Archives for category: community

NPC Day Two: Chocolate Covered Turds and Genuine Forgiveness

February 11, 2009 //

At this morning’s main session at NPC, Rob Bell delivered a great message about forgiveness. Skye Jethani has written a nice summary of Rob’s message over at Out of Ur. Some brief observations:

Rob Bell is a total rock star. Well, let me take that back — people treat him like a total rock star. He doesn’t seem at all wrapped up in himself or looking for special treatment. Before his message, I saw people crowding around him for photo ops. In fact, during his message, people were snapping cell phone photos as he walked the aisles. He even asked one photo snapper, in the moment, “Did you just take a photo of this shopping cart?” (which, incidentally, he used to great effect throughout his message).

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…

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Categories church, communication, community, faith, hope, reconciliation

NPC Day One: A Love Supreme

February 11, 2009 //

Started day one of the National Pastors Convention here in town today. A few quick observations:

I was deeply convicted by Efrem Smith‘s powerful message in the morning about speaking life into the hearts of those who despair. In today’s haywire financial environment, it was a timely and necessary word.

The music from Ashmont Hill was fantastic. I must admit, I was kind of worried that I wouldn’t know any of the songs because I had never heard of them before today. I didn’t, but it turned out not to matter. My wife often says that she thinks gospel music will be the soundtrack of heaven (and I agree). Ashmont Hill combines elements of gospel, r&b and rock to great effect.

A personal highlight today was sitting in on a seminar by Robert Gelinas — better known as Jazz Theologian. Robert shared some great insights into what a jazz-shaped faith might look like in our churches today (quick note: it’s not so much about the music, but the ethos). Building on the keynotes of syncopation, improvisation and call & response we can build vibrant, listening, covenant communities of life. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the analogy of pastoral leadership as jazz drumming. Robert’s book, Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith, will be released this week at NPC. Can’t wait to read it!

One small regret: I wish I could’ve gotten one of those snazzy, “Walk and not be faint” walking club t-shirts!

Categories books, church, communication, community, faith, hope, ministry, music

Thinking in the Right Direction

February 3, 2009 //

I love the idea of going green.

I believe that followers of Jesus are called to be good stewards of this world that God loves so much. While to some people asking the question, What would Jesus drive? might sound a little goofy, I think questions like this are well worth considering. Our everyday decisions have consequences. To paraphrase an idea from the Bible, if our actions have the net effect of hurting those around us, can we really say we love God?

However, connecting ideals to the actual living of life is always the tough part, right? That’s why I appreciate ideas like this portable solar panel tree. From Gizmodo:

The Solar Tree was invented by Gurdeep Sandhu, and avoids the complicated process of having to install the a solar power system on your roof. You can move it too, so if you change house, you can take it with you. It doesn’t entirely solve the aesthetic problem of having such a thingamajig on your garden, but at least is better than having a roof full of panels and it can be folded at night

At least one commenter noted that, given its portability, security might be an issue (although I’m pretty sure you’d hear the semi-trailer rolling up to your house that would-be criminals would need to haul off your solar tree).

For most of us, installing solar panels at home would probably be too expensive, even with state rebates. While I’m guessing this portable solar tree is still out of reach for most of us (I couldn’t seem to find any pricing information), I appreciate the fact that it is a step in the right direction. It would be great to have massive change all at once in important areas of our lives, but the fact is, we often need to take incremental steps that point us in the right direction.

Categories community, environment, faith, stewardship

Come Together

January 19, 2009 //

This Sunday, January 25th, The Ecclesia Collective will be hosting a worship gathering of missional communities throughout the San Diego area.

The missional endeavor, like the mustard seed of Jesus’ parable, is often small. [I’ll share some thoughts soon on how, though the phrase “missional” has been misused, over-used and downright abused lately, it is worth rescuing.]

Although they might not headline conferences or publish best-selling books, small communities of Kingdom conspirators and mischief-makers are springing up throughout San Diego.

If you are in the San Diego area, we invite you to join us as we seek to:

Provide an opportunity for these different communities to continue growing together

Let others know of the different communities now meeting across the county

Allow a diverse, ecumenical group of people to work together to create a space of worship

Categories church, community, missional, worship

Friday Freebies: Twoshirts (and Some Songs)

January 16, 2009 //

A little while back down here in San Diego I met Jason Coker, who started an organization called Twoshirts. In their words:

Twoshirts is a community of gift-giving where people freely give and receive all kinds of different things in our items listings, from appliances, to clothing, to help and services.

Twoshirts members have given away over 1000 items to each other since we started in January, 2008. We simply think generosity is a better way to live.

In fact, our vision is to connect the world in relationships of generosity.

There’s hardly a better way to become a generous person than to begin practicing generosity.

Also, if you’d like a quick music fix, you can find free tracks from Rooftop Vigilantes and Handome Furs over at Stereogum. Insound has a couple of free MP3s as well, including the irrepressibly bouncy Los Campesinos!

If you’re feeling kinda dancy, but not particularly bouncy, you can listen to the new The Whitest Boy Alive track at their MySpace. Can’t wait for the new Kings of Convenience album!!

Categories community, freebies, stewardship