intersections

A word about my booklist

It's been a while since I updated my book list on the right column, so if you haven't looked at it in a while and you're wondering what I'm reading right now, you can have a look at the updates. Just a few things about how I'm managing this list:

1. I've deleted some books that I've finished reading and that have been up there a while. This isn't a list of recommended books but what I'm working on at the moment. Perhaps I'll create a recommended reading list sometime.
2. I'm always reading 5 or 6 books at the same time and so some books take me a while to finish. Dorothy Day's biography that you see pictured here is my morning reading while I drink my coffee. It's like talking to a friend and I don't want to rush it. Others books I'm reading more lightly, like  Balmer's new book.
3. I'm trying to read more broadly, hence the mix of biography, theology, history, politics.

Greg Boyd is my hero!

There was a remarkable story in today's New York Times called, Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock (you will probably need to create a username and password to access the NY Times online, but's free and well worth your while). The story recounts how Rev. Greg Boyd "grew" his suburban, evangelical megachurch from 5,000 to 4,000 simply by suggesting that the United States of America is not "the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ." Actually, that's not all he did. He preached a six-part sermon series called, The Cross and the Sword, in which he challenged the growing alliance between evangelical Christianity and the pro-war, pro-rich, Republican party platform, which has used the abortion myth and scare tactics about homosexuals destroying the family to their policical ends (for more about the abortion myth read Randall Balmer's new book, Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America — an Evangelical’s Lament.

What Boyd has done is suicidal. But I'm so thrilled that he would have the courage to stand up for his convictions and call the church to its better self. It really blows my mind to watch as the conservative Christians in American are now taking their turn being coopted by the power structures of the nation while the "post-liberals" are throwing off the shackles of Constantine and national religion and are now leading the way at reclaiming what it means to be the church in postmodern society. It's people like Greg Boyd, Jim Wallis, Brian McClaren and a host of lesser know leaders, I hope, who will bridge that divide.

What's in it for me?

As a pastor in a local church, many things occupy my mind. It is a multi-layered pursuit, to put it mildly. One thing that is always running in the background, amidst the phone calls, the budget crises, the conversations with troubled members, new visitors, community meetings and the like, is the macro question of "the church." What is it? What is it for? I have a couple of friends who are pastors and from time to time we just look at each other and say, "Okay, give me the speech again! What is it we're doing? Tell me again why this is important!" And we listen as the other recites the reasons for what we do. Normally, when I am the inquirer, I listen, patiently, and am usually statisfied. I recognize in my friends words, themes I know to be true. I just needed to hear it again. Mostly to know I am not alone in my struggle.

I recently had a conversation with a colleague along these lines, though not quite as desperate. We were talking about the fragmentation of life in L.A. (though we didn't use those words). We talked about how people have their social circles, their employment, their kids, even their deeds of kindness, that they are commited to. To ask them to take an interest in church feels like just one more thing to add to the laundry list of causes and good intentions that crowd their days. I expressed my desire that the church be the metanarrative (though, again, I didn't use that word) in which all the other important pieces of life find their true place and meaning. Clearly we don't want people to value family life less. In fact, the opposite is true. Though most of the time we make our people (and especially our leaders) choose between the church and their families (a whole separate issue to be discussed, I suspect). I have always dreamed of life in Christ's body being the integrated thing that I hear Paul descibing and rejoicing over. But, I digress...

Too HOT!

Why haven't I posted in over two weeks? I suppose I could offer a complex variety of reasons. Instead I will blame it on the one thing that has been responsible for all problems in the past two weeks: the heat! Last year California broke all the records for rainfall. The year we blew through the records for heat. It was 119 degrees in Woodland Hills, people. Even Lancaster didn't get that hot. Even Las Vegas wasn't that hot on that day. Around the country I'm sure you're heard about our little heat wave.

So, anyway, we don't have central air in our apartment - just a small window unit in our living room. No A/C in the bedrooms. This is literally the first night in almost two weeks I haven't sat in my apartment in minimal clothing and just sweat! I think we only hit 91 today in the city. It actually felt cool compared with 101. So, that's my excuse, and I'm stickin' to it!

A picture in search of a caption

I encountered this in the hotel where I'm staying in Boise. Anyone want to share a caption? Click on comments below and let's have a little fun!

Allelon Summer Leadership Institute

Today I'm on my way to Eagle, Idaho. I'll be there for four days at the Allelon Summer Leadership Institute. This is the Mission Statement of Allelon, as taken from their website:

At Allelon, our overarching mission is to educate and encourage the church to become a people among whom God can live, as sign, symbol, and foretaste of his redeeming love and grace in their neighborhoods and the whole of society- ordinary women and men endeavoring to participate in God's mission to reclaim and restore the whole of creation and to bear witness to the world of a new way of being human.

This first ever leadership institute is designed to create a partnership among leaders that are working toward forming mission shaped congregations. I encourage you to visit their website to get a clearer picture of what our goals are. This week of training and networking connects closely with the world I'm doing at Fuller.

Working for Peace & Justice in the World

Today found me at the weekly meeting of Interfaith Communities United for Peace & Justice. This is an organization that was founding following 9/11 here in Los Angeles to be a voice for peace. I've been watching from a distance for a while and today I finally went. It was a really uplifting experience. Here were 40 men and women, most Christian, but some Muslim and Jews, who weren't just talking about peace and justice, they were working to advance peace as a way of being in the world.

I had a chance to share with some of those I met today that the Adventist Church is, historically speaking, one of the peace churches, though you would hardly know it anymore.

The picture here shows the speaker (right), Dan Wakefield, who just published the book, The Hijacking of Jesus. Haven't read it but he was a well-informed speaker. To his right is George Regas, who was for many years the pastor of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, CA. You may recall that church was on the IRS radar some time ago and I wrote about it on this blog - here.

Also at this meeting was the Rev. James Lawson (click on his name to read his short bio on Wikipedia), who worked along side Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and has been active in the civil rights movment ever since. Lawson was a student at the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University where my friend Sherman Haywood Cox II is a student, and has just been invited to return to Vanderbilt as a professor (good news for you, Sherman!). You can read a short piece about his history with Vanderbilt here. It's a story of redemption.

An Inconvenient Truth

I finally saw the Al Gore film, An Inconvenient Truth. Thanks to Alexander Carpenter I was able to see the movie for free. You can do the same by visiting the website, Inconvenient Christians. I hope you will see the movie!

It is terrifying and compelling and accurate. After seeing the film I wanted to drive my car off a cliff (jumping out at the last moment to save myself, of course). In a more rational moment it made me more committed than ever to pursuing community on a "human scale." Especially in Southern California, life is not lived on a human scale; rather, it's a automobile scale. You can't walk places. Most places can't even be reached by light rail or other public transportation (very easily). Even Christians rarely stop to ponder the gospel implications of commuting.

The scientific community has found a couple of fine points to argue with (like making too direct a link between climate change and Hurricane Katrina) but in general they have lauded the movie as an accurate portrayal of the science. However, our Commander in Chief has his head deeply imbedded in the sand. In a moment of sheer arrogance and stupidity, George Bush vowed NOT to see the movie, according to this Fox News report. I hope he will change his mind. There are issues that are more pressing than whether or not someone is allowed to burn a flag.