Bullet points for a Thursday Morning

  • Playing basketball three times a week is good for your game and your weight, but sure does make you sore.
  • Hard to believe it’s almost February already. Next weekend: trip to Lincoln, NE to see Caedmon’s Call and Andy O.
  • Five-hour road trip to see said musicians: seems relatively short. Oh, and Mom is coming down to watch the girls so Becky and I get a couple days out to ourselves!
  • Doing double-duty this weekend - leading at both Imago and Noelridge.
  • I’ve registered a domain name to hang out a shingle for web design services. Don’t know how much business I’ll manage to drum up, but after doing so many freebie websites for friends over the past several years, it’s fun to think that I could actually get paid for it instead.
  • Tweet140 mocks me even as I’m writing this post.
  • Haven’t traveled for work yet this year but that’s gonna change soon - there’s the threat of a last-minute trip to Seattle in mid-February, and a scheduled trip to Augusta, GA in early March.
  • I think I might actually only finish two books in January, which is a real low for me. It’s not that I haven’t been reading - it’s that I’ve been reading a long, thick book that has to be read slowly.

This excuse for a real post brought to you by the two Advil I took with breakfast this morning.

In belated praise of Once

It took me a while to get around to it, but last night Becky and I finally sat down to watch Once. I had a hard time finding it at the video store - I think they only stock maybe two copies on DVD. But it was worth the search.

Never heard of Once? It’s a rather obscure Irish film made back in 2006 for something less than $10,000. It’s a story about a guy who writes songs, who meets a girl on the street one day. She, too, is a musician, and over the course of a week they write and record several songs and along the way wrestle with ideas of love, commitment, family, and responsibility. It’s a musical of a sort; you get to hear seven or eight full-length songs sung during the movie, but they’re not in The Sound of Music-style musical narration - rather, they’re acoustic folk/rock songs (think Damien Rice for a comparison) that the pair is writing. And while the film started off obscure, don’t expect it to stay that way. It’s garnered quite an obsessive following due not in the least to the fantastic soundtrack. Oh, and that award from the Sundance film festival and that Oscar nomination won’t hurt it, either.

So why does this film work so well?

First, the actors aren’t experienced actors - the male lead (Glen Hansard of the Irish band The Frames) has only been in one picture before this, and this is the female lead (Marketa Irglova)’s first film. But they are musicians, and in my experience films about musicians that actually star musicians seem to do better. The fact that Hansard and Irglova teamed up to write all the original music for the movie amazes me even more.

Second, the story is real. We can all repeat the cliched chick-flick plot basically in our sleep, right? There’s the guy, and the girl, and her friend, and his friend. There’s the initial meeting, the I-think-I-love-you scene, the crisis where everything looks lost, and then the glowing finale. When you watch Once, forget the cliches. The guy writes songs which he sings on the streetcorner. He moved back in with his dad after his mom died and works at the family business fixing vacuum cleaners. She’s a Czech immigrant who cleans houses, and, without revealing too much, has family entanglements as well. They meet. They interact. They wrestle with their feelings. It feels right.

And the music is so good. The headline song (Falling Slowly) is nominated for an Oscar and certainly should be the favorite. The rest of the soundtrack is nearly equal in quality. The songs will stand by themselves even if you haven’t seen the movie… but watch the movie. It got an R-rating because of the Irish predilection of casually using the F-bomb as an adjective and interjection. Even that, though, is pretty much limited to a couple of scenes. The film as a whole, though, is a beautiful, beautiful work of art. You can have your Hollywood blockbusters. I’ll take this little Irish gem any day.

The importance of training others

“…and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Tim 2:2)

Paul’s wise counsel to Timothy is applicable on many levels, and has a multitude of benefits. A few that I will mention today:

It about the message, not the messenger. Paul was a good example of this, not being jealous of others who gained renown preaching the gospel, but rather simply rejoicing that the gospel was proclaimed. Pride will tempt us to want to be “the guy” - the teacher and leader that people remember and look to. But what is of primary importance isn’t us, but is the gospel that gets preached. When we practice entrusting to faithful men, we are shedding a few of the (multitudinous) opportunities for pride.

The message must carry on after us. Paul himself knew that his days on the earth were short. To have his most effective ministry, he needed not only to preach to unbelievers, but also to teach the teachers who would reach the following generation. I have heard it said that your effectiveness as a parent isn’t shown as much in how your children turn out as in how your grandchildren turn out. For Paul’s spiritual grandchildren to be vibrant and mature Christians, he needed to make sure his spiritual children were well-trained.

You can’t do it all on your own. This is the big temptation for me, and was the initial thought that prompted this post. Just because you (or I) have the skills to do the task yourself doesn’t mean you should be the one to always do it. There is far more work to do than any one of us can handle. Finding and training others who can both assist and replace you is essential in maintaining health, sanity, and the healthy operation of any ministry.

Putting my talents to some profit

Pretty much ever since my brother Andrew and his fiancee Heather set a date for the wedding this summer Becky has been in full-on planning mode for the trip. It’ll be a bit of an adventure and all, taking the girls on their first airplane ride and going cross-country to Washington for a week. We’re going to make a week-long vacation out of it; we’ll have a few days with the family for the wedding, but we want to get out to see the ocean, too, and will try to take a day to see Seattle and hopefully Matt (my old college roommate) and his wife Abbie.

So when I say full-on planning mode, well, that doesn’t capture the half of it. Becky is a ridiculous crazy good planner. She first scoped out the airfares and after a few days settled on the best option of price, schedule, and dates. With that in place, she sketched out an itinerary for the 8 days of the trip - fly in, go to the ocean, then head up towards the wedding, then hit Seattle for a couple days on the way out. With that planned, she started researching places to stay near the ocean. If she could find true Oceanfront, she’d be thrilled. [There is a point to this story, just be patient.]

She found a place called the Oceanfront Lighthouse Resort that has some pretty nice “oceanfront” condos, at least as far as we could tell from the website. The website is pretty scary - obviously someone’s side project, just enough to make do. Then inspiration struck - why, I asked Becky, don’t I contact the resort and see if they’d like to trade a website overhaul for a couple nights’ stay? A few emails later I had agreed to create a prototype so that they could make a decision. Half-a-dozen hours of weekend webdesign later I had a prototype complete and emailed off. (And Geof: thanks for allowing shell access. Makes it a ton easier to edit stuff live.)

Last night I talked on the phone with the manager of the resort for a while. The end result: we now have reservations for a complimentary two-night stay in an oceanfront condo. And I have probably another 5 or 6 hours of work to complete and setup the new website. Sure, if I were a professional designer I’d get a better hourly rate, but for a couple afternoons of design work, well, I’ll do the trade.

If I design too many more websites I need to think about setting up a design homepage to see if I can attract a little more business. After doing so many (worthy) freebies, these paying gigs are kinda fun!

Rich Mullins' A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band

If there was ever a “perfect” album to come out of the (largely mediocre) world of CCM, Rich Mullins’ A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band was it. (Are the ‘A’s supposed to be capitalized? It looks funny either way.) This album is fifteen (fifteen!) years old this year, and yet still sounds as fresh and vital as when it was released. If you’re not familiar with the album, let me give you an overview. (If you are familiar with the album, you won’t mind the refresher at all.)

Split into two halves, the first half is the splendid Liturgy. Here In America is the Introit, or entrance. It is followed by the stunning text of (Isaiah) 52:10, the hymn of praise recognizing the beauty of creation called The Color Green, the supplicant’s prayer Hold Me Jesus, the bold restatement of the (Apostle’s) Creed, and Peace, helpfully subtitled A Communion Blessing from St. Joseph’s Square. Each song in itself is excellent, and as a set they reach the level of masterpiece. When, in Peace, Rich starts the first two verses with this juxtaposition

Though we’re strangers, still I love you
I love you more than your mask
And you know you have to trust this to be true
And I know that’s much to ask…
…

And though I love you, still we’re strangers
Prisoners in these lonely hearts
And though our blindness separates us
Still a light shines in the dark…

We understand immediately the tension of the Christian fellowship - bound by the love of Christ, and yet so frustratingly driven apart by our sinful humanity. It’s beautiful stuff from beginning to end.

The second half is the Legacy: a reflection on life. It starts with the upbeat instrumental 78 Eatonwood Green, then moves into the challenge of being like Jesus (Hard), the challenge of living life away from family (I’ll Carry On), a child’s wonder at Christmas (You Gotta Get Up), the challenge and frustration of the world we live in (Mark Heard’s How To Grow Up Big and Strong), and finally the most beautiful picture you’ll ever hear painted of the tension of living in a country you love while simultaneously looking forward to the heavenly home (Land of my Sojurn).

Nobody tells you when you get born here
How much you’re going to love it and how you’ll never belong here
So I’ll call you my country, but I’ll be longing for my home
And I wish that I could take you there with me…

And the Ragamuffin Band? Well, they sound fantastic. From Rich’s clear piano and the cymbals mirroring the ocean’s crashing in Here In America, to the mellow electric guitar and fantastic drum fills in Peace, to the dulcimer driving Land of my Sojurn, the album has an organic acoustic sound that rightfully has become the inspiration for a younger generation of musicians. My first inclination is to say that it is lightning in a bottle, that it’ll never be captured that way again. But then I listen to the guitars of Andrew Peterson and Andy Osenga, the piano of Ben Shive, and the percussion of Todd Bragg and Garrett Buell, and I will instead be thankful that the musical and songwriting heritage of Rich Mullins has indeed carried on.

If for some reason you don’t already own this album, you can buy it at Amazon.

A study in personalities, or, Mom was right

My mom has mentioned more than once how she enjoys seeing our girls’ personalities as they get bigger and start to really develop. She sees Laura as having more of my personality: quiet, methodical, the classic introverted engineer. (Poor kid!) Addie, on the other hand, is the more ornery outgoing one, much like my brother Ryan. I knew I more or less agreed with Mom, but saw it very clearly last night.

We showed up at church around 5 pm to get ready for Wednesday night dinner (which we were serving). The daycare kids who occupy our basement after school were just getting ready to leave. Of course Laura and Addie wanted to play with them, and for a few minutes both of them did. But it was only a couple minutes later that Laura started feeling overwhelmed by the group of noisy kids, and she retreated into the kitchen with us. She was much happier just hanging out there where it was quiet.

But Addie? She was wearing a necklace of gold plastic beads that she got from a parade this summer; it has a big gold plastic disc pendant that advertises a local bank. Since the kids didn’t know her name, they saw the bling and started calling her “hip-hop baby”. She spent the next 10+ minutes chasing them around, teasing them, ducking into the kitchen where they weren’t allowed, only to then poke her head out, get them to scream, chase after them a bit… All the more hilarious because she’s not yet 2 and they were all between 8 and 10.

Parenting is so much fun.

Wait, it's Monday?

Weekends are going to look a little bit different now that we’re having church on Saturday night. Something to get used to. This weekend was actually pretty great; a phone call from my sister saying “hey, we’re bored, can we come visit this afternoon?” changed our direction pretty quickly. So the folks and Rebecca came down in time for church on Saturday night and then hung around on Sunday until late afternoon. It was great to see them and hang out.

Saturday night went well down at Imago Christi - certainly better than the first week. Sermon was tighter, music was more together, adding Dave Paris on the guitar with the worship team was a big plus. Picking a song for the meditation after the sermon continues to be a challenge - it’s just hard to know what the right song will be until I hear the message. Saturday night I wanted to use the song “Jesus, Name above all Names”, but the 70’s style of the original song was turning me off to it. So for the last five minutes of the sermon I worked out a new tune in my head, and then sang it. It actually sounded pretty good. I should go write it down while I still remember it. :-)

Watched a bunch of football yesterday and was surprised and disappointed to see the Colts lose to the Chargers; not so surprised or disappointed to see the Cowboys lose. I’m gonna have to cheer for the Packers from here on out. There has to be somebody who can beat the Patriots.

Well, that’s your weekend update from Iowa. It’s now Monday morning and there’s work to be done.

Bullet points for a Wednesday

  • Just realized I never gave you all any feedback on the first service at Imago Christi. It went pretty well - had 60 in attendance. Music was OK, though I starting singing the wrong verse of one hymn at one point, which threw everybody off. :-(
  • Just started my new book list for 2008. You can find the link on the sidebar. Only one book on it so far.
  • I have resolved to not get any more books from the library until I read through the pile that’s next to my bed. It has grown to where it won’t fit under the lip of the bedside table any more - must be 15 books there. They’re good things that I want to read, I just keep preempting them with newer stuff from the library. Gotta whittle that pile down.
  • Just heard that Andrew Peterson will be doing a concert in Cedar Rapids the day after my birthday. Happy Birthday to me! Hey Andrew and Heather, when will you be back in the area for spring break? Want to come down to CR?
  • Speaking of Andrew and Heather, we’ve been plotting (well, Becky’s been plotting) our trip to WA this summer for the wedding. It’s looking like fun.
  • Next note on the wedding: I’m gonna have to buy a suit. I haven’t owned a suit in years. The blazer I wore during college hasn’t fit me through the shoulders since probably 2000.
  • It’s harder than it should be to remember that the Saturday night service at Imago wasn’t a one-time event. I’ve got to plan music for this Saturday… should do that today.

Creating the routine

The biggest adjustment this week in preparing for the Saturday night service is starting to think of it as a weekly routine. We’ve done other one-time events down there in the past, and it would be quite easy to think of last Saturday’s service as just another one-time event. Except that it’s not - I need to get music planned, get the worship team lined up and ready to go, get the lyrics prepared for the bulletin, all the usual tasks… again this week.

One thing I think would help in this regard is setting a regular schedule throughout the week for my planning and preparation. Something like this:

Saturday night: worship service.

Sunday: prepare sermon recording for website, listen to it again and evaluate.

Monday: make sure the website is updated for the week.

Tuesday: choose music for the following week and email to worship team.

Thursday: prepare bulletin.

Saturday: practice with the WT and do the service.

Repeat.

I think it might work. However it happens, I sure need a routine.

D-Day Timeline

Saturday was the big day - first service at Imago Christi! A timeline of the day:

7:30 am: Wake up after sleeping in. Feels good. Making mental lists of what I need to remember for the service.

9:45 am: Everyone is fed and dressed. Making a couple final tweaks to the bulletin.

9:55 am: Headed to Noelridge to print the bulletin and pick up the drums.

10:30 am: Setting out 2008 giving envelopes for Noelridge while the bulletins print.

10:50 am: Loading congas, microphones, mic stands, and a small podium into the van.

12:10 pm: Girls are taking a nap, Becky and I are watching Heroes. Almost done with Season One.

12:30 pm: Nate calls and wants to know when we can meet so he can drop off the sound equipment. Any time before 3:30 will work for him.

1:15 pm: Meet Nate at Imago. Set up speakers, amp, adjust the EQ.

1:45 pm: Heading back home.

3:15 pm: Leaving to pick up Andre and head to Imago for worship team practice.

3:30 pm: Made it to Imago, setting up microphones and the keyboard. How will we arrange all this stuff on the stage?

4:00 pm: Finally ready to practice the music. Getting a nasty hum from the passive pickup in Morgan’s guitar.

5:00 pm: We’re as practiced as we’re going to be. Plugging in the iPod. Andrew Peterson will provide background music until the service starts.

5:15 pm: Changing into my ilikeandy.com t-shirt and a jacket.

5:30 pm: Service starting. Must be about 50 people here.

5:35 pm: We’re up. Music starts. People are clapping on the first song. Woohoo!

5:39 pm: This second song is a mess. Timing is off, and I messed up the lyrics to the second verse. Not my A game. Grrrr.

5:50 pm: Music set is done. Still pondering what song to use as the musical meditation at the end of the service.

6:40 pm: Richard has finally wrapped up the sermon. Taking mental notes to give him a review later. I’ve decided on a song.

6:50 pm: First service is over, and we survived. Thank God. Heading down for a fellowship time.

7:15 pm: Tearing down sound equipment. Fortunately we have a closet where we can store it there at the church.

7:45 pm: Everything is torn down and put away. Now to lug those congas back out to the car so we can use ’em at Noelridge in the morning.

8:10 pm: Home. Exhausted. Putting the girls to bed.

8:30 pm: Watching the last three episodes of Season One of Heroes. Pretty good ending.