St. Francis of Assisi put it best: "Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel and, if necessary, use words." ***
I may be an ordained minister, but I'm anything BUT a fan of organized religion these days. However, I'm impressed with something my friend Kirsten told me is happening at the Hollywood SDA church this summer. Read about The Spot.
What I appreciate most about this particular description of The Spot is in the response to a reader's question about whether it's similar to Vacation Bible School: "There is no Bible involved in this school. And my experience is that VBS ran for one or maybe two weeks. This is 9 weeks, 5 days a week, 8 am to 6 pm. But, to be clear, it has not religious component AT ALL. It is a art-enrichment summer day camp. We have children from all different types of religious backgrounds, and no religious background. I think this kind of non-religious ministry to the community is a good example of seeking the public good and modeling our spiritual values without ramming them down people's throats. More about being, less about saying." (Ryan Bell)
See, some people get it! Isn't that refreshing? Seems like this philosophy could be applied in so many ways...
--Jen
***The first time I read this quote to Victor he said, "Do you know what that means?" and I responded with my interpretation. He listened and then said, "Nope. It means St. Francis was a mime."
July 4: It makes too much sense
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Jen, thank you for your kind words about our program. My wife is really gifted with this stuff and I think our church is doing something really important by hosting it. Glad to make your cyber-acquaintance via Kirsten. She has mentioned your blog to us before (and your great sense of humor)!
ReplyDeleteThat, and other like-programs (wherever they may be) promote the greatest of spiritual values!--a perfect example of: "Live what you believe or you don't believe it" (anonymous). Our children become far more intimately involved in knowing who we really "are" than what we preach to them!
ReplyDeleteMother Mary
OK, I can't contribute MEANINGFULLY like the above comments, but I just wanted to say I like art. And I also believe Vic is right (about St Francis!)
ReplyDeletethanks for posting this, Jen! i'm no fan of organized religion myself, simply because we've lost site of the jesus in our beliefs and forgotten what he did while he was here. we've forgotten to SERVE the communities we're in and have been more about recruiting. i think that's why i'm so excited about what we're doing in Hollywood. really trying to understand that God is at work in this amazing city and we can either join him or not. but the ways in which we are finding we can join him are not what we would have expected. here's a great video someone put together set to John Mayer's song, "Waiting on the World to Change.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arhIEKoXcR4