On Friday, April 25th at 8pm a show will take place on the campus of USD in the black box theatre of Camino 131. It is called “On Both Sides,” an artistic reaction to the humanity we choose to wall out. There will be performances by Casey McKinley, Ben Lee, Chris Bresky and others. A peaceful approach to a violent injustice done on our borders and those across the world. A night of conversation around art, theater, music, spirit, and border work that will stretch our minds outside the comfort zones of logic and imagine life on both sides. Contact Chris Bresky for details at ChrisBresky [at] gmail [dot] com.

Point Loma Nazarene University’s Center for Justice and Reconciliation brings us another Brewed Awakening: Raising Holy Hell. A contemporary Christian music icon and an American cultural historian dialogue about the prophetic role of contemporary Christian music with Charlie Peacock and Dr. Karl Martin. Charlie Peacock is a Grammy Award winning music producer, Dove Award winning recording artist and Co-founder/Director of The Art House, a ministry of hospitality, the arts and biblical teaching in Nashville, TN. Dr. Karl Martin is professor of American cultural history and literature in the Department of Literature, Journalism and Modern Languages at Point Loma Nazarene University. This Brewed Awakening is co-sponsored by the PLNU Center for Justice and Reconciliation and the Department of Music. Brewed Awakening is a public forum sponsored by whose mission is “to study poverty and oppression and teach Christian means of social engagement.” Contact the Center for Just and Reconciliation for details.

I started reading Pete Gall’s new book, My Beautiful Idol last night. The book is memoir and it is a good one so far. Gall reflects on God, his own identity and societal maladies. It is thoroughly engaging. The title of the book seems so far to come from a common theme throughout the pages. He’s allowing the idols, the distractions and comforts he has in his life to be slowly riddled away as he embarks on a journey to better understand God and himself. He often reflects on the habits and postures of Christians. He often talks about the idolatry of these things. I’m certain some of the things he reflects on will catch people off guard. In good ways I believe.

A couple of weeks ago, a journalist from the Reader came to one of our meetings here at the Hawthorn House. At the end of the article he wrote after visiting us he retells the last question he asked me before leaving that Sunday night. “What happens when we die?” he inquired. “I don’t know yet,” I replied. Interestingly, this has brought the most attention from those that have read the article. Why don’t I know!? What kind of Christian am I if I don’t take this opportunity to ’share the Gospel’?! I think the messages of this nature that have filled my voicemail have exposed something a beautiful idol we as Christians often have: we love being right, having the final answer.
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Dr. Glen H. Stassen will be at Bethel Seminary in San Diego this Friday. Dr. Stassen is the author of notable books such as Kingdom Ethics, Living the Sermon on the Mount and Just Peace Making. The Far-West Regional Chapter of the Evangelical Theological Society is holding its annual meeting and the theme is “war and violence”. Dr. Stassen is the keynote speaker. Contact Bethel Seminary for event information.

The church has been an insecure, boastful entity for centuries. She’s comprised of humans and as much as we humans want to see ourselves as noble, confident, sured beings, we are so often scared of what people think, scared to disappoint, scared to be found out. We spend our lives putting on a show for our friends, parents, lovers, peers, bosses, and even strangers. We go through cycles in our lives where we spend great periods in the confidence. But it gets tiring and we eventually find ourselves in our attic, in our bedroom, in a field, ready to stop holding our breath and take a deep inhale of freedom.

The freedom comes when we admit we are not sure, we’re nervous. There is nothing more calming than stopping the show. Even if we are the least superficial person, we have to deal with expectations from the world and the people in our lives, which we may not even feel pressured to subscribe to, but even the resistance is tiring. We cycle through these phases until the end of our life and it seems from observing the old and wise, it gets a little better, you care a little less, you try a little harder…at something else.

But for a lot of our life, we generally respond by taking a deep breath, holding it in and running into another phase of denial, hoping the next will last longer because we took a deeper breath. It would be naïve to convince ourselves the church is not a living, breathing, moving, changing thing. It would also be naïve then to assume it does not deal with the same insecurity and denial we do. At some point though, hopefully, we the church will stop and change our life, not our appearance, our clothes. Instead of taking a deep breath and charging recklessly back into a new phase of false hopes, we will come back to God, who is love, and therefore come back to love.

Unfortunately we usually only change our clothes. We change how we do Christianity, we change the dress code for church, we change the music, we adopt some short lived “model” to follow, but it is all just clothes. It has happened for centuries and at some point the sacred cow of institution has to go. The buildings, the budgets, the committees, the bureaucracy, the voting, the bickering, yes they serve a purpose sometimes, to wrap our minds around what is going on. But have they become the purpose of maintaining our institutions, completely separate of accomplishing THE most important thing, which is not make converts to Christianity, not to promote your theology, not to have Christianity be the hegemonic force in the societies of the entire world, not even social justice. Yes, many of these things Jesus called us, some not at all, but the truth is love is THE command,

The command.

Love God, then love people…period. And it’s a dangerous question to ask why we do these things because the people who have only known these systems have seen them used for loving people and will call it heresy to ask the question,

do – these – systems – hinder – the – command?

Austin Pfeiffer is a 25 year old writer, musician, and film maker. He has lived in 8 states around the U.S. He graduated with an English Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado at Boulder, focusing on poetry. His multi-regional, move-a-thon childhood and experience working in multiple churches have informed his thoughts and ideas of the America and Christianity. He currently maintains a creative non-fiction blog called Peacemaker Revolution and is in the band Goodnight Man. He has directed and produced numerous short films and is currently working on a creative non-fiction feature on the Ten Commandments (”X”). Austin’s artistic heroes and indulgences include C.S. Lewis, Conor Oberst, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen Soderburgh and the Gilmore Girls. You can contact him at austin.pfeiffer@gmail.com

TO FAMILIES, CHILDREN, STUDENTS,
SENIORS AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Create a just tax policy that ensures that everyone pays
their fair share and that fully funds programs people need.
Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Meet: 4:30 p.m. at Horton Plaza
March: 5:00 p.m. to/from State Building
Rally: 6:00 p.m. at Horton Plaza
Wear Black.

“Take up your cross and follow me”. The words of Jesus are altogether fully recognizable to us, but how often do we put into practice the teachings we claim to live by? Are we prepared to literally follow as disciples of Jesus by giving up ourselves in subordination to the greater power of God, found in Christ? Are we ready to give up our “self”? This is what is being asked of believers. However, sometimes I get the feeling that most people are Christians primarily out of fear… the fear of an eternal afterlife spent in hell. To me, this reason sounds very selfish. Mainstream Christianity talks incessantly about “asking for forgiveness” and being “saved”, therefore separating the good from the evil. But is that all there is to it? Why would Jesus profess his teachings of love of your neighbors and enemies, non-resistance to violence, subordination to others, selflessness, of helping the poor and oppressed, if we weren’t supposed to take seriously his message? If we believe that he is the Messiah, shouldn’t we be committed to following his philosophy?
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The Hawthorn House was featured in the Reader’s Sheep & Goats column today. You can pick up a copy or read it online here.

I’ve been invited to be a judge on Jesus Manifesto’s Pentecost writing competition. Click on the image above! Send in your submissions asap! This will be good. -Jason