We’re engaged! Yes, you read that correctly- I asked Mary Beth to marry me and she said yes! It will be a long engagement since we are waiting until we both graduate (2 years from now). We realize that we can’t get married until we have full-time jobs and neither one of us can work until we finish school. Please keep us in your prayers.
11
May
big news
11
Apr
midi
You have to love midi.
26
Mar
It’s been awhile
Everyone has a post like this from time to time so here’s mine: Wow, I haven’t blogged in awhile. Ok, now that that’s out of the way…
Life has been pretty stressful here lately- not any one thing in particular, just a lot of little tests, papers, church stuff, work. After tomorrow it should be smooth sailing for awhile. In other news, yesterday marked my 1 year anniversary as the worship leader at Master’s. It’s an incredibly humbling experience to be able to lead in worship every week and I pray that I never take that responsibility lightly. Thanks to everyone at church who has been so helpful in helping me dig in deep and put down roots.
We had a great Easter Sunday last week, we were frantically bringing in extra seats as it was time to start so that’s always a good problem to have. The children showed a slide-show that they had put together previous week which outlined the last week of Jesus’ life- really cool. And the drama team presented a short drama of the crucifixion and resurrection- powerful.
JMB practiced Monday night for the first time in a long time and worked on a couple new song. Whenever Josh brings a couple more that he’s been working on, we’ll have enough for our next album and we can hopefully start recording this summer or fall. Also, I got to see Nun-zilla in person. (Thanks Shane).
Camp. I’m getting really excited about crossings this summer. We should be getting the bible study materials within the next few weeks and I can’t wait to really dig in. Last year, there was some problems with my email and I didn’t get the bible study until a week before camp so this will be a nice improvement. I’ll be playing in the band again (bass this time) and I’ll also be one of the waterfront directors. (This just means that I’ll be on the water a large portion of the day instead of switching between different activities).
Well, I’m going to go shave my head and get to bed early for a change.
09
Mar
Young@Heart: Fix You
I know it’s a been awhile sense the last one, but here’s another video from young@heart. This is an incredible performance of Coldplay’s “Fix You”, a song that I have posted here before (here). I’ll let you judge this performance. Here’s an excerpt from the video description:
“The performer here is Fred Knittle, who suffers from congestive heart failure. This song was intended to be a duet between Fred and another chorus member, Bob Salvini. Sadly, Bob died of a heart attack and it was left to Fred to carry the song on his own. If I’m correct, the people you see crying at 01:13 are Bob’s family. The lady you occasionally see mouthing the lyrics in the audience is Fred’s wife.”
01
Mar
Young@Heart
Young@Heart is a New England senior citizens choir that performs covers of rock tunes from bands such as The Clash, Sonic Youth, The Ramones, James Brown, and Coldplay. They also happen to have a documentary coming out in April called… well, it’s also called “Young@Heart”. I’m going to try to pick it up whenever it hits the shelves, it looks like it’s going to be really good. I was doing some random searching on youtube earlier today and came across a great clip from the documentary- I’ll also post it next but first, I wanted to share the trailer with you.
28
Feb
No Time
I haven’t had much time to post anything on here- life has been pretty busy. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to post something in the next day or two. Until then, here’s a video.
It’s an exciting movie.
22
Feb
let down and Bob Kauflin
Can I say that it was a little bit of a let down with the lack of ice? I know that the roads and sidewalks are safer around here and we aren’t slipping and breaking any limbs, but I was expecting an ice storm. Not that I was really looking forward to one, but I was expecting one and I think that’s why I feel a little let down. Am I sad? Not really, but maybe a little disappointed. (Can I be disappointed without being sad? Hmm… that’s an interesting question). Moving on.
If you’ll think back to my post on music in church by Greg Gilbert (click here) you’ll remember that Mr. Gilbert made some very interesting points about the importance of music in the church and how, perhaps, music has become more important than our actual worship. Bob Kauflin, Sovereign Grace Ministries (think C.J. Mahaney), posted a great response to Greg Gilbert’s second post on his blog this week. Ok, I’m a little ahead of myself. Greg Gilbert originally posted an article called Against Music in which he stated:
“The bottom line, I suppose, is that it would do every Christian well to do some honest heart-searching about what makes them feel “close to God.” Can you feel close to God just by reading or saying the words, “In Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”? Would you be able to function in a church that’s great in every way except the music? If not, you probably need to give some thought to whether your spiritual life is dependent on something it should not be dependent on.
Bob Kauflin posted a response (right here): “Music is a wonderful gift from God, enabling us to combine doctrine and devotion as we praise God. But as Greg makes clear, it’s possible to be too much “FOR music.” And when that happens, music turns from a tool into a god.” I encourage you to read both of the articles- they are extremely insightful.
Ok, now we’re caught up. Greg Gilbert posted a second article (the one that I originally brought to your attention) and he posed the series of questions about our attitude toward music. And most recently, Bob Kauflin has posted a response to that article. Are you still with me? It’s a bit of a spiderweb to follow but I think we’re covered it. Here’s Kauflin’s most post, For Music.
“Greg makes it clear, especially in his second post, that he’s not against music. I wanted to pick up on that thought and tell you why we should be for music. When we get too concerned about the negative effects of music, we can unintentionally stifle the good effects God intends for music to have on our souls. So here are a few thoughts about why God so often connects music and worship.”
With that, Kauflin begins to explain why music is so important in the church and how it is an awesome gift of God. If you’ve got some extra time today, read these articles and let me know what you think.
How about this ice? It’s nuts out there! I really hope they close Blazer early tonight, or, better yet, I hope it’s closed by the time I get there. I heard from a reliable source (Mary Beth) that this storm stretches all to Kansas and so far they’ve gotten 3 inches of ice. 3 inches! I’m not sure what we would do around here at UK if we got that much ice- it’s not like we get make-up days for snow days, I guess we would just squeeze all the lectures into one massive class. I don’t look forward to that.
Enough of that, on to some good news. Thanks to everyone for reading this blog and leaving comments- even the ones that question my taste in music (you know who you are!).
I got a couple new cds (yes Andrew, actual cds this time, not just ALBUMS from iTunes) for Valentines Day last week and I’m finally getting a chance to put them on my computer. “Dreamcatcher” from Andy Mckee and “the thing that came from somewhere” from Don Ross and Andy Mckee (both solo acoustic artists on candy rat records). I discussed Andy Mckee in a previous post [ my fave 5 guitarists] and also posted a couple videos [should be able to find them here and here] so some of you may be vaguely familiar with him. I encourage all of you to check him out, and Don Ross too for that matter- I promise this isn’t crazy cultish-hippy music. These guys are insanely talented.
18
Feb
Ouch
I just cut my head shaving- it’s a pretty bad one with lots of bleeding. For some reason I find it much easier to cut my head shaving than the rest of my face. I’m not sure why that is. Oh well. I didn’t have much else to write about and I just wanted to share a little bit of my pain.
Oh, I bought a couple Polyphonic Spree (see previous post) cd’s today on iTunes. I haven’t had a chance to listen to both of them yet, just a few clips here and there, but I think I’m really going to like it.
17
Feb
Polyphonic Spree
Another music post, another video post. Does that make me lazy?
I sorta discovered a new band (new to me at least) tonight. I’ve known about the Polyphonic Spree for a while now but had never really listened to any of their music until now. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the band- I’ll give you a quick rundown: 23 members, guitars, drums, bass, percussion, horns, strings, piano, keyboards, harp, various electronic sounds, choir. Self-described “choral symphonic rock.” The music is catchy, poppy, and downright brilliant. There is quite a lack of good live videos on the youtube, mostly camera phone recordings but you’ve got to see a live performance to fully appreciate the sheer genius that is The Polyphonic Spree.
(They’re not a cult. They dress alike because Tim Delaughter (frontman, musical director) decided that such a huge ensemble in street clothes would be too visual distracting.)
