Here are some pictures that go along with my trip from the previous posts.

The Dream Center (this maybe gives you a picture of half or so of it)

Angelus Temple

The warm-up rappers

The 3 set drum solo

San Diego

Mosaic

Kairos

Santa Monica

When you are in Los Angeles, you are not short for one moment options for churches to attend or be part of. This week I attended three different gatherings. Spent Thursday night at Angelus Temple with Benny Perez, then Sunday at Mosaic with Erwin McManus and Kairos with JR Woodward and Greg Larson. I basically succumbed to the epitome of church hopping while I was here, not building relationships barely at all with anyone, but trying to experience the event of church in an hour of observing. Not the best way, but nonetheless my only choice. So take these experiences as a grain of salt, because I don't really know anyone at any of the gatherings.

I'll give you a quick breakdown of the three experiences.

Angelus Temple, I already gave a pretty detailed breakdown about my experience there. So you can read that there. Benny Perez talked about Joshua and the Israelites being told by God to walk through the river. Then he took our present "rivers or floods" of financial crisis, miscarriages, and whatever else makes us unhappy and encouraged us to step out into the middle of our floods because that's where God will work his miracle. Because only in the midst of struggle and floods will God bless us. There wasn't much more to the message than that.

Kairos, was a completely different experience. They are in an older church that they have renovated to suit their needs. There was probably only 100 or so people there (compared to the thousand or so at Angelus Temple). The building was built more to look like a cafe, with the second floor classrooms blown out to look out over the meeting space. The options of couches, cafe table and chairs or rows of chairs were all open to sit in. There was also snacks and drinks to grab to give it a much more relaxed and living room feel. The music was driven but simple and the sound was pretty much perfectly mixed. The band was tight and the lead guy sounded a lot like David Crowder. Then Greg got up to teach and he taught out f the first few chapters of 1 Peter. Basically it was a message of perspective trying to remind us that joy comes through perspective in knowing Christ and knowing that he is working through the hard situations. So when times are hard, financial crisis, parking tickets, deaths in the family etc...then we should trust God to give us strength and perspective in the midst of it. He talked about Victor Frankel and how when he was in the concentration camps that he observed people and how they responded to the oppression and that only a very small minority of people could have a proper perspective amidst the oppression during the Holocaust. Some were able to have a perspective that no one could take away from them and eventually gave them enough strength to endure what was happening. Imagine if Christians could adopt this perspective? He then did a question and answer but the cool part was that people sent him questions via cell phone which kept it anonymous, which was a great idea I thought. It seemed to work very well.

Then Rob and I jumped right into a car and headed to Mosaic which was held at the Mayan Theater. This theater was pretty awesome. You walked in and felt like you were in a cave, Mayan drawings carved into all the stone and a dim atmosphere that left dark corners to your imagination. This by far was the experience that the most thought and energy went into. The band was remarkable. It was basically a mix between Explosions in the Sky with a girl leading the band that sounded like an angel. The sound again was a perfect mix. The two round canvases on the side served as a projector screens for the video art that was happening throughout. Underneath the one canvas was two DJ's playing along with the worship and under the other was a girl doing t-shirt art to the theme of the night. The music was moving (probably because it is closest to the style that I appreciate) and I could feel myself getting that feeling I feel when I'm at a good show. Then the music was over and a bunch of girls walked on stage all mimicking daily routines that we find ourselves in a repetitive pattern. Turning on TV's, jogging hard, sending e-mails etc etc. Then they did a dance to an Imogen Heap song and it was beautiful, all about getting out of routine and being set free. Then they showed a short film which was also great about a super-hero car mechanic, amazing short that was entertaining and had a good message.

Erwin McManus proceeded to talk about a lot of the same things that the previous two speakers I had head shared (or yelled) except he did it in typical motivational speaker style that Erwin delivers all his stuff. His message was all about approaching difficulty, failure and obstacles with optimism, knowing that the things that happen to us and the things that we go through don't define us, rather something else does, namely being created in the image of God. Funny enough, he also referred to Victor Frankel in speaking of his observations with people with optimism in the Holocaust compared to those that gave up.

I can't tell you how odd it was to walk into three different church, completely different churches over the course of a few days. Mosaic is the type of even that I would love to attend. Creative, artsy, beautiful, filled with people my age with my type of music. If I was to plant a church when I was seventeen, I would have wanted it to look exactly like Mosaic. And then Angelus Temple which was basically the goal of my upbringing. Huge, loud, exciting, emotionally driven and charismatic. Angelus Temple would have been the church I would have planted when I was seventeen. Kairos was probably the gathering that most resembled theStory and how we gather. Small, food, conversation, Q&A, comfortable seating and relaxed.

So that was my experiences with all the churches this week.

It's been an interesting trip so far to the Dream Center. I find myself going through ups and downs about how I feel about almost every issue. It's beautiful to see so many people rallied together for the cause of taking care of their surrounding community. The parts that continue to fascinate me are the church services, the conversations and the overall approach to this kind of ministry. I just don't resonate with any of it. I feel like I'm back being seventeen again. However, every connection with a family and every life I see transformed I'm blown away at the impact they are having here.

I spent the morning of yesterday working in the kitchen, helping get the food prepared for all the 300 or so people that eat here every day. It's a pretty cool setup because they have one head chef that basically makes menus out of all the food that is donated to the center. They don't spend money on food at all really. It's wild to think of how many people are sustained purely off the excess of food in the food industry. Then in the afternoon I went around with groups and dropped off food to different Spanish families in poorer neighbourhoods. We probably gave food to about 200 families overall and we go right into their communities and set it up for everyone to come and grab it. It's wild to watch that many families come out of the same area that all need and depend on this food.

Food is a major service of the Dream Center, trying to feed and keep people alive by feeding them all over the city. Their hands spread pretty far with this work and its great to see. This afternoon I went and dropped off groceries to a family of sixteen people who needed food to survive and to not have their children taken away by aid services. This is what affected me the most because I saw relationships being built with this family, so it was cool to see that happening.

Last night on the other hand was a entirely different experience. We went to Angelus Temple (pics to come) and Benny Perez was the special speaker. It's been a long time since I experienced a service like this. We went almost an hour early so I watched as all the youth gathered around the front, usually good looking guys and girls dressed up in their hipster/emo look chatting to each other. It felt remotely like a concert the way everyone was dressed, interacted and looked forward to the upcoming act.

Then came the two black dudes to warm everyone up for the main show. Saying things like "let's put your hands together for Jesus and purple shoelaces" and a bunch of other incoherent stuff that got the crowd excited. Then the lights dropped and for the next forty-five minutes I watched a concert. Different musicians, perfect sound, unbelievable lighting...complete with drum solos (where three drummers played at once), guitar players jumping off their amps and smiles that stretched across the stage. I tell you, it was perfect in every sense of the term. It was everything I hoped for in a worship experience when I was younger at the Pentecostal church times a hundred.

Then Matthew Barnett came up on stage and gave a little offering pep talk. He told us things like our money should go to the church if we want to see good things done with it and not the government because 700 billion dollar bailouts is a waste of our money. He told us that the hope of the world is found in Jesus and the local church and service to the people around us. It was odd for me to hear, the typical offering sermon jargon mixed with truth of justice and generousity. He said a lot in sermon number one of the night.

Then came Benny Perez, who gave a message out of the first bit of Joshua. Typical Pentecostal message of hype and excitement about how God is going to bring us out of everything we are going to and to not be discouraged but be hopeful. The louder he got on his rants of excitement the louder the crowd got cheering him on. He told a story about his own struggle (or flood) about a miscarriage his wife had and how it was hard to deal with but with Jesus he can walk through the middle of any storm or flood. Matthew Barnett constantly jumped up in applause when his rants were at the climax, it was entertaining to watch nonetheless. That's the thing with these speakers, they are captivating. Their stories are dead on, they are funny and they keep you in tune with their constantly lowering and highering of voices. My issue is that they all say the same things and there is never any depth to anything they say. It's the same messages of power, joy, faith and how God will get us through our difficult times and bring us to better times and then we leave it at that. There is no exegesis, no contextualizing, no historical approach to the scriptures....nothing but hype. I still wonder to this day if Pentecostal preachers like this prepare for messages at all or if they just get up and preach. It's not like what they are saying is untruthful, but it just doesn't transfer into people's lives practically. If it does it only lasts for a little while soon do be drowned out by real life. Heck if every day existed inside a beautiful theater with amazing music, emotionally driven preaching and everyone my age, it probably wouldn't be so bad, but it isn't and everyone walks outside and only takes with them the bare essentials to the mystery of the kingdom of God.

For lunch today I grabbed lunch with JR Woodward who is a church planter here in LA of some churches called Kairos. It was a random connection I made through David Fitch, but it was cool to be able to sit down with him and here about what God was doing in his communities across LA. It's always encouraging to hear stories like his, new church plants that God is doing good things through. Seems like we connect on a number of levels with how we see church, the empire and our place within it.

I'm enjoying my time here getting a different taste of what the Dream Center is doing and other people here in LA. Can't say I feel anymore drawn to LA as a city (like my friend Rob who I came with does) than anywhere else I've visited but I'm sure the things I'm experiencing here will help me shape better what a community could look like in Sarnia.

Yesterday I flew to LA to come and spend a week at the Dream Center. I came with my friend Rob. Basically the Dream Center is a place where a church bought out an old hospital and have transformed it into a massive (and I mean massive) rehab/discipleship/justice center. It really is quite beautiful in every sense of the word. Apparently at one point almost everyone who lived in LA was born at this hospital so it has some historical significance.

This morning we helped setup for a food drive that they are doing and this afternoon we are helping alongside of some food trucks a few minutes from here. There is people everywhere all taking part in different projects. There is a massive discipleship program where people who have been struggling with drugs, sex, alcohol, gangs or even who have just had enough of the grip money has had on them all live on the campus here, serve here and work towards their own rehabilitation and their communities.

I came for a number of reasons. One of the major reasons though was because over the last few years I've become very disenfranchised with Pentecostal, charismatic, conservative, prosperity type ministries, churches and people. I never wanted to get to a point where I couldn't see Jesus working through people that I disagreed with. There is no doubt in my mind that the Kingdom of God is moving forward here and people's lives are being changed, even if I don't agree with their theologies and chosen lifestyles. It's difficult to see Jesus through the worship leader's Porsche I tell ya. Thursday night at Angelus Temple (the church that runs the Dream Center) is having Benny Perez as their speaker, and then next week Bishop TD Jakes, so it is stretching for me. I'm just learning that amongst all the things I disagree with and are so easy to be upset about, Jesus is moving and it is beautiful.

I also came because I see the potential of stuff like this in Sarnia. Vineyard does some amazing things right now with the marginalized in Sarnia, and hopefully theStory can join forces with them to be able to reach more people. Being at a place like this gives me hope and inspiration for the future of what could be.