Emergent/Missional Reading

The above picture is from Tall Skinny Kiwi's blog (real name: Andrew Jones) and is a picture of the 50 books on his Emerging Church Bookshelf.

I don't have 50 books on the Emerging Church - but I'm getting there. It's interesting to see how my book choices have changed throughout the years. In college, I snapped up every Max Lucado book I could find. After college, it was Philip Yancey (who still is my favorite author, I think). And then it was Leonard Sweet. Now, it's a lot of books on the emergent church and missional theology.

Next post will be a picture of the books that have influenced me most (at least so far) when it comes to emergent/missional thinking.

Never Mind.

Well, they lost. Almost came back to beat the Tar Heels, but came up short.

So now - I guess I can get back to my non-sports life since there is no one to root for.

Remember The Titans

Well - my Colorado Avalanche took a nosedive in the second round of the NHL Playoffs, so I couldn't root for them for the rest of the quest for the Stanley Cup.

And then, the team I wanted to win the NBA finals - the Dallas Mavericks - just lost game 6 of the finals to the Miami Heat, which means the Heat have won it all.

What's a guy to root for now?

THE TITANS!

That's right, those Cal State Fullerton Titans. I'm not a big college baseball fan at all, but I do root for the Titans. The Cal State Fullerton campus is right across the street from the college that I went to, and one year the baseball players for some reason ate in our cafeteria. The roster for the Titans that year included Phil Nevin, who now plays for the Texas Rangers I believe (he has played for several teams in the last few years which makes him hard to keep track of). Most CSF sports were and are horrible (they got rid of their football team when I was in college, because it stunk so bad.), but their baseball team has always done well - in fact, they won the whole thing in 2004 and in 1995 (they took second my senior year of college).

Anyway, the Titans are once again in the College Baseball Tournament Bracket, hoping to make it to the College Baseball World Series. They came back with three runs in the ninth to beat Georgia Tech in an elimination game, and then tonight they came back against the number one seeded team, Clemson. Now they have to beat North Carolina twice in order to make it to the World Series. Go Titans!

McLaren Responds To Critics

Over on Brian McLaren's website, I just read a fantastic response from Brian McLaren - one of my favorite authors and thinkers - to critics of the Emergent movement. I think McLaren's a pretty humble guy, and it shows in what he writes. He uses a phrase from the book that "put him on the map", so to speak, A New Kind Of Christian. That phrase is called "above the line". What McLaren means by this is that it seems like there are always two differing sides to an issue that are polar opposites. However, when you look at the Gospels, Jesus refuses to take one side or the other when it comes to issues. His thoughts on the issue is always "above the line".

McLaren looks at nine different aspects of the Emergent movement - aspects that he has noticed has drawn criticism from "both sides" of the argument. For example, some people would say that when it comes to humility within the Emergent movement, the leaders of Emergent are too humble and should be bolder sometimes. Others say that leaders within the Emergent movement are cocky because they think they know all the answers and what's coming that will revitalize the church from its death throes. McLaren believes there's a position that is above the line.

I encourage you to read this article in its entirety. It's very thought-provoking, a little wordy - but worth the read.

What I Learned During My Summer Conference

I went to the Willow Creek Arts Conference in Chicago this past week. Here are some things I learned:

- I don't like the O'Hare Airport at all.

- Waiting in lines at the O'Hare Airport is not fun.

- Going to a conference by yourself to a city you've never been to is kind of strange.

- Willow Creek Community Church is very large.

- I would give my left eye to have the kind of budget and equipment that Willow has for their arts department.

- Wrigley Field is a pain to get to (parked at the airport, took the blue line from the airport to the Addison exit, took a bus to Wrigley Field) but it's definitely worth the pain.

- A church organizational structure based on giftedness rather than hierarchy is a pretty neat way to make decisions.

- Schaumburg is a nice Chicago suburb to drive around.

- Planning for a service way in advance actually works.

- Collaboration between all parts of the creative process creates a dynamic that God honors.

- There is a law that states that out of all of the 52 weeks that are in a year, the one week that you are gone from your home is the week that your daughter will have to go to the emergency room because she's sick.

I enjoyed the Willow Creek Arts Conference - but I think next year I will go back to the Saddleback Worship Conference. One thing I like about Saddleback's conference over Willow Creek is that at night there are things you can do on Saddleback's campus during the conference - concerts, coffeehouse shows, hanging out, etc. But overall it was a good conference.

Superman As The Christ Figure?

I used to be a big fan of comics and superheroes, although for some reason, I've never been that fond of Superman. I don't know why - I guess perhaps back in the day I just didn't like any superhero who was that invincible. I mean, other superheroes had one, maybe two powers. Superman has many, many. And although some weaknesses in superheroes were downright stupid (The Green Lantern's power had no effect on the color yellow. Yellow? "Oh, no - here comes Lemon Scented Palmolive Man! I am foiled!"), Superman's weakness (Kryptonite) just didn't seem that great.

Anyway, I know a lot of people are looking forward to the new movie. I'm not, really. I still haven't seen the latest X-Men (perhaps I'll go see it this week). I don't know why they need to resurrect the franchise. Of course, if they do as good of a job resurrecting Superman as they did Batman (the last Batman movie was great), maybe I will go see it.

Well, I found this interesting article concerning an author of a book who compares the superhero Superman to Jesus. It is an interesting article, and I can definitely see some of the similarities. And I guess you can use Superman as a way to introduce people to Jesus, although the only places I see this working is perhaps the comic book or game store down the street. Well, I guess Paul's statement that he became a Jew to win the Jew, a Greek to win the Greek, etc. applies here. Maybe I need to dig myself again into superhero lore in order to win the comic book geek.

BFF (Best Friends Forever)

A little bit of movie actor trivia:

Everyone knows who Vince Vaughn is, right? I mean, he's been in a ton of movies, especially lately (Dodgeball, The Wedding Crashers, etc.) And now he's in a movie with his supposed girlfriend or something, Jennifer Aniston.

Vince Vaughn's best friend is also in this new movie, he's the guy whose picture is above. Vince and Peter became best friends after doing an After School Special on T.V. together back in 1990 or so.

You may not recognize his best friend now.

But I'm sure if I showed you a picture of Ralphie - the kid who wants the gun in the classic Christmas movie A Christmas Story - you would recognize him right away.

Pretty crazy, huh!

Sufjan Stevens: Busted!

Sensational title, huh!

You know I love the Sufjan - I have three of his CDs (not counting the three Christmas CDs he put out) and I listen to them a lot. My wife rolls her eyes everytime she comes into my office and I'm listening to him, she thinks his music is very weird and that I'm ready to join a commune or something after listening to a Sufjan CD.

I thought that this was an interesting interview with Sufjan by BustedHalo.com (hence the Busted title). Now that Sufjan Stevens has become "popular" or at least "critically acclaimed", I'm interested to see what his musings on his next CD will be about. Will he continue to wonder about faith and life in general while weaving stories about particular states? Or will he back off this time (as it seems he's wanting to do according to this interview)? Hopefully we'll find out soon.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Okay, so I really haven't had much to say - been too busy to really think. Okay? So, I decided to do something different.

As a worship arts minister, you would think that worship music would be constantly flowing in my head and brain. Nope. There is music that I'm constantly thinking about, constantly singing in my head - but it isn't worship music. What is it?

Veggie Tales, of course.

My almost 3-year-old daughter loves Veggie Tales, and so we listen to the CDs in the car ALL THE TIME.

One of her favorites is the Silly Songs CD. It also comes in DVD format, and is a countdown of the top 10 silly songs that have been featured on Veggie Tales videos.

Here is how the top 10 came out:

10. Endangered Love
9. The Dance Of The Cucumber
8. Larry's High Silk Hat
7. The Water Buffalo Song
6. The Song Of The Cebu
5. The Yodeling Veterinarian Of The Alps
4. His Cheeseburger
3. Love My Lips
2. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything
1. The Hairbrush Song

Well, in this amazing post, I'm going to do my own top 10 - actually top 11 - and why I ranked them this way. Most of you won't care. But for those of you who have kids who love Veggie Tales, you'll understand. Here's the countdown:

11. The Dance Of The Cucumber

I really despise this Veggie Tales song. Not because it's sung in Spanish or anything, but because Bob translates Larry's song while Larry is singing, which makes it very hard to follow and very, very annoying.

Best lyric: none

10. The Hairbrush Song

Yes, this song is loved the most by Veggie Tales fans. I don't like it. I don't think it's very good musically or lyrically. I think it's boring. This song also could be number ten because I have to sing it to my daughter every night before bed as well.

Best lyric: "Why do you need a hairbrush you don't have any hair?"

9. The Water Buffalo Song

This is the first Silly Song ever made, and you can tell. It's not very creative or exciting.

Best lyric: "I took my buffalo to a store, got his head stuck in the door, spilled some lima beans on the floor..."

8. Larry's High Silk Hat

Creative and original, taking a famous operatic song and making it into a Veggie Tales classic. I like it, but not better than the other seven in front of it.

Best lyric: "A great big squash just sat upon my hat!"

7. Endangered Love

A song above love for a manatee named Barbara who is in a soap opera and doesn't know French. Yes, it's strange. But I really like how Larry dances with his stuffed animal manatee. Good stuff.

Best lyric: "Please don't go. I must. Don't go. I must. Don't, don't. Must, must!"

6. The Song Of The Cebu

This one and number five probably get switched in my mind in ranking every day. I like the slide projector aspect of this Silly Song. I like the three cebu - the sick cebu, the sad cebu and the mute cebu. Very creative.

Best lyric: "Mute cebu is grunting and waving, mmmmmmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhhmoo moo."

5. The Yodeling Veterinarian Of The Alps

The best titled Silly Song. This doesn't make the very top, though because the transition between the barbershop quartet and the other stuff is kind of weird.

Best lyric: "He's gone a little loopy, in case you haven't heard. Here's a bottle of penicillin for your sickly arctic bird..."

4. Love My Lips

The last four are very, very close for me. This one is great, but not as great as the top three.

Best lyric: "Ten days after I turned eight, got my lips stuck in a gate. My friends all laughed, and I just stood there until the fire department came and broke the lock off with a crowbar and I had to spend the next six weeks in lip rehab with a kid named Oscar who got stung by a bee right on the lip and we couldn't even talk to each other until the fifth week because both of our lips were so swollen and when Oscar could speak, he spoke in Polish, and I only know like three words in Polish, except now I know four because Oscar taught me the word for lip: Usta."

3. Do The Moo Shoo

You may have wondered why the original Silly Song countdown had ten and I have eleven. This is why: because in the Silly Song countdown DVD, the contraption of Silliness breaks down, so Pa Grape tells Mr. Lunt and Larry the Cucumber to make up a song to buy him some time to fix it. Larry can't think of anything, so Pa Grape throws him a Chinese takeout menu, and he and Mr. Lunt come up with a song by singing the different entries. It's pure genius.

Best lyric: the whole song. "Chicken! Kung Pau...CHICKEN! Mongolian...CHICKEN! Sweet n' Sour...CHICKEN! Cashew...CHICKEN! Do the Moo Shoo - Moo Shoo, moo shoo, moo moo moo moo shoo...(do the moo shoo) PORK! Mandarin...PORK! Barbeque...PORK! Sweet n' Sour...PORK! Spicy Shredded...PORK! Do the Tofu! Tofu Tofu to to to Tofu...STOP! Break a fortune cookie! Beware of grape with wooden mallet. Ain't that the truth."

2. His Cheeseburger

#1 and #2 are so close, so so close. His Cheeseburger was my favorite for a long time. And the fact that Chuck E. Cheese plays it almost made me make it number one. But not quite. This is the first Silly Song not sung by Larry, and Mr. Lunt shines through. It's a song about a gourd named Jimmy and his love for cheeseburgers. Deep, man. Deep.

Best lyric: "'Cause he loves you cheeseburger with all his heart, and there 'aint nothing that can tear you two apart. And if the world suddenly ran out of cheese, you would get down on your hands and knees, and if someone accidentally dropped some cheese in the dirt, he would wash it off for you, wash it off for you, clean that dirty cheese off just for YOU! You are his cheeseburger..."

1. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything

Yes, the number one silly countdown song. I know Pa Grape would be happy, because he was rather sad that the song that he got featured in only made it to number two in the original countdown. What's great about this song is after Pa Grape and Mr. Lunt sing about the "pirat-y" things they have never done because they don't do anything, Larry goes off on the strangest list of things he hasn't done that aren't even related to pirat-y stuff. It's classic, and original. Great stuff.

Best lyric: "Well, I've never plucked a rooster, and I'm not too good at ping-pong, and I've never thrown my mashed potatoes up against the wall. And I've never kissed a chipmunk, and I've never gotten head lice. And I've never been to Boston in the fall..." then later: "Well, I've never licked a spark plug and I've never sniffed a stink bug and I've never painted daisies on a big red rubber ball. And I've never bathed in yogurt, and I don't look good in leggings...Pa Grape: "You just don't get it, do you?" And we've never been to Boston in the fall."

Just in case you're wondering, I didn't have to look up the lyrics. I know them all.

You Think You Got Game?

Then take this U2 Quiz that deals with their spirituality in interviews, lyrics and more. I consider myself a U2 afficionado, and I got some right, but there were several that I was stumped on and actually surprised about. Especially the ones that involve Adam Clayton. I've always considered U2's bass member as someone who didn't consider himself a God-follower, but he is really just more private about his faith than the other ones.

The Story Of Menashe

In the book The Crooked Shall Be Made Straight, Israeli writer S.Y. Agnon tells the story of a simple, godly man named Menashe. He runs a grocery store that slowly goes broke because, being so generous a man, Menashe cannot bear to ask money from customers who cannot afford to pay. His ruthless competitors eventually run him our of business, and he has to resort to travelilng from town to town begging. The village rabbi takes pity on poor, decent Menashe and gives him a letter commending him as a good and honest man who is deserving of charity.

Menashe begs for over a year, eventually collecting enough to restart his business. On his last night on the road, before returning home to begin his life again, he lodges at an inn and happens upon a local con man. This man is as vile and contemptible as Menashe is good and upright. When he sees Menashe's letter of commendation from the rabbi, his eyes light up. "If I had a letter like that I would never have to work another day in my life," he glowers, and then offers Menashe a substantial amount of money to purchase the letter. Tempted by the opportunity to virtually double his money and knowing that he no longer needs the rabbi's letter, Menashe sells the document. Then, with more money than he's ever seen before, he decides to celebrate his good fortune. Perhaps motivated also by shame at having sold the honorable rabbi's letter, Menashe gets horribly drunk and in his stupor is robbed of everything he has, even his prayer shawl. With not enough money to get home, Menashe is reduced to begging again.

In the meantime, the liar and con man is set upon by robbers and murdered. His body is mutilated beyond recognition, so that when his corpse is found with Menashe's letter in the pocket, it is immediately assumed that it is in fact Menashe who has been murdered. His wife is notified of her husband's death. Some months later she remarries, and a year later she gives birth to a son just as the destitute Menashe drags himself home. He arrives in town just as his wife and her husband are celebrating the circumcision of their child.

Menashe, the decent man, is in a terrible dilemma. If he reveals his identity, he will effectively end his wife's new marriage by revealing it to be illegal. He will also brand her child as illegitimate, causing him to be an outcast in the Jewish community. Unable to destroy the lives of those he loves, he retreats to the cemetery outside the town. There he confides in the custodian by telling him his tale of woe. The custodian takes pity on this sad, godly man and keeps his secret and supplies him with food and shelter. When Menashe dies shortly after, the custodian has him buried in the very plot his wife had arranged when she thought him dead two years previously.

What does this story mean? It is a parable about losing one's name and finding it. When Menashe was a decent, kind man, his good name was his passport, as symbolized by the rabbi's letter. When he sold the letter, he was acting out of character by doing something for a quick dishonest buck. By selling the letter, he literally gave away his name. It was if the real Menashe ceased to exist. Only later, when he performs his immense act of self-sacrifice, does he receive his name and therefore his identity again. By being buried under his own gravestone, his name is restored. Menashe is alive again (ironically at the point of his death).

Our actions are a representation of our name, our integrity, our identity. When we abandon the high calling to live like Christ, we abandon our Christian identity. We are not saved by our own actions, but we are known by them. Jesus told his own disciples that they would be known (identified as followers of Jesus) by how much they loved each other. Their actions typified their name.

- From the book The Shaping Of Things To Come

Create Your Own Caption #6

Legos Just Got Cooler...

I've never been a big Lego fan, I didn't play with them much as a kid because I wasn't really that creative back then. However, I'm always amazed at the different uses for them. There are now three Legoland parks with lego creations, rides, etc.

However, I stumbled upon a site that made Legos even cooler. It's a website that illustrates Bible stories using Legos. How cool is that?

I'm So Proud...

of my wife Debby. If you know her, you know she has long hair. She's pretty much had long hair for all but a couple of years of her life.

A month ago, she heard that a girl who was battling cancer and who had lost all her hair was in need of a "hair donor" who would be willing to cut off ten inches of hair so that this girl could have a wig.

Today, she got the ten inches cut off. And she donated it to this little girl through the organization Locks Of Love. I'm proud of her, because I know her hair means a great deal to her. It's all about making the little (or big) differences in someone else's life. :)

Everyone's An Expert...

I have to admit that lately I've really needed a good laugh, so where else to find a good laugh but the internet? Today I laughed like crazy at this short video from BBC news. During one of their actual newscasts, the newswoman interviews a man who she believes to be an expert in the field of computer business and she asks him several questions about the legal battle between Apple Computers and the Beatles' Apple record label. The guy who she is interviewing was obviously brought in to do something else, as you can tell at the beginning of the clip - when he gets introduced, he becomes very nervous since he knows that he is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Classic. (There are two versions of this movie, I picked the one where BBC explains what's going on because it helps make sense of it).

Enjoy.

The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually

"Like lightning to the children eased
Through revelation kind
The truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind."

- Emily Dickinson

I have submerged myself into what I am beginning to call "missional kingdom theology". Pretty much every book I'm reading right now (except for another quick reading of The Da Vinci Code, since we're doing a series on it soon) is focused on the idea of what it means to live as a missional-minded person who believes Jesus when he says "The Kingdom of God is within you." Books by Brian McLaren, N.T. Wright and others have smacked me across the head with some interesting new(old) ideas.

However, I'm beginning to feel "the bends" - I've submerged myself too quickly without allowing the pressure within me slowly acclimate to the pressure of my surroundings, in this case, missional kingdom thinking. I am now in the process of taking one book at a time, reading slowly, writing down my thoughts, and allowing God to work through these books in such a way that I will be ready to make appropriate changes to my life and ministry in due time.

The truth must dazzle gradually.

Brian McLaren on The Da Vinci Code Movie

I thought this was an interesting interview. I laughed out loud when McLaren says that the Da Vinci Code novel has caused possibly less harm to Christianity than the Left Behind novels. Here you go...

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Brian McLaren on The Da Vinci Code
An interview by Lisa Ann Cockrel
With The Da Vinci Code poised to go from bestseller list to the big screen on May 19, pastor and writer (and Sojourners board member) Brian McLaren talks about why he thinks there's truth in the controversial book's fiction.


- What do you think the popularity of The Da Vinci Code reveals about pop culture attitudes toward Christianity and the church?

Brian McLaren: I think a lot of people have read the book, not just as a popular page-turner but also as an experience in shared frustration with status-quo, male-dominated, power-oriented, cover-up-prone organized Christian religion. We need to ask ourselves why the vision of Jesus hinted at in Dan Brown's book is more interesting, attractive, and intriguing to these people than the standard vision of Jesus they hear about in church. Why would so many people be disappointed to find that Brown's version of Jesus has been largely discredited as fanciful and inaccurate, leaving only the church's conventional version? Is it possible that, even though Brown's fictional version misleads in many ways, it at least serves to open up the possibility that the church's conventional version of Jesus may not do him justice?

- So you think The Da Vinci Code taps into dissatisfaction with Jesus as we know him?

McLaren: For all the flaws of Brown's book, I think what he's doing is suggesting that the dominant religious institutions have created their own caricature of Jesus. And I think people have a sense that that's true. It's my honest feeling that anyone trying to share their faith in America today has to realize that the Religious Right has polluted the air. The name "Jesus" and the word "Christianity" are associated with something judgmental, hostile, hypocritical, angry, negative, defensive, anti-homosexual, etc. Many of our churches, even though they feel they represent the truth, actually are upholding something that's distorted and false.

I also think that the whole issue of male domination is huge and that Brown's suggestion that the real Jesus was not as misogynist or anti-woman as the Christian religion often has been is very attractive. Brown's book is about exposing hypocrisy and cover-up in organized religion, and it is exposing organized religion's grasping for power. Again, there's something in that that people resonate with in the age of pedophilia scandals, televangelists, and religious political alliances. As a follower of Jesus I resonate with their concerns as well.

- Do you think the book contains any significantly detrimental distortions of the Christian faith?

McLaren: The book is fiction and it's filled with a lot of fiction about a lot of things that a lot of people have already debunked. But frankly, I don't think it has more harmful ideas in it than the Left Behind novels. And in a certain way, what the Left Behind novels do, the way they twist scripture toward a certain theological and political end, I think Brown is twisting scripture, just to other political ends. But at the end of the day, the difference is I don't think Brown really cares that much about theology. He just wanted to write a page-turner and he was very successful at that.

- Many Christians are also reading this book and it's rocking their preconceived notions - or lack of preconceived notions - about Christ's life and the early years of the church. So many people don't know how we got the canon, for example. Should this book be a clarion call to the church to say, "Hey, we need to have a body of believers who are much more literate in church history." Is that something the church needs to be thinking about more strategically?

McLaren: Yes! You're exactly right. One of the problems is that the average Christian in the average church who listens to the average Christian broadcasting has such an oversimplified understanding of both the Bible and of church history - it would be deeply disturbing for them to really learn about church history. I think the disturbing would do them good. But a lot of times education is disturbing for people. And so if The Da Vinci Code causes people to ask questions and Christians have to dig deeper, that's a great thing, a great opportunity for growth. And it does show a weakness in the church giving either no understanding of church history or a very stilted, one-sided, sugarcoated version.

On the other hand, it's important for me to say I don't think anyone can learn good church history from Brown. There's been a lot of debunking of what he calls facts. But again, the guy's writing fiction so nobody should be surprised about that. The sad thing is there's an awful lot of us who claim to be telling objective truth and we actually have our own propaganda and our own versions of history as well.

Let me mention one other thing about Brown's book that I think is appealing to people. The church goes through a pendulum swing at times from overemphasizing the deity of Christ to overemphasizing the humanity of Christ. So a book like Brown's that overemphasizes the humanity of Christ can be a mirror to us saying that we might be underemphasizing the humanity of Christ.

- In light of The Da Vinci Code movie that is soon to be released, how do you hope churches will engage this story?

McLaren: I would like to see churches teach their people how to have intelligent dialogue that doesn't degenerate into argument. We have to teach people that the Holy Spirit works in the middle of conversation. We see it time and time again - Jesus enters into dialogue with people; Paul and Peter and the apostles enter into dialogue with people. We tend to think that the Holy Spirit can only work in the middle of a monologue where we are doing the speaking.

So if our churches can encourage people to, if you see someone reading the book or you know someone who's gone to the movie, say, "What do you think about Jesus and what do you think about this or that," and to ask questions instead of getting into arguments, that would be wonderful. The more we can keep conversations open and going the more chances we give the Holy Spirit to work. But too often people want to get into an argument right away. And, you know, Jesus has handled 2,000 years of questions, skepticism, and attacks, and he's gonna come through just fine. So we don't have to be worried.

Ultimately, The Da Vinci Code is telling us important things about the image of Jesus that is being portrayed by the dominant Christian voices. [Readers] don't find that satisfactory, genuine, or authentic, so they're looking for something that seems more real and authentic.

World Fair Trade Day

This weekend is a special weekend for many people as they celebrate Mother's Day.

Now you have another reason to make it special.

May 13th is World Fair Trade Day. Fair Trade is something that is very important in our world today as more and more world-conscious people are realizing how unfair a lot of trade practices are and thus are turning to companies who treat poor laborers fairly by paying them what they are worth.

I would encourage everyone to figure out how they can help make trade fair in the world today. Learning what you can do is part of the figuring out.

Review of Hillsong United's new CD "United We Stand"

Thanks to Kyle, a guy on my worship team, I have just recently discovered this worship band - the youth band from Hillsong Church in Australia. I have done a few Hillsong songs, but I've been veering away from them recently because they just aren't the style that we're looking for in worship.

Hillsong United is, however. The first CD I heard was Look To You, and immediately I liked it. We have started to do the song "Salvation Is Here" recently and it's been a good song to introduce.

The latest Hillsong United CD is out and without further adieu, here's my review of it, song by song.

Song #1: An Introduction - 10/10

I love how this CD starts out - a minute and a half instrumental that reminds me of Coldplay or U2. It then blends right into song #2.

Song #2: The Time Has Come - 8/10

Again, reminds me of Coldplay's and U2's more upbeat songs. I really like this song - I like the different changes, and the bass player for Hillsong United kicks. Of course, so does the guitarist and the drummer and the...

Song #3: Take It All - 6/10

I think I will like this song better the more I listen to this CD, but to me it seems like a hard song to introduce into worship.

Song #4: From God Above - 7/10

One thing I like about Hillsong United is that their songs musically don't seem to be very formulaic, a problem I find in other worship artists (see Chris Tomlin). This is an interesting song, to say the least. I like it.

Song #5: From The Inside Out - 10/10

My favorite song on this CD, at least so far. I love the words, I love the melody, I love how they sing the "Everlasting your light will shine when all else fails" part as part of each verse, then towards the end it becomes part of the chorus. Brilliant. We are introducing this song this coming Sunday, and I'm excited.

Song #6: Came To The Rescue - 10/10

Song #5 and #6 pack a powerful wallop together. This is one that I'm going to suggest my female worship leaders introduce, I think they'll like it. I love the sound of the guitar on this song, it's killer.

Song #7: A Reprise - 10/10

The organ starts out this reprise, and it sounds great. Then that killer guitar from song #6 comes back. Then quietly the refrain from the last song comes through:

In my life, be lifted high
In my world, be lifted high
In my love, be lifted high

It builds and builds coming to an incredible crescendo with everyone singing and playing loud. I would love for our church to be as responsive as this.

Song #8: None But Jesus - 8/10

The first song on this CD sung by a female leader. It's a very soothing song, and I really like the lyrics. I also like what sounds like an e-bow in the background. I love e-bows. I need to get one of our electric guitarists to get excited about learning how to play one.

Song #9: Selah - 6/10

I like the sound, but it's rather bland.

Song #10: Fire Fall Down - 9/10

A long, long song (almost eleven minutes!) but it's incredible. The music reminds me of one of Delirious' slower songs off of Glo. Do I have to mention again how much I love the guitar work on this CD? This is the kind of stuff I would like to see us move to - we've been doing a little more experimentation like this (Invitation Fountain by The Violet Burning, throwing in some U2 riffs here and there, more dramatic pauses, etc.), but I want us to do more. Of course, this song builds as well into a full out audio arsenal.

Song #11: Revolution - 7/10

It's an interesting song, to say the least. I'm not fond of the chorus - either the lyrics or the melody, but I love the verses. Almost ska-like!

Song #12: Kingdom Come - 8/10

When the song first started, I really wanted to not like it, because it sounded similar to a couple other songs on this CD, notably the first one. But then the chorus hit, and I realized I really liked this song.

Song #13: No One Like You - 5/10

Too repetitive. But I know that on each CD they have a song with repetitive words, so maybe I'm just digging here.

Song #14: Sovereign Hands - 6/10

Sounds a little too much like the main Hillsongs stuff.

Song #15: The Stand - 7/10

This is a long CD. I think my judgment is getting cloudy because of how long this CD is. But this is a solid song.

Song #16: Selah - 7/10

Nice instrumental. Getting woozy.

Song #17: Hallelujah - 8/10

Great way to end this CD. Yes, it's repetitive, but it's better than Our God Reigns off of the new Passion CD. Interestingly, it also contains the words "Our God Reigns". Hmmm.

Well, that's it. A lot of songs, you definitely get your money worth. And I wholeheartedly recommend this CD. It is an incredible worship CD. And you get a DVD with it, which shows you when they did these songs live. Very passionate, very moving. I love it.

Boycotting Fiction

Zach has it so right when it comes to the latest boycotting movement by Christians. This time, let's have everyone boycott The Da Vinci Code.

That's right, folks. Let's boycott a fictional movie based on a fictional novel. The movie producers are probably freaking out right now - no, not over the boycott. They are probably excited about the amount of publicity that this dumb boycott will give the movie, which means more money for them and for the movie itself.

This reminds me of the huge boycott of The Last Temptation of Christ - a movie based on a fictional novel. The movie wasn't presenting their version of the gospel as truth. It was just a different idea (that perhaps took it a little too far).

Boycotting fiction. Another smart idea in the annals of Christendom.