Steve’s Blog

Hey everyone, the high school retreat is set for Dec. 4-6 up in Big Bear!  It’s going to be a great weekend full of relaxation, reflection and fun.  Be at the church at 5:30 on Friday the 4th so that we can grab some food and hit the road.  We will be back at church around 12pm on Sunday so that we can meet up with everyone after church.  The retreat costs $100 for each student and includes all food, transportation and lodging.  If you have any questions please feel free to email Steve at steve@westwoodpres.org.

Have you ever wondered about how much you actually consume?  What if you took the time and analyzed everything that you have bought in the past month… what would it say about you?   This is artist Simon Evans’ meditation on consumer influence.  He’s taking a step back from all of his “stuff” to see how his consumption has shaped his life and identity.  I think that we gain a lot of self identity through what we consume… our decisions about what clothes, music, tv shows, books, food, hygiene products, transportation, websites, etc. we use goes a long way in showing the world who we are… or at least who we want them to think we are.  How does all of this affect our spiritual identity?  Does wearing a cross around our neck prove we love Jesus?  Do we gain our spiritual identity through which church we do (or consciously don’t) attend?  Where does your spiritual identity come from?  Mine has come through my faith community, study and an openness to God’s posibilites.  That being said I’m still a tremendous work in progress.  What about you, where does your spiritual identity come from?

In my six years of living in Los Angeles post college I have only come to  know the names of two of my neighbors, Marrion and Joe.  It’s not that I’m anti-social or a hermit, I just never took the time (or honestly had the desire) to get to know the people who lived around me.  My local community was limited to those I was living with and didn’t expand far beyond the other side of my front door.  As I have talked with friends, I’ve found that this is not an uncommon experience for people my age in big cities.  We can be seen as the most disconnected people in the world, yet I have 524 friends on Facebook, 44 followers on Twitter and have my own blog.  I think all of this proves that I am not a person who finds identity or community within my local networks but within my social networks.  Even my church is not a local network for me… I live 22 miles away, other members commute from all areas of the city and the only place we interact are Sunday mornings from 9-10:30.

I guess what I’m getting at here is that we need to re-imagine the local church.  The church used to be the center of a neighborhood where it was more of a community center than a once a week spiritual destination.  Perhaps we should be focusing on our social networks, the places where we are already plugged in and invested, to practice our faith.  How would your life change if you saw all of your social networks as a place and a community of faith?  What happens when Facebook or happy hour after your work day takes a turn towards the spiritual?  I have a lot of questions circling my head about how all of this plays out but I think a shift is happening and I don’t know who the church can/will shift with it.

This looks really cool.  It’s a new Bible softwear that makes the scripture way more interactive.  Though I haven’t been able to see this in action or mess around with it myself, it seems as if they do a really good job of combining on-line content with the Bible to help guide and inform people as they read.  I hope to get my hands on this soon and report back on what it is really like, until then check out the video.

It’s weird to think that we are coming to the close of another decade isn’t it?  Paste Magazine has put out three best of the decade lists for you to check out/argue over.  I tried putting mine together but it almost made my head explode going over all the great music, movies, tv shows and books of the past 10 years.  Anyhow go check out what Paste thinks are the best books, albums, movies and  tv shows.  (These would probably be my top three albums)