intersections

I'm heading to Washington, DC

I leave early tomorrow morning for Washington, DC where I will spend parts of three days (returning Friday) doing some research meetings with other PICO leaders around the country in our ongoing work for health care coverage for all children. Thursday morning I will hear Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi address the Families USA conference that we will be attending. We also have a variety of other research actions planned.

On Thursday afternoon I am one of three panelists discussing how we have shaped the moral arguments around S-CHIP expansion and reauthorization. I don't know any of the other panelists but it should be a good learning experience. As my good friend, Mireya keeps saying, this community organizing work keeps taking us out of our comfort zone and teaching us so much about ourselves as well as the work we're doing.

I hope to catch up with a few friends in the midst of a flurry of meetings. It will be a whirlwind trip, but I'm looking forward to the opportunities it will present.

Intersections

Christians and atheists start a calmer dialogue | Christian Science Monitor (May 10, 2007)
"Saying that he loves the teachings of Jesus, along with those of other important teachers, Casper [an atheist] concludes: "The question that just came up for me again and again ... is, What does the way Christianity is practiced today have to do with the ... words and deeds" of Jesus?" Read the whole article
Thank you to Neville Salvador for pointing out this article.

Which city has the rudest drivers? | AP (May 15, 2007)
Miami tops the list of the cities with the rudest drivers. But don't feel bad, Los Angeles isn't far behind. How did we fare? you'll have to check out the article to see exactly. Even though we didn't make the #1 spot, I'm confident, Angelenos, that if we work extra hard, we can be in the top spot next year!

Jerry Falwell, dead at 73 | LA Times (May 15, 2007)
One of the most controversial figures at the intersection of religion and politics died today. He was found without a pulse in his office at Liberty University. Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979 and spent the better part of his professional life offending and delighting large groups of people. Everyone seems to be singing his praises at the moment. After all, he just died. But I think history will show that his legacy is one of intolerance and division. Our prayers go out to his family and university family at this time of loss. Godspeed, brother Falwell. See you on the other side!

The link above is to the LA Times article reporting on his death. There are some multimedia things there. You can read a short essay by Peter Laarman of Progressive Christians Uniting here.

Bike to Work Week - May 14-18

The month of May is National Bike Month (this site has links to state and local specific information) and this week is Bike to Work Week (specific for LA County).

I wasn't able to ride my bike today and I have several meetings on Thursday I need to get to, but for the rest of the week I'm going to be riding my bike to work. I have many excuses for not doing this. Here are some of my best ones:

  + I pick up my daughter after school and I can't do that on a bike.
  + I often have to make last second trips and get there quick
  + The helmet will mess up my hair
  + I'll get all hot and sweaty for work.

I'm sure you can think of more. Will this inconvenience me in some way this week? YES. Is it worth it? I think so. I'll try to report on what I learn by doing this.

For those of you who don't know, I am an avid cyclist and will be doing the 70-mile LA River Ride on Sunday, June 10th. I've just never mastered the bike commute

There's no such thing as an ideal church

I returned Wednesday from a short trip to Andrews University where I had the privilege of speaking with some D.Min. students for about 3 hours about our work in Hollywood and what it might signal for ministry in the West for the foreseeable future. It was a fun challenge, given to me by Dr. Jon Dybdahl, friend and mentor.

It was fun to reconnect with some friends as well. About a fifth of the class were people I knew from other times and places and being able to share our journey with friends made the trip even better. Below is a short outline of the things I shared. Some of this is unique to Hollywood and some are things you will probably recognize as issues no matter were you serve in God's beautiful world.

If you had three hours to share your theology and practice of ministry in your setting, how you would express it?

MISSIONAL CHURCH
As pastors we’re always asking the question, “How can I get the church to work?” This is a second order question (at least). There is a prior question, which is, “What is the church for?” So, we have spent a lot of time working with Newbigin’s triad of gospel, culture and church, or church between gospel and culture (Reference: Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks and The Gospel in a Pluralist Society).

• Focus on neighborhood – what is God doing here?
• Church serves the kingdom rather than the reverse
• Church is sign witness and foretaste of what God is doing and will do for all creation

Off to Andrews University (for a day)

Tomorrow morning I leave for a short trip to Andrews University - home of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, where I received my M.Div in 2000. I'll be teaching for half a day in a Doctor of Ministry class for Dr. Jon Dybdahl. The D.Min. intensive is called Spiritual and Theological Foundations for Ministry. Dr. Dybdahl is inviting me to come and share with the students about our theology and practice of ministry in Hollywood. Because of our location in one of the most diverse urban centers in the country we have a unique perspective on the social and religious landscape.

I'm eager to learn where these pastors are coming from, what challenges they are facing and how they are approaching their ministry. I also hope to share the way in which I am leading the Hollywood Church toward a holistic, missional, incarnational future. I never know for sure how these things are going to unfold, but I'll be sure to write a little bit about it here.

I taught one day like this before in the D.Min. program at Andrews. It was actually on my drive out to Hollywood from Philadelphia in June of 2005. So, it's been a couple of years and my entire context of ministry has changed. It will be interesting to see if Andrews looks any different to me now. If you think of it, keep me in your prayers over the next few days.

Thanksgiving Theological Treasure

Over Thanksgiving my family and I traveled up to Mariposa and Jamestown. My aunt and uncle live in Mariposa and we ate Thanksgiving dinner at their house (see humongous table pictured at left). Then we went another hour up the road to my grandmother's house where we spent two relaxing day doing basically nothing. Well, I take that back...on Friday, Elysabeth and look at all the antique shops in Jamestown and on Saturday we went to Moaning Caverns and at lunch in the charming little town of Murphys.

My great theological discovery over Thankgiving was a wonderful quote on my aunt's refridgerator from an unlikely source - Oswald Chambers. I share it with you as my Thanksgiving blessing!

“It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.”

This has sent my mind going in a dozen different directions. This is my newest favorite quote!

Off to Metropolitan Columbus!

This morning I'm leaving for Columbus where I will be participating in the Conference on Innovation from Sunday through Tuesday, followed by re-church on  Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. You can read more about the Innovation Conference here, and the re-church conference here.

I you're planning to be in Columbus, I'll see you there. I hope to make a post or two while I'm there.

Conquering Mt. Whitney

On Sunday and Monday I climbed Mt. Whitney for the first time. What an amazing experience. Pictured here at the top of Mt. Whitney, from left to right, is Robbie Wertz (my step brother), my brother Rob, my dad, Rick and myself.

We did the trip in two days. The first day we hiked from Whitney Portal to Trail Camp (6.3 miles and nearly 4,000 feet up). We camped at Trail Camp (12,600 ft elevation). That night the temperature dropped to at least 20 degrees or colder. Our tents were not quite up to the challenge and we froze our butts off. Not too much sleep that night. The next day we hiked the remaining 4.7 miles (and almost 2,000 ft) to the summit, descended back to Trail Camp, packed up and descended the rest of the way to Whitney Portal. That was a very long day and the final hour of the hike was done in the dark.

It was an incredibly rewarding experience for all of us. My dad is 62 years old and wasn't sure he was up to the challenge but he did remarkable. Really inspiring! The picture below is the view from our campsite as the sun was rising on Monday morning. Mt. Whitney itself is actually not visible in this picture. It's further to the right. There are hundreds more pictures which you can see by clicking here.

Believe it or not, there are many people who do the trip in a single day. We met dozens of people who started from Whitney Portal at 3:30 or 4:00 am and went the entire day. We also met a couple of different groups who were just finishing the entire John Muir Trail, which starts in Yosemite Valley and ends at Mt. Whitney - approx. 210 miles in all.

I hope to do this trip again in the future and take some friends along. Anyone want to go???

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.

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!