| [..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..] |
Latest Reads...
"Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
"Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
"Wicked" by Gregory Macguire
"Reimagining Spiritual Formation" by Doug Pagitt
"The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash" by Dave Urbanski
"The Church in Emerging Culture" edited by Leonard Sweet
What good books have you read lately?
What do you think of this Billboard?
Here is a prominent billboard ad in Knoxville right now: On the right is a picture of the new Dobson book "Marriage Under Fire: Why we must win this War". To the left is the following text: "Take a Stand! The New Civil War... Available now at *** Christian Bookstore.I'll go first. This ad disgusts me to the point that if I can help it, so help me I will never shop at this store again. What in the world does "The New Civil War" mean? Are we supposed to put on grey coats, grab muskets and go shoot homosexuals? Perhaps I should go grab a box of flour and some water and mix up some hard tack in case I get hungry later. Let's set up the Andersonville prison again. I mean, what the crap! "The new civil war"????? I about wrecked my car...
There are churches who are making progress reaching out to the gay community, letting them know that not all Christians hate them. There are churches loving Aids patients, inviting homosexuals to attend their church and learn about Jesus, etc. There are Christians in this city who are speaking the truth in love without having to water it down. It's possible. But then this crap happens... Billboards being slapped up all over town reminding the gay community that we are in a war. Fantastic. That REALLY helps things guys.
Perhaps the folks at this store should be reminded that in the "old" Civil War, Christians in the south (like us) defended slavery to the death holding a Bible in front of them the whole time. We were wrong in that Civil war... and if this is the way we're going to handle this issue, we're wrong now as well.
But hey, that's just me. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Songs #37 and #38 are now online
Check out songs #37 (Winter) and #38 (Even More) now on my 52 songs in 52 weeks page. Fourteen songs to go by October 15th.The Mayday Mystery
This is a really amazing story and thanks to Jamie for the link. First go read this article. Then go look at this website. There have been full page ads placed in the University of Arizona student newspaper every May 1st for over 20 years now. Each ad is filled with clues that seem to indicate the existence of a secret society / counterculture organization. About 7 years ago, one of the editors of the newspaper started to archive these ads and went back and found them dating back twenty years. His website is now dedicated to unraveling the mystery of this secret society which refers to itself only as "The Orphanage". They have contacted him and even sent him money to help him in his search. one email told him: "When you find the door, you will be welcomed in." I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff... I really hope he unravels the mystery. Looking at the pages, it's WAY over my head but interesting nonetheless.
Song #36 is now online
Check out song #36 - "Bottom of a Broken Heart". It's up now on my 52 songs in 52 weeks page.Who wants to go to Cali?
I'm planning on going to The Soliton Sessions September 7th - 11th this year. It's limited to only 200 and registration starts July 1st. I'd love to meet some other bloggers at this event... Jared Williams of The Searching might have some more detailed information coming soon over on his site.Help me Write a Song!!!
Okay... I'm asking for help here. I've got a semi-complete lyric to a kind of humorous song about Christian sub-culture annoyances (bumper stickers / t-shirts / etc). I think some of you guys out there who are equally annoyed and funny creative types could probably come up with some good stuff to make this a pretty decent song. I've got the music pretty much down. If you're interested in helping, send me an email and I'll send you the lyrics I have so far. The song is called "Bumper Sticker".Thanks!
Thank you to everyone who came out to the show at New City Cafe Saturday night. It was a lot of fun. I know there were a handful of folks who read this site sometimes who came... please know I really appreciate you being there.It was also great to meet Dane and Taylor. Check out their website and music... if you like acoustic guitars played exceptionally well, these guys are great. They sound a lot like Phil Keaggy but aren't a rip-off.. they have their own style. They do mostly acoustic instrumental duets. Really great stuff!
Song #35 is now online
Two in one week for ya... song #35 is now up. It's called "North Carolina, 1987". I'm really happy with this one... perhaps not the best written song I've done but I think it's the best recorded of all of them (with the exception of "be the body"). And it's got some hammered dulcimer on it which is always fun. Enjoy.Great Googily-Moogily Part 3
Hilarious. Someone just googled my site using "Beth Moore Bible Study Stuff is Crap!"Song #34 is Online
Go to my 52 songs in 52 weeks page to hear song #34 "The Black Keys" now. I am now 2/3 of the way there... 18 songs to go.Life in the Suburbs
So lately life has been hectic and kind of like a movie at times. In the span of 30 minutes Friday night, I had a dog get a dingleberry which required emergency "surgery", had another dog get excited and pee in the floor, had a baby projectile vomit on me, had about 5 phone calls, all this while trying to get the house ready to have 9 people over for dinner. It was madness!But, I'm not sure I would trade it. I just got back from a week in New York City which was really great, but I think if I had to trade I would rather stay here in a smaller town. I'll take exciteable dogs over being trapped in a subway for 3 hours (which happened one night... we ended up having to walk through Hollis at 1:30 in the morning which isn't as scary as you might think but still isn't on most people's to-do list.)
Highlights of New York trip:
Memorial day morning at ground zero -- So emotional and sad to be down there. I was shocked by the size of the area and the still damaged buildings surrounding the site. I was also amazed that there were people down there trying to sell september 11th picture books... they would walk up and shove it in your face and the first picture is of the plane exploding into the building. "you want picture book? only $5.00". It's a good thing I have my temper under control because I wanted to rip those books out of their hands and throw them into the street.
Worship with the Jamaicans -- Whenever we're in New York, we stay with and worship with the good folks at the Hollis community Church of Christ. Brother Roy is the preacher and he sets us up with great people to stay with and puts us to work at the church. We led a youth rally on Saturday and Sunday night and worshipped with them on Sunday morning. It was great... we were the only white people there! I was struck by how we were welcomed there... overwhelmed with kindness really... hugs, kisses, high-fives... all from mostly complete strangers. I think of my mostly white suburban church and how we greet black visitors... it's lacking to say the least. Anyway, the worship is great at the Hollis church. Their worship team consists of a CD player and two singers. They pass out tamborines to anyone who wants one. And then they sing their guts out for a LONG time... 10 - 12 songs at least. It was soulful, it was inspiring, it was worshipful, it was good.
Finally going to Central Park -- I've been to New York six times now but had never once set foot in Central Park. Wow... what a cool place. The size of this place is absolutely unbelievable. You cannot take the whole park in in one day. Not even close. Beautiful.
Movin' Out -- It's no secret that I'm a big Billy Joel fan. Most kids who grow up playing piano tend to drift towards either Billy or Elton... I was always more of a Billy fan. He had a bit more of an edge I guess. We saw his Broadway show "Movin' Out" on Friday night and it was really good. It's 24 of his songs with modern dance set to it. They kind of a put a story in there too but it's mostly just about the songs and dance. I don't usually like dance but this was good and the band was unreal. The guy they have playing piano and singing is just fantastic... not a Billy Joel sound alike but he can play as well if not better and his voice is more of a Broadway voice. The band all around was top notch musicians. Great, great show.
And now... lowlights of the trip:
Getting stuck on a subway for three hours -- see above
The flight home -- We got to LaGuardia at 3:30 for a 7:00 flight to Charlotte to connect to a 9:45 flight to Knoxville. Well, after sitting until about 5:30, we saw that our flight to Charlotte was delayed until 9:00 which meant we would miss our connection. So, we asked to be transferred to a Delta direct flight to Knoxville. All is well... we get our luggage and take a bus to the Delta terminal. But, at the desk, we are informed that the flight to Knoxville is cancelled. They can't help us, we're sent back to US Air. So, we ride the bus back and go in where we are told they can't help us either. And apparantly, if weather causes delays or cancellations, they won't pay for a hotel. The lady at the desk did tell me that I was "welcome to sleep in the airport." Great. Thanks. Fortunately, we noticed that there was a 9:30 flight to Chattanooga which is only an hour from home. I wanted out of New York at this point so we got tickets for that flight and I called my dad to come pick us up in Chattanooga at 11:30. That would have been great except our flight didn't leave New York until 11:45. We touched down in Chattanooga (which backwards spells A Goon Attahc) at 2:00 and didn't get home until 3:30 am. That sucked!
Anyway, I'm back, all is well... I'll try to start posting with a bit more regularity here. I've been slacking lately. I also am having a really hard time with songwriting lately. I've got through about song 37 finished but after that, I think it's going to be a hard road. Perhaps I'll make it 40 songs in 40 weeks... that sounds more biblical anyway. Song 33 "Valley of the Dry Bones" is up now... go check it out.
Yeeeeeee-Haw! Song #32 is now online!
Song #32 is now online... it's a cover, it's bluegrass, it was recorded live! Check out "Leave it There" now over at the 52 songs page now!
