Okkervil River | "Wake & Be Fine"

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I'm a big Okkervil River fan. Some of the most creative indie music around. Lyrically rich. New album, I Am Very Far, drops in May. I can't say enough how much I love their albums: Black Sheep Boy (and Appendix), The Stage Names, The Stand Ins. Here's the official video for "Wake and Be Fine" off their new album (via)...

Support NYC Mission | VBS Offering

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My friend, Freddy Wyatt, leads Gallery Church in New York City. Is your church doing the 2011 Big Apple Adventure Vacation Bible School? You can support this new work in NYC through your VBS Missions Offering. Would love if some of my readers' churches could help out this good brother and good work in the Big Apple! Check out their videos, starting with the one below...

Open-Air Preaching, Gospel Power, & Interruption

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I think we need to regain a healthy, biblical view of interruption.

Interruption can be good or bad. When I'm hurt and a doctor tells me I need to go to the emergency room, that's a good interruption. When I'm leading family worship and I get a recorded phone call from a politician, it's a bad interruption. Much open-air preaching is bad interruption. Sometimes very judgmental. Even cruel. Good open-air preaching, humble and loving preaching, would be the best interruption we could ever have. 

God has called us to the mission of good interruption. We don't need permission. We don't need to find an invitation to speak. We speak. We declare. We preach. We have been given the command to interrupt the world before they face the judgment of God. We are physicians crying out to a sick world to get life-saving medicine. We are ambassadors of another Kingdom warning that the current Kingdom will be destroyed and the only rescue is to join the Kingdom of the Good King. That's what the Gospel does. It forces the issue. It interrupts.

Praise God, the Gospel interrupts with power. The Bible tells us we have the power of the Gospel for salvation, the power of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses. We have the Word that is fire and a hammer that shatters the rock and won't return empty but accomplishes what God's purpose for it. We have a sword that separates joints from marrow, the sword of the Spirit. God doesn't give us an ineffective Word, but an effective one. It saves. 

If we have this power at our fingertips as preachers, and given God's permission to interrupt the lives of everyone around us, how can we not preach to everyone? How can we be content to confine our preaching to those who show up? 

(Check out all my posts & resources on open-air preaching)

Millennium Park FREE Concerts

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I attended with Sarah (14) the free Besnard Lakes concert at Millennium Park in Chicago last summer. It was a fun trip in on the train and we loved the concert. The free concert list is up for this summer and it's a great one. From the Trib...

...10 free concerts at 6:30 p.m. Mondays from May 23 through July 25. The lineup will include the following performers:

May 23: Bonnie “Prince” Billy featuring the Cairo Gang and special guest

May 30: Justin Townes Earle, Andre Williams and the Goldstars

June 6: Iron and Wine and special guest

June 13: Headliner to be announced and Campbell Brothers

June 20: Kings Go Forth, Ben L’Oncle Soul

June 27: Low and special guest

July 4:  Seefeel and special guest

July 11: Delicate Steve and Bombino

July 18:  Blonde Redhead and special guest

July 25:  Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Rachel Ries

New Bon Iver Coming In June

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Rolling Stone...

In the three years since Bon Iver released its critically beloved 2007 debut For Emma, Forever Ago, frontman Justin Vernon earned thousands of new fans – including Kanye West, who invited the sensitive singer-songwriter to appear on six songs of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

But when Vernon sat down to work on Bon Iver’s follow-up album, he discovered a problem. “Somewhere along the line, I forgot how to write songs,” he tells Rolling Stone. “I couldn’t do it anymore with a guitar. It wasn’t happening.”

So Vernon – who wrote For Emma while holed up by himself in rural Wisconsin – changed gears, working with studio musicians, trying to build sounds rather than songs. “I brought in a lot of people to change my voice — not my singing voice, but my role as the author of this band, this project,” says Vernon, who hired well-known players like sax man Colin Stetson, who plays with Tom Waits and Arcade Fire, and pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz, who recorded with Bill Frissell and Linda Rondstadt. “I built the record myself, but I allowed those people to come in and change the scene.” The album, which is still untitled, is scheduled to come out sometime in June.

If you don't have Bon Iver's two albums, For Emma, Forever Ago (only $6.99) & Blood Bank EP, it's time to catch up and get ready for June. Also check out his stuff with Volcano Choir and Gayngs (though neither compare to the greatness of Bon Iver. Now, when does Beirut's new album come out?

Music Monday: Cheap | New | Free 3.21.11

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Music please

It's Music Monday and you need some good new music at a good price. Here you go!

CHEAP

$5 ALBUMS | MARCH

NEW & STREAMING FREE

    Good New Music (out now)...

    Coming Soon (all coming out March 29th)

  • True Widow: As High As The Highest Heavens | (buy) Dark, heavy, fuzzy. Love it so far. Play it loud if you need to slowly strip the paint off your walls. ..::stonegaze::..
  • The Mountain Goats: All Eternals Deck | Always worth hearing.
  • Peter Bjorn and John: Gimme Some | Like their fun debut. Haven't heard this one yet.

FREE MUSIC - DAYTROTTER

SXSW | Jack White & Seasick Steve

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Jack White's bus from Third Man Records rolled into SXSW for a surprise parking lot performance (hear NPR's All Songs folks explain what happened). Jack played a Buddy Holly song, a White Stripes song, and then introduced new Third Man Records recording artist, Seasick Steve who stomped and played a song with a guitar with three strings (it's the blues, baby!). Some technical glitches in the last song, but I think you'll like this. The first video is the parking lot concert. The second is Seasick Steve on Jools Holland. Also, check out the album by Seasick Steve: Man From Another Time.

Music Monday | Middle Brother: "Blue Eyes"

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I can't say enough about my love for Middle Brother. Very much enjoying their self-titled debut album. This supergroup is formed from the lead singer of one of my favorite bands Delta Spirit, as well as the lead singers of Deer Tick & Dawes. Here's "Blue Eyes" featuring (Matthew Vasquez of Delta Spirit) and an interview (colorful language). Also highly recommend Delta Spirit: History From Below and Ode to Sunshine.

Friday -- Partying, Partying. YEAH!

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Is there any better way to start "get-en down on Friday" than with a viral song with the worst lyrics ever? I think not. "Yesterday was Thursday. Today it is Friday. We we we so excited. We so excited. We gonna have a ball today. Tomorrow is Saturday. And Sunday comes afterwards. I don't want this weekend to end!" If you really hate my Music Monday recommendations, this should be a perfect remedy!

Open-Air Preaching: Posts, Quotes, Resources

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Everything I've written and will write on open-air preaching I've consolidated for easy reference: Open-Air Preaching. It's available on the side-bar under "Compass." It includes open-air preaching posts, posts on relevant topics and open-air quotes, and a small, but hopefully growing list of resources beyond my blog. These are the resources I feel are worth recommending.

Open-Air Preaching

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Here's my growing list of open-air preaching posts, quotes, and as I find ones worth recommending, resources. I'm only going to link the resources I like best, and there's a lot of stuff I don't like. For future reference, this page can be found under "Compass" on the right side-bar.

MY POSTS

  1. *The Gospel in the Open-Air Again | start here
  2. Guidelines for Open-Air Preaching
  3. Open-Air Preaching is Optional?
  4. Missional Open-Air Preaching
  5. Steps Toward Open-Air Preaching
  6. Open-Air Preaching, Gospel Power, & Interruption
  7. Preaching Has Great POWER
  8. The Future of the Evangelist

QUOTES

MY RELATED POSTS

First three are precursors to the open-air series above. I didn't know they were going to spark so much on the blog. 

  1. The Public Square and the Open-Air 
  2. The Kids Downtown
  3. Know Your City - Remember the Poor

RESOURCES

Charles Spurgeon

Lectures To My Students | Two chapters on open-air preaching. Easily the most helpful stuff I've read on the subject. I believe he shows the best grasp of the goodness of and need for open-air preaching. His teaching on the how, where, when is just as relevant today as ever. Principles stay the same.

Open-Air Preaching: A sketch of it's history and remarks thereon | Not sure how much of this is from Spurgeon's book or elsewhere. 

Michael Green

Evangelism in the Early Church | One of the key sources I've used to think about open-air preaching as seen in the Bible.

Thirty Years That Changed The World: The Book of Acts for Today | There's a small section in which Green talks about Acts preaching and then proposes some ways to do open-air today. I don't love all his suggestions, but it's worth checking out.

Book Review: Delighting in the Trinity

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I really enjoyed Total Church from Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. It's biblical, theological, and practical. That was when Tim Chester really jumped on my radar and I became interested to read more from him.

I'm reviewing two books by Chester from TheGoodBook.com.

Coming soon: From Creation to New Creation: Making Sense of the Whole Bible Story. 

Today: Delighting in the Trinity: Why Father, Son and Spirit Are Good News.

GREAT DEAL: For the next 7 days you can buy both titles for $15 total, or separately for $8.44 each. Just add both to cart and it shows up as $15. I really hope you take advantage of this. Both books are very good.

Now, to a brief review...

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I'm always eager to find good books in the hands of my church and to recommend them to others. Much is written on theological issues to advance the conversation between scholars and pastors. I love those books and they are important. We also need good books for those who are growing in their faith or joining the conversation on issues they need to learn, who are not always fluent in the lingo. I believe Delighting in the Trinity (DITT) will bring "delight" to all camps.

DITT comes in three parts: Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, and Practical Implications -- with 3-4 chapters in each. I'm not going trace the majority of Chester's argument because he isn't making any new ones. That's a good thing. Chester isn't offering a reworked doctrine of the Trinity to his personal liking. He's offers the adventure of delighting in God who wants us to know Him.

I have always found the doctrine of the Trinity exciting. Thinking it through takes us deeper into the triune God who is the foundation of all reality. This is the God who made us to know Him, and who gives meaning and joy to our lives. To explore Him is a wonderful adventure. To delight in Him is our chief end. (p 8)

I found Chester's writing to be fresh and pastoral. He isn't merely rehashing old arguments, though he does that well. He brings clarity and simplicity to what could be something cumbersome. And he quotes generously without burying the Scriptures, and from more than just basic theological stream. You'll get stuff from Owen, Calvin, Luther, N.T. Wright, T.F. Torrence, and more. In the Historical Developments section you'll hear from all sorts as the doctrine of the Trinity is considered throughout church history from heroes to heretics, from the early church fathers to contemporary theologians. But Chester doesn't end there. He says there's a continuing need to reform our theology...

Theology is a continuing project. We need to re-articulate the gospel afresh to our culture. At the same time we need to examine the influence of our culture on our thinking. The development of the doctrine of the Trinity illustrates how a slightly divergent view can turn out to be a wrong turning that will eventually lead us away from the biblical gospel. A shift of emphasis in one generation can become a dangerous heresy in the next generation. So theology is a serious task for all Christians. (p 117)

I maybe most appreciate how the book includes illustrations/diagrams and bullet points. The illustrations are both helpful and careful. Chester makes sure to explain are not complete or definitive explanations. The diagrams for historical thinkers I found very helpful to understand the differences. And the bullet points are helpful as we learn and should be helpful when we reference the book later to refresh.

I particularly like the way Chester deals with the Trinity and the Cross. This is a Gospel-centered book on the Trinity.

God is known only through revelation, but this revelation is hidden so that it shatters human pretensions. God is revealed in what is contrary. The wisdom of God is hidden in the folly of the cross. The glory of God is hidden in the shame of the cross. He power of God is hidden in the weakness of the cross. So if we want to discover the true character of God, we must look to the cross. And the God revealed in the cross is trinitarian. He is both single and plural; one united being and three distinct persons. (p 64)

Further...

We cannot understand the cross without the plurality of God. The cross shows us that there are distinctions within God. God can be forsaken by God. But neither can we understand the cross without the unity of God. If God is not one, then the cross becomes a cruel and vindictive act with an angry Father punishing an unwilling Son or a loving Son placating an unwilling Father. Only if God is one can the cross be for us reconciliation and inclusion within the divine community. (p 78)

Part 3 of the book, Practical Implications, is where it all comes together with the world around us. There is stuff on other religions, on individualism and pluralism and how this doctrine corrects cultural issue, and much more. There are pastoral considerations throughout, as well. 

My only real critique is that I really wish Delighting in the Trinity had a Scripture index and a subject index. Some may complain they would like a fuller treatment, but that's not Chester's purpose. There are other great books for that. This is highly accessible for your church members, and that's firmly where it belongs.

So I highly recommend Delighting in the Trinity as a resource for your church members. It may be of particular help to Bible study teachers and/or small group leaders. And let me add that one group I hope will pick up Delighting in the Trinity: pastors. I'm always surprised to hear pastors & preachers who don't grasp the Trinity, who speak incorrectly as to who does what and when and how. Or who just default at the generic when the Bible gives us the specifics. Let's sharpen our understanding of our Triune God as we preach His Word! This is a helpful refresher, or something to give you more solid footing on this beautiful doctrine.

Go buy Delighting in the Trinity. Buy From Creation to New Creation at the same time and get both for just $15 total. You won't regret it. And check out the growing number of theologically solid resources from TheGoodBook.com.

The Poison Tree | Music Discovery

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I liked the cover. It was that simple. It intrigued me. So I chose to listen to a live stream of The Poison Tree's new, self-titled album last week. Then I listened again. Loved it. It was released yesterday and I had to pick it up. I want to encourage you to pick it up too. Or listen to it streaming FREE. The clips don't do it justice. Let me know what you think.

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