Hi.  We’re Phil and Jill Dregger.  We moved to California from Minnesota with our two daughters in 1989. 

We have served as elders since Sanctuary Ministries began in the fall of 1994.

I (Phil) had a dramatic conversion; going from atheist to Christian as the presence of God surrounded me

in a dorm room in Moorhead Minnesota.  I own a small consulting business in Concord and spend much

of my time praying for and generally encouraging the praise and worship team, and its leaders Mike and

Lisa Green. 

I (Jill) grew up in the church.  Even so, I had beliefs about the nature of God that simply weren’t true. 

Now, as those misbeliefs are being replaced with truth, well, God’s love just gets more amazing every day. 

I am an artist and try my best to add an artistic touch to the Sanctuary décor and to encourage the many

studio artists (e.g., painters, sculptures) in our community and beyond. 

Although we’ve both been Christian’s since, well, before anyone heard of Luke Skywalker, we feel as if

we’ve just started to get to know God and his great love – which, we believe is the key to living life as God intended.

We’ve learned a lot about ourselves and about God over the years; some of which we learned the hard way.

• Unguarded reactions and self-talk speak volumes about what we really believe.  We’ve learned to ask why we react the way we do when unexpected things happen.  Sometimes this involves peeling back several layers of superficial reasons why.  For example, for a long time I (Phil) thought I loved my wife and daughters unconditionally.  But after taking a close look at how I reacted to them, I realized my “love” was very much conditional – it was conditional on how they responded back to me. 

• “God loves you as you are, not as you should be” (Brennon Manning).

• Our self-worth must be based on what God says about us.  Too often, it turns out our self-worth is based on what we do or on what other people say about us.  For example, we feel good about ourselves when we perform well and we feel terrible about ourselves when we perform poorly.  Only God’s love is constant.  Only God can affirm us consistently – and he does.

• Knowing the truth and telling ourselves the truth is a key to lasting change.  Once we realize we “believe” something that doesn’t line up with scripture we do our best to counteract these misbeliefs by telling ourselves the truth. 

• Forgiveness is often a key to breaking cycles of habitual sin.  Unconfessed sin gives the enemy a foothold from which to harass and tempt us.  Confession releases God’s forgiveness. It cleanses us, frees us to hear clearly the Holy Spirit, and empowers us to make right choices.  God condemns the sins done against us.  But he also died for these same people.  We can forgive those who sin us if we accept Jesus’ death as payment for their sins.  This truth has freed Jill and me from much bitterness.

• “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”  Oops, sorry.  Wrong list of lessons learned.  J
  (Quote by Jedi Master Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back.)

Jill and I look forward to meeting you and getting to know you better.