our third child, you were three days early and so far, our smallest baby by three ounces!) We love you, Sweety!





Happy Birthday!

More Colorado Photos

We've added ten more photos, courtesy of Auntie Laura, to our Colorado 2009 Picasa web album. It's hard to pick, but below are a few of my favorites...

Stop Dating the Church

I recently read a little book titled Stop Dating the Church by Joshua Harris and highly commend it to you. The strength of the book is not that Harris says anything that hasn't been said before, but instead that he provides an easy-to-read and concise argument for why professing believers should lay aside our independent and critical consumer mentality and instead begin to truly invest ourselves in a good local church.

Some of the most memorable and powerful words in the book are not from Harris but instead from his friends and mentors, like Pastor Mark Dever. Here's what Dever has to say on church membership:

“If you are not a member of the church you regularly attend, you may well be going to hell. I don’t mean for a second that you literally have to have your name on a membership card in a church somewhere to go to heaven. I believe in justification by faith alone in Christ alone by God’s grace alone. At the same time, in the New Testament is seems that the local church is there to verify or falsify our claims to be Christians. The man in 1 Corinthians 5 who was sleeping with his father’s wife thought of himself as a Christian."

"I don’t care how much you cry during singing or preaching. If you do not live a life marked by love toward others, the Bible has no encouragement for you to think that you’re a Christian. None."

"Do you want to know that your new life is real? Commit yourself to a local group of saved sinners. Try to love them. Don’t just do it for three weeks. Don’t just do it for six months. Do it for years. And I think you’ll find, and others will, too, whether or not you love God. The truth will show itself."

"Joining a church won’t save you. It’s only the death of Christ that saves you. He alone is our righteousness. But if He really is our righteousness, if we really love Him whom we have not seen, it will show itself by us loving those that we do see."

Harris also provides a list of ten important questions to ask when choosing a local church. I've listed the questions below, but I encourage you to take a look at this excerpt from the book if you'd like a fuller explanation of any particular point (like question #9, for instance).

1. Is this a church where God’s Word is faithfully taught?


2. Is this a church where sound doctrine matters?


3. Is this a church in which the gospel is cherished and clearly proclaimed?


4. Is this a church committed to reaching non-Christians with the gospel?


5. Is this a church whose leaders are characterized by humility and integrity?


6. Is this a church where people strive to live by God’s Word?


7. Is this a church where I can find and cultivate godly relationships?


8. Is this a church where members are challenged to serve?


9. Is this a church that is willing to kick me out?


10. Is this a church I’m willing to join “as is” with enthusiasm and faith in God?

Photos from Colorado

View album

Happy Birthday, Mikey!

My first words to you, soon after you made your appearance, were, "I forgive you." They were joyfully given... but weighing in at 9 pounds, 4 ounces, 10 days late, with a super-quick labor that left me no time to even be given the option for drugs, and did I tell you that you weighed 9 pounds, 4 ounces? You were worth waiting for, Sweetie.


I don't usually cry after giving birth, but when the birth team announced your birth date with your birth information, I cried. We don't always know what God's plan is, but we do know that in giving you to us on the very (10 days late!) day that He did, He gave us a joyful sparkle on a day that will carry much sadness for Americans for many years to come.

We thank God for you, Mikey. You are a good kid. We love your enthusiasm for life, your love for others, and your good-natured, easy going personality. And you have slept through the night since you were two weeks old. Good kid!

We love you, Mikey.

Happy 4th Birthday!

Are You Equipped?

Good thoughts from Pastor Greg:

While the necessity of adequate training and preparation for effective usefulness is an inbred reality in our society, we in the church often fail to recognize the need for such training, education and preparation when it comes to spiritual matters. Believers sometimes forget that God has saved us and left us on this earth for a reason—to do something. He wants to use us to “bear fruit” for His glory (Jn. 15:8), actively pursuing the “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. And in order to be effectively used by God, we simply must be “equipped” – trained, educated, prepared. Eph. 4:11,12 speaks directly to this issue:

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ…

The key principle here is that God has given gifted leaders to the church whom He uses to equip the saints – all believers – for the work of service (for the ability to minister and serve one another). The word translated “equip” here literally means “to set in order or to mend,” In the context of Eph. 4:12 it has to do with making someone completely adequate or sufficient for something. A form of the same word is seen in 2 Tim. 3:17, in a passage explaining why the inspiration and sufficiency of the Word of God is so profitable, “…that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

Read the full article

Moral: Windows are for looking out, not jumping out!

Story Time