Category Archives: grow

Spring Training Fundamentals

30 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by in Baseball, Christian Habits, grow, Padres Baseball

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Baseball is back! Opening Day is scheduled for April 1, and while I had my doubts with it falling on April Fool’s Day, I’m so excited for the Padres to finally kick-off the 2021 season! We came close last year, but THIS year … this is the year! Just like every other team, the Padres went through Spring Training for the past six weeks. During this time, they worked on the fundamentals of baseball that prepared us for the year we win The World Series!

Baseball Fundamentals

Rich image of professional baseball player, Fernando Tatis Jr., executing fundamentals of hitting a baseball.

Back when I used to play for the St. Louis Cardinals, we took Spring Training very seriously. And every year we’d look forward to our Farm Director’s (I spent my 10 professional seasons in the minor league ‘farm’ system) speech that starts off the season. (The Farm Director is who tells you whether you’re going up or down the farm system levels.) 

He’d start his speech with the most basic fundamentals, saying, “Gentlemen, this is a baseball. It’s 9 inches in circumference. It’s 5 ounces, made of cowhide, and it has 108 red stitches strung around it … ”

Oh yeah, he’d go into detail! Next, he’d say, “Men, this is a baseball glove …” Then, he’d explain, “This is a baseball bat …” No matter who you are on the team, you attend Spring Training and you get back to the basics. I can imagine the Padres locker room … you have people like Fernando Tatis Jr who recently signed a $340million contract for the next 14-years listening to a similar speech. With money like that, it would be easy for anyone to forget the most basic principles of the game.

You throw the ball. 
You catch the ball. 
And you hit the ball. 

But our Farm Director would finish by saying, “And men, the team that does that the best will win the World Championship!”

Christian Fundamentals

Rich image of Seven Steps class at Skyline Church that teaches about Christian fundamentals and more

Can you tell me why 300 million dollar players enter Spring Training to do the same drills we did in Little League? Or why players like Tatis even have coaches?!

Because the fundamentals are the essentials! It’s the same in the Christian faith. There are basic habits that shape our faith that have to be present for us to experience what it’s like to be a Champion for Christ. At Skyline Church, we discuss these habits in our Seven Steps for Spiritual Growth Class. If you’ve been in the faith very long, you know that a devotional time lays the groundwork for God to move in your life. You’ve also experienced that the habit of prayer is in essence primary to growing in relationship with God. You know that regular giving is pivotal in transforming your heart. In addition to what we do privately, we get together as Christians regularly!

It’s essential! Because no matter how long you’ve been in the faith, we all need to consistently get back to the basics. And while we don’t have a $340 million contract, as years tack on, we too can get comfortable in our faith and neglect to participate in the fundamentals of our faith.

We have devotional time.
We pray!
We give!
And we gather!

Ladies and gentlemen … the believers that do this the best are what I call a Champion for Christ!

Commitment

I’ll finish with this …  when I was a young guy, I liked going out on Saturday night.  Even as I became a Christian I lived in that tension of half-hearted commitment. I had one foot “in the world” and one foot “in Christianity.” That never works. There came a point when I started leaving gatherings with my friends and teammates to go to church. They wanted to know why I was doing this “church” thing so often. I had a decision to make. And, it may seem shallow, but I didn’t have the theological answers at the time. So, I just said, “It makes me feel good.” 

There’s going to come a time where you have to choose between your old habits and some new Christian habits. Some habits may be bad habits that you always knew you needed to let go of. But there are also going to be some “okay” habits that aren’t necessarily bad, but they are prohibiting you from becoming a Champion for Christ. No one makes it to the Major Leagues without sacrificing something. You may sacrifice staying out late with friends to go to church, eating out to give more, sleeping in to have a devotional time … we all have secondary pleasures that get in the way of our primary goals from time to time.

It’s in these moments, that we need to prioritize our commitments and decide what our main goal is. In these moments we need to get back to the basics and practice the fundamentals. 

Applying The Fundamentals

Ask yourself today, what is your main objective in life? Have you decided to prioritize your relationship with God above all else in life? Are you executing the fundamentals of your objective regularly? If you will apply the fundamentals you can bet you’ll be a Champion for Christ.



*Read more blogs and articles from Dr. Jeremy McGarity at JeremyMcGarity.com!

The ACTS of Praying

24 Wednesday Feb 2021

Posted by in grow, Prayer

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Do you pray? According to The Pew Research Foundation, 64% of Americans do not. But, my question is not for them, it is for you. Do you pray? How often, how long? My guess is if people were to answer I’d have responses from prayer warriors and prayer beginners and even those who have lost that praying feeling.

Here’s the reality, praying can be challenging for even the most seasoned Christian. This is why we launched the 10 Minute Prayer Challenge on Sunday. When a national survey was conducted from thousands of Christians the question was asked, “What is the biggest disappointment in your Christian journey?” 86% of the respondents said, “My prayer life.”

Many respondents said they just don’t know where to start, what to say, or how to go about it. They end up feeling like it’s a waste of time trying to think of things to pray or say. Or, they feel like they pray the same general things and the redundancy just causes them to quit after a while.

I think we want to be more connected to the Lord, we want to dig deeper in our faith and sense a closeness to the Lord like David in Psalms. But, there’s something I believe that hinders most Christians. It is the ideal over the real. Too many Christians think that in order to have a genuine prayer life or a genuine prayer experience that it must be INTENSE.

Some people think if they’re not crying or screaming or sweating they must not be serious about prayer. The truth is, God is looking for consistency over intensity. To be sure, there may be times of intensity, but that is the exception, not the rule. When the Apostle Paul said, “Pray continually,” (1 Thes. 5:17) he was thinking of consistency not intensity.

The key to understanding how to be consistent is found in ACTS. Not the book of Acts but the prayer pattern known as A.C.T.S. This is a pattern that has been utilized by countless Christians over the years to help jump start their prayer life and help them stay consistent. The pattern is this:

A-doration
C-onfession
T-hanksgiving
S-upplication

When it comes to the 10 Minute Prayer Challenge, take 2 minutes on each of these prayer categories. Literally, you can put your stopwatch to it. You’ll be encouraged at how fast the time goes by and it will be a catalyst to more time spent in prayer over the year.

When beginning the ACTS prayer pattern, make sure to start with 2 minutes of clearing your mind. Have a notepad or a phone app with you to mark down the “to do” tasks and other distractions that come to your mind. That way it is captured and it won’t be a mental distraction. This may take longer than 2 minutes, but make sure you take time to quiet your mind and heart as it says in Psalm 131:2.

Adoration is simply worshipping God. Take time to focus on His greatness. Acknowledge Him as the Creator of the Universe and the One who created you. You might pray some of the psalms. Many of the psalms are simply prayers of King David. We can recite those same heartfelt prayers. Or, you might sing or listen to some worship songs. The goal is to put your heart and mind in a place of worship.

Confession is simply admitting what we’ve done wrong. We need a clean slate every day. We need to confess sins of commission and sins of omission. Sins of commission are the ones we know we did wrong. Sins of omission are the ones we committed and didn’t realize. We simply come to the Lord in prayer and admit we’ve done some things we realize and we may have done some things we did not realize and we ask for His forgiveness. During this time, God may bring to mind people we need to reach out to and apologize with a call or a text. 

Thanksgiving is self-explanatory. We need to take time to be thankful for what God has done and for what He will do. We need to be thankful for the people and the things in our life. This is one of the healthiest things you can do mentally. A plethora of scientific studies have shown the incredible health benefits of having an attitude of gratitude. God told us this thousands of years ago and I’m so glad science is beginning to figure it out too.

Supplication is simply asking God. After you’ve taken time to worship God, confess sin, and give thanks, it’s OKAY to get out the “shopping list.” And let me encourage you … BE SPECIFIC. Have a prayer journal or app. Write down specifically what you’re asking God for. It is such an encouragement to your faith when God specifically answers your request. Write down the answer, the date, and any other details of God’s answers. You will be able to return to this time and time again to encourage your faith when you need it.

2 minutes: Clear your mind

2 minutes: Adoration
2 minutes: Confession
2 minutes: Thanksgiving
2 minutes: Supplication =
10 minutes of consistency in prayer.

By praying the pattern of ACTS you begin to develop a consistency in your prayer life that will absolutely deepen your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly you will never be the same … now that is INTENSE.

Next Step

16 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by in grow

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One of my goals as a pastor is to help you take your NEXT step of faith. Everyone’s got a “next step.” Whether you’re new or have been in the faith for a long time, we believe it’s important to never feel like we have “arrived.” We don’t want to coast in our relationship with the Lord. Whenever we’re coasting, we’re always going downhill. What’s your next step of faith? Everyone’s next step is different and we want to help you with yours, whatever that may be.

Remember, it’s never about perfection, we say it all the time at our church, no perfect people allowed. Even when we take two steps forward and one step back, that’s okay! We’re looking for progress. In a world that is full of discouragement and condemnation, you need a place where you don’t have to pretend you have it all together. We want to encourage you…seven days a week.

Remember this, YOU matter! Your story matters to God and it matters to us!
Recently, in order to spread the message so many people need today, I started sharing the encouragement you hear at Skyline each week on K-Praise radio.

I actually remember a time, about 25 years ago, when I was traveling with the St.Louis Cardinals baseball team. It was a lonely time in my life. I remember using this radio at my bedside, and of all the voices that came through the speaker, thousands of miles from my home, was my hometown pastor! David Jeremiah was the very first pastor I had in my life and hearing his voice while out of town and on the road, really helped me get the encouragement I needed at that time. I never forgot how powerful that moment was for me. And now here we are, years later and I’m honored to be able to do the same to K-Praise listeners who are looking for an encouraging message that they can apply to their lives. I can only hope it encourages others as much as those messages by Dr. Jeremiah encouraged me.

Sharing God’s Word weeknights over the radio is just one more way we can help people stay in the Word of God. We also have a short daily devotional called Today Matters that you can tune into on our Skyline Church YouTube Channel or download the Skyline Church App and get it there. Today Matters also airs throughout the day on K-Praise.

When it comes to next steps, it’s easy to say, “Hey you need to take your next step.” The hard part for so many people is knowing what that next step is for them. Because of that,  I’ve created a next steps program for our church members called Seven Steps. These are classes that take you step by step through topics like Christian Habits, Spiritual Gifts, Oikos, Doctrine, and more. If there’s any way we can give people the resources they need to dig deeper into their faith with confidence, we want to make it happen.

For a lot of people, the Bible can be very intimidating. But we want to break it down into bite-size, digestible chunks to give you the resources you need to grow in your faith. We’re a bunch of imperfect people trying to figure out how to walk a life of faith together. This is about a relationship with Jesus Christ, not a religion. It’s something we want to do, not have to do.

Our purpose at Skyline Church is to help people find and follow Jesus seven days a week. So often, we see people make faith a part of their lives one day a week … Sunday, and that’s a good start. The problem is this type of faith becomes compartmentalized. What I mean by that is, we walk the talk on Sunday, but don’t apply what we learned on Monday (or the rest of the week for that matter). We don’t want you to become stagnate in your faith. Because the reality is, we’re either growing, or we’re coasting. We want to help your faith grow into an everyday kind of faith. I’m always looking for practical ways we can apply the Bible to our everyday life. After all, isn’t that the point? To live a changed life because of the grace of Jesus Christ. Because of His grace, we are changed and able to grow step by step!

God is FOR you

04 Friday Dec 2020

Posted by in comfort, grow

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Life struggles are inevitable. And as the year 2020 comes to a close, challenges continue to emerge at new levels of difficulty every day. You’re not alone in asking God to deliver you from the troubles that have been making regular appearances in your life. 

This year, many of you have planted a mustard seed of faith, been spiritually tested, clung on to hope for dear life, or even dug deeper into your Bible devotional time. Does it feel like you’ve stepped out in faith and are waiting for God to part the Red Sea? I know what it’s like to be on the brink of disaster, trusting God to come through. But getting a miracle like the parting of the Red Sea is not the only way God can deliver you from your burdens. In fact, I believe the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea, found in Exodus 14, is just one of three common methods God uses to liberate His people.

Here are two more ways that God may be redeeming your current situation …

  1. Inner Change: God may very well be allowing the circumstances in your life to draw you closer to Him and build your faith. There are certainly times when God uses the harsh circumstances in our lives as an opportunity to work on our character. In your quiet time, is God giving you a new vision, attitude, or perspective? Be encouraged that God WILL help you navigate the situation that you find yourself in. While the circumstances may not be changing, He may be changing YOU. Personal deliverance is coming and available when we let God move in us, and not just around us. 
  2. The Promise of Heaven: The ultimate deliverance is salvation through Jesus Christ! While God has not promised to solve ALL of our problems the way we think they ought to be solved, He has provided a way for us to be reunited with Him. This time of year we celebrate the coming of our Savior, Jesus. God may very well be giving you a deeper appreciation of His gift of salvation through Jesus’ coming, death, and resurrection. In heaven, there will be NO pain, NO sorrow, NO heartache, NO lockdowns, and NO suffering, anymore! 

For those of you who have been walking the faith journey for a while, you can look back and recognize the seasons that God has parted the Red Sea, produced Inner Change, AND/OR reminded you to look forward to the ultimate gift of heaven. While stepping out in faith is a great act of obedience, maybe God isn’t calling you into the sea right now. Spend some time asking God if He is redeeming your situation in a different method than you expected. 

Some of you are new to building a strong faith and trusting Jesus. The year 2020 may have presented some “stones of remembrance” for you like in Joshua 4:1-7. I want to encourage you to write down any trying circumstances you’re going through. In time you will have personal evidence to look back on, that proves that God got you through some really difficult times. 

Whether you’ve been on the Christian journey for a day, weeks, months, years, or decades, our God is FOR YOU. Our God is a redemptive God that has plans to prosper us! We can see His character in Joel 2:25-32, that He is a good God that wants to restore the years taken from us, and instead give us satisfaction. 

While the world is hoping for the best, we can rest in the fact that Jesus is our best hope!

MODEL

30 Friday Oct 2020

Posted by in Church, grow, vision

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What does it look like to have a model faith? I’m not talking about a perfect faith. The faith journey is never one of perfection, but it should be one of progress. I’m talking about a way to practically model faith. Can you envision it?

My vision of a model faith is like a North Star. It doesn’t mean you’re there already, but it means there’s something that guides us and it’s something to look towards. I’ve told you this before, I’m a goal setter. I have about 10 categories for all the goals I’m setting out to accomplish … to be a better husband, dad, pastor, golfer (sometimes it’s more wishful thinking) but … it’s a very long list. Will I achieve them all? I certainly hope so!
By definition, a vision is: The future state of what you want to accomplish over time.

As a church we have a very clear vision. We’ve talked about it regularly all year long. Our vision is to become a model church in serving, caring, loving, and reaching our community in producing Champions for Christ. At the beginning of 2020, I asked God for a word of the year for our church. I wish I could say it was … COVID, Slam Diego, or something prophetic … but no, I didn’t know what 2020 would bring. The word God gave me was “model.” I want us to be a model church. A church that others come to with questions on how to bring the Gospel to more people!  We often ask, “What would the model church do in this situation?” It guides us like a North Star. 

Throughout the pandemic, we haven’t lost sight of our North Star. In fact, we have studied the COVID virus to ensure the safety of our community, we’ve connected with our people in a daily devotional called Today Matters, worshipped in person and online, served and blessed our first responders, held prayer meetings to pray for our governmental leaders, cleaned up various areas in our community, seen over 600 people make decisions to follow Christ, and even sent out a new church plant. All of this during a season where churches chose to close and remain closed for 8 months now. God doesn’t stop the kingdom advancing when the world decides to stop. 

We reopened in person services in June and found a way to continue sharing the gospel with those looking for hope! We are very thankful to the Lord that Skyline Church has thrived and set an example of what it looks like to both love and serve our community during extremely trying times. This group of Skyline pastors and staff is truly amazing. I am so grateful to be a part of this team. 

Now, let’s bring this home. How do we individually live out a model faith day in and day out in front of those 8-15 people we commonly connect with (even during this time) the New Testament calls our Oikos? The place we’ve got to turn to is, Hebrews 11. Here, God walks through examples of what a model faith looks like. Let’s look at three.

Right away in the first verse of Hebrews 11, it tells us exactly what faith is. “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead” (Hebrews 11:1). People often say things like, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” But the first thing we have to do in order to have a model faith, is to believe it when we don’t see it.

The second thing we have to do in order to have a model faith, is to obey when it doesn’t make sense. In Hebrews 11:7, we read about Noah building an ark to save his family from a worldwide flood. The funny thing about Noah building the ark and preparing for a downpour was that it had never rained before. Or what about Abraham in Hebrews 11:8? He was called to move, leave his country, and go to a foreign land. Some of you may be thinking, that’s not so bad. But let’s remember, at the time, Abraham was 75 years old! 

So often, we want a guarantee before we move. But God wants to stretch our faith in order to grow us. Are you going to listen to God, or listen to your gut? Are you going to wait for security, or are you going to step out in faith even when you don’t understand it?

The third habit we need to exercise in order to build a model faith is to give when we don’t have it. If you’ve been a Christian very long, you know I’m not just trying to get you to empty your pockets because YOU have seen first hand how God has blessed you abundantly for giving in faith. The first example that Hebrews 11 gives is of Abel who offered a gift to God. It wasn’t how much Abel gave, it was HOW he gave. It’s never the amount, it’s always the attitude. It’s why one of our core values is You can’t out give God!

I’ll never forget one of my mentors who spoke into my life when he said, “Pastors are always afraid of talking about money because it turns people off. But you need to tell people, you need to tell business owners, the best time to give is when they are in the dumps. Tell them to give because that is when they need God the most!” 

Now, those who are well off and want to give, bless you. But, no matter who you are, you need to know that it’s not about the amount. It’s always about your heart. 

Many of you gave to Skyline Church at the end of the year last year when we talked about finishing strong in 2019. Little did we know that we’d be walking into an unprecedented season like the 2020 pandemic. Each of you that stepped out in faith and gave to the Lord through the church, have helped us keep the main thing the main thing … we’ve been able to live out our purpose of helping people find and follow Jesus seven days a week. Hundreds of people have made a decision to follow Christ and several more have found a church home when there were no churches to go to. Thank you for your faith! 

I realize this is a crazy time for so many people. But, I want to encourage you to keep going even when you don’t feel like it. Make it a goal to grow your faith in these unprecedented times. I want to encourage you to keep moving toward the North Star of a model faith by  believing when you don’t see it, obeying when it doesn’t make sense, giving when you don’t have it, and just KEEP going.

We don’t know what the elections will bring, what the holidays will bring, or even what 2021 will bring, but let’s be certain of what we hope for, with a confident assurance, that it WILL happen.