The Hsu’s Views

Here are a few photos from our last U40 meeting at Point Loma Nazarene University on Jun 14, 2008. Click through for more.

Hey Friends,

I’m looking forward to connecting with you all next Saturday, Jun 14th at Point Loma Nazarene University. With next Saturday’s meeting we will be moving to an every other month schedule and meeting from 9am to Noon.

Jason will be facilitating our conversations about how we might sustain a Kingdom movement that transforms San Diego with the gospel. I look forward to sharing with you all how God seems to be using our little group and some interesting initatives that are bubbling forward from our interaction. Add some worship and fair trade coffee and, well, what more could you want?

Feel free to invite anyone who would benefit from or contribute to our network of Kingdom-minded leaders.

Please let me know how many of you are planning on attending:

- via email: at geoff@thehsus.com
- via Facebook: (Note that the title of the event still says Jun 7th, just ignore it.)

Date: Saturday, Jun 14th
Place: Point Loma Nazarene University - Colt Forum
Time: 9a - Noon. Plan on grabbing someone to fellowship with over lunch.
Cost: Please consider a donation toward Jason and Brooke Evan’s Summer Road Trip/Book Tour/Cooking demo spectacular.

Questions?

Geoff

The author of this book, David T. Olson, has collected a database of over 200,000 churches and has apparently done a good job of comparing and contrasting those numbers with Census data to present some alarming facts about the state of the church in America.

You can find additional information at the book’s website, including Powerpoint presentations specific to cities like our own, San Diego.

For a six-minute glimpse into the research watch the YouTube teaser below:

Hey Friends,

Our next meeting will be on June 7th 14th, from 9am to Noon at Point Loma Nazarene University. We’ll be in Colt Forum. (Note the change from the 7th to the 14th.)

We are making a few changes beginning with this upcoming meeting. In response to input from you all, we will be meeting for fewer hours (3), eliminating lunch (and the cost), and moving to an every other month frequency. Our desire is to make things a bit more accessible to a broader audience of people. Plus, if you miss a meeting, you won’t be going half a year between seeing people.

For this coming meeting, our friend Jason Evans will be teaching and facilitating our learning around the topic of sustaining Kingdom communities. From Isaiah to Acts, Jubilee to Kingdom, how can we understand our calling as disciples of Jesus and how do we participate in the gospel of the Kingdom today? From my conversation with him, I think we will be covering some interesting ground including some thoughts regarding the neo-monastic and the ideas of orders/rhythms.

With the new shorter format, I think this is a great opportunity to invite others to network and journey with us. Invite away!

Please RSVP directly to me at geoff [at] thehsus [dot] com or via Facebook.

Geoff

Hey Folks,

Just a reminder of our next U40 meeting next Saturday, Feb 16th. We will be meeting once again on campus at Point Loma Nazarene University from 9am to 2:00pm.

In the time since we last met conversations around who we are have continued to affirm the central reasons for our continued gathering:

• We want to be participating in God’s Kingdom agenda together
• We want to be fostering missional leaders for the church
• We want to be learning, growing, exploring, dreaming and reimagining
• We want to be networking and developing partnerships, collaborations and alliances.

In our next meeting, tentative plans have us continuing our fellowship in smaller groups around several topics:

• A short description of how the language of a covenant community or an “order” is being used recently in conjunction with U40. Might this be a way to think of what we are about?
• Small group discovery around various metaphors found in scripture to refer to God’s people (ie: church, body, family, etc.) Bring your bibles.
• As we have usually done some learning around different facets of what Kingdom calls us to, I’ve asked Yucan Chiu of Ethnos Church to share a few thoughts on cultural and socioeconomic diversity as a reflection of Kingdom. My friend and CRM colleague Craig Hendrickson may be joining us from Long Beach with similar expertise.
• I’d love for us to spend time in prayer for San Diego and Tijuana.

So, get the word out. Invite other like-minded, missional friends that would be blessed to join us as we learn to represent the Kingdom together.

Date: Saturday, Feb 16th
Time: 9am - 2pm
Place: Point Loma Nazarene University at the Fermanian Business Center.
Directions: here.
U40 Annotated Campus Map: here.

Cost: $10 to cover lunch and coffee
RSVP: Please let me know if you are coming so we can coordinate food and such. geoff [at] thehsus [dot] com. Or RSVP via Facebook.

If you want to read ahead:

• My book report on “Divided by Faith.” - Written for a class, it hits a few key ideas behind this great thought-provoking book. Written in 2005 while still on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ.
• Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America - On pp 201 - 214, Roxburgh diagrams a suggested structure for missional communities that we’ll look at briefly. I’d buy the book simply for the treatment of “Kingdom.”

That should do it for now.

Geoff

Pam was interviewed for a story on Fox News 6 on a piece about how firemen select which structures to save in the event of a brushfire. I’m happy to announced that they determined that our structure is defensible because of the distance we are from the brush.

Here is a picture of my lovely wife during the video where she expresses her relief.

BTW, I would recommend finding out about and getting involved with CERT (Community Emergency Response Team). It is a simple program that helps train you to be prepared for disasters and to bless your neighborhood as a first responder when first responders are overwhelmed in a massive disaster.

Fast Company had an interesting article recognizing the urbanization trend of the world and identifying the cities that will actually flourish because they are drawing smart people. These “Fast Cities,” are:

“…cauldrons of creativity where the most important ideas and the organizations of tomorrow are centered. They attract the best and the brightest. The are great places to work and live.”

The cities are listed in categories like Urban innovators, culture centers, startup hubs, and high-tech hot spots. San Diego appears as “on the verge.”

This past weekend at a soccer tournament, squished on the sidelines between two fields, my daughter and I had little choice but to set out our blanket and umbrella next to a pile of peanut shells. Aside from the annoyance of people throwing their trash on the field (I know they are organic and biodegradable) I thought little of them.

I have many friends that do think about peanut shells tossed on the ground. Because those peanut shells can kill a child with peanut allergies. Our friends Kye and Sherry have been raising the awareness of such food allergies. As a physician with a child suffering from such allergies, Sherry (pictured below) has been doing heroic work in town with other like-minded parents. This is Kingdom work by a parent who understands how her calling/vocation can be used to be a blessing to others.

SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune

Peanut-allergic children and their families and friends watched yesterday’s Padres game from a peanut-free zone at Petco Park. The Padres lost their third straight contest to the Mariners, 4-3.

Here is an article about how the San Diego Padres created a Peanut-Free Zone at the park. Such a zone is far more significant that a non-smoking section. The mere presence of peanut shells can send a kid into an adverse reaction. So, please think twice before leaving a pile of peanut shells.

I happened across NBC San Diego’s program called “About San Diego.” The segment I watched on Memorial Day was about San Diego’s movie making history. I guess for a while it was considered Hollywood’s back lot. It was interesting enough to send me to NBC’s website. There is all kinds of good interesting stuff about San Diego and it’s history. I thought I’d post it here for those of us here how are trying to exegete San Diego.

The show airs each Sunday at 6pm and re-broadcast on Monday at 10:30a on MBC 7/39.

Don’t forget about the San Diego Historical Society.  Great resources here on our history.

Things are shaping up for our “Under 40″ meeting next week. We will have a couple of guest speakers. The idea was to bring a few civic leaders from San Diego to visit so we might interview and learn from and about them.

Scott Peters is the San Diego City Council President. He represents District One which include La Jolla and a swath of North Inland. We’re asking him about his hopes for the city, what is going well, and what are the impossible problems. I’m also interested in his thoughts on how the Church might be a blessing to the city.

We’ll also have a couple of presentations from amongst ourselves. Mishe Harvey is the Mentoring Director for the Miles Ahead Mentoring Alliance (MAMA). She will be accompanied by Superior Court Judge Francis Devaney, who joined Miles McPherson to begin this effort to recruit mentors from the faith community to come alongside the neediest youth in our city. Leslie Devaney, former Deputy City Attorney will also be joining us for the presentation.

The other group we will hear from is Floresta. Sarah Check will help us understand how their group addresses environmental degradation and the accompaning poverty in many parts of the world. Their organization presents a very holistic approach and includes micro-credit, community development and discipleship.

Our topic of discussion will be “Kingdom.” We’ll try to flesh out our understanding of how multifaceted the gospel is, and how it can transform lives, communities and our beloved San Diego.