Did everyone catch the live streaming U2 rose bowl concert? They should be rebroadcasting it here soon. I got a ton of hits from people searching for song lyrics and meanings. There’s so much great stuff in One, but did you ever notice the lyrics in this verse?
It’s too late tonight to drag the past out into the lights
Besides being profound and rhyming, every line here starts with a different variant of the sound 2… yet the song is called One… intriguing eh?
Without a doubt my favorite U2 album of all time remains Achtung Baby. It’s gritty layers went really well with my early teenage angst years.
A completely underrated song in the Album is Acrobat.
Here’s a snippet:
No, nothing makes sense Nothing seems to fit I know you’d hit out If you only knew who to hit And I’d join the movement If there was one I could believe in Yeah I’d break bread and wine If there was a church I could receive in ‘Cause I need it now
To take the cup To fill it up To drink it slow I can’t let you go I must be an acrobat To talk like this And act like that And you can dream So dream out loud And don’t let the bastards grind you down
As a teenager it had everything to do with hating ‘the system’, and oscillating between not wanting to exist while wanting to belong.
These days the problem’s a bit more internal.
Now I’m part of the church, that has problems receiving people.
Worst yet, I’ve got a preaching gig. And no one talks one way and acts another way more than the preacher. Yes, preacher’s aren’t perfect, and we share our struggles. But that dreaded Book keeps making us call people to Christ-likeness.
Every day I’m confronted by my own hypocrisy. Grace just rubs it in further.
This is a great song and video by Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip. I love the radiohead sampling in particular. If you can’t quite catch all the lyrics you can find them here.
A couple weeks ago I preached a message working through Van Gogh’s art and the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God. It was a really fun one, partly inspired by this book.
My favorite bit was on Van Gogh’s famous Starry Night painting. Van Gogh was really intentional with his colors using blue for mystery and the infinite, and yellow for divine sacred love.
You can see how he had a real sense of earth being a reflection of heaven. The yellow holy light is laced across the fields and echoed in every little home, except one… the church.
It’s as if to say that hints of the divine are everywhere you look in all creation, but ironically Van Gogh didn’t feel that it was in the church (He was a pastor/missionary before seriously painting).
What do you think? Do you see truth in it today? How might the church regain it’s glow?
Wifi was severely limited Limited at the conference so no live blogging – plus I didn’t bring my laptop around with me for the first time in my life… the iPod touch did just fine.
This isn’t really a recap, I can’t sum up my thoughts well at the moment, other than it was very good.
Two images that stuck with me… below is the bucket of cash collected for a pastor who was fired in the middle of the conference – just for attending it.
This is a biking video that was shown that I think depicts the beauty that can be created with just about any art-form taken seriously, including preaching.
A seminar for teachers, preachers, speakers, leaders and pastors serious about reclaiming the art of the sermon.
I’m really not big on conferences at all. But I’ll be at this one.
I’ve got someone looking to share half a ticket with (one registration gets two people in). Let me know ASAP if you’ve got one or know of someone with one.
My cheap cell phone plan doesn’t work in the States – but I’ll try to get some online access if possible. Contact or twitter me if you’re in the area. Would love to connect with some real people while I’m there.
Here’s a taste of what’s on the schedule:
The Original Guerilla Theatre (Rob Bell) The Story We’re Telling (Rob Bell) Returning to the New: An Introduction to Tranformance Art (Peter Rollins) How Technology Shapes the Sermon (Shane Hipps) The Fig and the Failure of Language (Rob Bell) Fumbling Around with Your Radar (Rob Bell) For Those With Ears to Hear: Parables and the Lost Art of Provocation (Peter Rollins) You are the Medium (Shane Hipps) The One Thing I’ve Never Heard Someone Talk About That Has Changed Everything For Me (Rob Bell)
Update: I think our ticket situation is taken care of thanks to the glory of twitter. You can also follow the twitter hashtag #ppp09 to follow along as well.
Join the Origins projectcommunity – A network initiated by Dan Kimball, Erwin McManus, Scot McKnight, and many others. There’s a group just for Canadians as well.
Check out Refresh Worship, a hub for events going on in Toronto
Need cool motion graphics design work? Get in touch with my friend Jeff.
Wedding and Engagement photos? See Claudia – She helped with the SolarCrash Event photography project and we’ll be booking her if/when we do a vow renewal party.
My friend Ming is organizing Project SWAP – shopping with a purpose, June 20th, check it out.
BTW, if ANYONE, has ANY contacts in the Toront District School Board, my wife is looking for a referral for just about ANY elementry school in the city, ASAP.
It’s pretty hard compressing a whole evening of footage, but I tried. I know less is more, but I tried to create one video giving everyone a bit of time.
Let me know if you’d like to help or be a part of the next one!
If you weren’t there, here’s a taste of what you missed. enjoy!
