intersections

Meet me in Atlanta

I leave for Atlanta on Sunday, June 20 for the Innovative Impact conference and then the Adventist General Conference Session. Here's where I'll be. I'd love to meet you if I haven't have that chance yet.

June 20 - 22
Innovative Impact - on Monday evening there will be a screening of Stained Glass: Hollywood Blvd, after which I'll be speaking and fielding questions about the film and our church. Hope you can make it!

June 23 - 29
Find me at the "Big Tent Adventism" booth where I'll be helping out with Spectrum/Association of Adventist Forums and also promoting New Name Pictures. Come by and get a DVD of our latest work and learn more about New Name Pictures.

See you in Atlanta!

Mass Mailing the Gospel?

The gospel is not mainly a 'good idea' and anytime we claim we can reduce it down to a pamphlet we end up...well, reducing it. But the gospel that Jesus lived, and then died for, is irreducible in that sense. It must be lived out in community. By claiming the gospel can be mass mailed we are weakening the power of the gospel in our time. I don't want to be a part of that.

The fact remains that Jesus calls us to get up off the couch and lay down our lives for people. If the gospel could be mass mailed, don't you think God would have avoided risking his "one and only Son"? The nature of the truth of God's good news required Jesus to be incarnate among us. Why would it be any different now?

In case you missed it, I posted an article with this title on the Spectrum Blog last week. The statement above is part of a comment I added today after quite a few commenters misunderstood my point.

Here's the piece in its entirety, but I'd encourage you to also join the conversation over at Spectrum.

-------------

This morning I received an email from Remnant Publications. I don't usually pay attention to these emails but this one really caught my eye. The subject line reads, "Evangelilsm [sic] by Mass Mailing." My first thought was, "This is a joke...an eye-grabbing headline to force me to look deeper only to discover the author of the email reminding us that, of course, we cannot do evangelism by mass mailing."

It did grab my eye, but when I looked deeper it quickly became clear the author is not jesting. The headline inside the email reads, "Hit the streets with soul-saving literature without leaving the comfort of your own home!" (See the email here)

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.

rest

I have an article in the current issue of Vibrant Life magazine (which, by the way, has been completely redesigned under the leadership of my friend, and Seminary classmate, Heather Quintana. If you think you know about Vibrant Life magazine, you should check it out again).

My article is about the Sabbath. The tagline they gave it perfect: "We live in an overworked, hyperconnected world. So how can we recover our humanity? Sabbath rest is a good start."

You can subscribe, or request a free issue, here.

NEW BOOK: The Promise of Peace

There's a new book out from Pacific Press that I highly recommend. I had the chance to review the manuscript before it was published and write a blurb for it. Here's what I wrote:

Charles Scriven's The Promise of Peace will give hope to a new generation of Adventists who desperately long to re-appropriate their faith and traditions in a way that gives meaning to their lives and helps them shape a more peaceful and just world. I will be using this book with all my new members.

I just got my copy in the mail, but I plan to order a bunch more. After all, I have to make good on my promise!

Order yours here!

Video: Holy Saturday worship

The video includes excerpts of our Holy Saturday worship service which I have written about here and here.

All of our Holy Week resources, including sermons and the program and liturgy we used for Friday, Sabbath and Sunday, are compiled at the Hollywood Adventist Church website.
Easter 2009: Holy Saturday on Vimeo.

Holy Saturday and the Death of God

"Cross"-posted at the Spectrum Blog

In Hollywood, our Lenten journey is nearly over. Today is Holy Saturday. For Adventists, every Saturday is Holy because we remember those words in the very beginning of the story, "So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation" (Gen 2:3). Each Sabbath is a wonderful pause in the creative work of God. Indeed, the pause itself is creative, like a musical rest or dramatic pause in theater. The absence of speech or activity is, itself, creative and moving.

But this Sabbath is different. As Eric Severson has said, "The gaping silence between Good Friday and Easter Sunday cannot be explained as a welcome pause or an artistic hiatus.... Holy Saturday is blunt and bleak and uncomfortable."

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."

SONscreen Film Festival is coming

I know I'm biased, but I think if you can make it to the SONscreen Film Festival this year, starting April 13 16 at in Simi Valley, you definitely should. All the information about how to register is here.

In addition to the Official Festival Selections there are some other very important screenings that are happening that are very dear to my heart. They include:

• “Stained Glass” Documentary series with Filmmakers Q&A
  
• “Marbles with Thoreau” -- short subject drama (16:00)
• “Jesus People: the movie” -- a feature film comedy (87:00)

The reason this is so exciting for me personally is that these three special features above are done by members of the Hollywood Adventist Church.

"Stained Glass" is a documentary film project commissioned by the North American Division, taking an up-close look at three congregations. One of those three congregations is our church in Hollywood and the film is by Melody George.

"Marbles with Thoreau" is also by Melody George. This is Melody's personal project that has been close to her heart for a very long time. Several others in our congregation have been instrumental in creating this film. This project was four years in the making and I am so excited to see this film.

"Jesus People: the Movie" is a hilarious comedy by my friend and fellow church members, Rajeev Sigamoney. I've seen this film already and I'm just dying to see it again.

Finally, I will be a panelist in a panel discussion on Sabbath afternoon entitled, "Reel Community: Rediscovering the Church's role in a place like Hollywood." You can read more about the panel and the panelists at the website here.

Lent and Adventism - a discussion

A week or so ago I had the privilege to join in on a conversation with some friends about the meaning of Lent in Adventism. I was out of town and the time and actually had to leave the call half way through but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

You can listen to or download the podcast here. I'd love to hear what you think.

A while back I wrote a post on the Spectrum Blog about our congregation's Ash Wednesday experience, which I briefly mention on the podcast.

The other partners in the conversation are:

• Lisa Clark Diller, Associate Professor of History at Southern Adventist University
• Trudy Morgan-Cole, a writer and teacher in Newfoundland, Canada
• Julius Nam, Associate Professor of Religion, Loma Linda University