Getting Connected with Dwell

About a month ago, our elders, staff, and deacons meet to pray and plan through things our church should focus on in the coming year. The main theme that drove our retreat was rhythms. Paul says in Ephesians 5:15-16, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” There is a single verb for the phrase "making the best use of the time" that means redeem or buy up. We must actively resist the pull of sin and evil in the world and take advantage of opportunities to do good and grow in holiness.

After reflecting on the last year, who we are, and what kind of people live in San Jose we needed a way to get build stronger community in our church and with our friends and neighbors. This led to us doing some more detailed research on who lives in our city. San Jose is extremely diverse and also younger than most cities. Its primary demographic however is affluent families and this is especially true in our immediate neighborhood. One of the more notable pieces of information we gathered was the value of recreation in comparison to the general US population. Whether due to the riches of outdoor activities and favorable climate in the Bay Area or seeking a release from the pressures of work, people seek things to do for fun.

Therefore, we identified simple and consistent ways we can connect with people, especially families and working professionals. Things that most of us do frequently anyway. The other value is to have something you would feel comfortable inviting someone to. You can see the various things we have planned on our church calendar on our website. They are as follows:

1) Every 2nd and 4th Saturday morning at 10am several of us will be at a local park. Our kids can play together and maybe a few of us adults can have a conversation! This is a good opportunity for parents of young children to connect.

2) Thursday nights at San Pedro Market at 7pm. If you haven't checked out the cool San Pedro Market downtown you should. There are numerous great places to eat, desert, live music, and plenty of places to hang out. Anyone can come but this is geared towards those who don't have to worry about "bedtime."

3) Every 4th Friday we will have a movie night. This last week we showed Big Hero 6 and had more 40 people come and half were friends of people in our church. Sometimes the movie will be family oriented and sometimes it will not be. Stay tuned for what comes next!

4) "Adventure Saturday." This last month we had the Dwell Golf Tournament which was a great success. The idea here is that people in the Bay Area, and our international students in particular, like to go and do new things. I once read the quickest way to make friends in the Bay Area is to try new stuff. Well, thats the premise here.

How does this connect with our overall ministry? Our largest gathering is for Worship on Sunday morning. Our Gospel Groups meet during the week for fellowship, Bible Study, and prayer. But we have lacked more casual and inviting spaces to build relationships with people and share the love of Christ. We call these "Affinity Groups" that we believe will fuel mission and community both for our groups and for us individually. If Sunday morning worship is our "front door" and individual relationships and groups are a "back door," we hope these opportunities will provide a natural "side door" into the ministry of our church.

Are there other fun get-togethers or activities you want to see happen? You are more than welcome to get something going. These are ones that we thought we should not neglect and we hope it fosters deeper relationships both with each other and with Christ through our love for people.

Remember to keep checking out our calendar at http://www.dwellsj.com/#!calendar/c1jx9

In Christ,

Pastor Chris

Things you need to listen to, to understand race, white privilege, Ferguson, and the Gospel

I am not going way into the specific issues of the death of Michael Brown, but rather the cultural problems in this country that make it difficult for us to speak the same language on the same terms.
Ferguson seems a long way away from San Jose, CA... but then again it is very close to home and the privilege that comes with living in Silicon Valley.

I will give you one example. Nearly every tech company in Silicon Valley has finally had to own up to the fact that they are run and filled by mostly White and Asian men. I don't think it is conscious or intentional racism but a subconscious lack of awareness to the privileges afforded these groups in this valley. This illustrates the key disconnect for many Whites on the issue of racism and racial injustice in this country. The problem is not primarily "bad life choices" and a "ghetto culture" but blindness to privilege and opportunities available to Whites and many Asians. This is stuff that no app will fix. Its insane to me that many think these issues can be addressed with better hiring policies or that some even entertain the fact software and education will resolve it. Its chiefly a spiritual problem of pride, arrogance, and blindness to cultural privilege. The appropriate fruit of the gospel is humility regarding your advantages and embracing others different from you in Christ, not self-righteous pride in that you worked harder, made better choices, or are more talented.

For me personally, I woke up to these realities slowly but one story from a prominent ministry leader in inner-city Denver, Jeff Johnson, crystallized it for me. He recounted working with some African-American teenage boys through his ministry. These were good Christians doing good work in inner-city Denver. They were meeting at Starbucks when out of nowhere a couple of police cars pulled up, grabbed one of the kids he was working with, and aggressively arrested him. Jeff pleaded with the cops saying, "He is a good kid. You got the wrong one." This kid was calm throughout and essentially said, "This is our life." That is when Jeff realized, when the cops show up white people are relieved, but African Americans are often scared something bad is about to happen. I was never scared when the cops came to bust us while I was partying in college. My response was more of a "Dang, we got busted," and frequently felt free to joke with the cops about it in the moment! I had no fear someone was going to jail, be beaten, or get shot. (Here is a great vid basically showing the same thing: http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/how-should-you-respond-to-ferguson)

For me, the most beautiful experiences in church is when I have experienced unity in Christ with diversity - culturally, racially, and economically. But these are experiences have been sadly rare, for unity in diversity is intrinsic to the gospel and it is my conviction this is our only hope.

Ephesians 2:13-16
¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 

A sermon you should listen to:
Matt Chandler is a pastor in Dallas, TX and head of the Acts 29 network and I am super encouraged by the direction he is taking the previously way too "hipster white guy" Acts 29 church planting network. LISTEN to this sermon.
http://www.vergenetwork.org/2014/11/24/lets-talk-bluntly-about-race-matt-chandler/?mc_cid=ab224dee3f&mc_eid=5b33394c6f

A brief word calling us to brotherly love in the church by Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Ethics Commission:
http://www.russellmoore.com/2014/11/24/ferguson-and-the-path-to-peace?utm_content=bufferaaa73&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

An article showing the social divide that makes us blind to the issues, look at the charts if nothing else:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/08/self-segregation-why-its-hard-for-whites-to-understand-ferguson/378928/

Also, a bunch here by Leonce Crump (a black A29 guy) and others:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2014/august/its-time-to-listen-saved-and-silent-will-white-evangelicals.html?paging=off

Online dating preferences:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/facebook-data-reveals-how-weirdly-racist-we-are-when-it-come

Join me in weeping over our sins and the tragedy in Ferguson, and longing for the kingdom where all are one in Christ on earth as they are in heaven.

From Pastor Jason: Don't Wait and See ... Go and Do

Thank you. Laura and I were glowing with gratefulness all day Sunday. And perhaps even a bit on Monday. The love and generosity you all showed us was amazing. Thank you for listening to me preach one more time. Thank you for feeding us. Thank you for sharing great memories with us. Thank you for reminding us of all that God has done over the past few years. And thank you for my awesome watch! 

We were blessed beyond deserving. You have sent us off to Chicago, into our next adventure, with locked arms and tons of Jesus-style affection. Thank you my friends.

Now what?

No matter how long a lead pastor has been in office, no matter how long a church has been around, no matter how long you’ve been a part of church life … when a lead pastor steps away the temptation is always the same. We want to wait and see. Often one of our first impulses after saying goodbye is to hold our community at arms length. Not only so but sometimes we kept our distance until we feel like it’s safe to reengage. We wait and see.

This temptation is actually the result of believing two different lies. The first lie is that community can still happen at arms length. And second, that community was safe to begin with. Community can’t happen at arms length. Community is not safe. But community is the very thing God has given to his people in order to walk through times just like this.

Starting today, don’t wait and see … go and do. The brilliant thing about the Church’s mission is that it hasn’t changed in 2000 years! Jesus has fulfilled the law and the prophets and he has called us to be salt and light in the world. In other words, there’s nothing to wait for. The only thing left is to go and do what God has already shown us. So …

Go and love each other. 

Go and share meals together as a Gospel Group.

Go and tell the Little Dwellers about Jesus on Sunday Mornings.

Go and be good news at Apple and Cisco and Google and in your neighborhood and in your home and to your spouse.

Go and listen to your barista as she shares her life story.

Go and learn more about that homeless man you see everyday down the street.

Go and read your Bible and pray and fast … and repeat.

Go and take your wife on a date.

Go and take you husband on a date.

Go and date!

Go and disciple your children.

Go and volunteer the next time an opportunity pops up in the bulletin.

Go and bring someone with you.

Don’t wait and see what happens next. 

Instead go and do what God has called you to do.

Perhaps you’ve heard me share this a number of times before, but I don’t care. As always the question isn’t, have you heard this before? The question is, do you believe it? … A day is coming when we’ll get to tell these stories of going and doing. We’ll all be together in a refreshed and revived and remade world in the full view of God's glory and grace. And then we’ll start sharing. Story, after story, after story, after story. And you know what we’ll be saying?

This is what he did …

This is what he did …

This is what he did …

Until that day ... 

Peace …

- Jason

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Helveston's New Address: 514 N. Damen Ave Unit 2S, Chicago, IL 60622

Jason's New Email: jhelveston@parkcommunitychurch.org

Helveston's New Phone Numbers: Staying the same for now. We'll let you know when it changes!