National Poetry Month Posts

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Since April is over I thought it might be helpful to list all of my National Poetry Month posts for your convenience.

It's National Poetry Month!
Mom and The Lanyard
Can Poetry Matter?
Poetry Quotes
Men and Poetry
What is Poetry?
Billy Collins, Animation
National Poetry Map
Billy Collins Poetry Reading
On Reading American Poetry
A Few Poems
On Writing Poetry

Let me also add the podcasts that I failed to mention.  I listen to some writing and poetry podcasts worth looking up: Writers on Writing, Poetcast from poets.org, Writer's Almanac from Garrison Keillor, and Poem Present.

Reformed Pastor Audiobook

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I just wrote myself a note yesterday to remember to reread The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter.  Now you can get the audiobook for free.  I just got it, so should you. Via Justin Taylor...

ChristianAudio's "Free Audiobook of the Month" is Richard Baxter's classic, The Reformed Pastor.

Inhis introduction, Baxter writes: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." This charge from Acts 20:28 only is the beginning of a solemn and overarching task to be personally involved and disciple all of your congregants. Richard Baxter's plea for shepherding his flock continues with a charge to pastors to verify their own spiritual walk and then walks them through various disciplines, strategies, and goals to guide and instruct their congregation.

Use the coupon code MAY2007 during checkout to get the download format of   The Reformed Pastor for free!

     Your Price: $0.00
     List Price: $22.98

Music Monday 4.30.07

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EarIt's an odd Music Monday since I'm out of town and don't really have time to write a detailed and meaningful music post.  But I will say that I picked up 7 CD's at ear X-tacy today in Louisville, KY.  Man, they had everything I wanted and more.  Well everything but one CD.  I'll list what I purchased with links to Amazon.  By the way, when you have a hot and awesome wife like me you get notes in your suitcase with extra cash to get a few extra CD's.  Hubba hubba.  Photo credit to Thoe Jorn.

Shearwater: Palo Santo Extended Edition (I have the original and didn't even know this extended version existed.  Had to get it with 8 new songs and some original songs reworked.  Hard to pass up a new version of my #1 album of 2006.)

Fujiya & Miyagi: Transparent Things (Was ignoring this one and kept reading good things that made me change my mind.)

Sera Cahoone: Sera Cahoone (I had almost given up on finding this one.)

The Avett Brothers: The Gleam (Love the Avetts and have never seen this in a store before.  Had to get it.  Listening to it as I write this post and it's fantastic.)

Palomar: All Things, Forests (Great indie pop.  Heard a good deal in the car today.)

The Twilight Sad: Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (The one CD I just had to find today.  Anticipating my first listen.)

A Hawk and a Hacksaw: The Way the Wind Blows (Been looking for this for many months.  So glad to find it.)

In Louisville, Kentucky

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Here's Joe Thorn's post on our trip so far...

Us Steve and I have come down to Louisville to meet with friends and dialog about church planting and church planting networks. I have benefited from our denomination, and believe our church will remain Southern Baptist as long as doctrinal integrity and healthy cooperation remain in play. While I can imagine both of these things disappearing in 10-20 years, I like to think we will only grow healthier. Time will tell. NAMB is a great way to plant a church (we planted Grace via NAMB), but the alternative networks (Acts 29, Sovereign Grace, etc.) are producing great results as well. I really want our church to both partner with others in the planting of healthy churches and to be directly involved in planting as much as possible. This is why we are here. This and the Scotch Eggs at the Irish Rover. I’ll share more as I can.

I just want to add that ear X-tacy adds a lot to the trip.  Hitting it tomorrow.

Bill Hybels Loves Mark Driscoll

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Hybels_driscoll_banner_bubble_3It just kills me how hard some folks (can anyone say Missouri Baptist Convention?) are trying to distance themselves from the "emerging" Acts 29 organization and Mark Driscoll.  Driscoll is all pomo and truth has no meaning for him.

Then in Bizarro world Bill Hybels (a pastor of a moderately influential, smallish church in suburban Chicago) has poked him publicly for his fundamentalism after viewing Driscoll on video at the National New Church Conference.  He basically didn't like Driscoll's male-centered approach to church planting and let that be known from the platform.  That resulted in Acts 29 eating thousands of Driscoll's videos because the conference decided not to hand them out as originally planned. 

From Driscoll on the Resurgence website...

Last year I spoke at a large church planting event along with a number of other church planters and church planting movement leaders. The event was held in Florida, went well, and did a very encouraging job of bringing together a number of denominations, networks, and organizations that otherwise would not have benefited from such a partnership.

This year I was invited back but declined because the few-day round trip from Seattle to Florida to give a very short message (last year it was less than twenty minutes) seemed like too much in light of other responsibilities. So, the sponsors of the event asked me to instead put together an eight-minute video on church planting that could be shown at the event and then handed out to each of the 1,500 attendees. So, in an effort to be helpful, the video crew from Mars Hill Church and I spent half a day in freezing weather at a military cemetery shooting scenes that were then edited for the video. Apparently the video was shown at the event, was well received by the attendees, and then criticized by Bill Hybels from the stage because it did not speak of women church planters. And, not wanting a bigger fuss, the organization hosting the event then made a decision not to hand out the video as they had promised, leaving the guys from our Acts 29 Church Planting Network who had hauled suitcases of the videos to Florida with thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of wasted effort. The leaders of the event are good guys whom I still consider friends, and I've never met Bill Hybels so I won't speak about him personally. But, I thought we should at least post the banned video online, so here it is:

The Forgotten Ways

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ForgottenwaysAlan Hirsch's book, The Forgotten Ways, is causing me to ask a lot of good questions of my theology, my ecclesiology & missiology.  It's good, challenging stuff and I recommend you pick it up.  I've been meaning to read/review this book for some time and it has been too long in coming.  Over the next few weeks or so I'm going to make the effort to post a few quotes, reflections, and/or questions about the book and the issues it raises.  Please feel free to interact with the ideas.

Alan_hirsch_2 I wish I had time to do the book more justice, but Scot McKnight (for one) spent a good deal of time on the book (Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).  You might also want to check out Jordan Cooper's epic first half review here. I encourage you to go to these links for a good recap of the arguments of the book.

If the heart of discipleship is to become like Jesus, then it seems to me that a missional reading of this text requires that we see Jesus's strategy is to get a while lot of little versions of him infiltrating every nook and cranny of society by reproducing himself in and through his people in every place throughout the world. (p 113)

Music Monday 4.23.07

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A couple of albums have me spinning lately. 

Blonde_redhead2Blonde Redhead: 23
(MySpace, Reviews: Metacritic, Drowned in Sound, The Village Voice, Lost at Sea)

Wow, this is good stuff.  Atmospheric, heart-wrenching, experimental indie-rockish shtuff.  The title track, "23," is a great introduction to the album.  Hear it on their MySpace or watch their video of "23".  Some quotes...

23 is exactly what we've come to expect from this trio: a tension-filled exploration of the human psyche, blistering but still atmospheric.

23 is a delirious fever-dream of an album that continues to impress with each consecutive listen.

This is the next record you have to buy. Absolutely. Unequivocally.

Headlights Headlights: Kill Them With Kindness
(MySpace)

Under The Radar: "Kill Them With Kindness is an impressive debut proving that the remaining members of Absinthe Blind are not living in the past but continually experimenting into the future."

I believe Under the Radar has Kill Them With Kindness as their #15 album of 2006.  A number of reviews are not quite there, but I think it's outstanding.  It's happy, fun music.  Tracks that stand out to me are "Your Old Street" and "Signs Point to Yes (But Outlook Not So Good)."

YouTube: "TV" Video (or "TV" Live), also "Signs Point to Yes (But Outlook Not So Good)"

NPM: A Few Poems

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A few poems to continue with National Poetry Month.

Czeslaw Milosz (found in)

"A Confession" (via)

My Lord, I loved strawberry jam
And the dark sweetness of a woman's body.
Also well-chilled vodka, herring in olive oil,
Scents, of cinnamon, of cloves.
So what kind of prophet am I? Why should the spirit
Have visited such a man? Many others
Were justly called, and trustworthy.
Who would have trusted me? For they saw
How I empty glasses, throw myself on food,
And glance greedily at the waitress's neck.
Flawed and aware of it. Desiring greatness,
Able to recognize greatness wherever it is,
And yet not quite, only in part, clairvoyant,
I knew what was left for smaller men like me:
A feast of brief hopes, a rally of the proud,
A tournament of hunchbacks, literature.

Translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Hass. 

Haiku from Billy Collins (first two via, third via, found in)

Mid-winter evening,
alone at a sushi bar—
just me and this eel.

Awake in the dark—
so that is how rain sounds
on a magnolia.

Moon in the window—
the same as it was before
there was a window.

Robert Frost

"The Road Not Taken" (via - with audio, found in)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Phriday is for Photos 4.20.07

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Field of Dreams

Steeee-rike!

What a fun night.   I took my two youngest boys, Daniel and Elijah, to see the Woodstock High School Blue Streaks varsity team beat the Grayslake team.   It was a blast.  Elijah even got to shag a foul and throw it back.  That was obviously the highlight of his night.   Gotta love it.   Then we went to Taco Bell, an important place for male bonding through meat-like product consumption. 

My Photography ||  Flickr Friday Photo

Reasons Why I Love Us

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Here's a reason why I love the SBC: Ed Stetzer. Stet_3Some good news from LifeWay...

Three Southern Baptist entities - LifeWay Christian Resources, the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and the International Mission Board (IMB) - have forged a collaborative research effort in which LifeWay Research will conduct special research projects on behalf of NAMB and IMB.

As part of the new initiative, Ed Stetzer, missiologist and senior director of the Center for Missional Research at NAMB, will become director of LifeWay Research, effective June 1. Stetzer also will serve as LifeWay’s missiologist in residence.

Ed Stetzer is a friend and I'm happy to see him doing some new things for the SBC and larger Christian mission in the world.

NPM: Billy Collins Poetry Reading

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BillycollinsIt's not everyday a world renowned poet, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, and the author of the poem you read at your Mom's funeral comes to your hometown.  So I just had to go see Billy Collins (via poets.org, bigsnap.com, bestcigarette.us) author of "The Lanyard," when he came to Woodstock today. 

We didn't know he was coming until a few days after Mom's funeral.  So I immediately contacted the Woodstock Opera House for tickets and learned they were sold out.  That was disappointing.  But I talked to a friend and Opera House employee about it and he called the next day with the news that some tickets opened up.  We picked up two.

Lanyard_signature_use This morning we dropped off the two youngest at a friend/church member's house and went to see Billy Collins.  He read poems for about an hour: a sonnet or two, a handful of haiku, and the rest his typical, informal-style poetry.  He was funny, thoughtful, and engaging.  The crowd clapped and laughed, and even gasped at insightful lines.  It was brilliant, just brilliant.  I can't believe anyone can think poetry is over their head if it comes from Billy Collins. 

Dsc_000220070419 I have three of his books and wanted them signed, so I got in line and met Billy Collins.  I told him I read "The Lanyard" at my Mom's funeral.  The lady next to him (I don't think I've ever met her before) said something like, "Are you the guy with the Woodstock blog?  I was telling Billy about what you said on your blog."  How cool is that?  He was very personable and showed real concern.  He asked how well I got through the poem, you know, without crying.  I told him I did fine.  So then he signed my three books, including just above "The Lanyard" poem, and then we posed for a photo via my hot wife.  He said the photo would probably end up on the blog.  He was right. 

I think Billy Collins has become my favorite living poet.  Watch his animated poetry, buy his books, listen to his live readings, or attend a live reading.  Here's a big archive of Billy reading poems.  I think you may just learn to love poetry, or love it even more.