Good morning, Storehouse familia -- 

Below are a few links for you, including your monthly video update. We have a few things coming up as the school year approaches and once we enter into September, you'll begin to see an increase in activity in a few areas such as classes, events, and perhaps a retreat (more details soon).  But before all of that, one quick update that is NOT on the video update is our women's gathering that will be taking place on Saturday, September 9th at 10:00 a.m. 

Our ladies will be walking through a new book, 10 Words to Live By by Jen Wilkin. Ladies, I hope you can join these upcoming gatherings of fellowship and discussion. If you have any questions or run into any issues, email info@storehousemcallen.com. 

In any case, if there's anything else that I can do to better serve you, please do not hesitate to let me know. I'm praying for our church this morning! Love y'all. 

1. NEW sermon series on our core values at Storehouse McAllen. This past Sunday, we began with Gospel Centrality (link)

2. Monthly Video Update | August 2023

Warmly, 

Marco De Leon
Preaching and Teaching Pastor

Good morning, Storehouse Familia! 

There are many of you who are out on vacation or coming back from vacation so I hope that you enjoy your time away or have gotten some rest while away! 

Below is a link to your video update for July. Be on the lookout for another email from me coming to you on Thursday morning with a quick giving update over the last few months. The video gives a few details. 

Other than this, the summer is fairly quiet, but we're beginning to gear up for the fall months and I'll have more for you on that in the next couple of weeks. If there's anything I can best serve you in, please let me know.

I'm praying for our church family this week and I'll see you on Sunday as we examine Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17! 

Monthly Video Update | July 2023 (link)

Warmly, 

Marco De Leon
Preaching and Teaching Pastor

Good afternoon, familia! 

First, let me begin by apologizing for the delay of this video! Normally, I send this out to you on the first Tuesday of the month, but fell short this week. In any case, here is your monthly update for June. One of the updates, you'll notice, is on The Character of God class which begins tomorrow. If you have any questions about the class, please visit our website to learn more or simply respond to this email. 

The summer, for now, is fairly quiet, but we have a couple of things coming up. I know many of you are beginning to plan vacations in which I pray that you get some rest this summer! 

Here is your LINK for June. 

That's all I have for now -- if there's anything that I can help you with, let me know and I'll be more than happy to assist! 

Warmly, 

Marco De Leon
Preaching and Teaching Pastor

The season our church has been in is one of bitter sweetness. On one hand, we are embarking on a new chapter in the life of Storehouse McAllen and praying that God would do bigger things in and through our church. The sweetness of something new always lends itself to the wonderful works of God. Then, on the other hand, a new season means that something is coming to an end. The final punctuation mark at the end of a chapter. 

In the next two weeks, after five and a half years, Storehouse McAllen is moving out of the McAllen Creative Incubator and headed to Valley Community Church’s building. And though we’ve been communicating ongoingly with our congregation, this may seem as something new for you – the reader. 

Before I begin with the details of our new location and time, let me first invite you, for a moment, to look back at all that God has done in and through our church at the McAllen Creative Incubator. 

The Gospel Proclaimed

If you’re familiar with our beloved McAllen, then you know that the Incubator was originally the old McAllen Public Library. It was first opened in 1950 and served not only as a public library, but as a memorial for McAllen citizens who fought and died in World War II. Further, many remember the old public library as the place to be when growing up! 

When we first moved to the Incubator, the smell of used books that were shelved on the daily throughout the decades flooded our minds; memories of the days without the internet and study rooms filled our hearts; and though many of us are now adults, the dreaded third floor where no one was allowed still remained an unspoken rule. 

And yet, this is the building that the Lord called and led us. In what was McAllen’s public library, the gospel was sung, prayed, and proclaimed. If that’s not enough, our contract included the Old Church Winery building. The Old Church Winery was originally a church in the 1940’s and when we began holding special services, classes, and meetings, we learned that the gospel had not been proclaimed in that building in over 50 years. 

In short, our time at the McAllen Incubator and Old Church Winery lent itself to the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully and without hindrance. We praise God for the time given to us to preach and teach the beauty of Jesus in the heart of McAllen. 

The Gospel Practiced 

In addition to the heralding of the gospel, the Lord Jesus was gracious, good, and kind to allow us to see the work of the gospel affect the lives of people who didn’t know Jesus.

In our time at the Incubator and Winery, we saw dozens of baptisms of new believers, the start of friendships with our roommates at the Incubator allowed gospel conversations and partnerships to be developed on the occasions of so many different events ranging from the Art Walk to the Irish Arts Festival to annual concerts for children and parents. 

It brings tears to my eyes knowing that the Lord allowed us to be a part of the lives of so many different people and at the same time sharing and practicing the gospel with them in word, service, and relationship. 

As we “earned our bones” in the community through ordinary faithfulness, our partnerships extended beyond the walls of the Incubator where we developed a good reputation with local businesses in our neighborhood – so much so that when some of them heard that we were moving, they asked how they could help and support us! Can you believe that? People who don’t know the Lord, have heard the gospel, and love our church family were willing to help us with whatever resources they could pull to serve us. 

These conversations warmed my heart because it’s so easy to get lost in the thick of ministry that one can lose sight of the work God has done through relationships.

The Gospel Advanced

And now comes the mixture of sadness, eagerness, and anticipation. As our contract came to an end at the Incubator, our staff team had a few things to consider. For instance, we needed to answer the simple question: where are we going? We evaluated a few options and came to the conclusion that we were either going to look at moving into a new building or lease space from another church.

Ultimately, we decided that our second option was going to be the best decision, practically and financially. By God’s grace, we had developed a few friendships with other churches in our city and so began the conversation with Valley Community Church, a church planted in the late 1970’s and committed to the proclamation of the gospel. After prayer, consideration, and many conversations with the staff team and their leadership, we decided to move forward.

Therefore, as of Sunday, November 6th we will be having services at 3801 N. Col. Rowe Blvd at 4:00 p.m. 

In this new season, the Lord is allowing us to not only have a new home, but one where we get to continue to proclaim the gospel and champion the mission of another church that is doing the same! The gospel will be heralded in many ways and our prayer is that more people would come to know and live like Jesus as a result. 

Additionally, we’re not leaving central McAllen either! The Lord made a way for us to find a new office space two blocks south of the Incubator (403 N. Main Street #2). Therefore, not only will we continue the work of discipleship, mission, and evangelism in central McAllen, we also have a space for workshops, training, small gatherings, and counseling for our church family. 

Final Thoughts

As excited as we are about this new season and as gracious as Valley Community Church has been, the reality is that this is still just another building. A building where the gospel will be proclaimed to the gathering of the saints so that as we scatter, we would continue to make disciples who come to know and live like Jesus.

Our location may be a different address. Our building, for the first time in our history is an actual church building, will look different. Our service time is new. However, our mission remains the same: making disciples of Jesus through the proclamation of the gospel, life in community, and by equipping the saints in the heart of McAllen.

Will you pray for our church as we move into this new season? Will you join us on mission in McAllen so that we would continue to see God work through ordinary faithfulness and see people come to know and live like Jesus? 

While it has been bitter-sweet having to let go of the McAllen Incubator, the work and privilege of advancing the gospel in McAllen has not come to an end therefore, we are eager to see God move in ways that we can’t even imagine – all of this, for His glory and our good. 

Pastor Marco.

For the last six years, our church has partnered with World Gospel Mission (WGM), a non-profit organization, as they serve many migrant families in south McAllen. They do this through Taylor Community Center (TCS), Soccer Lions Academy, and the Sparrow's Nest clothing pantry.

Every year WGM and TCS organizes a back-to-school drive for local students, and again in 2022, we continue our partnership with them to serve our community. We also do this by praying for students and their families as they prepare for the upcoming school year. Take a look at the details below:

SCHOOL SUPPLY LIST

• Backpacks*

• Pencils

• Erasers

• Scissors 

• Crayons

• Markers

• Glue bottles/sticks

• Folders

• Colored Pencils

• Loose Leaf Paper

• Pens (Blue, Black, Red)

• Spiral Notebooks

• Composition Notebooks

• Notecards

• Hand Sanitizer*

We will be collecting donations starting July 17th up to the July 31st deadline.

*Despite the need for all the above school supplies, backpacks and hand sanitizer are some of the most useful supplies we can provide.

To learn more about this drive, please email info@storehousemcallen.com for more details on how to help. 

Albert Einstein once said that “life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as there were none.” If that statement sounds like it both makes sense and it contradicts itself, then that’s probably because it is a paradox. A paradox is a statement that, in and of itself contradicts itself. When Jesus was walking with His disciples, for instance in Mark 9:30-32, He says:

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

Jesus seems to be communicating a paradox — He will be killed and then rise after three days? At the end of this passage, we read that the disciples “did not understand the saying…” and that’s often how a paradox can make us feel, a little confused. So, then, why are we hosting a mid-week service and calling it Paradox Wednesday?

Here are two brief reasons for why we felt that a mid-week service such as this would be beneficial to our church family and anyone else who attends.

We Are The Disciples

It’s easy to read a passage of scripture such as Mark 9:30-32 and critique the lack of understanding the disciples had as Jesus foretold of His death when we have. have two thousand years of hindsight. Additionally, it’s even more convenient to look down at the disciples when we have access to the Holy Scriptures and can see that this is, in fact, Jesus’ third time in foretelling his death.

But the point here is that Mark 9 is taking place only a matter of days before what we now call, Palm Sunday or the Jesus’ triumphal entry (see Mark 11) and while the disciples may be confused at Jesus’ statement, no matter the repetition, their hearts and minds are centered on Jesus bringing about political revival not cosmic reconciliation. In turn, we are no different than the disciples. That is, though we have access to the word of Christ (Colossians 3:16), we, often, relegate our understanding of Jesus’ work for something other than the restoration of our hearts. We too easily dismiss the clarity of Jesus’ paradoxical statements because our hearts are attentive on something else.

We may have hindsight to the words of Jesus, but that doesn’t mean we are fixed on the purpose of Jesus.

Holy Week Preparation

Each year at Storehouse McAllen, we pause our current sermon series to invest time in Holy Week which primarily consists of Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday. This year, we decided to introduce a mid-week service before Holy Week to better serve and prepare our congregation for the significance of Holy Week.

To be clear, you won’t see anything historical about something called, “Paradox Wednesday” or find it in any church calendar. For us, this is an opportunity to serve, equip, and help prepare our congregation for Holy Week so that their hearts are fixed upon the person and purpose of Jesus for them.

In the end, this is mid-week service is something that we believe to be a good introduction to Holy Week and if does nothing else than preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, then this will have been a success. Paradox Wednesday is simply a way to prepare our hearts to remember once more that God entered into human history as the man Jesus Christ to die for sinners, not just like the disciples, but you and me.

We would love it if you joined us for our Paradox Wednesday service taking place on Wednesday, April 6th at 6:30 p.m. at the Old Church Winery!

By: Alan Morales

Devotional
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-25)

Reflection
It is clear that much of our world today revolves around the idea of happiness. Today, the culture screams “do what makes you happy.” It is this type of mentality that has swamped the self-help section of book stores and as a result, this is where you commonly find “best-sellers.” For many, happiness is not something, but it is the only thing and many are willing to spend money, time, health, and even compromise relationships in order to feel that sense of pleasure. If we’re not careful, we can find ourselves stuck in the same cat and mouse game that the world seems to find itself in. The reality is that happiness is very precarious and although you might be happy right now, something can quickly change that.

What then should we think of happiness? One of the great things about our God is that He has not called us to live miserable lives of penance. When we were saved, Jesus liberated us from the impending judgment that awaited us so that we would enjoy our new life in Christ. We see this in our everyday lives, whether it is celebrating Christmas with our families, having fun on game nights with friends, or doing the hobbies we love. We are called to enjoy our life in Christ because we have been freed from the penalty of sin and death. However, as valuable as those things are, we should not depend on the temporary things of this world because as soon as they're gone, we will be disappointed. For example, what would happen if you lost your sense of taste? For those of us that suffered through COVID-19, life was so miserable! I never imagined how much of my life depended on the sense of taste! As much as I'm ashamed of saying this, it was as if life was gloomy and without hope.

In the Christian life, the source of our hope is not on temporal things that produce happiness, rather, it is based on an eternal God that produces joy. Happiness is a state of emotion that is unstable and is as temporary as the things we place our hope on. However, joy is a stable state of being because of the one whom we find our hope in – an eternal and holy God. We find this to be true when we look at the two men who were traveling to Emmaus in the book of Luke. After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to them as they were talking about His trial and crucifixion. When Jesus asked what they were talking about, Luke records that they “stood still, looking sad” (Lk 24:17). Then, replying to Jesus why they said, “...we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened” (Lk 24:21; emphasis added). The two men were sad because they had put their hope in a political agenda. They had expected Jesus to come and redeem Israel through political success and instead of looking at Jesus as the savior of their souls, they were simply looking at Him as someone who would give them what would make them happy. This is why Jesus goes on and tells them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Lk 24:25). Those men did not believe in Jesus and therefore, they were without joy.

While people waste their life by chasing smoke through happiness to be fulfilled in some way, true joy can only be found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. When the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the good news that is the Gospel, He dwells in us and produces fruit in our lives. Notice how joy is part of that fruit, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” (Gal 5:22). Therefore, joy is not something that is innate to us, it is something supernatural that only the Holy Spirit can give. Joy does not mean that you don't feel sadness or anger because I’m sure we have experienced plenty of that this past week! However, it does mean that even in the midst of suffering, disappointment, or longing, you have hope and peace knowing that God is still on His throne. Church, as we observe lent, let us not go with hopeless hearts as if Jesus was defeated, rather, let us have joyful hearts knowing that our Savior is alive and well.

By: Alan Morales

Devotional
16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (John 1:16)

Reflection
There has been a big misconception about God: God is much more angry and unkind in the days of the Old Testament than in the New Testament. In the New Testament, God is all about grace and love. I think, however, that once we define what grace is, we will see that God has revealed His love and grace toward mankind from the very beginning.

Grace is unmerited favor. In other words, it is something that someone does for us when we don't deserve it. Adam and Eve served as our human representatives and when they sinned against God, we sinned in them. Therefore, we are all undeserving of God’s help, love, peace, and forgiveness, yet, He has freely given us all of that and much more. 

In the Old Testament, God showed grace to Adam and Eve by clothing them when they had sinned against Him. God showed grace to the Israelites when, even after their constant rebellion, He rescued them from the desert and captivity. God showed grace to David, who committed adultery and murder, by forgiving him of the sins he committed. God showed grace to Nineveh, a nation that oppressed His own people, by sending Jonah to preach to them so that they would be saved. These are just some examples of grace in the Old Testament out of thousands. However, if there's something we've learned from our little survey of the Old Testament, it is that God’s grace is endless and it doesn’t stop there. All of those pieces of grace in the Old Testament came together like a puzzle in the New Testament and culminated in the saving work of Jesus.

Being fully human, Jesus served as our new representative and experienced everything that we do on a daily basis. He experienced loss, pain, anger, hunger, thirst, and sadness, all without sin. Additionally, being fully God, Jesus left heaven to dwell in this world that is marred with sin to give Himself up as the perfect and sufficient sacrifice for undeserving sinners. It is through His perfect being, or “fullness”, that we are able to be saved (John 1:16)! 

To hammer the final nail in the coffin of this misconception, the beautiful news of the Gospel was not first preached in the New Testament by an apostle. Rather, it was first preached in the Old Testament by God, Himself! Right after Adam and Eve sinned, God tells Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15). When Jesus came, He gave a fatal blow to sin and death at the expense of His own life for you.

How often are we full of joy because of this great reality? These wonderful truths seem to be overshadowed during our busy weeks. At times, we may even go to the extent of believing that we deserve more than what God has already given us. This was the case for the people in the Old testament when God said to them, “I have loved you”... But you say, “How have you loved us?” (Mal 1:2) Although God had done everything to save His people from exile, they were ungrateful. They ignored all the grace He lavished on them and instead of being filled with joy for what He had done, they were filled with bitterness because they wanted more. Have you found yourself in that position? If so, I would encourage you to reflect on your life and remember all that the Lord has generously and graciously given you. When we have a prideful mentality, not only do we stop seeing God's grace for the gift that it is, but we also prevent ourselves from living a joyful life in Christ.

Maybe you don't struggle with entitlement or ungratefulness. Perhaps you struggle with receiving grace and have difficulty going to God because of your sin. You tell yourself, “How could God ever love a sinner like me?” We have all been there and that is a very appropriate question to ask. However, like the person whose pride prevents them from finding joy in grace, you are prevented from finding joy in grace by your guilt. I would like to encourage you to go to Him. Do not delay! Don't wait until you're doing “a little better.” He waits for you now, like a loving Father with arms wide open even in your unfaithfulness. You are worthy to come before God, not because of the things you've done, but because of what Jesus has done for you. His death was not meant to condemn you, rather He died to redeem you, and in His death, He nailed your guilt to the cross. Church, let’s rid ourselves of our pride and guilt and look to Jesus for the savior He is. Once we do, we will be full of joy knowing that we have “received grace upon grace” (John 1:16).