Three Questions is a semi-regular series introducing individuals across the NAB by asking them about their story, their ministry, and what they are learning. This week, we hear from David Barrera, the worship leader at Palm Harvest Church in Costa Mesa, California.
What is your story?
My name is David Barrera. I am currently the worship leader at Palm Harvest Church in Costa Mesa, California. I’ve been married to my wife Tanya for the last thirteen years, and to say that it has gone way too fast is truly an understatement. I grew up in a Hispanic church in the city of Santa Ana, California. I started playing drums on the worship team when I was 10 years old and then leading worship at the age of 15.
I’ve always had a passion for worship, but more specifically worship music. As a kid, I learned that all we can offer God is our worship, but more than music or instruments is to live our lives as worship to him. For the last four years I’ve called Palm Harvest my home, and it truly has been a rewarding journey thus far – from being challenged by the pandemic and all the changes that has brought to our churches to now mentoring the youngest member of our worship team. God truly continues to show me there is still work to be done. . . .
How well equipped is your congregation for the ministry of evangelism? How do you evaluate your church’s health in that regard? How would you identify equipping gaps in your congregation’s evangelistic faithfulness?
If you find yourself asking these questions, or you think these are great questions to consider, as a pastor or leader in your church, then you will want to take part in Reframe: Equipping Your Congregation for Evangelism, a four-week evangelistic training.
This training will provide an evaluative framework to help you assess your evangelistic equipping efforts. It will help you to recognize gaps you may need to fill and distortions you will want to correct and provide a clearer path forward toward helping your church become more evangelistically faithful.
This online training consists of four, 90-minute weekly sessions that begin October 30 at 1:00 p.m. (Eastern). Register by Monday, October 28 at the link below. Training is free for NAB ministry leaders
To love is to be vulnerable; not only is there the potential for pain (see Hosea), but it has the ability to form us into a new kind of people (see Matthew 5:43–48). When we truly love others like ourselves, we allow them access to our hearts, giving them the unique ability to hurt us even when their actions don’t expressly impact us. When we truly love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we open ourselves to allowing him to shape us in his image, which involves the death of ourselves.
This vulnerability is not territory unknown to God. As Love embodied, he knows intimately what it feels like (see John 11:35). The Sovereign King over all creation set aside his position of power to become a baby born to parents with little to no social standing. God Almighty chose to confine himself into the fragile human form so we might truly know him and call him friend.
If we are to love like Christ in our everyday lives – a love Scot McKnight describes as “a rugged, affective commitment of presence, advocacy, and direction” – we must allow ourselves to be vulnerable like Christ. This Advent season, let’s dive into what it looks like when the God of the universe shows us how to love – a vulnerable, irrepressive, and potent love – and how we in turn should respond. You can sign up to receiving daily devotionals through the entire season of Advent, which starts December 1, by clicking on the link below.
Sign Up for Advent Devotionals
If you are planning to go through the devotionals with your church or small group and would like resources once they become available (the full series of devotionals in a print-ready file, graphics, flyers, etc.), please reach out to us at the link below.