The Urban Ministry Institute of Los Angeles

08/25/2020

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06/21/2020

Outstanding GPA: Shirley M. Anduze
Outstanding Student Service Award: Jennifer Chou

06/20/2020

Congratulations 2020 TUMI Graduates!!

06/20/2020

TUMI-LA Commencement 2020!!

06/20/2020

Photos from TUMI LA Graduation June 20, 2020

Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world, securely and privately show content to your friends and family, or blog the photos and videos you take with a cameraphone.

04/20/2020

“Closer to the Cloud: an Invitation”
Dr. Bob Lay, April 20, 2020
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” —Hebrews 12:1a
We are neither alone in our suffering nor unique in the tribulation we face. We share the Last Days—“the beginning of birth pains”—with the Church universal. The cloud of Hebrews 11 has become a crowd of the faithful, a host that no stadium can hold and a queue that stretches all the way from the first to the twenty-first centuries! Yet, how is it that so great a crowd goes unnoticed by contemporary disciples? Can the Church militant really afford to be indifferent toward the Church triumphant? I understand the aversion that many feel toward technical debates regarding the end times. But no lack of certainty about the millennium can obscure our common eschatology. For, “we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess.4:17).
In the past I saw the “great cloud of witnesses” differently than I do today. My youth pastor described the Christian life as a marathon race whose finish line I was nearing even as the great cloud of witnesses cheered me on from the sidelines. This felt right, especially since I was inclined to see myself as the center of everything and often imagined myself as a hero. As I grew older, however, the thought of all those saints observing my lack of progress became a hindrance. At some point I turned my focus toward the heroes of Hebrews 11, to let their examples inspire me. How many heroes and heroines of the faith have lived since the days of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah? “Time would fail me,” says the author of Hebrews (in 11:32), to tell about all the others.
In seminary, a saintly professor introduced our class to the church fathers by assigning thousands of pages of their writings. I often fell asleep cradling a volume of the AnteNicene or Nicene & Post Nicene Fathers in my lap. Much later, with the aid of biographies and contemporary translations, I was able to stay awake for the faith-building testimonies and brilliant insights of those ancient Church heroes. The older I get, the more comfort I take from the cloud of ancient witnesses, especially now that I “know” many of them. Every day brings me closer to that cloud. And if you wonder what it’s like inside the cloud, here’s my invitation to check it out!

04/18/2020

Our Confidence and Comfort
Dr. Bob Lay, April 18, 2020
“Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge…I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved,” (Psalm 16:1, 8 NRSV)

Meditating on Psalm 16 reminds us of the confidence we have in the face of things that would undo us: we shall not be moved! Moreover, if we see the Psalm as prophetic of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), then we perceive David’s confidence in asking God to protect him (i.e. to deliver him from evil) and the comfort he takes in the refuge God provides (“thy kingdom come”). “You show me the path of life,” says David (Ps. 16:11), while the disciples pray “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” “(Another god’s) drink offerings…I will not pour out…” (v.4) declares David, as the disciples pray “lead us not into temptation.” Nor will David take an idol’s name on his lips, to which the disciple reply “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” “I have no good apart from you,” sings David, while the disciples ask for “our daily bread.”
The Apostle Peter quotes Psalm 16 in his great Pentecost sermon, beginning with the words “I saw the LORD always before me” (Acts 2:25). He then reminds his hearers “with confidence” of David’s death and nearby tomb (i.e. proof of David’ demise), and of David’s identity as a prophet (v.30). His point is that David’s prayer—“you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption” (v.27)—is prophetic of Christ, whom God did not abandon or allow to decompose. David has foreseen God’s refuge, therefore his “I keep the LORD always before me,” becomes “I saw the LORD always before me” in Peter’s sermon.
To keep the Lord always before us speaks of our intentionality, daily recalling with confidence our refuge in Christ (Ps 16:1), our inheritance among all those who are sanctified (cf. Ps.16: 3, 5-6 with Acts 20:32), and our eternal security (“I shall not be moved”). Here, I’m reminded of generations of Christians who memorized at least the first Q & A of the Heidelberg Catechism: “What is your only comfort, in life and in death? That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ…”

03/21/2019

It's good (Dr. Bob wrote it), it's cheap ($12), and it's for a good cause (all proceeds go to The Urban Ministry Institute). What else do you need to know?

03/18/2019

https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Witnesses-Journey-Discover-Sacred/dp/1629329061/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?crid=1FGWARAEUWCVB&keywords=the+ancient+witnesses%2C+a+journey+to+discover+our+sacred+roots&qid=1552945169&s=gateway&sprefix=the+ancient+witnesses%2Caps%2C181&sr=8-1-fkmrnull

The family of God includes the early Church Fathers. But who were these ancient theologians? What did they teach, and what were they like?The Ancient Witnesses tells the story of Ari, Cesar, Joseph and Preacher, four modern-day pastors-in-training enrolled in a study tour on Ancient Christianity....

09/25/2017

Fall quarter at TUMI-LA begins!