CCA Hawaii Conference / Pastor Teachings
Bud Stonebraker Teaches at CCA Hawaii Conference
Story by Jim Culhane
Photos by Tom Price
Follow Calvary Chapel Magazine as we publish summaries of pastors’ teachings at the CCA Pastors, Leaders, & Church Workers Conference held in August 2021 at Calvary Chapel Honolulu, HI. Click here to learn more about the conference.
In this installment, Bud Stonebraker, senior pastor of South Shore Christian Fellowship (also known as The Ranch Church) in Waimanalo, HI, teaches on Ezekiel 33:7. He emphasizes the need for Calvary Chapel pastors to be “watchmen on the walls” in our changing times.
Jake O’Neill (center), an assistant pastor who runs the radio station for CC Honolulu, HI, enjoys bringing friends together at the CCA Pastors, Leaders, & Church Workers Conference in August.
“So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me.” Ezekiel 33:7
Pastor Bud asked the question, “Have I been a faithful watchman?” Then he said, “Ask yourself.” Watchmen are on watch at night, during the day, and in Bible times were on the walls in little watch booths. They had to watch for an enemy, then blow the trumpet. God called the prophet Ezekiel to be a watchman for Israel, to listen to God’s words for the future and to warn Israel. But if Israel would not listen, their blood would be on their own hands. If the watchman didn’t sound the trumpet to warn the people, and the sword took anyone, then God would remove the watchman and require his blood. The prophet Jeremiah was also called to be a watchman.
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“Have I been a watchman? Have you been a watchman, a watchwoman? The stakes are high. It’s not just a question we ask ourselves; we need to ask the Lord, ‘Have I been a watchman?’”, Bud inquired. “We will all have to stand before God in judgment.” You can’t really answer that question in times of peace.
Bud Stonebraker, senior pastor of South Shore Christian Fellowship (also known as The Ranch Church) in Waimanalo, HI, teaches on Ezekiel 33:7. He emphasized the need for Calvary Chapel pastors to be “watchmen on the walls” in our changing times.
“How do you know if you’ve been faithful watchmen, watchwomen?” asked Bud. “There has to be a war. There has to be a crisis. There has to be an enemy on the horizon, and if the enemy makes it all the way to the gates without a signal from the watchman, then he or she failed. The question is, Is there something I should be warning the people about, and I’m not warning them? Do I see a threat but I’m not sounding an alarm?” Bud has sounded an alarm in the last year and a half but is afraid for other pastors who have a higher vantage point yet have not sounded an alarm. He said that he is a watchman to the watchmen, who are in great danger because they have been silent.
During Pastor Bud’s teaching, he asked attendees who had served in the military to stand “at attention” to illustrate his point that the pastors needed to always be watchmen, always on duty.
“If you still don’t know the danger, then you are asleep in your watchtower. This message is not for those who want to hear it, it’s for those who do not want to hear it. Last year when everything shut down, we feared a disease that would take one out of twenty people, almost a 4% fatality rate, but that was a lie. In a few weeks, we learned it was only like the flu. Maybe twice as bad as the flu,” said Bud. He noticed that good news was censored, the pandemic was fraught with lies, exaggerated figures, and all deaths were to be reported as COVID-19. Emergency hospitals weren’t used, the politicians were using the same talking points to say, ‘Let’s test, trace, treat.’
After the attendees stood “at attention,” Bud then asked them to stand “at ease.”
Bud mentioned the ratcheted pressure, that the news was unethical: “It had neither logos nor ethos, and if it didn’t have those, it wasn’t going to have any pathos, no mercy, no compassion.” He was baffled by the lies told to justify locking people down, and the hardships and threats endured by people. Churches were closed while houses of vice were open. “How stupid do we have to be?” asked Bud. He said that if you don’t know what’s going on, do research. Speak up and warn others. He ran for mayor just to be able to say something, but winning would ruin his reputation. He wanted to know, Why would I let my community be drowned in lies?
Derald Skinner (left), senior pastor of CC Pearl Harbor, HI, reunites with Alan Leigh (right), pastor emeritus of CC Wahiawa, HI.
Today, South Shore Christian Fellowship is three times the size it was before COVID-19 events. While Bud would prefer that the Rapture take place, he suggested that so would have Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This is a Marxist revolution, said Bud, who referred to the mention of pharmakeia, sorcery, in the Book of Revelation. We have been peppered with demonic lies. Speaking powerfully, he said we must sound our trumpet.
For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery [pharmakeia] all the nations were deceived. Revelation 18:23b
Bud exhorted us to stand together in unity and love, to stand for our neighbors, to stand on our heritage. “Will [Jesus] say ‘Well done, good and faithful watchmen?’ See to it, make sure of it. Let us set our houses in order and report for duty.”
Young and older, those who attended the Hawaii conference enjoyed sweet fellowship.
Visit the website of Pastor Bud Stonebraker's church at South Shore Christian Fellowship
Follow summaries of pastors' teachings at CCA Hawaii Conference: Ron Hindt, senior pastor of Calvary Houston, TX. Stay tuned for more teaching summaries in upcoming days.
Mark your calendar for the 2022 CCA Hawaii Conference: August 19-21 at Calvary Chapel Honolulu.
(To learn more about Calvary School of Missions, visit their website)
All verses above are quoted from the New King James Version, unless otherwise noted.
© 2022 Calvary Chapel Magazine (CCM). All rights reserved. Articles or photographs may not be reproduced without the written permission of CCM. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.® Used by permission.