Conversations of the Kingdom

As we drove back from a long detour I made unitentionally (some call this getting lost, I called it an opportunity for conversation), me and Danielle started talking about the Kingdom of God--is the Kingdom within? do we bring the Kingdom? do we get a ticket to the Kingdom? do we wait for the Kingdom? or do we participate within the Kingdom?----yes, these are the kinds of conversations that we often have and that bounce around in seminary students heads---I think how we think about this is very significant for our lives, but I'll my opinion for later-

Later that afternoon after picking up a mattress for Hannah's new toddler bed at Ikea, I also had an interesting conversation about the Kingdom with my sister. She was talking about a potential idea for her PHD project. This idea came out a conversation with a Jewish professor that tries to connect churches to serving the community, and often gets frustrated because churches say their mission is to "worship" God and are too busy to be involved in the community. To which, my sister responded beautifully- what if we could help churches see the connection between worshipping God and serving the community in an intentonal way. To which, her new friend said, 'only if i get to be on your PHD committe.'

Did I mention I love my sister, Dr. Rowe? What a great response.

One article I read earlier this year said that most city managers hate it when new churches start because they are blackholes of money from the community. They take money from people that would be spent on other things, and the community doesn't benefit from it at all---

Why do you think so many churches see worship as detached from the life of the community around them?

How do you understand worship?

Do you see any connection between these two conversations?

The Paxton Girls This Week

Hannah and friend Aidia at kids' space




one cool looking toddler
snuggling in the lazy boy

Call to Prayer all over the world

Prayers are going out all over the world. This is an image from our campus website here in California. We all received an email from our president asking us to pray for families in Virginia. I am praying for the school, the families, and the family of Seung-Hui Chohe. In a shame based culture like Korean culture, I can't imagine the pain they are going through.

Could no one see that video of Hannah?

still working it out, i guess i'm not really that dangerous yet; it does work on both of our computers

Tragedy too Close too Home

Wow, this has been wild. I never expected to see a tragedy like this so close to my home town, and so close to my family. A friend of ours here at Fuller knows someone who was killed in the shooting, and my own family was close by. The shockwaves of this event are being felt around the world. It is the leading news here in LA, and in most places. My heart has felt very sad the last couple days as well as scared until I found out my friends and family were okay. I was struck at how tragedy is what seemingly unites humanity as I saw the faces of the people killed on the TV. All from such different backgrounds, all with such different passions and stories, met together in the same tragic fate. We really don't know how we will go, I pray we will live fully today and truly value the people around us. I feel so bad for the families and this also makes me very angry this happened..

Take Action on One Campaign, just takes two clicks

If you don't know about the one campaign, it is a grassroots effort initiated by Bono, to get governments in the Western world to give 1% of budget to end extreme poverty in the developing world.

Extreme poverty is poverty in which people actually don't have enough to continue to live and breath. Currently, 2 billion (1/3) of world population live on less than 2 dollars a day (near extreme poverty), and 1 billion live in extreme poverty. (1/6)

See my friend, Shannon Smith's blog, click on my internet friends on the right, Shannon Smith, then look for the link to urge your senator to push this initiative in Congress. Actually, the US has already agreed to it, and we just get to hold our government to the commitments they have already made.

It only takes about 2 minutes.

If interested in learning more: watch passionate speech from Bono at NAACP awards

Couple Highlights and Lowlights from last week

I lost the championship to my own basketball league, and even worse the one mostly seminary team in the league beat us. Thanks Jon Richards, you bum.

One highlight from this week was reconnecting with my friend Bruno. Bruno and I have gotten to be pretty tight since moving out to California. I originally met him when we came to visit Mosaic while living in Virgnia. We got to be pretty tight and then haven't seen each other for a few months, so it was great spending time with him. You may recognize him if you watch Coach Carter and look for the big guy bouncing a ball off a guys leg out of bounds, or else you saw him on an NCAA commercial this year during the tourney, and you will see him in a new Will Ferrell movie coming out next year, which will be hilarious.
This is him in character for the movie.

Another lowlight, well bone-head lowlight of the week. We walked a mile or so from our apartment to Target, the store of all stores, to buy rootbear float stuff among other things for a big community event we were hosting on Friday. Then, when we got to the register, I realized I forgot my wallet. Pretty smooth, huh?

Another highlight- Hannah wanted to hold Shiloah tonight. That was pretty sweet watching my little girl love my littler girl.

Mosaic

This a short video from our faith community out here in LA. It is a pretty amazing group of people that we are apart of doing some really creative and imaginative things to express the character of God in LA culture. What they are doing cannot be replicated somewhere else, but we certainly have enjoyed serving here and connecting people to our community. Here is our video recap from last year, and a funny video Young Life will love on our core values.

Very funny. This guy is the head of the film projects at Mosaic.

The Psalms

I’ve been studying the Psalms for the last two weeks, and would like to share two insights that have really made a big impression on me.

First- 65 of the 150 Pslams are Laments and more than half of the Psalms presuppose crisis. I love this because the Pslams help us to throw off the mask of the shiny happy person, that everything is supposed to be okay, or happens for a reason, and deals with the reality of the pain and suffering in the world and in the human personal experience.

The prayers of the pslams are honest. Raw. Grittty. Angry. Authentic.

They don't confuse fate with faith.

Yet, they still hold to a tenacious faith in God that grounds, centers, and give them hope.


Second- more specific. The cosmic Psalm 148 declares that all of creation, the sun shining, the moon glowing, the stars giving light in the darkness, the trees bearing fruit, the birds singing all give praise to God, and yet it is intimately personal. Both humanity and the cosmos are meant to give praise to God.

You ever wonder how the sun, moon, stars, trees praise God?

Did they sing the latest Shaine and Shaine?

They do what they are meant to do.

The Psalmists do not understand a dualistic spirituality in which we sing praise to God, but our lives are not fulfilling what they are meant to do. All of creation cries out. Humanity is meant to express the beauty, wonder, and purposes of God to care for this world, to express His love, and character to everyone around us.

Praise of God encompasses everything.

Peace

Corey

Hannah's Playground Adventures

Uh Oh, I'm dangerous now. Thanks to Jeremy Green, I can now compress videos and put them on U Tube. This is very exciting for all those who are family. More videos to follow! This is from our time off at a Pasadena playground below some beautiful mountains. Watch Hannah run and drive drive.