| [..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..] |
Cleaning House
Did some house cleaning around here today. First, I updated my links to your left and added some new ones. Welcome Bob Carlton to the fold and visit his site... good stuff happening at the Corner.
I also added the ability to leave me a tag... scroll down and try it! Be the first on your block!
Got a spiffy new graphic up top which is basically just a ripoff of Jeph at Ragamuffinminister. Oh well.
Added a new culture review also. Go here to read my review of Over the Rhine's new CD "Ohio".
Also, I finally changed the "Quote of the Now" which was long overdue. This one is from Donald Miller's book "Blue Like Jazz."
Are we Authors?
Fellow bloggers, would you consider yourselves to be writers because of what we do here on our webpages? I look over the volume of entries on my blog just since April and it is easily enough to fill the pages of a book (not a very good one mind you, but it would be full). So, you could say I've written something and published it (in a strange form). But still, I wouldn't consider myself a "writer"... just someone who writes things down sometimes. What's your take?
It's funny, I used to want to be a writer... even majored in it in college, and now that I am writing more than I ever have, I realize that I'm not a writer at all. Although I would still love to write a book someday. If I ever get the time I want to write an alt.worship "how-to" book for the american church. It's needed... but that's another post.
Halloween... what do you do?
Well, a debate is currently raging among some friends of mine over what should be the Christian response to Halloween. I'm curious mainly just to hear from some of you, what have been your experiences. Do you take your kids out? Do they dress up? Does your church have a "halloween alternative?" type event? Do you sacrifice kittens in the moonlight (Jeph, don't even answer that). As a minister who is expecting a child, I know folks in the church will look to me and what I do with my kids and I honestly haven't decided yet. I know lots of Christians who do take their kids out and lots who don't. I went out every year until middle school and folks can say whatever they want to but for me, it was 100% about the candy. Nothing more, nothing less. I liked to be creative dressing up and all, that was fun, but most important was scoring some fun-dip and smarties. I never felt the smallest hint of evil.
I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Especially from any other ministers / pastors out there.
I need your help...
So here's the plan. Next August, me and hopefully 3 friends also involved in all this "emerging ____" discussion stuff are going to cross the big pond for a week for a research / connection / conversation trip. We're going to center our trip around a couple of days at the Greenbelt festival where we figure we can get a pretty good bang for the buck.
Now, here's where you come in. Do you live in London, a nearby city, or Ireland? Are you involved in an alt.worship service? Do you know of any? Can we stay with you? Will you give us a ride somewhere? Have you been before? Where's a good place to eat? Where would you go?
It's a year away but it's time to start getting an itenerary at least drafted... having never been in that direction, I'm a bit clueless.
HELP!
A little More Singing...
Here's another song from the same night led by Ben Lakin and the Well band. The song is "You Alone" by David Crowder.
Listen to "You Alone".
A little Singing...
Here's a song from Wed. @ the Well 2 weeks ago. Not an award winning recording... just two microphones at the back but I like it because you can hear everyone singing. The song is "not to us" by Chris Tomlin... one of my favorites.
Listen to "Not to Us".
How Bout Them Vols!!!
Just wanted to take a sports break to say congrats to the Mighty Vols for a big win in the swamp. Clausen is tough on the road... you've got to give him props.
And, just in case Adam stops by, I wanted to congratulate Northern Illinois for their stunning win over the pathetic Alabama Crimson Tide. Nice goin Bama. It's been awhile since you lost to a directional school. Good to see Shula's got the touch.
Beautiful website.
Thanks to Jared Williams for this link. Spend some time on this site... move your mouse around on each picture. It's a little morbid but also hauntingly beautiful. Mr. Clark should be commended... this must have taken forever.
Click here to see "After Life"
A very special day
Today is National Talk Like a Pirate Day!. Arrrgh mates, follow the link ye will or ye can walk the plank. ARRRRGGGHHHHH.
Funny stuff. My favorite "talk like a pirate" quote is:
Well, me hearties, let’s see what crawled out of the bung hole
Let's open a big can of worms...
Here's a big question my small group wrestled with Monday night...
Is Jesus the only way? Must we know Jesus to get into heaven? Some thoughts... the Bible pretty clearly says things like "No one comes to be the father except through me." One can make a solid argument from scripture that Jesus is the only way. However, there are many who believe that good people of other faiths are in as well. If you have read "the Last Battle" from C.S. Lewis, when a servant of Tash meets Aslan in heaven, Lewis seems to endorse this belief. McLaren tackles it and seems to agree with Lewis (although he may not) in his book "A New Kind of Christian".
So... what do you think? I'll probably reveal my thoughts in the comments below after some others chime in.
Another new video...
Mpeg (54 MB) |
Streaming Real MediaThat... is Grace - This is a video from our Sunday morning services put together by our amazing video team. A middle school principal teaches a troubled student a powerful lesson about grace. This is a good video for a cross generational audience... I imagine it would also play well to students. If you choose to use this one, please let me know, just so I can encourage our video team. Enjoy!
New Bobble Head Theater Online!!!
Mpeg (50 MB) |
Streaming Real Media Bobble Head Theater - Episode Six - Davey goes for a walk on a nice day and ends up questioning all of his friends on their deepest held beliefs. However, at the end of the day, Davey ends up asking himself the biggest question of all. Features the addition of Bo Duke, Albert Einstein, and Allen Iverson.
Prayer for Today
God, I know that folks in heaven generally wear white and all but maybe you could make an exception for a man in black.
We'll miss you Johnny.
Interesting post on "Real Live Preacher"
An open letter from a pastor to his new congregation.
Interesting read. Language warning for those who need it...
Vol Fever Spans the Globe
Apparantly the 101st airborne unit in Iraq has a commander who is a big Tennessee football fan. He hired some Iraqi civilians to repaint this water tower which is located in front of Uday Hussein's Mosul bachelor pad. Go vols!!!
Mosaic Stepping Stones part two...
The mosaic stone creation went really well the other night. Here are two of the better ones that we created. Tonight we will have them all laid out in a path to the cross as a reminder that when we all bring our gifts together in community, that creates a way to the cross for others. Simple, but effective.
Tonight should be a good service as we are talking about Pressure. We have some cool things planned... perhaps I'll have a post on that tomorrow if time allows.
Lifestyle Evangelism... a lie?
Had an interesting discussion in "Eyes Wide Open" this morning that I thought I would post here for your thoughts...
From the time I was in high school until the time I went into ministry, I had an idea of evangelism commonly known as "Lifestyle Evangelism". Basically, I didn't want to alienate anyone so I avoided hitting them over the head with the gospel. The idea was, I would be different (ie: treat people nice, don't drink, don't chew, don't go with girls who do) and people would notice how different I was and would then ask me why I was so different. It was then that I would tell them it was because I was a Christian and since we were already friends, this would be a great way to share the Lord with them.
Here's the problem. It never worked. Not once. For one, in most of my envirmonments (work... college), I wasn't even the nicest person around. There was always some pagan who was way kinder than I was and cared more about people than I did. But even if I had been, who was I kidding expecting people to come up and say "Hey man, I've been noticing how awesome you are and was wondering how I could be that awesome too." Of course then I would have told them about Jesus and a teary-eyed conversion experience would have surely followed... right?
Wrong. I don't know if any of you have been taught this kind of evangelism technique (I'm not even sure where I learned it) but I've come to believe it is a lie at worst and ineffective at best. Yes, our lifestyle is a witness, but we can't avoid mentioning God when we would normally want to bring Him up... we can't hide it for the sake of not offending... can we? I find myself having a hard time walking that line... I don't want to put people off immediately... there are many who just don't like Christians and if they find you are one won't listen to you further. But I feel I'm being inauthentic (is that a word) if I hide my deepest felt convictions just for the sake of not offending immediately. As we all know, the gospel is offensive and therein lies the power...
I'd love to hear thoughts on this.
A weird search...
Someone spent 20 minutes on my site this morning after searching google for "munchkins committing suicide mpeg"
Wha wha whaaaaaat?
Mosaic Stepping Stones
Here is a neat idea you can use in your worship services that we are going to try this Wednesday night.
The first service of each year, our theme and emphasis is always on community. This year, to make this point, we are going to create mosaic stepping stones. If you go to a craft store like AC Moore or Michaels, you can get plastic molds for these. Do NOT buy the mosaic glass pieces there... you will pay a fortune. If you go to Walmart, for $.96 a bag, you can get small glass stones in various colors... you'll find them in the fake flower / craft section. You will also need cement.
Each worshipper will be asked to write on a piece of paper all of the gifts they think they can offer to the community of believers. Someone might write "encouragement... financial support... drama... prayer... I can fix cars... mentoring..." or something like that.
When each person has written their list, they will take one glass jewel for each thing on their list. We will have 6 stations for making stones in the back of the room with wet concrete sitting in the molds. People will then create designs in the concrete using their glass jewels.
Next week, we will have our giant cross set up with these jeweled stepping stones forming a path to the cross. The idea is that through our collective gifts... through the community of believers, we can create a way to the cross for those around us.
I'll let you know how it works out and will hopefully have pictures of the stones for you Thursday.
Standby... we are having Technical difficulties
I apologize to anyone who tried to visit Saturday or Sunday. For unknown reasons, my server was down but now we're back up and running.
This week we begin Wed. @ the Well again so expect some new worship ideas and videos to begin flowing in over the next few weeks.
