crowder's new album

have you guys seen this? i'm not a huge DCB fan, but i think a live 4-room cam of you and your band recording your new album is pretty slammin. keeps me company on lonely mornings.

what's your worship leader doing?

as a worship leader, i find this completely offensive... and stinkin' hilarious. click 'em.

as for other stuff, this weekend was sweet. jodi's parents are in town from PA - always good food and great company. friday, we had an acoustic gig at a catholic coffee shop (yes, coffee shops can have faith too). we did the drum circle thing with both carl and josh on percussion - two djembes, a snare drum, three shakers, two tambourines and a conga - then me on acoustic/vocals.

carl did a short acoustic set of his own songs that was so smooth. he ended one of his songs with a loop of his own rhythm, then played lead over it.

today, i got to lead worship at crosspointe. then we were off to the phoenix botanical gardens to look at a bunch of cacti (no match for the flower gardens at NC state or Duke!). t-shirt update is coming soon....

"theater mix-up"

i laughed out loud when i read this article. are our church services really like this? NOTE: don't click on the link if you can't handle laughing at the church a little.

ben harper quote

“I want to strive to imperfection,” he continues. “the recording process has sterilized music. the more time you have to make things perfect, the more you tend to. when you don’t have time to, they’re just left perfectly undone.” -ben harper

word up ben.

marlow's favorite word

just for kicks, go to chris's blog. then click "find (on this page)" from the edit menu. do a search for the word "amazing" and see how many times it pops up.

much love bro.

christians and the environment

this is an interesting article on Christians' responsibility to the environment. crazy how Christians are finally coming around to this notion (myself included), despite the urging of so many around us over the years.

catsup

sheesh. i was on blogging-roll there. then it stopped. here are some interesting happenings & quotes from the past week:

i woke jodi from what seemed like a seizure this morning - she was shaking all over, smirking, and grunting, eyes rolling; turns out she was dreaming about a Saturday Night Live skit and laughing while running in her dream.

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my voicemail to Carl (bass player in my band): "hey man, just wanted to make sure you got the setlist for friday's gig and could make it early to set up and practice."

Carl's voicemail back to me: "hey bro, i'm not sure if you know what's going on this weekend... i'll be in San Diego on friday... proposing to my girlfriend."

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"i feel so bad - they're like the best band we've ever had here." an employee commenting about us last week when we went to Tucson for a gig in a christian bookstore. the last time we played there, about 80 kids showed up. this time we played to a empty store. turned out to be a very expensive, long distance, band practice.

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this week Kurt wore a charlie brown shirt to our gig. incredibly rock n' roll or kinda dorky - you decide (love ya man).

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tim (reign kings drummer) induced a gagging/coughing spell in his dog by locking her in the bathroom while he 'rocked the deuce.'

good friday

Jason Yee and I got to plan the afternoon Good Friday service on ASU campus. it was for a yearly event called rez week. they let us set up in the middle of campus. I guess in the past, the Good Friday thing has usually been a straight up worship service with testimonies or a sermon.

this year, Jason and I wanted to change it up a little - not just for the sake of changing - but for the sake of outreach and a little bit different focus than just gathering a bunch of christians to talk christianese to each other.

so we had Brandon Reid Allen out and DJ Ruthless (bro was scratching on a tape deck - sick!). but instead of preaching about christian living or holiness, we had different campus and community organizations talk briefly about social justice, the needy, the poor, the homeless. folks from asian bible fellowship, helping hands for the homeless and neighborhood ministries came and had some interactive activities to help us learn more about the less fortunate in our area and how we can help them.

more emphasis was made for us to see the church's mission as more than simply convincing people that Jesus is Lord - to see that he died and rose from the dead in order for us, in turn, to serve those around us. to 'give unto the least of these' while we're here. i think some folks got it.

so there wasn't a huge turn-out. and it wasn't a complete disaster. we did do a bit of praise and worship at the end. but as Jason and I agreed, we'd rather have done something we believed in and fallen flat on our faces, than to do what was always done for the sake of tradition.

faith statement

so, at the suggestion of my sista, it's probably a good idea for me to post this. here is my official statement of faith thingy:

• i believe in Jesus. i know He's part of the Trinity and all the other important stuff we also believe, but to be honest, i'm partial to Jesus. don't get me wrong. God is like a Father—no, God IS the father—and the buck stops with Him (if you're going to have the buck stop somewhere it might as well stop with Someone who is… well… all about love with a capital L. of course, He's also about justice with a capital J, but we'll take our chances that, in the end, justice will feel like love). and then there is the Holy Spirit—mysterious, windy, seems to like fire a lot, whispering, and always pointing us to… you guessed it… Jesus. i not only like Jesus a lot, i believe He likes us a lot. enough to die for us. i know that when life gets tough (and it always does) He'll be there for us.
• i believe in the Church. i know—it's flawed, inconsistent, institutional, bureaucratic, even embarrassing sometimes. yet it is also incredibly heroic at other times. whether we like it or not, want to attend it or not, we're stuck with it. there are a lot of parachurch organizations out there that are a lot more glamorous at first glance, but the Church is the Body of Christ, and that's pretty glamorous too. the Church is not optional, it's not up for discussion, it's been around ever since Jesus, and it's still here. that's good enough for me.
• i believe in the scandalous grace of God. grace is outrageously unfair, ridiculously extravagant and unashamedly the center of the gospel, and it sure beats judgmentalism, legalism, and all the other isms. grace always gives second chances, third chances and never stops giving chances. grace has Jesus written all over it. grace makes people nervous because they are always so worried someone is going to take advantage of it. but that's what we like about grace. you can take advantage of it. but here's the really interesting part—grace doesn't just let everyone in. anyone, yes, but not everyone. And the Grace of God frequently includes the unexpected. so… who's in and who's not? only God knows, and that's fine with me.
• i believe in the Bible. i'm awed by it, inspired by it, and believe it is Truth. i'm also terrified of it. i don't understand all of it, but i believe it. all of it. that's the important part, because if you only believe some of it, if you try to edit out the parts you don't like, then you don't believe it. of course, believing it all doesn't mean i perfectly live it all. it doesn't even mean i have it all figured out. mostly i'm scared of it, scared in a good way, because whenever i read it and try to live by it, God shows up and that's pretty terrifying… and also pretty amazing... and pretty assuring.

that’s kind of it. the “biggies.” i know there are other important things out there… actually, a lot of other stuff: theology, doctrine, homosexuality, abortion, war, the second coming, prophecy, music, discipleship, appearance, serving, worship, social justice, the environment, dancing, drinking, traditions, smoking, language, baptism, moral issues and… well, like i said, lots of stuff.

all that is important, and certainly people should try to figure out what to believe about all those things, but that’s exactly the point. i believe that if the “biggies” are sorted out, then everything else will eventually fall into place too. it might not fall into the same place as the brother or sister next to you, but that’s what makes the kingdom of God so interesting. right?

(generously paraphrased from the youth specialties site)

denver & fire bible

just got back from visiting our friends Erik & Julie, and their cute baby Weston in Denver. had a blast trekking up to Boulder and Breckenridge, overloading on yummy food and NCAA basketball.

jodi says i'm a show-off because i weaseled my way into playing bass with Erik's worship band on sunday.

meanwhile, for those times when you really want to bring the word of God to life, you should try one of these.