According to some, today is the last day. That’s right—THE last day… of history. According to Harold Camping and based upon his very complicated and convoluted calculations, the end of the world is supposed to be happening any minute now. Or at least the rapture, in which faithful believers will be disappeared to heaven.

It’s easy to make fun, but it was only 167 year ago, or so, that our tribe made a similar prediction. Thankfully we learned our lesson. Mr. Camping apparently has not. I recall early in my ministry Mr. Camping predicted that Jesus would return on a September day in 1998. He keeps trying to get it right, but still, there is something drastically wrong with his approach.

Luke tells a story of the Pharisees demanding to know from Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. Here is the exchange, from Luke 17:20-21 (TNIV):

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

Today our text is from John 14:1–14. There Jesus says that he’s going (somewhere) to prepare a place for us and will come again so we can be where he is. This is an interesting text to read in light of the non-events of this day.

What does it mean to live in the awareness that, in Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God is revealed, in our midst, while at the same time acknowledging that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, and that even now, the new world that God imagines is being created—prepared—by Jesus.

I wish we could say to all the followers of Harold Camping, “We’ve been where you are. We know it ends in ‘great disappointment.’ Please don’t give up your faith. Rather in humility take a fresh look at what Jesus was really trying to say and do and determine anew to following him.” Which is also advice for us on this day, too.

—RYAN

You may have noticed that for the past four weeks I’ve been traveling. I’m sure I’ll be telling stories for weeks and months to come but let me begin by giving you the overview.

Melbourne, Australia
I left Los Angeles the night of Charles and Mireya’s wedding on my way to Melbourne, Australia. My arrival two days later (pesky dateline) still gave me about two days to adjust to the time change and be ready to begin speaking on Thursday night. From Thursday, April 21 to Monday, April 25, I was the youth and young adult speaker for the Victoria Conference Camp Meeting. Since the meetings were held over the Easter weekend my entire theme focused on the way in which the death and resurrection of Jesus sends us into the world in a particular way to be God’s agents of healing, peace and justice. You would, of course, recognize many of these themes if you’ve been around me for any length of time. I also had the opportunity to share stories of our ministry in Hollywood, show the Stained Glass documentary and have a rich conversation about urban ministry. In all I spoke nine times in five days, made some amazing new friends, heard stories of people’s lives being transformed… and nearly lost my voice!

Mombasa, Kenya
From Melbourne I traveled to Mombasa, Kenya—a gorgeous historic, coastal city. I arrived three days early, did a short safari, and caught up on some rest before the Amahoro Africa gathering began. For the next four days—May 1 to 4—I was one about 15 Westerners who gathered with approximately 120 African entrepreneurs, pastors, and social change agents to talk about gospel economics. It’s a theme I’ve explored a bit myself over the past several years so it was a privilege to listen in and participate in conversations about the gospel is shaping the economic imaginations of African Christian leaders across the continent.

Bujumbura, Burundi
From Mombasa I had the privilege to travel with David and Sydneyann Shook and David’s parents, Mark and Laura Shook, along with a few other friends, to Bujumbura, Burundi where we visited the ministries that Community of Faith (where Mark Shook is pastor) has been doing. For several years David and Syd have shaped, led and mentored leaders on the ground to empower the Batwa to create remarkable change in their lives. It was a privilege to listen in as they caught up with their friends and witnessed the remarkable changes that have transpired in just the past year.

Each of these experience has been life changing for me in ways I probably can’t appreciate right now. Nevertheless, I am so glad to be home and worshiping with you this Sabbath. Thank you for your prayers and support as I’ve been traveling.

—RYAN

We live in interesting times. As I write on Friday morning, the prospect of the a government shutdown looms large. I’m not sure if you’ve been following the news but Democrats and Republicans are at odds over the budget, which governs the spending—and thus the policy—priorities of our country. On one side are those who feel that billions of dollars need to be cut from the budget. Others argue that this is imprudent at a time when there is broad economic suffering in our country. While some economic indicators have improved, leading to the official end of the recession, the vast majority of Americans are still feeling the daily pain of job loss, underemployment, health care costs and so forth.

There are two distinct narratives at work driving this debate about our economy. At the risk of oversimplifying, one has the needs of average, hard-working Americans at its core. It is concerned with basic fairness and equality. The other has corporate greed at its heart, and a failed theory that if the very wealthy received even more of the economic benefits, the rest of us will eventually experience this blessing trickle down on us. I was talking with Elysabeth about this yesterday and we both said we never imagined we’d be worse off than our parents. Now, we’re not poor. Not by a long stretch. But the effects of this runaway greed—which is now at risk of being codified into our nation’s laws—affects all of us.

God has seen this kind of thing happen throughout human history. When it became especially egregious, he sent strong messages through the prophets—messages like this one from the prophet Jeremiah,

“Among my people are the wicked
who lie in wait like men who snare birds
and like those who set traps to catch people.
Like cages full of birds,
their houses are full of deceit;
they have become rich and powerful
and have grown fat and sleek.
Their evil deeds have no limit;
they do not seek justice.
They do not promote the case of the fatherless;
they do not defend the just cause of the poor.
Should I not punish them for this?”
declares the LORD.
“Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?”

Part of our work, as Christians, is to raise a prophetic voice in defense of those who are suffering. Jesus taught us to pray that the dream of the heavens—peace, justice, wholeness and life—might be realized on earth. Then he called his people together and gave them a mission, to live out these prayers. If you will join us on Tuesday night at the LA Voice Leadership Assembly you can learn more about how you can join your voice to thousands of others across this city and across this nation, who are putting their faith into action for the good the common good of the people God loves.
—Ryan

As we have been studying several key Encounters with Jesus in the gospel of John, I hope you have been reflecting on the way Jesus has encountered you. One practice you might think about engaging in during the remainder of the season of Lent is writing your spiritual autobiography. If you’ve never done this it is a wonderful practice of self-reflection on the way God has been at work in your life over the years.

The process of writing a spiritual autobiography begins by calling to mind all the persons, events and experiences of your life that you judge to be in any way significant. Consider, for example, significant people in your life (family, teachers, pastors, friends), significant turning points in your life, experiences of school, work, volunteering, significant decisions you have made, struggles and conflicts, successes and failures, talents and accomplishments, frailties and weaknesses, experience of prayer and church, experience of finding God in your life.

You can also divide your reflections into the major subdivisions of your life: childhood, high school, college, adulthood, work. As you think about these significant people, event and time periods, the common thread you’re looking for is how God has been at work in your life. If, to use the language of the Bible, you were lost, how did God find you? Or to use the language of this current series of messages, where and under what circumstances were the major encounters with Jesus.

Doing this can help you appreciate the way God has led you and been at work in your life. It can help you appreciate the growth you have experienced in your life. It may even give you an indication about the way God wants to continue his encounter with you in healing and life-giving ways. Knowing where we’ve been can give us courage to face the future.

—Ryan

This week I spent parts of three days at a retreat center just north of New York City with other leaders of Religious Peace Fellowships. I met remarkable peace activists from the Presbyterian, Episcopal, American Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic, Orthodox, Mennonite, and Brethren Churches as well as Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist communities…and one other Adventist, Spencer Chiimbwe, Founder and Coordinating Chairman of the New York Center for Conflict Dialogue. I look forward to telling you more about Spencer very soon!

It was invigorating to speak with a group of people who share a common passion for peace in very practical and down-to-earth ways, motivated by their faith. Yet by the end of the day, as we sat over dinner pondering how we might shape the faith-based peace movement for a 50-year journey, we had to confess that we have few answers. We challenged each other to find ways to reach beyond those who are already sympathetic to our cause; to imaginatively engage those who might be predisposed to reject our vision of peace. This is hard work. It means that the leaders of peace fellowships and peace organizations have to think differently about the work we do, and thinking differently is always hard. Some groups have been doing remarkable work for decades. Others, like Adventist Peace Fellowship, are at the very beginning stages.

I end my time in New York reflecting on my personal commitment to a more peaceful world. Specifically, I find myself wondering what God would have the Adventist Peace Fellowship do to reengage the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the vital theological and practical issues of peace, justice and reconciliation in a world torn by war, terrorism and other forms of violence and oppression. What about you? What do you think the future of the Adventist Peace Fellowship should be?

To learn more about the Adventist Peace Fellowship, please visit www.adventistpeace.org. For a free book published by the Adventist Peace Fellowship (and as a reward to anyone who read this far) please speak to me (first come, first served – limited supply).

It’s been an incredibly full week. Looking back, two things stand out. I only have space to talk about one today.

The first and most obvious special events of this week were the two Ash Wednesday services. This has become one of my favorite days of the whole year. Our first service is always held at 7:00 a.m. which means people have to wake up extra early and come out to the church to start their day in this way. Like previous years, we had about a dozen and it was such a blessing to start the day in prayer together.

The evening service is always beautiful—quiet, reflective—a sobering reminder of our humanity and mortality and God’s tremendous grace in receiving us into God’s family. What is most rewarding for me about Ash Wednesday, and the whole season of Lent in a somewhat less intense way, are the conversations I get into. Inevitably people share what they’re “giving up” or “taking on” for Lent. I’m not so much surprised that people have given this decision so much thought as I am excited that we’re finally talking together about it.

The bottom line is that any repentance is a decision to turn intentionally toward God. Giving something up for Lent, as we’ve been saying, is about removing something from our lives so that something better and more important can grow and flourish. Within the space of one day I’d already heard how this is happening for people. Individuals shared with me how almost immediately their decision to “fast” from something had changed their perspective and their behavior and turned them toward God.

That’s what this journey is about, right? Our goal as individuals, and collectively as a community, is to deepen our relationship with God, which is to say, live more fully within God’s kingdom, in God’s way, free to be the human beings God has always desired us to be. Sometimes all it takes are a few concrete practices like fasting, or ashes, to deepen the connection between what we know in our heads and what we do with our bodies.

It’s such a privilege to be on this journey with you. May this Lent be for each of us a time to examine our lives and recommit ourselves to live more completely in Jesus’ way.

—Ryan

The season of Lent begins this coming Wednesday. For a number of years now our church has encouraged each of us to take the 40 days prior to Easter in a different way—slower, more reflective, and with fasting.

Growing up in the Adventist Church, I never heard anything about Lent. I suppose that’s because it was considered a part of the Catholic tradition and we were opposed to all things Catholic. In fact there was an intangible fear of anything that seemed remotely Catholic. What is often forgotten in the hysteria about Catholicism is that from about 350 to 1517, the Catholic Church (as well as the Eastern Orthodox Church which branched off in 1054) was the only church. We were all Catholic, so to speak. So, it wasn’t Catholics who adopted the doctrine of the Trinity at the Council of Nicea. It was Christians. It wasn’t Catholics who determined the way of practicing church in buildings with pews and altars and the way the Lord’s Supper was celebrated. It was Christians.

Very few practices that we hold as important to our faith are specifically commanded in Bible. Sure, we are told to pray, but we not given one posture in which to pray or told how often or how long we are to pray. In fact, when the Bible does prescribe certain prayer practices, Protestants have often rejected them because of their perceived associations with Catholicism (the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:9–13 or set times of prayer in Psalm 119:164 and Psalm 55:17).

I would suggest to you that there is nothing fundamentally anti-Protestant or anti-Adventist about spending forty days in prayerful reflection and repentance. As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, this posture of soul-searching, confession of sin, and sanctification is distinctly Adventist as anyone who has spent time reading Ellen White will know. As mature and maturing Christians it is important to be able to distinguish between something that does not adhere to biblical faith and things that are feared by their association with something we’ve been told is bad. Confessing your sins to another person is biblical (James 5:16). Teaching that you have to confess your sins to a priest in order to find God’s forgiveness is not. There is a big difference.

All that being said, if the whole idea of Lent and Ash Wednesday makes you queasy, then just let it go by or call it something else, but certainly don’t pass up an opportunity to open your life to the searching eye of God that He might sanctify you for His purpose and mission.

Finally, I wrote a short article about Ash Wednesday and Lent in 2009, which you can read here. I hope you will find it helpful.

If you would like to join us for our Ash Wednesday services this year, they will be held on Wednesday, March 9, at 7:00 a.m. in the small prayer chapel and at 7:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. Hope to see you there!.

—Ryan

Edited to change some historical facts.

This past Thursday was a first for the Hollywood Adventist Church. We successfully hosted a Candidate Forum for the City Council District 4 race. Disappointingly, the incumbent, Tom LaBonge, had another commitment and couldn’t attend our forum, but I moderated a conversation between his two challengers: our neighbor and city activist, Stephen Box and local education and environmental activist, Tomas O’Grady. Approximately fifty-five people attended, the vast majority of which were members of our neighborhood who have no direct connection to our congregation.

Because we were the hosts and I was the moderator, we were able to ask questions that are of primary importance to us—questions about homelessness, affordable housing, education, youth and the Responsible Banking Ordinance. At the conclusion of the forum, many people thanked our church for hosting this event and said it was very informative and helpful. Some even said it was the best forum they’ve attended.

As a church—a religious non-profit—we must be extremely careful not to take sides in elections. But it is a central part of our missional vocation to be a people who foster an open and respectful conversation about the common good of our community. We were successful in doing that on Thursday. I was so proud of our leaders who created a warm and comfortable environment for our guests and documented the evening on audio and video.

It is important for each of us to vote in this election. If you live in an even-numbered City Council District, your Councilmember is up for re-election. In addition, there are a number of important ballot initiatives on the line. Please go to your polling place on Tuesday, March 8, and do your part in creating a better Los Angeles for everyone.

If you want to do some research you can Google the three candidates: Tom LaBonge, Stephen Box and Tomas O’Grady. If you want to learn more about the ballot initiatives or locate your polling place, go to http://cityclerk.lacity.org/election for more information.

—Ryan

Yesterday was a momentous day in the history of our world. Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt for the past 30 years, has stepped down at the insistence of the Egyptian people, making the way for new democratic reforms in Egypt. The 18-day protest has been inspiring to observe. What strikes me most is the way it has been ordinary people crying out for freedom, across all kinds of religious and ideological divides.

These events are a sobering reminder of how important it is for each of us to be involved in civic life. The nature of our sinful world is that the powerful will pursue their self-interest at the expense of the weak. We should be tremendously grateful to live in a country like the United States, where we are spared the extreme problems of a place like Egypt. Yet serious inequalities still exist right in our own neighborhoods. Here in LA the rich consolidate their riches while the most vulnerable suffer. Big banks get away with blatant crime while people lose their homes. The mentally ill live on the street with little support and even less hope.

But we are not powerless. Our faith values compel us to care for “the least of these”—those that our society most often leaves behind. Our small church does all it can to provide tangible help. We also partner with others in the neighborhood, like Blessed Sacrament Social Services and Gett Love, to extend the reach of our service and love. Some problems, however, are embedded in the fabric of our society and the only way lasting solutions can be found is

by engaging at a deeper level. That’s why we work with organizations like LA Voice, to put our faith into action to change social systems that keep people ensnared in poverty and hopelessness. Working at the systemic level doesn’t have the same emotional payoff but then again, it isn’t about us.

It is in light of this that I would like to invite you to attend the Candidate Forum that our congregation is hosting. On March 8, the residents of Council District 4 will choose the Councilmember who will serve for the coming four years. This year there are three candidates. Tom LaBonge, the incumbent who we have worked with on a variety of projects through the years, our neighbor, Stephen Box, and another important community activist, Tomas O’Grady. Our event will give us and the entire community the chance to hear what the three candidates plan to do about the issues that are most important to us.

Here’s what you can do. First, attend the Candidate Forum on Thursday, Feb 24 at 7:30 pm. Second, tell me, Nathan French or another member of our organizing team what you think are the important issues that need to be addressed in our neighborhood. Write down a question or email one of us with your concerns and questions. Third, invite others to attend.

We can draw strength from our brothers and sisters in Egypt and be more involved in our democracy here at home.

—RYAN

This year is off to such a good start. New people are joining our congregation and engaging with our life in the community. Notably (in case you missed it) David and Syd Shook joined our church last Sabbath. It’s been wonderful to have their energy and creativity as a part of our community. In a couple of weeks, on February 12, we’ll also be welcoming Deborah Baxtrom and Doris Tetz. On that same day, our friend for many years now, Laurie Miller, will be baptized and join our community in Hollywood. So February 12 is a day not to be missed, for sure, followed by potluck at the Salvadors’ house.

This week we are starting a new relationship with the Islamic Center of Southern California as about a dozen of our members start a three-month journey with a dozen members from the Islamic Center, to learn more about each other and deepen our own faith. Also this week, Just Hollywood received its official notification from the IRS that we have been granted our 501(c)3 status. This means that Just Hollywood is now its own federal non-profit organization, able to receive tax-deductible donations. You will be hearing much more about Just Hollywood, and our first initiative, Just Food, led by Corrine Galvan, in the coming weeks.

You might also like to know that the Nominating Committee has been meeting over the past several weeks, looking over our church’s leadership and volunteer needs, as well as our list of members, and prayerfully considering how God might be calling of you to serve this community. Some of you will be hearing from one of us in the coming weeks. Our one prayer is that you would remain open to God’s leading in your life.

Every week I am reminded how special this community is—and how important it is for people to have a place to connect with other people who are also on a similar journey of faith. This week I have had about three of those stories that I don’t have time (or permission) to share. Thank you for being a part this ministry.

—Ryan