I had quite fun over the past couple of days. It started on Friday night as I got to go see one of my favorite bands "X" at The Catalyst nightclub here in Santa Cruz. I recently was joking with Brad and Ben from the Catalyst (the leadership conference) that our small club in small Santa Cruz beats them in a Google search for the word Catalyst. I went on Friday night to The Catalyst with a non-church going, non-Christian friend of mine whom I met when he was working at a local coffeehouse. We went out earlier before the show and hung out downtown and then went to the show and had some fun discussion. X was really great. Went up to the side balcony and watched them from there.
The Catalyst is the club where I have seen so many bands over the years I have lived in Santa Cruz. Something that is unique in The Catalyst is that right above the main entry on the inside (so you see it as you walk out) is a statue of Jesus holding a guitar. It is lit up with some neon also. But every time you leave The Catalyst, there is Jesus above your head. At night it is lit up with pink neon, in the daytime, He isn't quite as pink.
I don't know the origin of the Jesus statue holding a guitar, I will have to ask them sometime. I think it is a Fender Stratocaster Jesus is holding. After the X show was over, I went and found another friend of mine I saw inside. I have known him for several years and I have given him a Bible once. So I found him after I said goodbye to my other friend and within a few moments he got fairly serious. He ended up telling me that "he is ready". I asked him "ready for what?" and he shared that he wants to have the "peace" we have talked about. He then said, "I am ready for Jesus Christ". So hearing that, I was pretty thrilled as we have had conversations about this over the years. We are going to meet up and talk more soon. But there we were at midnight chatting about Jesus at The Catalyst. With Jesus and his guitar nearby.
Something I noticed on Friday night at The Catalyst about X, was that they had the normal t-shirts and things for sale. But they had a poster there which was a big white cross with a deep red background. It is interesting how the cross makes its way into art used for a band. I don't know what X believes at all. I did have the opportunity of meeting 3 of the 4 members of X when they were playing in town in another band called The Knitters. The bass player from The Knitters is a Christian and we picked him up from the club in the afternoon when they were doing their sound check and got to meet the band. We then went out for dinner with him and he joined the Bible study we had that night and then the whole study went to see The Knitters. Exene dedicated a song to Becky and I as it was our anniversary. Ironically the song was a rather depressing love song about breaking up. But it was nice having a song dedicated to us none-the less.
When I saw Social Distortion at The Catalyst earlier this year, there was also a cross on the stage. A little neon lit cross you can see in the photo here. It was right behind Mike Ness to the left of his head. I don't know what the meaning of it was, I assume pure decoration. But fascinating again seeing the cross at The Catalyst.
The rest of the weekend was full as we had our fast-track "Church and Mission Class" on Saturday all day. That's our membership class we recently started. Kristin, Josh and I co-teach it and Kristin made a comment about how energizing it is seeing those who are passionately dedicated to the mission that are part of the church. This was a special class for those already serving, so we knew most of them and it is humbling that they choose to serve on the mission at Vintage Faith Church.
Then on Sunday, I taught from 1 Corinthians as we are going through a series within a series going through the entire letter of 1 Corinthians. We are going through chapter 12 now, and we are calling it "Belong" which is stressing how every disciple of Jesus has a place in the body. We noticed that the gatherings are getting really full and we have video overflow right now in both the morning and the evening one. We are launching a second morning one in a few weeks and today we discussed how we most likely have to launch a second evening one pretty soon as well. We are doing some room re-arranging and moving out some of the pews and trying to create some prayer areas again in the room we meet in.
On Sunday morning I met an encouraging young fellow who is in the army and read They Like Jesus But Not The Church while he was in Iraq. He drove with his dad from several hours away to be at Vintage this Sunday while he is on break and back with his family. He heads back to Iraq in a few days for another 6 months. So I hung out with him a little and met his dad. Then had our All-Church leadership meeting Sunday afternoon which was also so much fun to see everyone who is dedicated to the mission all together.
Not every weekend is this refreshing and fun. But this one was. I'm going back to The Catalyst in a few weeks for another show there, so I shall see Jesus and His guitar again. I wonder what people think of that when they see Him there every night as they walk out? I don't know.
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