pre-order Mat Kearney

Mat Kearney is one of my favorite artists in the world. It's like he took every style of music that Doug's likes and combined it together. You know how your Mom cooks the perfect meal for you on your birthday...topping it off with your favorite type of cake for dessert? Yeah, that is what Mat Kearney did for me.

Anyway, he just got signed to a major market label, Aware records. His new CD will come out in April. I just pre-ordered it from the label's online store. Also, you can buy the first single from iTunes here.

No Youth Group MP3 this week

I know that you all were anxiously awaiting another exciting episode of the youth group series on Amos. Well, we decided to watch a NOOMA film instead. It was good...but that means no MP3 of the message.

We will return to our Amos series next week...

MySpace

So, are you a fan of MySpace? Hmmm...go read this article.

listen to message from youth group last night

Below are links to the flyer and an MP3 file for the message last night. For the past week or so, I have been feeling sad about the fact that soo many students are still out of town. I guess is this an effort to keep our youth group CONNECTED. (Get it? Connected...like the Connection. Yeah, I know you all miss my amazing sense of humor.)

Anyway, here are the files:

Flyer for Wednesday 1/19/06

MP3 file for Wednesday 1/19/06 (I would suggest that you right-click and choose "save target as..."

I miss you guys.

Ben Franklin reopening

My alma mater...and one of the schools that a number of our students attend is Ben Franklin High School. They reopened on Tuesday and were featured on the CBS Early Show. Here is a link to watch the video.

!og snoclaf

new Wed night series

Last Wednesday was our first "normal" youth group. We are meeting at 7:30pm in the front building. We started a new series called amos outdoor prophet. It is all about the book of Amos in the Old Testament. It is a book that was written right before a huge earthquake devastated the people of Israel.

So that never happens anymore. Wouldn't it be just horrible if a natural disaster of biblical proportions hit someone's hometown?

I guess so.

So, if you are living out of town and wish you could come, here is a copy of the flyer from last week. I'm gonna try to figure out how to record the messages and post them here my blog. No guarantees. I have no clue how to do it.

I miss you all.

YOUTH OUTING: Baton Rouge trip this Saturday

Just a reminder that we are planning on going to Baton Rouge this Saturday (Jan 21). What will we do? Well...that is up for debate...but it looks like it could look something like this:

7AM meet at church
9AM arrive in Baton Rouge and eat breakfast
10AM Mall of Louisiana
noon eat lunch
2PM LSU Men's Basketball Game (vs. Alabama)
5PM eat dinner
8PM arrive at church

Woah. That looks really busy! As far as costs...you are looking at three meals (two fast food and one sit down restaurant). I would think that $20 would be more than enough. LSU tickets are $14...I'll supplement the cost...let's make them $10. That means that your teenager should need about $30 in their wallet. If $$ is an issue, PLEASE let me know...we can take care of you.

I will have a sign up sheet at youth group on Wednesday night. If you won't be there, then email or call me to let me know your are going no later than 5pm on Thursday.

End of the Spear movie

My oldest son's middle name is Elliot. He is named after the missionary Jim Elliot. His journals and story are an inspiration to me.

It looks like someone finally had enough wherewithall to make the story of Jim Elliot and the other four missionaries who were killed by the Auca indians into a film. The trailer looks pretty amazing. Looks to be a pretty high-quality production.

The movie is called End of the Spear, and the official website is here. You can watch the trailer, find out more info on the movie and find a list of theaters that will be showing the movie. I was very surprised to find that our local theater, the Westbank Palace, will be screening the movie. Horray! Maybe I'll take the youth group.

Our New Orleans

I just listened to an NPR "Story of the Day" podcast that is entitled "Musicians Regroup to Benefit 'Our New Orleans,'" from Jan 2nd. It is an interview with Nick Spitzer who was involved with the production of the recently released benefit album, Our New Orleans 2005. It is a compliation of tracks recorded by New Orleans artists just a couple of weeks after the Hurricane. It includes the likes of Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Irma Thomas, Buckwheat Zydeco, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and others. I was so intrigued that I immediately headed over to Best Buy and picked up a copy.

On a side note, this is such a great example of all that is great in our Postmodern-influenced culture. Nearly every one of these songs was written years...even decades ago. A host of these songs were written in the 20s. Yet these words strike in a fresh, new way when taken out of their original context and dunked in the floodwaters of Katrina. There is a depth that is almost hard to describe. These new recordings of old songs is a way to tie our current circumstances into the storied history of this town. This is not the first disaster to hit New Orleans...chaos has devestated New Orleanians before...and it will devastate us again in the future. Circumstances like these make us beg for something bigger than ourselves. We want to somehow tie ourselves into history and tradition. As a Christian, I firmly believe that these are reminders that we are mortals longing for something immortal. Our souls were created for eternity and an everlasting Kingdom.

So, go buy this CD. It is great music. It speaks to what is going on down here. On top of all that, all net proceeds are being donated to Habitat for Humanity's efforts in the Gulf Coast.