A Sabbath Feast

Growing up in a Korean home, love was expressed through food. More specifically, the way that the adults showed you their love was through offering you food to eat. So as we ate, we were expressing our love back to them.

I think that potluck has some of the same connotations. The young adults are hosting the church's potluck this Sabbath and we want to make sure that you come and share some love. If you can help that would be appreciated as well. Potluck is held after second service in the fellowship hall.

So bring some yummy love to share and get to know some of our other members at the same time!

Are we allowed to check out or disown?

The family metaphor for church has been around for quite some time. We as family choose to love, choose to value others, and choose to sacrifice our want and needs for the family.

So at Sabbath School last week, I closed with the following question. In real families, members choose to check out on their own. Sometime those that cause heartache and grief are even disowned!

Is there a standard that YOU are comfortable with when it comes to situations when the family just cannot get along?

Tell me what you think. I know that several of you have talked about this with me even so share with us. I excited to read what you have to say.

Thoughts from Jared about our new study

So you believe in Creation...so what? It's a funny thing about the Adventist Church that we have highly developed theological positions on a whole host of topics, and yet when we start asking how our doctrines inform the way we practice our faith, things are a lot less clearly defined.

How do our beliefs translate into habits or actions for today? What difference does it make in day to day living whether or not we believe God created the Earth? Are Creationists any better at caring for God's creation than Evolutionists are?

During the next two weeks, the Young Adult and Collegiate groups will jointly discuss these questions and several more as we attempt to draw out the implications of our beliefs in terms of habits and practices. Specifically, we'll be discussing our doctrines of Stewardship and Creation, and other aspects of theology will certainly enter the discussions. We hope you'll come and take part in what are sure to be lively conversations about the intersections of faith, ethics, and perhaps even politics.

And if you'd like to jump start the conversation, feel free to drop a comment below.

Updates for this weekend.

There have been many developments in southern california in the past few days. And as situations change we at Calimesa and Southeastern California Conference are making plans to provide significant reponses to our neighbors. The church as a whole will also announce our first stage response this weekend.

Here's what we'll do this weekend.

Saturday night we will have our Fall Party at Isaac & Grace's house.
26041 Hinckley St. in Loma Linda. Let's meet at 6pm.
We will have dinner, carve pumpkins, play games, and make care packages for firefighters. I know many are going to be studying Saturday night. Please come and at least eat dinner with us.

Things to bring.
1.Something for the care package for our firefighters
-cookies, bottled water, energy bar, thank you cards, etc.
2.board games
3.pumpkin to carve.

Please read the earlier posts from this week for more info.

We know them...We must respond

Everywhere we go we are immersed by the fires of Southern California. We are affected by the fires and we mourn because we know the people that have been impacted by the fires. We saw one of them last week at the grocery store. Another family we saw while we were eating dinner just yesterday.

Our friends who have lost their homes, others have been evacuated from their homes are a part of us. So we must respond!! We must come to the aid of our loved ones, some that we have not even met yet but still need our help.

The Southeastern California Conference (our conference) is on alert with FEMA as we are the designated National Disaster Response Coordinators for supplies and warehouse logistics.

So, as your young adult leadership team we will be meeting to figure out how we can respond to our friends in need. We at Calimesa are absolutely concerned for our friends and will formulate a appropriate and timely response. Please, I urge you to submit any ideas you might have on how we can be helpful.

Party Saturday Night: So can we just call it a Halloween Party?

Adventist all my life, the celebration of Halloween has always been an intense conversation. I remember being in my small SDA gradeschool having fall parties, not halloween parties for sure. And there were inevitably one or two of my classmates who were not allowed to participate.

My purpose here is not to justify whether we should do anything at all or not. Because that is a mute point for many these days. My point is to raise question as to what we call what we do on or around October 31 of every year.

What I do want to throw out to you as the future leaders of our faith is...if we are going to have a fall/harvest/halloween party at church. Can we just call it what it is; a halloween party? We all know what it is. Why the spin? Why can't we just redefine halloween for our generation and just stop confusing everyone including our children (oh and me too).

So here's a chance for you to redefine halloween.

-Come this Saturday Night dressed as something that starts with the first letter of your name. (example. Isaac= ice cube, igloo, but not eyeball because that starts with an 'e'.)
-bring a pumpkin to carve
-bring some board games to play.
-come hungry for some great food.

So, can we call it a halloween party? Let me know.

Three great concerts: post a comment if you want to go and we'll order a ticket for you

Chris Rice at Yucaipa High School this Saturday Night @ 7pm FREE!


Steve Green @Loma Linda University Church this Sunday Night @ 7pm


Bebo Norman in a concert in Riverside on Thursday October 25 @ 7pm

Blanquita's Scrapbook @ Brunch

Blanquita is our friend that we are sponsoring down in El Salvador. We have been sponsoring her now for a few months and are excited about opportunity we have to make a positive impact in her life.

She is a beautiful young lady that we would like a scrapbook to for Christmas. So even though its a little early we will be creating an awesome scrapbook for her. We will like to make a scrapbook with the various regions of our country which is apparently of great interest to the children at the orphanage. So can we encourage you to bring some family pictures, some pictures of regional landmarks from your home, and anything you think a young lady might appreciate!

Also bring any supplies you might have. We will have a great time with a hot brunch, music, and we'll also introduce our new study this weekend.

See you at 10am Sabbath morning.

SS:10.13.07 Preach to the world through suffering and sacrifice.

Jessica Williams led us through our final lesson on Old Testament Relationships looking at the relationship between God (YHWH) and his people.

Two main questions seemed to arise out of this mornings conversation.

1. What does my life preach about my God to the world?
2. Will a substantive Christian life be one of suffering and sacrifice?

Let me articulate my thoughts on the 2nd question. I was trying to think the last time that I suffered or sacrificed something as a Christ follower and even as a pastor. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I really sacrificed something because of my God. I may experience some undue emotional strife at times but that isn't too often. I have a great wife, wonderful job, and a church that I love and loves me.

So here's my struggle. I have people tell me that authentic Christianity and living as authentic Christians is a life of suffering and sacrifice. That the way of God/Christ was the narrow path and that to truly experience the God life I must take up my cross daily and walk down the via dolarosa.

Am I a fraud?

Struggling.
Isaac

Congrats to Faith and Neal

Last weekend while some of us were in church, Faith and Neal were in Hawaii celebrating their engagment. Neal asked Faith on bended knee at Topanga Beach before whisking her away to Hawaii for the weekend. Congrats to you both!

Am I what I despise?

I despise marketing reps. I can't stand them. Car salespeople, pharmaceutical reps, oh and telemarketers, oh those poor telemarketers that used to call my house before we stopped answering the home phone. They always seem to have an agenda. To sell you their product or service even if you are totally not interested!

So last week I was reading, An emergent manifesto of hope when I was horrified with what I read.

"Even if your theology is great, even if your church is wonderful, even if your community is the best group of people on earth, as soon as you approach someone with the intention of recruiting them into your theology or church or community, you become a marketer and the other person is the target of your marketing...It's not a conversation anymore: it's a pitch. And you're not a human being: you're a marketing rep."

I was stunned with myself. Am I a marketing rep for God? Is that okay? I don't view other people as a potential customer. But horror of horrors, do people view me as a God rep? I sure hope not...I want to love people as people not as a number or quota.

Then again, what is the role of a God follower or even a pastor? Shouldn't there be a small percentage of my life that is a God rep? If I don't act as a rep will you? Should you? What a quandry.

Why do we need a blog?

If I had to have a mantra for our Sabbath School discussion it would be that "A church community must be a safe place to have difficult life conversations." Sometimes we are not able to complete our conversations in our meetings. We hope that this will add another option for us to share and learn together. Come often and share your thoughts. Sometimes we will extend our weekend lesson discussions. Other times we will start a brand new conversation. Happy sharing!