SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE:

Church done well.

We did it! We launched a new congregation into Orange last Sunday at El Modena High School.

That is not as newsworthy as was the process. We launched out of Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa.

Rock Harbor provided refuge for Orange residents for six months while we prepared to go. Rock Harbor had been amid a major thrust to “give themselves away,” and the congregation practiced it in tangible ways.

The congregation allowed us to take up some of their prime seating during their most packed service. They mentored our people through one-on-one meetings, classes and seminars.

We were given open access to their facilities and backstage access to their meetings and strategy sessions. They have helped us to re-envision what it means to “be” church rather than just “do” church.

As a result, we are not looking to purchase a worship facility. We are looking at a facility that would enable us to “be” the church through hosting English as a second language classes, parenting, tutoring, providing food for the poor, and offering HIV/AIDS programs and more. This allows us to become the six-day church that celebrates God’s work in us on the seventh day.

They gave us more resources than we can fully use currently, but most of all they gave us themselves.

As we were commissioned, Lead Pastor Todd Proctor actually dared the congregation to go join us, be a part of what God is doing in Orange.

This kind of generosity is not a surprise to those of you in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach since you have benefited from what has been the hallmark of Rock Harbor’s ministry for the last 10 years. They are a great example of church done well.

As Teaching Pastor Mike Erre says, “There is only one church in Orange County” no matter which name is on the door.

Because of Rock Harbor, the Beacon is now better positioned to “do” church well since now we understand how to “be” the church. Now it is our turn to bless the City of Orange.

RIC OLSEN, who lives in Costa Mesa, is the lead pastor of the Beacon, a church that just launched from Costa Mesa after six months.