Which ones are your favorites? 

It’s been interesting reading Facebook statuses the day after another CA election.
The “red” friends.  The “blue” friends.
I think I’ve become more maroon, but that’s aside from the point.

I have a lot of frustrated red friends today.
(Actually, I noticed a lot of the blue friends were only slightly happier, if that.)

But here’s the deal.
I just drove to Starbucks.
It’s November.
I drove right by the beach on my way.
Shorts.
Flip flops.
Windows down.
Sunroof open.
Gorgeous day.
Just sayin…regardless of who’s in what office, I love California and I aint goin anywhere!

So let the positivity flow friends.
Do share, what do you love about California?

Lots of churches take the opportunity of the cultural holiday to bless their communities and provide a safe environment for families to celebrate for Haloween…errrr…Harvest.  I get it, and for those doing it, that’s cool.  Go for it!
For me, several years ago my take on that approach started changing a bit, though.  I was always the, “let’s produce a big event” guy.
But something started getting to me about Halloween.
(And no, it’s not that I decided Halloween is evil and we shouldn’t participate.)

All year long, many of our churches encourage people to stop spending all their time at church and get to know their communities.
We encourage people to get to know the people that live around them and actually get involved in their lives.
Still I’ve had church people admit to me that they have no clue who their next-door neighbors are.  Like many in our culture, they go to work, come home, drive into their garage, close the garage and go inside til the next morning when they open the garage door long enough to drive out and go to work again.
Then, on the one day a year that most of our neighbors come knocking on our door, we ask people to leave their house and come to the church, which nowadays is often in a completely different community.

So the question is, if we are going to be at home, how can we be more intentional about being there.
Oh, and the answer ISN’T give each kid a piece of paper telling them what you believe and that they should believe it too.
Here’s a couple ideas:

• One friend told me about a neighbor who would make Root Beer Floats in the front yard and it always ended up with a bunch of families milling around having floats together.
• It’s a bit cold where we live for floats, so Rachel and I are hoping to have some hot cocoa and/or cider along with candy to warm people up and give em a chance to stop and drink for a few before moving on.
  Speaking of, anyone have a hot water heater with a spicket or a big thermos container I can borrow?
• Throw a Halloween party.  (Actually, can’t wait to go to our neighbors party earlier in the day. It helps having awesome neighbors and they know how to throw a party!)
• Simply ask if they’re from nearby and introduce yourself as you hand out candy.
• Just have a few friends from the area over to watch a festive movie with or have some drinks and play games with each other while you wait for trick-or-treaters to show up.
• You could make your house into a cool maze for people to go through.  I always loved those houses as a kid.
• Ante up and give out full size candy bars.  You’ll probably end up with all the neighborhood kids coming to your house before long.  That being said, we aren’t planning to do that one!
• What if churches split up the money they use for the big event and gave it to home groups to do something fun at a nearby park or a house in their community?  I’ve heard of a couple churches doing this and it sounded like a pretty good compromise between the two.

What can I say?  I’m an extrovert and love opportunities to get to know people and make a few more friends.
What other ideas can you add?
What are your plans this Halloween?

But today is St. Patrick’s Day.
Just to remind us who St. Patrick even is, I invite you to check out this post from last year.
And when you pinch someone cause they aren’t wearing green, remember it’s all because of the missionary endeavors of Patrick in Ireland. Natural connection, of course.

Speaking of, the other totally understandable way to celebrate the evangelization of an entire country is drinking beer.
So join me at The Catalyst tonight to listen to The Wild Rovers in the Atrium. 9pm. No cover.
And I’ve been told I have to try an Irish Car Bomb since they’re 6 bucks tonight and I’ve never had one.
Hope to see you there!

Then, last night, while in line for Harry Potter, my wife and Christal were handed this pamphlet.

Anyone else kinda wanna see that lion go for that doll looking girl’ss head?
Sorry.  moving on…

From the front cover –

They have a website too.  ChristianVeg.org.

Umm, sorry, but when I consider ‘going green’, a “planet based diet” isn’t quite what I had in mind.
Anyone wanna join me at Betty’s Burger?

I kinda had to laugh when I saw this cartoon and think about how nice it could have been to have Twitter in my teenage years:

Maybe Twitter can help us be better parents, too!
I knew there were more justifications out there for my addictions.

Now I’ve been thinking about weighing in on this whole issue, but withheld.  Here’s an excuse to go ahead now with a nice controversial blog post.

This has been a big issue in California again.  Many have discussed how we as Christians should react.
I received an email from a friend a few weeks back about a petition to sign to fight the decision and get same sex marriages overturned.  I deleted it.  (No offense if you sent me that email.)

Let me explain.  First of all, I have no problem admitting that I personally disagree with the homosexual lifestyle.  I have no problem saying that I believe it is immoral in the eyes of God.

I also feel that we can’t legislate morality.  That’s why I’m not a politician.  Laws don’t really change people.  Jesus does, one heart at a time.  Not into Christian clones, but into individuals becoming more like Him.  I’d rather spend my time sharing Christ with others and watch Him change us (me included) from the inside out than try to force change on people from the outside in.  That never works.  In Churchianity, it’s called legalism.

So do I agree with homosexual marriage?  No. Do I feel like it’s a hill worth dying on?  There was a time that I did.  Not so much anymore.

The big argument from Christians is that we need to “protect marriage.”  I have 2 thoughts to leave you with when it comes to that.

1. My marriage isn’t about the government definition anyway.  The legal benefits are great.  That’s why we do it.  But my commitment to my wife before God was a totally separate issue.  A faith issue.  That Can’t be changed.  I’m not suggesting that we start marrying homosexual couples in our church.  I just don’t see the California legal side as worth my time and energy to fight.
2. Above all, I can’t get past this one huge thought.  Our state government allowing same sex marriages is probably far less detrimental to the institution of marriage than the 50% divorce rate inside and outside of the church. (Read that again.)  Ouch.Why are most churches spending their energy outraged that the government is allowing same sex marriages, all the while continuing to marry and divorce each other inside the church at the same rate as the rest of our culture and not spending the time and energy we need to strengthening our own marriages?

Again, I’m not saying I agree with it.  And if it’s on the ballot in November, I may even vote to keep it traditional.  I honestly don’t know.  I just think there are more important battles to fight, and most of them won’t be won in the political arena.

Just my thoughts.
There ya have it.
Your turn.

So here is what the question that his talk really left me pondering.  It ended with the idea that to be an organization that reaches the creative class, determine the barriers that are keeping them from being with you and tear them down.  So how do we practically do that?

For Amy who commented on the first post, what were some of those barriers that were removed that brought that change of culture?
What does that mean for a new church plant in an artsy area such as the church Earl is starting in Berkeley?  How do you create that DNA?
Or more important for me to think about, how do you identify and actually remove those barriers in a church with lots of history like CLC, where I live?

It seems to me that many of those barriers are removed by changing the attitudes and perspectives of the current faith community.
Is it more about attitudes and values, or is it about actual practices or events?  Or is it some of both?

I’d love to hear from those in ministry as well as those who attend a church as well as those who have nothing to do with church.  What has worked for you?  What do you think?  What would make you as a creative want to be a part of a faith community?

Your turn.

One of the things the Earl mentioned that stuck out to me was their desire to contribute to the community they are a part of.  There’s a concern I have heard from some artists regarding the church.  The general issue is that we tend to fail at celebrating art for the sake of beauty and only really celebrate art to the degree that it illustrates the points that we want to make in our services.

It is an easy trap to fall into, and one that I definitely am guilty of.  As I would get so wrapped up in planning out Sundays experience, artist became simply a means to communicate our message that Sunday.  This is very valuable, but if it the only focus I think this subtly says to artists that their personal expression is valid only as long as it is used for our purposes. 

Often the church tries to figure out how we can reach "creatives" rather than inviting creatives onboard to build, create, lead, and challenge the way we think.  When I first started in ministry, I thought much more like a creative type myself.  But then I learned in the church world how things are "supposed" to be done and began focusing so much more on the programs rather than my love of art and beauty.  Now I consistently need to unlearn some of the things that have been reinforced in me in order to be the person that God really wants me to be and reach the communities he’s equipped me to reach.

So how do we as a church become a place for creatives, allowing them to feel like valued contributing members without it having to be in the confines of how we want to use it?  When I was at Recreate, one of the presenters talked about hosting a film festival for our community.  Part of me, most of me, loves that idea.  But another part of me has had trouble wrapping my head around the usefulness.  Where is the redemptive value?  Are we sharing the greater story with them somehow?  Are we inviting them to church to fill the seats the next Sunday?  Perhaps it should be enough that we value just encouraging and celebrating creativity, and there is no other hidden agenda or motives.  Now that gets me more excited.  Just not sure if that one will sell to a board or your average church leadership. 

So my questions for you today, what do you think…
Does the church value art in and of itself?
What can we do to value art and artists beyond our own agendas?
How have you (or have you) seen this done effectively?

Your turn.