Pastor Dennis, How do you view the Philippines if ever after the Divorce Bill has been passed?

With or without the divorce bill – I still believe that this nation has a great destiny and the way to see the destiny of this nation fulfilled is for the church to focus on providing a long term solution to the problems we are facing today.

The divorce bill ( which I totally don’t agree with and would definitely fight against with) is not the main issue. If the church exemplifies happily married couples and train and disciple the next generation to be godly husbands and wives – no bill can stop the kingdom of God from advancing.

We ask, what is the church doing to fight the divorce bill?

We can either rally in the streets and shout our protests!!! or excommunicate people who supports the bill and what would be the end result?

The bill would still have a high probability of getting passed and the people label the church as being legalistic and moralistic people who are insensitive to the issues of the nation.

I pray that the body of Christ in the Philippines would work hand in hand to disciple the nation. The most effective noise that we can make is to disciples the next generation leaders found in the campuses who in the future would draft the laws of the land. It is to spread the transforming message of the gospel and the grace of God that is readily available for all of us who have fallen short of God’s glory and standard. It is to tell the world what we are for and not what we are against.

We can’t be reactionary to the problems of the Philippines. We as Christians need a more pro-active plan to disciple the nation. It starts by reaching out to one person at a time.

Got questions? Post it at my formspring site, http://www.formspring.me/askpastordennis

To the mom of my 2 kids, Thammie, Happy Mother’s day. Thank you very mcuh for all the hard work and the effort that you give to raise our two wonderful daughters.

Thammie, thanks for making our house beautiful

For making our house a home

For making our life an adventure

For cooking up so many ideas to show how much you love us

Happy Mother’s Day Thammie!!!!

This is the first ever preaching tandem I have with Thammie. It was a refreshing and momentous occasion with me to be sharing the pulpit with my wife as we talked about HOW TO HAVE A KNOCKOUT MARRIAGE. Hope you enjoy the preaching.

Yesterday was a first in so many ways:

1. First time ever in church that we had couples do the transition and offering.

2. First time ever that we had two people preaching.

3. First time that Thammie preached in church and she did an amazing and wonderful job talking about marriage and preparation.

Thammie was never known as the preacher’s wife. In fact in the first two years of the church she was never really visible because she gave birth to Mika the time we planted the church in Greenhills.

I could still remember some people asking her how long she has been attending church and she would sheepishly answer -” well since the beginning of the church” but she would never identify herself as my wife.

Ever since we started the church, we have deliberately made it clear that my wife is not a paid staff and if ever she gets involved in ministry we would treat her as a volunteer and not the pastor’s wife.

To Thammie,

Thanks for being such a wonderful wife and mother to my kids. Thanks for prioritizing us before ministry. I know how hard it is easy to not get so active in ministry the first few years but you still choose to make your family your ministry.

Thammie, thanks also for serving the church in whatever capacity you can. From leading worship once a month and to boldly stepping out in faith by co-preaching with me yesterday.

Thammie, I love you and happy valentines.

Check out Thammie’s Site – click here

1. She loves Jesus. This has been the X factor in our marriage. Since she loves Jesus more than me, she can learn to love me by His grace.

2. Prayer warrior. I feel more strength knowing that my wife prays for me.

3. She makes the best food partner.A lifetime of food trip with someone who loves food.

4. Great mother. Ask my daughters and they will say the same.

5. Martha Stewart/Rachel Ray. Thammie does the best house makeover on a very tight budget. How she manages to squeeze the money I give her is a miracle.

6. Simple living. When I was courting her one of the question I asked is if she was willing to live a simple life. Without hesitation she said YES and now she is more simpler than me.

7. Beautiful.

8. Loves to take care of ME!!!

9. Trooper. Cowgirl. Place her anywhere and she thrives.

10. Worshipper. Thammie and God connects like in an instant.

11. One of the most beautiful singing voice I’ve heard.

12. Sense of humor. Thammie is actually funnier than me.

13. Loves her family.

14. Humble – she topped the board in PT in 2003 and nobody knows except you who just read this.

15. Sacrificial. Thammie sacrificed her medical dreams because she wanted to focus on building a family.

16. Makulit in a good way. Thammie would always ask ” funny ba ako, funny ba ako, funny ba ako”

17. Fighter. She never backs down and she gives you a clean fight. Some fight dirty. Thammie fights clean.

18. Submissive. Some thought Thammie would have a hard time submitting to me. I think they are looking at the outward appearance – Thammie is such a submissive wife. (Ok Thammie, I wrote this down just like you told me to) HAHA! But she really is a very submissive wife.

19. Intelligent. I was looking for someone who I could have an intelligent conversation and God answered my prayer. Thammie prayed the same thing and God has not yet answered her prayers.

20. Graceful. She might be makulit but surprisingly she is such a graceful girl. Graceful in her words and deeds.

21. Consistent. It is great to have a partner who is consistent in her attitude and outlook in life. She is also consistent in showing her love, support and affection on me.

22. What you see is what you get.

23. She knows her priorities. I think this is the reason I love going home. House is clean, kids are behaved most of the time and your wife is so like drop dead gorgeous. Priorities.

24. Faith. God gave her a bigger measure of faith. She prays for free houses, cars, gadgets and most of the time she gets it.

25. Resourceful. On a tight budget, Thammie can make the most beautiful house, the best tasting dishes and the most memorable gifts (wink)

26. Patient. Her patience is tasted almost everyday. She lives with me and I am amazed that she could stand me and seriously loves me.

27. For her commitment to our marriage. She fights for our marriage, our time, our date nights, our spiritual walk. In a lot of ways she co-leads with me.

28. For being Thammie. Thank you Jesus for a wonderful partner, wife, mother and friend.

Happy 28th Birthday my love!!!

Just came from a Couple’s retreat and got to spend some really good quality time with my wife discussing some things we need to do to strenghten our marriage. One of the take home lesson I got is the concept of logging on and logging off.

Pastoral work is tricky. It will never be a 9 to 5 job. I try to measure my work measuring the hours I give to ministry in a week. I really try my best to work within the 45 hours work week- from meetings, sermon preparation, leadership development, discipleship, counselling and doing office stuff. The tricky part is that when you I get home I tend to bring my work with me. The stress and pressures and ministry are still running in my mind even when I get home and when this usually happens – my wife and kids gets DADDY’S leftover energy.

To some extent I have improved in a skill called logging off. That means that the moment I step into our house, I automatically logged off from work. No more thinking about church stuff, management stuff, people in church stuff. I get to devote my undivided attention to my kids who usually wants me to play with them and my wife who wants to talk to me.

The secret to logging off is by having a discipline to log on first. What do I mean? When you go out of the house and step into your office or in the field – you should automatically log on – it means I give my very best in my workplace. I use my time in the office wisely. I prioritize what I need to do as a pastor. Work hard as if there is not tomorrow so that you could log off on time. A lot of pastors have a hard time logging off because they have never really logged in.

I officiated the wedding of my good friend, Carlo Ople and Mich Ople. After 9 years, they finally tied the knot. I am so privileged to be part of their love story.

With fellow pastors – Chinkee and Larry waiting for the wedding to start. It was truly amazing how Carlo and Mich decided to push thru with an outdoor wedding believing that it would not rain even if it did early morning.

It was Alyanna’s first time to be a flowergirl and was really proud of her. She marched with confidence just like how we practiced it except for the part she forgot to throw the petals. Thammie was super duper beautiful. I wanted to marry her again and again.

The Greenery was such a nice place also. We stayed there Friday night. Happy to see the place well maintained, staff was extra friendly and the food was excellent.

The wedding was so glorious. You knew that God was there. Will be posting my sermon as a blog this week.

To Carlo and Mich – congratulations once again. Love you guys

1. Empowered by the Spirit of God

2. The Grace of God

3. A Superwoman as your wife

My Driscoll Diet for the week

Just a revelation while listening to an AIR SUPPLY song since I have been missing Thammie. This video was produced with the intention of driving home the point that

GOD DESIGNED MARRIAGE AS A LIVING DRAMA OF HOW CHRIST AND THE CHURCH RELATE TO EACH OTHER.

Jesus – I’m so lost without you.