Rick Church

Rick Church

Rick Church has served as pastor of Santa Cruz Community Church (formerly First Baptist Church) since 1997, which is 8 of the 147 years this church has been in existence. He previously served ministries in Wichita, Kansas; Los Angeles and Taft, California.

Rick is married to Marilou Church. They have six daughters and live in Ben Lomond. Rick has earned a Masters of Divinity Degree from the American Baptist Seminary of the West/ Graduate Theological Union, a B.A. in communication and minor in Religious Studies. He has also studied at Fuller Theological Seminary. Before entering the ministry in 1987, Rick was a local newspaper editor.

We are pleased to welcome Rick as a valued columnist for ChristianCruz!

Balancing: Is it an 'act,' or a lifestyle of Jesus' followers?

by Rick Church

Balance comes not from ourselves, but from remaining in contact with that which sustains us.

I recently became acutely aware of the importance of balance—physical, emotional and mental balance. What follows describes my “Aha!” moment: A few months ago, myself and members of my church family did something we don’t normally do.  We scaled ladderrs and spent a Saturday on the expansive roof of our church, stripping off 40-year-old roofing consisting of16 tons of red gravel, to prepare the building for a new roof. The labor was tough. We used muscles we don’t normally use. All of us had aches and pains the next morning.

However, while we were on the roof, everyone seemed to adjust amazingly well to these heretofore unfamiliar tasks.  By noon we looked like a seasoned crew. There was just one task that some of us seemed to never really get used to doing. It was when we had to descend the ladder from the roof. Many of us moved cautiously, carefully, tentatively, and tried very hard to keep our balance.

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