Praying For Hollywood Event

Please join us in the Together In Hollywood prayer event on Saturday July 9th where churches from around Los Angeles will be praying for Hollywood and openly joining together to express our hope and faith in the Lord to impact Hollywood through a series of activities running all day long.

The event will start in Northridge at from 8 a.m - 1p.m. with Pastor Netz Gomez at the Houses of Light Church, 19408 Londelius St, Northridge, CA 91324 then it moves to the Hollywood Prayer Network on Gower where they will have a prayer walk and a walk of faith to strategic Hollywood spots. Finally, we all will reconvene at 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. at Ecclesia Church in the Pacific Theater for spectacular worship and community prayer.

Scheduled to appear at the event are Sid Roth from It's Super Natural , Karen Covell of the Hollywood Prayer Network and more. Please try to attend if you are local or pray with us wherever you are at the times listed above. And, of course, we pray that the Holy Spirit presence will be there also.

Resources:
www.hollywoodprayernetwork.com
www.churchinhollywood.com
www.ca4jesus.blogspot.com/2011/06/day-of-prayer-july-9-2011.html

Cineminklings and Larry Crown

The Cineminklings (a group of Ecclesians who love movies) met as a group to view and discuss the new Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts movie, Larry Crown this past Sunday afternoon at the Arclight Theater on Sunset.

Movie Review:
I couldn't go with the Cineminklings this week but reviews for this movie on industry websites have been poor. I am waiting to hear from the group who saw it but I'm not expecting much.

Update:
The Weekend Box-Office results are in and Larry Crown seems to be tanking. This is a bit surprising with such high profile and award-winning stars as Roberts and Hanks but there last pairing tanked also.

IMHO:
I think Julia Roberts can still do rom-coms that appeal to the 35 and under crowd but Tom Hanks, not so much. Tom Hanks is looking bloated and aged so he needs to give up rom-com and stay in dramas or super-natural thrillers or if he does rom-com he needs to star paired with older award-winning actresses like Streep, Glen Close, Helen Mirren and Diane Keaton. I do think there is still some rom-com mileage left in Julia Roberts especially if paired with younger male stars like Ryan Reynolds (ala Sandra Bullock) or Gerard Butler or Colin Farrel (ala Jeniffer Aniston) which might be highly entertaining.

4th of July 2011 in Hollywood

4th of July 2011 in Hollywood
I watched gospel TV on Daystar with several sermons on spiritual freedom and independence (Charles Stanley's sermon was great) then I sunned, swam and thanked God during the entire afternoon. At sundown, I broke out the American Flags and candles and watched fireworks as I ate Mexican food with my neighbors/girl friends at a patio picnic where I live. We could see the lovely firework displays from Pasadena, Burbank and Atwater Village all from the comfort of our apartment complex.
Good times!

Theology On Tap!

Don't miss the new monthly gathering offered by Ecclesia Church called Theology On Tap! It offers deeper theological discussions off-site. Each session will be lead by Pastor-in-Residence, Scott Nassau and a panel of Ecclesians at 1736 Public House in Los Feliz.

Wednesdays @ The Pacific in Hollywood

Ecclesia has started a mid-week gathering on Wednesdays @ The Pacific Theater. There was live acoustic music then a short devotional on Psalms 88 related to the Transparency teaching sermons followed by a round table discussion plus time to hang with fellow Ecclesians and soak in the word.

I attended last week (6/29)for the first one and I had an amazing time. I had been missing the mid-week community group meetings that was on hiatus so I was stoked to attend as seemingly others were too, as there was over fifty of us there. The atmosphere was so lovely with the lobby lit only by candles and the tables intimately draped in dark cloth and "playbills" on the tables listing the musical artists in the series and the Biblical scriptures for the night.

I sat under a baroque chandelier in front near a small stage and listened to tall lanky Dave Torstenson as he shyly introduced himself then played some alternative styled gospel songs that he had written himself. Dave appeared without his band who couldn't make it but he played the guitar and several other instruments as he sang five songs solo including one on an accordion that has a funny relationship with Weird Al Yankovich (God has a sense of humor)!

Then the Director of Communications came on stage and lead us through the scriptural reading and her personal reflection from the Transparency series last week on Anger Towards God. Then each table's small group discussed our own personal reflections on the scriptures for the night including:

Psalm 88
Jonah Chapter 4
Zephaniah 3:17

Then each table's small group discussed our own personal take on the reflection questions for the night.

REFLECTION:

1. How can anger reveal the kingdom you're willing to fight for?
2. When is anger appropriate?
3. Do your relationships in community affect how you handle anger? If so, how?

Wednesdays @ The Pacific Theater will continue through July with:

6/29 Dave Torstenson
7/6 Marcos Estevez

7/13 Cristina Kaufman

7/20 Joseph Barkley (Pastor)

Don't miss the Wednesdays @ The Pacific Theater weekly gathering!

Sports Wrap Up: Oh, the Drama!

I don't usually write about sports unless it intersects with Hollywood so here goes...

NBA B-BALL:
The Lakers have gone Hollywood and it has affected their game! Kobe Bryant got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Pau Gasol is acting in TV forensic shows and Lamar Odlum is in reality show with one of the Kardashians. Now rumors of wife and girl friend fall outs abound. The rumors may or may not be true but perhaps all this "drama" did lead to the LA Lakers being unfocused and running out of gas, eventually getting them swept: So, no fairy tale ending for P.J. Maybe time to shake everything up on this team--

With Spurs and Celtics out that leaves juggernaut Miami with Lebron, D-Wade and Borsch to dominate. If they win they vindicate Lebron's choice on his way to his first ring and a building of a dynasty. Lebron has his own problems (mommie drama)and ego( a TV show for your announcement- really) but he looks like a nice enough guy so all the hate coming from Cleveland at the beginning of the season actually had me praying for the big guy.

Not only is LeBron a great player, he also has an animated TV show on the air and he is a very good pitchman for various products. As Kobe ages, LeBron will be the face of the league for the future so he will be playing basketball or peddling products on TV for years to come.

Speaking of pitchmen, Shaq looked old and hobbled and barely played for Celtics in their lossing effort but he is still one of my favs. Will he retire this season? If he does it will be with a stellar career, 4 teams (LA, Miami, Phoenix, Celtics) and 4Championship rings.

Dallas is looking good but I'll take a wait and see approach to predicting the NBA Championship finalists.

Questions:

Will there be an NBA lock out?

AND

Will they eject players for saying the other "f" word?


FOOTBALL:NFL Lockout threatens season!

BASEBALL:
Dodger's Ethier (a face made for Hollywood if I ever saw one ;) gets hit record with 30 consecutive but broken in Mets game.

HOCKEY:
A player did a serious hat trick in a play-off game on 5/14!

Update: 5-26-11
Lakers new coach is Mike Brown who was also LeBron's old coach from Cleveland Cavaliers.

Resurrection Sunday and Baptisms!

I placed my green "He is Risen!" paper cross that I'd crafted on the outside of my apartment door then I raced to make it to church. I was late due to detours along Hollywood (commemorating the Armenian genocide) but I finally made it.

I entered the church in extremely high spirits as today was my first Resurrection Sunday (Easter) service at Ecclesia church and what beautiful service it was! The wooden cross was back in its place near the rafters and Pastor Joseph finished up the Tougher Love series by read various scriptures. He also gave his personal testimony about his struggles and his coming to faith or as he said it “coming from death and bondage in to life”. He invited all of us to choose to do the same.

He made the lovely analogy that Baptism is a public statement that you have chosen to follow Christ almost like a wedding ring shows to all that the person is married. Pastor then called for anyone wanting to be baptised to join the others lining up for baptism and/or prayer. Pastor Joseph also joked that so many people were baptised in the earlier service that he was now soaking wet.

They had a new baptismal tank draped in black and surrounded by a line of potted white lilies of the valley flowersin pots which were wrapped with a deep magenta colored metallic paper. The base of the stage and the foyer also had matching potted flowers.

Greg and the praise team lead us in singing wonderful praise and worship songs and the baptisms began. The were 5 initially scheduled then another 5-6 more made the choice to be baptised just that morning. So at least 11 people came to Christ! Some were new to Christ while others were long time Christians who were baptised as infants but all are welcomed to the body of Christ. As usual, I could not contain myself and I stood and clapped, whooped, cried and yelled “Hallelujah!” for everyone single one.

So many people were queueing up for baptism that Pastor Joseph asked the praise band to play more music for us to sing to as the pre-baptised changed into their baptism clothed. Pastor eventually had to ask us to sit because we had been standing so long during the baptisms. It was so beyond lovely and a blessing
to be there to see these baptisms and the Holy Spirit was definitely present there.

Christ is Lord and He is Risen!