2 months since I’ve written anything.  I suppose I got tired of reading what I was writing!  Ha!

Always bluntly honest, but life became so filtered through my blog lense, which was not healthy.

I thought I would share one of the most powerful videos I’ve done. 
It was made a while back, each of the pictures have a story, and of course Jeff Buckley rocks.

I hope you will like it, and feel free to pass it on to others!

Cheers.

If you blog, then why?

Cheers.

Any Flight of the Conchords fans?
Here is the live version (you can also find the video version on YouTube, which is of an adult nature, but just as funny).
I really am trying to go somewhere with this…I think.

Worship at church can be intimate. Right? At least it should be. I was talking to someone a couple weeks ago because I was thinking about worship in our pragmatic church settings. Four songs, sometimes five right? Every week. And there is a liturgy among protestants, but they seem to be in denial! But it is this way all across America in thousands of churches, and we’ve all seen it, or are part of it.

I understand why that is done. However, I know after the fast song comes a couple slow ones, and it’s sometimes hard to get serious in such a short time, knowing that you are going to be stopping in a couple minutes.

It would be like “business time,” and then busting out a stop watch and saying, “Okay, honey you got two minutes!” Cause two minutes in heaven is better than one! LOL…watch the video. Forget the pressure for a sec, I’m not sure that says love?!

Remember the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s? No, I wasn’t there for the 70’s, but the Charismatic stuff was crazy! People running in the aisles, and you had people waving banners, tambourines, cows, and it would go on for a while. No cows, but pragmatic and seeker sensitive it was not.

Was that just a show? A man-made spectacle for self-enjoyment? I think it was def serious for those who avoided the sensationalism.

Is corporate worship really the place to be that intimate in worship? Should that be in private?

Is there some value to making worship pragmatic, and about the same length and format on a weekly basis?

I’m not sure there are easy answers, and my ideas tend to revolve around David dancing naked for God. Everything else is pretty lame when you think of it in those terms.

And since I won’t be dancing naked in a church anytime soon for worship, I lean towards peaceful worship. Quiet worship in solitude. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of quiet in corporate worship. Not even for 10 seconds. But is that the place for it? Again what do I know, I’m the guy talking about dancing naked in church.

Sometimes I think, man this worship thing on my schedule, when I want, how I want, for the time I want, and then I stop when I want…hmmm sounds like a booty call. Again another crazy reference flying off the keypad which will probably lose some folks in the analogy, but I mean, who knows?

I love worship. I can’t sing, but I love to worship God. I guess maybe I can say with pretty high certainty, that however a community does corporate worship, if it is teaching and equipping people to think of worship as a spiritual discipline in their everyday, then two thumbs up.

Cheers.

Last week as one of my all time favorite LOST episodes.  How about Ben’s door?
I will find a way to be on MSN messenger tomorrow night for LOST. Download it if you don’t already use it, and my screen name is nate_gann@yahoo.com
We can do a group conversation on it, so be logged in and ready by 9 pm central.

Did anybody watch American Idol last night? Those who did will know exactly what I am about to talk about. LOL

The singers did two Neil Diamond songs. After their first song, they brought all five on stage so the judges could give each of them feedback. Paula critiqued Jason’s first song (which was pretty good BTW), and then critiqued his second, BEFORE HE EVEN SANG IT! She was reading right off a sheet of paper! The video is below. (You have to be retarded to believe the Idol PR that it was for David, or it was notes from rehearsals)

Behind the scenes reports are saying this judging was impromptu and unplanned. It’s why it caught the judges off guard, and 3 singers had to come out, and the 4th, Jason who was rehearsing for his next song had to be interrupted to come out. Then after that mockery of a judging, Jason had to sit on his stool during the commercial break by himself, while the other four contestants could go off stage, and yes all 3 judges were scurrying to go talk to producers during the break. What a joke. No wonder Jason had a frog in his throat.

- I have been saying for weeks to my friends that the show is fishy, and executive producer Nigel is manipulating results via judges comments.

- The performances this week were even worse than last week, and the whole night was bad or maybe mediocre at best.

- Jason was up first, which statistically over the years is the worst place to be.

- On the Idol forums, there are thousands of people who post. Castro’s fans are known to be the nicest, and most laid back (much like Jason). But after last night, there have been tons of bannings of Jason’s fans, and posts being deleted. I can’t imagine why. Ha!

- I think Brooke will be gone tonight. Who knows. The deal is rigged and I probably will not watch after this season. I’m not venting. American Idol has made Jason’s career, and he will be very successful regardless of the lack of integrity from the show. I know he will be the kind of guy who gives money and helps orphans, doing good works, so I couldn’t be more happy that he has made it this far.

Cheers.

I have seen this little 4 minute video out in the blogosphere quite a bit.

My question, as you watch, is how does this apply to the church? Does it have relevance to the way we should do things at all? Now or in the future, how do you transition? If schools teach from a 19th century paradigm in the 21st century, what about the church?

Give it a chance to warm up, and what are your thoughts?

Cheers.

SUBSCRIBE. 
60 to 70 of you subscribe (thank you!), and if you don’t then subscribe by hitting that red button to the right, and use those readers for convenience!

If you lurk and don’t think I subscribe to your blog, then leave me a comment, and I will put you in my Google Reader.  I’m trying to get organized, and I don’t want to miss anyone.

LOST.
Tonight at 9 central. Can’t wait!

AMERICAN IDOL.
Carly is gone. Brooke keeps making it, and is being pushed by “Vote for the Worst.” Carly did mess up the words, but you wouldn’t know it by the lines the judges are given to put some under the bus, and push others into the finals. Jason can make it another week or two?
They wonder why ratings are down? Beatles two weeks in a row. Dolly Parton. Andrew Lloyd Webber. Neil Diamond. Hmmm…no clue?!
Article link.

CANCER.
Strange story for the guys. I don’t know how many of you will worry less about prostate cancer now? Ha!
Article Link.

Cheers.

1. It’s tomorrow. April 22nd. Last year over a billion celebrated.

2. I waited to post for a while because there was a productive discussion from the last post. Check it out, but I have a question that 3 days worth of research has turned up nothing to this question:

Where are other cases from the state where there were no signs of physical or sexual abuse, it was said by the expert that the parents love their children, and the children were taken away for an “abusive” belief system? I can’t find any, and I gotta believe it has happened before, so can anyone help me find some?

3. I actually have been feeling awkward about posting lately. I literally have dozens of pages saved with loads of paragraphs in a Word document of possible topics. I guess I just see so many blogs out there that talk about theology all the time, and it starts to run together. Some of them are really good. Some of them are cool friends I have made who I look forward to reading their posts. But I figure I’m not much of a writer, and my posts get bland after a while. So I’m trying to do more fun posts, or write on topics that I want to hear some feedback on.

4. When I was a kid, my dad came home one day and talked about a dog chasing him. He is a mailman, and they do see lots of dogs! I said something about that event being the highlight of his day. I now realize how mean that probably was, but from a 11 year old who doesn’t understand, maybe only innocently mean. I say this because I have days at work that just draaaaaaaaag by, and a dog chasing me would probably be a welcome and refreshing surprise. I don’t want my son to see me as a failure, and I hope he looks up to me the way I look up to my father.

4A. Your prayers from a couple weeks ago were def answered. For the situation in question, things have not been this positive in over 8 years. And it’s very cool to see.

5. Liz and I played Wii for the first time a week ago at Jon and Amanda’s. It was crazy! And fun! I’m not really into video games at all, but my how we live in a postmodern world. I was just sitting there thinking of the philosophical implications. LOL. That’s probably sad of me!

6. I have been part of the same church for the better part of 19 years (save some “rebellious” college time…ha). I’ll save you the history of the church, but there were about 50-70 people there on Sundays when we started going when I was 12, and there have been over 2000 each Sunday for several years now. Most of you have never heard of the church or pastor.

I mention this because on Sunday the pastor, Brian Zahnd, preached about essentials and matters of conscience. Just really cool and brave to have someone in the midwest tackle this pink elephant (matters of personal conscience). Best teaching I have heard on the topic. If you have 40 minutes, I’d like to hear what you thought about the message from April 20th. Church Link

Some of you “progressives” and emerging types won’t be shocked to hear a teaching that covers pacifism, but around here it is not taught on at all. And certainly not with the fair balance he gives the subject.

Cheers.

I love my son. A lot. Not being with him would kill me.

And then there is this deal down in Texas. Something like 414 kids not with their parents.

A cult.

What do you guys think about this?

The mothers who have children under 4 stay with them, but the rest go off where?

Is polygamy enough to take children from their parents? What has actually been proven to allow them to do this, because I haven’t read anything proving something? An anonymous phone call? Are they running the young men off from the group or something?

Come to think of it, I don’t know any mothers who get custody of their children who are not fit to be mothers. Not in our fine judicial system.

And here are these mothers who raise their kids up, literally teach them to be good people, and their crime is getting married too young. Which is horribly offensive to me since the rest of the world doesn’t do that. Certainly the mother of Jesus was at least like, I don’t know, 23 when she was set up with Joseph.

We have laws, so that’s good because my religion agrees with most of our laws. None that would get me in trouble. For now.

Don’t parents get in trouble for spanking their kids these days? 14 hours of TV, internet, and X-box in one day is totally cool though.

And these women may be brainwashed, but from what I can tell, they seem like responsible mothers.

Strange. It must be an emotional ordeal that I couldn’t imagine.

Cheers.

I’m doing a synchroblog on what missional living looks like, and certainly the missional emphasis has a lot of synergy. Much has been discussed on this from speakers, bloggers, and authors, and I got caught in a missional tangent.
My question on the topic - Is anything inevitable?

Have you watched the show Kitchen Nightmares? This world famous chef named Gordon Ramsey is invited to restaurants by their owners to help save their business. It will be a restaurant with a lot of potential, but for various reasons is not getting enough business, going in debt, and just in need of serious expert assistance.

From my limited exposure to Gordon, I have noticed a profound connection between the patterns on his show and the church.

Chef Ramsey initially orders a meal, and usually hates it. He observes the staff, the chef(s), and how the business is run the first night with patrons. On the second day he starts to critique the owner who is sometimes the chef, and by the time he leaves they have re-invented the restaurant image, changed the menu, and drastically altered things for the best, but here are some reoccurring themes that I have noticed.

- The owner fully recognizes the severity of fundamental problems and serious financial debt, but they are obstinately prideful and arrogant about change.

- Even though they acknowledge in word the need to implement changes, they choose to do the exact same thing week after week.

- The business is going down the tubes, but they are unwilling to make drastic and major changes in practice, and only when faced with a spark like Ramsey do we see a paradigm shift.

- The owner will have the inflated ego causing their image, and need for control, to overshadow the success of the restaurant.

- Gordon’s changes initiate overwhelming customer satisfaction, and in spite of that, there were a couple chefs who tried to cook old crappy menu items.

- Gordon always focuses on ownership (leadership), because if they think and do wrongly, then the staff and restaurant will follow down the same wrong path.

- In interviews with staff, they often state that there are problems they have recognized for a long time, but their opinion is not respected or even allowed to be given to the owner. This goes back to the issue of prideful leadership, and we all have blind spots, but leadership without genuinely listening to those around them will cause serious consequences.

Obviously my analogy breaks down in a few places, not the least of which is that Gordon is a really mean guy who is nothing like the Holy Spirit. But it’s worth noting that he is much harder on the owners who are unwilling to listen to his expertise. It’s also clear that there are so many churches in transition and hearing from God, or other churches that are already thriving on a missional level, and we should acknowledge those beautiful communities here and abroad.

If we know anything from church history it is that God keeps moving, and sometimes people have difficulty changing and keeping up. Initially they may have a good thing going, but somewhere along the way the wheels come off, and rather than making painful but necessary changes, it is easier to hold onto something that isn’t about God anymore, when it’s about their ego, and the monument to themselves. There is something inevitable about this pattern. A pattern from human nature with any type of arrogant leadership, and repeated in church history.

Experts will make a prognosis about the percentage of 15-30 year olds who don’t like Christians for the wrong reasons, and what changes?

Studies will tell us that we have a crisis taking place when on average it takes 86 Christians in America one year to make a single disciple for Christ, and even when they start “going to church” we aren’t making disciples anyway (REVEAL).
(Willow is trying to make radical changes, BTW)

86?! Seriously?

Missional living from the church is radical at its core, nothing new, but whole-heartedly revolutionary not just in word, but by definition, in deed. Jesus had these kinds of sincere actions when hanging out with prostitutes, and loving the unlovable.

He exemplifies beautiful missional living, and it will be different for everyone.

He didn’t talk about it once a week, but was simply around those untouchables. He ate with them. Does your church vibe reflect that? If it does not, then it will be inevitable that God will move on without you, and sooner or later, your pews will be empty. That could very well be a reflection of leadership, but their arrogance in refusing to move with God does not totally get you off the hook.

Inevitability.

God is speaking. Who is listening? Some will, and some won’t. Nothing is inevitable. But if churches do not start doing more than talking about missional changes, and start radically amending the heartbeat of what kind of community they will be, then inevitability will be the natural result.

It will.

Christians will miss out. They will be “left behind.” Other won’t be. I hope I can change and follow Jesus. To live as he lived. Minimizing the missional heartbeat of the kingdom in post-Christendom will be fatal to any community of disciples. It starts with leadership.

Here are some other really good blogs on what missional living looks like for them:

Jonathan
Ben
Blake
Alan
Dave
Bryan
Jeromy
David
Tim

Cheers.

I realize there are a lot of shows that aren’t on this list, and you can add your comments. I fully expect Liz to mention one theme song she has memorized, and although it is not, really should be a source of embarrassment.

These aren’t just based on artistic merit, but a combination of songs and my personally favorite shows, although my favorite shows list would be different.

Honorable Mention:

The A-Team Audio
Star Trek Audio
The Monkees Audio
Muppets Audio Mahnamahna!
Taxi Audio

10. All in the Family Audio
Brilliant show, way ahead of it’s time, with Archie, Edith, Gloria, and “Meathead,” which ran from 71’ to ’79.

9. Simon & Simon Audio
Rick and A.J. had their show run for eight years on CBS from ’81 to ’89. Who wouldn’t love a show shot in San Diego?!

8. Magnum, P.I. Audio
Loved this show as a kid, which ran from ’80 to ’88, and years later I found out why my mom liked it so much. Ha! Here’s a hint.

7. Family Ties Audio
One of my all time favorite shows, running on NBC from ’82 to ’88, and launching the career of Michael J Fox. Teen Wolf and Back to the Future, can anybody say hey!

6. The Office Audio
It’s always hard, (”That’s what she said”) to rank newer items to any list like this, but a great song for your ringtone.

5. Sanford and Son Audio
You gotta love this song! Fred and Lamont Sanford ran their business from ’72 to ’77.

4. Sherlock Holmes (from Mystery) Audio
This one may not be well known, but easily one of my favorite shows. Running on PBS thanks to Granada from ‘84 to ’94, and Holmes perfectly played by Jeremy Brett.

3. MacGyver Audio
This was my favorite show growing up. Just hearing the music put me in a great mood. Running from ’85 to ’92.

2. WKRP in Cincinnati Audio
This was perhaps the most natural intro for a theme song. The comedy about a radio station ran from ’78 to ’82, and how could you forget Andy, Johnny, Les, Venus, Herb, Arthur, and Jennifer.

1. MASH Audio
Not even close, and easily my number one choice for theme songs. The show ran from ’72 to ’83, while the finale is still the most watched show with 105 million, and a 77% share! The title of the song is “Suicide is Painless” written by Robert Altman’s son Mike Altman at the age of 14. Robert got $70,000 for directing the movie, while Mike has received more than one million for the song.

Cheers.

Did anybody else notice they closed the deal last night singing “Shout to the Lord?” (Video here) Although I didn’t watch it last night, they did it again tonight. Shockingly, Michael Johns was sent packing.

The guy I’m rooting for, Jason Castro, tore it up with a cover of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of “Over the Rainbow.” Best performance of the night by far, and like when Jason covered Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah” which jumped into the iTunes top ten, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Over the Rainbow” is currently up to #7. This version of the song has been on various TV shows, and movies such as Meet Joe Black, Finding Forrester, and 50 First Dates.

There were some positive statements made about Jason by many AI observers this week:

E!Online:
We now have six finalists who’ve managed on at least one occasion to knock a performance so far out of the park that the press and fans alike deemed them a clear “front-runner.” Tonight, that guy for me was Jason Castro, whom my visiting mother declares is “so darn adorable, if you don’t like him you must be dead inside.” [Note: If you didn't like his "Somewhere over the Rainbow" rendition, you might want to schedule a CAT scan of your innards. Mom's advice.]

The Village Voice:
Jason Castro took on Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s breezy ukulele-driven version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” which made for a really simple and pretty performance. Castro’s had a sort of tremulous Bright Eyes quaver in his voice early on, and when he got around to squeaking out a few R&B runs later in the song, they felt earned.

LA Times:
Castro honored the late, beloved Hawaiian crooner Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (Iz for short) with a ukulele-powered version of “Over the Rainbow” that bathed that song’s pathos in sea-salt waves of hippie bliss.

Here is his kick ass performance:

Cheers.

KU 75 Memphis 68 (IN OVERTIME)

A friend and I watched the game down in Lawrence.

It…

was…

AWESOME!

There was 2:12 left in the game, and we were down by 9, but based on the looks of the faces of our fans it could have been 20.  Somehow, we clawed and faught, and Memphis missed some free throws, and then Mario hit the three with two seconds left to sent it to OT!!!  Everyone was jumping and hugging.  Some guy in his 40’s that I hadn’t seen all game was trying to hug me.  Ha! 

This video is beautiful everytime I watch it.

After the game was over, there must have been at least 40,000 people within 6 blocks on Mass Street.  Chaos and just a tiny bit of inebriated fans.  When we left after midnight, there were still hundreds of people walking down there.  This will give you an idea.

And you won’t read any KU stuff on here for a few months!

Cheers.

PS  In freshmen orientation they did teach us what “Rock Chalk Jayhawk” means. Class of 2000!