How we do Church in LA

So we just wrapped up our Christmas play at Angelus Temple/the Dream Center. As I sat in the back and watched the last performance of it last night, I could not help but think that I am, no doubt, in the greatest place on earth. A couple who had lost everything and just had a baby was trying to survive had to pawn off the last thing they had left, the wifes wedding ring which the man saved literally for 3 years to be able to buy for 3,000 dollars. After loosing their home, they now live at the Dream Center, at the play last night, the church bought her a new wedding ring among other things they needed. Earlier that day they bought a new van for a woman with six kids that had no vehicle. The night before they took an engaged, broke couple and paid for their entire wedding and honeymoon. All of these families are currently living at the Dream Center, but that wasn't enough for Pastor Matthew, he wanted to see all of their dreams come true. After every production we give away hundreds and hundreds of presents to kids for free. Sinbad and Elijah Kelly were both in our Christmas play this year.

Next week, instead of having church at Angelus Temple, we are renting out the Galen Center where USC plays basketball and having a huge Christmas party for the whole city. Celebrities are coming out just to be apart, 20+ media outlets are broadcasting there. We are giving away 3,000 bikes and 1,000 scooters free to families... plus thousands of other presents.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we gave away over a thousand turkeys to homeless or hurting families, the line was all the way down the street to get one. Every single day they serve thousands of hot meals and make every one of them available to anybody who will go to a chapel, free! A person could literally eat almost every single meal 7 days a week there for nothing if they had to.

Never before have I seen a place that does everything they possibly can for people that have absolutely no way of giving anything back. Its the only place that I have ever seen that is built around building other peoples dreams and making them come true, and being available to meet whatever need you may have, 24 hours a day. I am honored and blessed to be apart of the Church that never sleeps, to have been caught up in this vision of absolute selflessness, not even worried about the reward but only the cause... I have so much to learn from these amazing people.

So yeah, if you are looking for a place to volunteer some of your life, I would recommend the Dream Center. If you are looking for a cause to give to, I would recommend the Dream Center. It is changing lives every single day, and setting an example that I hope to see more churches across America start following.
Lets change the world with Love unconditionally.

Seasons

I was talking to my wife a few days ago about how for me this Christmas season hasn't really felt that much like Christmas... wondered if it was because we are in California where it doesn't snow and its never that cold, or if it was just about the busyness I am captured in at this moment, or what it is? For some reason the closest I can get to Christmas feeling is grabbing a Starbucks Carmel Hot Chocolate and walking around in the nighttime when its colder out, looking at Christmas trees, and going to the Americana where the whole entire outdoor mall is covered in Christmas lights and even has snow machines during the evenings... haha...

There are a handful of people that work super super hard during this season, so that the other 90 percent of the world can fully enjoy the Christmas season... Around here everything is Christmas, production, outreaches, everything we can do to make other peoples lives better during this season... making other peoples dreams come true. And though I do not have a direct role in the Christmas play we are putting on here I am directly effected by all the efforts to help people at the Dream Center this year, and I just wanted to say that as much as I Love this season, I don't mind giving up the "experience" that is the month of December, so that we can properly and effectively help others and tell people about Jesus. Of course, on Christmas Eve when I go home for the week, I am going to shut down the work mode, relax, and celebrate the season. But in the meantime, I would rather work hard on this end to ease the load of the people in the productions, and building these outreaches, so that other people can have a Christmas too. If not, I would not be doing what I am doing. The End, and Merry Christmas.

The Influencers - pt3 -Mark Bender (Father)

When I decided to do these blogs on people that have impacted my life in tremendous ways, the obvious choice of people instrumental in helping me become who I am today would no doubt be my father. Of the people I selected to write about, I chose no order or he of course would be the first person I would write about, but everyone I write about means something very special to me.

My dad is one of the greatest men of God that I have ever known. He is a man that just believed in me and in what I wanted to do, and what I felt God wanted me to do. He has showed me support from the smallest thing like a pat on the back and a "you can do it" all the way to huge financial investments he has made in my future.

I always knew that my dad cared about me, and that he Loved me, but in summer of 2004 he did something that I will remember forever, even though he probably already has forgotten... something that helped me know completely, that he was behind my dream, not even because he liked what I was doing as much as for how much he Loved me and wanted me to be happy. Hyperbole recorded an album in California with a producer out there, and we were having some trouble getting the tracks from the guy that had done it... in fact for months we couldn't even get ahold of him. One day he said, come and work for a week on the guitar parts, and I will send you home with the tracks... basically, we had to go back to California. I called all of my band mates, tried to rally the troops, but no one was able to go... it was nothing on them, I understand, but at the time I was really upset about it because this was my dream and there was nothing more important then getting those tracks and finishing that album so we could move forward with the dream. I literally was prepared to goto California by myself and get them but my parents said that there was no way that was happening. I begged them, I literally at one point even cried because I felt like this project was killing my dream and I had to get it done, and it had been killed to the point that even my own band mates were not willing to make the trip because they had better things to do... this was mostly in my head, but it messed me up... Finally my dad said, "I will go with you." He was literally prepared to get in a car for 3 days each way, drive all the way to California just so I could get some music tracks and bring them home. That meant the world to me.... I don't really know why other then the fact that my dad had a bad back and bad knees so I knew he really truly did not want to be in the car that long, take that much time off of work, etc. but he actually was willing to do it, and completely for me. For some reason, that was probably the most important feeling my dad ever gave me... the knowledge that he would give up a lot of time and comfort, to make me feel that much closer to my dream. He ended up not having to go, Andrew our drummer ended up going with me and at the last second we rallied a couple friends up and it was an amazing trip... but it would be sure been cool if it ended up being just me and dad too.

Its not just that, its everything. My dad answers every question I have, he offers me sound advice whenever I need it, he answers my calls at all hours of the night. He Loves me, believes in me, and wants to see my dreams come true. I hope that I someday am able to repay him for all that he has invested in me, show him as love much as he has showered my with my whole life, and take him to every baseball stadium in California :)

Its hard living so far away from my parents, but I know that they Love me, and I know that they would do anything for me... What an influence.

j-cub

Love Love Love Love Love

Sorry there hasn't been any posts in a bit... stuffs been crazy this week... we got a new president, I got a year older, and the one that I am most excited about... Landon came to work with us at Dream Center... we are seriously building a dream team out here, now all we need is Corban Robbe (ya never know Corban!) LA is GREAT!
But seriously, we are on a mission. Change the world, by starting with the church and how it treats the world... how we Love people, how we live our lives by following Christ's example of Love, by putting our protests on hold (forever) and start making progress by spreading Love instead of judgement across the globe. We are piecing together an extremely talented team of people that just wants to do good, and I am stoked out of my mind for it! Whether you live in LA with us or you live in Lansing or Hemet or Europe or Asia, people need to rise up and learn how to Love people exactly where they are at because that is the only way we are going to show this generation Christ.

Thats all for now. I will post more soon, I just wanted to say I Love you all, all two of you that maybe check this thing :)

the white house

Christians everywhere seem to be pretty disturbed right now. I get on my facebook... there are the status's... twitter the same thing, how could this happen oh no what is America gonna do?

Can I just say in the midst of your disappointment that God is still on the throne, remind you that we now must respect the authority that has been placed before us, pray for him, speak well of him, and remind everyone that it is not politics or political leaders who are going to change the world. I Love what Pastor Matthew said last week in church, not knowing who was going to win the election, he said whoever it may be, can we PLEASE treat this one better then we did the last one? It may be a little harder because we stand for a lot of things that the white house may not be uplifting during this term, but it doesn't mean we stop doing what we do, or we stop trusting God because he has a perfect plan.

I don't believe that the government should be a charity, but I believe that people should be charitable. Lets come together, as Christians, and change the world because no President is going to do it for us. Lets Love people unconditionally from now until the end of time, lets help people wherever there is a hurt, no matter what it is or who it is or where they are at. If the church would just be the church, and do all that it is called to be, then people would not need to look to the government for the help they need. Do we really want a smaller government? Then as a church, lets make them less needed, lets take care of the needs ourselves, and eliminate the need for a big daddy to come in and fix all people's problems... if every church took in and help restore/get on their feet 1 to 2 homeless people in America, that would solve the homeless problem. If we never get abortion banned, then we just need to find these needs, Love these girls where they are at, show them Christ, teach them of life and they won't want to have the abortion. We don't need any more laws, we need Love. We need the church to be the church no matter who is in the white house.

We have a lot of work to do... starting with our reputation that may have been a little tainted by this election. Everyone has a right to vote, a right to be on whatever side they want. But the election is over, and the same people are hurting, the same people are still lost. The same people need the message of true hope, and its never gonna come from the white house.

jcub.

The Influencers - pt2 - Corban Robbe

There are few people in this world that understand youth ministry the way that Corban Robbe does. On my list of the ten most likely people to change the world, Corban definitely ranks pretty dang close to the top... I believe he could be the Senior Pastor of a mega church, or a dynamic youth pastor, a traveling evangelist, etc. Whatever God tells him to do, I believe he will be the best at.

I Love listening to this man speak. He is extremely engaging, creative, and captivating, and he taught me, in a way more practical way then anyone else in my life, the art of simplification... keeping the main thing the main thing, and doing the main thing with all of your heart.

I had the huge honor of serving beside Corban for a very short period of my life, actually we only really got to work together full time for about 2 months, far to short of a time but in that short time I believe that I learned a lifetime of knowledge on the Simplified Presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ... Love. Our assignment, in the youth department of Mount Hope Church where we both interned at the time, was to create an IMPACT event presenting Christ around the concept of the 24 tv show. I thought I knew what I wanted to do for the event until Corban opened me up to a whole new world of creativity... and together, with our team we pulled it off.

I should have taken notes from the new weeks I was able to work so closely to this genious. I remember most everything that he has said, and I try very hard to impliment it in everyday youth ministry. I wish I could pack Corban in a suitcase and take him with me wherever God sends me. When I was at //spyn, I told Pastor Ricardo, you got to get Corban! I even tried to help him get a plan in place that would help bring Corban on our team full time. Now that I am in LA, I keep thinking, man, if we only had Corban! When I am planning the Hyperbole events and the travels to different youth ministries, same thought... WHY CAN'T I TAKE CORBAN WITH ME EVERY SINGLE PLACE I GO?

When I am around him, I learn from him, and I am trying to learn enough to start thinking more and more like him... because I sincerely believe with all of my heart that his thinking is what is necessary to reach this next generation of teenagers and young adults. Its simple, but its different... but look at whats working, and look at whats not these days... maybe we need something different. Corban Robbe for President.






j-cub.

Another Sunny Day in Los Angeles

Its Monday. My day off... a day to sleep in, enjoy doing nothing, look out my window to my beautiful view of Los Angeles, and just be happy to be alive. Even on my day off, I can't stop thinking of how much people need Jesus here... Well, people need him everywhere, but God placed us here for a reason and we want to run with that and do everything we possibly can to make a difference in peoples lives.

it just amazes me, to look out my window, and see this beautiful city that I have learned to Love, to see the highways always backed up with people that are probably all frustrated inside and late for work. To see people and buildings as far in every direction as my eyes can see... people who hurt, people who need hope, and here am I, up here on the 7th floor, and I holding onto the hope, enjoying my day off.

Its always sunny in Los Angeles, always. But beneath the cheerful smiles and layed back spirit of most its residents, there lies a void that so many have yet to fill... and this morning, I am just trying to think of creative and relevant ways that I can present to people the only way possible, to truly fill that void.

jcub.

The Influencers - pt1 - Kevin Berry

Pastor Kevin Berry was my youth Pastor for all of my Junior High and High school years... all the way through what would have been my college years had I gone to college, before he passed on the youth ministry to work as an executive Pastor at our church. I had the amazing honor of serving with Pastor Kevin for most of my high school years, and many many years to follow. Every time I get home my wife and I try and have dinner with Kevin and his wife Renee (also amazing). We share a love for the steaks at Carrabbas, Dawn and I get the Filet O Bryan, they get the Sirloin Marsala. Every single time we go, they buy it for us. No matter how many dollar bills or debit cards I pull out, they always take care of us. Next time we go, I am gonna hide his wallet or something until after we leave. They are just that good of people.

If it was not for Kevin Berry, Hyperbole would be about 30 steps behind where we are right now. He saw something in us that he believed in, and he helped me believe in it even more then I did. First he let us play at our youth group, at the time our biggest platform to perform. After playing at the church several times, he hooked us up with the district and helped get us on the Michigan Youth Convention 3 different years, which lead to other youth conventions in other states, tons of youth camps, etc. When pastors would call the youth department asking if they could recommend a band to come play at their church, I feel like Kevin and Renee always recommended Hyperbole! These referrals helped us grow our ministry literally from coast to coast.

A few years ago Pastor Kevin launched "The emerging Leaders Academy" internship program, and I instantly knew that I had to be a part of it. The only problem was that it was designed to be a very intensive training program, one that would require full time dedication, and would have made it so I would have to put my ministry and travels on hold. Trusting God, I asked Kevin what I considered to be the craziest question ever, basically along the lines of "Can you let me do this academy without it getting the way of Hyperbole, I want to do it." I probably said it a little more gracefully then that, because he agreed, and when the part time version of ELA's was launched, a handful of others were chosen to do it at the same pace and went on to complete the program. Although I knew all of the guys chosen prior to doing this program with them, friendships were born there that will last forever, friendships that possibly would not have lasted had we not had the Emerging Leaders Academy.

Kevin Berry's biggest contribution to my life is this. As a person of influence, over thousands of people in the church and running the biggest youth group in the city, this busy busy man took the time to believe in MY dreams. He was never selfish, he encouraged me to goto California, to pursue my dreams, to Never Give Up no matter what the circumstances that are thrown at me. As an incredible leader, he literally, without knowing it, helped me map out my destiny and where God has brought me this far. His training and influence has prepared me 100% for where I am right now in life, doing youth ministry in Los Angeles, and continuing to work towards my dream of Hyperbole, and the most relevant musical presentation of the Gospel the world of youth and counter culture has ever seen.

I know for a fact that there are hundreds of people with a similar story of the influence of Kevin Berry, he is one of the greatest gifts from God this generation in Lansing, MI has. He is a guy that fully believes, with all of his heart, in equiping the next generation leader, so when they are somewhere that maybe he couldn't go, they will be ready. He is raising up world changers, and people that he is helping are going out, loving on people, and make a difference. This mans influence and ability to raise up Timothy's will truly go on forever.

I Love ya Pastor Kevin Berry. Thank you, so much, for changing my life, my view of youth ministry, and seeing a dream in me that I did not even know I could dream. You are a gift from God.

j-cub.

The Influencers - Introduction

In my life, there have been several people who have literally and absolutely changed my life... With or without knowing it, have left an impact so great that with every passing day of my life I think of these people and smile, thank God that he placed them in my life, and am instantly inspired to be that kind of person to as many others as I possibly can. They are Influencers, they are leaders. They are world changers, and they are helping raise up a generation of Christians who can still shine light, and show good in a world getting more and more politicized and corrupt. These are not religious people, these are Godly people, and they are all on my list of people that are going to impact this world more then they ever dreamed of, whether directly, or through the values that they have instilled into the young men and women that they have surrounded themselves with, who will go on to do even more. A good leader reproduces himself, and trains up someone else to do the job even better then he had done himself.

Everybody needs a Timothy, or a Joshua. Somebody who you can pass the veil onto when your time is up, but so many people get so wrapped up in the mission or their own call, that they never take time to raise up the next generation leader, and when their time on earth ends, so does there legacy, and everything they have done for Christ. I don't ever want to be that way. I want to build up something great, that can continue without me, and can grow. Only the very best leaders can step back, and still have their mission grow even bigger day by day by day.

My goal is to once a week write a blog about someone in my life who has influenced me in a huge way, at least for a while. Its just one of those things, maybe I want to let these people how much they have changed my life, maybe I want to remind myself of how much they have changed my life, either way, its my blog, and I can post whatever I want :)

God Bless You! Thanks for taking the time for checking out www.J-Cub.com feel free to comment on anything if you ever feel the desire. Love ya, mean it.

9 Dollars for Two Playoff Tickets

I've always been a Dodgers fan. For Dawn and I's honeymoon we went to beautiful Hawaii, and on the way back stopped in LA and went to a Dodgers game (this was when we lived in Michigan). Now we live just a few blocks from the stadium, and we are more into it then ever. We try to get as close to the games as possible... sometimes for date night we will go buy the absolute cheapest tickets available which are about ten dollars a piece... sometimes on Sunday afternoons we will go up by Angel's point where you can see the stadium and hear the roaring crowds, and just hangout there and listen to the game. Sometimes we just walk by the stadium during the games, especially right now, as its playoff time and the Dodgers are kinda still in the running.

Last night we were in the Terrace Cafe at the dreamcenter watching the game, a couple innings into the game, we decided to ride the motorbike down there and just get as close as we can to be in the midst of it all, and as we turned left onto Elysian Park and start heading towards the stadium, a man yelled out "DO YOU NEED TICKETS?" Though it was a playoff game, I had a feeling that I needed to stop, so I did, and I talked to the guy for a couple of minutes. He offered me the tickets for 50 dollars a piece, I said I just don't have it... When he asked what I could give him I apologized and said, "sir I don't want to insult you, I am sorry I can't buy your tickets." Then he said "no just tell me what do you have" so I emptied my wallet and my pockets, and found 8 dollar bills and about a dollar in change. He looked at me like I was crazy, then handed me the tickets and said, "Go take your girl to the game." I gave him the last nine dollars that I had in cash, and my wife and I went to the National League Championship game.

The face value on the tickets were 75 dollars a piece. When we got in, it was in the outfield in a special section and the lady at the gate pointed us to the food section and said "all you can eat" So we ate 3 dodger dogs (15 dollar value) 2 bags of Peanuts, 2 bags of popcorn, a bottle of water, and some soda pops, all for a grand total of 9 dollars. We watched a playoff game for 9 dollars! The Dodgers lost the game, so it was a sad ending, but what a great experience.

God has been doing so many amazing things in our lives. We have been blessed with some amazing opportunities since coming to Los Angeles... We are getting to do amazing things that we can't afford, without having to pay for them! It feels like God is literally guiding us to a place where all of our dreams are slowly coming true, and experience by experience he shows himself so faithful, even in the little things like baseball games... I am not sure if God arranged that for me or not, but what I do know is that I really wanted to goto a playoff baseball game, and I know that the man with the tickets who I never in my life had ever met, showed me favor and blessed me, and it seems like stuff like that just keeps on happening.

I Love Life, soooooooooooo much right now.

J-Cub

Anwers to some questions

So I decided to start a blog. Maybe its for other people to hear my thoughts... maybe it will help people one way or another... maybe I will write little notes on here to myself that nobody actually reads, but sometimes it helps to just gather your thoughts and write things down I suppose, and this is my attempt at that.

Especially now that I live in Los Angeles, and most of my friends and family are 3,000 miles away. Maybe you have questions, I would hope to answer them if you do...

Some that you may have (well I have answered them many times already):
Q: How Long do you and Dawn plan on living in California?
A: Well, to be honest that one is in God's hands 100%. I have always Loved California, but never in any way liked Los Angeles... Now I Love the city, I believe God helped me learn to Love it by giving me a heart for its people, one that I never had before. I Love the people, I Love my job, my bosses and my life here more then I ever imagined I would like it. I Love the mission at the Dream Center and I blown away at the role I am able to play in it. God has blessed me so much! I don't know what the future holds, but unless God calls me away, this is home now. Its crazy, because I did not plan on being in this state for more then a year... now I call it home. So forever? Unless God says go somewhere else!


Q: What are you actually doing out there?
A: Dawn and I work at the Dream Center, running the Media portion of the Youth Department for Angelus Temple. We live on campus here, in the middle of Los Angeles. For more information about the dreamcenter, goto www.dreamcenter.org

The Dream Center, in one sentence, is "The Church that Never Sleeps" Its a place that just Loves people, all of the time. You will hear lots about it on here as time goes by.


Q: What about Hyperbole?
A: I believe, with all of my heart, that our best days are still ahead of us. You can hold me to that.

My dream still is wrapped in the mission of Hyperbole to reach youth and young adults with the most relevant presentation of the gospel to meet them exactly where they are at, and connect with them through music that they Love. I can't wait to see what God is going to do with Hyperbole... there are lots of ideas in the works..


Q: When are you going to have kids?
A: Whenever Landon does. But seriously, we don't really know when yet. When it comes its going to be great though. I have always lived my life trying to protect myself from things that could hold me back from my dreams in any way but in the midst of it I realized that there is a lot of great things about life to be missed in the midst of the chase... things that don't need to be missed, just need to be balanced properly. So when it comes, just know you will still see me doing the same things I've always done.


Alright friends, thats all for now. If you have questions I will answer them.. not that I am anybody so important that everyone has a million questions for, but I know people wonder at least sometimes. I Love you all. Everyone in Michigan, I miss you. Come and visit me and I will show you this place that I have come to Love so so so so soooooooooooo so much.

J-Cub.