La Fe carries a lot of significance. In Spanish, La Fe means the faith. In InterVarsity-speak, La Fe also stands for Latino Fellowship, representing the needs of over 35 Latino staff and 1,200 Latino students across the country.As part of my ministry with InterVarsity, not only am I responsible for nurturing la fe lives of college students, but I’m also priviledged to serve the ministry of La Fe in InterVarsity in a few capacities. Locally, here in Los Angeles, we now have a team of staff - full-time & interns - that serve together to empower & advance Latino ministry to reach and serve the 350,000 Latino college students here in the greater L.A. basin. Tomorrow night we’ll have our first of 4 training/leadership meetings for this group of staff, and we’ll plan and prepare for the “Cumbre de Alabanza” event on November 17th.In addition, I also serve (as the lone gringo) on the National La Fe Servant Leadership team - a coordinating team of staff from La Fe for the broader ministry of InterVarsity across the country. As the only non-Latino on the team, I’m still finding my place, trying to listen carefully for exactly what it is that God has me on that team for. Not that I doubt my own commitment to ministry in the Latino community. But offering national (or even local) leadership as a gringo is a dance that I’m still learning the steps for.

Regardless, though, I’m travelling Thursday morning to meet through Sunday with that team and the other ethnic-minority leadership teams in InterVarsity for a historic first meeting. While each ethnic-minority community has had a leadership team for 10-15 years, this will be the first time that all 3 teams have gathered jointly to discuss & grow the ministry of InterVarsity nationally. Again, my place at the table in these meetings will be unique, as I discern what role I am to play. Lots to learn, that is for sure.

In just over a month - on Friday, November 17th at 7pm - we’ll have our 3rd Annual “Cumbre de Alabanza” at Community Baptist Church in East Los Angeles. In Spanish, cumbre means summit, and these meeting serve as a summit of worship & prayer, a gathering of Latino college students from across Los Angeles as we seek to raise up the next generation of Christian disciples and barrio prophets at the university.Abner Ramos, on staff with InterVarsity at East LA College - and a true barrio prophet in his own right - will be speaking from the text of Jeremiah 12. Click here to read about how Abner has caught a glimpse at the heart of God in his own journey as a barrio prophet.

READ: Barrio Prophets intro + (a), (b), and (c).

And I don’t think we’re even over the hump yet. In the midst of it, I find myself flipping between centering my heart on rejoicing in the midst of suffering & then engaging God with cries of deliverance. For those of you who pray, please do. Email me & I can be more specific about things. I’m not trying to be understated, just discrete.On the upside - ’cause there generally is one even when times are tough - two students - Cindy & Le - gave their lives to Jesus this week. Both women have been seeking things out in the ministry for the past several months, so it was a beautiful thing to celebrate them committing their loves to Jesus. Le prayed, “Jesus, when I first met you, I wouldn’t give up control of my life. But now I renounce control of my life into your hands.” It was beautiful.

Also, I got a call from our 2nd social worker - Rachel - scheduling our home inspection for next Wednesday!!! There are several “small” details left to finish, so the weekend will be focused on finishing. Anyone who is free is welcome to come over on Saturday to help out with the odds and ends.

Finally, after much sweating & sore muscles, Vero & I helped our friends Francisco & Gabbi (and kids Paco & Lupe) move across town. They are now managers of a 32 unit apartment complex that is about 3-4 blocks from our house. Again, more great neighbors moving into Boyle Heights. That is a good thing. Gabbi will probably end up being a significant source of child-care down the road (literally & figuratively) for us!!

This past Saturday, we took 3 students from InterVarsity DEEP at CSULA down to Trinity Presbyterian Church in Santa Ana with over 200 InterVarsity students from across Southern California, to IGNITE - a day long evangelism training.It was a great day - both for the training that the students recieved, as well as for the time to spend with them talking about evangelism, their lives and this coming school year, which starts Saturday with moving in new students into the on-campus housing units.

In addition to Saturday & moving in new Students, we are having out 2nd annual pre-fall “VIP - Vision, Impact, Purpose” Conference Sunday night through Monday afternoon. We’ll be gathering students together before school starts next Thursday to vision for the upcoming year about how we can ‘get onboard’ with what God is going to do on campus this year.Then on Tuesday, we’ll have our first “DEEP” service of the new year. The message will be from Luke 19 about Jesus & Zacchaeus - focusing on how college is more about the unofficial things - like people - and how much people matter to Jesus. Pleas pray for us.

Thursday night, Veronica & I drove down to CSU Fullerton to with Jacque & Britney, two juniors from CSU Los Angeles. I spoke out of Mark 6:17-29 about character versus crowd pleasing or charm or circumstance as the ruling force in our lives. After contrasting the character and choices of John versus Herod, I said,

“Like Herod, we need to make a choice. Will we continue to have our lives determined by our circumstances or by the people around us. People without character, like Herod, or Herodias, or her daughter, or the crowds. They are influenced by the circumstances that they are in. Or they’re influenced by the charm of pleasing others. Or even worse, they’re deceived into thinking that they’re charm is actually a substitute for character.Or, will we choose to pursue integrity & be people of character, like John. People who not only are not shaped by their circumstances, and ndeceivedved by the false substitute of charm, but people of character who influence those around them to develop their character, who influence others towards living rightly before God.”

Afterwards, I talked with several students about the message. One guy, Cesar, said to me, “Before tonight I thought I knew what character was. I thought it just meant standing for anything.” When I asked him what he thought now, he said, “I realize that it is much more. That having character involves my thoughts & my choices & how I react to all of the circumstances of my day.”

May God bless the Cesars in the room to have the life of Jesus deepen their character.

This Thursday I’ll be traveling down to the O.C. to speak at the InterVarsity Chapter at Cal.State Fullerton. They are doing an “MTV series,” incorporating hit shows into the message for the night.This Thursday, the show is Punk’d, by Ashton Kutcher, and I’ll be speaking out of Mark 6, the story of Herod & John the Baptist. The services starts at 7:30pm if anyone wants to come.

I mailed out our summer ministry letter on Thursday if you want to read it online.

Two of my students - Curtis Parker Jr. and Jacque Lamont Herman - are performing in a new urban gospel musical that runs this weekend. The show has had excellent reviews in Atlanta, Georgia and parts of South Carolina.

“Fathers are vital to the process of a developing child. This play looks at the qualities and consequences of an absent father. People suffer extremely when a father is not there for mental, physical, and spiritual support. The play is designed to recognize the importance of fathers. The playwright constructed this piece from a personal perspective, however the messages that are so deeply engulfed cross culture in a very tangable way.

Ultimately, the most important of the messages is that only our Heavenly father can heal, redeem, and sanctify the scars of an absent father. Each character in this play interacts on positive and negative levels over this universal truth.

Prepare to engage all your senses when watching this performance. You’ll hear superb singing, watch dynamic acting skills, feel the need to laugh or cry, and you will certainly be given a taste of reality. “Father Me” is a worthwhile experience.”

If you don’t have plans for this weekend we’d love to see you there. Veronica & I are hoping to make the Sunday afternoon show. Here is the info if you can make it:

August 5th & August 6th: 7:00pm
Sunday, August 7th: 3:30pm

Washington Preparatory High School
10860 South Denker Ave.
Los Angeles, Ca 90047

DIRECTIONS
110 South — Exit Century and make a right
Left on Denker — Drive about four blocks
School is on the left side

$12 General Admission
$10 presale
$5 on Sunday’s matinee for Students w/ ID

If you have any questions or want to buy presale tickets, call Jacque at (323) 224-9515.

While Veronica & I were in Chicago at the end of June, we visited with a staff peer and friend of ours, Sandra Van Opstal, who is directing the Chicago Urban Project (CUP). CUP is one of 52 urban projects sponsored by InterVarsity around the country. Read more about what students are experiencing through urban projects.

Sometimes college ministry is challenging tough. Other times it is meant to be the opposite - fun and restful. Last Friday it was the latter. My mom was generous enough to open up her home to have a Friday afternoon pool party for the students from InterVarsity DEEP at CSULA. After a month of energy-sapping heat, we spent an afternoon just relaxing in and around the pool. Lots of laughing. No stress. Just a good time to connect and slow down.

Yesterday, despite the record heat, was in many ways just another day. Driving down to meet my friend Nate, one of my guys, Jacque, returned an earlier message I left. Jacque and his roomate Curtis are two of the more creative and talented actors that I know. They are preparing for a play entitled “Father Me,” which opens in a few weeks.

Jacque & I from the Gospel Choir concert in May
Then I met Nate at Starbucks in Southgate. Knowing Nate for 9 years now - as a staff partner, a roomate, and the bestman in each other’s weddings - I’m both excited and bummed to see him prepare to move to Turkey to serve with IV Link in developing a student ministry there. As we talked, one interesting theme came up from 1 Samuel about David not needing nor being able to wear Saul’s armor. We talked about the need to step out from underneath the weight of false expectations and models of ministry that work for others, but don’t fit us. I got a chance to pray for a friend that I highly value and a ministry partner that I deeply respect.

Nate & I at his wedding
In the middle of my time with Nate, I got another phone call from a staff friend, Harvey Cozart, who ministers in Kentucky with his wife Melissa. I met Harvey in 1998 at my first National InterVarsity staff conference. We were both considering joining staff with InterVarsity full-time. 7 years later, we’re still here. Harvey just got back from Ghana in West Africa. He was leading a global project with 25 InterVarsity students and staff. I’m trying to get him to come out to LA in October to be our speaker at our annual Fall Conference at Campus by the Sea. Harvey is a gifted evangelist and a man of deep character. Though we minister in different parts of the country, he is a real ministry peer. If he is able to make it out in October, we’ll probably tack on a few days just to connect and hang out.

In St.Louis last January with Harvey and Melissa
After, I made it back by noon to the melting pot that I call home - because, yes, my house is an oven. Forgetting the general wisdom about not using appliances during the day, I met Jen & Tara, who came over for the free laundry. I left them, to escape to another Starbucks - and I don’t really even drink coffee - to escape the heat. I met my neighbor and staff partner, MarkYim, to get a little work done. Just as my student Alex came by, I got a call from James Rojas of the MTA (and moderator of the Latino Urban Forum). Some of you will remember the seemingly random artist connection that I made a month ago. Well, James was calling me to talk about somehow incorporating a mural tour of Boyle Heights (that I had made as a hobby project 4 years ago) into the East LA Metro Extension that is set to open in 2007.After setting a time with James, Alex and I talked about the potential of taking a group of CSULA students from DEEP to Uganda next summer. Alex, who is from Kampala, the capital of Uganda, is a prayerful young man with a deep faith and a great heart. I haven’t been out of North America - for ministry or otherwise - since going to Romania in summer 1992, so I’m eager to see how God might work through this opportunity to go to Africa. Please pray for us.

Alex (left) talking with Yolanda after DEEP
I stayed a Starbucks after Alex left to go to work, mostly for the air conditioning. Appropriately, Veronica called me from Frye’s Electronics where she was looking at purchasing a portable AC for our house. We didn’t pull the trigger - yet - but we’re seriously considering making the investment. Before I left, I also got a call from Latanya, a sophomore at CSULA who plays on the volleyball team. She is trying to get her driver’s license before her permit expires in August, so we are going to practice in my van so that she can use it for her driving test next week.

Latanya and I after one of our DEEP meeting this spring
Back home before dinner and dripping with sweat, I hung out with Tara & Jen as they finished up the laundry. The hot thing for college students right now, as they showed me, is a website called myspace.com, where you can set up a website & chat with friends and meet people. Under my apparently “screwtinzing eyes”, they showed me their sites. Jen jokes, “I feel like I’m sitting here with my dad, getting my clothes approved before I go out. I’m going to put up a bulletin for eveyone, warning them that now you know about myspace.” More parenthood preparation for me.

Looking for more heat, I closed the night by taking a group of CSULA students - Jen, Tara, Ritz, Rachael and Christy - to a seminar on Amos 1-3, that is part of the Los Angeles Urban Project (LAUP). LAUP is a 6-week intensive urban ministry internship sponsored by InterVarsity for the past 18+ years. LAUP draws 100+ college students to partner with local urban ministry sites for the summer. This year, we sent one student from CSULA, Karen, to LAUP. It was great to see her and it was a powerful evening in the Word. Amos, if you’ve never studied it, is a powerful read. As we sang the words to a song “God hears the cry of the poor - blessed be the Lord,” I was reminded of the good news that the Gospel is.

Plus, it was great to see a lot of people. One of my new staff partners, Jen Blue, was doing the teaching from Amos with her husband Kevin. I saw several LA-area students that I’ve gotten to know through the “La Fe” events that we’ve begun to serve Latino students. To my surprise, I saw Cynthia, a senior from Stanford. I met Cynthia 3 yeara go when Veronica and I taught at a conference for Latino students in the Bay Area, and I had seen her recently in January at the 1st ever National La Fe student conference in San Diego. She is from LA, so we are going to get together when she is done with LAUP.

From back in 2003, Cynthia and I at Latino student conference
Looking back over the day, I realized how much of my day was centered around different people and the activity of God in their lives. It is a real priviledge for me to have days like yesterday, as I realize that my heart melts more than my body in the experience of God’s power, God’s truth and the incredible love that we have in Jesus.

Studying the Proverbs this summer, this past Tuesday night we looked at 13:7

“Some pretend to be rich, but have nothing;
Others pretend to be poor, but have great wealth.”

Our time in the Word confirmed how much I love teaching the Bible. We got real about how we “pretend to be rich” by using credit cards, or by buying things that we don’t need, or by eating out when we have food at home, racking up debt on things that don’t even last. One girl shared, “I bought a CD the other day, using my ATM card even though I didn’t have a lot of money in my account. So not only did I ’spend’ $10 I shouldn’t have, but then I got hit with over-draft fees.” Ouch!

It was an honest discussion about the false views of wealth that we have, and even more about the false views of ourselves that we try to create with how we spend or even think about money.

As I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about money in our country (I’m about to start reading The World is Flat with my friend Walter), I was proud of my students and friends for having the courage to talk about money, with each other, honestly. May that be a character trait that continues for many years in their life.

Below is a letter from Jim Tebbe, Director for Urbana 06, the tri-annual student missions conference to be held in St. Louis Missouri in December 2006.

So far, over $130,000 given. Click here to give towards the remaining $620,000 of this matching gift.

One of the joys from Jennica’s wedding this past Saturday was hosting our friend Gabbi, who came and stayed with us Thursday until she left last night. I met Gabbi my senior year at Oxy (1996) when she and Jennica were frosh in the dorm I lived in. At the end of that year, though, she had to transfer, and went back Oregon to go to school.We’ve kept in touch over the past 9 years - I took a trip up to Portland after I graduated, Gabbi has visited in Los Angeles with Jennica - but it had been a while since we caught up on each other’s lives. So Sunday afternoon, after all of the wedding festivities were over and after Vero & I had preached at 2 services at church (worth its own post), we came home and hung out with Gabbi until her plane left in the late afternoon.

As we shared old stories about her year at Oxy, our conversation turned more serious. She said, “Scott, my memory of that year, honestly, is just darkness and light. I don’t really remember all of the year.” Ironic, I told her. That year - and how I saw God work in her life - changed me. As I look back on 9 years of campus ministry, my experience with God ministering to Gabbi was the most significant single factor in how God spoke to me about my call to ministry.

Funny thing, though. For all of the times that I’ve told Gabbi’s story - in my preaching, with my staff teams and friends - Gabbi had no idea. Yesterday, as we shared deeply about how God had been at work in us both since that year, she shared, “I had no idea. I’ve often wondered, with some regret, about why God had me come down to LA. I’m so encouraged to know that God was doing so much for you, not just for me.”

So much, in fact, that I remembered that I shared my story of that year with Gabbi in the introductory chapter to a book proposal that I’m working. In response to my experience with Gabbi, I wrote,

“I saw God in a whole new way - God’s persistence in how he kept initiating with me; God’s strength in how he kept building me up when I felt lame; God’s power in how he kept me going when I often wanted to give up. Gabbi was changed by God. But so was I.”

Gabbi & I sometime during my senior year at Oxy.

Gabbi & Jennica: Then & Now.

Last night marked the official close to the school year for me and the young men of 2 Deep. We ended things right with a BBQ, catching the beginning of the NBA Finals before getting into our last study from the Epistle of James. (For any who know most guys, that should tell you something about these ones that they put studying the Bible over the NBA Finals)I asked them what superhero powers they would want. Some said ’spidey-senses’, others super strength or telekinesis. Cutis said, “I’d like to fly.” When I asked them why that superpower versus the others, Curtis replied jokingly, “Think of all the money I’d save on gas.”Then we looked at the end of chapter 5:

“Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.”

I talked about how, unfortunately, we don’t have any superpowers, and following Jesus doesn’t make us superhuman. Rather, it is our connection to God, our intimacy with Jesus in prayer, that puts us in touch with the superpower of the world. We kept it real as we talked about our prayer lives and how we needed to grow over the summer. The three main themes of people’s sharing was - 1) Habits of prayer, 2) Humility, both approach God with our needs, and also to pray for others, and 3) Hunger for God in prayer, thirsting for more intimacy with God.

And then we got practical with each other, setting goals for the kind of men of prayer that we want to be by summer’s end. It wasn’t anything heroic, but it was powerful to see honest, real openness about prayer in our lives. My prayer over us as we ended is that we would be men that prayed “rain stopping kind of prayers,” powerful and effective results of fervant prayers offered in faith.

Curtis & me - before gas-saving flying powers.

This photo from Friday’s Banquet just cracked me up. I blew it up so you could see the comic expression on Curtis’ face “accepting” a gift for the VIP - Vision, Impact, Purpose - Leaders from Deep.

Now look a little closer…

You heard it hear first: Someday he is going to win an Oscar. Or a Grammy.Or one of those awards for his acting. And I’m not kidding,either.

As one whose work involves teaching the Bible to college students, biblical relevance is always on my mind. “Am I living a biblically relevant life?” or “What are the relevant issues from this section of Scripture for my students?” I never get to far away from the importance of relevance, not because college students are more righteous in their search for relevance. Probably just so inundated with images, options and information that the question of relevance is always in their face.So my study through the letter of James with our men’s group - 2 Deep (see previous post + recent InterVarsity article) - has been particularly challenging to me in the area of relevance. For starters, in my desire to have integrity and depth in my study, I’ve been trying to read through James in my own personal time in the Word. Jame’s strong exhortations and moral straigh-talk wake me up straight on days when - if I’m honest - I just want a nice Psalm about God’s love. When I just want to think about myself, basically, James has pressed me out of my narcissitic box to consider faith in more corporate and collective ways - like how I treat people around me, how I speak to people and about people, how I use my money and how I view wealth.

For example - in response to God’s love - James says things like this from ch. 5:

^“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you… You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.”

David Nystrom - N.T. professor at North Park Seminary in Chicago - says this about this section of James: “The reason is not their wealth per se, but the fact that they have not sought to use their wealth to alleviate the sufferings of the poor. In fact, their desire for wealth is the cause of much of this suffering in a direct fashion, for the poor work for the [rich] landowners.”

It is not enough to avoid the evil uses of wealth - we are accountable for whether or not we’ve applied our wealth to the issues of justice and righteousness. Then I read articles about employers that deny wages to employees, or executives that use their money and power to influence judicial outcomes, and I realize how relevant James is.

But before I distance myself from “those people” - my eyes have been opened to realize that - while I like to consider myself “middle class” - the Bible generally only speaks of people in terms of rich and poor. And as much as I don’t like to face the music, I must consider honestly which camp I am.

Nystrom continues about James, saying, “The ancients knew the acidic power of money. Seneca said, “Unfortunately, we esteem a man for his wealth, and not for his soul.” James call us to a sudden opening of our eyes, to see that as evangelicals in the wealthiest nation in human history, we bear a responsibility to understand the power and peril of our wealth, and to use it responsibly.”

D*@#!, if only relevance weren’t such a pressing issue…

On Friday, we celebrated our end of the year banquet at B.C.’s in Pasadena. It was a great night for getting dressed up. Here are a few photos.

• My 2nd favorite twins - Jessica and Jennifer. (FYI - I’m a twin)
• Only Brown on Black love here - Jacque & “Mama” Veronica

InterVarsity DEEP’s new staff team - Jen, Veronica, myself, Una, and Maite

Thanks for the smile, Charles. Lighten up, Andy. That’s better.

Look at these people! Beautiful!

More… tough guys.

I mean this post to no way offend those with the biological “Attention Deficit Disorder,” but my friend and sparring partner Abner Ramos like the term from a message I gave last night from Luke 17 and suggested I coin the term.I used the term last night to talk about “those people out there” - none of those reading this post - that have a spiritual attention deficit disorder. The tell-tale signs are a constant need for attention to be paid and recognition given to their spiritual lives.

In sharing a testimony, for example, they often focus primarily on their faithfulness to God, instead of God’s faithfulness and mercy to them. Or in lieu of centering their sharing on giving thanks for what God has done, they focus on giving advice to others about what they should do.

Maybe “Spiritual Attention Deficit Disorder” isn’t they best name - but a rose by any other name is still a rose. Please don’t name any names, but do you know any other character traits of this malady?