New Way to Be Human

Seven baptisms!

Our Easter Sabbath worship today included seven baptisms from among those who have attended our Exploring Christian Faith series. To see and read more, visit the Hollywood Church website and my personal blog, Intersections. Congrats, you guys!

The Secret Message of Jesus

The Exploring Christian Faith class came to a close yesterday we made final arrangements for our Easter Baptism Celebration. This Sabbath seven of the class members will be baptized. Please join us for this exciting celebration. If you want to get in on the next go around, please email me or call my office (323.462.0010). We will be having another baptism around Christmastime.

In the meantime two more things will happen in our journey: the Thursday night Exploring Christian Faith class will continue to meet bi-weekly and take a three or four week look into Seventh-day Adventist history. We'll be using a book called A Brief History of Seventh-day Adventists, by George Knight. If you want to join us, pick up a copy of this book and stay tuned for the new schedule. We'll most likely start on May 4.

Finally, on Saturday, April 22, my 9:30 am class (which I'm  now calling, The Journey) will begin a  new study called The Secret Message of Jesus. This class will follow the outline of a new book by the same title by my friend, Brian McLaren. Please pick up this book and join us at 9:30 am on Saturday mornings at the church for a exciting and challenge look at the teachings of Jesus.

The Lord's Prayer

We've spent some time in our Exploring Christian Faith class with the Lord's Prayer. Mostly we have simply prayed it and not talked about it very much. This, this past week in our Sabbath Morning Bible Study we talked about the LOrd's Prayer. Taron Hovsepyan, who is a part of both groups and getting baptized this Sabbath, emailed me this very good poem. I wanted you all to see it.

I cannot say 'our' if I live only for myself.
I cannot say 'Father' if I do not endeavor each day to act like his child.
I cannot say 'who art in heaven' if I'm laying up no treasures there.
I cannot say 'hallowed be thy name' if I am not striving for holiness.
I cannot say 'thy kingdom come' if I'm not seeking to hasten the blessed hope.
I cannot say 'thy will be done' if I am disobedient.
I cannot say 'in earth as it is in heaven' if I'll not serve him here and now.
I cannot say 'give us this day our daily bread' if I am selfishly hoarding for the future.
I cannot say 'forgive us our debts' if I harbor a grudge against anyone.
I cannot say 'lead us not into temptation' if I deliberately place myself in its path.
I cannot say 'deliver us from evil' if I do not long for holiness.
I cannot say 'thine is the kingdom' if I do not give Jesus the throne of my heart.
I cannot attribute to him 'the power' if I fear what men may do.
I cannot ascribe to him 'the glory' if I'm seeking for my own honor.
I cannot say 'forever' if I'm living only for temporary earthly rewards.

Book on Sabbath

This past Thursday I mentioned a classic book called, simply, Sabbath, by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. I've added that book to our book list at the left in addtion to two other excellent books on the Sabbath. Whether you've been keeping Sabbath all your life or it's a totally new practice for you, I think you will find these books to be tremendously helpful.

Sabbath as Sign and Foretaste of God's Shalom

This week in our class, Exploring Christian Faith, we are talking about Sabbath. You can download the lesson by clicking the link on the left side of the page. One of the central parts of this lesson asks us to consider what the practice of Sabbath looks like in a postmoden world. So, I want to invite you to spend some time dwelling in the text of Isaiah 58 and then come back here and post a comment in answer to the following question:

“If we were to take these ideas found in Isaiah 58 seriously - if we were to really enter into this narrative, as a congregation - what would we have to do differently?” For example, how would your views of "going to church" change? How would you spend the hours of the Sabbath day?

Serving the World

This week in our class we're talking about Service and Work as a practice of Christian faith. One of the ways we serve is by working for peace & justice in the world. This got me to thinking, if the Hollywood Church [substitute the name of your church here] had a Peace & Justice Ministry Team what would that look like? What kinds of things would we do? In what ways would these things witness to the truth of the gospel that God sent Christ into the world to make all things new?

Click on comments below and share your thoughts.

How Worship Shapes Us

Last night we explored the Christian practice of worship and how worship shapes us as Christians and helps keep us Christian. Worship shapes us in a Christian culture or, as Abraham Joshua Heschel puts it, "Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God." Well said! You can download the entire lesson by clicking the link at the left.

The other thing that emerged from our discussion was the question of whether worship is primarily a subjective experience that gives rise to concrete expressions of worship (like singing, praying, kneeling, standing, shouting, eating the Eucharist, baptism, etc) or whether it is primarily objective expressions that give rise to the experience of worship. As with most good questions, the answer is a resounding, YES! This diagram above is my attempt to capture the gist of the great conversation which just sprang up in our group (click the picture to enlarge). What are your thoughts?

Extending God's Hospitality

Last night we ended our time together by talking about hospitality as a central practice of Christian faith. When we understand the gospel as the generosity, friendship and hospitality of God, then it's fairly straightfoward to recognize that sharing God's hospitality is one way we begin to live as God's people.

The question is, how can we do this? Big ways? Small ways? Obvious ways? More creative ways? Click on "Comments" below and post your ideas. How can we action this in Hollywood Church?

For help imagining this, you can spend some time in the following scriptures: Genesis 18, Deuteronomy 24:20-22; Matthew 25:31-46; and Hebrews 13:1-2.

Sermon on the Mount

This week we've been spending some time in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). For those of you in the group I hope this has been a rich experience for you. If you haven't spent much time in these chapters this week, you still have time before Thursday!

I'd like to invite you (anyone) to click "Comments" below and reflect on this question, after reading Matthew 5-7.

Matthew 4 ends by saying that "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people." Then Matthew records the Sermon on the Mount. What are you learning about "the gospel (or, good news) of the kingdom" from the Sermon on the Mount?

The Journey Starts Tonight

Tonight we begin our journey in a six part class called, Exploring Christian Faith. The first lesson is entitled A New Way to Be Human (which is a theme, here, it seems). You can download the first lesson by clicking the link at the left. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it, but everyone has that now, right? I really hope you'll come out tonight, if you can. If not, download the lesson, work on it and post a comment here on the blog.

A huge part of this process is journeying together in community. You can't download that...sorry!