JOYA'S First Student Workshop!

JOYA Scholars held its first student workshop, "APPLYING TO COLLEGE” last Monday at the El Puente de Gracia in the Garnet Neighborhood. Our facilitator Jessica Parris, a Solidarity board member and former Director of Counseling for Collegewise, offered her extensive knowledge of college admissions and heart of advocacy for students and families who lack resources.

We currently have 14 students and 5 mentors who have committed to the Mentoring Program for the 2009-2010 school year and expect a handful of additional students and mentors to join soon.

Here is a report by Bianca Pena, Program Director for JOYA, describing the first workshop:

"Kevin joined us for the beginning and shared a few words with the students - that we believe in them, that we believe college will help them be what they want to be (doctors, social workers, lawyers, business owners etc.) and that we exist FOR them. It was a wonderful start to our time together.

Afterwards, mentors and mentees chatted and started to get to know each other.

Then Jessica taught the students, providing a very thorough explanation of what college admission officers will look for in college applications - everything from grades to test scores, to activities, to the critical personal statement. She was able to provide a very current description of what colleges are looking for. They're no longer looking for students who are involved in a list of things. Instead, colleges are looking for students who are involved in 1, 2 or 3 things that they love and are passionate about. That's a golden piece of guidance!

Following the teaching, mentees and mentors discussed what the mentees were learning and any questions they had. We wrapped with Q&A and announcements - ie. PSAT 10/17/09 test date for 10th graders, 12th graders need to take the SAT no later than 12/5/09 etc. A few of the questions asked by the students are mentioned below...

Gerardo, an eighth grader, asked, "How do you get into Honors classes?" Another student asked, "What happens if you do well in 10th & 11th grade, but not as well in 12th grade?" Briana, one of our two seniors, asked if we could visit some colleges."

JOYA Scholars Kick-Off Event!

After a group of dreamers and educators met over the past nine months to create a program to inspire and prepare students from the Garnet Neighborhood to succeed in college, JOYA Scholars finally got underway on Monday!

There was a full house at the Garnet Community Center! Over 70 students and parents, Joya mentors, and advisory team members came together for the first time over dinner to learn more about the program.

Joya friends Luis Orona and Janette Castillo gave inspiring speeches of overcoming meager beginnings from the projects in Mexico and South Central LA, respectively. Students were encouraged to aim high and dream big; parents were exhorted to commit to their child's education, to supporting their child going to college.

Program Director Bianca Pena shared the mission of Joya to the students; Mentor Sandra Franco translated our hopes to the parents. Through it all, the message was singular: Each student was sitting there, specially invited, because we believed in them. We believe in their talents and dreams, their smarts and hard work. We believe they can succeed in life beyond what they can imagine. We believe they can change the world. Change their world. And if they wanted, we were there to help them.

Thanks to our most amazing team and the many generous and supportive friends of JOYA who gave of their time, talents, and money to make the evening such a success!

More updates to come as the program begins later this month with student and parent workshops, college tours, and mentoring.

Join us in changing the life of a student and and his or her family by donating or being a mentor. Visit us here.

Here's to breaking the cycle of poverty one student at a time!

It's Been Some Kind of Year!

I've had me a tremendous last 12 months: We had to redo our hardwood floors 3x, all because an inadvertent nail in a baseboard happened to pierce a bathroom pipe the first time, and the repairs the second time weren't done right. My truck got hit twice, once at an on-ramp signal going to house church and the other while parked at a Starbucks, coming out of an Oasis meeting. Today, our house got broken into.

I write this not to invite sympathy (I realize these are mostly sufferings of the privileged, compared to the great injustices that exist in the world, but they still have a way of leaving one bruised and feeling vulnerable). I mostly write this to help me remember when all this was going on, to help me process. And how, in the end, I have to admit there is much to be thankful for despite the crumminess of it all. I'd much prefer that all this crap not have happened, but I am grateful for tender mercies nevertheless. Our floors did get fixed and redone - better than ever. My truck looks like new (at least the rear end does), though it's an old '96. And though there is some damage to the house and some rattled nerves, unbelievably nothing was taken and we were not harmed.

Unlike conventional evangelical theology which might suggest at this point that God is causing these things to teach us a lesson, I choose to believe that bad things happen partly because of our choices or the choices of others, but also sometimes because we live in a fallen world where evil and the accidental are a reality. That is not to say I have nothing to learn. Or that God isn't trying to teach me something. But I am saying this is not his method. I am saying that God does not cause bad things to happen so that I can learn something good. This would make God a horribly sadistic deity and I'd have to find some other line of work, because I ain't believing this nonsense and certainly not teaching it to others. Like any good parent, we don't have to cause bad things to happen to our children in order to teach them something good. Instead, we know that they will inevitably get hurt in the course of this life, and sometimes good can come of it as redemptive act - as something learned. A grace. Sometimes.

I don't believe the popular platitude that, "All things happen for a reason." I don't believe it because it's not true. It's nowhere to be found in Scripture. The plain truth is that many crummy and downright inexplicable things happen for absolutely no good reason. Yes, no good reason. So we don't have to feel pressed to turn bad things into good ones because we are convinced there is something God is trying to teach us - if we could only dry the tears long enough to see them. Instead, we can mourn the bad as bad, period. We can call the horrible horrible, the tragic tragic.

What Scripture does seem to reveal, however, is that the God of Jesus Christ assumes a fallen world in which people sin and are sinned against, and where both the beautiful and the terrible happen. The power of God is not to stop all bad things from happening, but that no bad thing can stop God's loving presence in our lives in the midst of bad things. The power of God is not to stop death, but to resurrect the dead.

No matter whose fault all this mess belongs to - you, me, the other guy, or the devil - God takes responsibility for it. First he weeps with us in solidarity with our pain. Then he offers us redemption. Sometimes in the form of healing and glimpses of mercy in this life. Sometimes only in the hope of resurrection in the next. Through it all, I can only confess and cling to the hope that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ - even when the reality of my circumstances seem to betray this truth. "Neither life nor death, nothing above or below, nor anything else in all creation" we are told. Apparently not even a warped floor, a dented bumper, or a broken window in a span of 12 months.

WHAT DONORS ARE LOOKING FOR

A few years ago, a friend and I attended the Craigslist Foundation's Non-Profit Bootcamp - a one day intensive of training, networking, and idea-exchanging around improving and strengthening our communities. I was already serving as a director on several boards, but since the launching of Joya Scholars this year, I've had a more acute awareness of what's at stake in the connection between fundraising and our organization's mission, values, and philosophy - and articulating that to current and potential donors and volunteers. Recently I revisited my notes to find some helpful principles based on a keynote address author Kay Sprinkel Grace gave on fundraising:

KEY FUNDRAISING PRINCIPLES:

1. People give because you meet needs, not because you have needs.
It's social investment, not begging. People give to what they value. Philanthropy is how love is expressed > with action for public good.

2. A gift to you is a gift through you.
People are not giving to your organization, but to impacting lives in the community.

3. All statistics about your reach must be enriched with stories of impact.
We must ask, "How do we enroll investors in the promise of transformation?" This must be measurable. Funders want to give and identify with work of high moral purpose (impact). We must answer: "How would the community (and world) be different if you received all your resources?"

4. Fundraising is not about money, but relationships.
Have a bigger goal beyond your financial goal. Donors expect: 1.impact, 2. issues, 3.investment, 4. involvement, 5. innovation.

5. It's not about you.
It's about the community. Internal marketing is as important as external marketing in helping the organization think transformation not transaction.

Fallen Comrades

I've had several discussions of late on the moral failings of religious and other public figures (politicians mostly, and many self-professed Christians and Promise Keepers at that), trying to understand why these things happen and the dynamics involved, both for the fallen leader and those who must deal with the aftermath. I just e-mailed a friend my thoughts on just one aspect of the problem, an excerpt of my response below:

"In my opinion, part of the problem with pastors as well as politicians, and really anyone in positions of power, is that the system helps to create the dynamics that lead to people falling. It's not just an individual with a moral indiscretion, but a whole system that produces secret behavior and a value for appearances. Such contexts make it difficult, and nearly emotionally impossible for the broken to feel they can be honest, already believing no one would understand, that everyone would reject them if they new the truth. And often times, unfortunately, they are right to believe so.

In evangelical circles, we are enamored with "accountability groups." But by and large accountability groups don't work. Many accountability groups assume perfection, then expect confession, followed by some pronouncement of forgiveness, with the exhortation to do better. I am not against accountability out right. But I have a different starting point: I don't assume perfection, but failure. Addicts and other strugglers are not helped by being told to do better, but by belonging to other sinners who extend grace and acceptance, and a commitment of love and relationship where screwing up is, well, pretty much normal. In the company of sinners, a sense of not being alone empowers everyone to be honest, deal with pain, and get better - without the fear of being rejected.

What pastors need are not accountability groups, but friends. What pastors can get wrong about leadership is seeing people as a means for some other end, usually the growth of the church, versus people being the end in of themselves. Love is always the means and the end, because people are the goal. Pastors can help create churches in which the goal is something other than deep relationships of grace, a grace which allows us to look inside with honesty and tell the truth about ourselves - and that this is NORMATIVE for the community, of which pastor is chief sinner. Church is really about connection, and often times the way church is done does not allow the pastor to have deep connection with friends who can hear the saddness, frustration, and failings of the pastor, while speaking into the pastor's life with wisdom, grace, and encouragement. The pastor is often the author and victim of the system he (and it's almost always he) creates. In Haggard's case, the church responded to him exactly the way he taught them to! With little grace for other sinners and even less for himself, the result was inevitable. To top it off, Haggard was in an accountability group but alas it did no good. Sadly, he had no real friends.

Suffice it to say, I don't want to be in a "successful" church where I am elevated simply because "I'm the man" or find myself emotionally isolated because the structure of the church points itself toward accomplishment rather than real relationship. I too am only human, a pastor who is one among equals. I want to lead in and through relationship and connection, starting with my own life of failure versus just getting things done so I/the church are seen as impressive. I need a different kind of church because I know the kind of person I am. I need a church for people like me. I need friends."

GOMER

It's been a blast teaching through the Book of Hosea on Sunday mornings after so much trepidation on my part, mostly knowing I felt called to preach on it but not knowing exactly why. What was the word for Epic? I hadn't a clue at the time. If you missed any of the messages, you can catch the series on our website.

From the feedback I've received along the way, the realization that 1) grace precedes sin and 2) that God is for us - even when our own experience living in a broken world betrays that reality - seems to have struck a chord with many. Too often in the evangelical world we are taught that the starting point of the gospel is "We are terrible sinners incapable of any good, deserving wrath and punishment." Our only conclusion, "O what a wretched wiener am I!" (worm theology it's been called), so "How could God possibly love me?"

Certainly we are sinners and incapable of faithfulness except by the grace of God. But the gospel doesn't start with "I'm a sinner." It begins with "I am chosen and loved." It starts with "God loves me and has prepared many good things for me to do and experience in this world." Sin is what messes things up, sin is what gets in the way of me relating with God and others so the good prepared for me can be realized. This is precisely the truth revealed in Hosea. It's God's way of making his love known. (Later in the NT, Jesus uses the Prodigal Son story to do the same thing.) The initiation starts from God's side (Hosea) to Gomer (that would be Israel/us), and what God initiates is love, what God gives is himself: "Go, marry..." is Hosea's instruction. God loves, cares, and believes in us. He wants relationship with us. He sees his people as his bride.

It is nearly unbearable to watch as Gomer goes wayward and Israel goes haywire in sin. But it serves to remind us that we all have a bit of Gomer is us, that every church, no matter how faithful, has its own Gomer story. But because we are first loved, that grace precedes repentance, we can rest assured that no matter how far gone we go, God never withholds relationship. It is precisely his love and kindness in the midst of sin that allows us to look honestly at our own unfaitfulness, knowing there is not a finger wagging back at us in shameful indignation, but a kind of hopefulness for us. With the God of Hosea, conviction of sin acts as a kind of mercy, a kind of gracious warning bell signaling that we have wandered needlessly away and are being called by name (wooed, for you romantics) to return to our first love.

That's why the book of Hosea is ultimately a story of redemption: "Go, show your love to your wife again..." A story less about Gomer and more about Hosea's bewildering commitment. More about God's unbelievable affection than about us getting anything right necessarily. That's why the first movement of the spiritual life is not to serve or worship or join a bible study, but to be found, to be loved. And learning to live out of that deep core of acceptance and affirmation is the only way to walk with God and offer a gift of love in return. A gift of grateful response and connection. The gift of us. Which is what God desires most of all.

To close our series, I plan to read from Frederick Buechner's beautifully earthy and moving reflection on "Gomer" from Peculiar Treasures, a piece which poignantly speaks to the depth of Hosea's love for Gomer, and God's love for us:

GOMER by Frederick Buechner
From Peculiar Treasures

She was always good company – a little heavy with the lipstick maybe, a little less than choosy about men and booze, a little loud, but great on a party and always good for a laugh. Then the prophet Hosea came along wearing a sandwich board that read “The End is at Hand” on one side and “Watch Out” on the other.

The first time he asked her to marry him, she thought he was kidding. The second time she knew he was serious but thought he was crazy. The third time she said yes. He wasn’t exactly a swinger, but he had a kind face, and he was generous, and he wasn’t all that crazier than everybody else. Besides, any fool could see he loved her.

Give or take a little, she even loved him back for a while, and they had three children whom Hosea named with queer names like Not-pitied-for-God-will-no-longer-pity-Israel-now-that-it’s-gone-to-the-dogs so that every time the roll was called at school, Hosea would be scoring a prophetic bullseye in absentia. But everybody could see the marriage wasn’t going to last, and it didn’t.

While Hosea was off hitting the sawdust trail, Gomer took to hitting as may night spots as she could squeeze into a night, and any resemblance between her next batch of children and Hosea was purely coincidental. It almost killed him, of course. Every time he raised a hand to her, he burst into tears. Every time she raised one to him, he was the one who ended up apologizing.

He tried locking her out of the house a few times when she wasn’t in by five in the morning, but he always opened the door when she finally showed up and helped get her to bed if she couldn’t see straight enough to get there herself. Then one day she didn’t show up at all.

He swore that this time he was through with her for keeps, but of course he wasn’t. When he finally found her, she was lying passed out in a highly specialized establishment located above an adult bookstore, and he had to pay the management plenty to let her out of her contract. She’d lost her front teeth and picked up some scars you had to see to believe, but Hosea had her back again and that seemed to be all that mattered.

He changed his sandwich board to read “God is love” on one side and “There’s no end to it” on the other, and when he stood on the street corner belting out

How can I give you up, O Ephraim!
How can I hand you over, O Israel!
For I am God and not man,
The Holy One in your midst (Hosea 11:8-9)

nobody can say how many converts he made, but one thing that’s for sure is that, including Gomer’s, there was seldom a dry eye in the house. (Hosea 1-3, 11)

New Music (Mostly)

After what seemed like a drought as long as the one we're experiencing in rain-challenged Southern California, there's finally a crop of new music worth listening to and artists worth seeing, which I'm hoping to do in the next several months. Here's some of them:

MAYER HAWTHORNE "Strange Arrangement"
A throw-back to my days growing up listening to 1580 KDAY and KJLH, part Motown, part Philly Sound with inflections of the Stylistics and Blue Magic. Heard him last month on KCRW and wondered first, "Is this KCRW?" and then, "What old school group is this?" Find out it's a White dude in Los Angeles via Michigan. Planning to see him next Thursday at the Roxy. Track recommendation: "Maybe So, Maybe No", "Strange Arrangement"


WEATHER PENDING "And How!"
Another find from KCRW. Got a kick out the fact that the band actually tweeted me back after I gave them some props, couldn't believe it! A San Fransisco-based trio of very cool, groovy, electronica, with dreamy vocals. Hoping they make a stop in LA sometime. Track recommendation: "Complicated Two", "Electricity"


KATE EARL "Kate Earl"
Prized her debut album, and the follow up features her lovely voice couched in a more produced, poppy sound with the hope, I imagine, of reaching a broader audience. Got to see her twice at the Hotel Cafe a few years back and actually got to chat with her, a really sweet person. Happy to see her doing so well, Single of the Week and Top Ten on iTunes last week. Track recommendation: "Jump", "Melody"

FRIENDLY FIRES "Friendly Fires"
The record has been out for awhile now, but loved listening to this UK band during the summer (esp. "Paris"), and they're touring now. Can't help but listening and being transported to another place, usually some sweaty disco somewhere. Track recommendation: "Jump In the Pool", "Paris"


PHOENIX "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix"
Another album in rotation for summer, especially after seeing them at the Wiltern in June. Rick and I had a blast! More synth-based, catchy pop from these Frenchmen. Track recommendation: "Lasso", "Listomania"



Also Zee Avi, Artic Monkeys, Metric

80 Million Unexploded Bombs

Today, I heard this heartbreaking if not infuriating feature on NPR/PRI about the decades-long condition in Laos which continues as a result of steep poverty in that country and the blind eye of other nations, including apparently, the U.S. It's almost hard to believe this goes on.

Here is the trailer to the story:
"When you have no money and no opportunity to make any, you’ll do just about anything to survive. That can include risking your life for a few dollars a day. This is what many kids and adults do in the southeast Asian country of Laos. They trek into the forest to look for scrap metal they can sell for cash. The danger is that that scrap metal consists largely of bombs left over from the Vietnam War."

Listen to the Full Story here.
More Info: MAG (Mines Advisory Group)

Introducing Joya Scholars

Along with a great group of passionate and talented people, I've had the privilege of helping to start a new non-profit birthed out of a collaboration with Solidarity. Joya Scholars is a program with the mission of inspiring and preparing students of families from low- income neighborhoods in Fullerton toward higher education. We are focusing our efforts on the Garnet Neighborhood where there have been no college graduates to emerge in the last decade. Without a vision or real access to college education, the future for most of these kids is bleak: dropping out of high school, life in gangs, teen pregnancy, or low-paying jobs await them. We're hoping to change that.

If you'd like to find out more about JOYA or join us as a volunteer or donor, please let us know:

Joya Scholars
Bianca Pena, Program Director
PO Box 1457
Fullerton CA 92836
(714) 322-JOYA
www.joyascholars.org

Join us breaking the cycle of poverty one student at a time!

UP

I finally saw UP with my family. Loved it! The five-minute or so recap of Carl and Ellie's life at the beginning of the movie to set up the film's premise has got to be one of the most endearing, heartbreaking, and treasured things you may ever see on screen. As I've reflected upon it today, it's a story about adventure to be sure, but mostly about loss: A widower and his wife, the couple and their house, and a son and his absent father. The adventure part of UP exists and emerges precisely at the intersection of Carl's and Russell's particular emptiness and the search to fill it, or in this case, fulfill it. As is the nature of adventure, not is always as it seems, and there are plenty of lessons to be gleaned and kicked around along the way, this film is no exception:

- You always take a bit of home with you wherever you go.
- Sometimes an adventure necessitates leaving the unnecessary behind.
- And the boring stuff is the stuff you remember most.

I've thought about the first as it relates to healing; that our experience of home growing up always stays with us, no matter what, no matter how old, offering a mixture both wonderful and painful. I've realized that with all the healing I have sought and been graciously given as an adult, there is still much of my youth that remains at the core, some now as nostalgia, but much as melancholy over what could have been.

I've reflected on the second over the last many years, of course, as it relates to Jesus. His call for us to lay down our lives, pick up our cross, and follow him is the stuff of divine adventure. But inherent in that call is to leave what may be treasured but unnecessary behind. I am regularly haunted by all the stuff I deem important wondering how much of it has kept me tethered to the ground, instead of up and exploring life in the kingdom. What is the unnecessary I must unload so I am free to pursue what is truly necessary? That's a holy journey.

And I've reminisced quite a bit about my own growing up, having shared that what I recall most fondly as a kid are indeed the mundane things - going to the hardware store with my dad, listening to Vin Scully on the radio as we cleaned out the garage, shooting hoop with my mom on the driveway. For this reason, I've told parents not to be surprised if it turns out that the times we were least conscious of our "parenting", end up being the moments that most shape our children. Somehow, it is the most boring, everyday, mundane things we remember most. Not because, I think, the moment was so important necessarily, but that we felt important in that moment. I don't ever recall what was said in those activities with my mom and dad, all I remember is that they shared that moment with me.

Having seen UP today on the heels of watching Benjamin Button for the first time last night, I am struck that what aches at our hearts is the loss of time, how we wish at some level things could stay the same and never change. I often think about my children in this way. But more than that, it's the loss of relationship that is allowed to pass as a reality and function of time: a spouse, a house, a father, a dream. Some people, some things, can never be replaced. And time does not stand still. But what UP does teaches us is that we can learn to enjoy new relationships, on new adventures, creating new memories, while never forgetting, or leaving far behind, what gave our memories, and losses, so much meaning to our lives in the first place.

El Capitan State Beach Vacation

We've been avid campers over the years, an inexpensive and wonderful way to enjoy beauty up close - and surefire way to be grateful for a hot shower. But we camped almost exclusively at the great national parks. I think it was an experience at Pismo Beach as a college student (basically camping in a sand storm!) that made me shy away from the state beaches. But because of a short week, we headed to El Capitan just north of Santa Barbara. I couldn't have been more surprised...and happier. For some reason I thought the campsites just couldn't compare to the national parks, but I was wrong. The sites were terrific and the facilities were great. Of course a different part of nature to enjoy, but completely relaxing - and with a 2-hour drive home instead of seven or eight, I actually felt rested when we got back. There is something to be said about the pace of camping, where things are deliberate and inefficient and slow. You notice the stars in the sky, the thousands of rocks on the beach, and your own silly family sitting around a smokey campfire. In short, you feel more connected to the earth, in all its earthiness.

Thinking Inside the Box

A significant takeaway I got from Lynda Resnick's enjoyable Rubies in the Orchard was her adamant bias toward thinking inside the box, a bit surprising given her tremendous success as marketer. But she poses the obvious question, "How many successful people have you met in your entire life who can really, truly 'think outside the box'? When was the last time you encountered someone who is able to conceptualize and create something that is truly new - something unlike anything that has come before?" Einstein, maybe Steve Jobs, certainly God himself. The rest of us 'nongeniuses' (and Resnick includes herself here) are apt to achieve something that unhinges from reality when we are convinced that the answers reside outside our organization. Instead, Resnick has designed all her companies to facilitate and encourage thinking inside the box, to allow for deeper and deeper unearthing of value within. The result is that she prefers in-house work over outside consultants, homegrown talent over outside ringers. The implications seem ripe for the church: What is the hidden gem(s) in our organization or church community? What is the value that already resides there and how can we enhance it? As I've longed surmised, what we need are not more presumptive conferences sponsored by people who don't know us, but more and better time of our own thinking, dreaming, and addressing our threats and opportunities - searching for and valuing the unique beauty that God has already posited in our midst. Maybe the answers that elude us most stare us in the face each week.

A Beautiful Parenting Moment

A few weeks back, Tea, Pastor Erin's daughter, was trying to keep herself occupied in the church office after finishing a day at preschool. She was writing on our ginormous white board with a dry erase marker when she suddenly stopped and remarked, "I don't know where the cap is? I can't seem to find it." She resigned, "I didn't do it, it must have fallen off somehow." Then Erin, in a bit of stellar parenting very gently said to Tea, "It's OK if it's your fault. We're allowed to make mistakes." Sitting at my desk and observing the interchange was a touching thing to witness. I immediately wondered, "How many adults wished their dads had said that to them, even once?" Grace assumes mistakes.

Leadership Nugget

In this week's Time, writer Joel Stein ranks the magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in his "Awesome Column," according to their contributions to him. In justifying his personal rankings, he notes that out of the Time 100, he's only heard of 48, and actually met seven (which is still seven more than I have, though I can say I've stood 20 feet from M.I.A. and even closer to John Legend, both on the list). Stein goes on to say something interesting about leadership in that it rings so true, yet still seems oddly counter-intuitive, even absent in many churches. Referencing Harvard Professor Nicholas Christakis' studies on how people influence each other, Stein writes, "Christakis studies are right: the people who influence us most aren't our leaders, titans or heroes. The people who most affect us are the ones we spend the most time with." In light of Pastor Erin's current series on leadership, this affirms our philosophy of leadership at epic. While it is true that people can affect us toward both the good or harmful, it is equally true that the most profound influence is the result of proximity and relationship. In the church, while programs, curriculum, and gifting can be helpful, and uber:leaders are a cult fascination, nothing replaces the simple investment of one person with another toward character development, life process, and kingdom purposes. After all these years and after endless trends, true leadership still looks like discipleship. True influence looks like relationship. Jesus showed us the way.

McMermaid

I enjoyed reading the LA Times article "Selling Coffee Becomes Diacritical for McDonald's". It's an insightful telling of the irony in the Golden Arches' latest ad campaign ("McCafe"), the fast-food giant's attempt to gain ground on Starbucks at the same time Starbucks has clearly mcfranchised its way to becoming the McDonald's of coffee.

Here's an excerpt from the excellent Dan Neil article:

What's fascinating to me about all this is the arc of coffee in America. A decade ago, the Starbucks audience was primarily affluent, college-educated progressives, a self-selected clientele of so-called latte liberals. Starbucks imported the notion of cafe society into the United States. It was the promised "third place" between home and work, where one could relax, read, talk and delectify a good cuppa in peace. Starbucks was social without the media.

But soon, in a mysterious alchemy between status and stimulants, Starbucks became prestige coffee, an aspirational beverage. The company, attempting to keep up with the money flooding in, standardized its retail environments, replaced its La Marzocco machines with automatic espresso machines, started to sell breakfast and lunch, and began hawking truckloads of branded merchandise and music.

By February 2007, Starbucks had well and truly sold out. In a notorious memo, Chairman Howard Schultz admitted the company had sacrificed the "romance and theater" of the coffee-shop experience to efficiency and profit. The sites, Schultz lamented, "no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores versus the warm feeling of a neighborhood store."

Starbucks failed, in other words, when it became the McDonald's of coffee. It seems only fair, perhaps inevitable, that Mickey D's fall on its big red nose attempting to be the Starbucks of fast-food.

I couldn't help but think there is a cautionary tale here for Epic: It would be silly for us to sacrifice our beautiful uniqueness and boutiqueness of a community chasing better business acumen or coveting the next edgy "movement," losing our soul and becoming indistinguishable from a thousand other churches in the process. That wouldn't be interesting and neither would we.

"Words Seem Inconsequential"

I appreciated TJ Simers' column in today's LA Times reflecting on the death of Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart. It was sensitive, sober, and heartfelt, and certainly a departure of tone for Simers. I don't know how many times I have heard people, including Christians, say that "everything happens for a reason." But that's just not true, it's not even biblical (more on this in an upcoming post). Some things, sometimes tragic things, are just senseless and unexplicable - and happen for no good reason.

Kogi Run

Finally made a run to the Kogi truck last night at midnight (and paying for it today!). Came home from a great meeting for our college-prep non-profit (I think we have our program director!); Noticed on Twitter that Rowland Hts had beat out Santa Monica and Eagle Rock for Thursday's late-night Kogi rush, so I made the five-minute trip. At first it looked like a short line, but then realized it was half way up the block. But by the time I got in line and took one whiff of the downwind BBQ aroma, I was committed. Unsuccessfully tried to coax some friends out of their homes and out of their jammies to join me, but to no avail - so I braved the cold and made some new friends in line. By the time I got my tacos at 2AM I was both starving and damned tired. Reminded me of latenight Tommy runs on Rampart back in the day. But last night as I realized I was the oldest dude in line, it sunk in that maybe I'm getting too old for this kind of stuff!

spazzkid and spark

A couple of talented friends at Epic have a new EP...really terrific stuff! Go for a spin

Bad and Getting Worse

A scary sobering outlook on AIG and the failing economy from round table of heavyweights, including Hank Greenberg, Meredith Whitney, Carol Loomis.

Obama SoCal Town Halls

Listen here on KCRW

Fascinating Interviews

I stay up too late, but for good reason: I love to watch Charlie Rose. He recently devoted a week to often fascinating interviews on role of technology/business with implications for what constitutes future community, connection, culture. Here are three of the best:

Marc Andreeseen, entrepreneur, founder Ning, Netscape, investor Twitter
Jeff Bezos, founder Amazon
Lynda Resnick, marketing whiz, author "Rubies in the Orchard

The Culture of Zappos

While waiting for my son's appointment at the eye doctor, I came across this Fortune article about the internet company Zappos, recognized as one of the best companies to work for in the magazine's list. I enjoyed reading about the culture they have created there and how they've gone about doing it. With their values for community, empowerment, quirkiness, and fun, I thought the church could learn a thing or two from them.

Zappos knows how to kick it
The 10 Commandments of Zappos

Serving Enemy Pie

Last Sunday during my message on the relationship between Jesus and Judas, I read from the book "Enemy Pie" by Derek Munson. It's a clever and poignant story about a boy who learns the most effective recipe for turning a No.1 enemy into a best friend. In a nutshell, it's the gospel in the form of a children's story about the power of love and friendship. Jesus sums up the message of the book when he says, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven."

If you're like me, I had for years read the command to love your enemies and thought to myself, "Well that's easy to say, not so easy to do Jesus!" Because it probably goes without saying that one of the most difficult things to do in life, if not completely counter intuitive, is to love the very people who have hurt us or are trying to harm us, or both. But this interpretation of moral high ground is founded on the assumption that what Jesus seeks is that we love our enemies from the inside out, that to love our enemies means we dig deep and find within ourselves a change of heart, a feeling of good will toward the stinkers of the world.

But reading the "Enemy Pie" story has helped me to see that maybe that's not what Jesus had in mind at all. Surely it is a noble and admirable act if you can muster up love toward your enemy from the inside out, that you are so transformed by the love of Christ that a fountain of compassion and forgivenesss erupt from within you toward those who have hurt or betrayed you.

I'm just not one of those people.

But what if even Jesus understood that such transformation was more exception than the rule? That he wasn't just calling for an exceptional display of saintly willpower but something more akin to a power of resignation? In that case, maybe what Jesus was alluding to was not unsimilar to what the boy's father had in mind. The boy's dad was wise and told his son that in order for the pie to work, you had to first be nice to your enemy for a whole day.

Many years ago as a pastoral intern learning to work with couples and learning to be a new husband myself, the best advice I ever got had to do with those times when the fire has gone out in the relationship. When you've lost that loving feeling. Yes, you can hope the feelings just return by themselves. But what do you do when that's not the case? How do we get the romance back when the feelings are no longer there? And this is what works: "Act as if." The key to making your way back to love is to "act as if..." Act as if you care and the caring will return. Be nice to your spouse, admire her, affirm and appreciate her. Certainly, it's preferable (and more romantic) when the feelings come gushing out from within that lead naturally to affection, admiration, and respect. But what if they don't? That's when you have to "act as if." Sometimes the feelings are there and the deeds follow - great, that's how it should be. But at other times, the deeds have to come first, with the hope that the feelings follow. And as studies have shown, the feeling often do arrive! (John Gottman, University of Washington research scientist on marriage and family writes extensively on this subject in his book, "The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work").

In "Enemy Pie," the young boy takes his dad's instruction to heart and begins to treat his enemy with kindness...only to be surprised when the strange feelings of enjoyment come upon him: "This is not working, he says, I'm not supposed to be having fun with my enemy!" The boy "acted as if" - and his feelings toward the enemy had changed. By the time it came time to serve up the "pie of poison," the boy no longer had a best enemy, but a best friend.

I'm wondering if that's not, at least in part, what Jesus had in mind when he said those impossible words, "Love your enemies." Sure, we can hope feelings of forgiveness and goodness are present first before moving toward loving action. But in doing so, I also think we can run the danger of waiting forever for those feelings to materialize - and end up never doing anything. But what if we understand Jesus' words as the call to act first, to actually love our enemies precisely because we don't, when the feelings of love still escape us? Maybe what Jesus knows is that if we risk to act, our hearts will follow. "Act as if." I realize this is not a guarantee. Nor something to be tried in every situation. Nor easy. I realize this is still impossible without a touch of grace. But at least it's a movement, at least it is a step in the direction of love.

I can't help but think that when Jesus asked his disciples to prepare the Passover meal, a meal that would become the Last Supper, it was his version of serving up "enemy pie." With his betrayer present at the table, Jesus offers Judas the bread and wine just as he did the other eleven, in a last-ditch effort to keep him in the circle of love. Jesus does this knowing full well that what he is serving is not enemy pie at all, but a meal of grace. In Jesus' eyes, through this one act of love, Judas wasn't an enemy, but friend.

They Blew Up the Cannons!

On Tuesday they were there, and all of a sudden on Wednesday they were gone! Apparently Don Martin of AM570 and Clear Channel have blown up the Loose Cannons for good. For me, it is a very sad and disappointing day. More than television, radio benefits and is reliant on the familiarity of its voices. That's why the inexplicable firing of Ross Porter as one of the voices of the Dodgers was such a travesty. He's not just an announcer, but a nostalgic voice of a city and team that links past with the present that cannot be replaced. I once heard Kurt Rambis's wife say after the death of Chick Hearn that what she'll miss the most was the reassurance of his voice. Even if she wasn't watching the game, but could hear Chickie Baby's voice on the simulcast, she knew somehow things were alright with the world. The Cannons had as similar effect for me. But over the past few years, since moving over to 570, the station has been constantly changing its format and personalities, letting go of mainstains like Hacksaw Hamilton, who with the Cannons anchored and built up the station for years. Of course it's always been Steve Hartman's show, but the most recent trio of Hartman, Mychal Thompson, and Vic the Brick - with their on-air bickering, bantering, and over-the-top histrionics - always made for an entertaining drive during the day when that's what you needed. Wow, Nic Harcourt and now this - LA radio suddenly lost its voice...and soul, too.

Firsts

On Obama's first day as president, I couldn't help but think of Jesus' oft-spoken words, "The last will be first, and the first will be last." Of course that is the eternal promise, when God will make all things right, the sweet song of justice. It is the rare occasion, on the other hand, in the here and now, to glimpse this prophetic inversion, when those on the bottom of society, the bottom of the system, the bottom of agendas find their way to the top. Rarer still is to bear witness to such an event in the dramatic terms we did before the entire world. This of course was the reality that made Tuesday the historic day it was. During the inaugural coverage, while the first couple were making their way back to the White House after the parade, it was noted how amazing it was to think that the very walls of the place the Obama's now call home was itself built by hands and sweat of slaves not long ago. Maybe more than anything, this is the first of hopes upon us.

Get On Your Boots

Review of U2's new single GOYB from the forthcoming No Line On the Horizon.

44

By all accounts a remarkable day! Amongst the pomp and paegantry of the day, often most poignant were the things unspoken: When Barack and Michelle Obama were greeted at the steps of the White House by President and Mrs. Bush prior to the inauguration. Seeing all the former presidents escorted out of the tunnel to their seats at the Capitol, followed by the solidarity president elect on his way to becoming commander-in-chief. Then there was the send off of the Bush's by the new president for a final fly-by over their old stomping grounds before heading back to Texas. But the ceremony itself was surprisingly unspectacular. There was the fumbling of the actual swearing in that made these important people all the more human. But the invocation and benediction seemed more a rehearsal of the moment than a prayer for the new first family, and the poetry reading was painfully anticlimatic and uninspiring, probably in part due to its placement in the ceremony - after the president's inaugural speech!? Then there was the speech. Obama was his usual riveting self, but this speech was not one for the ages that his acceptance speech was on election night. Here he was sober and tough, a call to civic responsibility to all Americans while reaching across the globe to build bridges with friends as well as enemies. But I kept waiting for the momentum, the stirring that was so much a part of his speech in Chicago. I kept waiting for those quotable lines that would be repeated again and again forever that would fall down like grace from the sky. But I suppose he may have been a victim of his own brillance, his own mastery of the words, his own stunning ability to inspire. Still an unforgettable moment to be sure, but I suppose in this case, a moment that words cannot but fail to capture in its magnificence, historical signficance, and enthusiastic pride.

Inauguration Morning

As I sit and await the swearing in of Barack Hussein Obama as our next president, I realize this may very well be the most significant historical event of my lifetime. Granted I'm only 44 years old, but I have never witnessed the kind of enthusiasm, expectation, and hope in our country than has been brought on by the American people electing its first black commander-in-chief. The sight of millions of people on the Mall is nothing short of breathtaking. Though the promise of change is not new ground for a president (they all promise such), you have to like a guy who is rumored to want to convert the white house bowling alley to a basketball court! But Obama represents a different kind of change. For one, he's the first president of a new generation. Along with significance for African Americans in this country, he is a president for a multicultural, hi-tech, grassroots generation of people who have a different worldview about race, a different way of communicating, and a different expectation of a president. Which leads to what hopes to be the biggest kind of change he may bring to Washington - a change of culture in American politics. If he is what he appears to be, Obama brings a quiet confidence without the arrogance of the most recent administration, a reassuring and welcomed intelligence, a cooperative spirit, and the promise to shoot straight, with the willingness to admit when he is wrong. With a new generation awaiting its new president, America expects nothing less than authenticity in its leaders. With that, Obama may very well be the only kind of president who can unify, inspire, and involve the country for such a time as this. Let's hope he can.