Okay, it’s time for everyone to stop what they are doing and figure out a way to get this guy, Eric Volz, back home! You HAVE to watch this video.

Here are five pictures of bands… can you tell me which ones are Christian bands just by the pictures? Answers will follow… so no cheating!

For those of you who read on a regular (or semi-regular… or even once in a blue moon), I wanted to let you know about some things that are happening right now. I am setting up several concerts for this summer (a few in the Atlanta area) and will be using my vacation time for that purpose as well… if you know of a place that might like to have me in, drop me a comment or an e-mail.
The big news, however, is that I am hoping (hoping… hoping… hoping) to finish my first album by the middle to the end of May. I have been working hard writing, recording, mixing, editing, starting over again, praying, and not sleeping for a little while now and am looking forward to having a finished product soon. So, there ya go… I’ll bring you more details about the album’s title, the artwork and design, and lots more tunes for you to preview in the near future. Thanks for caring enough to stop by during these times when I am not blogging regularly. I am writing… just not HERE at the moment. Thanks!

American Idol contestant, Chris Sligh, tried to pull a fast one on America last night. About thirty seconds into his performace of what was intended to be Endless Love (made famous as a duet by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie), I looked at my wife and said, “This is a Coldplay song with the words from Endless Love and a weird melody layed on top of it.” Now it should be noted that in his pre-performance video, Chris went out of his way to let everyone know that HE had written “some new chords” for the song… we needed to know that this was HIS arrangement. The problem with doing that is that when a person plagiarizes a song… they probably should not do it on national television.It happens an awful lot… it really does… even Shaun Groves’ biggest hit during his Christian career is nearly identical to a song by Silverchair, but how many people that would ever listen to Shaun Groves would know that? Here’s the thing though… sometimes it happens by accident (I doubt that Shaun Groves was purposely copying Silverchair… perhaps the subconscious came into play), but I REALLY question Chris Sligh. So, I was extremely glad to hear when Randy “Dawg” Jackson said that the arrangement was basically Coldplay’s Speed of Sound. I am glad that there is a judge there that is knowledgeable enough about current music to know when someone has “borrowed” a little too much. I also was not impressed in the least with Sligh’s arrangement and I thought that Simon was much kinder than I would have been.

Ok… and um… I think that Sanjaya’s hair last night looked like the Cowardly Lion’s… I just can’t speak to whether or not he was copying the Lion’s “do” or not.

Jeff Noble recently posted his opinions on another post regarding the answer to knowing when it is time to leave your church. There is a chance that my posting is going to come off sounding adversarial and I would like to say, for the record, that it is certainly not my intention…

While I agree with most of what Jeff has to say about this topic, I have to ask this question… Is it not possible for a person to evaluate “whether they or their children are growing spiritually and in their understanding of and embrace of a life mission and ministry” in a “pew-centered” and/or “classroom-oriented” setting? I know an awful lot of regular church attenders (ones that attend a “pew-centered” and “classroom-oriented” church) that are aware that “there are genuine and authentic (though certainly not perfect) gatherings of Christ followers”… these individuals are constantly evaluating their church and they often have issues with things, but the implication that these people “haven’t paused long enough to consider the dearth of a deep love of God and others in their own spiritual life” is preposterous and seems to be colored with more than just a small amount of pride… maybe I’m wrong.

Where is the mention of asking God if it is time to leave the church? I know more than a handful (some in my own church… many that are not) of people that would have left their church a very long time ago for different reasons, but that feel like God has left them there for a specific purpose… discovering that purpose is often difficult, but they feel that there is a reason that they are supposed to stay. In a culture and time in which it is becoming easier and easier to move on when you discover that you don’t love your spouse… or your job… or your house… or your church, I tend to err on the side of being absolutely sure that God’s desire is to move on… I recently experienced this as another church that I had initially never contacted asked me to come in view of a call… much “better job” on paper, but God was not in this move.

Am I wrong here? I do want to hear from anyone on this…

Dean kinda lovingly scolded me recently for my lack of posts that have been happening lately (Thanks, Dean!). It is good to know that someone actually cares whether or not my thoughts are being written down… and for those of you who care… they have been… just not here. I’ve been writing a lot of music lately. It sometimes gets to the point where I get inspired and I have a hard time doing anything else until the song(s) is finished. For instance, I started working on a song this past Wednesday afternoon with the intention of singing it Sunday morning. I did finish it (at 1:30 in the morning on Sunday and then finished the track for it about an hour later) and for those of you that listen to the music here, it is MUCH more upbeat than most of the songs that I write. This is something that I have been striving to work on because some people… even my friends… begin to assume that I am a sad and mopey person that is constantly deep in thought. The thing is, I AM sometimes sad and mopey and I am often deep in thought, but I am just as often making ridiculously stupid jokes and listening to rock ‘n roll or sports talk radio or NPR or Radiohead or The Beach Boys or Sufjan Stevens or Penderecki… anyway – you get the picture. I’m afraid that my catalog of songs is not reflecting my complete personality. So, I am trying to change that overall picture… I promised a new song probably two months ago and have really struggled with the recording side of things, have had strep throat, and have had life altering decisions in front of me ever since. It is coming at some point… as well as two or three others… my most recent song is ready to go other than having my vocals recorded, but that is always my biggest problem with the equipment that I have (or don’t have).

I planned on posting on Mark 2:1-5 (the story of Jesus healing the paralytic man) recently but that is what my most recent song is about… so the song will come with the post. Anyway – my apologies to those of you who read, listen, and/or comment on this site… I will try to be a bit better about things.