Charismatic Caretaker: Denny Bellesi Back Temporarily at Coast Hills Church

Trish Drew, Denny Bellesi and
his grand-daughter at Coast
Hills Church on February 15, 2015.

It was a pleasure to see Denny Bellesi and his wife Leesa at Coast Hills Church this morning. As you may know, the misguided folks on the Elder Board at this church basically fired Denny and his wife after 20 years of service even though he had successfully led the church's growth from a handful of people in a living room to a 1,300 seat performing arts center in Aliso Viejo. Denny, of course, is most famous for his Kingdom assignment when, in 2001, he handed our $100 bills to 100 church members, explaining that their task was to enrich God by investing in the needy.

At the service this morning, Denny reminisced about the big risks and bold moves which took place at the founding and fueled the rapid growth of Coast Hills Church. From what I know about charismatic leaders, however, I suspect that Denny's willingness to roll the dice and trust in the Lord ended up being something of a liability after Coast Hills Church purchased its current somewhat over-sized facility. At that point, I suspect that the members of the elder board began to doubt whether faith alone could solve Coast Hills Church's mounting financial problems.

Denny, for his part, mentioned that after 20 years of service his seratonin levels had dropped to such a level that they would not bounce back, even after two years of rest. I took this as a casual reference to a possibly bad case of depression. I also saw it as a mature acceptance of the fact that nowadays serotonin levels are best maintained by doctor prescribed medications.

Ironically, Trish and I were there at Denny's last service at Coast Hills Church. I remember he baptized some folks that day and that he looked somewhat peeved and angry over the situation surrounding his leaving Coast Hills Church. I could not help but think it must be richly satisfying to know that the same folks who cut him loose ten years ago were now dependent on him to staunch the bleeding wounds of an obviously dysfunctional institution.

Trish was favorably impressed with Leesa's story and recounting of the adventures which had befallen them

Denny Bellesi led a chorus of
happy birthday for a 99
year-old church member.

as a couple over the last ten years. Leesa went out of her way to take a photo of the 11:00 a.m. crowd. It is a trophy that I think both of them richly deserve for their persistence and graciousness in the face of rather unforgivable mistreatment a decade ago. Denny himself still displays the charisma which inspired the creation of Coast Hills Church. He asked the members to imagine what it would be like to be a Roman soldier chained up with Paul for six hours and got a tremendous laugh.

As far as I can tell, Denny will be the interim pastor at least until the end of June. As a management consultant, however, I know that the abrupt and bizarre dismissal of Ken Baugh will have profound ramifications on the staff. I expect that two years into the services of the next pastor, Coast Hills Church staff will be a completely different set of people.

If you enjoy a little irony, you might want to hear Denny Bellesi's comments where he participated in the commissioning of Ken Baugh as the new senior pastor on December 5, 2005. Notice Denny's shout-outs to Gary Luke and Bill Nixon two guys who are still serving on the board of elders today and to the NASA level consultant, John Holborn, who advised in the transition from Denny Bellesi to Ken Baugh. Denny encouraged Ken to keep growing and reminded everyone that Ken was not perfect. Denny charged the congregation at that time to pray for their new pastor, to bolster his confidence, and to communicate with him.

Denny called on the members of the church to pray for 100 days in a row about the future of the church. Personally, I am happy to take on that challenge. My recommendations for change are straightforward:

1. Enforce the Bylaws: All elder board members who are currently serving in violation of the Coast Hills Church bylaws need to resign immediately.

2. Remove Poor Leaders: Elder board chairman, Gary Luke, must also resign due to his failure to keep the bylaws and the role he played in the awkward mismanagement of the effort to lay-off Ken Baugh.

3. Improve Sound Quality: Tell the technical department to add sound baffles to the performing arts center to improve the awful acoustics of the place.

4. Eliminate the Glare on the Stage: Tell the technical department to stop shining lights in our eyes when we are trying to appreciate the performances on stage. Bright lights may look pretty from the control room, but they give headaches to the sensitive people who deal with the glare.

Accordingly, I do not think that Coast Hills Church can make any progress until it roots out the leaders who have showed little compassion for Ken Baugh and his family while demonstrating zero respect for the bylaws they are supposed to follow and embrace as checks on their own power. Frankly, unless there is complete change among the members of the elder board, I do not think Coast Hills Church has the moral authority to go on. Without change at the top, they might as well call a realtor and see how they can cash out of their current building before it is too late. In the meantime, I will be praying that Denny Bellesi uses his influence to restore the rule of law at Coast Hills Church.

A Breath of Fresh Air: Ken Baugh To Speak at Capo Beach Church

Dr. Drew's first en plein air painting done in Laguna Beach
CA beneath Las Brisas restaurant.

I was pleased to hear the news this afternoon that my ex-pastor, Ken Baugh, will be preaching at Capo Beach Church next weekend. While I enjoy following Ken's blog "Encouraging Discipleship" and his twitter account, I really miss hearing him share his insight and wisdom in front of a live audience.

Ken Baugh will be teaching on Saturday, Feburary 14 at 6:30 p.m. and on Sunday February 15 at 8:30 a.m., 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. The folks at Capo Beach Church want to remind us that all three services are identical, so we should pick one that fits our wake-up time or sports schedule. (I'll be there Saturday evening, thank you.) If you have a middle schooler or high schooler, you may want to come to the 10:00 a.m. service so your students can attend services with their age group. Apparently, childcare and Children's Church are available for all four weekend services. For more information, please check out their website at http://www.capobeachchurch.com/services/

I should add that Capo Beach Church has a special significance for me. My brother Tom and his wife Michelle were married there two decades ago. Trish and I went there as part of our first date. We were too early for dinner at Las Brisas in Laguna Beach, so we went to the Saturday evening service as a spontaneous lark. It was an unusual religious service for me. At the time, I was still an atheist.

One of the odd examples of synchronicity that I remember from that evening is that the preacher, Chuck Smith, Jr., went out of his way to praise atheists that night. As I recall, he ranked atheists over agnostics because the atheists at least had put in the time and effort to come to a definite conclusion. Whatever the reason, I felt quite welcome and accepted that night. I was certainly a passive fan of Christianity. I remember that I was confident that the Christian church had been a live-saver for my future wife. As a political scientist, I understood enough about political culture to understand that the American way of life would be physically impossible without its firm foundation in the Christian faith of our founders and early settlers.

Overtime, of course, I left aside my atheism. I got baptized by some friends of mine who were part of our Bible study group in Irvine, CA. I like to think that they -- and Trish -- figured out I was a Christian prior to me getting that figured out myself. We are still active in a small group today where we are living life along the guidelines so thoughtfully suggested by Ken Baugh during his remarkable tenure at Coast Hills Church. For better or worse, there are a number of us out there who are unhappy with the way Coast Hills Church parted ways with Ken Baugh. Recently an ex-parishioner at Coast Hills wrote: "I did not like how Coast Hills handled this situation. It was very abrupt and just funky. I truly loved serving at Coast Hills over the past 10 years... and just felt that it was time to leave Coast Hills." Expressing what must be the thoughts of many, this observer wrote: "I truly loved Ken's messages and his heart. The messages he spoke truly touched my life."

Since that first date, however, I have also come to have a darker take on atheists. Unfortunately, the worse mass murderers of the last century were atheists including Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot. As a fairly decent student of Marxism myself, I can report that my atheism preceded my commitment to being a Marxist socialist ideologue. I can also report that my spiritual recovery preceded my eventually renunciation of Communism as a worthy goal.

I am also aware that atheists in power are dangerous whether or not they are Communists. During the French Revolution, the revolutionary leadership made an aggressive attempt to root out the Catholic Church and Catholicism itself. The leaders of the French Revolution sent thousands out to the guillotine and when that was too slow turned to tying Christians to logs and letting them drown in the rivers.

As an ex-atheist, I am painfully aware of how easy it is to justify the murder of millions of people simply because they are getting in the way of your particular utopia. These Godless regimes do not have the internal strength to last, but they do massive damage to themselves and their neighbors. Atheists tyrants routinely lack the humility needed to be safe rulers and safe neighbors.

At any rate, it will be a pleasure to visit Capo Beach Church again. I will reminiscent about how the church welcomed me despite my flaws and look forward to how the church will keep alive the gentle, healing Biblical insight of Ken Baugh.

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