Santa Monica

Went to Santa Monica Beach yesterday. It is very strange how they give 3 weather forecasts here. One for the beach, one for the valley, and one for the hills. It is a good thing they do it though because the weather, especially the temperature, is very different. My brother, the one that flies airplanes, says there is also a difference in visibility due to the marine layer that creeps a little bit inland too. His daughter used to live in Santa Monica and he says he usually had to use the instrument approach whereas Burbank is usually clear.

The weather was great and the kids loved the ocean. They all logged several hours in the water. Towards evening we walked the Santa Monica Pier looking at more junk for sale and riding the roller coaster. The call it the West Coaster which is appropriate because it is probably about as far west as you can get since it is on the pier. No one got too sun burned so it was all good. Dave says he comes here maybe once a year or so which is a crime.

My older brother bought us lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp's on the pier which was really nice of him considering it was his birthday. To pay him back for the kindness one of his daughters told the waiter it was his birthday so they were able to embarrass him in front of everyone. Oh the love of a daughter.

Sunday in California

Yesterday I went to Mosaic for church. The band played about four songs which very few seemed to know and even fewer seemed to sing. Then there was a short comic video while they got the band off and a chair and table on the stage. McManus came out and offered a prayer and then delivered his message. Then another guy they called the campus pastor joined him for a Q & A session. Then they took up an offering and gave a few announcements and that was it.

I didn't get the worship. It really didn't seem like worship and a lot of people seemed to view it as prelude as i would say more than half the crowd came in during the set. It just wasn't m thing but apparently a lot of people like it that way.

McManus is an intelligent, practical, and compelling speaker. If your looking for exegesis you better choose another church. He may be very good at it but he doesn't focus on it. On this day he was talking about relationships and I think he connected very well with his audience.

During the Q&A you could text in your questions but I don't think they were actually taking them live. They answered several questions that seemed to have come from a previous week but maybe I missed something. I thought it was a good format overall.

I would guess that a lot of visitors leave underwhelmed. My guess is that there is a lot of stuff going on during the week and with small groups that really attract a lot of people. Other than that the main attraction is McManus himself. I know I could listen to him every week. I would just miss a corporate worship experience.

We also went to China Town yesterday. There are tons of shops there selling tons of Chinese products for not much money. It is definitely a cultural experience. We bought some crap and enjoyed the day before riding the train back home. I think if I lived here I would use the train a lot rather than face the traffic every day.

California Trip

I've been on vacation at my brother's in Pasadena. I have a lot of thoughts but just haven't found the time to write anything down so here are some short snippets of a lot of things.

There is a lot of traffic here but not as bad as I was expecting. The drivers here are a lot more laid back than what you see on the beltline in DC during rush hour. It is frantic though so you have to pay attention.

GPS is cool. It takes a lot of the stress out of driving. We usually go places in 3 cars and it is hard to keep in contact with someone with all the traffic. The GPS may not take the same route but it gets you there.

It is hot during the day but cools down at night. i would compare the heat to a hot summer day in Indiana but what's the point. it is dang hot and you are better off inside or at least in the shade.

We went and watched the LA Galaxy get beat on Friday and then watched the fireworks afterwards. The Home Depot Center is a great soccer facility though the traffic is really bad. The fans are ridiculous in their worship of David Beckham but he did score so I'll give him a few props for producing.

We've been to the LA Zoo, the Autry Museum, and the Natural History Museum. I liked them all and I think the kids did too. To top it off the museums are air conditioned so that's a plus.

The William Carey University campus is a hodge podge of buildings filled with all kinds of different ministries. I think there are something like two schools and three churches that rent facilities here too. This morning I'll be going to church at Mosaic which meets in a nondescript auditorium across the street from my brother's house. They also rent office space here.

There are hills behind the campus but I don't know which ones they are. One of them has an observatory on it and was used by some guy names Hubble who discovered, or helped discover, an expanding universe from there. I know I should probably be more respectful about all of that but I'm not that interested.

There are a group of Micronesians having a basketball and volleyball tournament here this weekend. I guess they do this every 4th of July weekend and apparently a lot of them come up from San Diego. I haven't had the nerve to go over and ask but their BBQ smells delicious.

My niece introduced me to some new food last night. You take corn on the cob, slather it with mayo, roll it in some Mexican cheese called Cojita (kind of like parmesan), and sprinkle it with chili powder. I love it. Apparently there is some place in LA where they sell it off the street.

It never rains in southern California. Seems like I've heard that before. If you want a lawn or landscaping you have to water it. If you don't water the grass will die. If your sprinkler system is off a little you will quickly know it because the unwatered grass will die in a hurry.

It is wierd being on Pacific time. Everything is over a lot sooner than it should be. you can't check baseball scores in the morning because they've already put in today's box scores, ready for todays games. Wimbeldon is practically over before I get up.

That's all I can think of for now.

It Sounds Good But...

I just got back from Nicaragua. It was a great trip... once we got there. Discount fare airlines suck.

We helped build a wall at a church there. It was hard, fun, inspiring, tiring, and uplifting all at the same time. I used to worry about not being able to speak Spanish but the truth is there is some good that comes out of that. I kind of like trying to communicate without knowing the language. I imagine it is very similar to what most people feel when trying to communicate to a Christian.

Anyway, the one thing that I am always mindful of is the issue of dependency. Having grown up in a developing country I have seen first hand how much damage it can cause. I have also read a lot about how bad it is and how missionaries have been guilty of it for far too long, especially in Africa.

But here is the kicker. If you ask a missiologist where missionaries have done the most dependency creating they will probably tell you Africa followed by South America. But then if you ask the same person where the center of Christianity is today and they will almost jump out of their shoes to tell you that it isn't the western world but the global south. In other words, Africa and South America. Some how Christianity has grown like mad in spite of our flawed tactics.

I still think that creating dependency is a bad thing. But sometimes I think we have worried so much about it we have developed a paralysis. We're afraid to do anything at all because it might create dependency. So I think we need to chill a bit. Yes, we need to be concerned about dependency but we also need to remember that God can get around our messes.

Competition

P.G. Wodehouse wrote a great short story about a sermon handicapping syndicate in his Wooster series. Bertie and Jeeves go to the country in the summer and find themselves in a quiet rural county with not much else to do. Then they discover that some of Bertie's fellow trust-funders, finding themselves in the same predicament, have set up a betting syndicate to see which of the county's clergy would preach the longest sermon on a particular Sunday. Of course, there are twists and turns with Jeeves ending up the only one coming out on top.

I haven't noticed cash being slipped between shady characters in the back of the sanctuary as I close my sermons but in today's highly competitive world I should probably keep a look out. Our society seems to feel it is obligated to rank and rate just about anything anyone does. We've gotten to the point where we simply can't enjoy something without turning it into a competition.

I feel especially sorry for musicians when it comes to rankings and ratings. I suppose some of them are trying to be the best guitarist, vocalist, etc. but I think the truly great ones are simply trying to express their art. Unfortunately, we can't just enjoy their art. We feel compelled to immediately compare it to every other artist.

I know youtube is a lousy source for research but just look at the comments sometime.(Yes, I know that most of the comments are from idiots.) You can watch Santana playing Samba Pa Ti and in the comments you will inevitably find comparisons to other guitarists. Watch a video of Bocelli and there will be someone pointing out why they think he is so much more inferior to Pavarotti or a host of other tenors. Did he really sing just to prove how good he is compared to others?

I think I would be frustrated if I were a musician like that. If people where constantly comparing me to others they would be missing the point of my music. I think that is sad. Competition has pushed us to accomplish a lot of great things. But, like with most things, there is a dark side.

Learning To Count

I would imagine that a high percentage of pastors have read Reggie McNeal's book The Present Future as well as some of his other leadership books. I recently saw a video of McNeal speaking and was stuck by a couple of his thoughts.

"God counts who is missing." In church we count who is there. God counts the missing boy, son, coin, sheep. Do we count who is missing? Can we name them? If not are we engaged in the right places?

"Our churches have become desalinization plants." He is saying we take salt out of the world.

"The church is not the destination." He uses the example of an airport. When an airport thinks it is the destination and gets all the planes on the ground close to the terminal it messes everyone up in a negative way. The airport is supposed to be a connector. It connects people to the Kingdom.

Some good thoughts to chew on there.