headsparks*

Apparently, Noel Gallagher of the once somewhat famous band Oasis was upset that the part owner of the soon to be Brooklyn Nets was chosen to headline the annual Glastonbury Festival this summer.

In what turned out to be a quick object lesson for Noel in not getting into a war of words with someone who basically built his name brand in such battles, Jay-Z opened his Glastonbury set with a scathing “cover” of Wonderwall, the song for which Oasis is best known.  Stereogum tells more of this sordid tale here (with comments!).

I’m not a big Hova fan, but he is a big-time performer. Plus, the AC/DC workover of 99 Problems is pretty fun.

At the risk of simply turning headsparks* into a Jason Evans quote machine, I am feeling the resonance of these words more & more these days:

Ironic to some possibly, punk rock kept my spirituality alive over the years

I’m feeling church a lot more like an indie band driving a beater van for a short tour of neighboring states rather than some A&R guy looking to sign the next big thing for some pyrotechnic arena blowout (if that makes any sense at all).

I think I’m just glad that Jason went with me to see Jaguar Love recently. Despite my wife’s merciless teasing over my giddiness at seeing shows with Jason, it’s so much more fun to catch a show with a friend. While we could have done without some of the borderline Black Crowesish organ breakdowns, it did my heart good to relax, watch the show and then hang out for a bit with J.

So said one of our elementary students after the senior pastor’s wife spoke to him about his aggressive behavior here at church.

Now, I’m not one of those law & order, Footloose types who believes that rule-keeping is the way to inherit eternal life. I’m wondering, though, about how this student came to this conclusion. Did his parents sit him down and say to him, “Son, you must do well in school and you must obey the rules there. Don’t even think about crossing the line at home. Same goes for when we’re out in public. But, happy day when Sunday arrives, because you can totally lose it when you get to church. Seriously, go nuts when you get to the church building.”

I wish that statement were uttered in a positive way. I can do whatever I want here — I can exercise passion, creativity and joy when I’m here! I can worship God with gladness and sincerity, I can dream of ways to partner with friends here in participating in God’s work in the world, I can have fun with others in ways that are not aggressive, mean and/or inappropriate.

One day…

Our family just went to our first Padres game tonight with friends from our church community, and I must say I am genuinely impressed with Petco Park. A few highlights:

Tickets for the grassy picnic knoll area are only $5 apiece, which is great for families with kids and for bringing a big group of people.

Continue reading Petco Park = Family Friendly Fun!…

Director Jamie Moffett is making a film called The Ordinary Radicals which documents the Jesus for President tour, featuring authors Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw [h/t: Dan Ra]. Here is a brief description from their site:

In the margins of the United States, there lives a revolutionary Christianity. One with a quiet disposition that seeks to do “small things with great love,” and in so doing is breaking 21st Century stereotypes surrounding this 2000 year old faith… Traveling across the United States on a tour to promote the book “Jesus for President”, Shane Claiborne and a rag-tag group of “ordinary radicals” interpret Biblical history and its correlation with the current state of American politics. Sharing a relevant outlook for people with all faith perspectives, director Jamie Moffett examines this growing movement.

It looks like a thought-provoking, engaging experience. Follow their journey here and participate in their blog community. Check out the trailer for The Ordinary Radicals:

Also, Dan Ra (jadanzzy from Merging Lanes) has gone full-on multimedia over at Sojourners — he has created a jarring video called They Will Have Their Reward. Dan also composed, sang and performed the music for the video. Watch They Will Have Their Reward below:

So it only took half the year, but I finally got around to making another mixtape… Not 100% what robots have to do with summertime but, somehow, it seemed appropriate.  You can find my archive of mixtapes below, or you can visit my muxtape to hear some of these tracks (and, if you’re lucky, I’ll update that playlist in about another six months or so!)…

Past Mixtape=Love playlists:

Continue reading Mixtape=Love Archive…

Congrats to Bruce Reyes-Chow, who was just elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA)!  As with any institution, being on the leading edge of change can be difficult — and it’s good to see the PC(USA) take a proactive step in engaging culture 2.0 rather than waiting and then eventually reacting (and usually defensively by that point).

And, for a denomination that can sometimes feel like the same old boys’ network (despite rhetoric claiming otherwise), it feels nice to have a young, urban, Asian American pastor become its new face.

Check out Bruce’s personal blog for some great, witty insights into life, family, ministry, web 2.0 and the occasional baseball post.

Oh, CCM — what can we do with you?

When I received a recent catalogue from a local Christian bookstore, I was so frustrated when I saw this album cover from CCM vets Third Day for their new album, Revelations (seriously, you can ask my wife):

While I’ve had plenty of issues with their music in the past (it physically hurt me to hear them medley With or Without You with Your Love, Oh Lord — which, incidentally, I like as a worship song) I don’t doubt their sincerity. However, the cover of Revelations treads a bit too close to Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief album cover:

Sigh.

It’s one thing to accuse CCM of being derivative musically, but even the album art?

Apparently, I’m not the only one who noticed. Chief CCM grousers Patrol Mag vent their spleen on this very topic here and a few other bloggers notice this unfortunate phenomenon as well.

* * * * *

To be fair, though, it seems like maybe Dinosaur Jr. stole their cover concept for their reunion album from an old school CCM band. See for yourself below:

Working with preschool and kindergarten-aged kids this week at VBS has been awesome! The three year olds that we just welcomed into the group are hilarious.

For example, I was telling the story of Jesus putting mud onto someone’s eyes to help him see, and I asked the kids what dirt is good for. The older kids (four and five year olds) knew that you can plant seeds in dirt or put it into the garden. The threes, however, were all confused.

So I asked them if I should use mud to brush my teeth. They all smiled and nodded enthusiastically. After giving them a quick personal hygiene lesson, I asked if I should use mud to wash my hair. Again, smiles and nods all around!

Seriously, it is such a joy to participate in telling Bible stories with them. When we told the story of Peter walking on the water, we had them make “waves” with a large blue cloth — so much fun! Maybe a more immersive, participatory approach will keep our adults awake during our Sunday gatherings

My wife and I are always very conscious of the fact that our daughter is a PK (pastor’s kid) twice over (we’re both pastors). Danger seems to be lurking on every side — some pastors are so immersed in their work that their families suffer, and their kids stray from the faith; other PKs have this strange sense that their pastor-parent is the “boss” of something, and act accordingly.

On top of all this, factor into the equation that my wife and I are both committed to children’s and youth ministry, and our daughter is well on her way to writing a best-selling, tell-all memoir one day…

This week, we are having VBS at church. It’s great — but also crazy, tiring, and hectic. I feel like I’m running on a constant deficit these days — sleep, attention, you name it. My body is kind of around, but my mind is always half an hour late.

It sounds corny and obvious, but we really want our kids to know and love Jesus more because of this crazy, crazy week we’re spending together at church. The last thing we want to do is create more consumers who crave churchy experiences. Rather, we want to create an environment where kids can encounter God’s love for themselves in the presence of caring, prayerful adults — with tons of singing and laughing together, of course.

My prayer is that more of our church families will take Jason Evans’ words to heart:

We, as parents, need to take back our right to be our children’s spiritual directors. We owe it to our children.

What an amazing thing it would be to see parents joyfully take responsibility for the spiritual growth and formation of their children — that this VBS week would be partnership in ministry to their kids, not the whole endeavor in and of itself.