Colossians Three Sixteen
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With my wife and my good friend Eldon, I had the opportunity the other night to fulfill a long-time concert wish: I got to see Danielson. He played with a full band (though not necessarily the “Famile” per se) this past Sunday night, November 16, 2008 at Modified Arts in downtown Phoenix. I was struck by several thoughts as we marveled at the wonder that is Danielson (this time in the Navy/sailor/soldier uniforms, complete with very cool shoes [see the tour uniform here]) which I have chosen to share in the form of a very brief open letter to Daniel Smith, the architect behind a... [read more]
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My wife knows me very well. We were out to lunch yesterday (here) and she looked across the table and said: “I feel a blog post coming on, don’t I”? Let me set the stage. We were in the back room of the restaurant near a large table of older people. We were the only people in the back room and they were talking quite loudly, so without trying to, we found ourselves eavesdropping a bit. It became quickly apparent that they were talking about church. We overheard phrases like “…such a great time of worship today…” but then the tone got a bit more s... [read more]
add to discussionBrowse and then browse some more. If I told you once, I told you two onces, welcome to the Weekly Town Crier, where I collect link, you click on some but not others. And then you remember that just because I linked something does not mean I endorse something and then we laugh together about how we’ve come to define holiness simply as separation from the world, because if it did, Jesus’ prayer that the Father not take the disciples out of the world (John 17:15-19) and then you begin to wonder how we could really be salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16) and you ponder how we could rea... [read more]
add to discussionI was presently surprised the other day while watching Sesame Street with my boys to see Feist counting to four. Count along for yourself: Next is one of my favorite artists performing one of my favorite songs: Emmylou Harris (with Daniel Lanois) performing “Where Will I Be?” on The Letterman Show: Here’s the amazing Rainer Ptacek from 1989 in a previously unreleased music video for “Don’t Know Why:” Though the sound isn’t great on this one, I think it’s adequate to at least tell why, only two albums into his career, Doug Burr has qui... [read more]
add to discussionThere’s a strange but vast disconnect happening right now. To my knowledge, Obama is the first and only President elect to mention homosexuality in his acceptance speech, while at the same time, some states (CA & AZ in particular), through initiatives, are moving to place governmental bans on same-sex unions. While we could and perhaps one day should ponder about what this means for the possible disconnect between Obama and the American public at-large, instead, I want to consider this from a Christian perspective. For me at least, the passage of these initiative raises many que... [read more]
add to discussionIt’s more than likely that we’ve all heard of churches taking marketing cues from Starbucks. But have you ever wondered what might happen if it went the other way around? This little “parable” is from the people at beyondrelevance.com. Why is it that so many churches seem so out of touch? I’m looking forward to your thoughts and feedback. This video presents all kinds of interesting things to think about. For example, if we admit that we’ve created our own (often awkward) subculture, how far do we swing the pendulum back the other way to correct this tren... [read more]
add to discussionWelcome back. I hope you’ve had a good week. It’s not really like we’ve been apart though, becuase you’ve been stopping by all week long to read, think and discuss, right (wink, wink)? But once a week we take some time to browse together. The World Wide Web can be a big, scary, overcrowded space. Consider me your tour guide, wading through the sludge to bring you the daisies. Here you’ll find links to many of the things that, for one reason or another caused me to pause and think this past week. Hopefully they’ll do the same for you. Remember, linking doe... [read more]
add to discussionFirst up today is the video for Arvo Pärt’s piece “Magnificat.” Probably his most widely performed piece, this approach places the music over everyday, often mundane scenes for interesting effect (and affect): I figured that as long as we were leading off with Arvo Pärt today and not necessarily “new” music that up next I’d include the Weepies. Here is their song “The World Spins Madly On:” And just because, Ryan Adams performing “Winding Wheel:” Here is Colin Hay and his wife performing his song “Overkill:” ... [read more]
add to discussionRegardless of your vote, yesterday was an historic day in American history. Only 20 years ago, Jesse Jackson was written off with no chance of winning. Try just a little and you will be able to shake hands with and talk with people who once had to sit at the back of the bus and were not allowed to vote because of the color of their skin. Yesterday, the American people chose a bi-racial son of an immigrant as the 44th President of the United States. Surely this is a significant event. Though many disagree (even adamantly) with his policies and voting record, surely Christians can rejoice at... [read more]
add to discussionThough I don’t always agree with Derek Webb, he quite often makes me think and at least consider where he’s coming from and for that I am grateful. He has some interesting things for us to think about on this Election Day. What happens if you can’t, in good conscience, vote for either of the major party candidates. Though he does not deeply address the possibility of a third-party candidate, there are still some good things to think about. He says: “It is never advisable, in any decision that you make, to violate your conscience. As it applies to this election, you m... [read more]
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