Inter-religious conversations

Matt Stone is a unique kind of missionary. He specifically does outreach to those usually left untouched by Christians -- pagans, wiccans, satanists, etc. He is truly missional in every sense of the word. I have never met him, but his life and blog reflections are a blessing to me. His most recent post is wonderful, as he gives some good advice on how to have conversations with people who are not Christian.

Read it here.

Praise & Harmony -- Glorious God

Keith Lancaster is well-known in COC circles and in the world of a capella recording. His groups have won numerous awards for their tight harmonies and clean sounds. He has done a lot to influence the musical ministries of the Churches of Christ for decades. In fact, like many "born and raised" COCers my age, I have wonderful memories of going to Acapella and AVB concerts. Truly, Acapella played a large part in my early spiritual formation. Their popularity seems to have waned a bit in recent years. In my view, this probably has something to do with the increasing ambivalence towards a capella worship in our fellowship. While our former dogmatism on this issue is regrettable, I would personally also hate to see us lose that as a part of our tradition.

For all of the innovative a capella arrangements that Lancaster's various groups sang through the years, few of them were conducive to congregational use. By design, they were for professional singing groups to perform before an audience. For all of these reasons, I was greatly pleased when I heard in 2005 of plans by Lancaster's The Acapella Company to begin the Praise & Harmony project designed to benefit congregational singing. Upon its release, I purchased the Awesome God album and accompanying songbook. I have now purchased their second album in this series, Glorious God and will likely purchase the songbook for it as well.

I had the same reaction to both albums. Its a little bit hard to get used to the sound of congregational singing through the radio. We're simply not used to that many voices at once. For that reason, it "feels" different when you begin to listen to the album. However, once you get used to the different feel, its actually quite enjoyable. There are 25 tracks on the album, which is a plus. They are mostly contemporary "praise" songs and hymns, many of them rearranged by Lancaster. For someone who loves to sing and harmonize the way I do, it really becomes fun to listen. On several occasions, I know the people in the car next to me have enjoyed the stop-light entertainment of me singing at the top of my lungs inside my car.

Another great feature of these albums is the accompanying CD that teaches the harmonies. While I have personally not used this feature very much, I can see a great benefit to praise teams and groups of untrained singers to learn these arrangements. The training CD has all of the same songs as the regular album. But if you put the speaker balance all the way to the left speakers, you only hear bass and alto; to the right you hear only soprano and tenor (It might be the other way around, I'm not sure). What an innovative tool to put in the hands of worship leaders and song leaders in our churches!

I only have two complaints about the albums. The first is that there are a couple of songs on each that would not work for congregational singing because a good portion of the melody is a Lancaster solo with the "congregation" oooo-ing in the background. I can't picture a congregation actually doing that. I suppose these songs are done with a praise team in mind, and for that purpose they would be much more fitting.

My other complaint is with the seemingly random cranking up of Lancaster's mic in the recordings. He will be singing an alternative, seemingly improvised harmony, but for only a few notes before he can no longer be heard. It makes for an awkward listen at best. At worst, it sounds like an attempt to keep a bit of the spotlight as an ego trip on what is otherwise a wonderful congregational (i.e. equally shared) worship experience.

Overall, I would give the album a B+. While the sound of recorded congregational singing will certainly not have a popular appeal as an entertainment medium, it certainly creates a much more worshipful environment on my morning commute that would, say, CCM or even one of the Acapella albums. I am excited about the potential to introduce some of these songs into the worship repertoire during my worship gatherings, too.

Latest Addiction: Man vs. Wild

So Alissa and I have suddenly become strangely addicted to the Discovery channel's show Man vs. Wild. If you've never watched it, it stars a guy named Bear (ironic) Grylls who is a UK Special Forces trained uber-outdoorsman. The premise of the show is that they abandon him in remote uninhabited (and uninhabitable) areas with nothing but a canteen, knife (sometimes) and flint (sometimes). He has five days to find his way to civilization. He's been in the Rockies, Andes, Alps, several rain forests, the Mojave desert, etc. The dude is amazing! He literally does everything possible in the name of survival. Really ... everything. Think of the most horrendous thing you can imagine doing in the interest of your own survival. He's probably done worse on this show.

Need proof? Prepare yourself and then watch this ...

Did you think that was bad? Try this:

I now have a new way of imagining hell.

Another interesting tidbit from his bio: he seems to have a Christian faith as a driving force in his life, too, although I'm not sure I should advertise that after posting the above clips.

Great Websites You May Not Have Heard Of

There are a few websites that I never hear any buzz about but that are truly enjoyable because they offer something unique. Today, I list some of my favorite non-blog websites that you may not have heard of before. I'll be posting some of my favorite blogs in the future (although you can look at my blogroll to see many of them.) Keep in mind, as much as I like YouTube, Drudge Report, etc. I am not including them because everyone knows about them.

1. Digg.com -- Digg is a website that brings together a bunch of links to news and videos. Sure, there are a million of those sites available, but what makes Digg so interesting is that the links are listed as they are ranked by users. In other words, the stories/videos that show up first are the ones that other people like you have found interesting. There are always some stories that never show up on the more generic sites.


2. Pandora.com -- Pandora is a web radio website that lets you determine your own content. Say you're a big fan of Sarah McLachlan. You type her name in, and Pandora plays songs by Sarah and other with a similar musical sound. They do this by using what they call the "Music Genome Project," wherein millions of songs are given labels. The artists with similar labels to Sarah McLachlan get put in the playlist. If a song gets played that you don't like, you just click a button to remove it from the list.


3. Texags.com -- OK, this one might not interest everyone, but its MY blog. Texags is the definitive site for all things A&M, especially athletics. It is a daily stop for me, if for nothing else than to brouse the headlines on the homepage. During football season, the trash talking can get fun in the forums, and the moderators do a good job of keeping it clean.


4. TV Links -- Watch all kinds of recent movies and TV shows online. I suspect there's probably some kind of copywright violation in the things they offer, including some movies still in theaters. But you're not downloading them, they stream to you.


5. Stage 6 -- This is an interesting alternative toYouTube. The big difference is that the videos are MUCH higher quality.

Feel Good Music

Ever had one of those days where you just feel like crap for no reason? If you're like me, those days call for a special blend of music that reminds me that life is actually good. Here are a few songs from some of my favorite artists that will help lift you up on bad days. They'll also make a good day even better!

• Brett Dennen -- "Blessed" (Click here to listen). Listen to this song twice. I defy you to not sing along the second time.
  
  

• U2 -- "Beautiful Day." One of the greatest songs from the greatest rock band ever.
  
  

• Patty Griffin -- "Heavenly Day" No one sings like this woman. No one writes songs like this woman. No one.
  
  

Now don't you feel better? I know I do.