| [..who i am..] |
|---|
| I am trying to be the best husband to Jessica and father to Connor I can possibly be. In the daytime (and after they go to sleep) I am the Innovative Creative Arts Pastor at Powell Church in Knoxville, TN. I love songwriting, creating stupid videos, apple computers, and pie. |
| [..blogs that i read..] |
| journey to claire |
| real live preacher |
| bill wolf |
| cult of mac |
| adam mayfield |
| bob carlton |
| adam feldman |
| futility closet |
| jeph hurst |
| jason edelen |
| jon reid |
| church marketing sucks |
| kem meyer |
| anthony coppedge |
| betsy wolf |
| mark nelson |
| multi-site arts |
| [..graphic & video resources..] |
| sxc.hu |
| igniter media |
| sermon spice |
| highway video |
| worship house |
| digital juice |
| church marketing lab |
| [..music & artists..] |
| gregadkinsmusic.com |
| greg on Myspace |
| new city cafe |
| bill mallonee |
| the innocence mission |
| andrew peterson |
| andrew osenga |
| over the rhine |
| nickel creek |
| david wilcox |
| rich mullins |
| hem |
| andy gullahorn |
| jill phillips |
| arthur alligood |
| dave potts |
| [..my so called music career..] |
|
| [..52 songs in 52 weeks..] |
|
| [..where i serve..] |
| powell church |
| [..disclaimer..] |
| I am on staff at Powell Church in Knoxville, TN but the opinions, thoughts, comments, and humor on this page are solely my own. Wade in at your own risk and be warned, I'm a bit of a goofball. |
| [..my site feed..] |
| RSS |
| [..archive..] |
More Pictures from Wednesday @ the Well - 2001 @ New City
Here are two more pictures of worship from Wednesday at the Well at New City Cafe in downtown Knoxville. These are from fall 2001.
Picture of the Night
My other dog Emmy watching TV
stories in the story
Maybe others who have their own blog can attest to this... I am shy to let people know about this. I mean, people I am close to. My family has internet access... most of my close friends are online all the time and yet... very few of them know this is here. I've been thinking about why.
I think I am afraid to come across as "hey, look how interesting I am" because I know deep down, I'm probably one of the less interesting people you will meet, unless of course we share similar interests. Many of my friends are much more interesting than I am and the world would benefit greatly if THEY would start a blog.
That said, I believe there is validity in this. I am reading right now "The story we find ourselves in" by Brian McLaren. I'm only about 1/3 through it but a theme of the book thus far is that the Bible tells the story of humanity... the story we find ourselves in. I suppose that makes each of us a subplot... Astory within THEstory. If that is true, and I believe that it is, then all of our stories are not only interesting, but essential.
I'm reminded of a quote by Ghandi that says "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." Very true. Even if our story seems small to us, to live the story and bigger still, to share that story is among the most important things we can do with our lives.
Mullet Haiku
Loved that French Foreign
Legion film so much, I grew
me one of them hats
Notes on the blog in general
I now have a good selection of links to choose from on the toolbar to the left. I highly recommend every single one of them. I also have a search feature but it won't do much good until the blog has been up for a few weeks and there are some archives to go through. Also, on the top bar you'll see the word "comment". Click that and you can leave me a note if you so desire.
The Postmodern South
I enjoy reading accounts of alternative worship experiences in England like grace and visions (links to the left on bar). However, as a planner here in Tennessee, USA, I know the region well enough to know that a rave isn't going to work. It gets me thinking... how does the face of postmodernism change according to regional culture. Example... the rave idea here in Tennessee might actually work if transformed from a rave to a hoedown... a postmodern hoedown... now there's a though. Although, I really think the whole "Oh Brother where art thou" phenom smacked of postmodernism. For more on that, read the chapter on the Coen brother's in David Dark's book "everyday apocolpyse". Good read.
Anyway, I'd love to hear from others on how they think the church will emerge differently in different regions. I know what works in Seattle and California won't work here. In general, Tennessee is a bit behind the curve on these things. Also, the culture here is more immersed in "the church" being the bible belt and all. It's interesting though... that gives some people a more accepting attitude towards the gospel (not foreign to them) but some feel like it is rammed down their throat so often here they become immune to it and refuse to listen, regardless of packaging.
Whenever I get around to hosting the postmodern hoedown (or... pomo hodo for short) I'll be sure to post pictures!
Awesome worship music resource
check out Indelible Grace Music. This is music put out by the college ministry of Christ Community Church in Nashville, TN. We use several songs from their 2 CDs and also the RUF Hymnal which is just an awesome book of 150 songs and 3 CDs with samples of all the songs.
The idea here is that they take ancient hymn texts and put new, updated music to the words. We have been using some of these in our worship times and they have become among the most popular songs that we do. Again, I firmly believe that emerging generations love the words to hymns... it's the musical style (organ, cheese) they don't care for. Most of the words are beautiful and deep and with this updated music, they connect extraordinarily well.
We did a service where we did several of these songs and introduced them by telling everyone how many years ago the song was written and who it was by. Then, we shared a little about the author if we could find any information. Here are the songs we did and the years
Come Ye Sinners (1759) (C) (243 years ago)
Oh Love that Will not Let me Go (1882) (B) (120 years ago)
Arise my Soul Arise (1742) (G) (260 years ago)
Thy Mercy (1776) (G) (226 years ago)
Come Thou Fount (1758) (D) (244 years ago)
The Wonderful Cross (1707 / 2001) (D) (295 /1 years ago)
for all you Princess Bride fans...
My friend Jeff sent me this.
The beauty and shame of pawn-shops
As a frequent pawn shop shopper, I usually have an uneasy feeling about the whole experience. Example:
About a month ago I'm in a pawn shop here in town and I find an amazing deal. they have a box of awesome CDs for $1.00 each that is great stuff like Indigo Girls, Johnny Cash, Norah Jones, U2, there was even a Dylan CD I didn't have in there! I ended up buying 40 CDs for $40. Sweet deal, right? Well, while I'm in there, an obviously struggling girl no older than 18 comes in with 2 small children trying to pawn her video camera. I overheard her saying it had been a wedding present. I imagined that she had used that camera to film home videos of her children, family moments... birthdays... christmas... but now, times were tough and the camera had to go. The clerk offered her $100 for it (it was easily a 500 camera - Sony Hi-8).
I then wondered what had caused the person who had pawned the CDs I was buying to need the little bit of money they got for them... the items in a pawn shop only see the shelves for you to buy if the people who brought them in can't repay their loans. So basically, as I left I was feeling extremely guilty about cashing in on someone else's misfortune. Even worse, the CDs may have been stolen... I know that happens a lot... people steal CDs and then pawn them quickly for some cash.
I guess if I was any kind of person, I would have put down the CDs and bought the girl's camera back for her and given it to her as a gift. God help me in the future to be more about the "least of these" and less about myself.
Maybe I'll stick to goodwill from here on out... at least the stuff there was gladly given away.
Landover Baptist
Warning... this site is not for the faint of heart. If you are brave and ready to laugh, check out The Website of Landover Baptist Church.
This site always makes me laugh but also makes me think. It is designed as a parody of the church and while that may be offensive to some, to me it is helpful. Most of the things they poke fun at, need poking fun at. For example... the graphic below
This is of course a joke, but it isn't far from the truth... it wouldn't surprise me to actually see this offered somewhere!
a method to the madness
I'm wondering how service planners elsewhere plan for and layout worship experiences. I know there probably are as many techniques as there are people doing this but here is mine... do with it what you willSince our worship experience service (Wednesday at the Well) meets by semesters to coincide with college students, we plan one semester at a time. About 2 months before the semester begins, we sit down and plan out our themes. This is usually a team of 2... daniel and I. We give each night a one word title and that title represents a theme. Some examples
Zzzzzz - rest / sabbath
ghetto - escaping the Christian subculture
gather - community
wah! - suffering
catacombs - a night mimicking the early church (see earlier blog entry)
Once we have those selected for the whole semester, we get together a brainstorming team of creative people, usually over some papa john's and we go to work. We brainstorm music, movies, pictures, poetry, stories, lessons, art, anything that might remotely go with the theme. We then type all of the info into a document and save it until the semester begins.
From there, things happen fast. Our service is wednesdays at 6:45. We usually begin work on it Monday afternoon and finish Wednesday at 6:44. Daniel and I meet and go over the brainstorm and decide what elements we want to use. At this point we have a speaker or teacher picked out and we are able to get with them to see where they are going with the theme. 9 times out of 10, their direction sets our direction and the holy spirit takes over from there. 2 days isn't as rushed as it seems like it would be.
hope that was helpful. I plan to have pictures of our worship space up for you to look at later in the week.
beyond powerpoint
Like many of you guys I was at one point somewhat of a powerpoint expert... I knew all the ways to make super flashy song-lyrics and sermon notes. I know Len Wilson has a book out on this and I agree with it... nobody is impressed with powerpoint anymore. 3rd graders know how to make cool transitions and words dance in from the side. Of course, I doubt any of us would say we did powerpoint that way to "impress"... we would say it was to "enhance". Maybe... but I know I myself was guilty sometimes of doing something just because I could and it had a certain "wow factor".
Anyway, beyond powerpoint, we now use software called easyworship. You can check it out here. If you have a fast computer (at least 1.5gb processing speed), you will be able to run video underneath your lyrics. Again, the potential for cheese here is high but if used effectively, this is an awesome piece of software.
We have been using it for 9 months now and it has never even one time crashed or errored during a service. If anyone is using this, I would be glad to email you my database of songs to save you some typing. Also, I would recommend these places to get video to run underneath the lyrics. First, check out Highway Video. Their "vibe video" series are really great. Second, if you have the funds, check out digital juice. Their "jumpbacks" are awesome but somewhat pricey. Also, there are some great things at One Small Barking Dog. Their stuff is very edgy and much of it is a bit too "busy" for a song background but their stuff makes great ambient video to have thrown on a side wall or playing on a bank of TVs.
secrets
I have a theory (and I suspect lots of people have this theory) that 99.9% of Christians are guilt-ridden on the inside most of the time. We feel with strong intensity that we should be praying more... doing more... giving more... volunteering at the shelter more... loving our neighbor more... worshipping more expressively... taking better sermon notes... reading the bible more... doing everything more. We feel this way because we are taught that these are all the things a Christian does and not only that but a real Christian does these things all the time with very little time for distraction.
I think the dirty little secret of the church is... we're all this way. And yet, we go to church, we pretend that we actually live out this unattainable monk-life and everyone else does too.
Why? Wouldn't it be better for us all to just admit "hey, I know I need to do more and God willing, I will. How can I help you get closer to God? How can you help me?" I don't know a lot but I know Jesus didn't die to make me have an hour of devotional time everyday or to feel guilt ridden if I don't find time for all the "stuff". Jesus died to save me and that's done... I want to give Him my life and my time now out of gladness... not out of guilt or duty.
Where is the church going? Someday, we are going to have to take off the masks we wear within the walls of a building and admit that we're all orphans and we're all falling short of the imaginary standard. The sooner we do that, the better off we'll be.
my dog in a cowboy hat
I swear, we don't torture our animals. You gotta admit though... this is strong.
New City Cafe Worship Space - 2001
crackpots
One idea for worship that worked well for us was we bought several red clay planters at wal-mart for cheap and smashed them to bits. We gave people a piece of the broken pots as they came into worship and asked them to write something on it after meditating on the concept of Christ as healer. We created a small wooden cross and superglued the pieces of the pots to the cross to create a kind of mosaic effect. We kept the cross and use it permanently for decoration. I feared it might be kind of a "cheesy" thing to do but if the leaders treat it seriously the participants will to. It worked well.
You must watch this!
This is probably the most powerful music video I have ever seen and I have seen a lot. Go to the website below and follow the link for the video of "Hurt".
Johnny Cash Homepage
Is this for real?
Well... we have Christian versions of everything else... why not Christian granola bars. Check this out...Bible Food
I find this part particularly disturbing... and I quote:
"Obviously, since God was the first nutritionist, He prescribed a very specific eating plan for our health and well being. We refer to this eating plan as "Biblical Nutrition".
Whaaaaa? Man, I guess that means no more Big Bacon Classics for me! I'm pretty sure it's doesn't fall under the "Biblical Nutrition" plan (not to mention the Crispy Chicken Nuggets... mmmmmmmm... nuggets).
Picture of the Day -- "Bass Face"
Worship with Power?
I saw an ad in a worship leader magazine today that included the phrase "worship with power". It reminded me of a service we did awhile back that could have been called "worship without power". I'll share some details as it was a moving service where God showed up and moved.We had been talking about the early church and how much of what we do in the modern church would seem foreign to early Christians. We decided to try a service that mimicked the early church as much as possible so of course, the first thing to go was the electricity. We used a LOT of candles all over the room and even in the ceiling (we have an overhang that worked well).
We began with a fellowship time which was pretty cool. Since we were planning on taking communion later in the service, we wanted to have the experience of making our own communion supplies. We bought 20 pounds of grapes and got a giant cooler and filled it with the grapes. We had 6 chairs all around the cooler and had people sit in the chairs, remove their shoes, and stomp the grapes. We knew it would be a neat experience because grape stomping is something everyone wants to do but very few ever get to. What we didn't expect was the smell... the aroma of those grapes absolutely filled the room with the most wonderful smell.
At the same time, we had another team making fresh communion bread. Here is the recipe we used
Easy Communion Bread
1 cup flour
2/3 cup shortening (crisco)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
3-4 tbsp milk & honey mixture (microwave honey, then mix with milk)
Mix the flour, shortening, salt, and sugar. When thoroughly mixed, add milk and honey mixture and work into a dough. Press the dough as thin as you can into a buttered pan. Take a knife and cut the dough into small squares (or whatever). Take a fork and poke holes all through the dough. Bake on 350 for 10 minutes... watch it though... your mileage may vary and you don't want to burn it!
After this, we took the dough away to be baked. We continued by singing some acapella songs and then went into a footwashing time. We had people separate into groups and wash the feet of the person next to them. It was amazing to watch as some people cried, both while washing and being washed... some people prayed out loud for the people they were washing... some people laughed nervously... some people were ticklish... some people told stories... some read scriptures aloud. It was unscripted and beautiful.
Now the bread was ready so we took communion with our fresh hot (and sweet) bread and grape juice (not the juice we stomped... that's nasty). All in all, it was an amazing night. We called it "catacombs" and played on that theme all night long. I take no credit for any of it... Daniel and I did a little planning but God just totally took over the night and did far more than we imagined.
Goodnight prayer
God, I want and need to be more like you. I fail you more than I serve you... I let you down more than I lift you up. Help me to love you more and especially help me to love others more. I pray for tomorrow that services will bring you glory and bring me comfort in worship. Be with JC and protect her with angels. And, as always, I pray for lights at the ends of tunnels.
download this
audblog audio postFollow the link above to hear a message from me, welcoming you to my site. Cool stuff!
Picture of the Night
Blooger?
The website I go to to login to my blog is www.blogger.com. However, if you mis-spell that blooger.com, it takes you to a cyber-dead-end. However, I have now decided that a "blooger" is of course, a bloody booger.In another unrelated note... on cable right now is a movie starring Tori Spelling that is called, and I kid you not: "Mommy, Can I sleep with Danger?".
Future worship Idea #1
One of the things I am interested in as a worship experience planner for young adults is how we can tap into the wisdom of our seniors. I'm noticing something interesting lately... college students like hymns. They don't like organs... they don't like out of tune pianos... they don't like worship leaders with big hair conducting them... but at the core, they like hymns... a lot.Not all hymns mind you... they tend to not care for the rollicking sing-along types like "Standing on the Promises" or "Victory in Jesus" but rather the more celtic sounding intense hymns like "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and "All creatures of Our God and King".
I was reading Dan Kimball's excellent book called The Emerging Church (go to vintagefaith website)and he mentioned briefly that he once had a group of senior citizens lead his "Graceland" service in a hymn sing. What a wonderful idea! Too often seniors feel unimportant and forgotten by emerging generations and this is a way to tell them that the opposite is true. I truly believe that the emerging church will be in many ways more like the church of 100 years ago than the church of 5 years ago. We are already finding that reverence... darkness... silence... stained glass are the things that connect with young adults of right now.
In a totally unrelated note... would somebody please explain Vin Diesel to me.
Home Star
If you have about an hour, a fast internet connection, and want to laugh, check out Home Star Runner. I don't know who is behind this website, but it is one of the funniest things I've ever seen on the web. Check out Strong Bad's Email... classic stuff. I want a T-shirt from these guys!Day late and $75 short
So this afternoon I stop by my friend Danny's house to pick up some microphones to use in church tomorrow morning. He is sitting in his garage playing an organ I didn't know he had. Turns out, he had just found it at Goodwill for $75... this is a pristine Hammond organ from the 70s with a built in leslie cabinet and a really sweet sound. We proceeded to play some Wesley Willis on it kick out the jams. Man, Danny always finds the sweet stuff. Oh well, like I have $75 anyway if I ever do find a good deal on something that cool.Danny is a friend of mine who writes some awesome songs. You can hear them right here.
If you want to hear a bit of music I've cooked up just for fun in my limited spare time in my office when no one was looking, you can do that here.
Smooth Link
For those interested in faith in a postmodern world, run, do not walk, do not pass go, do not collect $200, get your tail on over to... The Emergent Village
What's on my shelves?
You can learn a lot about people by going to their home or office or car and looking through their books, their CDs, and their movies. What we surround ourselves with says a lot about who we are. Here's the stuff I've been surrounded with lately... what it says is for you to decide I suppose.
BOOKS
A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren
The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball
The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien
Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Everyday Apocolypse by David Dark
Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 by Steve Stockman
In Search of Authentic Faith by Steve Rabey
Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott
Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli
MUSIC
"Divine Discontent" by Sixpence none the Richer
"Cutting Room Floor" by Over the Rhine
"Home" by Will Kimbrough
"She must and shall Go Free" by Derek Webb
"Where Shall You Take Me" by Damien Jurado
"Love and Thunder" by Andrew Peterson
"Nazarene Crying Towel" by Lost Dogs
"Love and Theft" by Bob Dylan
"Into the Mystery" by Dave Wilcox
"Songbird" by Eva Cassidy
"Locket full of Moonlight" by Bill Mallonee
"Glow" by The Innocence Mission
"Home" by Dixie Chicks
"Nickel Creek" by Nickel Creek
MOVIES
About a Boy
Damah Film Festival DVD's vol 1&2 -- Link to Damah Website
The Two Towers
Finding Forrester
Signs
TELEVISION
24 (best show on TV)
American Idol
Scrubs
Ed
Malcolm in the Middle
Freaks and Geeks (reruns on ABC Family)
Survivor
Who's line is it Anyway
Pardon the Interruption
Trading Spaces
Iron Chef
Blog? You know, they make an ointment for that.
So this is my blog. For those of you who know me and are new to this whole idea, a "blog" is short for a "weblog" which is basically an online journal. And now you know. So why on earth would I, a relatively private kind of person, decide to post random thoughts on the ole' superhighway for all the world to see? Well, I'm not sure yet but I feel like it's something I need to do... perhaps my struggle and strive will help someone else. Perhaps my wrestling with things will allow truth to show its face to someone I don't even know. Perhaps, someone will connect with something and offer me something I need... a Godsend perhaps... we'll see.
About me... I guess the thing you need to know about me is, I am a Christian. I guess you figured that since I work in ministry. That said, I know that "christian" causes a lot of people to react different ways. Am I a bigoted fundamentalist right-wing lunatic? No, that's not me. I don't know what thoughts the word "christian" gives you but whatever it is, I'm probably not that. I mean, I follow Christ... I believe in the Bible... I love God. From there, you'll just have to read on and see for yourself. I think it's changing (emerging) all the time for me and that's part of why I wanted to write all this down. To document the emergence.
This will probably be the only "introductory" message I give. From here, I plan to write on whatever hits me. You'll find that I have a few passions in life. I love... my wife. I love to find the spiritual in culture and media... movies, television, music, books, etc. I love October. I love to read. I love music... playing music... listening to music... discovering music... sharing music. Music is primarily what I do and am paid for. I love concerts. I love planning creative worship experiences... I lead Sunday morning services for all ages and a Wednesday night creative college service. I'll share ideas for worship here in this blog for you to steal and use, no questions asked. I love theater and drama. I love Bob Dylan. I love technology. And on top of it all, I love God. How that all ties together I suppose is yet to be discovered.
Prayin for lights at the ends of tunnels...
email me at: Emergingminister@aol.com
