Church Retreat @ Pine Springs Ranch

Our annual Mountain Top Retreat is happening April 25-27, 2008 as Scott alluded to in his post about drama. The weekend retreat is a great way to get away and hang out with friends in a setting where you can kick back and relax. The weekend starts out friday night with dinner and worship followed by an afterglow. Sabbath includes our worship and concert in the afternoon followed by the infamous Saturday night talent show. After the talent show we have a wonderful time feasting on strawberries and ice cream.

The church really would like us involved in the weekend experience. They have offered us a discounted rate of only $20/person which include lodging in a cabin and 5 meals (Friday night through Sunday morning).

It would be great to be able to show our church spirit by attending. If you would like to go please signup here and you are in. Our goal is to have 20 young adults this year!!!

Kerby Oberg: Soul interrupted...stem cells and our faith

Special thanks to Kerby our favorite "Pastor's wife" for a great Sabbath School presentation and discussion. I was sorry that I couldn't be there but I am greatful for technology to participate this way. I hope that you will spend some time reflecting on the topic and share with us. This is a wonderful way to continue our conversation. A special thanks to Stuart for shooting and loading this video.

*Please respect the intellectual property of our presenters, in this case Dr. Kerby Oberg

"And now for something completely different"

On the evening of April 26 the Calimesa church family will gather for "A Night at the Ranch" up at Pine Springs Ranch, a talent show put on by members of the church. We, the Young Adult group, would like to become involved and share our talent, or perhaps lack of talent, with the rest of the church. I would like to put a couple of skits together and need actors and actresses to participate. I am leaning towards doing a Monty Python skit or two. Currently I have three in mind, The Argument Clinic, The Bookshop, and Four Yorkshiremen. They will probably have to be slightly rewritten, but I think they are very funny. If you have any suggestions for a comedy skit, have a different idea, or would like to help out, please let me know by posting in the comments section.

what's the word?

On March 1, we discussed some projects that we would like to work on. This Sabbath we share what we have found in terms of our research. Here are you projects just in case you forgot....which of course you have been working on. Looking forward to some in depth reports and analysis. Thanks for your work.

I. Sabbath School Topics
a. Mary & Jesus: (Jessica W.& Cody)
b. Spiritual Gifts: (Lauryn & Grace)

II. Social & Hospitality
a. Beach (Stephanie M., Melinda, & Sara)
b. Iron Chef (Kirsten, Grace, & Cheri)

III. Social Change & Outreach
a. Ontario Homeless (Nathan, Stephanie M. & T. Higa)
b. Habitat for Humanity (Sara)
c. Mission Trip (Faith, Cheri, Lauryn)

New Kind of Christian Chapters 4, 5

Discussion on Chapters 4,5

Design a Young Adult Logo Contest!!!

Our new softball season is starting in April. We are also getting together and participating in the Redlands races on Sunday May 4. So in an effort to show our spirit we are going to have a logo design contest for our softball jersey and our running shirt. Our softball team is called the "Pigeons". Running group doesn't have a name so be creative. Submit your logo design by April 1, 2008. That's almost 2 weeks!!! The winner will receive the a free jersey or running shirt. Please be respectful of any copyrights!!!
*Specs for the logo design. high-resolution (300 ppi) Photoshop psd files for your artwork. We also accept jpg, pdf, eps, tiff, bmp, gif and Microsoft Word files. Creating your artwork using RGB (instead of CMYK) will achieve better color matches.

Easter Weekend Festivities

Friday
5 pm Setup for Easter Brunch in Fellowship Hall (We can use your help. Sign up here to participate in this great ministry)
7pm Good Friday Service in Sanctuary

Sabbath
8:15-11 AM Easter Brunch
9 & 11 AM Easter Sabbath Services

What Is A Miracle?

Last Sabbath Carla Gober led our discussion on miracles. Carla shared several stories people being healed or not healed from illness and disease. The most powerful part of Carla’s presentation was a drawing by one of her friends depicting God as a cat dangling a piece of cheese over the head of a mouse. Others shared their thoughts and experiences and provided a lot of food for thought. Over the past few days I have reflected on our discussion on miracles. I have struggled with the difficulty of explaining miracles as direct acts of God. I think our definition of miracles is flawed and needs to be reworked.

Many times it strikes me that we, as SDA Christians, view miracles primary as God intervening to heal people of their illness and disease. This is partly founded in the Biblical miracles that are emphasized in our childhood. The healing miracles of Jesus become the standard for miracles. Jesus healed the blind man, the leper, the centurion’s daughter, and many others. Even in the Old Testament, many of the miracles that immediately come to mind are healing miracles. The emphasis on the healing miracles in the Bible helps set the standard definition of miracles as healing acts of God.

Miracles are not just acts of God. They are direct, intervening acts of God. Miracles are events or a change in condition that should not have happened. They cannot be explained by scientific medical knowledge. A person with cancer, given only 6 months to live, is still alive after 8 years. This is an unexplainable event. So it must be a miracle, a direct intervention of God.

This definition of miracles is where we have gotten into trouble. By defining miracles primarily as healing acts of an intervening God, we have painted God and his miracles into a corner. As our ability to heal people using scientific medicine continues to increase and we are therefore able to explain healing and disease more and more. As Cody suggested in the discussion, the recovery and survival of heart related diseases were once seen as miracle. Now, because we can successfully treat, or at least explain, heart disease, the instances of miracles for those with heart disease has virtually disappeared. In a sense, we humans have taken over for God in the miracles in heart disease department.

A second problem that we face when we define miracles as healing acts of an intervening God is when miracles don’t happen, or even worse, when miracles are seemingly withdrawn or reversed. If God healed a cancer patient, but that person dies from the cancer returning 2 years later, did God really heal the person in the first place? Or did God withdraw the miracle? Did God change Her mind? And how does God decide who to heal and not heal? These are the difficult questions that arise when we define miracles as healing acts of an intervening God.

I suggest we redefine miracles by engaging in some post-modernist thought. Let me explain. Medicine and science are modern disciplines. They are modern because they value the scientific approach to knowledge. They seek natural laws that can always be applied through time and space. They view knowledge as progressive. The more we can break the world down into small, understandable units of fact, the better we can control and manipulate the world around us. Through this manipulation we can make the world a better place. Knowledge is always increasing, filling in the gaps until we eventually with know everything. God becomes less and less mysterious (we know more and more about God) as we gain more and more knowledge. If we accepted the idea that scientific medicine is not the only way to understanding our world, we might find more room for God to interact with people.

Video: Carla Gober SS on Miracles

Part 1
Part 2

Monday Morning Musings

Monday Morning Musings is a new get together for those that would like to discuss a great book over coffee/tea/hot chocolate (or if you are like me and prefer your morning caffeine cold...Coke). This will be an open discussion of the book "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren, a book that has altered my outlook on my own Christian journey. We'll take it slow and be prompt in our time so everyone can make it to work or school.

What we are working on...

This past Sabbath March 1, this is what we decided we would like to pursue TOGETHER as a group. Here is the list. What do you think? This is not exhaustive but what we have decided to pursue now. If you have any other ideas jump into the converstation. We'd love to hear it.

I. Sabbath School Topics
a. Mary & Jesus: (Jessica W.& Cody)
b. Spiritual Gifts: (Lauryn & Grace)

II. Social & Hospitality
a. Beach (Stephanie M., Melinda, & Sara)
b. Iron Chef (Kirsten, Grace, & Cheri)

III. Social Change & Outreach
a. Ontario Homeless (Nathan, Stephanie M. & T. Higa)
b. Habitat for Humanity (Sara)
c. Mission Trip (Faith, Cheri, Lauryn)

The Glory of Easter March 16, 2008

We have tickets to the Glory of Easter at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove,on Sunday night March 16 @ 8.30 pm. The tickets will be first come first served. We only a few so let me know asap. If you have never been it's a pretty amazing Passion Play with live animals and flying angels. if you would like to go just reply to this post.

Ah! Look at all the Lonely People...

Disclaimer: The enjoyment and underdstanding of this blog would be enhanced if you listen to the Beatles' song, "Eleanor Rigby" as I draw reference to their lyrical genius.

I found a lonely person this past Sunday morning as I searched for a place to sit at the coffee shop. I wasn't looking for a long conversation to go with my chai tea and un-graded persuasive essays, but I settled into one as I shared a table with Susan, a 50-something modern day Eleanor Rigby who was visiting her parents for the weekend. Her big dilemma for the day revolved around whether or not she was going to venture out for a bike ride, but the wind was intimidating. After hearing several anecdotal stories about her cats and the challenges she faced while substitute teaching, I was ready to brave the wind and find solace in a table outside.

I didn't, for fear that my papers would blow everywhere. After another half hour, my best "listening" smile was beginning to strain, and I reached into my red purse, and made a great show of looking for a grading pen, hoping she could take a hint. As I hunted for my favorite purple gel pen, I saw the book I was savoring to read after work had been done, and was reminded of a passage I had underlined earlier this week:

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to talk, mad to live, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles".
(-Jack Kerouac, On the Road)

Instantly, my mind flashed to some pages that are taped into the back of my Bible. They had been put there during my freshman year at college as encouraged by our Life and Teachings teacher, a little silver-haired man who loved to have us sing hymns before class started, and never quite caught on that the boys in the back requested extra verses just to waste time. The image of Father McKenzie writing his sermons comes to mind. At any rate, I've always intended to remove them after they had served their purpose after my class final, but I feared that peeling the tape off would ruin the binding.

I've only re-read their contents a few times when I've been in a very boring church service, as they are simply a collection of outlines and quotations revolving around major themes in the book of Matthew. Mostly, they all point to the concept of being a missionary, as they unpack the parables involving people or things hoping to be found, or waiting to be noticed.

As I thought about those pages, I couldn't help but notice the fact that perhaps Jack Kerouac could have been writing words of Jesus. I saw the ten virgins waiting outside as they held their oil that, "burn, burn, burns, like fabulous yellow roman candles". My mind flashed to the prodigal son, wanting and "desirous of everything at the same time". I thought of the colorful characters Jesus associated with who never, "said a commonplace thing", and the lost coin, sheep and son who are, "mad to be saved". I pictured Martha who was, "mad to talk", and the sick who were, "mad to live". As I pondered about how Jack wrote from his experiences on an open road, I couldn't help but draw comparison to Jesus as he went from one shadowy street to another witnessing the lost and lonely.

My mom uses the phrase, "it's a God thing" when she explains the times when the divine meets ordinary. I wish at the time I could have recognized that this was one of those possible moments, but instead of walking across the room and sharing these thoughts with Susan, I reached for my purple pen. She took the hint, and moved to an open table as I began to grade.

A few minutes later I glanced up, and saw her talking to the person she had intended to meet: a blind woman who frequents the coffee shop with her cuddly white dog. I watched their easy conversation as they smiled and shared stories. Later I saw Susan navigate her friend across the street as the wind gently nudged the edges of their clothing, like a child tugging to play.

My ipod drowned out all sounds as I finally had the space I had previously desired. I sipped my lukewarm chai tea as my purple pen flourished advice and correction across the wrinkled pages. Later as I booted up my Mac to enter in the grades, I saw that in a room full of people, I was the only one sitting alone.

Perhaps when we don't take the time to seek the ones who are mad, longing to be saved, or burning like roman candles, we are the lonely people picking up the rice where a wedding has been, left by those virgins who listened.

All the Lonely people...where do they all come from? Where do they all belong?

I believe that both Jesus and Jack know the answer to that one.

I looked out the window, and feared that perhaps I was the one wearing the face that I keep in a jar by the door. Like I was saying earlier, I found a lonely person this past Sunday morning at the coffee shop. I just didn't think that it was going to be me.

Event Vs. Process

This past Sabbath we should this video in Sabbath School in a conversation about our journey together. It's a great video that give a glimpse about what we are trying to do as a young adult ministry.