Welcome Bryant!
I think the L.A. area is in a weird flux right now. There are a whole lot, a
whole lot, of people who are wanting to have these kinds of conversations.
There have been a lot of churches that have taken up new models to reach out
to new generations, but so many of these aren't, as you put it "in the same
place", with the more driving questions so many are asking.
I'm in a different L.A. right now, up in the mountains above San Bernardino,
but it's looking like I'm going to be back in the Pasadena area this summer
or fall, so I'm also very interested in finding more folks engaging in these
conversations and practices.
I'm a huge NT Wright fan as well. I'm a big history guy and I absolutely
love his very grounded historical perspectives. I really grew to like him
in assorted articles he wrote on New Testament criticism as well as the
tremendous update he did for the wonderful book The Interpretation of the
New Testament<http://www.amazon.com/Interpretation-New-Testament-1861-1986/dp/01928...>.
His monumental books on Jesus are quite a task to get through but so, so
valuable and rich.
cheers,
Patrick Oden
On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 12:09 PM, Bryant <brya
...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm Bryant Mathews. I guess I'm supposed to introduce myself here.
> My wife Margaret Lee and I live in West L.A. but attend Epicentre
> Church in Pasadena. We lead one of the church's west side
> "lifegroups" on Fridays.
> We're Ph.D. students at UCLA (math and social welfare) and my wife
> also works in policy for the Department of Mental Health. We've spent
> time teaching in China and are looking to live overseas in the
> future. I grew up in a Reformed Church in America church in Michigan,
> my wife in a Korean presbyterian church in L.A., though we don't
> identify much with those worlds anymore. We've been heavily
> influenced by InterVarsity.
> I'm reading Tony Jones' The New Christians at present. I've been
> hearing about Emerg(ent/ing) for a long time and have read a couple
> books, but until now haven't really plugged in very much. From what I
> know so far, Mar and I definitely resonate with what is going on in
> Emergent. We've been asking questions for awhile now about atonement
> theology, politics, ways of doing church, etc. We love our church and
> are committed to it, but it is not necessarily in the same place we
> are on some things, so we're looking forward to meeting some other
> like-minded folks in L.A.
> By the way, I'm a huge N.T. Wright fan, in case there are more of you
> out there. I took a class with him on resurrection 7 or 8 years ago
> and have read everything I could of his since that time. Not sure
> where my faith would be today if I hadn't encountered his work.
> peace,
> Bryant
