your moment of 80s zen

brian mclaren discusses the changing church

powerful, passionate preaching

Everyone that says women shouldn't preach needs to watch this:

maceo!

Maceo Parker - former sax player for James Brown. The funkiest sax player ever. Period.

star wars trumpet solo from hell

Everyone! A big round of applause for Stacey Hedger - Miss Tone Deaf!

"graduating" to the youth group

So a couple weeks ago, our pastor asked us to take over the youth group. You'll never know how amazing this is. I was very open about many of the questions I have about our bapti-costal theology. I think he trusts Angie to keep things from going too far off the tracks.

So - I'm in a place I never imagined. Those who know me understand. I'm the person who hates youth groups. They're nothing but legalized christian flirting. They encourage spiritual classism and social clicks. They mislead entire generations of people with easy-believism and teach them that the church exists to entertain them. They reduce the mystical message of Christ to some cheezy bumper sticker or kitchy tshirt. They give self-infatuated teens a forum for attention grabbing melodramatics.

So now I'm a youth group leader. What's more, I'm a fairly liberal, open-source believer leading youth at a conservative, fundamentalist church. Who woulda thunk it?!

So give me some input here. What are your experiences with youth groups - good and bad?

link off to some awesome 80s sanborn

OK. Many of you may wonder how come David Sanborn is my favorite sax player. Here's a little clip from back in the day. The first time I saw Dave live in 88, this was his band. This was his style.

Click here to link off to YouTube and watch (sorry - they won't allow embedding on this one)

Since this time, Dave has gone a little more mellow. But back in the day, he was FEROCIOUS! He even unbuttons his shirt at the end. Awesome (if a little embarassing).

Jesus and the Kingdom

What if being a Christian isn't all about going to heaven when we die - but about manifesting heaven here on earth?

the worship industry

go fisk!

From the "what do you have to do to set a record up in here!" file - the Lipscomb girls basketball team beat Fisk by a score of 123-22. That's right. They beat them by 101 points!

We won't even attempt to contemplate ways for any team on any level in any sport to lose by 101 points under any circumstances. Let's just say Fisk had an "off shooting night".

Surprisingly, the night sucked even more for Lipscomb! These ladies administered the beat-down of a lifetime! They hopped off the ice-boat, clubbed the entire pack of baby seals - AND the Greenpeace members protecting them! RECORD SETTING, RIGHT!?

WRONG! It seems they were a mere 1 point shy of setting the all-time record for widest margin of victory. 1 point.

Never - in the history of women's college basketball - has something so right... been so wrong.

I do take my hat off to the Lipscomb web team for the most diplomatic headline ever written:

Lady Bisons win handily against cross-town rival Fisk

Anyone think they can write a better headline for them? I'll start:
"Fisk Falcons humiliate themselves and their offspring for the foreseeable future."