StretchyChurch

Actually, I’ve discovered that there are only two degrees of separation between me and Stryper! Isn’t that exciting!

So, this is just for fun… A few weeks ago I discovered that Jim Hagelganz, a retired pastor in San Diego who preached at my church last summer before I arrived, and will again be preaching in a couple of weeks at Northminster, is the father of a guy named Tim Hagelganz. Tim Hagelganz’s stage name is Tim Gaines. And Tim Gaines was a member of that good ol’ Christian 80’s heavy metal band, Stryper! (Jim Hagelganz is also the former pastor of Arcadia Presbyterian Church, where my dad was also pastor in the 90’s. Who knew that Stryper was Presbyterian?!)

Then, tonight, my brother sent me a video in which I’ve discovered another connection between me and Stryper. Check out the video below. It’s 9 and a half minutes long, but if you skip to the 8 minute mark, you’ll see the director (Jim Yukich) and the producer (Paul Flattery). In the summer of 1994, I did an internship in L.A. for a production company called… FYI (Flattery Yukich, Inc.)! These are the guys I worked with that whole summer!

Anyway, just kinda crazy stuff. Thanks for indulging me… heh heh…

Whoa!! It’s been over a month since my last post!!

Anyway, I’m still alive. Leading a church, raising two kids, and working on a Doctor of Ministry isn’t leaving me much time for blogging. But I’ll do my best to keep up.

Yesterday was my first Easter at Northminsters–and it was great!! But here’s the funny part. On Thursday night, Macy started throwing up. On Saturday night, Micah started throwing up. In the middle of the night on Saturday night, Robin started throwing up. Thankfully, I was still ok when I woke up for Easter Sunday, but as soon as I got home from our services–well, I didn’t throw up, but I got nauseous and a fever!

I’m feeling better now, but I’m so thankful that I didn’t get sick until after our Easter services! I don’t know what I would have done if I’d felt in the morning the way I felt in the afternoon.

It seems these past few days that everything I do and see passes through the filter of everything we talked about in my D.Min. class last week (by the way, I never got a chance to report on Day 5, but there wasn’t much to say–mostly just talked about completing our final paper for the class).

So we went to Sea World with this afternoon and had a great time. The Clyde and Seymore (seal and sea lion) show was funny. The Pets Rule show was impressive. And the Shamu show… well, it made me want to trust Shamu as my personal savior! (Or something like that…)

Let me back up just a little. If I had to summarize what our professors want from us this first year of the D.Min. program, it’s that we learn to see the world “from the balcony.” In other words, we’re to get outside of ourselves–get a top down view on our culture, our church, our denomination, our assumptions, our beliefs.

And what I’m finding when I do this is that we all live within certain stories. As Americans, for instance, a huge part of our national story involves heroes (George Washington, Abraham Lincoln) and battles for freedom (Revolutionary War, Civil War). So it seems natural to us when, just before the Shamu show, the trainer honors our military heroes who are fighting for our freedom. Don’t misunderstand me–there’s nothing wrong with that. But the reason we as Americans value that is because it’s part of the story we live in. (Canadians, as I understand it, for example, don’t have the same values because they live in a different story. They don’t have heroes or fights for freedom in their story because Canada emerged as an independent nation in a way very different from the United States.)

Anyway, finally the Shamu show starts and the theme for the show is–”Believe!” Sounds very Disney to me…

The show was almost like a worship service. Beautiful music. Inspiring. Engaging images on the screens. And the message that when we believe we can accomplish anything. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I got a little misty-eyed a few times. And if Shamu had offered an altar call, I would have been the first one up there! (Okay, maybe not the first–but one of the first 50…)

So then I thought to myself, “Wow! The Christian story is still running through Americans’ blood!” Except that now we channel that desire to believe into things like Shamu or Mickey Mouse (I remember hearing the story of a mother who told her child at Disneyland, “Don’t worry, dear. If you get lost, Mickey will protect you.”).

So, now I have to ask the “balcony” questions. What does this mean? Is this the new American experience of spirituality? Does this reflect a longing inside people to connect with something bigger than themselves? Or is it just a therapeutic way of making us feel good about ourselves?

And what can the church learn from this? If we mimic what Sea World does with the Shamu show, are we being effective evangelists because we’re connecting with our culture, or are we becoming captive to something outside God’s plan.

I don’t know the answers to these questions. I’m not even sure these are the right questions to be asking. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this.

Last weekend was kinda stormy (for Southern California). That meant lots of rain where we live, but it meant huge waves out in the ocean. Check out this article about some surfers who rode some 80-foot+ waves! Not something I’d ever try… Give me a nice 3 or 4 footer and I’m happy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/sports/othersports/09surf.html\?ref=sports

So it begins!!

Today was my first full day of class for my Doctor of Ministry in Missional Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary with Alan Roxburgh and Mark Lau Branson. And so far I love it!

What I love most so far is the cohort aspect. That is, we meet and interact with the same group of students for the entire four years of the program. It creates a great sense of camaraderie. And I love that, while we all come from very different contexts, we’re all wrestling with the questions of what it means to be the church in our world today.

Alan Roxburgh and Mark Lau Branson are terrific, as well. We got together for dinner last night and a time to introduce ourselves to the rest of the cohort. Today we reflected on and discussed the reading we’ve been doing so far–what gave us insight, what motivated us, and what questions we still have.

But the best part, I have to admit, was our time dwelling in the Scriptures first thing in the morning. Roxburgh said that this was not simply a devotional time that we do before we get down to the work of the class–this time of indwelling is part of our work. Our time in the Scriptures informs and shapes our discussions and our learning this week.

So for half an hour we went off and simply reflected on Psalm 1 (a Psalm written, surprisingly, during the Babylonian Exile–which adds a much deeper layer of meaning when we understand it in that context). Then we came back together to discuss our thoughts and reflections with the rest of the group.

I can tell this is gonna be a great week! Not only in terms of being with the rest of the cohort, but in terms of the learning. I think that my thinking is going to be significantly challenged.

I find myself somewhat stuck in my need for a program or model of ministry to follow in order to make our church successful. But a missional approach doesn’t provide a model. What does it provide? As Roxburgh puts it, it provides a space for discovering God’s mission in the world–or something along those lines.

Part of the challenge is the “fuzziness” of missional. While the idea of missional doesn’t lend itself well to definitions, explanations, or models of ministry, it does open the possibility to discover God in the mystery–to let God be God and do what God is doing without us fourcing our programs on his working.

Anyway… I hope that makes sense. In any case, it’s gonna be a great week!! I’ll keep you posted.

Just thought I’d mention… You can’t beat living in a place where it’s 70 degrees and sunny on Christmas Day, and two hours of surfing in the afternoon. Love it!!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!

Funny story…

I was at Starbucks yesterday with a church member when I noticed out of the corner of my eye that a Deputy Sherriff was looking at me and slowly making his way toward me. At first, I thought I was imagining it–”Nah… he’s not looking at me.” But then he came right up to me and said, “Hi, there. Do you have any ID on you?”

At this point, my heart was pounding like a bass drum! I said, “Yeah,” got out my wallet, and handed him my driver’s license.

He looked at it, handed it back to me, and said, “Ok, thanks.”

It turns out he was in the process of hunting a fugitive who happened to look a lot like me! He showed me the picture of the guy and–yup–the guy did bear a striking resemblance to me! It was almost a little creepy.

The cop said he saw me from inside Starbucks (I was sitting outside) and thought to himself, “No way! It can’t be this easy!” Fortunately for me, he was right. It wasn’t that easy. He’s gonna have to keep looking!

I tell you what, though… that feeling I had when he asked for my ID–not something I hope to repeat anytime soon!

This is awful!! It’s been two weeks since my last post! I promise I’m not slacking–I’m just discovering that after a week of hard work at the church and doing my D.Min. homework, one of the last things I have the energy to do is write more stuff about theology, ecclesiology, and other -ologies…

One of the pastors I met out here used to be an Associate Pastor before he became a Senior Pastor, and this is how he described the change: He said when he looks back on being an Associate, it’s almost like it was just a hobby. Yeah, it was hard work, but the pressure and workload was nothing like being a Head of Staff!

So far, I have to agree with him. I love the work, but I’m finding that every minute counts. There’s really no such thing as downtime unless I force myself to take some downtime.

Anyway, that’s my life at the moment. Something pretty funny happened to me today, but I’ll save that story for you till tomorrow. That way, I’ll have something to blog about.

For now, I’ll just say that the story involves a cop, Starbucks, and me….

On this day 35 years ago, the world became a brighter place. Why? Because I was born, of course!! Heh heh… just kidding… But seriously, folks, I was born 35 years ago today. And I’ve realized that I’m entering a new phase of life. From here on out, I’m closer to being 40 than to being 30…. Yikes! I’m getting so old!!

Anyway… I know I haven’t been posting much lately, but I just came across a really great article on a website called The Off Ramp about what it means to live incarnationally. Check it out here.

Woohoo!! Micah peed in the potty not once, but twice last night! (And isn’t this just the cutest picture ever!)