November 14, 2009 • 12:06 am
At City Light we’re right in the middle of a class on Calvinism. We’re talking about election, infant baptism and the whole nine yards. In the coming year we’re starting one on Social Justice. We’ll talk about issues like immigration, homelessness and racism. In recent church history these two topics were handled exclusively by two different kinds of churches. The Calvinistic churches majored on theology but minored in outreach. The “liberal” churches focused upon social issues but seemingly lost the gospel along the way. But the one nagging question we should ask is this: Isn’t there a way to wed these traditions together or are these views mutually exclusive?
I believe that the answer is that they are compatible and that social justice flows out of the gospel. Calvinism itself shouldn’t cripple our attitude to the world and the lost. Calvinism exalts a glorious God who plucks us from the grave and seals us for heaven. Many argue if God predestines everything, what is the use of evangelism? But Calvinism properly understood never insists that God doesn’t use means. Instead of making evangelism unecessary, Calvinism actually gives us confidence in evangelism: God’s elect WILL come. Calvinism also shouldn’t cause us be these pious religious people with no love for the lost. It propels us upward and outward to serve the city in the name of our glorious King.
The Old Testament is bursting with themes of God’s love for the widow, orphan and immigrant.The whole story of Ruth exemplifies these themes. Jesus’ love for the outcasts is apparent in his treatment of prostitutes, tax gatherers and his telling of the story of the Good Samaritan. When you really understand the gospel, you have to understand that the gospel is not just for religious people trying to live a comfortable life. God calls us out to the streets, to the brokenness of life in the city and to serve as peacemakers. Christians should be at the forefront of trying to solve problems like poverty, eduction, racism and crime.
At City Light our vision is to go deep in theology which will lead us to go deep in our love for the each other, the lost, the city and the world. The goal of theology is not to feel smug and secure. It’s to worship and to let that worship propel us forward to serve as His people in a broken world that God is redeeming.
God is starting to move and awaken His people to this glorious mission.
Filed under: City, City Light
August 29, 2009 • 8:57 pm
One thing that defines Los Angeles is the freeways. People commute miles upon miles to and from work, social activities and even church. But our freeway culture has a lot of negative consequences. First it’s harmful to our environment. Thomas Friedman in his book, “Hot, Flat and Crowded” says its like every few miles you roll down your window and throw a big bag of garbage onto the freeway. That’s what you’re doing to the environment when you drive. But secondly our freeway culture makes us increasingly disconnected. We’re disconnected from our home because we’re rarely there. We’re disconnected from other people because we hardly see them. This commuter culture makes genuine community very difficult.
One of the great visions for our ministry is to have a church where people can live, work and worship in the same geographical location. By living this vision you would simultaneously 1) gain more time from not commuting 2) do your part for the environment 3) make inroads to forming a genuine community with people you live, work and worship with. When our ministry started out this seemed like a distant reality. Even though many people worked downtown, very few people would even consider moving downtown because of its crime or lack of amenities. But in the last couple years we’ve seen a great number of people moving downtown. Currently downtown is the primary place where people in our ministry live and more and more people are considering moving. Now more than ever we can start to glimpse what a really deep, local and intimate community can look like. Can you imagine needing help or counsel and just knocking on the next door?
The next step I guess would be people selling their cars and donating it for kingdom work! If Downtown got zip cars or pay-per-drive cars I think this could be a reality in the not too distant future. But in the meantime there’s still so much work to do to make Downtown a truly beautiful community for all people. Now that we have people downtown it’s time we start deepening our community to be all that God envisions for us.
The picture above is by Tony and has a city growing into a tree. It was done for our anniversary service a couple year’s ago. Here’s to making that picture a reality.
Filed under: City, City Light, Uncategorized
I’ve been gearing up for the next year of preaching here at City Light. I’ve been reading, thinking and praying for inspiration and direction. Sometimes I go back to “older voices” for inspiration. I love the puritans and older preachers who bring us back to fundamental temptations and realities. Here’s Phillips Brooks:
“The great danger facing all of us… is not that we shall make an absolute failure of life, nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness, nor that we shall be terribly unhappy, nor that we shall feel [that] life has no meaning at all – not these things. The danger is that we may fail to perceive life’s greatest meaning, fall short of its highest good, miss its deepest and most abiding happiness, be unable to tender the most needed service, be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God – and be content to have it so – that is the danger: that some day we may wake up and find that always we have been busy with (husks and) trappings of life and have really missed life itself. For life without God, to one who has known the richness and joy of life with Him, is unthinkable, impossible. That is what one prays one’s friends may be spared – satisfaction with a life that falls short of the best, that has in it no tingle or thrill that comes from a friendship with the Father.”
I realized that’s the great temptation for so many of us. The greatest danger is not that we’ll make a failure out of life or lose our faith entirely or that we’ll become miserable. The greatest danger is that we’ll miss out on God’s greatest blessings. The biggest enemey of the great is the good. The greatest danger is that we’ll settle for having a good marriage, a good career and good friends. Those are good things but not the greatest thing. The danger is that those good things will keep us from the greatest thing – LIFE ABLAZE with the glory of God.
Filed under: Bible, City Light
February 12, 2008 • 7:27 pm
I’ve just started a new series of sermons on Sunday at City Light. It’s called, “Questioning Christianity: Ancient Answers for Modern Questions.” The series seeks to answer questions about very modern objections to Christianity. Last week I spoke about hypocrisy in the church: “Your actions speak so loud I can’t hear what your saying!” In the weeks to come I’m tackling things like, “Aren’t there many roads to God?” and “How can I know that the Bible is true.” I’ll also deal with lovely themes like hell. Fun stuff.
We’re hoping through this series many people can invite their unbelieving friends to come and hear Christian responses to these modern questions. But I realize as we are getting further into the series that these are questions that Christians themselves struggle with. Christian pastors often assume that our members don’t struggle with things like the authority of the Bible or the existence of hell. But these questions often linger in the most faithful disciples.
Here’s the schedule for the rest of the series leading up to Easter Sunday:
2/10: The Problem of Hypocrisy
2/17: Why is Christianity So Exclusive?
2/24: How Can Christians Be Sure the Bible is True?
3/2: Why Do Christians Believe in Something as Cruel as Hell?
3/9: If God is Good Why Does He Allow Evil?
3/16: Why Did Jesus Have to Die?
3/23: What is the Proof and Meaning of the Resurrection?
You can listen to all of the sermons on the citylightchurch.org website.
Filed under: City Light
