Music Monday 11.19.07

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16jasonDid you know Jason Schwartzman made music (yes, that "Jason Schwartzman")?  It was news to me.  I found his band, Coconut Records, via some movie podcast, I think.  Check out a few tracks on his MySpace, especially "West Coast," which for some reason gets me in a groove.

(via Pitchfork) Neko Case writes an essay on poetry in Poetry Magazine: "My Flaming Hamster Wheel of Panic About Publicly Discussing Poetry in This Respected Forum." 

Wilco's "Impossible Germany" from Sky Blue Sky via Austin City Limits...

I really like the new Grizzly Bear new EP Friend.  Pitchfork has a nice write-up on it.  Worth checking out.  For fun, here's their Take Away Show for "Shift"...

Yeah, time to start throwing in some Christmas-y stuff.  Derek Webb's "Deliver Us" from the excellent Behold the Lamb of God...

Lots-o-Links 11.15.07

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Me and a certain pastor friend are going to see this tomorrow.  I'm pumped! 

-Bob Hyatt is good reading, as usual.  80-20 and the Organic Church Part 1 and Part 2
-Harry Potter as "Shared Text"
-Seth Godin's "Unleashing Your Ideavirus" (Part 1 and Part 2) was an excellent and thought-provoking read.  It's not very new (2000), but it was good.  More Godin here.
-I really dig this creative photography of kids.
-Must reading for those mashing the Thanksgiving potatoes.

Florida/Texas Baptists Disqualify Jesus

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Jesus_beerYep.  Florida and Texas.  Oh, and Florida also basically called Jesus a recreational drug user...

Messengers at the 146th Florida Baptist State Convention annual meeting overwhelmingly approved a bylaw revision requiring all trustee nominees to "agree to abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages and using any other recreational drugs."

Thank God they stopped short of the more severe charge of "recreational drug Dealer" evidenced in John 2.

Music Monday 11.12.07

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Tegan and Sara, "Into Your Head"...

Loney, Dear has reissued Sologne in the US, which was a 2006 self-released album.  It's fantastic.  Here's an MP3 of "The City, The Airport."

Linkin Park: Shadow of the Day...

Glen Hansard of The Frames and Marketa Irglova starred in the movie Once.  Powerful songs like "Say It To Me Now" should be reason enough to watch it...

Hansard and Irglova covering Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" out on a sidewalk...

Sigur Ros' new Hvarf-Heim is a 2 CD set of mostly unreleased songs and a brief acoustic set.  It's very good.  Pitchfork likes it, as do others.  It's a companion to a new, yet unreleased (Nov 20th) DVD Heima, which will be a music-filled documentary of sorts.  Hvarf-Heim is a companion to the DVD, though it seems none of the music is in the film. Here's the captivating trailer for Heima (ps - I'm moving to Iceland)...

or see this one...

Lots-o-Links 11.7.07

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Reformissionary has been linked in the Slate article "Not All It's Cracked Up To Be: Why is the New York Times Magazine saying evangelical Christians are increasingly divided?"  I'm the "drinking" link...

That shift might be related to their embrace of Reformed theology,a doctrine that encourages believers to acknowledge that they are all inherently sinful and have received undeserved grace (thus making them respond less judgmentally to others' sexual behavior). Reformed theology also rebuffs the idea that behavior makes one righteous, effectively discouraging the equation of patriotism and blind party activism with piety. A 2006 Pew survey shows that college-educated conservatives are more likely to be less conservative on issues like gay marriage, stem-cell research, and contraception than those who've completed only some college or high school. And according to a study by Barna group, a Christian research organization, young born-again Christians are 15 percent more likely than their elders to find homosexual behavior morally acceptable. Even many of my college-age evangelical friends at the conservative Christian school Patrick Henry College see popular films, attend rock concerts, and have no objection to drinking or dancing.

Alistair McGrath's Christianity's Dangerous Idea is getting some good reviews.  The Internet Monk calls it "one of the best books of the year."  Gary Shavey at Resurgence has a 15 minute interview with McGrath on the book. 

Drew Goodmanson reflects on thoughts from Steve Timmis at the Total Church Conference.  Drew deals in particular with the video venue vs new leaders and planters idea.  Darrin Patrick has said concerning finding new church planters...

One reason it didn’t work was that we couldn’t find enough planters with a heart for our area who could plant a self-governing, self-supporting self-reproducing church….I believe that there are few guys with the calling and requisite skill set to plant a reproducing incarnational/attractional church. This is evidenced by the 70% failure rate in church plants. I saw this in our own context as we simply couldn’t find the guys with the calling and skill- set to give people to. Now, this has not stopped us from planting locally as we just sent out an elder and people to plant about 45 minutes out in the burbs. We have another intern who hopefully will plant in the next two years. My point is that if your church is experiencing growth like ours, you cannot plant fast enough, chiefly because of the lack of called, qualified, church planters. 

Goodmanson writes...

Timmis, upon reflection asked is the problem we face the leaders or the types of churches we are planting? When he examined Paul's missionary journey, Paul traveled through cities where people converted.  Paul returned in under two years and more likely after a couple months to appoint elders.  Timmis surmised that the problem then cannot be our leaders but the types of churches we are planting and the leader requirement necessary to run them.

Goodmanson adds Timmis' two conclusions...

1. We need to re-think leadership in the local church. Much of our leadership shortage stems from wrong assumptions.  Churches can appoint elders, who fulfill all that is required in Timothy & Titus.  This means we select elders by the grace evidenced in their life, not by the attractional qualities they hold.  How many of these guys are in your church right now?

2. Church Planters have a unique set of gifting that are best served planting churches. (Timmis called church planters 'apostles') Since there are fewer of these 'initiators/gatherers'  they ought to do more missional church planting (often done in a team setting where people travel with them) to plant churches.  The skills these 'apostolic leaders' possess include: Visionary, Creative, Adaptable, Productive, Impatient - always wanting to move things forward, self-starters and a bit of a maverick. These skills serve the planter well to create new works, but often these skills make them poor leaders of established churches.

Very good and important thoughts.  You can also check out Mark Driscoll's "Videology: Why We Use Videos" for a pro-video point of view.

Ben Arment, pastor of Reston Community Church in Reston, VA, has made their Organization Chart and Job Descriptions available. Helpful.

Have you checked out BookSpot before?  How about Readerville?  Some cool stuff for readers/writers.

City Church in Chicago...

Music Monday 11.5.07

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SufjanquiltySufjan: "The Hula Hoop vs The BQE".  Speaking of The BQE...

Tonight [11.1.07], at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Sufjan Stevens will debut The BQE, a 30-minute symphonic and cinematic exploration of New York City’s infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. A controversial roadway since its inception in the 1930s, the BQE tears through 11.7 miles of Brooklyn and Queens, severing neighborhoods, pillaging industrial yards, and contouring waterways with the brute force of modern urban planning.  (Read the rest)

A preview...

Stream the new Grizzly Bear EP: Friend, and download "Alligator" (with Feat, Dirty Projectors and Beirut!).

Foo I'm really diggin' the new Foo Fighters (MySpace) album: Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.  Great 45 minute interview with Dave Grohl on Fresh Air.  Grohl, if you don't know, was Nirvana's drummer.

I know, you need more Foo.  Here's some old school Foo, "Learn to Fly"...

And the new single, "The Pretender," has a very cool video...

Check out some new chipper cheerleader dance music from The Go! Team: "Doing it Right."

If you haven't heard The Besnard Lakes (I've pimped them before), you need to.  Check them out on this podcast from Sound Opinions.  They are about 1/3 of the way through.

I discovered Dead Confederate through KEXP's Live Performances podcast.  They rocked.  Oh, do listen!  Also on MySpace.

A final word. One of my favorite music magazines is Paste.  Good articles, reviews (on more than just music), and a nice CD full of new music (full songs) with each issue.  Paste is now letting you name your price for a subscription.

For a limited time, name your own price for a one-year subscription to Paste. Yes, it's up to you. What's it worth to have a great read and a great listen delivered to your door every month?

11 issues and 11 CDs (roughly 220 songs) covering the best in music, film and culture.  On the newsstand, one year of Paste costs $65.45; one-year subscriptions are $19.95.  In February, we will recognize those who pay the most (more than the subscription price) in the magazine—and we even made it easy for you to give gifts.

For more about Paste Magazine, including previous covers, CD samplers, awards and more, visit our overview.

Phriday is for Photos 11.2.07

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Soccer Warriors

Halloween 2007

The first is the last soccer Saturday for my boys this fall.  They played as tough as they look.  The second is Halloween.  We told the kids that since we spent so much on Disney World that they had to make do on Halloween on what they already had.  Danny already had a Power Rangers outfit with no mask.  Elijah (Alfonso Soriano) always has sports clothes around.  Sarah is playing a mom (she has puke made from cream of mushroom on her shoulder...yuck).  And Jack isn't just any skateboarder, he is Rodney Mullen.

ESV Literary Study Bible

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Litesv_2I've spent some time with the Literary Study Bible and am really enjoying it and highly recommend it. 

I generally don't enjoy study Bibles.  I think they can distract Christians from reading and discovering the meaning of Scripture for themselves by encouraging people to read Scripture in a choppy way: verse or two, check the study notes, verse, cross-references, study notes, another verse, etc.  Study notes can be very helpful if used correctly, but I've never seen a Christian use them in a way that I've found very helpful.

The ESV-LSB removes those bold section headings and cross-references and instead gives a shaded box with brief guidance before each chapter or two, or section or pericope of Scripture.  So you start with some guidance concerning the genre, literary structure, techniques, symbolism, whatever.  Then you read the passage (single-column) without distraction.  That means the emphasis isn't on finding your favorite verse or cheating to get the meaning through headers or notes.  The emphasis is to read it yourself and focus on getting the gist of larger sections of Scripture.

The ESV-LSB provides notes before each book of Scripture, which is in pretty much every study Bible.  These are really well done.  What I liked the most was the section in each book introduction describing how the book fits into the larger "story of the Bible."   Brilliant.  So you aren't just getting the understanding of larger sections of Scripture, or even whole books.  You are also gaining understanding of how the books work together in the storyline of Scripture. 

Ryken This Bible also has wider margins for your own notes and their own Bible reading plan at the end.  It's easily my favorite study Bible and I hope many of you pick it up.  And by the way, one of the editors of the ESV-LSB is Dr. Leland Ryken who has produced many great books including two favorites of mine: The Christian Imagination and The Liberated Imagination.  Even more reason to love this study Bible.

To see it for yourself, check it out for free online for 30 days. Very helpful.

Other stuff to check out...
Literary ESV is Unapologetically Complementarian
Interview with Dr. Leland Ryken
Internet Monk's Glowing Review

Lots-o-Links 10.30.07

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It wouldn't work for me, but Sprint's new HTC Touch might be a nice phone for those who can't afford an iPhone.

As the father of an autistic son, I take notice when pediatricians urge autism screening for all children.  We know our son would have been diagnosed sooner (he was diagnosed at just about 3 years old) because the symptoms were there.  The article says they urge screening because "early therapy can lessen its severity."  We can testify that therapy greatly helped our son, and we urge parents of autistic children to find similar therapy all the time.

Check out SBTS lectures from philosopher Alvin Plantinga.
Gary Rohrmayer is talking "Evangelistic Entropy."
Dave Zimmerman at IVP has some advice for writing books.
Five Reasons Why Churches Cannot Ignore Branding
A 9 Marks Workshop is online for free
Seattle P-I: Mars Hill makes faith cool for 20-somethings

I'm going to see Gone Baby Gone this week.  It's getting great reviews.

Music Monday 10.29.07

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A year ago my Music Monday post was on Sleeping at Last (official SaL website).  I listened to Keep No Score (my #5 album of 2006) again last week and it's still great stuff.  Here's their song "Needle and Thread" which should convert all of you to their music.  Wonderful...

Here's "Careful Hands," another amazing song...

Derek Webb interview on Fox 17 in Nashville...

One of my favorite all time songs that Derek sings is "Somewhere North" from Caedmon's 40 Acres album.  Here's a very high quality video of Derek performing it live...

A very different sounding Beirut song is on Natalie Portman's "for charity" mix CD.  Hear it here.  The album is available on iTunes for $7.99 beginning tomorrow.  Some good bands on this CD: Vetiver, Tokyo Police Club, The Shins, M. Ward, Rogue Wave, and others.  More at Pitchfork.

It appears that Page France is history, at least for now.  *Single tear.*  I really love Hello, Dear Wind (my #3 album of 2006).  Please go grab these four free Page France songs from Daytrotter.  "Chariot" is amazing ("You're a wrecking ball with a heart of gold...").  "Dogs" is a favorite.  Ugh, PLEASE download these songs!  With Page France floating in the ether, frontman Michael Nau is now making music as The Cotton Jones Basket Ride.  Listen to "To Death With You."