Pastor Scott's Thoughts

This Week in Arizona

I spent Sunday through Wednesday of this week (Jan. 20-24, 08) preaching for a series of renewal services at Tempe First Nazarene in Arizona.  I believe the services went well and it is always a privilege to get to be with my friends Brian and Sharon Delbridge - the relatively new pastor there.

Besides the services, the highlight of the week was getting to be with several people who attended the Monte Vista Church when my dad pastored there from 1972 to 1976.  I was in first through fourth grade in those days but have nothing but good memories of that church.

I drove over to Monte Vista one afternoon just to see the church, our old house, and my elementary school.  We lived in the parsonage at the back end of the church parking lot.  It was actually pretty fun to have a wide open parking lot out the back fence.  My nose is sill crooked from trying to jump some of the greenery planters on my bike and failing.  This is a picture of the front of the church.  As most things are, it was much bigger in my memory than in reality.

This is the house we lived in.  Three things came rushing back to mind there: eating figs off of the trees, splashing through the yard on irrigation day, and catching crawdads in the irrigation ditch and corner control box (you can see the box in the lower left hand corner of the picture).

This is my second grade classroom.  I remember presenting a project on Eli Whitney (the inventor of the cotton gin) and building a space-ship module out of a refrigerator box.  Mrs. Nash was my second grade teacher.  I think she liked me.

Here are some pictures of some of the former Monte Vista-ites.  Pictured are the Hills, the Wilsons, and the Millers sitting together and the Seversons by themselves.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the Browns or Dot White.

Seeing these folk reminded me again how great it is to be in ministry and have special friends all over the place.  But it also reminded me of the privilege of walking together with people at certain times and places in this community called church.  Even though folk move and particular local churches go through ups and downs our lives are better and the Kingdom is stronger because of God's gracious gift of giving us one another.

It was a very good week.  Thanks Arizona friends.

What I've Read in January (so far)

One of my resolutions for 2008 is to read 50 books.  Most of those will probably be geeky theology books, but I hope to read some good books on leadership, some good novels, and also some good biographic materials.  Here are my reviews from the books finished so far in January.  I hope the list is not too shocking.

Scot McKnight, A Community Called Atonement (Abingdon, 2007).  I picked up the book after hearing Scot speak about his role in the emerging church movement.  He has written one of the best articles on the movement published in Christianity Today on the "Five Streams of the Emerging Church."  The strength of the book on atonement is the focus on the idea that atonement in its essence is about forming a community of the atoned in the world.  I especially liked his later chapters on the praxis (or practice) of atonement together as a community.  Scot also does a nice job of arguing that the church needs all of the different metaphors for atonement that we find in the scriputre.  Although I don't share his need to defend substitutionary models of atonement I think his basic focus is correct and I think people who are unfamiliar with the various models or metaphors for atonement will benefit from this book.  My one concern is that I could not find a place where he takes seriously human culpability for the death of Jesus.  None of the metaphors he describes regarding the atonement really address the fact that in the end humankind rejected the incarnate one and put him to death.

Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life (Scribner, 2007).  This was a book I read for fun over the holidays.  I'm part of the Saturday Night Live generation and so have always been fascinated by the lives of the early SNL folk.  Three things stood out to me in Steve's reflections about his early career.  1. I loved to read about him riding his bike to work at Disneyland.  He got his start in comedy and magic by working in the Magic Shop on Main Street.  Being a regular at the Mouse Kingdom, I was enthralled with his early descriptions of D-Land.  2. He moved from Disneyland to become an actor in small theater at Knotts Berry Farm.  There he fell in love with Stormie Omartian.  I was intrigued with his remaining sense of care and respect for her even though it was clear that he doesn't really understand the life of Christian faith that she found later on.  3. As someone who cares a lot for the art of communication, I really enjoyed reading about the hard work he put in to becoming a better communicator/comedian.  He certainly had natural gifts for commuicating, but he also worked extremely hard at becoming great.  We pastor/preachers could use the inspiration to work harder at being effective communicators.

Joseph Michelli, The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary (McGraw Hill, 2006).  I'm always looking for help becoming a better organizational leader.  I picked this book up while waiting in line for coffee at Barnes and Noble.  It is a fun read about one of my favorite places.  My favorite new idea was Starbucks' "art of surprises."  Once a year the Starbuck's executives plan a surprise ice-cream day at their stores.  Because they have no refrigeration at the stores for ice-cream they have to fed-ex the ice cream in to all of their stores.  They love as a company to find ways to surprise their regular customers with un-announced surprises.  It made me start to think about ways to create an atmosphere of surprise at the church and even with my family.  I'd love to have congregation members not want to miss a Sunday because they never know what (good thing) is going to happen from week to week.

Faith & Hollywood

Twice a year I attend a lunch dialogue involving Rabbis and local Jewish leaders with pastors and Evangelical Christian leaders associated with Fuller Seminary. Each time the groups meet there is a special topic of dialogue chosen and guests are brought in to lead the discussion. Yesterday's discussion was on the relationship of Hollywood and Faith. Invited to speak from a Jewish perspective was a media scholar and a sit-com writer. Invited to speak from a Protestant/Evangelical perspective was a Theology and Media scholar from Fuller and a Christian who is president of a company that works as a marketing liaison between churches and various Hollywood studios and productions.

It was a fascinating discussion, but there were two poignant moments that stuck out to me (both included pretty good jokes).

1. The first involved the Jewish sit-com writer. He writes for a popular sit-com and has also become a practicing orthodox Jew. It has been only in the last few years that he has become serious in his religious observance. Interestingly, it was only after marrying a Gentile that he became more serious about his faith. Which leads to the first good joke of the day:

A young Jewish boy fell in love with a Gentile girl and asked his father if it was okay for him to marry. His father replied, "Son, whatever you do, do not marry this Gentile woman." The young man dismissed his father's advice and married the girl. She became very interested in her new husband's faith, converted to Judaism, and began to participate in all of the Jewish rituals of Sabbath keeping, kosher eating, and even the laws regarding dress, etc... The young man had never kept all of these laws before or been that serious about his faith, so not knowing what to do, he went to his father for advice. His father said, "I told you not to marry a Gentile."

The writer shared the challenges that he faces being on a team of writers for a show that includes other Jewish folk who are not orthodox. The show he works for tapes on Friday nights, but he has to leave the studio before sundown so that he can keep Sabbath. Often the team works on Saturdays, but he will not come in to work that day. He described the uncomfortable sense of his colleagues who sort of say, "Hey, I'm Jewish too, but I still come into work on Friday night." His faith even caused he and his writing partner to part ways.
It made me wonder if Christians ever feel this same way about other Christians at work, but it primarily made me envious of the commitment to particular practices of faith that shape our lives and define who we are. It made me wonder what would the defining practices be for most Protestant Christians? It especially made me wonder what practices Christians would be willing to put above their commitment to work.

2. The second moment had to do with the perception of how Christians relate and respond to Hollywood. Here is the second joke of the day. It was told by one of the Protestant leaders present at lunch, but it was originally told to him by a Rabbi.

Many years ago a 100 Jewish leaders got together and decided that they needed to make an impact for their faith in the economy, in politics, and in entertainment. So one-third of them moved to New York and began working on Wall Street; one-third moved to Washington DC and got involved in the government; and the other third moved to California and found jobs in the television and movie industry.
Several years later a group of 100 Evangelical leaders got together and decided that they needed to make an impact for their faith in the economy, in politics, and in entertainment. So they all moved to Colorado Springs.

I'm not sure that joke is completely fair, and I'm pretty sure many Christians I know wouldn't laugh at it, but I did find it an interesting outside perspective on the way Evangelicals are viewed by others in the culture. I'm thankful for those who serve as prophetic voices to the economy, politics, and the entertainment industry, but I am also really thankful for those who feel called to make a difference in all of the influential aspects of our culture through faithful involvement. I hope we are increasingly being seen as those who are "going into all the world" to be salt and light.