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?

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.

I am a member of the local community here in Santa Cruz.
My wife called me to find out what was going on on Friday June 6th, 2008 at the corner of Mission and Bay.  I was at my computer.  She was trying to get to Longs with our son, but the only way she knew how to get there was blocked.
She was a bit frustrated, but I was intrigued to see what was going on.
I am all for peaceful protests to raise awareness and support.

It was down the street from our office and home, so myself and 2 friends walked down there.
You were protesting unfair wages.
Possibly a very just cause.  I don’t know.
I watched and listened as you chanted.
“What so we want?  Justice!  When do we want it?  Now!”
“No contracts, no peace.” (Thought that was an odd one.)

Then I saw a lady in a mini van approach the intersection from Bay.
Police were redirecting traffic several  blocks up on Mission, (closing off 4-5 blocks of businesses) but apparently she came from elsewhere.
Perhaps she was on her way to pick up a child from the preschool/elementary school across the street.  Who knows.
I watched as you refused to allow her to pass and used intimidation to make her turn around.
This is when my outlook and demeanor changed.

I imagined my wife and child alone in the car as you intimidated them.  That pissed me off.
You may call it kindly letting her know that she could go another way.  You may believe you were not intimidating, but friendly.
I define 15-20 students surrounding an innocent lady’s minivan intimidation.
I watched as three of “Santa Cruz’s Finest” stood in the middle of the street talking and not helping the lady at all.  Even after I pointed out the situation in case they had missed it.  Glad to know I could count on them to take care of my family.

As I walked away, I overheard the lady who works for Santa Cruz public transit talking to a student.
“We carry you back and forth here.  We never cross your picket lines.  We always respect you.  You could have given us some warning so we could reroute our buses ahead of time.  Not cool.”
I watched frustrated business owners talk with police.
I listened to local residents upset because they couldn’t get anywhere.

As I said, I’m all for activism.  I’m fine with protests.  I live in Santa Cruz.  I better be.
There are ways to get messages across and be heard without angering a majority of the community and cutting your support base.
You may have a very worthy cause.
It may be a cause worth my support.
Unfortunately, I don’t know.
Today, your methods unfortunately spoke louder than your message.

Sincerely,
A disappointed Santa Cruz resident

It’s been great.  Lot’s of sweating.  Workin hard.  And our instructor…she’s a trip.  Everything you’d expect in a fitness instructor, in a good way.  Energy, fun, loud, rockin with the music.  Seriously, it’s great.  Keeps it entertaining and actually encourages me to push just a little bit harder.  Of course, don’t know how fond I was the first week when she walked up and turned up the tension on my bike.  Taught me not to try and over-achieve! 

Last week in class, she pulls out a camera.  I mention she should email them to us, and she says she’ll post them on her blog.  Well, I haven’t seen it show up on her blog yet, but I was stoked to check out the blog.  So she now has a link in my new "Santa Cruz Locals" bloglist that replaced my tired Fave Five list. These are bloggers around the Santa Cruz area I’ve found that I like to follow (that aren’t CLC bloggers).  So if you wanna read about some Santa Cruz fitness, swing by her blog and leave some love.

Of course, this got me thinking.  If she’s taking pics for her blog, maybe that gives me permission to take some video from my SD1000 to give you a taste of triathlon training. 
Hmmm…whatcha think?

Free breakfast from Jamba Juice.  Free Bagels.  Surveys.  Bike accessories.  Free massages for bicyclists.
Man, I chose a crummy day not to ride!
And it’s kinda pointless for me to ride to work…all the way across the parking lot.

Only in Santa Cruz.
But you know what…
That’s one of the things I love about this city!

In Santa Cruz, everyone’s got a gimmick.  Now, this may not be on par with The Pink Guy or the pink Santa, but while some friends were here back in September, we saw this guy surfing at Steamers:

He then went ahead and gave us a nice pose for the camera.  Sliding into home.  Something the Giants aren’t very familiar with – home plate.

Oh yeah.  I’m a Padre fan.  They’re playing the Cardinals tonight.  Don’t care about the Cardinals, but the only time I feel like I should ever root for the Giants is if they’re playing the Dodgers.  Not sure who I’ll pull for tonight, but it will be fun.

I think I ran into Pinky’s cousin playing the accordion after church today.  Take a look:

Yup…that’s a real person.  "Sorbet Santa" according to the box.  Just another day in Downtown Santa Cruz.  Best part is…I love where I live!!  Might as well keep life interesting!

Now, almost three years later, I am here at CLC and Vintage Faith has been meeting for the past year or so almost right across the street from us at First Presbyterian Church, two churches, one vision.  I’ve been wanting to get back over to visit now that we’re neighbors, and I was finally able to tonight.  I love visiting other churches, being able to kick back and worship, and learning from what I am able to take in when I’m there, the good and the bad.

I chose a very significant and different week to visit Vintage Faith.  They were in between series, giving a vision update and making some rather major announcements.  More on that later.

When I arrived the parking lot was way packed.  So after driving through it, I had to exit and park a block or two away.  One of the concerns at CLC has been our parking situation as well, but it was interesting to see how many people were walking from a bit of a distance to get there.  I was hoping to visit sort of covertly, but I knew the greeter at the front door, and immediately saw a friend from CLC when I got inside.

Some of the things I enjoyed:

• Very cool vibe inside.  Large ornate silver cross up front and center with fabric and some lighting.
    I found it interesting that I could only see six lighting fixtures that they were using.  They used them well, though.
• The sound was nice and thick.  It was loud (as I prefer it…nevermind, that’s a whole different post) and full.  It really seemed to envelop and immerse you in the worship time.
• It was hard to spot Josh Fox off to the right as he welcomed people and started worship.  At first this bothered me a little bit, but at the same time I thought it was kind of cool to have very little focus on the team and have the central focal point up front as the cross.  Whether they have it like that every week, I don’t know.
• As Dan Kimball did the first part of the message, it was very conversational.  There was a part of his speaking where he had lots of people give input as to what it tangibly meant to have life more abundant.  It’s bothered me at times that we get together at church and listen to one person teach while we stare at the back of peoples heads.  This approach was kinda nice for a change.  More community focused I guess.
• Cool response to the message.  I’ll show that in a sec.

The big announcement: Vintage Faith and First Pres. are merging to become one church.  It will be called Vintage Faith and they will become Presbyterian.  First Dan shared about the history of Vintage, then Lee Perky shared the history of First Pres. and the joining of the two, and then Josh Fox addressed some details as to what it would look like, wrapped up by Kristin, who oversees Community groups and Hospitality, explaining the response and communion.

As a visual representation of the joining of the churches, people went forward to several stations at all three services where artists traces outlines of their faces as a symbol of the two churches becoming one family.

So a few things the service got me thinking of:

• Vintage Faith is doing some great stuff in the city of Santa Cruz.  It is an honor to get to do ministry nearby.  We’re all on the same team, and I’m excited to see an impact being made.
• One of the things Dan shared was some research they did when they started Vintage Faith.  Based on what they found, 90% of Santa Cruz does not attend church.  That is a HUGE mission field.  There is plenty of work to be done.  Another Pastor I met with several months ago said the most accurate estimate he know of was actually 93%.
• CLC is not Vintage Faith and never will be.  And it shouldn’t be.  I think we could learn a lot from what they are doing.  They have clearly been successful in reaching a segment of this community and have to a certain degree "broken the missional code" of Santa Cruz.  But we need to so that by being true to who we are at the same time.  However, don’t hear me wrong.  I still think that means some serious examination and changes for us, but that will be addressed in our current series as we share where we are headed as a church.

All in all, it was a fun night and a nice opportunity to get out and actually get to learn a lot about our neighbors.  It was fun to worship with another part of the fam.  And it was good to remind me of the need and opportunity in our immediate community and be reminded of the mission that Jesus has laid out for us.