Josh Mastan: A Story of Life From Pastor Wesley Hall

Secular or Sacred? An Interview with Larry Rench

LaPaz: A Glimpse of God’s Peace & Justice By Pastor Selena Holston-Gabriel

Caught Between Talents & Pounds By Pastor Scott Daniels

2 • PazNaz

Transformed is a magazine publication of First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena (PazNaz). It is designed to highlight the Church’s stories of personal transformation. For a complete overview of PazNaz, their beliefs, and ministries, please visit the website www.paznaz.org. TRANSFORMED Issue #14—June 2012 The Magazine of PazNaz 3700 East Sierra Madre Boulevard Pasadena, California 91107 626.351.9631 Fax: 626.351.5160 www.paznaz.org

Welcome to Transformed Under the Pepper Tree. In this monthly magazine, you will read stories of how God is changing people’s lives at PazNaz, transforming them into the image of Jesus Christ by the power of his Spirit! You might be asking, “Where can I find information about a specific PazNaz event?” Some information about specific events on campus will be found within these pages, but each month Transformed will be focused on relating stories about what PazNaz is really all about. Rather than programs or events, there will be stories about changed lives. People coming in contact with the Savior. People exploring what it means to become a follower of him. It is exciting to hear what God is doing in the lives of people!

Years ago, Pastor Earl Lee and a group of staff members gathered around a pepper tree located on the northern-most point of what was to become the site for First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena and dreamed and prayed that God would provide a place where more people could find power for living through Jesus. What began then has been going on for over thirty years as men and women, boys and girls have come into relationship with Christ in significant ways under the shade of that old pepper tree. The mission of the church hasn’t changed. May it continue to flourish as people experience the transforming power of Christ.

Blessings,

B. Scott Anderson Executive Pastor

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The most important task for the college-aged adult is not finding a job, earning a degree, or encountering one’s future spouse. Certainly, these are meaningful endeavors, and worthy of pursuing. However, to encourage our college-aged individuals to simply take care of the “big three” at the expense of a comprehensive vision of the good life and how it is to be lived, compromises the heart of their intrinsic value. To truly offer our college aged students the freedom to pursue what is good, we must faithfully encourage them to ask themselves two questions: What is my story? How do I tell it?

Josh Mastan is a prime example. He is finishing his sophomore year at Azusa Pacific University. He lives in student housing that is lovingly called “the Shire,” a three to four row spread of small modular units, complete with tire swings, barbecues, hammocks, and all the other accoutrements you would associate with college life in Southern

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The stories we tell are the vehicles by which

we journey to truth and meaning. They tell

us where we have been, and where we are

going. They tell us why particular events are

pivotal and determine their significance for

our future. They make sense of the vast

universe in which we live, and reveal in their

telling the way we interpret the inner cosmos

of our own identity. The stories we share

with others, and the stories we tell ourselves,

do not simply illuminate what we value. In a

more profound way, our stories are the very

wellsprings from which we derive our value.

pain and has discovered the beauty of empathizing with and understanding the pain of others. He remembers the friends and loved ones who listened to him in the midst of his loss, and now, attempts to extend the same kind of attentiveness to the hurting ones around him. He remembers his great loneliness and attempts to be present for others in the midst of their sense of abandonment. In light of the loss of his sister, Josh now desires to become a therapist or counselor and to work with people in the midst of their own grief and despair.

How Josh tells his story could have been shaped by his own sense of isolation. There was a time in which he could have made the decision to withdraw into his own sense of loss, never to be found. He could have decided the how of his story was his anger and resentment, reacting toward others in hostility and cold, calculated hardness. Yet the how of Josh’s story is instead to relate how the loss of his sister has stoked the fire of his heart toward compassion. His loss will work to the gain and blessing of others. His tears will be seeds of resurrection, sown in the tender soil of attentive love.

Josh is like many other sophomores in college. He is learning to be an adult: to go to bed at a decent hour, to take care of

California. “The Shire” is the place where Josh goes to imagine and learn. He loves to read and to study, to dream and share his dreams, to spend time with friends, and to watch good movies. Since I have known Josh, I have always enjoyed his sense of humor, his intelligence, and his obvious compassion for others. What I deeply respect about Josh is the way he understands his story, and the way he tells it.

When Josh was a senior at Maranatha High School, he lost his sister to cancer. After her death, Josh discovered that a great chasm had formed in the depth of his heart. The wound was so profound and so deeply painful that it robbed Josh of all emotion apart from anger and resentment. Normalcy and routine were lost; in their place were chaos and absurdity. It became nearly impossible for Josh to foresee the possibility of healing in his future. Even now, two years after the death of his sister, there are days when the tender scars break open, and the old demons tear at the void.

Josh does not pretend to be whole. He does not wear a grin on his face when speaking of his sister, nor does he quote positivisms in order to placate sensitive listeners. Instead, Josh simply tells his story. He tells of the great pain that comes with all loss. He speaks of how his friends, family, and church provided the consistent presence that allowed him to continue on his way, and how a day does not go by when he does not profoundly recognize the absence of a loved one. He speaks of the depression that takes place on the anniversary of her death, and the sense of loneliness he feels when no one else remembers him in his loss and grief. To put it simply, Josh is deeply aware of his story, and is able to tell it.

But as mentioned before, telling your story is only the first facet. The second part is perhaps the most important, and the most difficult. Telling one’s story only takes place when one decides how to tell it.

The how of Josh’s story is determined in the crucible of his own suffering. Josh remembers his

one’s responsibilities, to save money, and the like. Also, like many sophomores in college, he deeply enjoys the vast opportunities that getting older has to offer: more freedom, a wider world for exploration, and the promise of the good life. Granted, he is still learning to go to bed before midnight, but what makes him so distinct is that he is an artful storyteller of the life of Josh, and the how of the tale boasts wonderful potential.

If you ever get the opportunity to spend some time with Josh, or maybe even some other college-aged adult, I hope you get to sit down with them over coffee or food, and I hope you get to enter into a meaningful conversation with them. If you can, try not to ask them too much about whether or not they are pursuing a job that will pay enough or if they have met the one man or woman who will be the solution to all their problems. Instead, throw them for a loop and ask them the kind of questions that matter: What is your story? How are you going to tell it? The answers may surprise you, and the questions may surprise them. But one thing is for sure: the answers will make all the difference in the world. They certainly have for Josh.

- Pastor Wesley Hall

4 • PazNaz

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We’ve got it

cookin’ for you!

Fairly new around the PazNaz campus?

There is a luncheon in your honor on

Sunday, June 10, following the 10:30 am

service. You will enjoy a delicious lunch,

get acquainted with the Pastoral staff,

and meet other new friends around the

table. You will also get a great overview

of the different ministries available at

PazNaz and a gift bag to say “Thanks for

being here!”

Please RSVP to Matt Wilson at

mwilson@paznaz.org by June 3 if

you’d like to come.

New Friends Lunch

6 • PazNaz

This Psalm is my favorite affirmation and encouragement for every church instrumentalist! In the Department of Worship and Celebration Arts, there is no greater joy or privilege than to partner in ministry with so many skilled instrumentalists in our Praise Band and Sunrise Orchestra. It’s not just the skill and expertise of the members that make these groups special, but it’s their dedication, commitment, servant-heart attitudes, and willingness to give their best as an act of worship to the glory of God.

One of these special individuals is my good friend—composer, arranger, orchestrator, guitarist, and cellist— Larry Rench, whom I’ve known for 20 years. He was the Sunrise Orchestra director when I first came to PazNaz in 1990. You’ll see Larry almost every Sunday that the orchestra plays sitting on the organ side of the platform in the back row playing his cello.

I had an opportunity recently to sit down with Larry and

SECULAR OR SACRED? Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.

Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre,

praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD. - PSALM 150

ask if he would share some of his life and faith journey for the purpose of this article. Typical of Larry, he was hesitant to talk about himself and his accomplishments and wondered if he could contribute anything important enough for this article. As an artist, Larry’s gentle spirit and humility are two things that I admire most about him!

As an orchestrator, conductor, and proofreader of music for the film industry, Larry Rench has worked on more than 700 movies, television shows, and recordings since 1988. Composers for whom he has orchestrated include: Shirley Walker (Final Destination 1-3), Hans Zimmer (Backdraft), Michael Kamen (X-Men), John Williams (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), Mark Mothersbaugh (Envy), Christopher Lennertz (Alvin & the Chipmunks, Hop), and Harry Gregson-Williams (Prince Caspian).

Films being released this year include: Big Miracle (Cliff Eidelman), The Raven and Cold Light of Day (Lucas Vidal)

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field to me! Much like my own parents going as missionaries to the Orient, my working in the industry meant crossing cultural boundaries. But I found that as I did, my life had a way of expressing my faith.

I think my challenge has been just to do the best quality work that I can and lead with my work and not with the thought, “I’m a Christian coming to save this industry.” I’m not here to “save” anybody. I’m here because I love music. I’m here because film music can have a powerful, emotional impact, and I wanted to be a part of that. In the process, however, my faith has been expressed over and over.

Larry credits Jim Wilder, among others, with helping him come to understand his own personal life faith statement:

Larry: This is a picture of what I believe we are all called to do—to make visible that which is invisible. In our homes, at work, and in society at large, we are invited to make flesh the life and nature of God through the very details of our everyday life as expressed through our passion, our purpose, our talents, and our pain.

Although Larry’s particular

profession as a full-time film orchestrator is within a pretty limited, closed group of individuals who all know each other, and where everybody’s work is dependent upon word-of-mouth and personal reference, Larry’s Christian conduct, dependability, honesty, and diligent work ethic earn him the credibility to share his faith when those special opportunities arise. That is something in which we can all participate in whatever situation God has placed us.

- Pastor Alan De Vries

along with friends that have been a part of this church orchestra for nearly 30 years now!

Alan: Describe the kind of work you do in the film industry.

Larry: I have been working as an orchestrator and proofreader in the film music industry since 1988. My job is to work alongside a composer, taking the music that they have created on their computer and writing it out in a score with all the notes, dynamics and phrasing that will give it color. The music doesn’t really come to life, however, until it is recorded by an orchestra, perfectly in synch with the picture.

I don’t work for a studio per se, but for composers or with other orchestrators on a project-by-project basis, completely freelance. (They don’t call it an “industry” without reason. Production schedules are so tight that it requires a whole team of people to work together to meet deadlines.) I never know when my next job will start or end, but by God’s grace I have been working in film music for nearly 25 years.

Getting started in the business is difficult. It requires not only experience but also being known by those who have work and need help. During a particularly slow time in the beginning, and right at the point of wondering if there was a “Plan B” for his life (and realizing there wasn’t!), Larry received a late night phone call from composer Shirley Walker inviting him to be a part of her team on the TV show The Flash. “‘Larry, I have a cue for you. Would you like to come over and get it now or in the morning?” ‘”’ll be right there!” he said, and with that the course of his life as an orchestrator was set. Every job he has had since has come from that moment on.”

Alan: In general, being a Christian in what most would describe as a “secular industry,” how do you see yourself being “salt and light” in the work environment God has placed you?

Larry: I didn’t grow up going to movies,. Hollywood was a foreign

as well as Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (Atli Orvarsson). He has just finished orchestrating for the TV shows Revenge and Perception. In addition to films and television, he has orchestrated for numerous video games and most recently for the group Cheap Trick as well as the latest Academy Awards show.

Larry also orchestrated and conducted for the television series Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman as well as Amarte es un Placer, the 2000 Latin Grammy Album of the Year by Luis Miguel.

The following is my conversation with Larry:

Alan: Would you please share a bit about your family background and childhood?

Larry: I grew up in Taiwan as a Nazarene missionary kid from the age of 4 to 16. My last year at home was spent in Singapore where, instead of attending school during my senior year, I studied classical guitar 4-5 hours a day and took Tae Kwon Do lessons. Guess which discipline I flunked out of!

I have been a part of the church since my earliest memories. During Jr. High and Sr. High, I was a part of a Christian fellowship made up of missionary kids from all denominations. But I credit my relationship with Nancy for keeping me in the church once I left home and started college at Point Loma. We went to church together as a couple while we were dating and never stopped. Nancy and I have been married over 35 years and have lived in this area since 1978.

We attended PazNaz briefly during the time of the construction of this church, but left to be the music director at Bresee Church. In 1984 Sharon Densford asked if I would come back and direct the orchestra that had been started a year earlier by Rod Cathey. As it turned out, my first Sunday back was the day Pastor Lee announced his retirement from the ministry. We have been here ever since, although I left my position on staff in 1992. I began serving on the Church Board in 2000 and rejoined the orchestra as a cellist in 2001 after taking lessons from Cynthia Chung. I am delighted to be playing

8 • PazNaz

On Friday and Saturday, April 20-21, a coalition of faith, academic, and community partners sponsored LaPaz: Peacemaking and Justice Summit at PazNaz. Nearly 500 attendees registered for LaPaz Summit, representing churches, community organizations, universities, and municipal offices throughout Southern California. LaPaz Summit offered more than 60 workshops, led by theologians, community activists, and government leaders and served as a training resource for congregations and community organizations, equipping those that are on the front lines of poverty and injustice with the tools that they need to create positive change.

“At times those of us working out in the community can feel isolated and alone in our efforts,” says Jenni Wiebe, founder of Neighborhood Urban Family Center in

Pasadena and one of the LaPaz community partners. “This summit was an opportunity for people of similar vision, heart, and passion to come together and learn from one another, inspire one another, and be strengthened for the work that God has called us to do,” says Wiebe.

LaPaz Summit offered a unique opportunity for the people of God to share concerns and dialogue about solutions around social needs in communities throughout San Gabriel Valley, Southern California, and beyond. “The dream to host a summit like LaPaz,” says Selena Gabriel, Pastor of PazNaz Compassionate Ministries and Convener of LaPaz Summit, “comes from a place of deep love for the church. To love the church deeply sometimes requires prophetic advocacy, a caring nudge for it to take better care of the widow, the orphan, the sojourner, those

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LaPaz Summit possible.” “I look forward to seeing the collaborative work that started with LaPaz grow for the sake of the church’s prophetic witness in the world,” concludes Gabriel.

LaPaz Summit was sponsored by Azusa Pacific University-School of Theology, Clergy Community Coalition, Fuller Theological Seminary, Los Angeles District Church of the Nazarene, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries USA/Canada, Point Loma Nazarene University, and San Gabriel Valley Housing and Homeless Coordinating Council.

Dr. Scott Daniels, Senior Pastor of PazNaz, and Pastor Jean Burch, Senior Pastor of Community Bible Church shared as keynote speakers at the summit’s closing session. “Evangelical Christians,” says Daniels, “have historically been good at thinking about God's forgiveness of our sins and his transformation of our hearts, but we haven't always paid careful attention to his call for his disciples to also be active in his redemption of the principalities and powers as well. I am excited for all the ways that LaPaz challenged local churches to think critically about the ways that everyday Christians can become instruments of God's peace and justice in the world.”

“I am especially grateful for this event’s sponsors, community partners and workshop presenters,” says Gabriel. “Thanks to the First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena for serving as this summit’s host, and to each pastor, municipal leader, community activist and friend whose commitment and capacities made

that have the least in our communities.”

LaPaz provided learning, capacity enrichment, and networking opportunities through leadership learning tracks that included transformational leadership, humanity and justice, community development, community organizing, peacemaking, and the missional church. LaPaz Summit also offered a Children’s Justice Summit (for ages 5-12) and TEEN Track (for ages 12-18) on Saturday, April 21. Approximately 100 children and teens attended.

Dr. Walsh, Director of Pasadena Department of Public Health, was the keynote speaker for the opening session: “There are so many hurting in our communities, that the currency of hope has never had more value,” says Walsh. “At LaPaz Summit, we examined how to cash in that currency of hope, how faith based organizations can assist in alleviating suffering and changing the culture around how we treat those disaffected by the current economic downturn.”

10 • PazNaz

I spent a recent Thursday and Friday

on retreat with scholars from theology,

business, and communication mixed

together with Christian leaders in

business, film, and various other fields.

The APU School of Theology has been

given a grant from the Kern Family

Foundation to explore how to better

prepare ministers to think and teach

Christianly about the areas of work and

economics, and the retreat was set up

to help kick off the project.

Caught

Between

Talents &

Pounds

by Pastor Scott Daniels

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One of the interesting things about the conversation surrounding work and faith is the inherent tension concerning whether or not the system of wealth and capitalism in which most of us are embedded is good or bad. The conversation is actually quite complicated because the problems and blessings of our economic systems are varied. The conversation at the retreat was certainly lively.

One of the things I wanted to do was to give the group permission to be comfortable with the tension that we often feel as Christians when we think, speak, and write about faith and economics. Not just as a scholar, but more especially as a pastor, I find myself caught in the tension between the importance of our material nature (especially as it pertains to the importance of our bodies and our work) and materialism (the worship or improper use and valuing of material things).

I shared with the group that I often describe the tension as a conflict between the parable of the talents and the parable of the pounds. Matthew gives us the parable of the talents (Matthew 25) and Luke gives us the parable of the pounds (Luke 19).

The parables are nearly identical and very likely were used by Matthew and Luke from the same, or at least similar,original sources. In each version the beginning of the parable is almost identical. Matthew and Luke tell their readers (through Jesus) the parable as a story about a master who goes away and leaves three servants or stewards in charge of their resources. To the first he gives five talents or ten pounds. To the second he gives two talents or five pounds. And to the last he gives one talent or one pound.

In both versions of the parable the endings are nearly identical. When the master returns he rewards the fist two servants because they have doubled their resources. But the last servant is punished for having hidden rather than having used his talent or pound. What he has received is taken away and given to the first servant.

Most of the time when this parable

is preached it is Matthew's version - the parable of the talents - that is used. I think the preference for Matthew's version of the parable, at least in part, has to do with the ease with which the monetary unit called a "talent" can be translated to include not just our wealth, but our gifts, strengths, and "talents" for the purposes of God and his kingdom.

Matthew places the parable of the talents in chapter 25 among other instructions from Jesus about being ready for judgment. It is found in between the parable of the ten virgins and the parable of the sheep and the goats. All three parables have the theme of taking seriously the responsibility that we have to use the gifts, strengths, and resources that God has given us for his purposes in the world and that we will all be held accountable for how we have "invested" those gifts.

So on one side is the responsibility that all humans have as those created in God's image and sharing what some theologians call ‘co-creation powers with God.’ God has formed us as people with creative bodies and minds and expects us to use those in ways that share in the goodness of his creative purposes. In that way all work can be seen as an act of worship back to the Creator. Our work inevitably forms larger structures of communities, cultures, and economies. So we can't help but be economic beings finding ways to work together for the good of all and for the glory of the God who not only creates us but holds us accountable for our work.

But on the other side is the parable of the pounds. Scholars like Kenneth Bailey and William Herzog have helped me read Luke's version of the parable in what I think are better ways. They argue - and I think they are correct - that Luke uses the parable differently than Matthew.

In Luke the parable is placed in chapter 19 between the story of Zacchaeus' conversion and Jesus' cleansing of the Temple. In both of those stories the emphasis is not on being ready but on the ways that the surrounding economic systems were corrupting the life and worship of God's people.

Therefore, in the parable of the pounds, rather than the third servant being the "bad guy" he may actually be the "good guy." It is possible, given the context, that the third servant recognizes that the world's economic systems are often ruthless (like the power gathering master). And he sees that the ways of gathering more power are unjust (gathering where they did not sow). And the parable also seems to recognize that in the system the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. So he cannot find a way to participate in this ruthless system. What happens? Like many of the early believers, the servant who is unwilling to work for the building up of the "empire" is dragged before the people and slain.

Maybe we can think of the parable this way... Have you ever wondered what happened to Zacchaeus after his confession to Christ when he went back to work on Monday (or Sunday) and told his tax bosses that he could no longer participate in the system of exploitation that he had so cleverly led up until this point? Do you think his boss shared in his conversion?

When Jesus cleansed the Temple he ended up getting crucified. My guess is that Zacchaeus' end was not a whole lot more successful than his Lord's.

And so here we are. Christians called to use their gifts everyday in ways that add value to others and to God's creation. We are accountable to work as unto the Lord. But we are also stuck in systems of injustice and brokenness in which we are called to live prophetically. And as we live prophetically we are called to count the cost of that discipleship.

This is a tension that the earliest disciples of Jesus felt everyday as they took up their cross. Two-thousand years later we are still caught in the tension between the talents and the pounds.

- Pastor Scott Daniels