Sermons

For those of you that are looking for DVD and mp3′s of my previous sermons they are located here: http://blog.seanchow.com.

Update

These past couple of weeks have been more than a little hectic and the last twenty four hours are no exception. Now that we can look at what has happened in hind sight…. I can actually breathe.

The middle of last week had Jenn’s blood pressure remaining high and had some complications. Our doctor said that Jenn was diagnosed with preclampsia and was developing toward Hellp Syndrome. In order to prevent some issues a plan laid out to induce Jenn ealier than the 27th (which marked 36 weeks pregnant). As last week continued on Jenn’s high blood pressure began to stabilize and we continued to look to the 27th to deliver.

Yesterday was the most hectic day of all. We were scheduled to be induced at 11 a.m. but did not get moved to the Labor and Delivery room until 12:30. After the pitocin was set, we were good to go. About an hour and half in, trouble happened. Jenn thought that her water had broken and the nurses went to check and discovered a large amount of blood. Immediately they called the doctor and attempted to stabilize her. Her blood pressure dropped to 80/42. They stabilized her and took her took her to surgery for an emergency c- section. The whole thing started just after 15:15 and Daniel was born at 15:54.

I was told that she had had a marginal occlusion of the uterus. Otherwise know as the placenta begin tearing away from the uterus. The nurses tell me that she was safe because she was in the hospital but can be serious if she was not here, expecially with the amount of blood loss. In the end Daniel and Jenn are both doing well, but definately a scare. We hope that she will be released from the hospital on saturday.

Jenn Update

Its been awfully hard to keep everyone updated with the craziness that is our life, so I thought that just blogging about it would get the word out.

As usual the last few weeks of pregnancy is a bit hectic for our family. For all the kids it was repeated trips to the hospital to get a shot in order to stop contractions. This little one is no different. In the past four weeks we have been to St. Johns Hospital a couple different times in order for the contractions to be stopped.

Last Wednesday following worship team practice, Jenn was not fealling well so at 11 p.m. we ended up here at the Labor and Delivery to get a shot. Instead we found out that Jenn was going to be kept overnight at least due to her high blood pressure. As the night went on her bloo pressure did not go down to the level that pleased the doctors. She has been diagnosed with preclampsia which is high blood pressure due to pregnancy. There is no medication that can be given to lower it. We are told that only delivery will stop the increase in blood pressure. In preclampsia the blood pressure will continue to increase as long as the pregnancy continues. 

At this point we are not being released until the baby is born. That will be exactly at thirty six weeks (next tues) unless the blood pressure gets to a level that the doctor is uncomfortable with. Jenn is pretty much bed ridden for the last week and for the next week to come. She continues to have contractions that are being stopped by shots.

Keep us in your prayers. In short that is our story. Baby in seven days at the most.

The Barbarian Way: The Barbarian Tribe

My continuing ramblings as I try read the Erwin McManus’s book the Barbarian way.

When you join the barbarian tribe, you begin to live your life with your eyes and your heart wide open. When the Spirit of God envelopes your soul, your spirit comes alive, and everything changes for you. You are no longer the same. And to those who cannot see the invisible, to those that refuse to believe it exists, the path you choose, the life you live, may lead them to conclude that you are not simply different but insane. People who are fully alive look out of their minds to those who simply exist.

While discipleship attempts to bring people into conformity into actions and relationships with Christ, Mcmanus argues the opposite. he argues that instead of bringing people into the center of a circle it implodes the circle. The closer that one come in their relationship to Christ the more it implodes their worldview. This is an awesome thought. Instead of the desire to have a better Bible study or prayer life; it changes our worldview. No longer can we settle for another Tuesday night study but we turn into those that are willing to risk it all for our relationship. Suddenly we are developing programs for the underprivedged, instead of talking about it. Developing churches for the disenfranchised instead of wondering why they simply will not come back. Our desire is not about conforming and becoming civilized. In a barbarian society there are no rules but the rules of the wild. The rule is to relentlessly follow God in all aspects of our life.

How does that change how we view our discipleship?

I am not da best… boo.

Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17 (NASB)

Yesterday I got asked an interesting question. “Chow, why would I want to work at Macys if you hate it so much”. My answer was that I don’t hate my job, in fact I am blessed by it considering the economy that we are in. Rather I would like to be doing what I am called to do, be a pastor or something along those lines. Instead I am talking about Pre-Sales, Macys credit applications, and Use You Card events.

In an interesting note, today my boss comes at all of us with a stack of statistics. Apparently Macys keeps track of everything we do from the amount of customers that use Macys cards to the breakdown of each purchase. For example of the 111 people that I helped last week 31% of them used a Macys Card and 2.7 of them applied for an account (based upon 40 hour week). Great and exciting. As he was going through all the numbers it began to dawn on me. I am not the best in our department. GASP! For me it was like a shot in the heart. How could I not be the best at something. It was not like I am the worst employee in my department. In fact I am above average, if not ranked high in most of the major statistical categories, but again… I was not the best. For the rest of the afternoon I mulled over it. In fact I can honestly say I was jealous of my co-worker who was even better than me. After taking a few to ponder it over, I wondered why it mattered to me so much. When I leave for the day the last thing on my mind is my Items Per Transaction score. My career goal is not to be the Macys CEO in fact I cannot wait to quit. Then why does it bother me so?

It is my humanity and drive that makes me want to be the best that I do. Or is it something else. Colossians describes that every action and deed that I do must point to Jesus. It would be far to easy to sit around and not do my best at this job, even when I really do not care about it. I could fall asleep in the fitting room and it would take awhile for anyone to notice or simply wander around the store. With the amount of traffic and managers being so low it would not be too difficult to simply slip through the cracks. Then there is that integrity thing and the fact my coworkers are starting to ask about what is it about me that is different. Why do I care when we get paid so little? Why am I driven in spite of the fact it is a job with mindless repetition?

I am driven because everything I do points to Jesus. While at times it may not be overt, sooner or later everything  comes to light. I would hate to be the person that is labeled a Christian and a slacker. If my work ethic was to cast God in a bad light, I might as well not be one at all.

The Barbarian Way: Mushroom Eaters

For Lent I am reading books that challenge who I am. It is an interesting prospect since in my life right now I am challenged in what I am doing. Am I satisfied with the daily grind at Macys. I think not, but in many ways it is pulling me away from what I am called to. It is during this season that I am working on my call in this chaotic world. With that I am reading a book called The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus. It is an great book so far. Mcmanus is challenging each of us to live a life that is not status quo. He is writing that the Christianity that we subscribe to is one that is civilized when it should be barbaric. Not in the sense of clubbing people and the like, but that everything should not be nice and neat. That sometimes its dirty and uncomfortable.

Today I was reading about what it is to be an adopter or a mushroom eater. Instead of adopting others ideas, we are to be the risk takers. McManus describes that someone had to be the risk taker that first discovered mushrooms were edible. Without the one that first tried mushrooms we did not have portobellos. Without someone blazing the trail we would be stuck in mediocrity.

McManus writes:

The barbarian call is just this simple: we are called to be mushroom eaters. A world without God cannot wait for us to choose the safe path. If we wait for someone else to take the risk, we risk that no one will ever act and that nothing will ever be accomplished. John the Baptist was a mushroom eater and it cost him his life. Jesus, too, was a mushroom eater, and He found himself nailed to a tree.

I have the desire to be a mushroom eater. How about you?

outside the world I am use to

For the better part of the last twenty years I think I have been living in a bubble. Throughout high school I hung out with people that were closely associated with my youth group. In college I went to Azusa Pacific University and roomed with people with a strong faith. After college I worked in a church until recently. While I thought I understood the world around me… apparently not so much. Its not to say that the bubble I lived in was full of roses, but I was still surrounded by a largely “christian” group.

Fast-forward to my past seven weeks. I have purposely tried to de-void myself of the “christian” label, in not overtly proclaiming who I am. But whether I try to play undercover or not, it is noticed that I live differently that some of my other co-workers. My exposure to the realities of those around me came to a head this past week as we transitioned to a time of inventory. Basically locking seventy of us in from 9 p.m.- 5 a.m. and counting every object of clothes in the store. I can tell that all you are jealous. Perhaps it was the late night that lowered the boundaries between many of us, but I began to get a good sense of what truly goes on in the lives of those in their 20′s, and it is not always pretty. There were the stories of sex, drugs, relationships, deceptions, and more. Not to mention the attitudes behind them. At times I was shocked, horrified, saddened, heartbroken, intimidated, and times of a combination of all of it.

Out of all of it I gained a new perspective in what I do. I often am told that people feel sorry for me in ending up in this place, that place is one that I could also feel sorry for myself. But instead I am being exposed to something that drastically stresses the importance of what I am a part of. Its not about “rescuing” or “saving” them. Rather it is about having a sense of urgency and perspective of the world around us. Out of this all, I have a deeper desire with an incredible urgency to get Front Porch off the ground.

This is not the first time that I heard of people doing drugs and so forth, sorry my bubble was not that small. Rather than having the perspective/ role of a pastor or authority figure… I have none. I am just someone in their world. Is there judgement on them… not really. Is there condemnation… no. I would say that I have a better understanding/ perspective of the “other half” of the world. In other half I am stressing not that they are underprivileged or underneath me, but simply not in the crowd that I am usually associated with.

Scared, perplexed, confused, lost…. sometime.

Learning…. ALWAYS.

Front Porch Needs

Several years ago I met a student in my youth ministry who would change the direction of my life. Through the course of my interaction with that student, a strong personal faith developed. After graduating from high school the student began to lead aspects of the youth ministry, and was one whom I believed would be a future leader in the church. Sadly, through their college years, the deep faith wavered and eventually crumbled. Looking from afar, I cannot point to one place where the importance of  faith ended, but I saw a drastic pulling away from the church over the course of time. Questions often fill my head, as I wonder what I could have done during the young adults life to better prepare them for the road ahead. If that could happen to one youth of deep spiritual faith and conviction, what is happening to the others in our church or even those not involved in a church during the college years? It is my desire to prevent this from happening to another that motivates me to develop Front Porch at California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI).

Front Porch is the campus ministry of the Presbytery of Santa Barbara in which we reach to three college campuses within our bounds (UCSB and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo). The CSUCI chapter is the newest project and is only eight months old. Our challenge is to reach students both on and off campus, and to be there for students as their wolds of academics and faith collide. During the past months we began meeting in small groups throughout the county and began developing a comprehensive plan for ministering to the campus. We’ve seen growth in attendance at each of our events, and are spurred to continue as we see the hunger for spiritual fellowship in our college students. However, we need your help. For the past eight months, Front Porch at CSUCI has not been funded through the Presbytery due to budget constraints. Our prayer has been for local Presbyterian Churches to come together and fully fund us. As we have visited many of the churches in our Presbytery we have begun to see the reality of the economy around us. Our continued prayer is that the funding will be available soon, but it will take time. For the Front Porch ministry to continue, we have an immediate need. A part time salary will be needed for myself, as well as funds to provide for other ministry needs. It is with this request and that we come to you to be a part of keeping the vital ministry of Front Porch at CSUCI moving forward.

The Front Porch link below leads to brochure detailing our immediate needs. We are looking for a group of individuals to contribute monthly through the next year in order to sustain the ministry. If you feel led to partner with us in this exciting ministry there is several ways to contribute donate. One way is to link to our website to contribute via Paypal or simply sending a check to the Presbytery office (6067 Shirrell Way, Goleta, CA,  93117) designated to Front Porch CSUCI.

Thank you for your prayer and participation in our common vision. With your help, we hope to create a safety net to catch and nurture our college students so they maintain and grow their faith in the Lord during the most challenging years of their lives.

Blessings

Front Porch Brochure

Crazy Christmas

Is it really the new year? Wow… the last time I really looked it was approaching Black Friday. This Christmas season has been a strange one, as I have been literally thrown to the beast. The beast being the retail industry. While I think that I have seen a lot, I have been given a lesson that there is more than I can ever imagine. For the past six weeks I have been working full-time at Macys. I got hired in an interesting couple of days. While throwing my resumes throughout the known universe, I decided to put an application at Macys. The next day I got a call for interview the next day. In the three minute interview I was offered a full-time holiday position. Of course it was not the $40 per hour that I was hoping for. Needless to say it was a job.

Through the holidays I ranged from five to six days a week. In many ways it was kinda fun but in others I saw the different side of Christmas chaos. I often thought that it was crazy in the church, but it has a whole new level in the mall. The line of cars getting into the mall, the fight for parking, the crowds, and the people with short fuses. Quite an interesting a volatile mix. One that I hope I never experience again… but never say never. While this is not what I was thinking I would be doing, in many ways I feel blessed. Blessed that I did have a job and the people that I was surrounded with. The people that I worked with have some interesting stories of how they got there. Not every holiday temp employee is a twenty year old on vacation. But some are older just looking for a job, others just graduating college, and others in odd places in life. One thing that I have learned to be good at is just listening to what is going on in peoples lives. For some reason I feel it is necessary that I not tell my co-workers my other life. That being a former seminary student and one seeking ordination. A verse that has been coming to my mind lately from Colossians 3:16-17,

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Let my actions speak about who I am. At some point I will be asked why I am different or whatever the question may be, the answer is simple. All my actions and deed are done because God dwells in me richly. Amen.

Merry Christmas from the Chows

December 7, 2009

Dear friends and family,

As our family reflects on the last year it is one that has passed too fast. Our children have sprouted and have pushed the limits toward maturity while we reminisce of the days that all they wanted was our attention. It only seems like yesterday that we did our last family newsletter. As in all years this has been one of ups and downs. As a family we celebrate where God has led us and we mourn the loss of an unborn child. We have been blessed in what God has done in us and used us this past year. It is times like this that we are able to reflect and look towards the future.

Sean has finally finished seminary and we were all excited to celebrate his achievement this past May. He is currently going through the final stages of preparing for his first call as a Presbyterian minister. For now he is juggling a bunch of different hats including raising support for development of the Presbytery’s campus ministry at Cal State Channel Islands. He is excited about being done with school and has passed the hat of student to Jenn who has started school this past fall. It definitely is a different experience in switching roles. Jennifer is still working for a Doctor.  She also has started taking some classes to prepare for future enrollment in a nursing program.  She is still selling Pampered Chef and enjoys this as a time to get paid to socialize.

Rianne has made the transition to 6^th grade middle school and is enjoying her time at her new school.  She is excited about the computer lab and has started to try to become the family photographer. We are having a hard time in transitioning to her being in a youth group since that means she is growing up.

Lauren is now in the 5^th grade and has become obsessed with the 50 states and the theme song “Are you smarter than a 5^th grader?”  She loves to cook and is a big help in the kitchen. While she may only be ten she is trying to be a pre-teen before her time.

Hunter is now in preschool and is a Teddy Bear (his class).  For a kid who doesn’t know how to read he can maneuver the computer and internet way too well.  Look soon for a You-tube production from Hunter about Mr. Potato Head as he dreams of being his own director.

In thinking of family highlights what really comes to mind is how “normal” this year has been. God has truly blessed us as we have a wonderful extended family that we feel incredibly close to even though they are 300 miles away. It is that family and friends that keep us grounded no matter how chaotic our lives may seem at times.

Well, that is pretty much our year in a nutshell. Merry Christmas!

Sean, Jennifer, Rianne, Lauren, and Hunter Chow