intersections

Dancing with the Powers That Be

This essay was written for Spectrum Magazine's online Sabbath School Commentary, which you can check out here. It's a great resource for Sabbath School teachers wanting to get a wider perspective. They graciously invite me to write for it about once a quarter.

One recent morning found me at the 2006 Economic Development Summit, put on by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (think Academy Awards) in its new, state-of-the-art theater. This annual event, currently in its fifteenth year, gathers small, medium, and large players in the development of Hollywood.

Few people outside Southern California realize what Hollywood is really like. Fifteen years ago, it was difficult to convince a business person to think of Hollywood Boulevard as a promising location to place her business, occupied as it was by those in the less-savory businesses of drugs and prostitution. In the past fifteen to twenty years, Hollywood has changed in remarkable ways, but it still has a way to go. (Hollywood has the second largest homeless population in Los Angeles County, with nearly twenty-five hundred humans living on the street every night—second in rank only to "skid row" in downtown LA). You can see alarm in the faces of tourists as they pile out of tour busses—"THIS is Hollywood? You’ve got to be kidding!"

What was I doing at an Economic Development Summit in Hollywood?

On Vacation!

We are finally off an a much needed vacation. I'm in the wild and crazy city of Corning, California (click the link to see where it is). Yesterday we were at Pacific Union College, attending my cousin, Tim Wieg's graduation. He earned the degree, Batchelor of Science in  Biology - Cum Laude! Congrats Tim! Next year he will be in Dental School in Loma Linda and he promises we'll see him in Hollywood! Very cool!

We drove here to Corning to get a bit of highway behind us so today's drive to Winston, Oregon isn't as long. It seems we have about 4 hours to go. The kids have been exceptionally well behaved in the car and in every way. The picture here is of Crater Lake. I snagged this off the web but hopefully in a few days I'll have my own pictures. We'll also make a trip to the famous Oregon Coast.

My mom has dial-up internet, which means I won't be online this week. It's probably a good thing. I need to unplug. So, his is farewell until next week. Peace, out!

The Revolution

The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World
Edited by Heather Zydek - Relevant Books, 2006, 235 pgs.

A book review by Nathan Brown, editor of Record.

The Revolution draws together thoughts on 12 big, global issues in social justice today: clean water, gang violence, women’s rights, fair trade, war and peace, torture, the environment, human trafficking, poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDS and capital punishment. Of course, trying to cover so many big issues in a small book is a recipe for brevity and so each of the treatments are little more than an introduction.

However, the contributors are people who are working in response to their respective areas of concern and this adds a personal perspective and credibility—these are people doing something about these problems. Also included with each instalment are pointers for “taking action, in four easy (and sometimes not-so-easy) steps”—donate, educate, activate and pray. These are the prompts to further engagement beyond the few brief pages afforded by this collection.

Intersections

As the title of my blog indicates, I am fascinated by the intersection of things that modern life has typically preferred to keep separate, like church and culture, religion and politics, faith and public life. So, I am naturally attracted to news stories and other media that highlight these amazing intersections. I believe these interesections represent opportunities for Christians to be aware of the the way God's reign is breaking into our world and cooperate with God's Spirit. The following are a number of articles I have discovered recently or were brought to my attention by friends.

STAUBLOG: Facing the Giants of Bad Art & Bad Theology
Dick Staub on living "in a culture that loves art but not Jesus and in a Christian sub-culture dominated by a Christianity that loves Jesus, but not good art."

The Barna Update - Has Faith Greatly Transformed Your Life?
Here, well known Christian researcher, George Barna, asks Christians whether faith as transformed their lives. He makes some observations that probalby serve to solidify many people's assumptions about liberal vs. conservative Christians. But what does Barna mean by "greatly transformed?" How would Barna's observations stack up against those made by Ron Sider in The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience? (Kudos to John Anthony for pointing out this article).

Speaking of Faith on Deciphering the Da Vinci Code
This is a weekly radio program put out by American Public Media, self-dubbed, public radio's conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas. You can subscribe to a free podcast. I have found this programm to be an amazing resource. This issue was a very thoughtful look at the issues behind the Da Vinci Code without obsessing about the novel/film directly.

God and Gays, from USA Today
A short piece on the recent struggles of some denominations to come to terms with the place of homosexuals in the church, especially the clergy. What of Adventist Churches that are explicitly welcoming? Can we even have an open conversation in our denomination about this? I have my doubts.

Back from Minnesota

Apologies to those of you who have been waiting patiently for me to post my talks in Minnesota. For the two of you who really care, I have bad news. First, the files were way too big for me to realistically post here. Secondly (and more importantly) it wasn't that good. I didn't feel "on" at all. I was not at all prepared for the people I would be speaking to. They were wonderful and patient with me. I must have seemed like I was out in left field.

That being said, I had some great interactions with people, met some wonderful new friends and had a chance to catch up with some old friends (Terry, Tony and Tompaul, it was truly great to see you).

Headed to Minnesota

I'm headed to Minnesota tomorrow morning - Hutchinson, Minnesota, to be exact. I'll be speaking to the young adults at the Minnesota Conference Camp Meeting. I'll speak three times while I'm there (Friday night, Sabbath morning and Saturday night).

My topic for the weekend is The Revolution. The three messages will be:

1. How I Was Recuited - the story of my journey in God's kingdom
2. Learning to Love the World the Way God Does
3. Inciting a Revolution

I'm sure I'll write reflections from my trip. I will also podcast these messages from this website (not from Hollywood Church's website).

Les Miserables at the Pantages

Last night my wife and I had the tremendous privilege to attend the opening night of the Broadway musical, Les Miserables, at the historic Pantages Theater in Los Angeles. In fact, we parked at the Hollywood Church and walked to the theater.

Needless to say, the performance was amazing. The sense of wonder I had at the whole thing made me feel like a little child. All around me people were critiquing the whole thing, comparing this performance to one they had seen before, comparing it to the original Jean Valjean from 17 years ago. For my part, that was the first time I had ever attended a Broadway production and I was in utter amazement. From the sound the applause and cheers from the sold out, 2,700-member audience, everyone agreed!

The story itself is phenomenal. I have seen other movie versions of the story but never the musical. This is their last time in Los Angeles before the national touring company ends it's 17 year run.

It's funny - when we've been at other events like this we always end up seeing some famous Hollywood actor or musician or something. We can't always identify them, but we always say the proverbial, "Hey, look, it's that guy..." Last night as we were walking out with the other 2,700 theater goers I saw someone I recognized...Erwin McManus. How funny, I thought. Out of all these people in Hollywood and I recognize a pastor. It's fitting, I guess. It was Les Mis, after all.

De-churched, re-churched

I posted a comment in the comment section of "Do Evangelistic Series Work?" You can read it here. What I'm doing there is trying to clarify my point. That post obviously generated a lot of great dialogue and I'm grateful for all your insights. It's clearly a sensitive and important issue. Like I've said, the nature of the gospel and the church (ecclesiology) is at stake.

Shortly after I posted that comment I ran across a blog by the author of the book at left, The Great Giveaway, by David Fitch. I haven't read the book but I've heard a lot about it. For some time Scot McKnight was blogging about this book. At least I think that's where I read about it. Anyway, I ran across this statement on a post called, The "De-Churched" and the Future of Missional Emerging Congregations.

More and more… the dechurched people of the mega churches are getting a sense of something wrong. These discontented de-churched get that the mass distribution of Christian life is not possible. Instead, Christian life is participation in worship, community, engagement of the poor, the hurting, the marginalized with the full salvation of Christ, the sharing of our respective burdens in Christ, the transformation of our souls towards an orientation towards God’s mission in the world, the participation in global holistic mission. Could these “de-churched” be the basis for the re-seeding of missional congregations by the Holy Spirit? Again, I have no doubt the mega churches in United States are doing many good evangelistic things. And one of those things may be the providing of the beginnings of missional congregations with the disenchanted “de-churched.” Maybe it could be time for missional congregations to openly invite “the de-churched” to be “re-churched” missionally speaking.

This statement and much that David Fitch has to say on his blog relates to what I am trying to communicate in the past few posts about the gospel and evangelism. I think I'll read his book. Also of interest comment about "re-churching." Where have I heard that before?