We watched this video tonight at Bread & C.U.P.  Now, keep in mind that the entire video is a little over 40 minutes long (and very good, at least I thought so), but this is kind of the critical moment.  This has caused some controversy, and I've got a few thoughts... but watch it first.

Ok... let me throw a couple of things out there.  There are a lot of folks (mostly non-Christians) who are arguing that this idea is ridiculous, due to the age of the cross symbolism and the flexibility of the molecule.  To an extent, I can see where they're coming from.  Do I think that this little molecule holds all the answers of our faith, as some of the YouTube folks seem to?  No.  However, I certainly don't think that this is pure coincidence.  While it's true that the cross wasn't established as a religious symbol until a period of time after the death of Christ, we believe in a God that is truly out of time.  Certainly God knew that Jesus would die on that cross even as He molded and formed the first humans.  I truly believe that the "fingerprints of God", as you might call them, are all over this world, and this is simply another example.  I would definitely recommend tracking down the entire talk on YouTube and checking it out.  Very good stuff.

I read a lot of blogs.  One of the most recent ones I've discovered is http://www.fredmckinnon.com.  Fred does a very cool thing every week called "Sunday Set Lists".  Every week, he posts his church's set, and then others post as well and link back.  Creates a nice little list of what a lot of different churches/worship leaders play any given week.  This week's is here.  I think this whole thing is pretty cool, so I'm definitely going to join the pool:

Centerpoint Church 11/16/08

Opening Set:
    -You, You Are God (Walker Beach)
    -Marvelous Light (Charlie Hall)
    -Mighty To Save (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan)

Closing Song:
    -The Heart Of Worship (Matt Redman)

We're in a series right now called "Prescriptions For Peace".  This week's message was titled "It's About What You Do", so we focused on songs about action ("Into marvelous light I'm running", "I'm coming back to the heart of worship", etc.)  "Mighty to Save" was new this week for us, and the congregation took to it very well.  That one will definitely be back.  We also used an in-house skit this week that spoofed David Letterman's top-10 lists.

Cedarville United Presbyterian Church 11/16/08
Once a month, I go down to C.U.P. and drum for their evening contemporary service (It only happens once a month).  That service just happened to be tonight.  Here's what we played:
    -Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) (Brenton Brown,
     Brian Doerkson)
    -How Great Is Our God (Chris Tomlin)

So there you go!  We'll do it again next week!

Some things are just bad ideas all around.  For example... if you're the mayor of a town, don't march into a city council meeting and tell the entire town that they were "too stupid to work with" and that they should "go to hell".  That's what Bill Beck of St. Anthony, Idaho did.  Another quote from the article:

"The audience responded to his resignation with applause. Beck left the meeting shortly after."

Yeah... awesome.  Read the whole story here.

Alright, I don't do this very often... but it's time for a nerdy gear post.  Don't say you weren't warned.  Hopefully there's somebody out there who appreciates these.  There are a couple of new products that I've found out about this week that I can't help but be a little curious/excited about...

First, these funny little "nano controllers" from Korg:

These things are all under $100, powered and connected with USB.  The top one is a controller for DAWs, etc. with 9 faders and knobs and a full transport section.  The one in the middle is a little drum controller, and the bottom is (obviously) a tiny MIDI keyboard controller.  I'm not going to lie, these things fascinate me... I'm not sure that I can think of a really practical use that I have for any of them, but I'll probably end up with at least one anyways (the DAW control is pretty cool...)

Product #2 - The Rode M1:

Now anybody who has spent any significant time working with me on musical things knows that I'm a Shure man through and through... but who could resist being seduced by this thing (at least a little bit)?  I mean, Rode puts out a $150 stage dynamic with a lifetime guaranee, I'm going to take a little notice.  Maybe I'll get a chance to try one somewhere... hm...

So there you have it.  Nerdy gear post.  Back to normal, churchy things tomorrow :-P

This video has already "made the rounds" on most of the blogs I read, but I'm going to post it here anyways, because you should see it.  Period.  Now I'm not normally into the whole "live worship DVD" scene.  To be honest, I think they're kind of weird.  But when Fellowship Church rolls out their DVD... sometime (no idea when), I will definitely check it out.  This is why:

PS - If the worship leader in this video sounded just a little familiar to you, take a listen to this:

That's right... that is Dex Alexander of 90's Christian rock band All Together Separate.  My first band covered that song.  Oh, nostalgia :-P

First off, I promise that this post is not about a bad wedding reception song.  I promise.

Now that that's out of the way: I take walks.  Almost every day.  It's good exercise and it's when I do my best thinking.  I have a bunch of different routes I take, so that it doesn't get TOO repetitive from day to day, but most days I end up going past a place called "Towers Park".  Sounds nice, doesn't it?  Well, yes and no.  As it turns out, the "towers" are giant power poles.  When you walk under/past/in the general vicinity of them, you can actually hear the electricity crackling overhead.  It's slightly unnerving, so I never spend much time in Towers Park.  But it got me thinking...

Electricity isn't something that we normally think of as being tangible.  We know it exists, we know it's very important, some folks might even actually understand it, but we normally don't touch, see, feel, smell, or taste it.  And yet, at Towers Park, the electricity can be heard.  As a Christian and a church leader, I can't help but wonder what the impact would be if our ministries were like this, because the essence is the same.  We are charged taking something that is very real to us, that we are certain exists, but is very rarely expressed in physical means and sharing it with the world around us.  We can make that love tangible - we can make it something that can be seen, heard, felt, even tasted!  We have the opportunity to take something intangible, almost unfathomable, and electrify it.  May that be our hope and our goal!

Last night I was reading from the end of John.  I was reading the NLT, and apparently I've never covered this particular passage in this translation.  I love what it says (though Bible Gateway leads me to believe that these verses were reworded for the second edition):

"(24) This is that disciple who saw these events and recorded them here.  And we all know that his account of these things is accurate.  (25) And I suppose that if all the other things Jesus did were written down, the whole world could not contain the books."
                       -John 21:24-25

"The whole world could not contain the books" - what a powerful idea that is!  For all the wonderful things that Jesus did, for all the miracles and teachings recorded in the four gospels and the other books of the New Testament, there was so much more.  So many things not written down that to have done so would have been impossible.  Incredible.  And what if we take into account that John's gospel was written almost 2,000 years ago, and that Jesus has continued to work in our world since that time?!  How many more books would be required to share the things that have happened in our lives, our families, our friendships, our churches?  Our God truly is an awesome God!

I never used to dream.  Well, I did as a kid, and I'm sure that scientifically I never stopped, but for quite a few years of my life, I've remembered very few dreams upon waking.  Until now.  Suddenly, it seems I'm having dreams every night.  Vivid dreams.  Dreams that seem real, to the point that I sometimes have to think about whether something actually happened or whether I dreamt it.  It's strange.  Just a quick thought on Monday morning.

Ohio seems to be confused about what season it is right now.  Now, if you live in Ohio, that probably doesn't surprise you at all... but it seems especially bad this year.  It's November 9.  A week ago I was out without a jacket.  Today it never made it above 40 degrees.  We've got highs in the 50s coming most of this week (at least if you believe the weatherman).  I hope that's true, because so far this year, I've missed fall!  I love the fall... the trees, the cooler (but not quite cold yet) temperatures, the breeze that hits your face when you walk out of the door... I love all of that!  So far, Ohio has denied me these things this year.  Indian Summer, I believe they call it.  It seems, though, that the extended summer has finally passed, and it might actually start acting like the season it is.  And that's fine with me.

Marching band is finally wrapping up... maybe.  With Otterbein looking at their first trip to playoffs in... well..ever, and Big Walnut headed to round three this coming Saturday, these are ending up to be some extended seasons!  Which doesn't really bother me, I like marching band, and it gives me an excuse to get out and enjoy some of that fall weather I mentioned above!

I've been praying about seasons of a different kind.  With marching band season coming to a close, I find myself needing some new source of income to pay my rent!  Up until this point I've been able to kind of "fake it", but no more!  Praying that God will open the door(s) and show me the next season.

Well... that ended up being pretty random.  Bedtime, methinks... we'll shoot for more cohesiveness tomorrow!

If you can read this, it means that all of my mad scientist work in the last day has paid off.  I've migrated my blog again, from Blogger to Weebly (the site that I already used to host my web-site).  I've used a Weebly blog for the "News" page of my web-site for a while now, and I definitely prefer the format to Blogger's, plus I have pretty much infinite control over content and customizability (if that's even a word) this way.  If you are used to getting the RSS feed from this blog, you'll have to update your settings... just click the link to the right.  Otherwise, nothing much should change!  Unfortunately, Weebly doesn't have a good way to import past entries from another blog, so I've got links back to both the Blogger page and my old Mindsay blog here.  Hopefully all the settings will get themselves worked out in the next few hours, and you will all be able to see this page soon!  Back to normal posting tomorrow :-)