Living on Mission at City Hall (by Brendie Heter)

God laid the groundwork for my mission field many many years ago. I was a strange child who watched CSPAN and volunteered on political campaigns. What can I say? I loved Jesus and politics!

I had no trouble deciding a major in college and signed up for Political Studies at the Master's College. While I loved my classes and professors, attending Master's really messed with my mind as a "career-minded" female. I became depressed because the other girls had lofty and clear "spiritual paths".

Most women were on serious missions to nab a pastor as a husband but I had actually made a vow never to marry a pastor when I was 11....I saw how hard it was on my sisters and wanted no part in professional ministry. Satan would constantly remind me how "lacking" I was and how often I had failed. I felt constantly under attack and "spiritually naked" surrounded by these women. Basically, I was confused about how I could serve the Lord while NOT married to a pastor. I couldn't sew, knit, and knew I wasn't called for full-time ministry ....so how could God use me?

I continued my passion for politics and worked on Capitol Hill in DC and then landed a great job with the City of Santa Clarita my senior year. Within the first week of my new job at City Hall, it just "clicked" and I knew I was in the right place. My co-workers encouraged me, pointed out gifts I didn't know I had, molded, and mentored me for advancement. HERE, I finally belonged!
I felt like an outsider in the Christian community but felt uplifted and loved at work.

Sadly, I focused more on this career then I did my relationship with the Lord. I will admit, I fell many times and damaged my testimony. I had an image of a proper "Christian Woman" and I just couldn't be her. And then...started believing I couldn't serve the Lord the "right way".

It was my roommate, Kellie Espino (then Kellie McDonald) who told me to make City Hall my mission field. We were sitting in our old apartment and I will never forget how stunned I was. It was a concept I never heard of and it was SO RELIEVING. I lost a HUGE burden off my shoulders. If she was right, God had actually placed me in this mission field and I wasn't somehow an outsider???

City Hall is challenging for many reasons. It's an amazing place to work but also easy to get distracted with career goals rather than living purposely. Sometimes I speak to the most difficult, rude people on the planet. Sometimes their self-inflated sense of entitlement makes me want to either laugh or scream. However, I have to be very careful in how I react to these people because I know I'm being watched.

Lately, opportunities have come from talking to co-workers about the biblical view on marriage. Going through the engagement process at work was interesting because the marriage "advice" started coming almost immediately. I was able to share the beauty of the gospel to friends by explaining God's "advice", His view on marriage.

My job has also opened the door, to the "social scene" of Santa Clarita. There are HUNDREDS of non-profit in towns but sadly believers are pitifully represented. These people are amazing, generous, kind and for the most part don't need recognition. They are serving the community passionately but are empty. This is a particularly hard mission field since they are amazing on their own strength and seemingly they don't need anything. Volunteering along side unbelievers has provided great opportunities to explain why I volunteer and who I ultimately serve.

The series on "Living on Mission" has been so powerful for my life. I've been challenged and encouraged. A few weeks back Brian read: "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ...God making his appeal through us!" I Cor 5:20

As a political nerd, this verse struck me because "ambassador" is a term for a high-ranking government official. Ambassadors are chosen very carefully. It takes a LOT of work to become one and he/she has been given a serious task. The Lord's Ambassadors are expected use their position to further the Lord's kingdom not their own.

I have been called to be an Ambassador for Christ in City Hall and through out Santa Clarita Valley. It's not glamorous and often frustrating. But it's exactly where the Lord has me and I'm grateful for the opportunity.

The Women's Gathering Recap (by Jennifer Jackson)

Women's Ministry at Copperhill Church exists to create an environment where women can build lasting friendships while pursuing deeper intimacy with Christ. Our first gathering was held August 14th, which we hope is the beginning of what should be a promising string of women's fellowship events at our church.

The night began with mingling and greeting. A kind welcome and opening prayer from Cathy Daniels prepared our hearts for the tremendous testimony to be shared by Kellie Davenport. Kellie vulnerably shared how the Lord had brought her and her husband to a better understanding of living life with purpose through Him as she testified to the sufferings of having a child with unexpected health problems. Her words of wisdom coupled with her brutal honesty were just what were needed to challenge the women to think outside of their comfort zones or possibly release any feelings they had been harboring due to difficult times in their own lives. Kellie challenged our whole group to ask for the Lord's strength in suffering knowing that it would come our way. Kellie summarized her testimony and goal in sharing by saying that she is nothing apart from Christ and suffers only for the glory of the Lord who is able to sustain us in hard times.

Kellie shared a verse from 1 Peter 3:14-15, which says "But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you." Through suffering, we grow in our understanding of this hope and God can use us to be a testimony to a hopeless world.

After Kellie finished sharing her testimony, we broke off into a time of reflection and sharing. It was an opportunity to hear about how other women in our church have suffered and how the Lord's faithfulness was their refuge and strength. Hearing of God's work in Kellie's family provided a reminder of our need for an eternal perspective. The many suffering stories that were shared that night posed as a challenge for the rest of the women to see suffering through Biblical lenses.

The Copperhill Women's event was a gathering blessed by God and one which will be remembered by all who were in attendance. This is just one of the many events which will be held so that the women of our church can grow in relationship, accountability, friendship, and Christ-like character with one another.

Note: Ladies, please mark your calendars for our next Women's Gathering. It will be Friday evening, December 4 at the Church Warehouse. More details to follow.

Men's Getaway Recap (by Scott Newman)

On Friday October 2nd, fifty-five of Copperhill's men loaded up their camping gear and piled into trucks for a weekend men's retreat at the Ocean Mesa campground at El Capitan State Beach. As all men know, there are three key ingredients for a successful men's retreat: food, fun and fellowship over God's Word. Our retreat fit the bill in just about every way to make for yet another successful men's retreat to finish out 2009.

It is seriously questionable whether there has ever been better camp food than what the men feasted on at the retreat. Master chef Brantley Dunaway basically imported a roving kitchen to craft the incredible meals to keep the guys going during all the activities. Special thanks are due Brantley for taking his weekend (and his retreat time) to serve our men in the food department.

The weekend was also a great time to both relax and compete together. The late night campfire on Friday night mixed with fresh baked cookies, good conversations, cigars and a starlit sky made for a memorable and calming evening. Saturday, following a morning devotion, the afternoon was spent on the beach. Most of the men enjoyed playing semi-tackle flag football organized by Luis Espino. Although many of us came back sore and bruised it's hard to spend a more worthwhile afternoon than playing football on the beach.

Most importantly, we were blessed and honored to have a wonderful retreat speaker this year. We were joined by Matt Troupe, an Acts 29 planter who helped start Free Grace Church in Fresno, CA. He challenged our men with the concept of living "Coram Deo", a fancy Latin phrase, which means that our entire lives are lived out in front of God. As Psalm 139 makes clear, God is intimately aware of every detail of our lives. This is comforting for us because we know that God is aware and cares about all of our concerns. However, it also reminds us that the infinitely holy God is aware of every single way that we fail to give him the honor He deserves. Understanding this helps make the Gospel come alive because it teaches us that God, who is fully aware of the ways that we sin against Him, nevertheless sent His Son to die a horrible death in our place. Then, because of Jesus' death, God is now able to shower grace into our lives so that we are enabled to give Him the honor He's due in our every-day life circumstance.

One Year in India (by Mike Gundersen)

This year has been an enlightening one. When I first arrived in India, I was overwhelmed with the amount of work to do. I found myself suddenly in charge of six Indian people whose languages I did not speak and cultures I did not understand. As the months went by, God was gracious in allowing me to learn how they thought, the cultural and language differences. Friendships began to form as we worked through the hot summer and cold winter, serving daily alongside each other. God was at work in our lives.

As the year progressed, God continually exhibited his graciousness. He allowed me to be comfortable here, find my place here in Delhi, and work alongside my friends instead of just being an administrator among strangers. We got the operation running more smoothly and I had learned to live in a new world.

The work here encompassed many different things. Here are some highlights: English classes were taught, medicine was distributed, food was shared, blankets given, slum kids were tutored. Also, our ultimate goal of reaching university students through the work of PMI was realized in a number of lives. Their names are Sonu, Chanda, Mehnaz, Sandeep, Roman and Pooja.

I’ve learned much over this year about my own weaknesses. It was interesting to see how they exhibit themselves in a different culture. But our God is gracious and has taught me, and is still teaching me, to rely upon Him for the strength to get the work done, to go before Him in prayer for all my needs and to give Him the praise for the work He’s done, is doing and will continue to do.

Continue to pray for the work going on here. India is a very dark country, and is in desperate need of the Lord. Pray for the workers called here, to be faithful to their calling. I hope this encourages you to be faithful to your own calling, relying upon the Lord’s strength and to have your will aligned perfectly with that of our heavenly Father’s.

The Copperhill Jr. High Ministry, a Serious Faith in an Exciting, Youthful Way (by Jennifer Jackson)

The Junior High Ministry almost dismantled last December 2008. But a group of men in our church, Joe Powell, Coleman Falco, and James Daniels, stepped up and saw the importance of continuing the ministry. As a result of their faithfulness to the Lord and His provision, a group of leaders were formed who were extremely passionate about seeing Jr. High students reached for Christ. Since then, many awesome things have happened. Our ministry has had over 30 students come through and runs a steady group of core students who desire to learn more about Christ and their purpose in Him.

We started with Sunday morning gatherings. We slowly saw an increase in our attendance and saw glimpses of the desire of our students to truly know more about God’s word and how it applies to their lives. Our Sunday morning’s have provided an opportunity to teach our youth about Christ’s walk to the cross and His sacrifice for sin; our sins and theirs. Most importantly it is a time to reflect upon our walk with the Lord and provoke preparation for the upcoming week which will without a doubt be full of life’s challenges and spiritual warfare.

Our desire to encourage adult like faith and responsibility in a group of Jr. High students is completely driven from our belief that age cannot and will not be an excuse or an obstacle to whole heartedly pursue Christ and be used by Him. This is why we decided we would need more than just Sunday mornings to influence the wonderful students the Lord had put in our ministry.

We launched our Wednesday night gatherings in April and have seen quite the success with our nights full of competition and the preaching of the Word. Our students love to play crab soccer and dodge ball and if you ever visited you would most certainly find a leader getting in on the action. They also get involved in the discussions and leave with a challenge to live their lives for Christ in a personal stimulating way. Our leaders are very grateful for Wednesday nights because they have enabled us and the students to get to know each other quicker and form bonds that will not easily be broken.

We held Jr. High summer camp in July. It was an opportunity for our leaders to grow in leadership and organization, but most importantly in edifying relationships with one another in the Lord. There were many areas to plan and prepare as each leader played a significant role in the overwhelming success of our camp. We took our students to a cabin a little over an hour north of Santa Clarita and away from the many distractions of technology, busy schedules, sports and the many other anxieties of life.

Before we even left for camp there were many obstacles and stumbling blocks. But the Lord knew exactly what would prepare our hearts to focus on Him and what it means to worship Him in spirit and in truth. How providential that our theme for the weekends’ messages was focused on Worship through prayer and the Word, music, and obedience. In spite of the late take off, flat tire, lost sleeping bag, and lack of street lights to guide our way, we arrived. How amazing that in this day in age we were able to take a group of about 20 students to a place where cell phone reception was absent and the opportunity to fully worship the Lord was overwhelmingly available. All we had to do, all they had to do, was embrace it and run full force toward the cross.

Our students did run toward the only One who is worthy of our praise both with music and in life style. There were many opportunities to speak openly about the lessons and the challenges when we broke off into small groups. Students were encouraged to specifically share ways that the truths of the Word could be applied to their lives. We had a blessed time together that weekend and we look forward to other trips and getaways we may have together as a ministry.

The Lord is blessing the Copperhill Jr. High Ministry tremendously. In fact we have been so blessed; one could say that the only thing we need or should ask for would be that both leaders and students would have a continued blessing and deeper desire to know Him more. Our prayer is that each student that comes through our ministry is presented with the truths of the Gospel and the reality of the Christian walk in light of their age and purpose in life. David was a man after God’s own heart and was joyfully growing in the Lord at a very young age. We want our Jr. High students to know that their age is not something that should hold them back in their faith, but it is something that the Lord can and will use to enhance their faith.

We thank you for your prayers and support. Please continue to join with us in prayer for the hearts and lives of each and every one of our Jr. High students, both present and future. With the Lord’s blessing there will be a future for this significant ministry, which is such a vital part of any local church, especially ours.

“Souled Out” for Christ (by Luis Espino)

It’s amazing that summer has come and gone already. If feels like yesterday that the high school ministry was just leaving for Hume Lake. Our summer has been filled with beach trips, BBQ’s and sun.

The summer began with the ministry going up to Hume Lake for our annual summer camp getaway. This year, four of our students, Luke Wesselhoff, Max Greaber, Ashleigh Hill, and Shawn Taylor, accepted the Lord. This was amazing to witness for all of us and a great encouragement as a ministry.

We finished teaching through the Sermon on the Mount that we had been going through since last summer. As a ministry, we wanted to take the students through a section of scripture that dealt directly with the heart of following Jesus and that they would learn what it means to be a follower of Christ. Not only was it challenging for the students, but even more challenging for myself. I am overwhelmed at how much the Lord desires all of our life and not just a part of it. He is after a heart of joyful obedience and an understanding that it’s not a process of “doing” things, where instead He cares greatly for the motives in which we do them.

We are now changing gears to dig fully into who God is. We’ll be studying the different attributes of God so that we can have a better understanding of who God is. A.W. Pink wrote “The foundation of all true knowledge of God must be a clear mental apprehension of His perfections as revealed in Holy Scripture. An unknown God can neither be trusted, served, or worshipped.” We want our high school students to have an accurate view and knowledge of God. We desire that this would lead them to a greater intimacy with Him.

Please remember to keep our staff and our students in your prayers. If you would like more information on the high school ministry, please feel free to contact me anytime.

Overview of Counseling Ministry at Copperhill Church (by Josh Sheridan)

The counseling program at Copperhill is committed to the sufficiency of the Word. This means, in essence, that this counseling ministry recognizes not only the validity of the Bible as a means of theological enlightenment, but also as essential to understanding, and handling the issues of life. This includes the wide variety of counseling issues that affect the Church.

In addition, a counseling ministry is not merely a separate entity that exists independently of other ministries. Instead, it is meant that biblical counseling is seamlessly integrated into the ministry, goals, and direction of the church as a whole. Biblical counseling, therefore, is really a form of focused discipleship based on ministering the Word of God.

The counseling ministry is dedicated to helping people in the process of conformity to the image of Christ through the loving, skillful, and practical application of biblical principles to the issues of life. This means that rather than "throw" scripture at a problem, counselors seek to partner with the counselee as in Galatians 6:1-3, coming alongside of them in order to work through the issues the counselee is struggling with. This involves a level of commitment, intimacy, and dedication seen nowhere else, but inherent in and particularly suited to the church.

It is also the believed that the ideal context for long-term growth as a believer and resolution of a given issue occurs in the context of community. Therefore ultimately the initial interactions and interventions of the counseling ministry at Copperhill Church serve functionally in a crisis management role, with long-term discipleship occurring through the shepherding done at the community group level. While no specific length of time is demanded with regards to how long a counselor spends with a counselee, it should be understood by both parties that the goal is to integrate the counselee into a community group for long-term growth and discipleship.

The principles of Matthew 18 also apply to the counseling ministry. This means that we take sin seriously, and do not seek to label it as anything other than what it is. On the other hand, it is essentially that counseling take place in a loving caring atmosphere where sin is confronted, but grace abounds. While genuine repentance is a vital aspect of true change, it is understood that some life dominating patterns that develop take time to change. With this in mind, the church discipline of Matthew 18 is applied with the spirit of grace it was meant to incorporate, while at the same time addressing an unrepentant heart in a biblical fashion.

The goal of the counseling ministry is to not merely help individuals out of difficult circumstances, or change behaviors, but to come alongside individuals so that they might grow in their maturity as a Christian and their likeness to the image of Christ. Ephesians 5:1,2 says, "Be imitators of God therefore as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering, and sacrifice to God."

If you are interested, or know someone who might need counseling, please contact the Church office for further information.