Posts filed under ‘culture’
March 29th, 2010 |
This Christian Seder Guide is designed to walk you through the whole process of preparing for, hosting and leading a Christian Seder. Feel free to download it to use or just to read. I hope you find it encouraging.
Passover is the oldest Jewish religious festival, commemorating God’s deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, described in Exodus 12. The Passover Seder is a ceremonial meal designed to guide people through a communal meditation on God’s work of redemption for His people.
Many Christians have adapted this tradition into an insightful meditation on the New Covenant inaugurated by Jesus at the Last Supper. Unable to find a Christian Seder guide that fit our church’s needs, I cobbled one together myself last year using several sources. Our community group used it and it was a really cool way to enter into the drama of Passion Week in preparation for Easter. So it’s back this year, with a few edits and the addition of discussion questions at the end. I’m looking forward to the experience again this Thursday!
Entry Filed under: Blog Tags: community, culture, grace, jesus, passover
March 5th, 2010 |
I knew my love for Guinness was not misplaced! Great article by Stephen Mansfield at Relevant. The gospel gets hold of one successful businessman and his company blesses thousands of people across generations. What would happen if it got hold of five?
Entry Filed under: Blog Tags: culture, found object, jesus
March 3rd, 2010 |
I am continually amazed at how rich a tradition we have in the hymns of past song writers. Brian T Murphy over at Red Mountain Church in Birmingham pretty much exactly expresses my thoughts on the value of hymns in worship. Since becoming the music director at my church almost 6 years ago, I’ve been a big fan of hymns and re-introducing hymn texts through new music. And yes, I have been guilty on more than one occasion of grumbling about the lameness of more contemporary worship songwriters.
That being said, I really enjoyed Steve Holmes resetting my perspective by pointing out some really, really horrendous (and hilarious) hymns from some of my favorite hymn writers. Fact: The great Charles Wesley wrote over 6000 hymns, only about 20 of which we use today. Conclusion: 5960 of his songs suuuhhuck. Bravo, Steve. Bravo.
Oh, and by the way, “hymns are the dead wood of the service.” Who said that? C.S. Freaking Lewis, that’s who. Ouch.
As a bonus I include this link to the most awesomest worst hymn ever written.
Entry Filed under: Blog Tags: art, culture, music
March 1st, 2010 |
A friend from my church started an organization dedicated to helping sexually trafficked women and children escape from forced sex work. Susan hatched this idea almost two years ago, but honestly up until yesterday I had my doubts about whether anything would ever come of it. But yesterday GenerateHope opened the doors to it’s first safe house here in San Diego, and two women moved in. I am utterly amazed and really stoked. Today Susan was interviewed on local public radio station KPBS.
In our North Park neighborhood prostitution is common as the day is long. The intensity on our corner fluctuates, I guess, as vice herds it east and west along El Cajon Blvd. But Mellie and I have had multiple run-ins, from flushing johns off our street, to finding out a woman had been working in the vacant apartment below us, to intervening when a girl was being bullied by her pimp. Parked in the alley, Mellie accidentally left her car unlocked one night and the next day we found, um, “evidence” in the front seat. My job that day was to get the interior detailed. Walking home late one night I passed a girl sobbing on the sidewalk. I stopped to help her and we ended up talking about her life over tacos at Taco Bell. She had been hassled by the cops and was afraid of getting arrested again. Nothing but spike heels, so I drove her the 15 blocks back to her place in City Heights. Her night was a bust so I gave her $20 as she got out of my car. What do you think that looked like to anyone watching? When I got home and crawled into bed I whispered to half-asleep Mellie, “Sorry I’m late, I was with a prostitute. G’night.”
Some girls are doing it by choice, obviously. But in my limited experience it seems like things get murky pretty quickly. The girl who lost her john when I told him I was calling the cops cussed me out and asked if I was going to come over and feed her 3 kids that night. The girl I met sobbing on the street was a freelancer, but had been beat up several times and was looking for a pimp that could protect her. On the phone to SDPD to report a dude I had just watched drop off one girl and who was now picking up another in my driveway, I was told that the police could only arrest the guy if an officer witnessed him exchanging money for sex, but if I gave a description of the girl they would send an officer right away to pick her up. What? That seems pretty messed up to me. Seems like there are a lot of factors that might push a woman into a bad situation, or contribute to making a bad situation worse.
Susan has some pretty crazy stats on the numbers of girls—some as young as 13, 14—who are coerced to hook or escort. They are actually enslaved—unable to leave their pimps either through force or intimidation. San Diego is one of the top US cities for sexual slavery. WTF. This is some messed up stuff. Check out the interview above and support GenerateHope if you can—donations are tax deductible.
Entry Filed under: Blog Tags: community, culture, jesus
February 4th, 2010 |
Plus cupcakes!
Entry Filed under: Blog Tags: community, culture, lost, nonsense
January 19th, 2010 |
Joining a Sacred Harp singing is now on my short list of highly recommended, along with New Zealand and guacamole. The physical power of this strange, haunting, apocalyptic music is not captured at all by this video (sorry Richard). Mellie and I stumbled across Sacred Harp a few years ago through this great documentary. We’ve been waiting for the west coast convention to arrive in San Diego ever since. Very nice folks took us in and even let us lead a song or two.
Entry Filed under: Blog Tags: adventure, community, culture, mellie, music, sacred harp
September 18th, 2009 |
A cross section of my neighborhood’s visions of a perfected city, taken from the Harbor Art Show guestbook.
Entry Filed under: Blog Tags: art, community, culture, Harbor Art
August 17th, 2009 |
Harbor Art just pulled off a pretty bitchin art show. Over 30 pieces from 22 San Diego artists exploring the theme Visions From A Perfected City. We partnered with Zagrodnik+Thomas Architects in North Park, who have a really unique and awesome gallery space. They even lent us the talented Mr Dan, gallery consultant extraordinaire. Heather, Matt & Erika did an outstanding job pulling everything together, from artist recruitment to webpage building to finding the gallery space to marketing to live music to refreshments and decor. We estimate somewhere around 250 people showed up, and by all accounts everyone had a great time. I had some cool conversations with the artists, two of which told me it was one of the best shows they had ever been a part of. Our tiny brains are already rolling with ideas for the next event. Hit me up if you want to be part of it! Check out harborart.org for pix and other cool stuff.
I love it when a plan comes together.
Entry Filed under: Blog Tags: art, community, culture, Harbor Art
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