C3 Report: Volume 4 Issue XI (November 2011)

A Word from Frank

A big thanks to all who attended one or more C3 lunch meetings this year. I know for a fact that new friendships were made, many new networking contacts were started, a lot of information and wisdom was shared, and great amounts of encouragement were always present. It's time to now concentrate on family and friends during the wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas times. There'll be much to do next year in the continual effort to be salt and light in this world, but for now, it's good to reflect on God's mercy and blessings to His people.

We'll meet again beginning in January.  However, if there's an opportunity for me to speak with any pastor or ministry leader on the church's cultural mandate and the Biblical, legal and practical means to pursue it - feel free to contact me at any time.

Yours in Christ,

Frank Kacer
Christian Citizenship Council (Since '02)
Proverbs 14:34

Welcome

A warm welcome to: Wayne, John, Tom, Kathy, Vern, Dan, Rod, Don, Randy, James, Gene, Michael, Dennis, Bob, Jim, Steve, Brad and Daron as new or re-subscribers to the monthly C3 Report. If you know of anyone else who could benefit from these monthlies, ask if they would like to receive them, then just let me know.

No November or December C3 Lunch Meetings!

The current plan is to begin meeting afresh in the New Year. Believe it or not, 2012 will mark the 10th year of lunch meetings. Every one of them has been different, with never the same people attending. What's striking is that people drive from as far away as Ramona, Temecula, the coast, and El Cajon. It's a level of commitment that's very energizing and rewarding. I'm already looking forward to January, and the Lord's blessing on our efforts to bring Him glory. TBD January (Tuesday) - Escondido: Marie Callender's; 615 West 13th Avenue - Lunch from 11:30 to 1:00 (Library Room)    TBD January (Thursday) - San Diego: Marie Callender's; 6950 Alvarado Road - Lunch from 11:30 to 1:00 (Library Room)

   

Activities Worth Pursuing to Become Better Equipped and Engaged

Get in the Game - run for office. If you're willing to consider running for elective office, go to: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/voters/Eng/Eindex.shtml and click on the "What are my electing districts?" option. It will help you determine in which districts you're eligible to run for election. 19 November: Election Integrity Project Training. Hosted by Ramona TEA'd at the Ramona Mainstage Theatre from 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. 626 Main Street, Ramona CA 92065. The Election Integrity Project is a non-partisan, educational, research and citizen action corporation with the sole and express purpose of securing FREE and FAIR elections in the state of California. 21 November: National Bible Day. For more information, go to:    http://www.nationalbible.org/nationaldayofthebible 21-22 November: ASCI Convention in Anaheim. The Association of Christian Schools International convention will be at 800 West Katella Avenue, Anaheim, CA 92802. Speakers include representatives from the Institute for Creation Research. Go to www.acsi.or for more information or call 800.367.5391. 24 November: Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for in this nation.  Praise God for the abundant blessings he gives to us in myriad ways, for our religious freedoms, and for the opportunity to live out our Great Commission and Salt and Light Mandates. 27-30 December: San Diego Christian Film festival. This year's local Christian film festival will be hosted at the La Jolla Marriott. Plan to participate by going to: www.sdcff2011.com for more information, or contacting Richard Bagdazian, at richard@glassseaproductions.com 21 January 2012: 8th Annual Walk for Life West Coast. This event is held in San Francisco each year. For information go to: www.walkforlifewc.com 22 Jan: Sanctify of Life Sunday.   Encourage your pastor to give a Pro-Life sermon and to exhort members to become engaged in Pro-Life ministry. Four Pro-Life organizations that could use your support include: http://www.pregnancyescondido.com Alternatives Women's Center (Escondido); http://www.ecpcc.org/events.php East County Pregnancy Care Clinic (El Cajon); http://www.mmpregnancy.com Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center (San Diego); http://www.ramonapregnancy.org Ramona Pregnancy Care Center (Ramona); http://www.birthchoice.net/  BirthChoice (Oceanside, San Marcos)    22-28 Jan 2012: National School Choice Week. For information go to: www.schoolchoiceweek.com

Ministry Tip #18 (November 2011)

Mentoring The Next Generation of Politicians. We're all familiar with church discipleship training and mentoring of young men and women to be godly spouses, parents, neighbors and workers. We also mentor promising youth to equip them for full- or part-time ministry. Have we ever considered mentoring young men and women to prepare them for elective office or public service in the policy arena? For that matter, have we ever spent time to encourage our own sons and daughters to consider public office as a career? Politics and public policy, whether serving as an elected official or as staff to decision makers, can be incredibly demanding, complex, gratifying, and spiritually draining. And like any other legitimate profession, it will rot if Christian influence is not present. It takes preparation, dedication, and good grounding in Biblical principles to undergird character development, and to understand the proper roles of individuals, families, the faith community and government in just law and policy development. Because of the far-reaching impact government has on our freedoms to worship, evangelize, preach the entire word of God, and to influence the culture around us, it's important we consider encouraging and preparing our best and brightest to serve us in the public domain. Creating a church ministry to do just that would be a challenge, but very rewarding. If you have elected officials in your church, they can become a rich source of wisdom and experience to partner with your gifted Bible teachers and mentors. If you don't have any, seek them out from other fellowships to share their lives with those of promise in your own church. Not only will your youth be better equipped to handle the corrosive environment they'll encounter, but the foundation will be laid for prayer support and accountability as they strive to serve faithfully for the public good, under its watchful eye.

Books Recently Read

Leaders Who Last: by Dave Kraft (2010; 148 pages).  Like so many books on leadership training, this one lays out a structured way to focus on what's important in a person's life in order to be an effective leader, for both pastors and church members. Mnemonics are used to remember the key points (i.e. Power; Purpose; Passion; Priorities; Pacing) which are very helpful. A no-nonsense approach to evaluating your level of commitment, giftedness, calling, character and approach to inspiring others (vision) is also included.  There are lots of examples to illustrate points, and scriptural principles are scattered throughout. One major weakness I found was that the role of the family and how to balance it with what can be characterized as a driven, passionate leader was very weak, and I think shortchanged the responsibility we have to provide for our family (1 Timothy 5:8). The second weakness is a clear trivializing of a pastor's role to shepherd the flock in their needs. Counseling is presented as something that saps a pastor's energy, keeping him away from being a leader, hence he should be letting others counsel those who are hurting. This is not a good Biblical understanding of the pastor's role (Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:1-4), and could do potential harm if not handled wisely. Don't Let The Kids Drink the Kool-Aid - Confronting the Left's Assault on our Family, Faith, and Freedom: by Marybeth Hicks (2011; 192 pages). This book is an excellent wakeup call for those who think the government (public) school system is fine and only has our children's best interests at heart. Hicks exposes the bankrupt ideology that permeates public education and the extent to which our school system has been made into a weapon used to counter our values, and our faith, while allowing academic excellence to take a secondary role. Though the book is long on exposing, it's very short in what a parent can effectively do to counter or correct the darkness engulfing our schools. The exception is the last chapter that concentrates on the equipping of our own children in civic virtues and the importance of protecting our children's innocence. The book is an easy read, stocked with many examples of vile material and moral relativism and tolerance (tolerance for anything but Christianity), and is a great eye opener for those unaware of what is going on. Commentary   Some Candidate Selection Criteria Every election I'm bombarded with "family value" listings showing the position of candidates on issues I should be concerned about. Many times these lists only show responses that are opposite from each other for the competing candidates - if one answer is Yes, the other is No, and vice-versa. For me, these are only helpful if: the responses are accurate (with good source documentation to support it), the topics are what I'm most concerned about, and third - they cover a wide enough spectrum of issues to give a full picture of each candidate. Although many of us have a mental short list of "non-negotiables," it's instructive to actually write down what our personal key decision factors are. For the Presidential race, as well as every other elective office, there's always going to be a tradeoff since it's extremely rare to have a viable candidate who fulfills all our expectations. This is almost certainly true if our "Non-negotiable" list is a long one.  When that happens, and it will again this coming year, I encourage voting to prevent the election of the candidate who will do the greater harm, instead of refusing to vote at all or for a candidate who has no opportunity to win. With those cautions my tentative short list (in roughly priority order) of issues important to me for any elective office is as follows:    1. Life. I'm strongly pro-life from conception to natural death. If a candidate doesn't get this right, why would I want to trust them with any other decisions, since their worldview and values are completely alien to mine? 2. Faith. I'm a Christian, and I would prefer to see sincere, knowledgeable, experienced, qualified and talented Christians in office. However, I'm not comfortable with on-the-job training for naive Christians trying to figure out how to apply their faith and Biblical principles to the complex problems we face. There's hope for them, but risks also. Those who claim to be Christian, yet deny the fundamentals of the faith or the authority of Scripture in their lives, are very suspect and not to be trusted. Other faiths (and particularly Atheists) are even farther removed from Biblical values and as a result even less desirable. 3. Family. I'm strongly pro-family and decry anything or anyone that: weakens parental authority or the traditional family structure; supports counterfeit marriage (same-sex); or mainstreams perversion or immorality (e.g. domestic partnerships, homosexual special rights, gender confusion, pornography, etc.    4. Role of Government. Government at all levels has become too powerful, too thirsty for tax revenue, too intrusive in our lives and the economy, too removed from accountability, too addicted to making people dependent upon entitlements, too ignorant of their proper role, and too much in debt at virtually every level. If any candidate cannot clearly see the injustice and irresponsibility that exists, then they cannot be expected to make a positive change at any level. 5. Fiscal Restraint. I believe government at virtually every level has shown itself to be incapable of being responsible, good stewards of our money. Excessive taxation and uncontrolled debt is theft, and should be treated as such. Anything less than a commitment to reduce taxes, massively reduce spending, and balance budgets is unacceptable. 6. Defense. As a sovereign nation we have the right to defend ourselves, our interests, and our allies. We weaken our ability to do this at our own peril. Our service men and women, as well as their civilian leadership, are due the honor and support they deserve. Though open and honest dialogue is needed on the extent of our military role in the world, one nation in particular deserves our protection and counsel - Israel. 7. Economy. Our country is the most prosperous in history, but this prosperity breeds greed, selfishness, and irresponsibility. Government should punish obvious evil, but it shouldn't take over the free enterprise system that has served most people well, it shouldn't redistribute wealth and incentivize dependency and de-incentivize hard work and accountability, and it shouldn't choose who will be winners and losers (through targeted taxation). In addition, government's role is not to take over the massive health care industry, which would surely doom it to becoming purely pragmatic, excessively expensive, and intolerably broken. 8. Illegal Immigration. I believe in: strong, controlled borders, a national dialogue on appropriate legal immigration criteria, enforcing laws to prevent the hiring of illegals, extending compassion to visitors in emergency situations, and removal of entitlement benefits (welfare, public school access, health benefits, etc.) from access by illegals. But what about the chronically poor, the homeless, our foreign energy dependency, the environment and climate change, public schools, gambling, the Fairness Doctrine, corporate bailouts, and on and on? Obviously, there are endless issues that need to be addressed from the local to national levels. That's why it's important to carefully consider what, if any, your short list of "non-negotiables" is. We all want candidates whose policy positions are the same as ours and are electable. But the reality is that we may have to compromise on some matters in order to prevent the vilest option from taking office. In doing so, we need to have a clear conscience when we vote, and be as objective as possible about the consequences.     Free Meal Offer Lately, I've had a number of outstanding conversations with ministry leaders at lunch. If you have a pastor or ministry leader that's willing to discuss the why's and how-to's in establishing a Christian Citizenship (or Salt & Light) Ministry in a legal, Christ-honoring, Biblically balanced way, let me know and I'll take them to lunch to discuss it. Obviously, there's no obligation on the pastor's part.  Frank Kacer frankkacer@hotmail.com Executive Director of the Christian Citizenship Council (C3) of San Diego C3 is a 501(c)3 organization, serving the Christian community since 2004 www.christiancitizenshipcouncil.org    C3 Vision Statement  "The Christian Citizenship Council of San Diego exists to encourage and equip Churches and believers to apply biblical principles to all spheres of the culture around us, and to all of life" (Matt 5:13-16; 16:18; 22:39; Jer 29:7) "When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan" (Prov 29:2)