March 2008 Archives

We introduced Michael Neale's song "More and More" today at Anchor. People loved it. Get it from iTunes. It's really a great song.

I heard Michael Neale last September at the MinistryCOM conference in Nashville. The event was hosted by The People's Church, and Neale is the worship minister there. He led worship each day, and that's where I first heard "More and More."

Pam and I returned to that church a month later while on vacation, attending a Sunday morning service. Michael Neale is truly a gifted worship leader.

Logitech is pathetic. I had to reformat a drive, and just needed a Macintosh mouse driver to download. Could I find it anywhere on their website? Nope. Tried searching, tried their tedious help menus. I tell you, they closely guard their mouse drivers. Don't want just anyone walking in off the cyberstreet and downloading a driver. You open that door, and pretty soon, everybody and their neighbor will be downloading drivers. It'll be anarchy.

After searching in vain for way too long, I sent a message to customer support. "You sure make it difficult to find a stupid mouse driver. Why is that? I've wasted far too much time trying to find a stinkin' driver for a mouse. This should not take a rocket scientist." Yes, I had excellent people skills.

BUT, it wasn't that easy. No no no. I had to copy down the serial number and some other number from the mouse. THEN, before it could be sent, I had to create an account, complete with my email address and other info. Logitech obviously considers it a matter of company security to protect their drivers. I guess they only have so many of them online. If I download one, then that's one less driver they have available. At least, that's how their tiny minds view it.

So the automatic reply from Support returned said they received my request and will respond within 24 hours. The other option would be to just make their drivers available where idiots like me could find them.

I used to prefer Logitech mice. But I've had lots of trouble with Logitech mice lately, and this doesn't help my attitude. Fortunately, Microsoft--it pains me to say this--makes some great mice, and I can easily find anything I need from them online. Yes, I'm talking about the hated Microsoft, the Mordor of software companies. I've just said something good about Microsoft. This really hurts. And I blame Logitech.

L-r: Me, Terry, Joe (drums), Tom, and Tim.

The Anchor worship team played for two hours last night at The Grind coffeehouse, over on the east side of Fort Wayne. I'd never been there before. Nice place. The smell of wonderful coffee overwhelms your senses as you enter the front door. In the photo, it looks like I'm playing the keyboard with just one finger. I was probably punching in a setting.

Ah, the start of baseball season. The fresh spring air, the crack of bats, the green grass, the history, the tradition. This is the time of year when I tell myself:

"I'm unbelievably bored. How long 'til football starts?"

Last Friday I spoke for an hour about church communications to a class at the Huntington University Graduate School. Ray Seilhamer, the prof, invites me to do that about every two years.

A couple students had laptops open, and paid only partial attention to me. I doubt they were taking notes. Checking email? Surfing? Working on Sunday's sermon? Is that what professors contend with in every class? Probably.

Merlin Mann, on the 43Folders.com blog, mentions the growing trend in business to hold "topless" meetings. Topless as in "laptop-less." No laptops, Blackberrys, iPhones, or other personal devices allowed. The result is more eye contact, people connecting with each other rather than with their computer screens.

In a previous post, Mann gave "9 Tips for Running More Productive Meetings." One was this:

No electronic grazing. Period. Laptops closed. Phones off. Blackberries left back in the cube. You’re either at the meeting or you’re not at the meeting, and few things are more distracting or disruptive than the guy who has to check his email every five minutes. Schedule breaks for people to fiddle with their toys, but fearlessly enforce a no grazing rule once the meeting’s back in session. Emergency call to take or make? They have to leave the room. No exceptions. If you’re too busy to be at the meeting everyone else has made firewalled time for, just leave.

I say "Bravo!" I rarely take my laptop to meetings anymore. Haven't for years. If you're going to be in a meeting, I contend, then be there.

I, like millions thousands hundreds scores several other people, was disappointed that perennial Oscar nominee Randy Newman didn't perform anything at this year's Oscar ceremony. Fortunately, there is water in our desert. Newman has released a whole album, based on the movie "Leatherheads." I'm sure every song is typical Newman: nasally, whiny, generally unbearable, and most certainly Oscar-worthy. Something to look forward to at the 2009 ceremony.

Here are some word-related useless facts. Being a wordsmith, I found them interesting, though I don't require that you find them similarly interesting.

• "Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
• "Lollipop" is the longest word typed with only the right hand.
• "Typewriter" is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
• "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt."
• The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
• Only two English words contain all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

This is hysterical--photos of celebrities and what "type" of Christian they represent. I especially like the shots of Ryan Seacrest as "The Relevant Pastor," Diane Keaton as the "Show No Skin Fundamentalist," Justin Long as "The campus Crusade for Christ Leader," and Joan Lunden as "The Hot Homeschooling Mom."

This is wrong, just so wrong. But I took the test. And it turns out that I could fight off 15 five-year-olds at once. That does not sound like anything to brag about. In fact, I feel downright wimpy.

15

Coming home from Indianapolis Saturday, I listened to Creed's "My Sacrifice" and realized, "There's a group I miss." Then I thought of Guns 'N Roses, another band with a distinctive sound and a collection of great songs. Miss them, too. Nobody has replaced Creed or Guns 'N Roses. They were unique.

What makes a band unique and memorable? This is what I thought about much of the way home. I decided on these traits:

1. Great songs.
2. An overall distinctive sound, unlike anyone else.
3. A distinctive front man who is a big part of that distinctive sound.

And I began thinking of other groups that meet those criteria. Groups that, if they went away, would be missed. Or groups that have gone away, like Creed and GNR, and their sound is missed. These are the bands I came up with:

• The Beatles (obviously)
• Rolling Stones
• Creedence Clearwater Revival
• Boston
• REM
• Beach Boys
• U2

And that's about it. I considered Green Day, while listening to "I Walk Alone." I considered Bon Jovi (a great body of work, distinctive lead singer, but not a distinctive enough sound overall). Aerosmith, Kiss, Eagles, the Who--no. Heart--closer. Springsteen--great songs, but you can't pin him down to a certain sound. Styx--real close, but I'll say no for now. Various singers, like David Bowie, sported a distinctive sound but weren't associated with a specific band, so they don't count.

Any groups you would include?

From Seth Godin's blog: "Persistence isn't using the same tactics over and over. That's just annoying. Persistence is having the same goal over and over."

We hear people, and churches, say, "We already tried that before, and it didn't work." Are they referring to the goal, or the tactics for accomplishing that goal? If the goal remains worthy, just try different tactics to accomplish it. But don't say, "We tried to accomplish that goal, and it didn't work."

That kid who beat me in the table tennis tournament on Saturday--if I played him again, I would definitely need different tactics.

Do you prefer working in light, or dark? A company called Rackspace has two sections to its corporate office: a lights-on section, and an all-dark section. People have different preferences, and in progressive high-tech startup companies, they can actually cater to it.

I like working in the dark. Just me and the computer screen. You don't see anything else. You can really focus, without distractions (or glare). I've occasionally worked in darkness, though it's been a while. It somehow just doesn't seem right. But now, Rackspace has legitimized the concept.

I wonder how my coworkers would feel if, tomorrow, I didn't turn my lights on. Just worked in the dark. I'm designing a website. That would really help me focus totally on my work. I'm afraid my coworkers might consider it a bit weird, even creepy. But...should I care?

Age 51, and still winning athletic trophies. Yay me.

Played in a table tennis tournament in Indianapolis today. I have a rating of 1081 with the US Table Tennis Association. I entered the Under 1250 and under 1450 categories, and ended up winning 7 of 8 matches. Altogether, a good day for me. I actually won the Under 1250 category, and brought home a nice trophy. Had to beat up on one youngster while his parents watched.

Last summer, in cleaning out the basement, I threw away all my old tennis trophies. Didn't see the point in keeping them. What am I going to do with this table tennis trophy? Should I set it on my keyboard tomorrow at church?

My only loss came in the Under 1450, to an Asian middle-schooler who skunked me, 3-0. This kid was small-- probably still needed to use a car seat. I'm a better player and higher rated, but he snuck up on me. As it was, I ended up in a three-way tie in our initial four-person round-robin, beating the other two guys handily. But one of them beat the Asian kid 3-0, and that broke the tie. That guy moved on instead of me. Bummer.

But hey--I still took home a trophy. Mom said she was proud of me.

Four players from our Fort Wayne club participated. Sean Fitzgerald won the Under 1850 group without losing a game. So our club did pretty well.

Sunday night, some mischief-makers broke into the church. We couldn't find anything that was stolen, though I understand some things were, indeed, taken. They also:

• Jammed the photocopier.
• Jammed the paper shredder.
• Turned on the computer in the sound booth and accessed porn sites.
• Broke off all the nobs on the lightbox.
• Changed all the settings on the soundboard.
• Moved all the nobs on my keyboard.
• Did other stuff.

Someone was also in the church Saturday night. Pat, the administrative assistant, noticed that stuff in her office had been disturbed. The worship team, always the first to arrive, noticed a downstairs door open.

Last night at music practice, I couldn't figure out why my usual piano setting sounded so sharp and loud. Then I noticed that all of the sound adjustment nobs were maxed out.

Pam couldn't get the monitor working, which means the worship team won't have the benefit of lyrics this Sunday.

I just learned that the culprits, two boys, were caught and will be doing community service. Such is life at Anchor.

One more note from Mark Cuban's post about destiny, which I referred to Monday. He wrote:

The greatest obstacle to destiny is debt, both personal and financial. The more people you are obligated to, the harder it is to focus on yourself and figure things out....Financial debt is the ultimate dream killer. Your first house, car, whatever stuff you might want to buy are going to be the primary reasons you stop looking for what makes you the happiest.

A lotta truth there. I hear a lot about bright young people who feel called to missionary service, but college debts keep them tied to the States until they can pay down those debts. Meanwhile, their commitment to missions dissipates. Sad, sad.

Churches run into dream-killing debt issues with overly-ambitious building programs. The demands of debt create a constant distraction from the church's mission. Way too much time at board meetings focuses on money issues.

But Cuban also mentions "personal" debts to "people you are obligated to." Sometimes missionaries return from the field to care for an ailing parent; I can't fault that. In a book I wrote about our missionary work in Honduras, I learned about an incredible missionary named Betty Brown who did just that.

But sometimes, the reason is that a parent isn't on board with your missionary call, or can't stand being separated, or whatever. They put up a fuss, and the missionary feels compelled to return (or not go in the first place). What would I do in such situations? Well, I don't have to worry about that, because my parents would be thrilled if Pam and I became missionaries.

At any rate, Cuban's words about personal and financial debts being dream-killers are well noted.

This is a pretty amazing post on the Swerve blog, the words of a young woman who, at 26, succumbed to cancer. Oh, to have a love for and experience with God like Katie.

Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, wrote an interesting piece called "What are You Destined to Be?" on his popular Blog Maverick blog.

"Going to college should be about experiencing as much academically as you possibly can, but more importantly, it should be about learning how to learn....Once you have learned how to learn, then you can try as many different things as you can...."

Upon reading that, I realized, "Hey--I'm good at learning." Which is something I hadn't really considered before.

In my work, I continually confront new learning curves, usually computer-related. (Lots of people do, so I'm not claiming any great uniqueness.)

I remember back around 1983, I returned from Christmas vacation in California to find an AT&T MS-DOS computer (2 floppy drives, no hard disk!), an Okidata dot-matrix printer, and several unopened software packages sitting on my desk. I'd never used a computer before. But I dug in, and a month later was producing the denominational magazine on that computer (actually, just putting the text on a floppy, which a printing company turned into long strips of typeset copy, which I laid out over a light table). Remember--this was MS-DOS, for goodness sakes! The entire user interface consisted of Courier text on a green monitor!

In 1988, when I got a Mac and a laser printer, I gave myself three weeks to learn Pagemaker and crank out the next issue of the magazine (this time, with little need for the light table).

The truth is, I enjoy conquering learning curves. And I enjoy the crash-course route. That love-of-the-last-minute may not be a good trait, but it's most definitely an aptitude.

Observed: a 40-ish man standing outside the YMCA, dressed in his warm-up outfit, either concluding or waiting to start his workout. Smoking.

One of Pam's tax clients is a young mother who immigrated from South America. She married an American guy, and they have two kids. Nice family. They are among Pam's tax clients, and came for an appointment one afternoon this week.

Earlier that day, this woman had become an American citizen. She was beaming, so proud. Puts things in perspective, for those of us who tend to take our American citizenship for granted.

The March 3 Time magazine featured an article about George Clooney. I like him a lot. He’s got journalism roots, which brings a degree of open-mindedness, of considering both sides of an argument, plus a heavy dose of cynicism. Legions of celebrities think they’re smart, and flaunt their actual ignorance (Hail King Sean Penn!). Clooney is, indeed, smart, but he’s sufficiently wise to avoid over-using his celebrity platform. He views himself with realistic self-depredation.

This article (by the hilarious Joel Stein—I always read his articles) mentions "Not On Our Watch,” an organization Clooney founded to help Darfur ($9 million so far). He had recently returned from Darfur. But instead of trumpeting his adventures and good deeds, Clooney mused about the futility of using celebrity to spotlight world problems. “I’m terrified that it isn’t in any way helping. That bringing attention can cause more damage. You dig a well or build a health-care facility, and they’re a target for somebody.”

Then he said this: “A lot more people know about Darfur, but absolutely nothing is different. Absolutely nothing.”

Think about the church. We regularly hear sermons and attend Sunday school classes in which we are reminded of the importance of prayer, of Bible reading, of witnessing, of not gossiping, of serving, of giving sacrificially. And yet, look over your fellow parishioners, who have dutifully absorbed these messages year after year. Is anything, truly, different? And if anything is different, is that a result of the abundance of words, or because of other dynamics?

There are certain causes I tackle on this blog--the plight of poor people, factory farming, US-sponsored torture. My mindless harping might bring a tiny bit of awareness to the six people who visit my online abode. But even if thousands of people tuned in, would anything be, in reality, different? Harping doesn't work.

Barack Obama says the US keeps electing the same people to fight the same problems in the same way. Or something like that. It seems that we in the church spin our wheels in a parallel way, without behavior changing. Great things are happening in some churches, indeed. But it's, sadly, not the norm.

Today I received an email about a “Good-Time gospel Jubilee Show” coming to Fort Wayne next month. It sounds pretty neat. One line describes it as “family friendly” and “affordable,” at only $12 a ticket. By today’s standards, for a special event like that, $12 is a bargain.

And that got me thinking about how much our culture is geared to the middle-class and above, and disregards low-income people. Christian pop culture, like everything else, is geared to suburbanites. The Christian concerts that come through town, Christian workshops and conferences, even some of the ticket-required Christmas programs and dinner theatres that local churches do--they all require discretionary money. And that’s what Christian suburbanites have in abundance.

I once resided in that world, and saw no problem. Now I attend a church populated by low-income people for whom $12 is out-of-bounds. Take a family of five to an event like that, at $12 a pop? No way. Maybe you splurge once a year. But it’s not discretionary money. You'll miss that $60.

And so--is this event truly “affordable”? Is the Third Day concert affordable? The Living Christmas Tree? Only if you’ve decided that you are absolutely not attempting to draw poor people. And I guess we (yes, we) suburbanites are generally okay with that.

I grew up loving Golden Delicious apples. Our family preferred the Delicious family, whether Red or Golden. Jonathans also had a following in the Dennie clan, but always secondary to Delicious. I personally have always preferred Golden.

In recent years, my preferred apple has become the Fuji. I like the consistency, the taste, and the juiciness.

But now along comes the Pacific Rose apple, which Scott's has had for the past two weeks. Sweet, juicy, a pinkish-red hue--absolutely splendid. The best apple I've ever had. And evidently, they are becoming popular.

Beliefnet lists the "12 Most Powerful Christians in Hollylwood." There is a page for each person, along with info about why that person is included in the list. I raised my eyebrows a few times as the next page appeared and I saw the name. But the descriptions were quite interesting.

1. Mel Gibson
2. Denzel Washington
3. Patricia Heaton
4. Tyler Perry (writer and director)
5. Ralph Winter (producer)
6. Angela Bassett
7. Martin Sheen
8. Martha Williamson (producer).
9. Kristin Chenoweth (actress)
10. Philip Anschutz (producer)
11. Howard Kazanjian (producer)
12. Scott Derrickson (director)

Greg Boyd has become one of my must-read bloggers. He's a pastor and intellectual-type guy who voices, with solid rationale, many of the views I hold but can't articulate in any convincing way. He recently participated in a debate on "Evangelicals and Politics" with Chuck Colson and Shane Claiborne (author of the incredible The Irresistible Revolution). On his blog last week, Boyd recapped some of the exchanges from that debate. Interesting stuff.

An interesting piece called "Preaching vs. Blogging." It compares the two mediums (media, whatever) with a chart. For instance: preaching includes voice inflection and body language, but blogs have a delete button and audience feedback.

Larry Norman died Sunday morning. He and Randy Stonehill were kings of the Christian rock scene during my college days. I never heard Larry Norman in concert, but I know his music well. Songs like:

• Why Should the Devil Have all the Good Music?
• Shot Down
• I Am a Servant
• Why Don't You Look into Jesus
• The Six O'clock News
• Sweet Song of Salvation
• The Great American Novel
• I Wish We'd all Been Ready (bet you didn't know that Norman wrote that classic)

A while back, I bought the CD, "One Way--The Songs of Larry Norman." A variety of contemporary artists cover some of his best-known songs. Rebecca St. James rocks out on "Sweet Song of Salvation," and Larry Howard absolutely kills with "The Rock that Doesn't Roll."

There is a message from Norman's family on his website, and gobs of messages left on his message board.

In the past, I've been through a lot of different evangelism training. The mere word "training" is intimidating to many Christians. Certainly Evangelism Explosion went far beyond what ordinary Christians could master. Campus Crusade and the Navigators give you a booklet to use, but even then, you need training in how to use it.

I just came across an article by Randy Seiver called "Clearing the Bench." It really resonates with me. He's part of an organization, Off the Map, that teaches people to make "ordinary attempts." He describes this as, "Simple, doable practices that most people are already doing, but now they will do intentionally. Some of them don’t even require speaking."

I'm very intrigued by this. Not because it's revolutionary--it's not; lots of other people have written about natural, lifestyle witnessing. But it sounds like their organization may have put together something that would appeal to the common folks in my church.