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!

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.