Cap’n Jim’s Logbook

Actually it’s OUR story since Martina and I come as a package.

Anyway, Miss Janie (look! I learned a new trick, the logbook now comes with links) posted on her blog her stroy on how she wound up at Sandals church. Several others posted their own stories in her comments. So I thought I’d share our story here.

Before Sandals, Tina and I attended just 2 churches in 26 years as Christians. The first was the Pentecostal church in Germany where Martina was saved. The second was Harvest. We started attending Harvest right after we moved to Riverside in 1983.  We were both very involved and well plugged in at both churches. However over time the rat-race kinda crept in and by the time 2001 rolled around we had pretty much stagnated in our christian walk. By then we were only going to church sporadically and I was struggling with the idea that nobody seemed to care, or even notice.

By then Jessi and Paul were dating and looking for a church of their own. Martina had heard of Sandals from a girlfriend so she suggested it to Jessi. They went and loved it! One Sunday I suggested to Martina that we probably  ought to check the place out, you know to make sure the kids weren’t getting into some kind of cult. I mean really, what kind of name is Sandals anyway?

So we went. It was sometime in the summer of 01, they were still meeting at VCC. My first impression wasn’t really all that great; hated the worship (my issue, not Los’s), thought the message was good but too short, didn’t understand the slogan. “Real with ourselves, others, and God” what the heck is that supposed to mean? It sounded like a bunch of  burned out hippies trying to be profound. We vacillated between Harvest and Sandals for several months, and if during this time you had asked me why I was coming to Sandals the honest answer would have been “Because it’s convenient” I could do my duty and soothe my conscience in an hour!  Eventually we went back to Harvest.

If you are sensing that I struggle with negativity and that change is not my friend you are correct, but Nathan has been working with me and I’m getting better.

Fast  forward to the spring of 2002. I don’t remember the specifics of the conversation but somehow Sandals came up and I opined that the services were just too short to be “real” church. Jessica informed me that now that Sandals was meeting in the CBU gym and able to have a morning as well as an evening service the services were longer and the sermons not so abbreviated. Intrigued, we decided to give Sandals another go.

The second time around Martina and I were struck by the vitality and energy of the church. We wondered if mayby there wasn’t a place for us at Sandals. Being “slightly” older, we wondered if God might use us the way a grizzled vetran helps to steady the eager but raw recruit. So we continued to attend, and fell in love. As we got to know people we began to understand the vision – Being Real – what a concept.

As for the worship, that was all my issue, it wasn’t too loud, after all I’m a boomer, loud music is great. I just didn’t know ANY of the songs and they were all too fast for me to get my lips around. Then it happened, I found the “Passion: One Day Live” CD at the Harvest bookstore. OMG these are the songs we sing at Sandals! They must be okay!  Once the worship songs at Sandals got the “Harvest Seal of Approval” I was okay with them. Yep, I can be that shallow.

3 things happened that year that cemented us to the Sandals community; we met Jim and Ronda Gilbert at the “Endless Summer” party, we attended the 1st marriage getaway and talked Matt and Tammy’s ears off while waiting for our breakfast to arrive, and we were put in Nathan and Danielle’s small group.

So far it has been an extraordinary journey and I can hardly wait to see where God will lead this great church next.