Thanks to Chris Cole for this link via Twitter.
Jonathan is a friend through Asbury and Twitter, and does a lot of fabulous thinking on worship and theology. This is his post on resolving to pursue holiness this year. Check it out.
I’m in process of listening to a few sermons/podcasts that are Advent-y, and Tom’s sermon is definitely worth checking out. Prepare to get sermonized on the likes of John the Baptist, repentance, confession and baptism.
When you click the link, you will find his sermon under the speaker “Tom Fuerst” and the date 12/5/10 (or the sermon title “Preparing the Way”.
Got any Advent sermon recommendations? Drop me a link in the comment box. -DC
Free Worship Music Links
There are some great downloads out there that I thought I’d share with you:
1. My friend Dave Campbell has his 3-Song EP Becoming here at his website. Show him some love. He’s a great guy whose music has been a part of our community at Hope for almost 5 years (!?!). Plus, there is some meedly-meedly shred mastery by Brian Black.
2. Elevation Church released their album Kingdom Come this year, which is a great album. They have released an EP of Remixes at their blog. I think you have to show some twitter love, but it’s a nice 5 song EP for the kids who like their praise with bleeps and bloops.
3. Over at ComeAndLive.com, they have a number of great downloads that are available for free, for the price of a tweet, or for donation. I’ve listened to a few of the albums there, and the one I’m liking most right now is The Hymn Project by Ascend the Hill. I think you’ll dig it. They also have the Daniel Bashta album there, which is amazing.
Thanks all for now. Got any good music links for me? Post them in the comments!
I found this on Scott Erickson’s blog; he’s a resident artist at a church in Houston. Yes, you read that right: a church has a resident artist. Why spend the resources on this kind of position/venture? His art may answer some of that question, but this quote from today by Daniel Berrigan, Jesuit Priest and activist, that he posts answers it much more clearly:
I can only trust the movement that is producing art, whether it’s poetry, or visual art, or dance, or music—it doesn’t make any difference. But there has to be that overflow that says, “We are on the move. We have enough to give and we’re going to give it. We have more than enough and we can give it.” So when my turn came for me and my friends to go to jail, we still wrote poetry and recited it to one another. We would meet on Sunday morning in the yard, and we said a poem we had memorized or written that week. We had Bible study going too. I don’t know where all that came from. As I look back, it was a very important and beautiful period together. It said, in effect, “They don’t own us. We’re not here on their terms. We have enough to give this to one another.” And that’s what we did.
You can really trust the movement that is producing that kind of overflow of the vessel—it’s getting tipped and there’s enough for everybody. And we call it art. We call it joy. The joy can’t be mandated, it’s just there or it isn’t there. And if the community is growing and deepening, it will be there. I’m convinced, it will be there.
Click the above link for the rest of the article, and find Scott’s online gallery here.
The Pillow Tie
I was going to post a number of links that I found that were of interest. But then I found this on Pete Wilson’s blog and figured I was done.
“Let me introduce you to the pillow tie.
Let me show you how this works.
Step One: Access inconspicuous valve.
Step Two: Gently bite the base and inflate in less than a minute.
Step Three: Nighty nite.”
—Father’s Day aside, this is just a great gift for the person you know who both has to wear ties a lot AND sleeps best sitting in a chair laying forward on their face (a habit learned in grade school, no doubt). However, I don’t think I could ever use this tie if I were ever given/bought one, primarily because the only places I wear ties are weddings and funerals. In both situations, sleep is not a socially acceptable option, and let’s face it: inflating your tie at a wedding or funeral could prove to be socially awkward.
