Tuesday’s Ramblings are better than Monday’s

Just a bunch of quick thoughts and links to get you going on this holiday shortened work week. Hope you enjoyed your day off?

I have spent the past three weeks negotiating for a new location for our church to meet. I am very excited to say that this week we will sign a 4 year lease on a warehouse space at a lumber yard that will give our church a 24/7 space for worship, education and offices, for the first time in our almost ten year history. This is really exciting as God has opened up an exciting opportunity for our church that will dramatically change our visibility and availability for our community. Fun days ahead!

We are going through an extensive visioning process as a church. Check out my blog for DCC to hear about the process and to add your thoughts.

I am fairly patriotic, with some struggles around American idolatry, but wow, have you seen the Patriot Study Bible?!?! Greg Boyd thoroughly dissects it over at Out of Ur, but this thing is an abomination. Yikes.

This word game is incredibly addictive. Click here to waste the next hour of your life.

With all the speculation leading up to the NBA Draft, test your draft knowledge and see how many #1 picks you can come up with in ten minutes. I missed six, which is either a good sign or a bad sign for how my brain works. I am evidently slightly below average in my early 70′s draft pick knowledge.

I have been checking out a bunch of new music the last couple of months and have found some sweet new tunes. (At least new to me) Here is a quick rundown of some great stuff to check out.

Bon Iver – For Emma – This is the best CD I have heard this year. Dude went through a tough break up, went to a cabin in the woods for a couple of months and emerged with this album. It is haunting.

Pocket Full of Rocks – Song to the King- Didn’t know them till a week or two ago. Grabbed a couple of albums, this is the best one I have heard. Great worship tunes, especially the lives ones at the end of the album. Lead singer has a very emotionally expressive voice, almost Tom Waitsish

Gateway Worship – Wake Up the World – This is an awesome worship CD. Highlights are an updated version of the doxology and a couple of want to sing them to the rafters anthems

Coldplay – Left Right Left Right Left – Free live CD you can download on the web, (click here for link) has some nice live versions of beloved songs. Enjoyed Fix You and Death and all his friends.

Iron and Wine – The Trapeze Swinger – Another free download song and there is also an album if you go to the main page of the website that you can download for free. Classic Iron and Wine; subtle, elegant, emotional, great music for driving through cornfields on a beautiful spring evening.

U2 – Medium, Rare and Remastered – You have to join up and pay to be a member at U2.com to get this two disc set. It is really good. Great alternative and early versions of some classic songs such as Yahweh, You Can’t Make it on Your Own, and All Because of You. Also sweet pre-vertigo version of Native Son and the humorous Big Girls are Best. Another one sounds like a Joshua Tree leftover, it is called Jesus Christ. Best new song is Love You Like Mad. All in all a surprisingly great cd set.

Anyways, there are some thoughts and links to get your week started off right. Have a good one.