Gospel Music

I have a friend named Sean Michel who recently took his band to Chile to share the gospel in that earthquake torn country. Here is a really cool article in the ABN covering the trip with an interview with Sean and Jay Newman. Check it out if you have a couple of minutes.



Some other friends of ours from Epoch Church in Downtown Little Rock just got back from Haiti. Check out their blog telling the story of their trip.

It is really cool to see Almighty God using Arkansas Baptists to share the good news of the gospel.

I'm No Movie Critic

The good thing about old televisions is that it forces you to watch shows, and movies with entertaining, and engaging story lines. Great graphics, and HD cameras get lost in the fuzz of tv's built in the 20th century. So, I finished Avatar last night on my 12 year old television. I think they stole the story line from Disney's, Pocahontas, who stole their story line from history books, who get their story lines from their authors' imaginations. Anyway, it was engaging enough to keep me watching (though I split it into two nights). But, I think I should have seen it in HD/3D. Probably would have been spectacular. I did kinda' like the scenes where all the blue-people were sitting around the tree doing their chants. It reminded me of corporate worship...albeit pagan, corporate worship
 
I think if I get a new tv, I'm going to keep this one and make every movie or tv show I watch, pass the 20th Century Tube TV Test. We'll call it the TCTTV Test. If it isn't interesting there, then I won't waist the screen-life of my new, overpriced, HiDef tv that I'm thinking about buying. If you have any brand suggestions that would be nice. 

Now, if Fellowship of the Ring were ever in 3D, I'd pay money to see it. Could you imagine what that demon of the deep that killed Gandalf would look like in 3D? Holy smokes!

Now, I'm no movie critic, so I apologize for this post to people who are. I don't really watch many movies, though I fall asleep in a lot. I am however thinking about becoming a food critic. I fear that is something I could become pretty passionate about! And, I never fall asleep in the middle of a meal.

What We Sang Yesterday

We were kinda' focusing on God being the Healer yesterday. We had a time of prayer over our sick before we sang Healing Is In Your Hands. I think it was a good time of surrender to the One who is able to deliver. So, here it goes:

Our God Saves
You Alone Can Rescue
Compassion Hymn
Praise The Lord, Hallelujah
Healing Is In Your Hands
Your Name [which we tagged the bridge of Exalted (Yahweh) to]

Purchase these songs on iTunes.

To Worship Leaders

The other day I was fortunate enough to attend SongDiscovery in the Round in Nashville, TN, a songwriting conference for worship leaders. I didn't know exactly what to expect. The line up of artists and speakers was incredible, so I knew that whatever it was like it'd be good. Jennie Lee Riddle (the lady that penned Revelation Song) was one of the teachers. I was in her workshop on writing songs for the church. She told us that our calling as song writers is to serve the church, the Bride of Christ. I'm sure most of us in the room had walked in thinking something different about ourselves from that. She made the statement that, "the Bride of Christ is not a walking billboard for our creativity." This laid me low. She wasn't only talking about the songs we write for our church's to sing. She was talking about everything we lead our congregations to say and do. As worship leaders we're putting words in their mouths. Those words better be good, and true. Glenn Packiam asked us the question in one of the early sessions, "if your church based their theology on the songs you sing on Sunday morning, what would that theology look like?" The fact is, most of us do base our theology on the songs we sing. Do you see the weight of responsibility on our shoulders? We're not playing games, trying to pick songs that elicit the greatest response, or worse, our desired response. We're giving the the church the words to sing to the God who has redeemed them, and called them by name. Kyrie eleison.

Fight For The Broken World

We sing the refrain from this song in our church a lot. I would imagine most of our church members have never heard the whole thing. That's ok. We normally tag it onto a song about the greatness of God, which always works well, and it's always a pretty joyous occasion. When we listen to it here though, we see the other side of the coin. Our God reigns over everything. In the midst of the AIDS crisis, abortion, hunger, and other Social Justice issues, He Reigns. The line, "as we fight for this broken world on our knees," is two part. 1st, it obviously is an exhortation to pray for the brokenness in the world. 2nd, I think it should encourage believers, as the Lord requires of us in Micah 6:8, to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

I think we walk humbly on our knees.



Our God Reigns is written by Martin Smith of Delirious? and is performed here by Delirious?.