First of the Month will be a regular way to connect with Dave, hear his heart and God's direction for our church.

First of the Month ~ Jan 2010

Dear Family,

I can't believe it is 2010. It sounds so futuristic don't you think? I am so excited about this year and I want to share with you why.

Starting January 1 as a church family we will begin reading the Bible together by using the DDP Devotionals. Each day we will:
• Read a chapter a day from God's Word
• Write down an important insight
• Pray over what God is telling us, and
• Live it out
Read it, write it, pray it, live it!

I can't wait to hear all the stories of God working in and through our lives as we spend time in his Word. If you want God's blessing in your life then read his Word:
"Blessed is the man (woman) who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” Psalm 1:1-3

If you want God to transform your life then read his word: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2 If you want blessing and transformation from the Lord the only way to get it is by daily spending time in God's word.

I am also excited about our new series entitled, "Family Matters." It will be starting January 10. I will be sharing with you a five week mini-series on how to raise a spiritual family in these difficult times we live in. The series will be both Bible based, honest, straight forward, and I will share practical tools to help you and your family become all that God created you to be. I strongly encourage you to come.

To coincide with the "Family Matters" series we will launch our Growth Groups. There will be special questions that we will help your entire group help each other in the parenting endeavor. We want to encourage all of you to join one of our Growth Groups in January. Real community, support, and maturity happen in the context of a small group. I want to encourage you to sign up today for a group. If your group worked well, sign-up for that Growth Group again. If you want to try another one, feel total freedom to do so, no questions asked. It is okay to try another group.

2010 is going to be a great year for SCBC, and I hope you will be a part of what God is going to do in us and through us.

Love,  Dave

Letter to the Body ~ Dec 16 2009

Dear Santa Cruz Bible Church Family, December 16, 2009

As the year comes to an end, we look back with much gratitude on the amazing things that God has done in 2009. SCBC has become a place of outreach where all of Santa Cruz can come to learn about the unconditional love of Jesus. As part of this, our church family has created two extremely successful outreach efforts: the Fall Festival and Santa Cruz’n Christmas - where our community experienced the love of Jesus in a fresh and new way. At each event, we had well over 300 volunteers from our church body! What a wonderful testimony to the work that you all decided to do together.

We have multiple reasons to be encouraged and celebrate what God has done at SCBC, but we also need to honestly address the challenges of future ministry efforts for the kingdom. At present our finances have fallen behind our projected budgetary needs by about $80,000 with six months of our fiscal year remaining. Because we are a family, the Elders would be remiss by not bringing this to your attention and addressing it as we should.

The Elders are aware that times are tough, but it is our responsibility to make you aware of the SCBC finances. God is not limited by a recession. He is the ultimate Provider, and it is a biblical mandate to faithfully give of all our resources – time, talent and treasure. Therefore, the Elders have agreed that we will take the lead and model what we are now asking of you all. The Elders are committing to increase our giving not just in December, but for the rest of the fiscal year. We request that each of you ask God what additional offering He would have you give for Him in December and throughout the fiscal year.

Our mission at SCBC is to “introduce people to the love of Jesus and grow them into fully devoted followers of Him." We have had an exciting year where God has used us to reach our community and now we look forward with great anticipation to all God has in store for our church family in 2010. Join us as we all partner together this coming year to make Santa Cruz Bible Church a place where people can experience the love of our Savior in an authentic and exciting way.

In His service,
Your SCBC Elders

"One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works."
Psalm 145:4-5 NIV

December 2009

Keeping Christ At The Center Of Christmas
Our goal is to keep Jesus at the center of Christmas. It is His birthday and so in honor of Him we want to make sure He is the real reason for the season. Don’t allow the busyness and the pace to pull you away from the Savior. “Unto to us a child is given.” Let’s make a commitment to keep Christ at the center of Christmas.

Santa Cruz’n Christmas
Imagine it is the 1950’s with muscle cars, the local dinner, girls walking around in poodle skirts, and guys wearing their hair slicked back. What a fun time to remember. Well, happy days are here again. December 11 and 12 from 6:00-8:30pm our campus will be transformed right before your eyes. You and your family can experience a Hay Ride, go have a burger at the diner, enjoy a fun puppet show, get to know some animals at our wonderful petting zoo, and be touched by a moving drama presentation. There is truly something for everyone. This will become one of your favorite family traditions. So come and join us, but don’t come alone. Invite a friend or a neighbor to join us. One night bring your family and the second night bring a friend, or a coworker. You will not regret it. We are going to have a fantastic time together.

Daily Devotional Plan (DDP)
Starting January 1 we are inviting the entire SCBC family to join us in a simple one year Bible devotional plan we call Daily Devotional Plan or DDP for short. The DDP includes reading one chapter a day in the Bible, writing down some easy notes, and reading a prayer for the day. We want all of the SCBC family to do this together. The DDP will help you keep track of your studying, reflection, and prayer. I am asking you to try this and see if God doesn’t begin to do some wonderful things in your life because you are daily reading and applying His Word. We will be selling the DDP at cost.

A Gift To Jesus
We know the economy is difficult right now and some of you are really struggling. We are doing everything we can to give some financial relief. For those of you who are doing okay we need you to step up to the plate and help us end the calendar year in the black financially. Would you be willing to make an extra effort to offer the Lord Jesus a financial gift this Christmas? We really could use you sacrificially help. As I am writing this, we are over $ 60,000 behind and will your support we can erase this deficit. I am asking you to prayerfully consider helping us.

Sports Leagues
Don’t forget to sign your kids up to one of our up-coming sports leagues. We are so excited to offer a variety of sports to your kids that not only allow your kids to have fun, learn some skill, but also grow in their relationship with Jesus.

November 2009

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun
I can't believe that I have already been here one year. The time has gone so quickly. I want you to know that I feel so blessed to be your Pastor. It is such an honor and a privilege to serve the Lord with you. I love being here with you, and I look forward to many days ahead as we get to join the Lord in the work He has for us.

ShareFest
Patty and I had such a great time working side by side with some great Santa Cruzers as we sanded, painted, gardened, and built benches for Gault Elementary School. It was so enjoyable to see the enthusiasm and the sacrifice of so many people demonstrating the love of Jesus to our neighbors.

Growth Groups
We have heard such wonderful feedback from those who joined our Growth Groups. We know they will be ending soon, but if your group is going well, keep going. If your group just didn't mesh well, come back in January and just find another group, no questions asked and no guilt given.

A Must Attend Service
On November 8, it is imperative that everyone attend one of the morning services. On that day we are going to look at our last church from the Book of Revelation and that church is SCBC. I have asked the staff and elders to give me their feedback as to how they think the Lord Jesus would evaluate our church. On November 8, I will share with you some of that feedback. I'm telling you, this is a service you don't want to miss. I hope to see everyone there.


Dave

October 2009

There are two areas I would like to focus on this month. One is "yeah God," while the other is a challenge.

Growth Groups
We have had a tremendous response in our new Growth Groups; almost 380 people signed up to participate in one of our Growth Groups. We are hearing some wonderful comments coming from all over the county. Here is a smattering of what people have been saying over the past couple of weeks:
1. "I forgot how much I need a group to help me grow."
2. "I grow best in the context of a small group."
3. "I was scared to attend our first group, but it has been great."
4."It feels good to see God working at Santa Cruz Bible again."
5."I love the people in my group."
We praise and thank God for the new day He is bringing to SCBC.

Youth Ministry
I want to encourage you as a parent to make sure you take an active role in your child's spiritual life. I am always impressed how parents make their kids get involved in sports, recitals, dance classes, school work, etc... Parents do this because they want the best for their kids. What is worrisome to me is that many of those same parents, who demand so much from their kids educationally and developmentally, require so little from their children spiritually. Just as a good parent makes their kid go to school because they know school is good for their child, so a godly parent strongly encourages their teenager go to youth group because they know spiritual development is the most important development a child can have. My encouragement to parents is this, stop giving into all your kids' excuses as to why they don't, or can't, or shouldn't have to go to youth ministry. You would never accept those excuses in their academic education. Why in the world would you accept those excuses when it comes to the Lord? Parents, I love you. So in love I'm asking you to be more responsible and take more initiative in your teenager's spiritual development. Encourage them to go to youth group on Sundays or ------- during the week. Don't take no for an answer. Here is one thing I do know. Teenagers who grow spiritually and have a group of friends that want to grow spiritually usually end up spiritual adults.

Love Ya,
Dave

Dear SCBC Family,
Fall means many things to many people, especially those with children. For those of us with kids, it means not only school, but a complete change in the schedule. And like most of you, we too, are headed for a new season of change. With that in mind, I want to not only email my September “First of the Month” letter, but felt it was important to mail it to you also, assuring everyone could get brought up to speed.

A New Day
I hope you are as excited about our future here at SCBC as I am! Someone has wisely said, “In the end, it doesn’t really matter what you’ve been through, what really matters is where you are going.” I know we’ve been through a lot in the past few years, but what matters now; the only thing that matters now is where we are going. God isn’t through with us yet; He has great plans for us. I truly believe that with all my heart. It’s a new day for Santa Cruz Bible Church. I’m so thankful that God has privileged me to partner with you, as we join our powerful God and experience what He is going to do in us and through us. It’s a new day!

A New Mission
This fall I am so looking forward to sharing with all of you, our new Santa Cruz Bible Church mission. After months of prayer and seeking God’s direction we will lay out for you where we are headed. I want to strongly encourage you to attend my next series, “The 8 Warning From The Book Of Revelation” so that you can catch a glimpse of our new mission for SCBC.

A New Goal
I’m calling the New Goal, “8 for 8”. “8 for 8” is our desire to have every single adult that attends SCBC join a short-term small group for eight weeks, so that we can share with all of you our new direction as a church. We are asking for only eight weeks. Not nine weeks or ten weeks, just eight weeks. We will have small group options scattered throughout Santa Cruz County in order to make it easy for you to participate in one of these groups. As your pastor I am asking every single one of you to trust God and be a part of one of these groups.

A New Worship Service Approach
Starting September 13 we will be starting a new worship service approach. At 9:00am will have our Contemporary Service. The Contemporary Service will have a softer sound, brighter lights, and utilize the choir more. While the 10:45am Alternative Service will have a bolder sound and more progressive feel. Pick whichever one works for you.

A New Look
The next time you come to Santa Cruz Bible Church you will instantly notice a new look. The lobby has been freshly painted and some new pictures will soon be going up. Some new furniture is coming in order to create a warmer feel and a more family atmosphere. It is a new look for a new day!

A New Switch
In order to create more community and to better utilize the wonderful Book Store we have, we are making a switch. We are in the process switching the bookstore and the church library. This switch is happening as we speak. Our goal is to capitalize on the wonderful resource of the bookstore. We will open up the entrance for easy access and highlight a “book of the month” to help you get the best Christian resources in your hands. We will provide quality books and tools to help you raise your family, build your marriage, cope with difficult times, and grow spiritually. The church library will move over to the coffee house and offer the same quality materials as before.

Our commitment is to team up with people like you to impact our community for Christ!

Get Excited ~ God is doing a New Thing,
Dave Michelson

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now, it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 42:19