Favorite Reads

As requested, here are some of the books I've referred to in recent messages and some I have not, but rank as some of my favorites. Enjoy!

Theology:

"The Gospel According to Judas" by Ray Anderson - Erin's and my beloved professor at Fuller. His theology undergirds everything we do at Epic. I couldn't be a pastor without his insights. This is his most accessible writing, about the extend of God's grace using a fictionalized dialogue between Jesus and the famed betrayer. At once beautiful and moving. (For the more serious student of theology, check out Anderson's "Soul of Ministry," his theological treatise, and the must-read "On Being Human.")

"The Mystery of Marriage" by Mike Mason - the best book on marriage I've ever read. Profound in every way, on nearly every page.




Memoir:

"Sacred Journey" by Frederick Buechner - Quite possibly my favorite author of all, and one of the reasons I could be a minister and stay human. First in a trilogy of memoirs both honest and heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful. Buechner shares about his own father's suicide and daughter's bout with anorexia, and mostly about the mystery of being human. Start here, and if you like, keeping reading with "Now and Then" and "Telling Secrets."

"Grace (Eventually)" by Anne Lamott - Right up there with Buechner. Raw, earthy, and sacriligeous (I love it!), but always sweet with grace. Her stories about raising her son as a single mom are priceless in their honesty and hope. A book every parent should read, really. Start here, and if you can't put it down, also pick up "Traveling Mercies" and "Plan B."

"Drinking: A Love Story" by Carolyn Knapp - A book that changed my life. Best book on addiction I've ever read, honest and painful. It's not about the alcohol, but about the hole in our hearts in need of love.



"Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller - not particularly deep, but enjoyable, often poignant musings on faith by a skeptic, sprinkled with humility and humor. See also "Searching for God Knows What."



"Irresistable Revolution" by Shane Claiborne - Not down with the title, but nevertheless a challenging read about practicing justice as a lifestyle and the power of grassroots faith, with terrific stories about getting out there and asking boldly.



Non-Fiction:

"Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson - Winner of the National Book Award. A completely captivating and haunting story of two men whose lives intersect at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago; One of the best books I've read - Ever.



"In the Heart of the Sea" by Nathaniel Philbrick - Another winner of the National Book Award. Before the Titanic, there was the Essex. Another fascinating and engrossing tale of coincidence, fate, and humanity at brink's end.



Fiction:

"The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver - Such a compelling story come to life it reads like non-fiction. Narrated ominously from the perspective of a wife and three daughters, a very tragic and humorously perceptive telling of a minister's family in Belgian-colonizied Congo in the mid-twentieth century.




"Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahiri - The Pulitzer Prize winner's latest, this time an intimate, subtle, and human telling of the longings and disappointments of the Bengali-immigrant experience through the eyes of the second-generation.

The Simple Way

I don't read many "Christian" books anymore, but I kept running into this one, so to speak, or it kept finding me. I decided to purchase it as a gift to a missionary friend of mine because I heard it was good, so I thought I'd better pick up a copy and read it myself too, in case it wasn't. Come to find, it's a really terrific read, challenging, and worth discussing with others. I understand why people thought I might like it. Though he tends to share more about successes than failures, the things that turn out versus the things that don't, I find Claiborne courageous, and well, ordinary as he likes to put it, which makes his story really hopeful for all of us. I find his take on the small and unassuming refreshing (considering Epic's story of growing smaller and smaller), and his redefinition of success as relationship, not bigness, a welcomed find (considering again, Epic's emphasis).

Anyone who has traveled to Iraq and on a whim spent a summer with Mother Teresa has the chops to say something. His story about his time in Calcutta alone is worth the read.

He is the co-founder of The Simple Way community in Philly.

Some notable takeaways to journal here so I don't forget them:

"Mother Teresa offers us that brilliant glimpse of hope that lies in little things: 'We can do not great things, only small things with great love.'" (p. 319)

"It is easy to fall in love with the great things, whether we are revolutionaries or church growth tacticians. But we must never simply fall in love with our vision or our five-year plan. We must never fall in love with the 'the revolution' or 'the movement.' We can easily become so driven by our vision for church growth, community, or social justice that we forget the little things, like caring for those around us." (p.319)

"Not too long ago, I was speaking at Princeton, and some of the students asked me how they were to choose which issue of social justice is the most important. The question made me cringe. Issues? These issues have faces. We're talking not only about ideas but also about human emergencies. My response to the well-intentioned Princeton student was, 'Don't choose issues; choose people. Come play in the fire hydrants in North Philly. Fall in love with a group of people who are marginalized and suffering, and then you won't have to worry about which cause you need to protest. Then the issues will choose you.'" (p.293)

"We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore the cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor." (p.113)

"Mother Teresa always said, 'Calcuttas are everywhere if only we have eyes to see. Find your Calcutta.'" (p.89)

The New Sin City?

Pretty much everyday I pass by the local Chuck E. Cheese on the way to and from the 57 freeway with its smoked windows, blinking lights, and promises of a good time. I pretty much can't stand the place, and one of the beautiful things about my kids getting older is that they no longer desire to go there.Just the other day I was thinking, man, Chuck E. Cheese is the Las Vegas for kids!

Consider the parallels:

1. Overstimulation. Enough said.
2. From the inside, you can't tell what time of day it is outside.
3. So-called stage "entertainment." [By the way, what's up with the rat mascot?]
4. The place sounds like a casino.
5. You leave your money: You buy $20 worth of tokens, the kids hit the "slots" accumulating 100 tickets in half an hour, all redeemable for a plastic spider ring and other worthless &%#*!

Epiphany from Guyville

I found the article on Liz Phair (LA Times, 6/22/08 , "Liz Phair's Ambivalent Return to 'Guyville'") fascinating for a variety of reasons. It recounts the reaction many women did and still have to that seminal post-feminist record, but also the backlash and accusations toward Phair since then, in many cases by those same women, for "selling out" and desiring more pop and mainstream exposure. Equally riveting is Phair's own assessment fifteen years later, adding that when she listens to "Guyville" now, "My heart goes out to the person I was."

But there was a comment written by Times Pop Music Critic Ann Powers (who wrote the story) that in particular caught my attention, an epiphany of sorts, about how I see, and how I see Epic.

Powers writes, "What Phair and the rest of the world didn't expect was just how many women would hear "Guyville" and think, hey, I live in a man's world too, and it's a problem. In situations where equality is assumed but men still dominate, women occupy a strange space between the center and the margins. They can express opinions, but they're not dictating the terms of the conversation."

I'm not so dense or blind to realize that it is a man's world still, and that is a problem. What struck me is that even in a community like Epic where we are trying to remedy gender inequality both internally and in the world at large, I had still missed something important. Though unconscious of it, I realized that I was mostly giving women what is akin to expressing their opinions. And to be fair, I do really want to know what they are thinking and feeling. But that is still a far cry from making space for and encouraging women to dictate, inform, and influence what we talk about (our agenda) and how we decide to talk about it (the process).

There's no doubt that there is much inequality at Epic and men still dominate (the illusion of equality is not assumed here), but I thought we were also making some headway. But this quote made me step back and reassess, at least as far as this was concerned. For all my so-called progressive thinking and sensitivity about such things, I feel ashamed that I had fallen so short in this case of valuing and empowering women in our midst. I had failed in letting them be equal partners in showing us the way forward. Somehow I thought giving everyone an opportunity to share their opinion was empowering, and to a degree it is. But I suppose that's part of the problem. It is only a degree, not a shift of power. It is one thing to ask women for their opinion no matter how sincere, quite another to allow them to dictate the content of conversations and determine the way we should have them.

This was not for a lack of want, I don't believe, on my part. But I had functioned with a sizeable piece missing (some may say it's my brain!) from my viewpoint and pragmatism. In that way, the article has changed the way I'm beginning to see, and hopefully, act, too.

I'm not there yet, but I've begun to quote Ann Power's comments to women and asking them to share with me how true that viewpoint is or is not from their experience. And I've enjoyed every minute listening to their stories, their reflections, their feedback, their suggestions. I've begun encouraging women to suggest to us what it is they think we should be talking about and how exactly we should go about having those discussions.

As I think about our church board and our community as a whole, I have a feeling that there is a good probability that we would talk about different things at Epic and talk about those things differently if women determined too what it is we should be discussing and the best way(s) to have those discussions. I have a hunch that the women would produce a different kind of agenda. And then maybe we'd also be a different and better kind of church community because of it. And maybe, just maybe, at least here at Epic, our man's world would be less a man's world and more equally a woman's world, and we would all be the better for it.

To read the full article click here

Mission-Tiki Drive-In

There's always a couple of things we try to do each year, mostly for nostalgia-sake, like going to Dodger Stadium, Disneyland, or camping in Yosemite, things Dorene or I did when we were growing up. It's just such a wonderful feeling to now share them with our own kids. One of those nostalgia walks is to take in a movie at the drive-in. The Mission-Tiki in Montclair (I know that sounds far, but from Diamond Bar it's actually pretty close, about 15 minutes away) and is one of the few still operating. It's also safe, relatively inexpensive, and best of all, they show first-run movies. The kids get in their PJ's, we pack up some snacks, roll out the sleeping bags, and pile into the back of the 4Runner. Last night we saw Wall-E. Pretty amazing considering hardly any dialogue (the movie that is). If there's a message (and there usually is in these Pixar films), it's as Joni Mitchell says, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." So appreciate and take of what you have. I felt like we did that in some small way last night. On a side note, the other thing I kept thinking while watching the movie was that Eve sure looked like she could be an Apple product (future or otherwise), like the iEve. No wonder Wall-E falls in love with her!

Annie Premiere

This summer, our little thespians are in the sold-out Stagelight Family Production of Annie. Here they are for the opening gala party (Allison won the "gypsy coat," given to two outstanding cast members!) and the after-party [with friends, and Charis with big brother Jarron). We're proud of them!

Coldplay Opening Night

Quite a day yesterday. Stood in line for four hours for an iPhone (something I said I would never do). All the time wondering, "Doesn't anyone work? It's Monday morning!" But once I got in line, I was committed. Partly because I was desperate too (Water damage ruined my phone a few weeks back and I lost everything!). As four-hour lines go, this one went by faster than I imagined (maybe just a rationalization for being insane) mostly because of the tight community I had built with complete strangers around the shared misery of unrequited love.

But I have to admit the greater highlight ended up being Coldplay on the opening night of their worldwide tour. Dorene and I sat straight back in Loge 1, pretty decent seats at the Forum (but the picture doesn't do it justice...OK, great phone but still junky camera apparently).

I've taken to their new album with Brian Eno, different themes, less falsetto, and was curious what kind of cocktail this would create with the rest of their songbook. If Chris Martin's comment out of the blocks ("This is our first concert since we became a new band") served as any clue about the direction of their tour (and career), the band left no doubt as they subsequently worked through six of the opening eight songs from their newest release Viva la Vida! including "Violet Hill" and the title track. It was not only a gutsy move to make a statement with their newest and most accessible singles that early in the show, but it was also an indication of where they were hanging their hat. It paid off.

I've had the pleasure of seeing each of their previous tours. This show, anchored by the new songs and considerable soul-searching between albums, has translated into a more layered sound, the music more textured and substantial, the presentation more ethereal and advant garde. Martin's voice was noticabely stronger and better and more confident. Even the old favorites like "Trouble," "the Scientist" and "Fix You" seemed to go through a reinterpretation in the new framework. Giant mood balls hanging from the ceiling, paired with the darker tones in the lyrics, resulted in a sometimes psychedelic, even beatlesque feeling in the arena, hinting at the more troubling times in the world outside.

Still they wouldn't be Coldplay without the soaring athemic attempt to inspire and connect with the audience as good-natured, self-deprecating, everyday blokes, something that makes Martin an especially endearing frontman. The new stuff still works in an arena, and the band's choice to join the crowd in the "cheap seats" at one juncture for "Yellow" and "Death Will Never Conquer" was a clue we had turned a corner for the evening. As the confetti fell over the crowd during "Lovers in Japan," simulating cherry blossom petals falling delicately from heaven, Spring had arrived at the Forum. When the band led out with joyous resolve in the finale "Death and All His Friends," Coldplay left you with the sense that whatever doubts or demons may exist, hope is there too, for them as a band, and also for us.