Back to School and Back to Basics on Worship

As Dame Edna would affectionately say, "Hello, possums!" (The good opossums in my prestigious Diamond Bar neighborhood wanted me to give a shout-out to them.) I'm coming to you today from the main library at my alma mater, Chapman University. The Leatherby Libraries, built in 2007, is a most proper university library and has an impressive collection of specialty collections organized by field of study, a Holocaust museum and library on the top floor, and a study commons where I am typing this blog using the free wi-fi network.

On Monday the students at Chapman start fall classes, as well as those at Mt. San Antonio College, the community college where I am currently studying Web Design. It's always an exciting mass of confusion, anxiety and fun when the entire student body descends on campus all at once finding their classes, meeting their professors and classmates, and frantically adding or dropping courses after the last minute. At Chapman that's about 6,400 students, at Mt. SAC about 40,000. Either way, it's insane the first week of classes.

Yesterday I visited the Fish Interfaith Center, the non-denominational chapel used by Chapman's religious community across nine different faiths, among them Christians, Muslims, Jews, Wiccans, Buddhists, Bahai's, and a New Age campus group called G.O.A.T. (Society for the Global Observation and Appreciation of the Transcendent). Ramadan, the holiest month in Islam, is winding down and the smaller chapel in the center has been set aside for devout Muslims to pray and meditate while they are fasting from dawn to dusk. Like many other university "religious centers", it is truly a multi-purpose building, but in a serene and inspirational setting.

Back around 1997 I was living in the neighborhood not far off from campus, and at the time Chapman announced its plans to build a new "All Faiths Chapel" that would be used by the entire campus community, Christian and non-Christian alike. There was a lot of controversy over the plans. Many orthodox Christians (including myself) opposed it because the school seemed to be deliberately casting off the conservative theology of its namesake, Charles C. Chapman. On the other side, the theologically liberal Disciples of Christ (Chapman's founding denomination) and students of other faiths blasted the school for discriminating in favor of "the Religious Right" and betraying its commitment to spiritual diversity by having a second "Founders Chapel" alongside the main All Faiths Chapel specifically for Christian meditation and worship. In trying to please everybody, Chapman infuriated everybody.

When the Fish Interfaith Center opened in 2001, however, all the controversy didn't matter anymore, at least to me it didn't. While still committed to biblical, orthodox Christianity and still believing the Disciples of Christ is a liberal, apostate denomination, I have rejected my initial opposition to the center's construction and purpose.

Now before you accuse me of being ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, hear me out. Don't throw your laptop out the window in anger, especially if it isn't insured. Hear me out on this.

In the intervening four years, I moved from Orange back to the San Gabriel Valley where I grew up. I attended a small nondenominational church that met every Sunday morning and evening in rented hall space at the West Covina Senior Citizens Center. I helped set up the stage, sound system and lighting, then took it down and packed it back into the pastor and worship leader's cars when the services ended. The congregation met at a senior citizens' center because it couldn't afford to buy or rent a proper church property or even office space.

The mobile nature of that small church taught me a practical lesson in the nature of the worldwide church and of worship itself. It doesn't consist of the building, but of the people. And unless the services are centered around the finished work of Jesus Christ as a ransom for our sins and on the faithful preaching of the Bible, then such worship is in vain and actually sinful. I had another mind-altering moment when I learned many small congregations in my current denomination, The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, also meet in rented hall space, portable buildings and even outdoors for the same reasons that little church in West Covina did.

If me back in 1998 could meet me today and learn I changed my mind on the Chapman chapel issue, I would kill myself. Back then I was indeed orthodox and biblical, but also very legalistic and militant about apologetics and purity of doctrine, to the point of being obnoxious. I did a little bit of growing up since then, having had a big dose of humility alongside learning about the grace of God for even a legalistic sinner like me.

That is why when Immanuel First seriously considered selling off its now-closed school property, it didn't hit me as emotionally as it did others who built that campus and whose children went to school there. Today Victory Outreach of West Covina is renting half of the school campus for its services and all is going well for both our fellowships.

At Chapman's interfaith center the Founders Chapel has been opened to all faiths, not just Christians as originally intended, and that is okay with me. It's a private university and can do whatever it wants. However, the evangelical Fellowship of Christian Athletes uses the property for its services and orthodox Christians are well represented here, even though everyone else would rather ignore them. And I am reminded of Jesus' own words in Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them."

Meet our New Members

This spring we held a New Members Class at Immanuel First for those interested in becoming members of our congregation. In the class, taught by Pastor Okubo and elder Leroy Hotz, prospective members learned the foundations of the Christian faith, history and doctrines of the church, Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, and the distinctives of our denomination, The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. In June four new members joined our church. Their biographies as listed below were originally published in the July 2011 issue of our newsletter The Immanuel Buzz.

Sue Beckenham
Sue was born in Covina and has lived in the area all her life. Sue is married to John Beckenham. She has four stepchildren and seven grandchildren, all of whom live in Australia. Sue has a son who lives in Bakersfield. She has taught for over thirty years in the fields of computer science and music. She is presently on the staff of Providence Catholic High School in Burbank. She is a concert soloist and the Choir Director at Immanuel First. You will find Sue on the golf course every chance she gets.

Kit Fung
Kit was born in Hong Kong and raised in San Francisco. She moved to the Los Angeles area seven years ago. She teaches at Arcadia High School. Her classes are composed of at-risk students. She teaches math and does counseling. Kit had been looking for a church which had the right "fit" for her since she moved to Los Angeles. She had intended to attend the Chinese worship service at Immanuel First, but "accidentally" came to our regular English worship service. She ended up in our choir and the New Members Class the first Sunday she was here. "Just what I needed," she states. Kit's hobbies include singing, playing basketball, swimming and gardening. She is definitely an animal lover since she has three cats, six turtles and one tortoise. (Editor's note: the difference between turtles and tortoises is that turtles live in and near water, while tortoises are exclusively land animals.)

Garric Bates
Garric Bates was born is Los Angeles. He attended a Baptist church during his childhood, but attending Catholic school from kindergarten through tenth grade. Garric presently works at Taurad LLC, where he specializes in web marketing, video editing, and search engine optimization. His hobbies include playing video games, watching movies and sports. Garric has been married to Ceceila (Robles) Bates for a little over two years. They live in Culver City.

Marie Limon
Marie is married to George Limon. She is the mother of six adult children. Marie was born in Los Angeles.

Could Amy Winehouse Have Been Saved?

It's now been over a week since British pop singer Amy Winehouse was found dead in her North London apartment at the young age of 27. She was a troubled diva whose troubles with alcoholism and drug addiction were documented as they happened for all the world to see, and her very public self-destruction had fans, friends and family worried she would die of an overdose. While her death was not unexpected given her lifestyle and addictions, it still shocked the world when the the news services picked it up. The terrorist killings in Oslo, Norway by admitted killer Anders Breivik stole most of the thunder from Amy's death that day and may have kept it from being an even bigger news item.

There has been the chatter on social media, the cable news channels and gossip shows about Amy joining the so-called "27 club" of other entertainers who died at that age like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain; her troubled personal life fueling the raw passion in her singing and songwriting; how she made it to the top and lived the way she wanted without apology as a true rock-and-roll rebel; and how another tough streetwise angel is shaking up the stoic clouds of heaven with her arrival.

But after all the emotionalism subsided, there remained one gnawing question: could Amy Winehouse have been saved from such a self-destructive and ultimately fatal cycle?

As of this posting (August 2), authorities in London have not released the toxicology reports on Amy's body to determine if there were any drugs in her system at the time of her death. However, there seems to be a general consensus she died of a fatal overdose. That being said, couldn't anyone have stepped in to save her life when it was obvious to everyone it was nosediving?

I guess we have all been accustomed to expect a dramatic rescue like on TV's "Intervention" where loved ones and a doctor confront the addict, who then enters treatment and comes out clean and sober and lives happily ever after without a relapse. Or maybe like Dr. Laura, we self-righteously judge the addict as a weakling who needs to snap out of it, grow up and "just stop doing it", insisting like she does that there is no such thing as addiction. Or, like the Prodigal Son, we think they will come to their senses on their own, see the error of their ways, quit cold turkey and regain their life.

But the sad truth is that giving up an addiction is never that clear-cut and dry. If the addict doesn't want to stop, all the interventions, threats and consequences in the world won't stop him or her from continuing their downward spiral. The same person that chose to drink, drug or act out must be the same person that decides they've had enough of it and seek help. That may sound cruel and uncaring, but just watch any episode of "Intervention" and see how strong denial and rationalization can be for the addict who just won't quit.

Amy's signature song "Rehab", which until her death was seen as dark humored and ironic, encapsulates her personal life so much it's not funny at all anymore. Her family and manager put her into drug rehab numerous times but she always bailed out early. She rationalized that she didn't have a problem but rather the booze and drugs helped her cope with life. She seemed to enjoy all the attention she was getting from her troubles. She stubbornly refused to get help, and the reasons why died with her.

As a member of a family with generations of alcoholics in its past, I've seen that people turn to the bottle because there is a pain or emptiness in their life, and the effects of alcohol are a quick way to escape all those bad feelings. They want all the bad stuff to go far away, but they really don't know how to deal with that pain in a constructive way and the quick fix alcohol provides is very attractive. That pain is essentially the deep longing in our souls for a deep connection with something or someone greater than ourselves. It's often been called "the God-shaped hole in our heart" that only God Himself can fill.

Programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous that use what are known as the Twelve Steps to recovery have many success stories of members with years of sobriety because the steps teach very clearly that they are powerless over their addiction (Step 1), must come to believe a Power greater than themselves can restore them to sanity (Step 2), and must decide to turn their lives over to that Power, who is also called God (Step 3). Though not a religious program, many members have come to faith in Jesus Christ because AA literature is full of biblical references that even atheists can't avoid and Christians in AA discover the amazing grace of God and His love for them.
So essentially it's a spiritual problem that leads many people to addiction. If an addict won't admit to that problem, they won't recover. From all that I've seen, it looks like Amy Winehouse stubbornly refused to see that angle. But what can the rest of us learn from this tragedy?

Whether we want to admit it or not, each and every one of us has that God-shaped hole in our hearts that only God can fill because God Himself made us that way. He has planted eternity in our hearts (Ecclessiastes 3:11), but we do everything we can to suppress what He planted (Romans 1:18-21a) and go our own way. And when we go it alone, we want everything taken care of our way, on time and on demand. And then when we experience the consequences of our actions, we want somebody to bail us out or even blame God for not stopping us. "Self-centered in the extreme" is what Alcoholics Anomymous' self-titled book calls the plight of the addict disconnected from God.

But when we finally have conceded defeat, when we are sick and tired of being sick and tired, and begin to turn God for help, we find that he has been there with extended hand all along, waiting patiently for us to reach out. And when we grab His almighty hand and turn ourselves to Him to save us, He does for us what we can't do for ourselves. This sounds a lot like the familiar Lutheran theme of Law and Gospel, where we see our sinfulness and lost state apart from God and then see our Savior, Jesus, and what He did for us on the cross so that we wouldn't stay lost and cut off from God.

One doesn't have to be an alcoholic or junkie to realize they can't make it alone and that they need God. If you haven't done so already, why don't you reach out and grab His extended hand today?