by Stephen Rodgers

And we’re off! From this moment on, we will be attempting to keep a weekly schedule here at the Beacon, bringing you 2-5 articles each week from our Pastors, Elders, various Ministry Coordinators, as well as the staff writers here at the Beacon. I would suggest checking back daily if you want to keep up with the latest articles (although we’ll probably take a break over the weekends at first).

Thank you for your prayers and support, and please continue to pray for us as we strive to keep this going for the glory of God.

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

Well, it’s almost that time.

And by that time I’m referring to the transition of the Beacon to a weekly update schedule. The last month has been a bit exciting: we’ve redesigned the site, enabled some cool features, and uploaded literally hundreds of old articles. We’ve made some pretty significant announcements regarding new content, and we’ve had some special posts from some special friends. We’ve also prayed a lot of prayers, drank a lot of caffeine, and worked out some of the kinks in getting a group of people in different places able to work together effectively (the prayers and the caffeine helped a lot with that).

If all goes well, starting next week you should be starting to see anywhere from 4-6 articles every week. Eventually we hope to roll out some rather big changes on the way we host the blog, which would allow us to enable some other neat features…but that will probably be a little while in coming.

Please keep us in prayer as we try to make this work.

Pro Rege

Well hello again everyone!

As you can see from the site so far, the team has been hard at work uploading the old articles from previous issues of the Beacon. So far, we’ve uploaded about 70 articles and there are even more to come! If we manage to stay on schedule, you should be able to access all the articles from all the previous issues by the end of the month.

Which brings us to the next big announcement: after we finish uploading the old Beacon articles, we’re going to start in on sermon notes! JR has been kind enough to supply us with his sermon notes from 2008 and 2009, and we’re currently looking into the best way to get those included and accessible to you.

Well, that’s it for this week. Tune in next week for an article highlighting some of the best Christian resources available on the internet. Until then, we’ll be copy/pasting as quickly as we can.

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

As the new editor, I guess this is where I try to say something humorous, informative, Biblical, and profound.

As most of you who frequent this blog probably know, there are going to be some significant changes coming in the next month or two.  We’re probably 5-6 weeks away from genuinely new content, since we have to go through a full 4-week cycle of notifying all our new contributors, reviewing submitted content, and preparing it for publication.

However, the new staff is already hard at work converting and preparing the previous unpublished Beacon content, and if the Lord wills it you should start seeing those articles quietly uploaded to the blog within a week or two.  The absolute easiest way for you to keep up with that is by subscribing to the RSS feed (note: actually, that won’t work since I’m pre-dating the articles so that they’ll archive properly), but I’ve also enabled search functionality, categorical sorting, and monthly archives if you prefer a more manual approach to the blog.  Plus, I’m going to do my best to give you a weekly post as well, be that an update of some sort, links to other material, or a letter from a friend at the Ostrava church.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have also unapproved all comments previously made, closed the comments for all previous posts, and disabled comments on future posts.  It’s one less thing for me to worry about while we get up and running.

Please bear with us as we iron out all the kinks, shake out the dust, and generally figure out what all these pretty buttons do.

Pro Rege

by Steven Hong

What a blessing it was to share in sweet fellowship with the Mellwigs. As Meinolf preached during the Missions Conference and many at LBC had the opportunity to interact with Meinolf and Martina for the first time, it was a great reminder that the work of God stretches far beyond our San Diego. To know that we have like-minded partners carrying out the same work of the Gospel in the Czech is an amazing thought to consider.

With fresh memories of our dear partners, we can begin to prepare to send out our own summer missions teams. Whether you are physically going or not, please be in prayer and consider how you will continue to do Gospel-work in making disciples of Christ.

Are you a member and interested in writing for The Beacon? Do you have a comment, question or encouragement regarding the newsletter? If so, please contact me.

by Steven Hong

It’s quite an exciting time in the life of our church. 2009 marks the 10 year anniversary of Lighthouse Bible Church. As celebration is a large part of God’s people in His Word, we will certainly celebrate. Yet, we don’t celebrate the faithfulness of any one person or group of people, but we celebrate the faithfulness of a great God and His tremendous grace in the life of our church.

Yet, as we commemorate God’s faithfulness in the past, we do so in great anticipation of the immediate future. With the recent announcement of Lighthouse Bible Church San Jose, there is certainly an extra buzz in the body. As Pastor John mentioned at the momentous members meeting, the decision brings “feet to our vision to plant churches.” Let’s be in prayer that God would give our leaders an extra measure of wisdom as we move forward.

by Steven Hong

Merry Christmas! It’s sad to think that such a joyful greeting is quickly becoming a controversial message.Maybe even as early as three years ago, we could say those words without a second thought. Today, a world that is so evidently opposed to Christianity considers it a message of intoleration.

Last year, while dining at a local restaurant with roommates, our waitress greeted us with those words unashamedly: “Merry Christmas!” She smiled, paused, and then explained, “The real meaning of Christmas. You know what that is, don’t you?”

This Christmas season, remember your identity in Christ, as we celebrate the humble birth of an infant that would be our Savior and King!

by Steven Hong

With Election Day just around the corner (November 4), all the talk about candidates and propositions are rising to a crescendo. With so many voices and opinions flying around, how can we understand our civic duty in light of our identity in Christ? The Beacon delves into that question, and more.

And after the election, wouldn’t it be nice to escape all the political banter? Well, you’re in luck, since we have our All-Church retreat the following weekend. Be sure to check out our retreat preview article and be prepared for some sweet teaching and fellowship.

by Steven Hong

Put away those surfboards and the sunblock and dust off those notebooks—it’s time for school! This is one of the most exciting seasons of the year for our church family. We  see old faces returning and new ones checking out our ministry from the surrounding schools. With that in mind, our newsletter staff has put together a few articles  spotlighting our college ministry and some of its members.

If you are new to our church, we welcome you and thank you for joining us. Our prayer is that you would see our love for Christ in every aspect of our church life—from the praise and preaching to the fellowship and fun. Stick around and see what God’s doing here at Lighthouse!

by Steven Hong

You might notice that The Beacon is a tad bit shorter than normal. With a good chunk of our newsletter team on summer missions and a few scattered on abroad elsewhere, we decided to go with an abbreviated edition for August. Don’t fret, we’ll be back in full effect come September with something special!

With the Argentina team back from Tucuman and the Czech team still out, let’s continue to pray for, not only our members abroad, but the church members and leaders they are assisting. Be sure to check out the calendar in The Beacon for Missions Report Night dates.