Posted on

Hey Lon! An Answer and A Bit of History

Wow, how’d you find out I’d quoted you…? I forgot to let you know (what I usually do when I quote someone I don’t know.)

You commented that it looks like I’ve joined the "Mosaic Movement" and wanted to know more.

Well… no, I didn’t join Mosaic. It kinda popped up around me.

See, back in 1994, I joined the Church on Brady — who’s official name was, and still is as far as I know, First Southern Baptist Church, East Los Angeles. It was originally founded in the 1940s out of a little store-front on Whittier Boulevard in East LA. It eventually moved to property on Brady Street in East LA, where it still was in the 1960s. The racial turmoil of the times caused people to drop the "Southern Baptist" part from the name of the church, preferring instead to say, "I go to that little church on Brady Street." The nickname stuck and eventually all the signs were change to The Church on Brady.

I started coming at the urging of a friend, Darla, around the end of 1993. I joined the sound team in January ’94 and joined the church a few months later. I’ve been a member there ever since. At that time Bro. Tom Wolf was the pastor. In April ’94, however, Erwin McManus was named Senior Pastor and Bro. Tom took the position of Teaching Pastor.

In 1997 we made our first foray into services at a new location — East LA College (ELAC). We planned to start meeting there full-time come January 1998 because we were outgrowing the Brady site. This presented a small problem. The Church on Brady would no longer be the church "on Brady Street." Now what? I remember some talk about what we would call ourselves… and for some reason I want to say we had kind of a naming contest going, or something… but I can’t remember. At any rate, Erwin eventually came to the name, Mosaic; the elders voted and it was decided. Mosaic we would now be.

In 1998 we moved both our morning and evening services off the Brady Street property. The only thing that still met there were our Wednesday evening classes and monthly Lord Supper services. ELAC was one of the meeting places. The second was a downtown nightclub, at that time still call the Shangri-La, once owned by Prince. We had actually looked into buying it, but when we couldn’t agree on a price it was sold to someone else. That new owner was willing to rent us the space for our "Urban" services on Sunday evening.

Unfortunately, there’s a growing misconception that Mosaic began with that "Urban" service at the SoHo (as the club was then called). This isn’t true on many levels. As I’ve pointed out, Mosaic was begun as First Southern Baptist over sixty years ago now. Also, we’d been having those Sunday night services at the Brady site for over a year before moving to the nightclub. However, up until we moved to the Mayan night club a few months ago, the SoHo had been the longest venue we’d been at since we ventured off Brady Street. I think many people hear Erwin refer to that fact and assume that Mosaic started in ’98 with that service. Just NOT true. 🙂

Eventually our morning "Metro" services were moved back to the Brady site for a year or so, mid-99 thru 2001. Somewhere around April or May 2001 (I was in India at the time) Metro moved over to San Gabriel High school, and met there until March of 2004, when it moved over to the night club as well.

In 2003 we finally sold the Brady site property, and in 2004 we purchased some land in… La Puente area, I think… I’m not really sure where it is. I think it will eventually become the office facilities. And hopefully, with any grace from God, it will also become a housing facility for our overseas workers when they are in the States (a quad-type home featuring 4 2-3 bedroom apartments with laundry facilities and small kitchenettes all of which share a main large common living room-type common area has been suggested by some friends of mine…).

That’s kind of the history of Mosaic/Church on Brady/First Southern Baptist Church as it pertains to me. My involvement with it, however, and my convictions run much deeper and are more complex.

Let me see if I can detail all that out in another post… or two…

Posted on

‘Tis The Season

Sorry for my silence over the weekend. I haven’t felt much like writing.

There are many thoughts swimming in my head, many conversations God and I have engaged in over the last few days. I just don’t know how to condense them down into posts… and I’m still grappling with many of the issues anyway.

One such issue is growing bigger as the days near December 25th. Last year was the hardest Christmas I ever had; the first without mom and dad.

I thought it would be easier this year. But I’m already struggling and Christmas is still 20 days away. I finally decorated up the apartment. It just felt to "sterile" not to have Christmas lights, garlands and a small Christmas tree. But it hasn’t gotten me into the "Christmas Spirit". I went for a drive yesterday and just enjoyed the beauty of decorated homes and the crisp cold of a Nashville winter night. Even during my drive my sadness deepened.

This season — Thanksgiving thru New Years’ — used to be my favorite time of year, with just the perfect blend of cold weather, warm feelings, holiday magic and incredible scents. I hope someday it will be my favorite again. Right now, it’s the time of year I feel mom and dad’s deaths most profoundly. They gained the greatest gift — finally they are Home for Christmas. But their, and heaven’s, gain is my loss.

I long to spend just one more Christmas with them. To hear mom’s laughter ring throughout the house. To smell her pies baking, taste her candies — she made the best Peanut Brittle, Fudge, Ginger Snaps and "Scotchies’ the world has ever known! — and listen to her play Christmas Carols on the piano… To hear dad read the Christmas story one more time, see him in that silly Santa hat handing out the presents… just to get one more hug and kiss from them, or lay in bed and hear them through the wall talking and laughing with each other at the end of the day…

Emotions sweep over me and threaten to overwhelm me. I cling to God’s promises to always be with me, that the water will not sweep me away nor will the flames I walk through set me ablaze.

This is a time of year portrayed in movies, commercials and church pageants as being "the most wonderful and happiest time of the year," as the song goes. But I wonder: how happy is it for most people, really.

How many others are there like me, who are just putting one foot in front of the other and praying to any god they know that they will make it through the season without a total emotional breakdown? How many turn down our invitations to our Christmas pageants because they just can’t bear to see another "It’s A Wonderful Life" like presentation about how all’s well and at peace with the world because Jesus was born? How many are haunted by memories of Christmas’s past, of Christmas wishes never realized, of holidays marked more by fear, abuse, angry words, or loss than by happiness, joy and good gifts?

Where is the Christmas place for them? Where is the place where Christmas isn’t all smiles and candy canes? Where can we experience a Christmas full of depth and meaning for a lost and broken world?

Posted on

HI-Q

I took an IQ test from Tickle.com It was longer than I expected, but I eventually got through it, Sometimes I just didn’t even bother trying to figure out the answer… like with one question about two people going in opposite directions and how far apart would they be — blah, blah, blah. A mathemetician I’m not, soooo I just didn’te even bother.  I guessed. But check out my results! Pretty cool, nonetheless.

Congratulations, Lu!
Your IQ score is 120

This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others.

Your Intellectual Type is Word Warrior. This means you have exceptional verbal skills. You can easily make sense of complex issues and take an unusually creative approach to solving problems. Your strengths also make you a visionary. Even without trying you’re able to come up with lots of new and creative ideas. And that’s just a small part of what we know about you from your test results.

But I had no idea what these numbers meant, so I went a-huntin’ on google and came up with  this:

Intelligence testing is a form of psychological testing of an individual’s capacity to learn and deal effectively with his/her environment. IQ (intelligence quotient) is the score of an intelligence test.
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale is the most widely used individually administered intelligence test (IQ test) for adults. It comprises of 11 subtests made up of six verbal subtests and five performance subtests. It yields three IQ (intelligence quotient) scores: Verbal Scale IQ, Performance Scale IQ, and Full Scale IQ. A scale for children ages 5 through 15 years is called WISC — Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and a scale for children ages 4 to 6* years is called WPPSI–Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. Classification of Intelligence according to IQ scores….   

Normal
90 to 110

Bright normal
110 to 120

Superior
120 to 130

Very superior
130 and above

Cool! I scored on the border of "Bright Normal" and "Superior". Another site I found said, "One could reasonably equate "bright normal" with "smart," and "very superior" with "genius."

Wow. I just might be on the cusp of "genius". Of course, this is just from an internet test, but still…. makes me feel pery darn good about myself. 🙂

Posted on

Addendum Redux

What if we just moved Tennesee and the Carolinas overseas…? Do you think anyone would notice…?

If I could just find a way to have the beauty and majesty and culture of these three states (well, sans the overdeveloped, undernourished "churchy" stuff) and still be in a foreign place….

Posted on

Isn’t It Strange

Taking a quick break from addressing envelopes for Christmas Cards… went downstairs to get something to drink from the break room and spent a little time staring out the big picture window, watching traffic pass by and the American flag waving in the wind.

As I watched our flag, I flashed back to the moment I first saw it again after my first trip overseas. I’d just spent 4 glorious days in Japan and 9 painfully culture-shock-filled days in China. I was so desperate to be back on familiar soil! Arriving back at LAX, the first American flag I saw was painted on the side of an aircraft hanger. You never saw someone with so much joy in their heart! I was so glad to see it, MY flag, staring back at me so huge and proud.

Wow, I thought. It’s so good to see that emblem again and know I am safe at last.

That was eight years ago. And for the better part of two years, whenever I saw that flag waving in the wind I felt proud, and never wanted to live somewhere it wasn’t flying.

Now, after two major stints overseas, and a whole lotta life packed into each year, each time I see the American flag waving proudly in the wind, I get a bit of a shock. As if I took a gulp of coke when I was expecting iced tea. I keep expecting to see a Greek flag, or Indian or Ethiopian or Chinese, or some other nation’s flag waving outside. And there’s a small sense of disappointment that pricks my heart when that expectation goes unrealized yet again.

Where once I felt I’d never live anywhere else, now each time I see my flag waving I wonder, what am I doing here?

Posted on

BRR!

There was ice on my car this morning. ICE! I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never had to scrape ice off my car before. I didn’t even know how to begin. Somehow I’ve lost my squeegee, so I ended up grabbing an old windshield wiper blade from my trunk and using that. Between my scraping and the car’s defroster it only took about 5-10 minutes to get the windows clear. But my fingers were a little numb by the time I was done. My poor car… Col. O’Neill just didn’t know what to do with himself this morning. He was much crankier than usual.

I wish I didn’t have to work this morning. This is the perfect day to go out and take pictures. The frost over all the bushes and trees, glistening in the early morning sunlight, was just spectacular! What beautiful photos they would have made!

Ah, well. Work summons…

Posted on

Welcome My Newest Edition

I started another blog. It’s called A Cup of Chai. I’ve been wanting to create a space where I could post thoughts and inisghts gleened from Scripture. I thought this might be a good forum to do that.

I only have one post so far, but hope to have more soon. Feel free to stop over there anyt ime you like. And if you’d like to participate in it, let me know and I’ll add you on as a member.

Posted on

Humility and Grace On Display

I recently ran across A Disciples Journal. Lon hasn’t posted in a while, but his last one, October 31st, had some insight I wish all of us could gain.

There’s more to say about this, but it’ll have to wait till I have some time…. In the meantime, read, enjoy, and perhaps even visit his blog.

On a more deeper and personal note… Yvz and I have been having some ‘soul talk’ and been realizing some more subtle condemning attitudes that we have. These dispositions are so challenging because they are so deep rooted and easily disguised as a genuine desire for good. For me, I’ve come to realize that I am designed and built my life around a lens of hope and goodness. Which isn’t a bad thing, but when I encounter those who are disheartened, or perceived as having lost hope, I have a hard time allowing them to be as they are. What got me was the conviction that some people might be able to sense a level of disappointment within me about who they are as a person… and that’s flat out wrong and needs to change.

What gets to me even more is how a person of hope and confidence in God such as myself, could ever feel a loss of hope in people? Something that came out while I was speaking Friday was that – if God believes in us, more than we could ever believe in him. Maybe we need to believe in people, more than they believe in themselves.

Of all people, followers of Jesus should be speakers of truth and hope to all humanity.

Posted on

Trite and Tired

What is going on with me these days?

I used to have a great deal of patience and understanding when people used trite sayings and phrases to express an idea. Now I have none. Absolutely none. I’m tired of the lack of authenticity I see. My experience with God is so opposite from it. My experiences with my closest friends are so opposite. So when I experience it from other believers who say they are following hard after Christ, I… I just can’t deal with it. It’s like having a pebble in my shoe. I want to confront it and get rid of it.

I just wish people would be real.

I passed so many churches this weekend with some variation “Have an Attitude of Gratitude” on their signs. Do people really believe that such a trite saying written on some sign is really going to transform someone’s heart? That someone’s going to see that sign and have a sudden epiphany, “omigosh! I forgot to put on my gratitude today.” Paleeze.

I saw a book for sale at LifeWay today called, “It’s Not About Me.” I just rolled my eyes and thought, ‘here we go again.’

Tonight, while I was on my cell phone with one of my best friends, another friend left me a message on my voicemail reiterating some trite things they’d previously said. I know my friend means well, but… dang, so many times he sounds so fake. Its those trite sayings, those Scripture passages used in place of real feelings and thoughts, those Christian phrases people say as a means to avoid having to dig into their own spirit and soul for words and truth.

And it all comes so naturally. We don’t have to think about it. Trite sayings have crept into every aspect of our lives. Think back over the last day. When someone asked you how you were, did you answer truthfully, or did you give the standard and expected “fine”? When was the last time you actually meant “bless you” when you responded to someone’s sneeze?

Every day is filled with dozens upon dozens of banal, overused, unmeant, rote phrases we volley to each other over and over. Christians are especially notorious for this. With all our Praise-the-Lord!-I’m-just-a-sinner-saved-by-grace-God-is-good-life-with-Jesus-is-sweet-I’m-just-a-vessel saccharine crap, it’s no wonder the world finds Jesus distasteful. Who wants to join a revolution full of fakers? Or worse, one full of perfect people? Who could keep up with that? I couldn’t.

I used to be able to tolerate all this stuff. I felt people meant well for the most part, and was willing to overlook the fact that their words sounded insincere because, “their heart was still in the right place.” Besides, they probably didn’t realize how their words came across.

I still believe that to be true. But my tolerance level has shrunk to zero. I don’t know why, exactly.

Perhaps that’s what depression does to you. The rose-colored glasses get yanked off and ground under foot. Once that happens you see the world in a less-flattering light. Perhaps a more realistic light. People are taken at face, and word, value.

What we say, and how we say it, reflects who we are. Whether true — and truly meant — or not, words have a powerful impact on others, both on their own outlook and on their opinion of the speaker. For better or worse, our words leave a mark on every listener.

God help me! Keep me silent unless You need me to speak. And help me find my patience, which I seem to have mislaid… or give me the courage to speak boldly and gently. Let the marks my words leave be ones of healing, hope and love!