intersections

The Grace of Not Knowing

Cross-posted on the Spectrum Blog/Spirituality section. Join the conversation there as well.

The Hollywood Adventist Church has had a slogan for the past 8 years which you can still see on our website. It reads, “Where God’s Spirit is given space to change lives.” This is the most significant piece of theology that I have ever encountered at a Seventh-day Adventist Church. This statement predates my ministry in Hollywood by 3 years and when I first read it I wondered, “Is this wishful thinking, or is this truly what this church believes and embodies?”

No church completely embodies its highest ideals for itself, but I have to say that this statement has profoundly shaped my congregation. It is the thing I love the most about Hollywood. However, structuring a congregation around this statement is no simple task. It is messy and unpredictable.

One of my favorite statements about the Spirit is in John 3:8 where Jesus says to Nicodemus,

The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

The movement of the Spirit is a mystery. It is not linear, and therefore not predicable. In fact, the Spirit’s movements sometimes appear random, confusing and contradictory.

But we have been raised in a modern world that prizes predictability, control, and measurable outcomes. Pastors today are caught in the liminal space between a modern industrial worldview and the spiritual realities of leadership in a postmodern culture. There are very real expectations placed upon pastors and church leaders – solid Biblical exposition, spiritual guidance, programs that meet their needs and the needs of their families. Conference administrators expect the church to grow in membership and attendance through new baptisms and accessions to the faith, as well as financial growth and stability. These expectations are reasonable in most cases.

Yet, in a rapidly changing, post-Christian world, these expectations create an almost unbearable pressure and anxiety for church leaders. I know. I’ve felt this pressure with such intensity that it has nearly crushed me a time or two or three. Congregations and Conference administrators expect pastors to know what to do. But here’s the dirty little secret: we don’t know what to do! And we’re scared to admit to you that we don’t know what to do.

Missional Church class at La Sierra University

I'm teaching a Masters level Professional Studies course at La Sierra this quarter entitled Missional Church. If you're curious about what we're doing, here's the syllabus.

I'm thinking of offering a version of this class by webinar in the Spring through the re-church network, so stay tuned for that.

Adventism I can believe in

(Crossposted at the Spectrum Blog)

Seventh-day Adventists are perennially concerned about identity. Who are we? What do we believe? Who gets to decide? Our anti-creedal position stands over against our ever-expanding list of Fundamental Beliefs; our belief in 'progressive revelation' over against our claim to have the truth.

I am one that believes this dialectic tension is good for the church and that our determination to live in that tension is generative and healthy. But there are many voices who wish to collapse all such tensions into a single pole, declaring once and for all what the "truth" of a certain issue is. This is usually accompanied by a corresponding move to define out those who do not believe in this more narrow interpretation of what counts as a "real" Adventist.

Advent rather than future

As I'm reading back through Lesslie Newbigin's classic, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, I am a struck by how my own ideas have been shaped by Newbigin to such a degree that I forget where I originally learned these things. For this reason (and many others) I highly recommend reading again the most important books in your life. Here's a sample for today:

Hopeful action means having something to which one can confidently look forward. It means having a horizon. As I said earlier, apart from what has been done in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we are shut up to only two possibilities. One possible horizon for our action is a vision for the future of the human race, a future in which we shall have no part. The other possible horizon is a personal future for me beyond death. From that future the world in which I now seek to serve God is absent. Its future is not part of my future. The one possibility gives meaning to my participation in the public life of neighborhood, nation, and world at the cost of marginalizing the human person. The other provides meaning for the individual human person at the cost of marginalizing our shared public life. What is made possible through the gospel is a life looking toward a horizon which is different from either of these. That horizon is defined in the words "He shall come again." For a Christian the horizon for all action is this. It is advent rather than future. He is coming to meet us, and whatever we do -- whether it is our most private prayers or our most public political action -- is simply offered to him for whatever place it may have in his blessed kingdom. Here is the clue to meaningful action in a meaningful history: it is the translation into action of the prayer: "Your kingdom come, your will be done, as in heaven so on earth" (101-102, emphasis mine).

My take on The Good News

My friend, JR Woodward, who is the pastor of Kairos Los Angeles and lives just down the road from me in Hollywood, has an incredible blog called Dream Awakener, which if you haven't seen it, you really need to check out. During the season of Easter he's asked 50 different writer to contribute a 300-500 word piece about the "good news" written for their local newspaper.

Here's how I start my piece off. You can see the list of all the contributors here (some pretty prestigious people) with links to their pieces.

My friends John and Aileen serve breakfast to about 150 hungry people on a relatively quiet sidewalk in Hollywood. They do this every weekday. They naturally have help from friends in the neighborhood. The only way you can distinguish the volunteers from those being “helped” is by the rubber gloves worn by the volunteers. I, too, look like I’ve just rolled out of bed. Some of those in line look more prepared for a job interview than I do. That’s probably where a couple of them are headed next after they finished their turkey sandwich, fresh strawberries and yogurt.

To me, John and Aileen embody the good news.

Read the whole thing here.

Stained Glass: Hollywood Blvd. (Episode 1)

I just realized that the first episode of the four-part documentary that the North America Division is doing about the Hollywood Adventist Church is now online at the Vervent website.

I'd love for you to have a look at it and tell me what you think. This was written and directed by one of our members, Melody George. (As an aside, you will be hearing a LOT more about Melody in the coming months...just sayin').

There are three churches that are a part of this project and each church will have four episodes. Stay tuned for the rest of these in the very near future.

Now, have a look at Episode one...click here and look under Featured Resources for "Stained Glass: Hollywood Blvd - Episode 1."

Join the fight for affordable housing in LA

Los Angeles Families Phone City Council Urging Passage of a Mixed-Income Housing Ordinance By June!

Housing Advocates establish a hotline this week to urge city council to take decisive action on the Los Angeles Housing Crisis and pass a mixed-income housing ordinance by June. This ordinance would ensure that in every new development in the city would include units affordable to working families.

To learn more and download a Press Release, click here.

It's Time!

My follow up post to Reading Mark (below), is cross posted in two places: The Missional Journey and the Spectrum Blog. It seems I'm going to be blogging a bit more at Spectrum so stay tuned for that.

Here's the beginning of the post. The whole thing can be read here and/or here.

In an earlier post, here, I suggested a creative re-reading of the first chapter of Mark that was part of my sermon on Epiphany 3. What I was trying to do in that narrative was to highlight the context in which Mark frames Jesus’ announcement of the Kingdom.

Notice,

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:14-15).

The challenge facing pastors week by week is serious. I’m deeply concerned that most congregations are hearing the texts only in ways that prop up the reigning social imagination; in my case, the consumer capitalism and militarism (among other things) of the United States of America. But we need scripture to subvert our imaginations and sow the seeds of a new world. This can never happen while pastors simply offer scripture as a way of learning how to live well-adjusted lives in whatever society we find ourselves.

....

Beyond Evandalism - new info!

Here’s the brand new flyer that you can print and share with others, or, download this high resolution PDF here.

More information, including instructions on how to register at the www.re-church.org.

Beyond Evandalism

//cross-posted at the re-church website. Please watch the re-church site for updates.

Please join us for a re-church gathering in Hollywood, California, March 1-2.

The primary speaker will be Peter Rollins. Peter is the co-ordinator of the experimental collective Ikon. Ikon describes itself as iconic, apocalyptic, heretical, emerging and failing and engages in what it calls theodrama and ‘transformance art’.

Our theme will be “Beyond Evandalism.” Through Peter’s challenging talks responses from other speakers, including Ryan Bell and Samir Selmanovic, each particiapant will have the opportunity to both share their wisdom and contribute to a constructive proposal for ecclesial witness in the 21st century.

The gathering will begin at 7:00 pm on Sunday, March 1 and continue all day on March 2.

Cost: $75 early registration (through Feb 9); $90 regular. (More information about how to register and pay will be forthcoming).

Location: Hollywood Adventist Church, 1711 N Van Ness Ave, Hollywood, CA  90028.

For more information contact Ryan Bell at rjbell (AT) re-church (DOT) org.