I was raised by a Pastor, who was ultimately just a lover of God that enjoyed learning about pretty much anything and everything.  He also enjoyed sharing that knowledge with pretty much anyone and everyone.  While I may not have been too thrilled as a 10 year old, I really appreciate it now.

Two of the people that I heard about the most often were John & Charles Wesley, and for good reason.  Both incredible men, John and Charles are credited with starting the Methodist movement.  John being known more for theological works, and Charles as a musician and song-writer.  (Bonus factoid: John Wesley was the first person to put the term “agree to disagree” in print, and it was around the theological differences of Armenianism and Calvanism.)

Anyhoo, the other day I stumbled across some writings of John Wesley and the following golden nugget was in there:

John Wesley’s singing rules for Methodists:

1. Learn the tune. Learn these tunes before you learn any others; afterwards learn as many as you please.
2. Sing them exactly as they are printed here, without altering or mending them at all; and if you have learned to sing them otherwise, unlearn it as soon as you can.
3. Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a slight degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.
4. Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan.
5. Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy harmony, but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.
6. Sing in time. Whatever time is sung be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it; but attend close to the leading voices, and move therewith as exactly as you can; and take care not to sing too slow. This drawling way naturally steals on all who are lazy; and it is high time to drive it out from us, and sing all our tunes just as quick as we did at first.
7. Above all, sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually.

I think this is incredible, and it blows me away that each of these 7 rules is just as applicable in our worship settings today as they were in the 1700’s when Wesley was working in the church.

I love how he lays out 6 very practical musical boundaries and expectations that create a framework for his final and most important rule: the importance of the heart and the motive.

~chris

(Thanks to Bob Stewart for this ammo.)

None of the chickens we owned growing up were this cool:

Of course we did have a rooster that Jesse named Cocky-Locky (after he found out I named mine Henny-Penny).  We had that thing forever, and it just roamed around our land.  One day we decided that it would be fun to take our bow & arrow and shoot at the rooster.

We preceded to shoot the rooster with arrows, which bounced off of its tough and leathery skin.  Then it turned and started charging at us, pecking at our feet and legs.

That experience ended with both us and the rooster having a healthy new respect for each other.

Until the day came when we needed chicken for some home made dumplings…

Who’s laughing now, Cocky-Locky?

~chris

There was a time that I stopped reading most of the blogs I was subscribed to.  It was just information overload and ended up being a waste of time because I couldn’t possibly apply all of the incredible information I was reading and discovering.

The other day I was skimming through a couple of blogs though, and found some really incredible posts that I thought I’d share with you.

1) Our Rising Sound: Is Your Primary Reason For Staying At Your Church Your Pay? - Kyle does a great job on his blog of not being afraid to ask the difficult questions when it comes to life, ministry, and God.  This post is no different.  This is a monster that I had staring me in the face, and I came out the other side alive.  I hope you do too.

2) Chuck Bomar: Putting People In Leadership – Chuck is an amazing pastor and leader.  I have had a couple conversations with them and have walked away changed from both.  His post, like the one above, puts forth a really big challenge for church leaders.  Too often we get excited about peoples potential or gifts and end up damaging them.

3) Northpoint Church Production Blog: December 20th Opener – A cool blog with an inside look at what they do at Northpoint Church.  Everything they do, they do with utter excellence.  This video they posted looks like the most incredibly awesome nightmare ever, if that makes sense.  A nightmare to pull off, but really cool none-the-less.

4) Osocio: Nominees For The Osocio’s Best Campaign of 2009 – I actually just stumbled across this website this morning, and this post is fantastic.  Some of the ideas that were brought to fruition in these campaigns are both incredibly moving and really original.

Well, hopefully you find something that tickles your fancy here.  I figured that you would appreciate it if I just posted a blog instead of sending 4 tweets in a row with links.

~chris

Last year I decided to not make a resolution on New Years. I never succeed in accomplishing my goal, only in feeling like a floser. (Failure + Loser = floser.)

Anyhoo, as I was preparing to ring in 2010 I found myself so happy about not failing to achieve my ‘09 resolution – because I didn’t make one – that I decided to not make a resolution again.

And today, on January 6th, I find myself being a lailure anyways. (Loser + Failure = lailure.)

Let me get to the point here.

I made a resolution today.

At some point during the year two thousand and ten, I will participate in or create my own wish lantern (also known as ’sky lantern’) releasing spectacle.

If you are anything like I was, you have no idea what I’m talking about.  You can read a bit about them HERE.

I saw these for the first time in a music video at some point over the last 5 months, but unfortunately I don’t remember what song, band, or anything useful.  I just remember that it was freaking awesome.

Look at these pictures!! How could you not want to be a part of something like that?!

Anyhoo, I found a company in Texas that sells them. I’m sure there are some other ones though.

If you’d like to join me in my endeavor this year, you are more than welcome!

Loi Krahtong festival in Thailand

~chris

EDIT: I found the original video where I had seen these sky lanterns. It was an Absolut Vodka commercial. Go figure.

~chris

This made my weekend.

And it’s been a pretty great weekend.

You’re welcome.

~kretzu

DesMo is a little like having our own personal Discovery Channel.  We keep learning learning all kinds of stuff!  Some of it we could care less about, and some of it we would rather just not know.  Like the fact that Taco Bell isn’t respected like it should be out here, or the fact that they charge almost 30 cents more per item.  (Maybe those two things are related?)  Or that kids in Iowa are legally supposed to go trick-or-treating the night before Halloween, which is called “Beggars Night.”

Some of the stuff we are discovering is incredible though, which brings me to my point.

Es is an incredible artist.

She went to an art class the other night with one of our new friends, Jen.  She had no idea what it was about or anything like that, but when she came home she had made these 5 awesome little baseball card-sized art pieces.  I don’t even know how she did it…some sort of mixed media.  But it blew me away!  I can’t wait to see what she does next!!

I took this with my iPhone, so you’ll just have to imagine how amazing it looks in real life.  Also, she did more – but I think she is planning on posting pictures on her blog later.  Consider this a teaser!

~kretzu