Sunnyvale Campus Launch

Yesterday was a historic day. South Bay became one church in two locations as we launched our Sunnyvale campus! After years of dreaming and months of intense planning, the day had arrived!

Andy preached an awesome sermon as we began our new message series called, "Overloaded." Over the next five weeks we are asking God to teach us how to "escape marginless living." Click here to listen to his sermon.

It was a PACKED house at the Sunnyvale Community center. There was standing room only in the auditorium as we all squeezed in like sardines to be apart of the excitement. The total count was 496! Pastor Filipe announced at the end of the service that we will immediately be starting a 2nd service NEXT SUNDAY! The new service times will be 10:00 and 11:30.

BayKids really showed off yesterday. Every child was greeted with balloons and tons of friendly volunteers. They had music, Bible stories, crafts, and snacks. The kids also loved the bouncy houses and goodie bags! What kid wouldn't have a blast and beg their parents to bring them back?!?

The space for elementary kids was amazing. So big and bright. They even had 4 games stations for the kids to play with before and afterwards!

My heart was bursting with pride as I saw all of the volunteers serving so diligently with such joy. There is SO MUCH joy and life and community in being on a team serving in ways that truly make a difference. God used these people (and many more not pictured) to pull this off! I pray they feel a deep level of fulfillment and the smile of Jesus as they offer their heartfelt service to Him!

I can't wait to see all that God does through this Sunnyvale campus. Unending potential!

The Lord has done great things for us,

and we are filled with JOY!

Psalm 126:3

Five Years Ago today

Do you remember what you were doing 5 years ago today? I, for one, will never forget.

Andy and I had been separated for the better of two weeks as he left Caedmon & me in South Carolina to begin his cross country trek to California. He drove to Texas, loaded a U-Haul with all of our stuff that was in storage, and then drove that U-Haul (pulling a car) from Dallas to San Jose all by himself. In the week before Caedmon & I arrived, he was attempting to find/rent somewhere for us to live AND get moved in...all by himself! He was my hero.

August 26 was the day Caedmon & I were scheduled to arrive in San Jose. But after the computer system in Atlanta crashed causing a dreadful travel experience with an almost 2 year old, we finally made it on August 27. We were deliriously tired, but oh so excited to be HOME!

It was the strangest feeling. I had read books where missionaries said that when they landed in China or Ecuador or _______ that they felt like they were finally home. I never understood that until I landed in California. I had been raised all my life as a Southern Girl (capitalized on purpose as that term is a proper noun), but you would have thought I was born and bred for the Silicon Valley.

That season of our lives was so full of excitement and promise. God had given us a God-sized dream, and every day we were watching it unfold before our eyes. We knew no one when we landed here, but one friendship at a time, one cookout at a time, one playgroup at a time, God started forming a network of people who would become South Bay Church.

As I look back over the past 5 years, my heart is BURSTING with joy and gratitude for all that God has done. South Bay has grown from 3 families to over 1500 people in weekly attendance. We've seen hundreds of people surrender their lives to Jesus and find new life in Him. We've seen marriages restored, people begin to thrive as they use their gifts, and community grow.

We've watched our almost 2 year old grow into an almost 7 year old. We've journeyed through an adoption and had our hearts hijacked by a gorgeous Ethiopian little boy who is now our son. We've felt the indescribable strength and love of a community of faith as South Bay grieved with us in our miscarriage and cheered wildly when we announced our current pregnancy.

Sometimes people thank us for being willing to move here to start South Bay Church. But let me tell ya, it is pure JOY for us. While they thank us, we just thank Jesus that He brought us here. There is no where else we would rather be and nothing else we would rather be doing. What a privilege it is to serve the King!

Here's to the next 5 amazing years! (And the 5 after that, and the 5 after that, and the...)

ME- in 5 sentences or less

Andy & I were so honored to be ask to speak for part of the SEND Conference in July. It's going to be an awesome event for a lot of leaders who are passionate about seeing the love Jesus made known throughout North America. Andy & I are NOT main-stage speakers. No, no, no. Not nearly that important. But! We are excited just to get to be there and do a breakout session.

Today they asked for my bio.

???

How would you sum up the totality of who you are in just a few sentences? What gives the best glimpse of your life? Your history? Your education? Your job-title?

Here's what I came up with. Yes, I'm serious. I actually sent this in to be printed.

Stacie and her husband, Andy, moved cross-country to San Jose, CA in August '08 to start South Bay Church. They have two boys, Caedmon (6) and Sammy (4). She spends most days in yoga pants cleaning up peanut butter smears and spilt milk. She homeschools when they get around to it and thinks the day has been an enormous success if she can work out, shower, read her Bible, and write a blog post all in one day. She is an expert at building LEGO creations, a champion at UNO, and has been known to bust a move in a spontaneous dance party in the living room.

I thought that captured my life pretty well. I hope they like it (and will still let me speak)!

It's good for the flesh.

This past weekend, our church served at Santa Clara's Art & Wine festival. This is always a special event for our church because, not only is it the largest city event that we help with, it also was our first connection point with the city.

When the Wood, Santos, and Jackson families first moved to the Bay Area in 2008, we served at the Santa Clara Art & Wine festival less than 2 weeks after we arrived (still living out of boxes). With the help of a mission team from one of our partner churches, we hosted a booth, picked up trash, and helped with set up/tear down. People thought we were some big established church but we actually didn't even have a meeting location or a launch team yet!

For the past 4 years, South Bay Church's presence at the Art & Wine Festival has gotten more and more prevalent. As the city has learned that they can trust us, they have asked us to take on more and more responsibility.

This year South Bay Church provided over 250 volunteers to serve at the event. What a statement to our city! This church is here to love and bless our city! We probably had thousands of people stop by our both and 700 of them filled out info cards. Our team is working like crazy to follow up with all 700 people before our "Big Day" this Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon, Andy, the boys, and I were on our way to the festival for our "shift". We were getting there right as the festival ended to help with the massive clean up effort. Caedmon was (dramatically) disappointed when he realized that the festival was over. I guess kettle corn and carnival rides sounded a lot better to him then picking up trash. Go figure.

Our 3 year old Sammy, who could have fun doing ANYTHING, interrupted Caedmon's melt down by saying matter-of-factly, "Caedmon, we're here to help." Yep. That pretty much sums it up.

I said to Andy, "Serving is so good for the flesh."

Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh. Galatians 5:16-17

• My flesh would rather stay home and sit on my couch then go and serve. 
• My flesh would rather be grumpy or think about all the difficult things in my life instead of choosing joy. 
• My flesh would rather speak harshly to a disobedient child than to gently instruct and train him. 

Our flesh needs a constant reminder that we don't live for it anymore! We live for the Spirit and have crucified the flesh.

Whether we are training our kids to be selfless or training ourselves, we all need to give ourselves ample opportunities to beat down the flesh so the Spirit can rise up in us and fill us with LIFE!

• Serve someone in secret. 
• Give some money to a good cause that you would rather spend on yourself. 
• Invest time in a relationship instead of focusing solely on your 'to-do' list. 

After all, it's good for the flesh!

Monday Matrimony...a church planting edition

Yesterday I was so thrilled to get to be there to celebrate the Grand Opening of a new church in Palo Alto called C3 Silicon Valley. Adam & Keira Smallcombe, who pastor the church, moved to California from Australia just 6 months ago! It was amazing to see the team that God has brought together in this short time to launch this church.

There were so many things that blew me away yesterday... the environment was warm and friendly, the worship time was powerful, the preaching was captivating. You could truly feel the Spirit of God working in that room! It was a home run as far as Grand Openings go. If you live anywhere near Palo Alto, you really need to check this church out!

But the thing that made the biggest impression on me was watching the way Keira interacted with Adam throughout the morning. Before and after the service, both Keira and Adam were mingling with the crowd, meeting people, and welcoming guests. They were rarely together, but they were both fully engaged.

Then, during the service they stood up together to welcome the crowd, talk about some of their core values as a church, and lead in a time of prayer. It was so obviously clear that they are a team. There was oneness of heart and vision. There was love and respect in their eyes as they looked at each other. There was a sense of shared excitement as this dream that God had put in their hearts was finally becoming a reality.

There is nothing more beautiful to me than a wife who loves, supports, and believes in her husband. Keira was an amazing example of this yesterday.

I heard a story about a time that Craig & Amy Groeschel were doing some marriage counseling with another couple. (I'm not sure I'm telling the story exactly right because I heard it second hand.) The wife was being derogatory and disrespectful to her husband which Amy & Craig tried to address as a key issue that needed to change. The woman said to Amy, "Well, sure, if I was married to someone like Pastor Craig it'd be easy for me to respect and encourage him." Amy wisely responded by saying, "Maybe Craig is the man he is today because of all the years I've spent encouraging and speaking hope into him."

Girls, God has given us the sacred calling and significant responsibility of encouraging, respecting, and supporting our husbands. The words we say, the looks we give, and the attitudes we have go deep inside their hearts. There is no greater gift a man could receive than a wife that is cheering him on, believing in him, and engaged in whatever his mission in life is. Conversely, there is nothing that is more burdensome than a wife that speaks death over his dreams, sits on the sidelines with her arms folded, or points out all his flaws.

I want my husband to be all that God created him to be partly because of me, not in spite of me. 

As the world looks on may they see in us wives that, like Keira, are standing with our men, believing in them, and working together toward the common vision God has put on our lives. 

Move-In Day!

I am currently laying in bed with a 102 fever, so please forgive me if this post is incoherent. And I would also really appreciate your prayers for a speedy recovery. Andy & I are supposed to go out of town Thursday/Friday to celebrate our 9 year anniversary. AND we are supposed to team-teach this Sunday at South Bay Church for Mother's Day. It's never a convenient time to get sick...

With all that said, I couldn't keep myself from sharing with you about our amazing day at church yesterday. After meeting at a local public school for the past 3.5 years, yesterday we moved in to our first long term facility. Exciting doesn't come close to describing the energy in the air.

There are so many inspiring stories of volunteers (hundreds of volunteers) who invested countless hours and expertise into building a sound booth, painting every wall, assembling furniture, hanging lights and sound equipment, and on and on... If you would have seen the building 2 weeks ago (or even 1 week ago) you would have thought that there is no way it's all going to come together. But it did. And it was beautiful.

I went by the building on Friday night around 10 to see who was still up there. About 40 volunteers, that's who. Archie, our worship pastor, stayed at the building until 3 AM a couple nights. But not by himself...with 9 volunteers on his team.

To see the sacrifice and work that our people banded together to do was a beautiful thing. We work with some of the most generous, servant-hearted, Kingdom-minded people in the world. And we are so thankful for them.

Here's some pics...

Closing one chapter...starting another

Yesterday was a bittersweet day for me as we had our last Sunday services at Don Callejon School before moving into our newly renovated facility. South Bay Church has been meeting at DCS for the past 3.5 years and there are so many wonderful memories and "God-stories" in that place.

Here are a few of my most memorable moments from our first 3.5 years as a church:

• November 16, 2008- Our first ever public service. So much work. So much prayer. So much publicity. So much nervous energy. We weren't sure if anyone would show up or if it would just be our staff holding hands in a circle singing Kum-Ba-Yah. But 125 people from our community showed up that day and a church was born. 
• May 3, 2009- Our first baptism service. 18 people, most of whose stories I personally knew, decided to get baptized that day. I watched with tears streaming down my face as those people came out of the water pumping their fists in the air as if to say, "I feel so ALIVE in Jesus!" I thought to myself, "You are the reason we moved to California. You are the reason we started South Bay Church. And you are so worth it!"
• We met outside under a tent on the school's blacktop during our first two summers because we weren't allowed to use the gym. Much to our surprise, we grew a lot each summer. 
• 3 years of Easter egg hunts 
• Loving our city by helping with all of the Santa Clara city events: 4th of July Festival, City Street Dance, Art & Wine Festival
• 4 years of Christmas Eve services
• Passing out thousands of door hangers
• Receiving hateful phone calls from the thousands of door hangers :-)
• Giving a young widow with 4 children a minivan
• August 29, 2010: Sammy's first day at South Bay
• Establishing our first international partnership with Ethiopia via Compassion International
• 2 years of Kids' Games
• Staff parties- oh, how I adore our staff
• Seeing our growing base of volunteers serve their hearts out: set up, tear down, first impressions team, BayKids leaders, production crew, life group leaders, office volunteers, special events, and on and on and on. It is a humbling and beautiful thing to see so many people give so many hours in efforts to show God's love to their community
• Having my kids tell me about what they're learning in BayKids and hear them quote their memory verse.
• Watching the culture of South Bay take root... our people serve sacrificially, give generously, invite their friends and family intentionally, and love without walls
• Hearing stories of lives that have been changed. Every single one is significant and just blows my mind at the goodness of God.
• Praying and fasting with Andy and/or our staff on behalf of our church and our city
• Celebrating 286 people who have made first time decisions to follow Christ and 152 people who have decided to be baptized since the beginning of South Bay Church

South Bay has grown from 3 families who didn't know anyone in the Silicon Valley to a 40 person Launch Team to having 919 people in attendance yesterday. So many lives have been changed through a local public school that was transformed into holy ground every Sunday. I realize that the "Church" is the people of God, not a building. But that particular building will forever be special to me. 

God did this. He gets all the credit and glory and honor for it. What a privilege and indescribably JOY to get to be a small part of this big thing that HE is doing. 

As we close this chapter and begin writing the next, we believe with every fiber in our beings that the best is yet to come! We will see you next Sunday at 1180 Murphy Avenue, San Jose, CA 95131.

One

There is ONE reason why we moved to California. ONE reason why we would pick up to move 3,000 miles away from family whom we love very deeply and miss very much. ONE reason we would take a risk and start over in a place (a very expensive place) where we knew no one.

That ONE reason is the hope of seeing lives changed by the love and power of God.

Every time we have a baptism celebration at South Bay, I am reminded of why we came. It feels so right and good and exhilarating to hear people's stories and to see them embrace the life changing message of Jesus. I stand in the crowd cheering them on, sometimes choking back tears, thinking to myself, "YOU are the reason that we moved. And you are so worth it."

Here's a story of ONE life that was changed. I hope it touches your heart the way it touched mine.

Way to go, Marian! We are so happy for you!!!

5 Years Too Long

In his sermons, Andy frequently refers to the time we lived in Texas for "five years too long." Realizing that some of our friends from Texas listen to his podcasts and read this blog, I felt like a little clarification was in order.

Yesterday I sat down to write this post. However, I worked on it for over an hour and then finally gave up. I came to realize that the story is so long and involved that it's like writing chapters for a book, not posts for a blog. I couldn't figure out how to break it down into blog-sized-pieces. 

So, here's just a snippet...and maybe one day I'll get around to that book! :-)

Andy & I got married in May '03 at the ripe ol' age of 21 years dumb. I had just (like 7 days prior) graduated from college and neither one of us had ever lived on our own. Andy was slightly more independent than me, but I had never paid a bill, never planned a week's worth of meals, and never experienced what it means to have "insufficient funds".

Three months later, we moved 1,000 miles away from any family with stars in our eyes as big and bright as those deep in the heart of Texas. Our [naive] plan was to both attend seminary full-time, both work part-time, and live on love in the meantime.

About one month in (when all the bills started arriving and the first round of papers were coming due), reality hit me across the face with a two by four. That's also about the same time that our pastor (John Worcester) approached us about the idea of starting a student church with Andy as the lead planter.

The idea of starting a church in seminary had honestly never crossed our minds. Andy and I were rather unlikely candidates for church planters as we were 22 years old, just started seminary, had only been married for 5 months, and had lived in Texas for about 5 minutes. We thought that we would get involved in a church plant and hopefully receive some training under John Worcester (a church planting genius), and then we dreamed of planting a church after seminary somewhere out West. We had even made a commitment to each other that we wouldn't get heavily involved in ministry for six months so that we could just get adjusted to married life. But there we were, one month in, and already considering STARTING A CHURCH! Not volunteering to be a greeter or help out with the kids program. Starting a church! (I'm not sure if that's comical or sad!) 

We set aside two weeks to pray and asked several of our family members and mentors to pray with us. Honestly, the thought of turning down an opportunity to be coached by John Worcester felt akin to Timothy turning down the Apostle Paul. At the end of the two weeks, Andy and I signed on for the ride of our lives. There was no way that we could have understood at that time how this experience would define our lives and ministry. 

During our time in Texas, God grew us, shaped our character, and stretched our capacity far beyond how far we thought we could stretch. To say it was an uncomfortable season would be the understatement of a lifetime. We were taking graduate level courses in Character School.

The reality is that no one can truly understand all the ways God has blessed South Bay without understanding our time in Texas.

Texas prepared us for all that He had in store for our future. If we had not had our Texas experience, there's no way that South Bay would be what it is today...and what it will be in the future.

So, are we thankful for our time in Texas? Absolutely. Beyond words. Did God change many lives and use the ministry of Breakthrough Church to impact UTA? There's no doubt. Do we still maintain some precious friendships and relationships that we developed during that time? Yep.

But there were so many things about that season that felt like death to me. And thus we tend to refer to that season as "5 years too long".