Fish Tacos!

Ever had a fish taco? I agree the name is intriguing if not exactly enticing. I had the opportunity to have a fish taco while visiting Saddleback church a week ago. I spent the afternoon with Josh from Purpose Driven Youth Ministries and we opted for some typical southern California fare. I enjoy IN N OUT burger myself but "when in Rome..." and the opportunity to say I had tried/survived a fish taco was just to much to pass up. Pretty much the rule of thumb when eating a taco is never, under any circumstances look inside. It comes under the "what you don't know can't hurt you" type of mentality. Well - we ate at a place called Wahoo's (for more info you can check out their site below:

Wahoos

Anyhow - I loved it! The fish taco was definitley surviveable and the shrimp enchilada was amazing! But the whole vibe at Wahoos was what I really liked best! It was a very cool place. Surfboards and surf culture stickers dominated the walls and it was a place I could spend all day hanging out in. It totally appeals to what I like - the whole SoCal surf scene. As I sat there eating my fish taco and drinking my Dr Pepper - I thought - wow, it would be so cool to have a place like Wahoos with all of it's surf culture, back home where I come from. I could hang out there everyday for lunch and perhaps dinner too and if they decided to serve breakfast - I could be like Norm on "Cheers" at a place like that! Man, someone needs to open a Wahoos franchise back home. Maybe this was what I was meant to do. Perhaps God has wired me up to be the Canadian entrepreneur who will bring the fish taco to the rightful place at the top of the fast food pecking order it so rightfully deserves. Yes - this is what I was created to do! I can see it now on the cover of Fish Taco Illustrated. This will be huge! I can see people driving from miles around to be part of the culture they so desperately want and need. The papers will want to cover the phenomenon, it will inspire millions to reach higher and be a place where the human spirit will be lifted with each consumed taco. It will inspire childrens names and of course there will be the inevitable clothing line and reality TV show. This is it - I've finally found it.

There was just one thought that kept creeping into my mind as I considered all this - my home isn't anywhere near anyplace that anyone can surf at. Do I think that will be a big deal? I mean doesn't everyone want to be part of something that so obviously works and tastes great? I mean they've obviously perfected the fish taco "model" here in Southern California and it's been established since 1988 - that's golden man! So why wouldn't it work where I'm from?

As I rolled that over in my mind throughout the day I thought about how ridiculous it would be to say that just because I like something - everyone else should like it too. Or because something works in Southern California (or Timbuktu for that matter) it can be transplanted with a few tweaks to another location and prosper there. The more I thought about how that didn't make any sense to do something like that - the more I thought about how I have done exactly that over the years when it comes to youth ministry programming. I'd see a program that I liked - copy it and implement it in another location thinking that because it was dynamic, exciting and successful where I saw it - it will have those same qualities in my setting. At that moment I had an epiphany (or perhaps it was the reverberation from the fish taco) and I could see places like SOMA, IMAGO DEI, VINTAGE FAITH and SADDLEBACK for what they are - unique expressions of the body of Jesus living missionally in their unique communities. They have not sought to compare or implement someone elses strategies or structures in another location - but have instead sought to honour God by the way they lived their lives and instead of trying to "become" something they have sought to "be the church" by letting God love them, listening for and to God, asking some really great questions about their neighbours and community and then taking risks to love practically into that community relying on the Holy Spirit.

I love the freedom that characterized ministry in those settings. Freedom to incarnate the love of Jesus and live missionally by stacking hands on the purposes and then stacking hands on what the different expressions of those purposes could look like as they seek to find out what the cultural "rhythms" of their community are. The cultural rhythms of Tacoma, Portland, Santa Cruz and SoCal are unique and diverse - fish tacos totally "fit" one place but would cause indigestion in others.