Author: andrew

What Harry Potter taught me about the Bible

I have a confession to make, though it’s not a very dirty or juicy one:  I read the 7th Harry Potter book within 48 hours of its public release.  Furthermore, I confess that I enjoyed it.  And no, I’m not about to run out and join a Satanic cult, wear black eyeliner, or start casting silly spells.  (I know at least one of you wondered about that!)  In fact, I learned several lessons about the Bible while reading Harry Potter.  Raised your eyebrows, have I?  Well, follow along as I share the lessons:

1. How to read in context

In ‘Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows,’ the characters talk about a book that’s been written regarding their friend, Albus Dumbledore.  The book is largely lies, and it’s excerpted for a few pages of the larger work, the Harry Potter book.  If you would pick up the book and read those few pages, you’d get a totally inaccurate picture of the overall plot.  Similarly, if you read the Bible carelessly enough, you’ll find that it says there is no God.  A glance at the context, though, will tell you that this message isn’t the intent of the author.  What he really said looks more like, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ (Psalm 14:1)”.  I wonder how many people are savvy enough to pick up the context clues in the Harry Potter book but still insist on cherry-picking the Bible to make it match their pre-conceived notions?

2. The power of narrative

I read the Harry Potter book on the first weekend it came out.  That means I read all 784 pages in two days.  I wanted to finish the story before I went back to work on Monday, so I read it all day Saturday and Sunday.  This left me in the interesting position of going to church Sunday morning, right in the middle of my Harry Potter weekend.  The worship and the story of Christ and his sacrifice for me were so much more meaningful, and it’s because I was tuned into another deeply-felt narrative.  The themes of sacrifice, struggle, quest and the search for truth were close at hand, since I’d been treading those paths with J.K. Rowling’s novel all weekend.  It was easy for me to turn those thoughts to the cross and the ultimate struggle of good and evil.

It’s true that these themes are more read into the text than read out of it.  But such is the result of reading with a redeemed mind.  It’s not what Harry Potter brings to me, but what I bring to Harry Potter that shapes my conclusions.  That’s why I’m not scared to read Harry Potter or any other controversial material: because I read it with a redeemed and, hopefully, informed mind.

Long Beach, Day 1

Lisa, Rachel and friend Staci took the kids (Greta – 1 month, Madeline – 8 months, and Liam – 7 months) to the beach today!  I also took a solo walk around Long Beach and made friends with Bernard (pictured in the photo set).

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Friday Funnies

This guy could probably be me.  I’m sure I’m responsible for more than my share of tube-clogging content or traffic jams on the information superhighway.  Look, I’m doing it again!  Right now!  Posting a video to my blog!

Happy Friday,

Andrew

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Funny video about the internet crashing
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Stephen Rotella’s Senior Portraits

I had the pleasure of shooting Stephen Rotella’s senior portraits today. We spent some time it the weight room, at Cricket Hollow in Reedley, and in the studio. Today’s shoot was truly a collababoration, and you’ll see why in the last photo. Stephen is truly an artist himself!

Enjoy the photos,

Andrew

A Foxy wedding

Nate and Ruth (Hudson) Fox were married Saturday. The Lodi wedding, like Nate and Ruth, was a fun affair, attracting a packed-out crowd for both ceremony and reception. Lisa and I were privileged to be there and to capture everything from the couple’s First Look to their fun getaway! We wish the happy couple all the best as they start their new life together!

Introducing Greta Grace!

Shinnfans,

I’d like to formally introduce the newest member of Team Shinn, Greta Grace. She was born to Jonathan and Rachel Shinn June 28 at 1:09 a.m. Weighing in at a hefty 8 pounds and 1 ounce, she’s all cute and all girl!  You can find ongoing updates at teamshinn.blogspot.com.

Enjoy,

Andrew

Utah photos, part 5 and final

Friends and family,

Here are the last of the Utah photos. The rest of the team is staying until Saturday, but we’ll be driving back tomorrow. We need to be in Lodi for Ruth and Nate’s wedding on Saturday, so we had to leave earlier than the others. The rest of the team is headed to the mountains to work on building a Christian camp. They’re not quite sure what they’ll be doing yet, but it will be something in the realm of construction or trail-building. We’ll miss them, but we’ll also be glad to be back in the Golden State. We leave behind some great new friends in Michael and Rachel Trostrud.

Enjoy the last of the photos,

Andrew

Utah photos, part 4

More pictures of cute kids having fun. Also pictures from our first evening of family vacation bible school. If you look closely, you’ll see a Rabbi wearing a headset microphone! Do you see it?

Utah, part 3

Ok, so here’s the whole rundown on our trip to Utah so far:

Mountain View Community Church in Clovis sent three teams to the Salt Lake City area to support Mennonite Brethren church plants. One team was mostly youth, one team is ours, and I’m not sure who comprises the third team. Here’s our team:

  • Dave and Connie Thiessen – Dave is one of the pastors at Mountain View. Their kids are with family while they’re on this trip.
  • Milo – Single adult. Milo installs granite countertops and he’s a 4-year old Christian with a hearty laugh and a good heart. This is his second mission trip. His previous was a trip to Kenya last summer with Mountain View. Milo rode to Utah with us.
  • Rob and Sarah Jackson + Noah, Grace and Josh – These are our good friends. Their older daughter Gabrielle is on the youth team and their oldest daughter stayed home to work.
  • Andrew and Lisa Shinn + Liam – This is us! Liam is a lot of work, crawled during the trip for the first time, and is an absolute joy to have around.

Our team is working with the Daybreak campus of Shadow mountain church. The campus pastor is Michael Trostrud, who moved here from Reedley about two years ago. Lisa, Liam and I are staying with him, his wife Rachel, and their two lovely kids.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow our team is running carnivals in local parks. These are free to the kids and lots of fun. There’s no obligation, and the only church presence is a booth with a few flyers on it for the parents of the kids. We’ve been doing face painting, sack races, water gun games, bubble-blowing, and football-kicking. To let people know about these carnivals we’ve passed out flyers to the neighborhoods surrounding the parks. The irony of pairs of Christians going to the front doors of Mormon people was not lost on me.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday we’re going to be running family vacation bible school. It’s a new take on an old concept, and it should be pretty fun. The basic idea is this: in a church with so many new Christians, lots of parents don’t know how to teach their kids about the Bible because it’s often new material for the parents. So if we can study the Bible together as a family, hopefully the parents can take away some methods and means for teaching their kids about the bible in the future. This idea seems particularly relevant here in Utah, where family is everything and time spent together is golden.

That’s at least a thumbnail sketch of what’s going on. I’ll share more if you have questions. Leave them in the comments and enjoy the photos to follow!