I got an email today from a girl working at HotNewz.TV asking about contact info for Union folks. I passed the email on to others, and eventually they connected (through very little effort of my own) to make this video...
From my friend Scott Lamb...
Just got a call about my nephew, a freshman at Union University. Notsure if it was a tornado or severe wind, but he was in a dorm building that had its roof lifted off and some sheet rock walls fell on he and the other students. I haven't found any "official news" on the Jackson-area storms yet, but word on the ground is that there were funnels. As you probably know, Jackson is a magnet for such storms.
Please be in prayer for the students (Katie, David) parents who live away and are very concerned (Mohlers, Clays) and administration (Dockery, Thornbury, Kahler, Ellsworth, Van Neste, many other friends).
I have some good friends and acquaintances at Union including the Thornburys, Tim Ellsworth and family, Ray Van Neste and family, I just had an email exchange with musician Joe Garner last week, a handful of students, and more. My wife and I are stopping to pray for Union and the Jackson area. If you can find a minute, I ask you to as well.
Getting the most play on my iPod right now are Burial: Untrue, Joe Garner (more on Joe's music in a week or two), Blitzen Trapper: Wild Mountain Nation, Feist: The Reminder, and the Juno Soundtrack.
New artists on the radar: Utah Carol & Akron/Family (MySpace).
I don't remember mentioning Kevin Cawley's top 30 of 2007 list. There, I mentioned it.
Vampire Weekend is getting a lot of buzz. You have to at least give it a taste. Catchy...
New video from The Mountain Goats...
Our family woke up before 6am this morning for the celebration of Groundhog Day. It may not seem like a good reason to wake up early on a Saturday (and at 5:45 this morning it didn't feel like a good reason either), but we were all excited to enjoy the morning festivities together.
The movie Groundhog Day, which was filmed in my city (Woodstock, IL), sparked Woodstock's own week of Groundhog Days. Lots of stuff to do. It all peaked today at 7:07am when hundreds of people gathered to see Woodstock Willie, "the prognosticator of prognosticators," reveal the news about our fate.
Will it be a longer winter or an early spring? For the answer we turn to a large rat who bases his infallible answer on, of all things, whether or not he sees his shadow. Rather than telling you his answer I felt it was only right for you to experience the event for yourself. Thanks to the McCoy "shakycam" (as well as a few photos) you can hear it straight from the rat's (Bill Murray's term, not mine) lips. Here's how it went down. If you want to hear what the other rat said (the slightly more historic one), go here.
For all you lovers of the movie Groundhog Day (and the rest of you who should be), here's a video with Quinn Keefe from the Woodstock (IL) Chamber of Commerce. Quinn leads you on a tour of my city, Woodstock, IL, as it was experienced in Groundhog Day. We watch the DVD often in my house. It's a great family movie that also makes you think...BING!
Anyone care to add a favorite quote or moment from the movie?
Doug Wilson on how friendship evangelism is really about your money and material possessions...
Friendship evangelism rests upon generosity, sacrifice, kindness,openness, hospitality, goodness, and open-handedness. That is to be the texture of your life, and non-believers are welcome to come along with you. In short, is your evangelism giving or taking? Are you a benefactor or a salesman?
Alex Chediak is working through a pre-publication copy of Tim Keller's new book, The Reason for God. (Amazon)
Steve Ogne on mobilizing leaders (from GCA conference).
Whiteboard Sessions website is up.
Mike Cosper is Worship and Arts Pastor at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY. In 2006 Mike gave Acts 29 talks on "Missional Strategies for the Arts." Both messages are here.
Mark Batterson - Four Dimensions of Courage.
Timmy Brister interviews Mark Dever on Richard Sibbs.
I've been looking forward to Son of Rambow for over a year now. It's finally coming out in May. Here's the trailer...
Finished day 1 of the Acts 29 boot camp in Chicago. Great stuff from Darrin Patrick, Mark Driscoll, and Ed Stetzer. I particularly liked Driscoll's message on preaching. Much of it wasn't new to me as someone who has preached nearly every week for 4 years, but a few of the things he said were really helpful. If the audio gets released I will try to link it.
I noticed that Alex Chediak is now blogging the Global Church Advancement conference. You can keep up at AlexChediak.com or the new GCA blog. Of interest to me are Alex's notes on Daniel Montgomery's "Theology-Driven Churches" workshop and Tom Nebel's talk on "Evangelism Entropy." There are several other GCA posts from Alex you should check out.
iMonk was on Steve Brown Etc. I haven't heard it, but I will. Two guys I always enjoy listening to.
Arcade Fire continues making curious videos from Neon Bible. I've pointed to the title track interactive video, "Neon Bible," before. Now there's "Black Mirror," which is less interactive but still well worth watching.
The Black Cab Sessions is a similar, though less beautiful, version of the Take Away Shows. The Take Away Shows are artists playing a song in curious locations in Paris. The Black Cab Sessions are artists playing in a...wait for it...black cab. Nice. Start with Okkervil River. Then go to The National and The New Pornographers.
Ariel "AJ" Vanderhorst blogged on "The Best iPod Earbuds Ever." I have been looking for new earbuds that wouldn't cost me a Franklin, and AJ pointed the way. And I have to say, the V-MODA earbuds are really great for under $30.
Here's a very cool live performance of "The Clock" from Thom Yorke's The Eraser...
My new article, "Working for an Audience of One," is up over at The High Calling. All of my articles for The High Calling are here.
Mark Driscoll - Dwelling in the Text & Dwelling through the Text
Tim Keller - TBD (2 sessions)
Ed Stetzer - Dwelling in the Kingdom & Dwelling in the Mission
CJ Mahaney - Dwelling in the Cross
Darrin Patrick - Dwelling with non-Christians
Conference will also include panel discussion, worship and breakout sessions. Register at www.dwellconference.com.
The older I get the harder snowboarding looks. My kids have shown me how quickly they can figure it out. We got them one of those cheapo snowboards and they just love it. Our youngest, Daniel, is keeping his balance in the first picture, and enjoying some delicious snow in the second. See the rest of my photography.
Next week I'll be attending the Acts 29 Boot Camp in Chicago. It's been a few years since my wife and I first attended a boot camp in Dallas. Now that they are coming to town I'm very excited to go and see some of my Acts 29 friends and continue to grow as a pastor. Drop me an email if you are going to be at the boot camp and want to connect.
If you haven't seen Juno, you should. Start with the trailer. Easily one of the best of 2007 for me. Every actor in every role impressed me, especially Ellen Page who first showed up on my radar in Hard Candy. My wife loved Juno too. It's an hysterical and quirky movie that I will own on DVD when the time comes. The Juno Soundtrack is just as quirky and makes this movie go from great to outstanding. You know it from the opening credits. This soundtrack was a must-own for me. Delightful.
Andrew Bird has a new EP: Soldier on EP. Seriously, is it even possible this EP won't be great? Didn't think so.
I've really enjoyed Dr. Dog's latest album, We All Belong. Here's "Alaska"...
I'm finally taking the plunge into Panda Bear (MySpace). I haven't enjoyed Animal Collective, so this has taken some time. But I like it so far. Here's "Bros"...
"Bros" live...
"Comfy in Nautica"...
Justin Taylor has an interview with Tim Keller about his new book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. I think this book will be a great resource for skeptical friends, due in February
OnMovements (first posted by Sam Metcalf) let's us know How to Kill a Movement.
Nelson Searcy's assimilation book is now out: Fusion: Turning First Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church. Get some free resources from the Fusion Site.
More free Jerram Barrs' resources (audio, pdf) from Monergism. Covenant Seminary stuff.
People are talking about Neil Cole's Organic Church (which just came from Amazon today). Tim Chester has a thought-provoking post, Seven Principles for Planting Organic Churches. Chester has another great quote on making new believers evangelists and church planters. Church Planting Novice explains How to Grow a Missional Church.
SUBURBIA: Watch some James Howard Kunstler on YouTube. He is often very helpful on issues of suburbia.
Folks are asking for my take on the movie, so here we go. It will be brief and hopefully spoiler-free. If you are worried about spoilers, as I have been for months, just go see it and experience it before reading more.
I went early last night not knowing how many folks would be there. I went alone because my best friend, Joe Thorn, didn't care to watch it with me. I found a way to stay strong and go anyway. By the time they opened the theater and let us in, the theater filled up to about half. When the previews began it was almost completely full. I might have been the oldest guy there. Seriously. I didn't see anyone who looked older than me or even my age.
The Star Trek teaser was fun. It's the originial Enterprise under construction with a brief Leonard Nemoy voice-over. Looking forward to this one at the end of the year.
After watching Cloverfield I have to admit that the teasers and trailers gave me a very good taste for what the movie experience would be like. It's all hand-held personal video documenting a few good friends experiencing the attack of some sort of monster on Manhattan. They are working to escape, save friends, and so on. There are moments of both terror and humor, but they also did a good job of keeping the atmosphere real.
I thought the filming and the CGI work was outstanding. I'm no expert, but I bought it and was able to stay focused on story. They also did a fine job of teasing you with a progressive revelation of what the monster looked like. I was afraid they wouldn't show enough or satisfy my desire to see what it looked like. But I was also afraid they would focus so much on seeing the monster that it would hurt the movie. I thought it was pretty well balanced.
The also do a very good job of not saying too much about the monster. They work hard to avoid giving monster origins and such. Leaving us in the dark on that stuff was a good move.
I could say a lot more, but since I've already crossed the line of brevity I'll just add one last word. Two days before seeing Cloverfield I checked Rotten Tomatoes and found it was getting mixed reviews. That was disappointing since I already own the T-shirt. But after seeing the movie I was very, very satisfied. I've also noticed the reviews are getting much better. I give it a big thumbs-up and encourage you to see it! Seriously. Go now.
I'm going to a midnight showing of Cloverfield tonight. I'm wearing my Slusho! shirt and ready to leave in 10 minutes. Let me set the mood...
I have to say I'm really appreciating what I've read and reread from Jerram Barrs' The Heart of Evangelism. I think it's one of the most important books on evangelism in print. It's both comprehensive and insightful. Here's a great section on asking questions...
We need to learn to ask questions that will help us understand what is in a person's heart and mind. That is what Jesus did with this man (expert in the law in the Good Samaritan story), and we find Him taking this approach repeatedly in His discussions with people. Francis Schaeffer used to say that if he had only one hour with someone, he would spend fifty-five minutes asking questions and five minutes trying to say something that would speak to his or her situation, once he understood a little more about what was going in in his or her heart and mind. What is needed is genuine love and concern for the person we are meeting, a readiness to ask questions because we truly desire to know the person, and prayer for the discernment of the Holy Spirit about what to say.
I'm also starting into Barrs' lectures from the Covenant Seminary class on Apologetics and Outreach. It's available in audio or transcript and includes a study guide as well. Very helpful.
On the weekly Filmspotting podcast (which is excellent, by the way) they feature a musical artist during segment transitions. This past week they featured Biirdie (MySpace). Here's a video. You may need to turn it up at one point. Other videos are here.
Chris pushed me to discover some new "country" music. I'm now trying out some Gillian Welch. Wonderful. Really wonderful.
1 Corinthians 9:19-23...
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. Tothe Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
Jerram Barrs in The Heart of Evangelism, p185...
Among people of whatever race, culture, or religious background, Paul's desire was to be a servant to them. He would shape his presentation of the message to fit the understanding of his hearers, and his own pattern of living to their patterns of life. Of course, the message itself stayed the same, and Paul never compromised his own obedience to Christ in adapting his lifestyle to that of those he served; yet he presented himself and the Gospel in very different ways to reach very different people. We, too, are to regard ourselves as servants of everyone we meet, so that we also might find opportunities to "save some."
My hometown of Pontiac, Illinois is currently going through a time of record flooding that is making national news. My Dad's business is experiencing flooding and many families have been evacuated from their homes. My brother (Scott McCoy) is the Mayor and is finding himself very busy, including doing a live phone interview with CNN after he videotaped a rescue (I can't find a way to embed it).
The photo is from my sister's iPhone as she watched The Weather Channel.
