Every now and then I wonder who is actually reading this little blog (if anyone). So I thought I’d take a second and ask you a little bit about yourself.
So, if you’re reading this, why not leave a little comment that tells me (and everyone else) who you are, where you’re from, and how you found yourself at one of the most popular websites on this here… oh… what’s that… I was just informed that it is actually just one of the websites on the internet… not most popular.
My bad.
Filed under: Music
Every week I look forward to Tuesday’s because that’s the day that new music is released. I actually check in at Metacritic.com to see what’s coming up so that I’m ready and waiting.
Today Arcade Fire and Lovedrug both released their sophomore efforts and I must say I am pleased by what I’ve heard of both so far (each got a single listen today between meetings). If you’re looking for a good sample may I recommend a single track from each album (click on each song to listen to it).
My favorite from Arcade Fire is Intervention.
The track to go for from Lovedrug is Happy Apple Poison
Take a listen. I double dog dare you.
Now… you may ask, “andy, how do you afford all this great music?” Well, let me tell you. I have been a subscriber to the emusic.com service for about a year now. The way it works is you pay a monthly price and you get to download a certain number of songs per month. I pay 19.99 a month and I get to download 90 songs a month. Soooo… for the cost of 2 cd’s I get roughly 9 cds. Don’t go getting too excited though. We’re not talking about the “BIG” artists, you’ll still have to pay full price for your the Pussy Cat Dolls, but all the best indie music is available at emusic.
The leadership team at CVC is in the process of reading a new book by Thom Ranier called Simple Church. The basic premise of the book is that churches need to simplify their approach to ministry in order to be more effective. There’s a lot more to it, but of course you’ll have to read the book or wait until I get all the way through it (I’m less than 4 chapters in right now) and lay out my review.
I was invited to this weeks team meeting to talk “Strategery” as we decide how we can implement some of the key concepts. The focus of the conversation was what a “passionate follower of Jesus Christ” looks like and how people become a passionate follower. Spinning off of some of the ideas in chapter 2 the leadership team is thinking of moving towards this statement to answer both questions…
“Love God, Love Others, Love the World”
As they say in the book this idea is both a “goal and a process”. A passionate follower of Jesus is someone who Loves God, Loves Others and Loves the World, and the way you become a passionate follower of Jesus is by actively Loving God, Loving Others.
This may seem incredibly simple, but the simplicity of these statements is the launching pad. If we’re talking about what’s happening within the walls of the church we can point them to the “program” that works at developing that in a person. If we’re talking about the person outside the walls of the church it gives us a chance to ask the question “what’s it look like for YOU to Love GOD in your daily life?” It’s something that can translate easily to how a REAL person lives their REAL life.
The best part of this book is that it pushes churches to make things simpler which can only make it easier for people to follow Jesus. I’m all for this! Anything that we can do to get out of the way of people understanding and living out the Gospel is a good move in my opinion.
