14 Reasons Why I Love My Church

Yesterday I spent some time thanking God for my church. I decided to turn my thanks into a blog post, 14 reasons why I love my church:1. In arguably the most unchurched region in America, CPC has maintained a faithful gospel witness for over 40 years. If you've ever lived on the San Francisco Peninsula, you know what a challenging (and exciting) place this is for living as a Christian and doing ministry. This place is filled with unique pressures. I may write a series of blog posts on this in the future.2. CPC has created a culture where the preaching of God's Word is central to all of church life, community, and mission. Sunday's sermon on Revelation 6 by our lead pastor, Mark Mitchell, moved me to tears as the sovereignty of God was winsomely and boldly proclaimed. It's a joy to be part of a community that's being built on such a rich vision of God.3. Our church is led by elders who are godly, wise, humble, grace-saturated men.4. CPC is advancing the gospel globally, supporting many ministries across the globe that are reaching people with the good news of Christ crucified. 5. Our church is full of amazing people who are quick to serve and love others. You should see what happens around this place when a sudden need arises—it's like crazed fans storming the football field after their team has won.6. Since coming on staff as a young 28 year-old 3+ years ago, I've been given tremendous opportunity, encouragement, guidance, and freedom to be myself and use and develop my gifts to preach and lead. I wish every young pastor could have the kind of opportunity and support I'm given here. I can't believe the church pays me money to study the Bible, preach the gospel, shepherd people, and disciple men.7. Many CPC members are strategically placed to make an exponential impact in their workplace with the gospel. Our church is very diverse economically and socially, yet we have a high number of people working in companies where their Christian witness there can have an impact well beyond the Silicon Valley, companies like: Google, Apple, Facebook, Oracle, Visa, Yahoo, Electronic Arts, etc.8. I'm good friends with the fellow pastors I serve alongside. "Going to work" also means hanging out with some of my closest friends: Jerome, Rob, Mark (guys, I ordered your names from worst-dressed to best-dressed).9. CPC is building marriages and families on the gospel and a biblical view of manhood and womanhood. This is not a popular thing to do in the Bay Area.10. CPC cares about the generation most estranged from the church: twenytsomethings. CPC hired me to go after this generation with the gospel.11. CPC doesn't ask my wife to be a traditional "pastor's wife." Because of the nature of the calling, a pastor's wife has a unique burden to bear, one that I think only another pastor's wife can understand. CPC minimizes this load by putting no responsibilities on my wife, recognizing that her main ministry is to be my wife and to be a mom—therein lies her greatest ministry to our church. She's not expected to play the piano, run the children's ministry, or bake meatloaf for the all-church potluck.12. Our administrative staff is incredible. Especially incredible is my administrative assistant, Celia, and our 20s ministry intern, Francis—their service to me and to our church frees me up to do so much more than I could ever do without them.13. CPC leadership gives me feedback and critique about my character, family life, leadership, and preaching. Young men like me desperately need such feedback in order to be refined and grow.14. Peet's Coffee is conveniently located just a mile down the street from our church building and functions as a second office for many of us on staff.