Chuck Ryor

²Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. ³And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. ⁵Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. – Colossians 4:2-5

We’ve started our Prism “Worship Community” on Sunday nights, and you can listen to the podcasts online (see www.prismchurch.com/sundays).  But we’re hoping that the future will bring much more than listening to sermons online (although with our “Mission Community” studies being sermon-based, it will be helpful to have them there if you miss Sunday night).  We’re hoping that our “Online Community” will bring us closer to God and each other.

Folks have asked why we’re so strongly emphasizing the development of our “ONLINE COMMUNITY.”  The fact that you’re reading this is the most simple answer: this is the world we live in.  We bulk email our blog posts, people read them, and we get feedback…all of it through the use of technology.

I’ve heard some lament how much time others spend on their smart phones or computers.  In the class I take at Cal State LA, graduate students were decrying how society doesn’t allow for quiet anymore and that our overuse of technology has disabled us socially in many ways.  I tend to see things differently.  I see the use of social networking, texting and cell phones as evidence of our innate need for connection.  Especially in fast-paced culture – and cities like L.A. – where people are starving for relationships. 

Connecting online is one way to satiate our need for the presence of others.  In fact, I find it tremendously encouraging to feel connected to friends who live 2,000 miles away in Florida.  I thank God for the ability I have to stay close to my best friends through email, texting and by talking on the cell phone for free.  I’m old enough to remember when calling long distance cost over a dollar a minute.  That I can send unlimited emails, texts and talk long distance for hours each night is still an amazing thing to me.  However, the question I want to continue asking at Prism is, “How are we using technology and ‘Online Community’ to encourage one another in our faith?”

One great example of the possibilities of “Online Community” takes place for me with other Acts 29 Pastors in my area. Each Sunday morning I get an email from my buddy, Chris, who is the pastor of the Hollywood Church.  This email is sent to the other pastors in our network and we all respond and encourage one another on the one morning each week where pastors feel the greatest burden.  Being aware that a dozen other local pastors are feeling the same way I do on Sundays encourages me.  Knowing that I have brothers praying for me and being able to assure them that I’m doing the same is a joy.

This is my hope for Prism’s ONLINE COMMUNITY.  While our sermons are online, and we announce new blog posts via Twitter, Facebook and direct email, our hope would be that our people would mutually encourage each other through prayer and connecting.  Imagine how encouraging it would be to text a prayer need and within a minute be assured that friends are immediately on their knees on your behalf

On that note, we’re aiming to have “PRISM…On the City” up in 2011.  This inter-church social networking site will be a blessing and we’re really looking forward to seeing how it will help us feel more together in a metro area where it is so easy to feel alone.

One of my favorite parts of this weekend was seeing my friends and family at our Prism Launch service.  As well, I received many phone calls from well wishers and buddies.  I even got a call from my mom on the morning of 10/10/10 to say that she was praying for me and our church.  It has been some time since I’ve felt this connected to other people.  I’d say I wish we could have a “Launch Service” every week, but there’s no way I could expend this amount of energy each week.

I’ll accept this experience and rejoice in the opportunity we had to feel the love and encouragement of so many friends and family members.  It’s once again renewed my hunger for deeper relationships with others.  The joy of loyal friends is one way in which I get to experience God’s grace in this world.  I literally get a sense of how much God loves me through these relationships.  And that’s exactly what I need.

One of the reasons I (and others) avoid community in the deepest sense is that it is risky.  While some of greatest and most satisfying elements of Christian faith are experienced in community, some of the most difficult and painful things happen there, too.  But the risk of relationship conflict and pain is worth it to catch a glimpse of the divine.  And that’s exactly what God’s after when he challenges people to deeper community and genuine friendships.  He wants us to see Him.  To deny ourselves this experience is to miss out on an encounter with God’s grace.

“In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.  He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.  He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.  The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” - John 1:4-9

It’s the most common question about our church that I’ve been asked so far.  Before people want to know our denominational affilation or whether we sacrfice chickens or whether we are contemporary or traditional in our worship preference, they want to know, “Why have you named it PRISM Church?” 

I love to answer the question, so don’t feel bad about asking.  In fact, I’m glad people ask because the response defines the essence of our mission. 

The history (etymology) of our name started during a period where I was doing demographic research on L.A.’s San Gabriel Valley.  As I zeroed in on the area where I live (and am convinced that I was called to serve) I noticed something.  My family lives on the border between Pasadena & Arcadia, just south of Sierra Madre.  I have really good friends in San Marino. 

When I put a pin in the location that I believed was the epicenter of what would be our initial ministry emphasis, the 3-mile circle around that intersection covered all four of these cities.  As I put these cities on a piece of paper, the letters P, S, & M stood out.  Then I realized that the second and second to last letters in Arcadia were “r” and “i” – put ‘em all together and you’ve got “PRISM.”

If you know anything about a “prism,” you know that when light shines through one end of it, that light is then refracted and split into multiple colors.  I thought this was a wonderful metaphor for what gospel-centered churches are supposed to be.  Genuine believers receive the light of God’s grace and love and then spread it to every nation, tongue and tribe. 

So there you have it.  In case anyone asks (and they apparently will), you know what to tell them.  More importantly, you can let them know that “Prism Church exists to spread the light of God’s grace and love to L.A.’s San Gabriel Valley and the world.”

In March of 2009, in the midst of the most difficult season of my life and lying face down praying on my living room floor, I asked myself two difficult and provocative questions:  “What would God have me do with my life?  What do I really want to do with my life?”  Faced with the possibility of moving back to Florida to finish my PhD at Florida State or taking a job with a church in the American Midwest, I rose from the snot-drenched area rug and penned what follows.  After seeking the counsel of my wife, my best friends, my mentors and ultimately the wisdom of the Acts 29 Assessment Center in Seattle, Washington, we all came to the conclusion that this passion was born of God.  It is the essence of why we’re starting Prism Church this weekend.   I hope it resonates with you, too, and I’m praying that this is what Prism will become by and through the Grace of God.

I want to lead a group of Christians in developing a church community that will effectively reach those who are not believers with the good news of Christ’s love.  I would like to see conversions take place in the hearts of both those who consider themselves religious and irreligious. I would like to personally get back into the outreach game as I once enthusiastically was.

I would love to be part of a worshipping community where the Scriptures alone are the measure for what is acceptable and unacceptable in public worship.  I would enjoy being part of a worship service that met the needs of the Christian to worship God and the needs of the seeker who is looking for answers to life’s most difficult questions.

I want to be part of a group of Elders who are first and foremost prayer warriors and impulsive influencers for the gospel of Christ in the lives of others.  I want to be part of a church that shuns both the internal politics and gossip of so many church environments and avoids attachment to the external politics of any one national political movement.

I want to pastor a church where the Elders of the church are committed to authentic relationships and mutually pledge themselves to Biblical reconciliation, confrontation and spiritual leadership of the community.  With this commitment would come the promise of mutual submission and most certainly the respect and submission to the will of that body of Elders.

I would love to pastor a church where baptism is not a divisive issue; where both forms of baptism (credo & paedo) are done in public worship out of respect for the differing viewpoints contained in the body of Christ.

I want to pastor a church that has a visible impact on the communities in which it lives.  I would desire to see the church be a manifestation of God’s grace to the needy and un-churched as much as it would be an internal comfort to the believers who are already part of the fellowship.  I would love to be part of a church where the ethos was to leave the ninety-nine sheep to go find the one whom was lost.

I want to be part of a church where I would be confident that friends would be welcomed, included and instantaneously sense that our community was a safe place for them.

Rev. Chuck Ryor

March, 2009

In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. ²While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”   ³So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. – Acts 13:1-3

This Sunday is one of the more significant moments in the life of Prism Church…its commissioning.  This is a time when others in the family of God – people from other churches and pastors from multiple expressions of Christ’s body – come together in unity to send missionaries into a new work of the Lord.

In the history of the church laying on of hands and commissioning has been the custom when you send out missionaries.  “But, we are starting a church in our country.  How can you we considered missionaries?”  Good question.  And it gets at the heart of why we feel the need to start a new church in the first place.

Prism’s heart is to reach people who don’t know that God loves them and that Christ – through His atoning sacrifiice for us – has satisfied the requirements of perfection for those who would believe on and trust in Him.  These “people” don’t just include those who don’t have any exposure to the faith (an increasing population in America).  We also hope to reach the multitudes who once attended church but have since abandoned being part of a faith community largely because of disappointment with Christians or because they never discovered peace or rest in their relationship with God.

I want to be a missionary and I want our church to be full of those who consider themselves such.  Here’s the Biblical ‘kicker’:  if you’re a Christian, you already are a missionary whether you know it or not.  It’s my sense that many Christians hunger to be missionaries where they live and work but don’t know what to do next.  We pray that Prism Church will be a community that facilitates that mission work in our area.

“Well, aren’t their churches in the Pasadena area who are already doing this?”  The short answer is, “Yes.”  The long answer is, “There are not nearly enough doing so.”  Every statistic you can accumulate about America’s population is that it is becoming less and less influenced by the gospel.  As well, more and more so-called “Christian” churches are losing their way about what exactly is the “Good News.”  But I’ll talk more about that in my 10/10/10 sermon and in the weeks afterward.

Prism Church wants to culturally adapt its methodology so as to reach people.  However, we don’t want to adapt what it is we’re trying to reach culture with.  “Good news” is what we have, but it has to be properly taught and understood for it to take on any real significance in anyone’s life.  Additionally, there should be some evidence that Jesus is leading both individuals and the community of believers into works of service and outreach as a result of His Gospel being comprehended

Hence, pastors from local churches will come together this Sunday night (10/3/10) to challenge us to be a church on a mission.  After a day of prayer and fasting (which you are invited to participate in beginning Saturday at 6:00 p.m.) these pastors will lay hands on Prism’s lowly, extraordinarily unqualified pastor (me) so that God would lead, guide and protect us as we all seek to be the missionaries God has called us to be right here in Los Angeles and the world.

I hope you can be there this Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. for this momentous occasion.

(see www.prismchurch.com for a map to 1555 E. Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena)