This is the funniest political satire I’ve seen since Jib-Jab and SNL’s skewering of Sarah Palin. He butchers some of the lyrics on this version, but you’ll get the point.
July 12, 2009
June 20, 2009
Perpetuum Jazzile is worth your 6 minutes and 17 seconds
The Slovenian Choir, Perpetuum Jazzile, perform a storm and then Africa by Toto:
April 3, 2009
Amie Street, a cool music site
A couple of months ago while trying to find a song on a Harley Davidson ad, I stumbled across Amiestreet.com, an awesome site for downloading indie music as well as a few better known bands. There is some really good music here and many of the downloads are much less than iTunes or Amazon, some as cheap as $.20 with none over $0.98. Each week also features a number of free downloads.
The site has a few outstanding features, not the least of which are most music previews are longer than a minute each-much better than the 30 second clips on iTunes, many of which aren’t even the best parts of the song. Amie Street also has a cool music player that opens on the bottom of the page and plays the samples in order (either whole albums, top 25 or genres) while you check out other pages, artists and reviews. Amie Street, along with most everyone else, has a Facebook page.
Community reviews tend to be a little skimpy, with many of them resorting to “Great song!” type announcements just to bump up a rating history; but if you prefer to be your own judge this is not problematic.
The song I eventually found from the Harley ad is Brother John by Middle Distance Runner. Their Monochrome Boys is also outstanding. A free download today Pulling on a Line by Toronto based Great Lake Swimmers, a really good song. Power chick of the day is Molly Jenson with the rocking The Edgy 8 Ball Song which features, I think, Jon Foreman of Switchfoot on guitar. As with much indie music there are some really creative albums covers and names such as The Low Anthem’s project, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.
Purchases are done by putting money on account via credit or debit card and then buying from the account. A recent special gave a 25% bonus so that a $7.50 deposit was given a $10.00 value for purchases. (Am I wrong, or is that really a 33% bonus?) As with any other mp3s, these play in iTunes or other player of your choice.
If you like indie music or are just looking for stuff you haven’t heard before, check out Amie Street.
This is not a Christian music site; language can be an issue periodically.
March 2, 2009
Recent Music and Sermon Series
I get the question occasionally about what, if any, secular music we do in our services. We have done a lot recently; here’s the list.
For our series on work entitled Take This Job and Shove It, we did the following:
Take This Job and Shove It, Johnny Paycheck
Bang on the Drum, Todd Rundgren
Sixteen Tons, Tennessee Ernie Ford
Taking Care of Business, BTO
Forty Hour Week, Alabama
For a sermon yesterday on baptism, we opened with:
Come Alive, Foo Fighters
Yes, we do an occasional lyric tweak as required. And, yes, our band is multi-talented.
We also introduced a song that’s a year or so old, but new to us. It’s called Our God Saves, by Paul Baloche. Simple but powerful; worth checking out.
June 7, 2008
Dallas Morning News on Denominational Decline
While specific to the SBC, this article hits many of the same issues that I posted previously. When you hear over and over that the issue is getting “back to the basics”–the same basics that most churches never left–you know that any denomination’s leadership is as clueless as they can be about the reality surrounding their own decline.
The issue is that “the basics” are no longer a part of the culture, thus getting “back to the basics” doesn’t affect the culture. Sadly, it gives us a sense of false hope as if merely doing things by rote is the answer. “Pray more.” What about responding to and living out the answers to prayer that God is already giving? “Pray more.” What if God has given the answer, but we’ve so assured ourselves of what the answer should be that we don’t recognize the voice of God when He speaks? “Pray more.” What happens when the answers to those prayers are then equated with “worldliness” or “cultural accommodation”?
“Witness more.” Really? What if it takes years to prepare the soil so that the seed of the gospel can even be watered, much less take root? Have we forgotten that seed thrown on hard soil can actually be washed away by water, not to mention plucked up by the Devil? All those smashmouth evangelism efforts may have accomplished absolutely nothing in the way of preparing human hearts. “Witness more.” What if damage control from a thousand hypocritical Christians has to be put into place before the unbeliever will even give us a hearing? “Witness more.” What if they have never understood one word of our gospel spiel since we are, for all intents and purposes, not speaking a language they understand?
“Don’t be like the culture.” I’ve got news for you we are already like the culture. Our presence is part of what makes the culture. What we do not need to be like is the world: living by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Playing an Eagles song in a worship service is no more worldly than going to an opera the night before. “Don’t be like the culture.” And how, exactly does one suppose to get the gospel into it? Open the windows of the temple and throw the seed toward the target? If we are not living in the culture, not only are we not living like sojourners and pilgrims, we are not living like Christ.
How about let’s get back to these basics: (1) Exegeting the culture so as to infiltrate it with the kingdom of God. (2) Befriending those who are victims of the Enemy rather than treating them like the enemy. (3) Using stones to create God-honoring landscapes, rather than throwing them at those who aren’t like us (that’s actually a metaphor). (4) Actually being salt and light in our cultures rather than thinking that we already are by virtue of being saved. (5) Leaving behind all the quasi-religious, expired denominational, hindering traditions that weigh us down so that we can run with endurance the race that is set before us.
End of rant.
April 2, 2008
A Test of the Emergency Podcast System
I’m testing my new podPress plug-in with an “office bootleg” recording of our Student Pastor (who’s also doing duty as Worship Pastor), Joey Jernigan, singing. He used Garage Band to record in his office an arrangement of I Surrender All that he and I worked on yesterday. There are some additional verses to coincide with a series I’m about to start.
Uhm, he has no idea I’m putting this online.
[display_podcast]
December 17, 2007
A Christmas Tale Report
A while back I wrote of our opportunity at Lake Lanier Islands Magical Nights of Lights. All the performances are now behind us, so I can reflect on them in hindsight.
The first weekend had weather that could not have been more perfectly ordered. The Saturday night performances (there were four each night) had short-sleeved audiences as the temps stayed in the mid-50’s until about 9:30. It was amazingly comfortable for the second week of December. It had also been dry the entire time which made stage construction and rehearsals go well.
Friday of the second weekend was picture perfect again for weather. The forecast in the first part of the week had not been encouraging, but God gave us fair weather again. Saturday night was when He chose to answer all those prayers for rain…again. It rained from the late afternoon virtually all through the performance times, so we were forced to cancel. Sunday was very, very cold, but we were able to do three performances before it dipped into the 20’s with a strong wind making it simply unbearable.
All in all we think we had somewhere north of 1,000 in attendance even with the cancellations and the bitter cold of the last night. Remarkably, some of the most encouraging comments came from the park employees themselves with whom we were able to interact repeatedly. We’ve been told that Lake Lanier Islands has received a large number of calls commending the performances and we’ve now been asked if we can do something for Easter Sunday.
I’m very, very grateful for such an amazing church–it is humbling to be in partnership with such a people. I’m also eternally thankful that God allows His people to be in partnership in the missio dei. Below are a couple of photos from a dress rehearsal (sunglasses notwithstanding) and you can check out my flickr slideshow–A Christmas Tale 2007. (If you’ve never viewed a flickr slideshow, click the “i” in the middle of the slide to activate any comments on the photo.)
Michael Chassner as a shepherd. You’ve never had chills until you’ve heard a Jewish believer in Jesus sing, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel! Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel has come to thee O Israel.”
Abigail Duren in performance costume standing in front of the “Christmas” banner.
November 27, 2007
A Christmas Tale
Each year the resort known as Lake Lanier Islands, which is a mere 1 mile from our campus, hosts a very popular Christmas attraction called, “The Magical Nights of Lights.” Thousands upon thousands of people pack into cars, vans and buses and pay a hefty amount to drive through a million light display commemorating partridges in pear trees, elves, and the birth of Christ among other things. One feature of recent years has been a living Nativity Scene sponsored by a local church about 10 miles from us. I think that they do it nightly for about 3 weeks leading up to Christmas.
Last year for our New Bethany Christmas presentation, we did a musical drama called, A Christmas Tale, which won rave reviews from our church. The house was pretty full for the three nights that we held it. This year, as a result of the vision of our Worship Pastor, Dan Brothers, we will be doing 24 performances of A Christmas Tale at the Magical Nights of Lights–four performances a night for two consecutive Fri-Sun weekends. A total of three casts, a choir and live band (not to mention sound and lighting personnel and more than 30 volunteers for greeting and inviting). Our performance area will be across from the area known as, Santa’s Workshop, the home of shops, eats and the Holiday Carnival which is a small amusement ride area. Performances have been promoted both in the local news paper and yesterday on the morning show of on of the major Atlanta news channels.
This type of ministry opportunity is exactly what we are regularly hoping to do–it’s outside the walls, it’s different from what people expect and it speaks the cultural language. We really don’t have any idea what to expect as far as crowds go; we could play for as few as 25 or to a full house (about 300 portable chairs) at each performance. Our hope is that by being where people are that the glory of God will be displayed and the gospel declared in a way that breaks down barriers, overcomes disillusionment and plants seeds in the lives of many. Who knows, we might even get to experience a harvest!
November 1, 2007
This Too Shall Be Made Right
Words and Music by Derek Webb (Song and album The Ringing Bell available on iTunes)
people love you most for the things you hate
and hate you for loving the things you canâ??t keep straight
people judge you on a curve
and tell you youâ??re getting what you deserve
and this, too, shall be made right
children cannot learn and children cannot eat
stack them like lumber when children cannot sleep
children dream of wishing wells
whose waters quench all the fires of hell
and this, too, shall be made right
the earth and the sky and the sea are all holding their breath
wars and abuses have nature groaning with death
we say weâ??re just trying to stay alive
but it looks so much more like a way to die
and this, too, shall be made right
yes thereâ??s a time for peace, there is a time for war
thereâ??s a time to forgive and a time to settle the score
a time for babies to lose their lives
a time for hunger and genocide
and this, too, shall be made right
oh I donâ??t know the suffering of people outside my front door
and I join the oppressors of those I choose to ignore
Iâ??m trading comfort for human life
and thatâ??s not just murder, itâ??s suicide
and this, too, shall be made right
oh this, too, shall be made right
“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:19-27
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
September 22, 2007
Great Songs for Missional Churches, 1
Have you ever purchased a CD or downloaded it and played it through a few times only half way listening? Have you ever had the experience of hearing a song for the first time after hearing it many times? Perhaps because of sermon prep or a book you’d been reading or a conversation, but something about the lyrics of the song grabs you and demands your attention. That recently happened to me on the song, “Tears of the Saints,” by the group Leeland. It is a song that we will be doing in church soon.
The song is available on iTunes. If you want to watch a video of it being performed at Creation 2007, there is a link on the above site and you’ll need to endure a 30 second registration at MonsterPod. Here are the lyrics:
Tears of the Saints
There are many prodigal sons
On our city streets they run
Searching for shelter
There are homes broken down
Peopleâ??s hopes have fallen to the ground
From failures
This is an emergency!
There are tears from the saints
For the lost and unsaved
Weâ??re crying for them come back home
Weâ??re crying for them come back home
And all your children will stretch out their hands
And pick up the crippled man
Father, we will lead them home
Father, we will lead them home
There are schools full of hatred
Even churches have forsaken
Love and mercy
May we see this generation
In its state of desperation
For Your glory
This is an emergency!
There are tears from the saints
For the lost and unsaved
Weâ??re crying for them come back home
Weâ??re crying for them come back home
And all your children will stretch out their hands
And pick up the crippled man
Father, we will lead them home
Father, we will lead them home
Sinner, reach out your hands!
Children in Christ you stand!
Sinner, reach out your hands!
Children in Christ you stand!
There are tears from the saints
For the lost and unsaved
Weâ??re crying for them come back home
Weâ??re crying for them come back home
And all Your children will stretch out their hands
And pick up the crippled man
Father, we will lead them home
Father, we will lead them home
