If you haven’t seen “This Is Spinal Tap” you haven’t lived. It’s a rockumentary about the greatest band that ever lived.
Spinal Tap is reuniting because there is finally a cause big enough to bring them back together. Saving the world! For that the boys in Spinal Tap decided they would be willing to crank their amps up to 11 again.
Marty DeBergi, director of the 1984 film talked to the media about Taps envolvement in Al Gore’s mega concert LiveEarth.
“They’re not that environmentally conscious, but they’ve heard of global warming. Nigel thought it was just because he was wearing too much clothing.”
There’s even better news for all the Spinal Tap fans who can’t attend the concert. There’s a brand new short film that was created that lets us know what’s been going on with the guys in the band since we last saw them.
The director said the new short film explains what the band has been doing with their lives. Nigel has been raising miniature horses to race, but can’t find jockeys small enough to ride them; David is now a hip-hop producer who also runs a colonic clinic; and Derek is in rehab for addiction to the Internet.
You must go watch the video. It’s available here.
Filed under: Link of the Day
This is the last set of links that I’ll share with you that come out of the Q conference, then it’s back to the abnormal craziness that I normally post in this section.
AdventConspiracy.com
This idea came from Rick McKinley, Chris Seay and friends. They did it at their church, so should (you)we. Yeah! Go here to learn how churches decided to stop buying into the system and started to redeem a holiday about the birth of the Redeemer. From the site…
“What if this Christmas your family, your friends, your church entered the story of Christmas and celebrated the birth of Christ in a way that was accurate, prophetic and transformative personally and globally. Could this baby that was born over 2000 years ago lead to something that dramatic today? We think so.”
ChurchRelevance.com
I met Kent Shaffer on Wednesday night right before Jon Foreman played. As I went to take my seat up stairs I introduced myself to the person sitting to my right and he introduced himself as the blogger from ChurchRelevance, a blog I read everyday. Kent is great with thoughts, plans, stats and tons more that are relevant to church.
Ethur.com
Mike Foster co-founded XXXchurch.com. He’s moved into a new organization with some pretty sweet ideas. Here’s the explaination taken directly from their site “ethur exists to create spiritually focused projects that change culture. Addressing issues from porn to poverty… the mission and directive of Ethur can be summed up with these two words :: DO GOOD.” Mike’s got a blog connected to ethur too.
kk.org
So if you’ve been reading my blog throughout the conference you know that Kevin Kelly spoke as a “futurist” at Q and I can’t tell you how incredible what he had to say was. He is unlike anyone I have ever heard speak on church and the perspective he brought to the event was so engaging. Let me tell you a bit more about him. He founded WIRED magazine and remains the “cheif maverick” there. He’s currently working on a project to identify every single species on the earth, he’s built some crazy clocks I don’t really understand, and he wrote a paper Nerd Theology. So… go check out his web page. It’s fun to read because he’s smart and his smartness makes me feel smart.
I’m back in Cleveland sitting on my recliner catching up on e-mail. The last day of Q was great and Bryan and I were able to catch an earlier flight and I made it back 5 hours ahead of schedule. What a day! Here’s some highlights from today’s talks.
Jim White (president of Gordon-Conwell Seminary) :: Serious Times
“The Kingdom was meant to come… The real Christian is ALWAYS a revolutionary.”
Clint Kemp :: Sacred Space
“As pastors we like to integrate things very quickly. That is very dangerous. We must return to the mystery of God and how that interacts with us as a whole. We must first come to an awareness, then spend time in reflection, enter into a conversation and finally end up with integration.”
Rick McKinley :: Divine Imagination
“Why aren’t there great stories of culture change happening in our congregation?… As pastors we’d rather be teh guy than the pastor of the guy.” (ouch)
3 Minute Stories :: The Q people invited some of the attenders to share 3 minutes of what’s happening in their communities
Kevin Kelly :: Where We Go From Here
The church has values that should NEVER change but everything else is flexible and should adapt to the times. As a church we can either adapt and flourish or fade into the background.
Mike Foster :: Be the Change
All in all I would say that this was THE BEST conference I have ever attended. It was well put together and thought out in amazing ways. The guys at Q didn’t miss anything as they were planning. For instance they had a couple of different people talking about environmental issues and the way the church could respond, but they didn’t just talk. There were decisions made to have each participant get a “nalgene type” water bottle so that there wouldn’t be 7,000 plastic bottles sent to a landfill or they asked us to each donate $10 so that they could purchase energy efficient light bulbs to give to locals that would then make the whole event carbon neutral. I have never been to something that was so thought through to the point that it would be hard to poke holes in the presentation.
As I hear more about how you can get your hands on the materials presented at Q this week I will put it up here and when they release dates for next years conference I will let you know as well.
I will be working through all my notes in the next couple days and will probably post some personal action steps tomorrow. The one thing that I’ve realized personally taht I will share right now is this…
You and I, as part of the Body of Christ, we were made to shape culture… we were made to impact it… we were made to redeem it. The world can change and we can be a part of it because the Kingdom was meant to come… and we have been left as ambassadors. It’s not good enough to live well… we must move!
Filed under: Link of the Day
Ok. So it’s 1.05am. I’m tired. Here’s some links from friends I talked about in the last post.
Jason Mitchell’s blog from LCBC.
Brian & Chad’s new venture. P is for Panda… and don’t you forget it! GO and BUY some MERCH!
Yesterday was a day that was full of learning, as Rob Bell said it was fire hydrant of information.
Today was about Relationships. Really good relationship stuff, I’ll get to that in a minute.
Here’s a run down of who spoke today with some key ideas.
Dave Kinnaman :: UnChristian
People view us not as Christians but as unChristian. We must advance a faith that exudes service & sacrifice, humility & grace.
Andy Stanley:: Church & Culture
“Jesus didn’t say sit in a cave and wait for my return… NO. Jesus says YOU are to preserve the culture.”
Shayne Wheeler & Chris Seay :: Homosexuality & Culture
Richard Cizik :: Environmental Stewardship
“God will not ask for our explanation of HOW He created the earth, but will ask waht we did with what he gave us.”
What exactly does Revelation 11.18 mean?
Majora Carter :: Green the Ghetto
Michael Lindsay :: Cosmopolitan Intelligence
Susan Grant (cnn) :: Power of Media
Philip Verre :: Fine Art
Learning Journey :: CNN Center
I got to go on a full on tour of CNN. Did you know Anderson Cooper’s pretty? He is. I know because I saw about 2000 pictures of him.
Rob Bell :: Communion of the Saints
As a pastor I could see the eucharist of someone else & implement it without having my body broken and blood poured out, but it wouldn’t be worth anything.
Now onto RELATIONSHIPS
I’ll start by saying that while waiting in the lobby last night for Brian, Leah, Chad & Candy I ran into Brad Barker from Saddleback. He and Rick Warren had walked in and Rick started talking to another group in the lobby so Brad kind of made his way in my direction, both of us on cell phones. When we started talking we realized we both did the same jobs in different places and were able to exchange some ideas and encouragement. Looking forward to developing this relationship.
I was able to connect with some guys from Lancaster County Bible Church from Lancaster, PA. Some of you might know that about 3 years ago I interviewed there for a their High School position. My time there was rich and Meri and I both loved hanging out with everyone from LCBC. I ran into Jason Mitchell yesterday and we connected with the rest of the crew (Mark Ashley the young adults pastor & Senior Pastor David Ashcraft) We met them for dinner at a wonderful Seafood Restaurant and David bought both Bryan and I dinner. We were able to catch up with what was happening both in Cleveland & at LCBC, it was a great time and I look VERY forward to staying in touch with them.
While standing in line for the CNN Tour I connected with Charles Campbell from the Illinois Baptist Association. Charles and I had been trying to connect through e-mail and haven’t really made it happen (mostly because of me) but we were able to talk and get to know each other over about 2 hours. Charles is in charge of Next Generational Church Planting for Illinois and has some pretty fresh ideas about how church could/should be happening in and around college campuses. Very Exciting.
Last night Bryan Karas and I hung out with the Manleys and the Pearsons. Both couples just moved from California and are sharing a house in Cumming, GA for a year. Brian and I went to high school and college together and it’s always a treat to spend time together and to meet up with the rest of the “family” is always a plus. Tonight Brian drove the hour back into town and we went up to a little bar/resturant that had a guy rock’n a blues guitar and were able to really catch up. It’s so good to have good old friends that no matter how long or how far away you live you’re always ready to pick right up where you left off.
Bryan Karas and I have been able to have some really great talks about all that’s been happening at Q and in our heads. It’s always tough to talk about the realities of what happens with all this info when you get home, but to be able to digest and then maybe implement with friends is always key.
Whew! What a great time here in the ATL.
One more day!
These are straight from Q.
Go.
Read.
Respond.
Prison Entrepreneurship Program :: Redeeming Prisoners and making their lives count
TOMS Shoes :: Every pair of shoes sold in America buys one for kids in Argentina. I’m buying some. You should too!
Not For Sale Campaign :: The movement to end modern day slavery. Are you an abolitionist?
Concert to End Slavery.com :: Part of the movement.
Man.
Today I may have consumed the most information I have EVER consumed in one day.
Q kicked off this morning at 10am with a brief introduction of the conference and the concept from it’s founder Gabe Lyons. The idea is this, the more questions we ask the better we are. It takes us places that we never thought we’d go and it brings us understandings that we never thought we’d have. So, the conference will exist to share thoughts on questions and present more. Each presenter has 18 minutes (good luck).
I’m not going to beat this to death because I heard from almost 15 people today, so I’ll tell you who was there and will bring out KEY thoughts that stood out.
Andy Crouch :: Stepping into Culture
KEY – Proper posture for stepping into culture is Cultivating & Creating. From this posture we can offer gestures of condemning/critique/imitation/consumption
Rick Warren ::
KEY – Keys to Engaging culture HUMILITY/integrity/generosity/civility/simplicity. “the reason we haven’t engaged culture is because of our arrogance. Humility is teach-ability, so learn from everyone.”
Catherine Rohr :: Redeeming Justice
“You pastors have a lot to learn from murderers. You might not think so, but you do. You learn and teach the stories of Moses, David & Paul… they were all murderers. I guess it’s ok to learn from old school murderers, but most of you want today’s murderers as far away from you as possible. They have a lot to teach and you need to learn from them.”
Kevin Kelly :: Christianity in 1000 Years
(Kevin scared us all by talking about artificial intelligence and asking what we would tell cyborgs who asked if they were children of God) Brilliant thoughts about the movement of the center of Christianity and the decrease in population that’s sure to come.
Donald Miller :: How Narrative Shapes Culture
“For a story to be any good there has to be conflict. We hate conflict. Learn to love conflict! Conflict drives our story.”
Jeff Johnson :: Hip Hop Culture
(still unpacking. brilliant)
Chris Seay :: Consumerism
As Christians we read stories of Adam and Eve or the Israelites in the wilderness and think “how can they be so unsatisfied, they have all they could ever want? They’re so stupid.” And yet it’s our story. We’re the richest people in the world and yet we obsess over what we don’t have and how much we want it.
Blake Mycoskie :: Social Responsibility
Blake runs TOMS Shoes. For every pair of shoes they sell they give one away to kids in Argentina. I’m buying these SOON. You should too. This conversation made me think about what I buy and who it affects… and more so how it affects them. I’m a jerk.
Donald Miller :: Q&A
Miller said a lot of what I’d heard him say on Saturday but right at the end he spoke something directly to me (because I asked him a question) that will change how we do ministry at 707. More on that later.
Mark Rodgers :: Political Engagement
Josh Jackson (Paste Magazine) :: Celebrating Good
David Batstone & Justin Dillon :: Human Trafficking
As the church we must become abolitionists. We must learn where there is slavery and work to free them (and here’s a newsflash, there is slavery where you live. You just don’t know it)
Jon Foreman (switchfoot) :: Good Music
“The best kind of art tells the TRUTH”
Bryan and I bailed on the screening of a film called Bella. Not sure what it’s about but my brain is full.
I’ll talk more about the community formed by this conference and how it might be reigniting my passion for existence later.
In about 4 hours I will be somewhere in the air heading south.
Bryan Karas and I are heading down to the Q Conference in Atlanta to hear what are sure to be brilliant presentations about Future/Culture/Church/Gospel. I for one canNOT wait to experience what’s in store.
I will be sure to blog notes (or at least reflections) from the conference.
As an added benefit, I think I might get to hang out with Brian and Leah Manley while we’re down there. They just made a HUGE move from SoCal to the ATL. You should probably go to their blog and read about all the excitement.
I followed this link from the good folks at RelevantMagazine.com.
You can go to GlobalRichList.com and type in how much money you make in a year and it will tell you where you rank in the world. It’s quite a humbling experience to be honest. Here’s a quote from the results page…
RICHER THAN YOU THINK?
How do you feel about that? A bit richer we hope. Richer and ready to give some of your newly found wealth to those who need it most. It not hard – just slip your hand in your pocket and pull out something special.
All you have to do is make a choice.
$8 could buy you 15 organic apples OR 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market.
$30 could buy you an ER DVD Boxset OR a First Aid kit for a village in Haiti.
$73 could buy you a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda.
$2400 could buy you a second generation High Definition TV OR schooling for an entire generation of school children in an Angolan village.
hmmm…. Go see how RICH you are.
I was trying to figure out what I could post about today and the thing that stood out to me the most was a link I followed from stereogum. It’s a post on a rather blasphemous blog, but what I found there was quite enjoyable. The blog posted about 20 different videos from YouTube of indie rock covers done by girls with just an accoustic guitar. My favorite video was from kierstenmh covering Young Pilgrims by the Shins, she’s got an honest pure delivery that is wonderful to listen to.
You can hear/watch the rest of kierstenmh’s songs here. Enjoy!
