This Pope's ok with me

I know these pics have been floating around the Internet for awhile, but you've got to see the humor in this. Especially in light of yesterday's news.

Where is this Catholic church and when is the next communion, I'm there!

Lets continue to pray for our Catholic brothers and sisters. Especially those who are true followers of Christ, as we all should be regardless of the Catholic-Protestant divide.

My Bus

Thanks for all the great thoughts on the Pope's announcement. On to a lighter subject. Here is a picture of my Bus at the OCTO show in Long Beach. This is a show we caravan up to from SD. It's pretty much the largest gathering on pre-67 Splittys on the West Coast. Thanks to the folks at Volksarama for talking all the great shots. If you are a Split Window Bus fan and would like to check out more great Buses from this show, click here.

I consider this Bus my sixth child and do my best to baby her. My love of Buses goes back a long way.

Those crazy Catholics

Pope affirms Catholicism as only way to salvation
Protestant leaders upset by Benedict's Vatican II correction
By Nicole Winfield ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 11, 2007

LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy – Pope Benedict XVI reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released yesterday that says other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation.
The statement brought swift criticism from Protestant leaders.

That's exactly right! I'm a Protestant leader and I'm offering some sharp criticism myself right now! Nice move Mr. Pope dude. That's just what the non-Christian world wants to hear. Hmm, and I wonder why there is so much division in the church? I wonder why the non-church attenders out there don't want to start attending. This is certainly one of the reasons why. This is also one of the reasons so many unchurched people today want nothing to do with denominations.

In reality, the only true church is the church of Jesus Christ. Not the Catholic church, not Coastlands Church. Any church that follows the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, recognizes our sin and a need for a savior (who is Jesus) is the true church. The church is the people, not a Catholic or Protestant or a Baptist or a Lutheran. Martin Luther must be rolling over in his grave.

Please God, help us keep our focus on you and not any denominational (or non-denominational) leader. May we stay true to your Word.

Divorce and remarriage

For those of you who were in church on Sunday, thanks for sitting through such an important and heavy topic. (For those who missed, please takea moment and read through the sermon notes at the end of this email, thanks.) It's sobering to think how divorce has had an effect on almost everyone in our church. We learned that (as always) the Bible sets a high standard for us. In an ideal world, anyone who gets married would realize the seriousness of the vows they take and never divorce. Problem is, we have this nasty problem of sin in our world. Sin invades everything including our marriages and families. Hence the problem of divorce in and outside of the church.

Thankfully, God's grace is bigger than we can fathom. Somehow, in the midst of the rampant divorce rate in the church, God forgives. Anyone who has been affected by divorce can be forgiven and move on. I pray that God will give us grace as a church to lovingly work through these issues with people. Please pray for your church leadership as we do our best to look at each case individually and ask for God's wisdom as we give out advice. I'd love to hear any of your comments on this touchy subject. If there is something you'd like to add from Sunday's sermon that didn't get discussed, please do so here. We could get some healthy dialog going.

My prayer is that our church will exhibit love and grace as we hold to the high Biblical standard that God has for us in every area of our lives.

Hula girls

OK, how cool is this? We brought the entire Lauer brood to a party on Saturday. It was hosted by Mike and Karen Dodge, our friends, former neighbors and realitors. I also got to do their wedding. So, we were honored to be invited to their party. It was a thank-you to all their clients. The theme was "Hawaiian Luau" and the entire house was decked out. These Hula girls were probably the highlight of the day. Their show was about a half an hour long. The girls took us through a short tour of hula dancing from many different Polynesian cultures. It was great to escape reality for a half and hour and make pretend we were in Hawaii.

As always, it was great to be part of an event that involved primarily non-Christians. I pray our conversations help plant seeds to bring people closer to God.

Switchfoot concert

Tuesday night I took Zach and Ben to the Del Mar Fair to catch local favorites Switchfoot. What a crazy mess/crowd trying just to get into the fair. After the parking hassles and a very quick walk/run to the horsetrack, we arrived after only missing the first song. Switchfoot rocked the house. Zach was head-banging right along. Ben sat in my lap taking it all in, first concert and all. (Nice happy face on Ben for the pic, huh?) I look forward to many more concerts with my kids.

I like the balance Switchfoot is able to strike. They are not a "Christian band", rather Christians who are in a band. I'm guessing that a lot of the crowd there in Tuesday were Christians. I just hope the band can be recognized for it's talent in and outside of the Christian bubble. I think they actually have a wider audience by choosing to play not only Christian music festivals.

Great show, thanks guys. Keep up for great music and ministry.

Windansea surf music

For those of us enthralled with surf culture, The Surfaris and Windansea beach are right up there at the top of the list. The Surfaris are best known for their hits, "Surfer Joe" and "Wipeout." Any drummer worth his sticks had to learn "Wipeout" at some point. (Next time you find me around a drum and a pair of sticks, I'll play it for you.)

As many of you know, local pro surfer Emery Kauanui was recently killed. Windansea was one of his favorite places to surf. So, to honor his life there will be a gathering tomorrow (1-3pm) to pass out food and drinks and let God's love show to the local surf community. I encourage you to come down if you have the time.

At some point we do want the "unchurched" to visit our churches, but it's always a good idea for the church to go to the people. This is a great chance to do just that. My prayer is that whoever is at the beach will see the love in the Christians who participate and be inspired to visit a local church.

A few years back I got to play in a "surf band" right at Windansea beach myself. Back when Jenna Pabalate's dad was still alive he invited me to be a part of a band that played classic surf tunes while the Windansea surf club held it's annual Mennehune contest. I'll never forget that day. The conditions were ideal, the surf was pumping and there I was playing drums on a famous beach. I'm sure tomorrow there will be that same feeling.