World Vision has an exhibit that is being hosted by the Desert Vineyard here in the Antelope Valley in Lancaster California. The exhibit has been shown at Saddleback and the Crystal Cathedral in Orange County.

If you are one of the peeps of the AV or are close enough to make the trip to the AV I urge you to come and check this out. Visit their web site to reserve a free ticket.

I will say that what you will experience will move you. Will change you and will cause you to become utterly grateful for the health and safety God has blessed us with in our country. I was blown away. I was overwhelmed with gratefulness that our own kids are healthy and that we are definitely blessed. It will also be a reminder of the impact AIDS continues to have on our world. Please go if you are able. The AV is actually a cool place to hang for a few hours and the Desert Vineyard is doing some cool stuff.

This cracked me up.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWTYyx6PLZY&]

HT: Forbes

When I think about the church I think of the church as one great big surrogate parent sometimes. If it weren’t for the church and its role in the shaping of my life as a follower of Jesus and now a pastor I could honestly say that my life would be a whole lot different. Folks from all different walks of life who all had a love for the city and loved making a difference in the lives of God’s people. When I was a kid, these people on at least one occasion fed my family, paid some hospital bills, or even saw to it that we always had a way to get to church camp as kids. As I got older the amount of money spent on meals feeding me alone I could never repay back, but the conversations I had with these folks I still remember like yesterday.

Some of my coolest memories as kid growing up in the city was the time I spent on the boulevard. Now I know you are wondering, “why is it that the boulevard holds for me so many memories?” Well, the church happened to be about a block away from the boulevard where we lived in Hollywood. At one point as a kid our home was less than a mile from the church, a half block above the boulevard. On another occasion we lived just over a mile from the church, again both places were a short walk either way. Growing up in a city like Hollywood, your mode for transportation as a kid was to usually walk and the boulevard was the path one would usually choose. It made the walk to the church a little more enjoyable. For example skateboarding was always an experience, because the way the wheels of your skateboard felt under your feet while skateboarding always seemed to tickle your feet as you cruised down the boulevard. The city bus (formerly known as the RTD) was another enjoyable experience (if you had the change) because the joy of watching the interesting yet entertaining persons on a city bus always was a smile to anyone riding a bus, even to us kids.

One memory I have was a time in elementary school on Halloween during a costume parade. When I was an infant I was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, which is simply water on the brain. (Now for those of you who know me, I know this gives you a smile and I hear you saying, “no wonder he’s such a goober.”) What happens with some who are diagnosed with hydrocephalus as an infant and as children, the child’s head sometimes appears larger than the child’s body. Thankfully, doctors were able to treat it with a shunt, but of course as I grew up I got the occasional, “hey dude, you have a big head.” On this particular day at school during the Halloween parade, I decided that enough was enough with the “big head stuff.” What I remember that day was that my mother was called and the next scene was us sitting in a hamburger stand right on the boulevard minutes from our apartment. Of course food is always the best cure for a growing kid and mom saw to it that we had some one on one time which allowed for the “big head stuff” to become a thing of the past.

My next post I will continue to reflect on those memories I had growing up in the city and the small yet important role my parents had in being used by God in helping me in my faith journey. I will also share some other thoughts about life growing up in Hollywood and how this played a role in my faith as a follower of Jesus.

I’ve found a new gym. Bye bye 24 hour fitness. Hello SNAP!

Okay. 24 hour fitness at 8am here in Palmdale usually has around 800 million people and you can never get on a treadmill or an elliptical and the place I’m sorry for saying this is smelly and sticky.

Snap Fitness this morning at 8am?

Myself and another person. Need I say more?

Check out Snapfitness It’s almost as if its your own private gym. It has all of the basics you need. The treadmills even have your own private televisions with satellite TV. Big screens everywhere. My bride and I totally enjoy this gym. It’s four minutes door to door from our pad. It’s clean and for the same price as 24 fitness I can take the whole family minus the t-bone kid. It’s open 24 hours. They even have personal trainer muscle people who for five bucks per session will hang with you and get you focused on a simple routine and workout for you to feel like your accomplishing something. And they’re building them everywhere where there is space in our lovely LA County.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

I’ve thought a lot about this all day. This idea that we pastors who’ve sensed God’s call to full-time ministry have some how entered the “big show?” Let me be clear that I’m not trying to say that we in the pastorate are better than those in the pews. I don’t want to be better. I had a professor in seminary talk about the preacher rising up from the pews to bring good news is where good news really should come from. His point being that the preacher is just like me. He or she deals with the same things I deal with. His thought also was that we’ve placed so much focus on the person sitting above us, in an elevated position on a Sunday morning, rising to the raised pulpit in the sky, that we’ve forgotten that there was a time in which the people of God would rise from the midst of community to proclaim God’s mission. This big show metaphor points me back to a time in my life as a youth where I got to watch some wonderful people in leadership positions. These folks were awesome in their presentation of the gospel. I looked up to them. I wanted to do what they were doing. I wanted to be part of a life changing experience that would impact the world for Christ and these folks were good at what they did and I myself was impacted or I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing in the church today.

I can even remember way back as a youth growing up in the church, attending church youth camps and I’d watch those putting on the big show and wondered what it would be like to be the one up front. I’d look at these folks with awe and thought they were some kind of “super” Christians. I thought that if I only could do what they were doing I’d be super Christian guy too. My first summer serving on staff at this same youth camp I attended as a kid and that I truly love with all of my heart, I saw a different side of the “super Christian.” I was kicked out of my box of “naiveté.” I was about 17 ½ years old and worked as a dishwasher all summer long at this camp. It was where I learned what it meant to really be in ministry. This is where it took place for me. 300-400 persons a week, three meals a day, 5-6 days per week, you do the math. That was a whole lot of dish washing.

I have to confess, I was so jealous of the folks up stairs and up front that there were days I wondered if I’d ever be doing what they were doing in ministry. Something happened though that first summer serving on staff at that camp. I realized that the folks who were up front, upstairs, doing the big show stuff, that I wanted to do so badly, were just like me. When I was older and when I had my first opportunity of serving in the church as a full-time youth director I was also blown away. This image I had was wrong and unfair. There were people full of sin and as broken as the next person. They were me. This was hard to swallow. I had placed these folks on such a high pedestal I felt guilty. What hit me though was that they were just as much in need of restoration of the soul as I was. They hurt and confronted their own stuff. They dealt with real life issues and struggled with many of the same things I’d struggle with. But they were always ready to be sent out on God‘s mission. Ready to respond to the ministry of proclamation. Ready to serve and love as Jesus loved, even in spite of what was happening in their own lives.

This is why I do what I do. I feel in some ways I’ve risen up from the pews like those I’ve watched over the years do the same. They’ve inspired me to keep doing what I‘m doing. Being with the people of God at the ground level. This is where change takes place in a persons life. This is where it happens. This where God works. This is where I get to hear how God is working. Maybe what I’m learning is that the really big show stuff happens in the pews. Not in the pulpit. Not elevated up high where the one who proclaims good news looks down upon the people. The one who proclaims good news needs to know what it’s like to rise up from the pews. In some ways the one who proclaims good news sometimes needs to go back to where it all began for them on that day God called them from their brokenness to tell others of the peace of Christ that restores the soul. This is where God works and moves. Not at the top. Not up front. But from the pews. The big show stuff I guess really happens in the pews. This is where I need to get the pulse of the church from. Maybe this is the ticket in bringing hope to the church, that the one called to preach good news, goes to the pews, empowers the people of God to rise up and help with the proclamation of God’s love.

Lord, may it be so.

I’ve been in ministry for a long time. Right out of high school. Okay it seems like a long time. As a matter of fact the first time I had the chance to lead in ministry was in an after school program where we’d pick up kids from a neighborhood near the church we attended in Hollywood. We’d bring them back to the church for a Saturday morning ministry almost like a VBS program. Did this for a long time.

My first real full-time ministry gig was at that same church that loved me often and my way of giving back to the church was by loving their kids often as I could like Jesus loved me. There are kids I still talk to on occasion and its hard to believe they’ve grown so fast. Teachers, physical trainers, Army folks. It seems like yesterday I was just sitting at camp with these same kids, eating, drinking, and watching kids come to know Jesus or serving side by side with them on some Mexico mission trip.

Hard to believe that someone took the time and believed in me that I had something to offer. Something to give. That my testimony and faith in God was of value in the kingdom and some how I got my little toe into the big show. As pastors I wonder if that’s how we’re perceived by others in the church? In some ways its like the way we look at an athlete. When they get to that place in their lives where they’re at their peak of their game. Maybe we are looked at in this way as pastors. This can be a joyful thought or an overwhelming thought in which I’d like to throw against a wall sometimes. With a smile of course. I hate that metaphor but it fits at least for now in my processing that occurs in ministry as a pastor.

Me in the big show? Hard to believe. Sometimes I have to pinch myself. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it took a long time for me to get to this place. God’s overwhelming grace. Not my strength. And sometimes I have to thump myself on the head that I’m still not completely ready and prepared for what I’ve already faced and will face on a daily basis in the life of the church as a pastor.

On a sweeter and yummier note there are times that I have to admit that although I continue to grow I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else in the church universal. At least not right now.

What’s frustrating is the assumption that we as pastors have got it all together. Because we are in the positions we hold that we are the chosen ones. We’ve been selected by God to proclaim “good news.” At least that’s how we’re perceived. This morning the heater wouldn’t work in church. One person said something to the affect, “just do that hot air stuff you do.” I smiled. There is a member I’ve served with who reminds me that I’m the dude with the robe. The robe? This robe that people like Calvin wore as a means for telling the world he was now in the big show. He earned his way and that he had some brains regarding who God was and is for us as his children.

Sometimes I don’t like that robe. It’s to heavy. In the summer time especially in the church I pastor it’s too hot to wear. I think it scares people. There are those though of previous generations in the church who love when I wear my heavy black robe. It reminds them of a time when the church was at its peak. Its glory day. There is this one sweet lady who reminds me that I look good in a tie with my robe. I made a deal with her that I’d wear it when I did a baptism or administered communion. She smiled. And when I forget she makes sure to jolt my memory not to forget.

Hard to believe. Much to learn. Still growing. Praise God that at this time in my life I get a small part in the sharing of GOOD NEWS. A little toe in the big show. I love what I do!

Okay. Another picture. Looks like my mom finally got a clue and cut my hair minus the “bang.”

Man. It seems like just yesterday. To be in 6th grade again.

Found this picture in those albums I mentioned last week…

I think our boy scout troop was picked to have a couple of rent a kids go hang out with Charles Bronson and assuming that’s his wifey for a March of Dimes photo shoot. Notice the t-shirt I’m wearing. The Boys & Girls Clubs hadn’t yet added the “Girls.”

Now this pic…

Another rent a kid shot!

What’s up with my hair?

Pretty cool stuff.

These guys rock and every time I attended these events it was always a treat to be blessed by them and so true.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-9029952269350585116]HT: Brian

I mentioned that some photo albums have come back to jolt my memory of what it was like to grow up as a kid especially in a place like Hollywood. It made me dig deep and some of the pictures I remember like yesterday, others I can’t remember and want to remember badly.

I can tell you this much. I miss my mom. I miss my dad. I miss my brothers. In spite of the joys and struggles of growing up in an interesting family unit I still miss them and thank God for the chance to have had a family. Even if it was just for a few years. Although I’d love to throw them and hang them from their toes and pull each of their nose hairs out one by one I am grateful that they did their best as parents.

Each picture tells a story. Each picture has a memory. Some are goofy.

Others I’d love to hide for a long time. What was neat was watching our boys pour through the pictures. Our oldest who sports the stache and some much cooler long hair said, “dad you look like a coconut head.”

I hope to find some time to blog about some of the pictures I found. It might actually be healing in some ways.

Anyways, enjoy the picture!