I know I have been doing a horrible job of blogging lately. Mostly because my life is out of rhythm. I hope to be finding more rhythm or the course of the next month. Bear with me. In the meantime, please check out and pass along to your friends the opening of the Rise Up Store online.
Here are some picture highlights from the best vacation in my life. Jill and I traveled for 17 days staying in 10 places in 5 different countries. Our route was as follows: Munich - Venice - Genoa - Cinque Terre - Zürich - Interlaken - Basel - Paris - Amsterdam - Heidelberg - Fussen - Munich. In light of what has been going on in the rest of our lives recently we are not sure when our next trip can be, but we have a fever and the only cure is to get back out of the states.
Mark just told me about this video
I could not resist.
On a related note the Flobots are playing the clubhouse one week from tonight. Anyone interested.
Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
- flobots
Sheriff Joe has been receiving increasing press and increasing criticism recently. He has been going on more "sweeps", Mesa has been the most recent. Recently Sam, Brittany and I joined a group of concerned citizens in attending the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting to ask for accountability in the Sheriff's office. As the MCBS met to approve their fiscal budget, we gathered to share our dissatisfaction with how the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is using our public resources. I was invited to speak to the board of supervisors as a member of the faith community, here is what I told them.
My name is Kevin Anderson, I pastor a church downtown called Oneplace. I am a Phoenix local and a small business owner. I came here this morning as part of Phoenix’s faith community. I am a Christian, so my beliefs and practices are formed by the Scriptures found in the Bible. My statement this morning is animated by the tradition of the prophets who repeatedly called for government accountability.
The prophet Ezekiel spoke out against the political leaders of Israel and said
22:6-7
Behold, the rulers of Israel, each according to his power, have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood. They have treated father and mother lightly within you. The alien they have oppressed in your midst; the fatherless and the widow they have wronged in you.
Texts like this one speak to the necessity of accountability for a regions political leaders and elected officials. It is my belief that the MCSO is acting irresponsibly with its resources and instead of caring for the fatherless, the widow and the foreigner in our midst; Sheriff Joe is using his resources to create a culture of fear. He is pandering to people’s insecurities about change and about people who speak, look and sometimes act different from themselves. He is a divisive figure in our community and misuses his power. His time should be focused on the 70,000 un-served criminal warrants, not sweeping through our city streets engaged in racial profiling.
Being part of a community animated by hope and creativity, I don’t want to just stand here this morning against someone. I would like to be part of a positive creative solution. It is my belief that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors can also be part of a positive solution. You can demand accountability and justice. You can direct the Sheriffs office to act in a way that will not allow the MCSO to as Ezekiel said, treat family units lightly, oppress the aliens in our midst, and wrong the fatherless and the widow. I’d like to thank you for your time and your willingness to hear from us this morning.
Here are two reporters takes on the meeting. In the second, there is a video clip of us marching after the meeting. I took the liberty of taking screen shots of Sam and I in case they panned past us to quick for you to see.
The way my week started last week was not the way that it ended. While, in addition to the news about closing the church, my cars AC went out on and our tenants called to tell us that they would be backing out of their lease, the news last week was not all bad. At both the beginning and the end of the week I had a couple of great opportunities. On Monday my name was on a letter from over 20 Pastors from around the valley that are calling on our elected officials for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. There was a press conference and it made news here and here. Of course they got quotes from the big name pastors, not Mark and I, but it was fun to use our pastoral status while we still have it. On my way home I was listening to conservative talk radio for fun and had JD Hayworth on. He was ranting and raving about these open border, pro illegal pastors... I could not help but smile.
As a side note I would like to point out the comments section of the articles where people get all hot and bothered. There was mention of the pastors driving around in Lincolns. I bring this up because I would like to clarify for those of you who may have read that, Mark drives a 96 S10 and I drive a 2000 Mazda 626. At the time the article was written neither of us even had working AC. Fact check people, fact check.
This is the letter that was sent.
To the Honorable Janet Napolitano, Governor, Senate President Tim Bee, House Speaker James Weiers and the Arizona State Legislature:
As pastoral leaders in Arizona, we express to you our deep concern over the broken immigration system facing our state and our nation. Because of Congress’s failure to pass immigration reform last year, we have seen this debate spill over into our state and public servants have been forced to respond to community concerns over immigration.
Unfortunately, a number of local and state officials have responded by engaging in a public conversation that is dividing our community, confusing enforcement procedures and creating an unwelcoming spirit for many seeking to make Arizona their home. The debate continues to focus on broad fears and assumptions concerning the complex issue of immigration and is made even more complex by less tangible aspects such as racial differences, community identity, and unrealistic assumptions pertaining to the reach of current immigration laws.
As followers of Christ we find in scripture overarching values that guide and direct the way we form our communities and live within our society. Among the most important of Jesus’ teachings was: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Based on our belief in these commandments, we call upon our public servants to work constructively to address the challenges and complexities of immigration. We urge our elected officials to find new, creative ways to answer public concern with legislation that supports the moral fabric of our community, seeking to uphold the dignity and rights of all people while finding proactive solutions to local problems. In seeking such solutions, we willingly offer our time, energy, and ideas, so that the current discussion might move toward greater understanding and respect within our community.
We invite our local officials to work collaboratively with the community to embrace our state’s diversity, maintain an equitable rule of law, and provide tangible solutions to local issues so that our shared sense of community might be restored. We also urge our national representatives to re-engage the immigration reform debate in a civil and respectful manner. We must restore the rule of law in this country, but we must also look with compassion upon the immigrants who are here, working in our restaurants, fixing our homes and caring for our children. In Arizona, we recognize the critical need for a national solution that will unite broken families, invigorate our economy and effectively enforce our borders. We look forward to working together to find common ground on this critical issue.
Dr. Tim Kimmel, President, Family Matters
Dr. Gary Kinnaman, Pastor at Large, Word of Grace Church
Kit Danley, President, Neighborhood Ministries
Orbi Gonzalez, Associate Regional Director for the Southwest, Young Life
Reverend Dr. Benjamin N. Thomas, Sr., Senior Minister, Tanner Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church
Sandy Mason, Senior Pastor, Desert View Bible Church
William Thrall, Senior Pastor, Neighborhood Ministries
Bill Hamilton, Minister, Phoenix, AZ
Jorge Macias, Senior Pastor, Neighborhood Ministries
Ian Danley, Youth Pastor, Neighborhood Ministries
Jim Graham, Senior Pastor, Valley View Bible Church
Rev. Tom Parker, Director, Fuller Theological Seminary - Southwest Campus
Vermon Pierre, Senior Pastor, Roosevelt Community Church
Mark Roberts, Pastor, OnePlace Church
Kevin Anderson, Pastor, OnePlace Church
Gary Nelson, Associate Pastor, Pastor, Scottsdale Vineyard Christian Fellowship
Michael Ledner, Senior Pastor, Desert Springs Chapel
Reverend Arnold L. Jackson, Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer, Tanner Community Development Corporation
Rick Efird, Lead Pastor, Desert Springs Bible Church
This was an interesting week for me filled with highs and lows. It started out with Mark and I making this announcement to the oneplace, our church home. (Mark wrote the first part in 1st person, I wrote the 2nd and 3rd parts)
It has been one of the greatest challenges of my life. I can still remember the day when the onePlace leadership sat down 4 years ago and talked about the future of the church. Some of the leaders were
struggling in their own personal life, others were feeling burnt out, and by the end of that meeting I was the new interim head pastor of onePlace. I remember driving home and thinking, "How did this happen?"
It was never my intention to lead a church and nothing I would have planned for my own life. But when the dust had settled, there we were.
Now here I sit in my yellow chair inside the onePlace building in downtown Phoenix. I serve along side of someone I have a tremendous amount of respect for. I can't believe all the remarkable things we got
to do over the last five years. I'm flooded with stories that could fill a book. Oneplace always seemed to be a place where people came for healing. Many people had broken church experiences and somehow found there way to our back row. It has been a place of renewal and restoration, a place where you were free to ask questions or simply stay silent, a place where we threw birthday parties for our street family, a
place where strangers would ask for cigarettes, a place where we were not satisfied with the shadow or silhouette of God. Oneplace has journeyed with people through some of the most life changing experiences. These are memories that will live with us forever.
There is one thing I've loved most about onePlace. The greatest gift we could receive wasn't money or fame, but authenticity. A quote from one of our core values says, "In this journey together, being real is more important than appearing good." Living in the way of Jesus can be unsettling at time, but love and grace always brought us back around. I will always treasure the last five years of onePlace's journey.
A little over a month ago, we were looking at the churches finances and determined that we likely had money to get us at least until October. Since that time giving and attendance have dropped significantly. A week and a half ago we looked at the finances again and realized that we really only have money to keep the church open through the end of July. In addition to the issues raised by the lack of finances, community involvement and participation seems to have waned over the last couple of months. This realization led leadership to begin a prayerful discussion of the future of oneplace.
For much of the history of the church we have lived not knowing if we would make it much past 6 months and in some ways that made us rely on God for the necessary provisions to enable us to keep the doors open. However, we always operated out of the understanding that when we sought outside funding it would be a temporary effort and we would eventually be self-sustaining. In the leadership meeting we discussed all of our possibilities. We could do another fundraiser, both internal and external, we could try to bring in more revenue by subleasing our facility during the day, we could try and reduce our overhead by finding a cheaper facility or getting rid of having paid staff, we could explore creative alternatives such as merging with another congregation, or we could close down. This conversation was couched in the fact that it was a conversation that had been had before. In fact there were four other similar conversations in the churches history, four times were the answer to the conversation was to give it one more shot and do whatever was necessary to make things happen. This time however, the answer that the leadership came up with was not the same as before.
There seemed to be a real peace from God about celebrating the 5 years that oneplace existed and a desire to see what lay ahead for the people of oneplace without the structure of the church. We all recognized that oneplace was much bigger than our Sunday night gatherings and that God has plans for the people of oneplace to continue to make a difference in the Phoenix area. While we all are experiencing a certain level of sadness with the end of one chapter we look with excitement to the future. We know that the people of oneplace will continue to seek God and practice the core values of Authentic Community, Transforming Love, Holistic Worship, Soul Revolution and Endless Mission.
Since oneplace has been such an integral part of so many of our spiritual journeys as well as a big part of the fabric of our relationships we want to create some formal and informal space to continue to meet with one another. While we believe it will be important for the people of oneplace to seek out new faith communities to be a part of, there are relationships that we want to be able to nurture and maintain. We plan on formally meeting twice a month for a shared meal at people's homes. On the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month we will gather to have a potluck as well as create an environment to maintain personal relationships and have space for intentional spirituality. In other words if someone wants to read some poetry, or bring a guitar for some worship, or lead communion there will be time for that. If this is something that you would like to participate in please respond to this email with your: Name, Cell Phone Number and Email Address. We will compile a list of people who are interested in pursuing this type of intentional community and distribute it to everyone in the group. In this way you can also invite people to participate in informal gatherings, whether it be getting together for Palate on Sundays for brunch or meeting at a pub to discuss a book. There will no longer be any formal leadership so this will truly become whatever we as a community want to get out of it and whatever we are willing to put into it. Jill Roberts will send out a monthly email with the information for whose house we will be meeting at that month as well as a sign up for who wants to bring what to the potluck. As we compile the list feel free to use it to send everyonein the group any other activities that you would like to plan. We will continue to gather on Sunday evenings from now until the end of July.
We would love for you guys to come and hang out with us as we close this chapter of onePlace together. Thank you so much for co-laboring with us over the years. It has been an honor to love and serve you guys.
Mark and Kevin
Starting this Friday Rise Up Phoenix is going to be hosting "Summer Sessions" at the Hotel San Carlos. We will be up at the pool on the 3rd floor with live music being spun by DJ Al. Come have some drinks and chill in the pool to get out of the hot Arizona night heat. The party will go from 10:00p.m.-2:00a.m. and the proceeds from the $5 cover go to Rise Up International in an effort to fight child poverty.
I know that it has been a while since I have posted and I will try to be more disciplined in the month that follows. I actually have a great deal to share. In the mean time I just found out as I am sure you did, that Tim Russert died at age 58 of a heart attack. I did not realize how much a death like this would effect me. I just watched Meet the Press this last Monday when I got back from Europe. I have been watching it every Sunday for the past two years and it was honestly one of the things I missed most when I was in Europe. I felt isolated from what was going on in the States without it. There are not many journalists I really dig, but I always loved the way that Russert would press politicians on things that they said. He always had the best clips qued up from the archives to make the politicians defend thins they said or why they changed their minds. I will miss his candor and his commentary. My heart goes out to his family and friends.
Here are two pictures taken from the Rise Up store this week. They show the competing messages that are present for working migrants in the valley of the sun.
It will come as no shock to anyone reading this post that I am no fan of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his racist dehumanizing agenda. So I am glad to announce to those of you who have not already heard that the governor of our great state, Janet Napolitano has recently pulled his finding on his "immigration sweeps". Read the story here.
I would love to encourage those of you who agree with the governor's actions to let her know that you support her decision by sending her an email or calling her office here.
And finally, to find out more about supporting Arpaio's opposition in the upcoming election you can visit Dan Saban's website here.
“I just felt it was time to stand up and go toe-to-toe with him and tell him this is not right,” “I think what he’s done is terrorize the community.” “he’s gone too far.”
Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, D-District 5,
I just got off the phone with Nole and we were talking about the Radiohead concert I am going to in August at the Hollywood bowl (BTW, they sold out 2 nights at the bowl in 12 minutes). We were talking about the top bands we have not seen but want to and Radiohead was on both of our lists. We also talked about how this would make for a good post and so I wanted to beat Nole to the punch. Here are my top 5 bands I have not seen but really want to. I'd love to hear yours.
5. Coldplay - I heard they put on a great show and I dig their music.
4. Death Cab for Cutie - It is debatable how bad I want to see them because they are coming to Mesa Amphitheater in June and I am not buying tickets. I just don't want to see them at a general admission venue, outiside in the middle of the summer crammed next to a bunch of sweaty teenagers students.
3. Ben Harper - I have not seen Ben mostly because he always goes to Tuscon (effe Tuscon).
2. Radiohead - as I mentioned my thirst will be quenched in August.
1. U2 - I don't have an excuse, I have just blown it a couple of times.
Band I most recently took off the Top 5 was RATM when I got to see them last year at Rock The Bells.
Honorable hip hop mention goes to Talib Kweli.
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