the church geek

By the way, regarding my previous post below on music: For valentine’s day, Lori and I picked up some new music. We purchased Alison Krauss’ Award winning album “Lonely Runs Both Ways.” It is excellent.

As Mardi Gras season is now in full swing and because hundreds of thousands of New Orleanians remain displaced from their own homes (I just got an e-mail today from a friend who finally returned to her home) I STRONGLY recommend the album New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast. There of course are other great reasons to buy this album like:

1. Strong contributions from many Louisiana music legends like Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, BeauSoliel, Irma Thomas, and more.
2. An album that evokes the mood of this great city; it’s heartache and sorrow as well as its triumphant spirit that rises above.
3. Liner notes written by Nick Spitzer (producer and host or NPR’s music show American Routes.) Both Nick’s radio show and his own family were displaced by Katrina.
4. Proceeds going to support Habitat for Humanity and their ministry to re-build homes.

If you want a feel for New Orleans music while supporting a good cause, I don’t see any way that you could go wrong with this album. I’m sure I’ll be listening to it for a long time coming.

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Today I enter the fray with my thoughts into the protests surrounding the publication of cartoons insensitive to Muslims. This week I received the following letter in my e-mail. It comes by way of First Presbyterian Church in Iowa City a church fostering a partnership with a s Christian School in Pakistan. The president of the school writes:

Greetings from Tense Lahore, Pakistan -

Yesterday 15th February, 2006 was another violent day in the city of Lahore, Peshawar, Sialkot and Kasur. Where at least 10 persons were killed and 124 including 18 policemen were injured as tens of thousands of mobsters’ torched 90 vehicles and damaged offices of local and multi-national companies along with departmental stores during a demonstration against “Blasphemous Cartoon Publication in a Newspaper in Denmark and other European countries”

The mob turned extremely violent; many scenes of virtual lawlessness in several cities of Pakistan were witnessed. The students of different colleges and schools also joined the procession raising slogans against Denmark and other European Countries where the cartoons are published.

The situation was really scary when the mob went to one of the Presbyterian Education Board Schools in Kasur. Many Muslim parents of the students have reached the school to protect and collect their daughters. Many parents stood like a strong wall between their daughters and the mob. The two Presbyterian schools (Kinnaird Academy and Christian s High School, Kasur) along with many Church run school are closed for security reasons till Monday in Punjab.

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I know I’m a few days early, but I couldn’t resist posting this valentine. This and other Star Wars themed homemade valentines can be found at Something Awful.

In case you are wondering what other crazy things are out there on the web, boing boing offers up some daily fare of wonderful things people are discovering out in cyber space. Some frightening, some fascinating, but always interesting.

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Check out the world’s smallest pong game at the world’s smallest website. There are other games like pacman on the site also. You might want a magnifying glass…

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Happy to see that U2 raked in awards yesterday for their album “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.” If you are only going to buy one new album a year, which is what happened to me last year, it sure feels good when the one you buy is voted “Album of the Year.” U2 has been a favorite since college when Joshua Tree first came out. Though I thought they got a little strange with Pop and Zooropa, they have made a very strong comeback in the last couple of years with their most recent albums.

In other music award news, Lori and I only attended one major concert last year (being in Cedar Rapids not many “big” groups make it through.) In October (for my birthday ‘present’) we saw Alison Krauss and Union Station. They were stellar: Alison has a very funny and engaging stage presence and one of the most beautiful voices around. Plus, they closed out their concert with an acapella gospel encore which was quite moving. I have not checked out Alison’s recent album, Lonely Runs Both Ways, but was happy to see that she and Union Station won the award for “Best Country Album” of the year.

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So far of the five pictures nominated for “Best Picture” Lori and I have seen three of them:

Crash
Capote
Good Night and Good Luck.

Of these three my hands down favorite was “Crash.” I would recommend to almost anyone that they go see or rent it. It is redemptive and beautiful in moments and heartbreaking in others. I’m not sure it will win the award, but if it was up to me I would grant the Oscar to it.

Last night we saw “Capote.” It too is an excellent movie. It is an engrossing film and an incredible character study as Capote finds himself wrapped up dealing with serious moral and ethical issues as he pursues completion of his book “In Cold Blood” that, it could be argued, destroyed him.

I would have to guess that Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is always excellent no matter what he plays in, will get the nod for best actor for his portrayal of Truman Capote.

“Good Night and Good Luck” was a good film also, though I just don’t see it on the same caliber as the other two. I was sort of surprised that it received a nomination in this category. All I can say about this movie is that I personally found it a bit flat.

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I’ve been checking into various weblogs operated by folks. Many of them are generating a lot of discussion in the comment sections. The primary example of a website with great discussion is Scot McKnight’s site, the Jesus Creed. He helps the process along by posting some pretty meaty theses on his site and then invites people to have at it. Sometime though, they have at one another…

This to me is one of the great benefits of weblogging: discussion amongst folks about issues they want to discuss. In my dreams, I’d love to emulate some of the finer sites that have significant discourse.

I of course have to play my part by posting things that people might be interested in discussing or find provocative. That takes energy and creativity on my part and to be honest I’m still learning and observing other weblogs hoping to figure out what sort of niche I might be able to fit out here on the world wide web! I have noticed that some of the more active sites have been at it for a number of years, so over time they must have gained a following which helps me remember that these things don’t typically happen over night.

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I am doing a sermon series on living the spiritual life, based in part on the work of Scot McKnight and his book the Jesus Creed, though I am of course augmenting what Scot has to say with my own angle on things. I am finding that a seven week sermon series is not nearly enough time to cover everything related to the spiritual life, but then I have to remind myself that in my first year of ministry I can’t possibly expect to cover everything that I have to say (that is unless it is really true that ministers only have 3 core, basic sermons they repeat in different ways.)

In last week’s sermon I spoke about the importance of the church for our spiritual life. Based in part on data from a Newsweek poll on spirituality in America, I argued that most Americans have lost the connection between spirituality, faith, and being part of a church. It seems to me that we have rather vague notions of what it means to be spiritual and that we often think of spirituality in very individualistic terms (it’s between me and Jesus.) There are lots of reasons why people have disconnected the church from the spiritual life, but in my mind its because we don’t understand what it means to be spiritual.

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