| [..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..] |
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| [..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..] |
Sad news today...
I just heard the sad news that Mike Yaconelli passed away early this morning... seems he was involved in a car accident. This is shocking and sad news to say the least. Mike's book "dangerous wonder" had a significant impact on me and the work he did through youth specialties was obviously blessed and also had a big impact on me and my ministry. Rest in peace brother Mike. More information is available at Youth Specialties.Light bloggin ahead
This week is shaping up to be just crazy. We're going to look at new houses tonight. Tomorrow night is childbirth classes. Wednesday night is our "heaven" night at church which will take all day to create... Thursday I have to go with my wife's 3rd grade class to the corn maze... Friday is our Halloween alternative thingy at church where again, I have all day setup.Needless to say... you may not hear much from me this week. Why not head over to some of the fine blogs I have listed to the left for some fresh thoughts and conversation.
Finally... I'll just let everyone following the 52 songs project know... I am very frustrated right now... Writing with a "deadline" is difficult and even though it's just a couple weeks in, I'm fighting some pretty serious writer's block right now. I have some ideas but I just don't like any of them... maybe I'm being too picky. Who knows... but anyway, the point is, this is going to be a lot harder than I originally thought. Maybe impossible... we'll see. We're up to song 5 and I'm already at a roadblock. Arrrrgh.
If you have an hour
and want to read an interesting conversation, head over here...
Song #5 is now Online!
Go to my 52 songs in 52 weeks page to listen to song #5, "I will be There".So, I'm only about a week into the project... the idea was a song a week and here I am on song 5 already... this might be 52 songs in 2 months if I keep this pace up. I actually already have 10 songs finished... I'm just still working on recording them. I figure I better write quickly now 'cause when the baby comes I'm gonna have to take a month or two off. Anyway, enjoy!
Also, just a reminder... my plan at the end of this project is to actually package these songs into a 3 CD set (if they'll fit on 3) and have them available for sale. I'll probably sell about 5 of them (all to my mother) but hey, it's fun. But, the liner notes will be made up of YOUR COMMENTS on the songs... so, go listen, and comment! Even if it's to say "Hey, this unoriginal drivel made me choke on my own bile". That's fine... say anything, just say something. It's interactive.
Eyes Wide Open: Update...
Our Tuesday morning book group has been going great. We're now on our fourth book. We read "purpose driven life" first... I think we covered earlier my thoughts on that. Next we read The Journey of Desire by John Eldridge which I actually liked quite a lot. His thoughts on Heaven are outstanding.
After that we read Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. If you've been around here much, you've heard me sing the praises of this book. I was glad that everyone in my group (young and old) thought this was by far the best book we had read. All 6 mornings we discussed it we went at least 30 minutes longer than planned.
Now we are on our second week of reading "Mere Christianity". I read this one in high school and hadn't looked at it since. I've only read the first five chapters but just reading that, you put the book down and are amazed at the brilliance of it. I know now everyone is big into Lewis, but man... he really is a master as far as I'm concerned. He really speaks to the way I think and see things.
So Jeph... you asked... things are well. We normally have between 6-8 there and it's just been really great. I look forward to Tuesdays.
Song #4 is now Online
Go to my 52 songs in 52 weeks page to listen to song #4, "Seattle to Spokane". Geez, I hope this doesn't sound too much like John Denver.Baby it's hard to believe... we're in heaven
So here is a pretty fun service idea that we are going to try in two weeks.We are calling the night "Heaven". We have gone to hotels and collected donated linens (bag after bag after bag full... they'll just give them to you when they get old). We are going to turn the entire room white... clouds hanging from the ceiling... every chair, all of the floor... everything solid white.
We have a girl who plays harp who will be playing as everyone comes in. Then, a choir in robes and with wings will come and sing the Hallelujah Chorus to open the service.
Then, different leaders will come up for various announcements, etc saying things like "man, isn't this awesome!" "This is going to be so great! I wish we could go there now!".
Then, our speaker for the night will come and ruin it all by saying "wait a minute... guys... this sucks! This is crap! This is totally boring... choirs? Wings? Hallelujah chorus?"
His message is based heavily on John Eldredge's writing on heaven in the book "Journey of Desire"... we so often have this view of heaven as some place where we stand around and sing and then we try to act spiritual and act excited about that when we know that it doesn't really sound all that great. Eldredge's ideas about what heaven will be like are worth the price of the book... excellent stuff.
We'll follow the discussion up with some worship without wings or choirs. Should be a fun night... I should note that I had nothing to do with this idea... some other folks in the church came up with it and they've already tested the idea one night with the youth group... said it went well.
For discussion... what do you think heaven will be like?
Song #3 is now Online
Go to my 52 songs in 52 weeks page to listen to song #3, "The End of You and Me". My wife likes this one.One of the funniest sites I've seen in a while...
Thanks to Dean for the link to this... Check out Stealth Disco which features people disco dancing directly behind people who don't know they are doing it. It is quite hilarious. I think I will begin doing this in my office starting immediately.
The last hurrah...
The wife and I are going to Asheville for a few days... this is the last time "away" and "alone" for probably a few years with the baby due in January. I'll be back on the blog Monday. Also, someone searched google on "How to steal TVs from Walmart" and found my site this morning. Actually, if you go to Google and type in how to steal TVs from Walmart, my site comes up #1!!! That's messed up.Songs #1 & #2 are now Online
Go to my 52 songs in 52 weeks page to listen to the first two songs in what will hopefully be an entire year worth of songwriting for me. Also, comment on whether song #2 should be called "Meaningless" or "The Red Pill". I can't decide.This may fizzle when the baby comes but...
I'm going to try it anyway. You'll notice a shiny new graphic to your left that says "52 songs in 52 weeks". Let me explain.I've been dabbling in writing songs for about 6 years now and it's one of the things I like to do best. It's not one of the things I actually DO best... but I do enjoy it an awful lot. Problem is, I just have a hard time getting motivated. I'm averaging about 2 songs a year the past 3 years and that is just unacceptable. I've been thinking I need a way to get motivated to write more.
On top of that, I've got a bunch of nice recording equipment (microphones... adat... mixers... etc) that are collecting dust. This stuff wasn't cheap and I feel guilty all the time for not using it.
So, on this new blog called 52 songs I will put together 52 songs in the next 52 weeks. I'm going to try and write at least 3 a month with the extra room being for covers songs and collaborations. At the end of this time, I'm hoping to put together a CD set of all of the material as my little "concept album". The new blog will actually serve as the liner notes to the album with lyrics, production info, and best of all, listener critiques and comments. Totally interactive music where listeners can critique the writer... Won't that be fun?
Finally, I have to mention Jonathan Rundman's amazing 2 CD 52 song set called Sound Theology. He wrote 52 songs to go with the church calendar... one song for each week and it is a truly inspired piece of work. I am basically ripping his idea off except these songs aren't all about church or meant to coincide with anything... they'll just be whatever they turn out to be.
One final thought... I realize this may seem hugely self-important and stupid but hey, it's all for fun and to inspire me to write more. I realize I'm not Bob Dylan or anything... I'm amateur and I know it. But, God makes us in his own image which means we are by nature creative... I feel best about myself when I'm able to express that sometimes. I hope that makes sense.
So, check out the new page by clicking on the graphic. I'll have the first song up by the end of the week.
A very disturbing film...
I saw a very disturbing film last night called "The Magdalene Sisters". It is about Catholic girls in Ireland in the 1960s who were sent to work in laundries as slaves for pennance. The story is primarily about three girls sent there to pay for their sins. One girl was raped and made the mistake of telling someone. Another girl had a baby before being married and another girl is sent there just for being good looking. The cruelty of the nuns is quite shocking... the girls are beaten, publically humiliated, and forced to work all day without speaking. Many of the girls sent there NEVER got out... The truly shocking thing about this is that the last one of these Catholic slave camps closed in 1996. That's 7 years ago...
This movie is in theaters now... I recommend it... I was shocked I had never heard about this before. It's believed that over 30,000 girls in Ireland alone worked in these laundry labor camps. I have a feeling that as more and more people see this film, this is going to be one more atrocity in the name of Christ that we are going to have to give the world an answer for.
If anyone else has seen it, I would love to hear your thoughts.
When Good Links go Bad
Well well well...
This morning I was looking through some of the sites I have linked over to your left and I visited the site I have marked as "Lego Gospel". This site is actually called The Brick Testament and it is quite amazing. The creator of the site has gone to great lenghts to recreate scenes from the Bible with lego men. When I first saw the site, all I saw was his stories from Genesis and they are amazing. That is why I linked to the site. But...
I've been duped. The guy is actually making the site to poke fun. He's an atheist who felt like the brutality of the old testament was never accurately portrayed in bible stories. If you go to the site and look at his recent additions, you'll find lego men engaged in all kinds of madness as they demonstrate the breaking of old testament laws.
So... I'll probably be taking the link off. Look now if you must... Lego men having sex is where I have to draw a line.
NEWSFLASH!
Patrons of Christian Bookstore nearly bored to death!
100 year old Jesus movie
Are you looking for footage of Jesus to use in your video editing / loops? Are you sick of using "Jesus of Nazareth" and that Billy Graham movie? Well, how about some ANCIENT footage by today's standards. I recently discovered the following DVD:The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ / From the Manger to the Cross.
The first film was made from 1902 - 1905 and the second was filmed in 1912. Both are silent and both are extremely cool. There is even some color (painted frame by frame... imagine everything black and white but an angel with golden wings... kind of cool). It can be had for about $20 on DVD. A must have!
The biggest questions...
We're having a "discussion night" at the well in two weeks. We need ten big "wrestling" questions. We have several ideas but if you folks have any, that would be helpful. What are some big questions you've been discussing?
