post christmas media glut

One of the things that i do love about the Christmas season is the opportunity to be able to purchase all sorts of new and fun media stuff that you've either been holding off on, or not figured that you would like, but you have 50 dollars sitting in your wallet, and maybe an itunes gift card or two that say in a rather convincing manner, "Hey...roll the dice on that..."

So of course, like any self-respecting music lover, i shrug my shoulders and say, "Why not?"

Here's what i got today.

DVD's:

Bruce Springsteen Live In Dublin(with the sessions band)

This is The Boss live with the band he recorded his Pete Seeger cover record with. I don't know about you folks, but Springsteen hangs the moon for me, and he is one of two artists/bands that i would pay any amount to see live(the other being U2).

Heima: A Film By Sigur Ros

I saw the trailer for this a while ago...and the cinematography alone was the most beautiful thing i had seen in a long while. If you're shooting in the countryside of Iceland and you don't have amazing cinematography, you should probably not be in the film business. Anyway, take that cinematography and add in an hour and a half of music played by Sigur Ros...and you have a combination sure to make me weep really hard.

How I Met Your Mother: Season Two

How I Met Your Mother: Season Three

This is by far my favorite show on tv. My buddy Joe showed me the episode titled "Slapsgiving" from Season 2, which i loved, and caused me to track down every episode i could find and watch them, which took about a week to do. These haven't arrived yet, but i look forward to setting the hook deep into my friends regarding this show's amazingness. If i had to give a summary based on stuff that you might have seen before, i'd tell you that it's like Friends, but it's not all chick-y, and it's funnier than The Office, or at least more consistently funny.

CD's:

V.O.L by Vigilantes Of Love

This is a greatest hits collection of sorts for the 1990's folk band The Vigilantes Of Love. All my friends keep telling me that i need to jump in to their catalogue, so this blessed $3.95 used pick up is step 2 of the process(I bought their record "Killing Floor" on itunes; it's not a collection of songs about using a jackhammer, as far as i can tell).

New Connection by Todd Snider

My coworkers(and friends) Nathan and Roger are both huge fans of Snider's particular flavor of honky-tonk. And with songs like "Beer Run" (b-double e-double r-u-n, beer run!), i think i am as well.

Making Movies by Dire Straits

My aquaintance-that-i-only-see-once-a-year-yet-read-his-blog-and-listen-to-his-music-and-sometimes-randomly-send-money has "Romeo and Juliet" listed as one of his top 5 favorite songs. Thanks to the wonderfulness that is Pandora, i now agree.

Oh Mercy by Bob Dylan

Let's see here: You take Bob Dylan, who is probably the most famous songwriter of the 20th century(Irving Berlin, your work was simply too soon. Sorry.), and you pair him up with the producer of two of the biggest band on earth's best records(Daniel Lanois, for those who aren't keeping up with my line of logic), and you should probably get a pretty damn great record.

Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys

I always read these lists that proclaim this record to be one of the top 5 best records ever made in the history of rock 'n roll. I call that fairly high praise for any record. However, I've always been more of a fan of the contributions of the British Empire to rock 'n roll history(The Beatles, The Who, Cream, The Yardbirds, The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Radiohead(thom yorke is screaming right now because i just placed his band behind Coldplay, but i don't care), and been rather inclined to ignore The Beach Boys simply on name alone. I don't know that this record will make me want to run out and purchase a Hammond B-3 and spend years obsessively working on a record, but learning the words to the songs should suffice.

Lie Down In The Light by Bonnie "Prince" Billy

I was patronizing my favorite restaurant downtown (Cafe4) for breakfast this past saturday, and my friend Rob was my server (you should go listen to his music, he's a great singer-songwriter (ha!)), and he had this record on in the background, and i liked it enough to download it off itunes using my aforementioned gift card. Don't let the strange moniker distract you(his real name is Will Oldham, and he apparently has quite an extensive discography, according to wikipedia), it's a great folk album.

The Sparrow And The Crow by William Fitzsimmons

This record came highly recommended to me by a couple of friends. Oddly enough, it was his impressive beard-growing ability that led me to buy the record. As a fellow bearded man, i gotta keep it in the brotherhood. As far as what exactly "it" is, i have no idea.

Books:

The Year Of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs

Speaking of men with impressive beard growing ability: this book by an editor/writer for Esquire Magazine chronicles his yearlong experiment to live the Bible as literally as possible. I'm about a quarter of the way through, so it remains to be seen whether it actually happens or not.

Prayer by Richard J. Foster

I've been chasing a used copy of this since 2004, when i first heard it spoken about in my religion classes at Carson-Newman. I finally found one for a reasonable price, so i bought it, and i'm eager to dig in, though i fear this becoming much like Celebration of Discipline(also by Foster), in that i carry the book around, intending to read it, but not doing so. 

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

My best friend Adam often talks about how great a writer Wendell Berry is, and how rich and authentic his characters are written. That's fairly high praise from him, since he is quite an author himself(Adam. This is me reminding you to email me that chapter from your book), as well as an amazing singer-songwriter(with a new album called Old Skin Horse that he has about a thousand copies of that he would love to sell to you good people).

Collected Poems by Wendell Berry

I got this for good measure. Poems are always good for me to take and chew around, and glean all the flavor. Small bites are recommended.

Alright…this ends the marathon of this second media post. I hope you made it through alright. Later this week(as this will likely have a publish date of Sunday), i'll conclude my catching you up on what happened with TGCSO'08(The Great Church Search Of '08), and continue the weekly song lyric series.

updates

I've been tinkering around with the layout of this thing for over an hour now, and i'm still not quite happy with it yet. However, that's not what i'm here to write about. I promised an update with me, and i'm fulfilling that promise.

Since I wrote an update, i went on full time at KARM (where i've now been employed for a year and a month...which is good for the longest that i have ever worked at a job) as a hospitality team leader, found a church home, and fell in love.

Okay, the last one is a lie. (Oh that it weren't, though.)

However, work is challenging as all get-out, and that made the imperative to find a church community all the more strong, as i could easily see myself getting beaten all to hell with the various stresses that are common to my job. Right now, i'm sitting in the shared Team Leader office working my sunday morning midnight to 8am shift with staff in each of our dorms(men's and women's), and me manning the lobby(there should be a staff member at the front desk...but apparently that's a luxury my bosses have yet to afford me in the past month). I still don't feel as if i've got my feet underneath me in this role, especially in the area of how much power i have when i'm on my shift(which is also kind of crazy for me to think about), and what needs to happen when the unthinkable should happen(cause, after all, i am responsible for somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 people on a nightly basis). Plus, i also have to stay up and alert all night, which can be difficult, even for a night owl like me.

But...that's the easy shift.

My hard shift is the 4pm to midnight shift that i work on tuesday and wednesday nights. From 4:30 pm to about 9pm, it's nearly non-stop movement. I'd like to find an athletic metaphor for the difference between the two...but i haven't yet. I'll probably be writing more about this shift in the future, so excuse the lack of a three paragraph breakdown of what happens on the shift in this space.

So that brings me to what was a rather anticlimactic end to the "Great Church Search of '08". Basically how it went was this: I pretty quickly took all the churches that i had been to before out of the weekly drawing in favor of not having my search last until March '09 (because, after all...it was the "Great Church Search of '08" not the "Great Church Search of '08-'09"...little difference...but it made all the difference, if you know what i mean). 

With the previously attended churches out of the way, that narrowed it down to Grace Community Church, Redeemer Presbyterian, Crossings Church, and Knoxville Life Church. I drew the names out of a hat, and that was the order they came out in. I'll write about each experience seperately, because the length is beginning to need the space of a full post about each.

(editor's note: the aforementioned posts have been dated a day after the visit: this places the posts in November, so if you scroll down, you'll see them. Thanks again for visiting.)

meditation on isaiah 55

In case you didn't notice...i haven't posted in quite a long while. My apologies. This is the first post of a new series of meditations on Scripture.

why is it that i thirst?

is it for this coffee, or for something more?

what is this that i am hungry for?

steak? eggs? life? hope?

am i getting my money's worth here?

not my money necessarily, but my time?

we just had christmas...did we buy good things?

am i making good music? 

am i serving well? 

loving well?

am i even listening?

it's raining outside, and the grass is eating the bread of the earth and drinking your wine and your milk-and it's free-free from the palm of your hand.

it's raining outside, and we wear various fabrics and animal skins to protect us from the rain-and we grumble and moan-and you laugh.

you laugh at our silliness-at our foolishness.

and you weep.

you weep because our moans are not at our own foolishness-to chide us out of punching you in the face with our disrespect-but because our moans are at you-full of wrath for the inconvenience you have caused us.

oh that we would seek you!

oh that we would be found in you!

oh that we would hide ourselves in the palm of your hand!

oh that we would listen to your words-that they would sprout back forth from our hearts-30 fold-60 fold-100 fold!

oh that we would start putting our money where our mouth is-and worship you in obedience!

then we would find peace.

not our pitiful, putrid peace that shrivels and shrinks from the first challenge-but your easy, everlasting peace that stands firm like an oak no matter how the winds may buffet.

then we would be able to smile at each other.

laugh freely.

know each other without the fear of judgement.

then joy would find its meaning in the interaction of the sons and daughters of Jesus.

come, Lord Jesus.

come.

so much for that whole girl thing...

(editor's note: these posts were recollected and written on december 28th in the early am while keeping myself awake through a graveyard shift at work. the post date reflects the day of the actual event.)

After getting diverted at practically the last second last week, i was pretty excited to finally go to Grace Community Church for a couple of reasons. One, i was excited to see my friend Will Reagan, who leads worship there; and Two, the possibility of seeing a girl who actually recognized me by name after at least 4 years, and getting to follow up with that. 

So i get there about 10 minutes early, and there's still not a lot of people there, but Will is there, and i make small talk with him about how he just got back in the country(he's quite the globetrotting fellow...it seems like he's always either about to leave for somewhere foreign, or he's just come back), while scanning the room for the aforementioned girl. As the service begins, there's no sign. I shouldn't have been surprised. We settle into the music. There are some simple songs (that i'm assuming that Will himself has written) that are quite powerful, and some old standard contemporary stuff and a hymn mixed in. The people of the congregation are all friendly, and all want to know who i am and what i do, which can be kind of intimidating, not to mention repetitive, what with saying "hi, how are you" over and over again. 

I don't remember much of the verbatim of the pastor's sermon, but i do have a song from it. The previous week, something the pastor at Redeemer said sparked an idea, so i wrote that image down, and when i got home, i ended up adding some lines to it. I should go back and edit that post to include those lyrics. At any rate-here's the song from Grace Community Church.

Peace Will Come(John 14:27)

baking in the desert sand and sun

reeling from a life lived on the run

in this life of chaos

i am begging for a change

i've always been your wayward son

with words of war upon my tongue

i will swing this sword

until my thirst is quenched

oh God your hand avails for me

you made me friend not enemy

and in the midst of struggle

you have overcome

so let not my heart be troubled

let not my sin destroy this hope

peace will come oh peace will come

peace will come

Next up is Crossings Church, and the conclusion of "The Great Church Search of '08".

Really? A Retreat?

(editor's note: these posts were recollected and written on december 28th in the early am while keeping myself awake through a graveyard shift at work. the post date reflects the day of the actual event.)

I went to Grace Community the first sunday, and got there about 15 minutes before start time for their service, only to be bewildered as to where all the cars were. Seriously, it was 15 minutes before service, and there were 5 cars in the parking lot. So i sat in my Jeep for about 2 minutes listening to NPR before i decided to go in. I was met by the fellow that was running the service that day, who introduced himself (because he hadn't seen me before, and i have the feeling that a random person dropping into a small church service is rather uncommon), and i asked him, "So...there's like three people here. What gives?" He then informed me that most of the church was on a weekend retreat, but i was welcome to come in for the service. I politely declined, but said that i would be back the next week for service.

Now...I am all about retreats...but that must have been some retreat to knock out nearly the entire church for a sunday.

If you're paying attention, you are likely wondering, "where on earth did you go to church? did you even go to church?"

In answer to your hypothetical question, yes, i did. I moved Redeemer Presbyterian up a week, and had 15 minutes to get there, which if you've seen/heard/felt the recent state of my Jeep lately, you know that in and of itself is a bit of a dodgy proposition.

But i did manage to heave my Jeep from Fountain City to Fort Sanders in time to park in a visitor space and walk in before the music started (i'm running low on suspense tonight, sorry). I walked in, looking for anyone that i knew, and ended up seeing my former manager at River Sports, Matt McSpadden, and ended up sitting beside him and his mom. 

Now for the review part of the service: I liked the music, very indelible grace/ruf inspired, and enjoyed that they did liturgy(which i don't get to partake in very often), and generally liked the pastor. Plus they did communion. Big deal. 

I think you should do communion every service, and you should make it a big deal, and i like churches that do that. 

Also...this post marks the first installment of the Sermon Song/Poem of The Week. I'm trying to use my sleep-deprivedness as a catalyst for art to unfold its wings during the sermon i hear each week. Plus, this should help me internalize the sermon by doing some auto-application in the form of writing the song. Here's this week's.

barking like a dog on a chain

screaming with my bad eyes for relief

i'm bathing in the mud like a swine been given wings

touch me with your hand and set me free

i'm hungry for the food on my tv

but in my house there's enough to eat

i long to entertain the lie that i don't have all i need

touch my lips and set me free

set me free from the things that steal and kill

set me free to embrace my joy in you

set me free to embrace my joy in you

It's quite unfinished, and needs at least another verse and a bridge, but anyway...tune in in a couple hours for the story of the next week. 

Sevier Heights

Ok...this would have come earlier, but i decided on a whim to go to Georgia for a Chick-fil-a grand opening with a buddy of mine(which i'll probably blog about sometime soon...like probably tonight or tomorrow).

Let's get down to it:

I got there early to the 930am service, and checked in at the visitors booth, introduced myself and asked for directions to the Bible Fellowship(read: sunday school) classroom that the class for my age group met at, and was shown to the class by a gentleman named Doug(i think...it's been nearly a week and not a lot of sleep since). After Doug(i'm running with it) walked me back down to the lobby(narthex, foyer, lounge, corridor, gathering area) of the church, he asked me if i had any questions that i could answer for him(which i didn't, seeing as i am both anal-retentive and methodical to nearly a fault), and then i went into the sanctuary. I chose a seat in the back half, in the end of the first third of the rows on the riser at the back, about 4 seats to the inside of the right side of the section. I was bookended by two couples, one retired(on my right), and another expecting(on my left).

The service started with organ. Let it be said here: the only organ that i like is a Hammond B-3 played through a Leslie speaker. That was not that kind of organ. Not a good start for the Baptists. The music was blended, and really done well. It's a big church, with a big budget for this kind of stuff, and it shows. Instrumentation was performed by a full orchestra, and was backing what was at least a 250 member choir. (Adam, if you're reading this...a good summary would be: take everything that your dad has ever tried to do musically at Salem, and do it better than anyone could ever imagine possible.)

The pastor of the church spoke about money, which i don't mind...but i don't know...when you're making as much as i've heard he makes...it sort of sounds a little hollow. But i digress-the sermon wasn't really all that interesting anyway.

After the service, I went to the Young Singles class that met at 1100am. I had a good experience, some of the folks were friendly to me, and i was clinging rather closely to the cup of coffee that i had run across in the hall. However...i just don't think it's what i'm looking for. If you're looking, be warned...the church does present itself to be a little more contemporary than it really is. The print stuff that i've seen from there(all the visitor mailings i received this week) is phenomenal. And the facilities are brand new and have that sort of "modern evangelical" look to them. However, it's only a really good Southern Baptist Church. There's nothing wrong with that, and if you're looking for that, then you've found a good one there. But it does not make it to Round 2.

The Great Church Search Of 2008 pt.1

So...in the time that has passed inbetween posts, quite a lot has happened.

I ended up lasting on staff at my last church for about a month and a half longer, before my staff parish committee decided not to renew my contract, in favor of opting for a more traditional worship style. I'm often tempted to flame my former employer and church, but...i'm better than that(i think...). At any rate, i was nearly bending over backwards to fulfill the requests given to me, and i know that i could not have gone any further down the road towards a traditional style service and been happy and felt like my gifts were at all being used.

I also flirted with a possibility at another Methodist church in Maryville, but i didn't follow through with it because it didn't feel right. 

So that places us here, at my current conundrum.

I am a worship leader, lead YoungLife at a local high school, work at a homeless shelter...and i don't have a church.

So i've compiled a list of 10 churches that will hopefully sort out to just one in the coming months.

Oh yeah...i almost forgot: I'm choosing where i go each week by drawing names out of a hat. 

Here's the list, if you're interested(and we all know you are). (and these are in no particular order.)

1. Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church-

This was my first official church visited in the Great Search Of '08. I went last week, and was really encouraged by both the worship and the sermon, even though it was apparently the b-team on both fronts because of traveling by both the senior pastor and the worship pastor, and i also had an encouraging conversation with the folks in the visitor lounge(i was the only visitor to show up, which kind of surprised me, actually).

2. Fellowship Church-

I used to go here, until i started in a small group. I didn't know any of the guys or the leader, and they made a marginal attempt at best to get to know me outside of the group, and then they started trying to speak things into my life(granted, i believe that the Holy Spirit binds the church together, and complete strangers can be given knowledge by the Spirit for each other(i've seen it happen), but still...), and without that relationship outside of the small group to build on, their advice didn't really sit that well on my heart. However, the pastors and worship folks i am very familiar with, and hold in high regard. So there's that.

3. Antioch Community Church-

I also used to go here, and still have many friends(and some family) that i care about that go here. I was deep in the fabric of the church, and in some leadership stuff there(lived in a discipleship house, led worship for a small group), but God grew me a different direction than the church was growing. I also differ with the leadership on a number of points of methodology, but i dealt with that stuff for 2 years, and i'm not really interested in dealing with the same differences of opinion again. However, Antioch is on the list because of the folks i know there, and because i'm not about to tell God what he's doing. 

4. Powell Church-

My friend Greg Adkins is the worship pastor here, and because of that, Powell Church is on the list.

5. Knoxville Life Church-

Most of the churches that are on this list fall into a specific category: They are all recent plants(meaning they are new churches). This makes it on the list b/c of that. Oh, and they're also located downtown. That helps bunches.

6. Redeemer Church-

Yet another church plant, Redeemer is of the Presbyterian persuasion, and is located in the Fort Sanders district of Knoxville near downtown which is enough good stuff to land on the list.

7. Sevier Heights Baptist Church-

I don't think I'm going to end up at a Baptist church, but i've been to their college service a couple of times and felt welcomed and really enjoyed it, so i feel like i need to at least go and give it a try. 

8. Grace Community Church-

I would be lying to you if i didn't tell you the real reason this is on the list: a girl. But then again, it's only gonna get picked if God wants me to go there on a sunday.

9. Crossings Church-

My friend Bill Wolf is the worship pastor there, and they will be moving their services to the Square Room on Market Square downtown at the beginning of the year.

10. All Souls Church-

If they met on Sunday mornings, this would be my church. Their pastor is great, and i've got some good friends that go there. But, they meet at 6pm on Sunday evenings, and since i still live in Halls, that would mean going back home and sleeping, and then waking up for church, and the additional driving would not be kind to my bank account.

Well, that's the lineup. Maybe it won't take me two months to post an update.

(actually, i'm probably going to do one middle of the week about this morning's experience-so look for that.)

First Post

Good morning all-

This is my inaugural post on this here blog. Throughout the life of this blog, i'm going to try to show my life, and speak and think honestly about both life, music, and ministry. 

Now, to start, some background on me:

I live in Knoxville, TN, and work at a homeless shelter downtown, in addition to my part-time job as the worship leader at a Methodist church in North Knoxville. I also am a part-time(that's a theme with me-i never can seem to commit to just one thing) singer-songwriter(I just released an ep on amiestreet.com yesterday-you can find the link on the side), and am also a YoungLife leader at a high school close to downtown. 

I had a meeting with my pastor yesterday, and we talked about the direction he'd like me to take with leading worship. I like him a lot-he's about a lot of the same things i'm passionate about-teaching the bible like it is(as opposed to shaping it in our own image), seeing the lord's supper done more than just once a month, the richness of liturgy-plus he's not afraid to say to his congregation what his opinion is on a subject. I've only been on staff since the end of June, and i feel like i'm still developing a lay of the land, as far as what will work with this congregation goes. I also have a rather difficult task of trying to reshape what i do, and have always done, as far as style of worship goes. I taught myself how to lead worship in a very contemporary fashion; I lead on guitar, and am often loathe to introduce songs in any other way than just playing them. After all, the writer wrote that song to convey the message. If he/she needed to have a spoken-word introduction to the song, they would have thought of it and added it to the text. However, i'm not exactly the most comfortable speaking on stage either. 

After i met with my pastor, i went shopping for some books. I'm trying to rebuild my library, after having to sell most of the good stuff away to help pay rent last year. Here's what i got:

My Beautiful Idol by Pete Gall- I'm about halfway through this-picked it up at the christian bookstore, using my 20% off "partners in ministry" discount. I'm really enjoying the challenge in this book-it's hitting me at the right time-and it's exposing some sensitive places in me(my dependence on looking good and being nice to a certain girl who lives a couple hundred miles away, and how that might be an idol that i'm keeping to myself-being one) that probably need to be cleared of all the dead flesh so that some good healing and scarring can happen. I'll probably write more about this when i finish it.

Disputed Questions by Thomas Merton- Merton was a monk who lived in Kentucky (no joke...the abbey is just east of Elizabethtown(of the movie with the same name), and where i'll likely be taking a 5 day retreat sometime during January), and some of his writing on solitude is pretty amazing. I'm not sure when i'll get to this, though.

The Little Flowers of Saint Francis- It's about St. Francis of Assisi...if you don't know who he is, you need to find out.

No Holds Barred by Mark D. Roberts- I like using...let's just say, vivid language in prayer sometimes. So the tagline "Wrestling with God in prayer", kind of appeals to me. Besides- the kid in the plaid shirt is executing a pretty perfect arm-bar on the cover of this book. Worth mentioning. This will likely be my next read, and will probably get a full review after i read it.

Red Moon Rising by Pete Greig & Dave Roberts- I already have this book, but i loaned it out to a friend of mine over a year ago, and now it's sitting on his bookshelf. I bought this copy for 75 cents, though.

Emerging Worship by Dan Kimball- I didn't buy this, i'm borrowing it from my pastor, but i felt it worth mentioning because of the topic. I'm working through it right now, and as with most things i read, i'll likely discuss it here.

With that, i'll call this a successful first post. I need to put some laundry in the washer and run toward finishing this book, in addition to planning the worship service for sunday. If you're interested in any of the books i've talked about, i've put in links so you can buy them and read them yourself. Grace and Peace to you.