Reading Challenge Update Apr/May

Sorry I’ve been so lax with the updates, my fellow readers! It seems that there is quite a bit to do around a church from Christmas to Mother’s Day – WHO KNEW? So the delay is 1 part “too busy to post” and 3 parts “too busy to read”, so it would have been embarrassing to post and let the world know I had fallen way behind!

Anyway, here’s the latest things I have finished up.

Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Dr. Meg Meeker
This book is simply a must have for any Dad who has at least one daughter. It took me a long time to get though it because there is so much good stuff to process and absorb. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Rodney Dangerfield: It’s Not Easy Bein’ Me: A Lifetime of No Respect but Plenty of Sex and Drugs
I’m a sucker for old showbiz books. Especially biographies. There are tons of life lessons in there for anyone who cares to find them. I enjoy finding the hidden gems in a person’s life and experiences. It’s not for everybody, but if you’re a biography fan it’s a pretty good, quick read.

IN PROGRESS
I was hoping to have these further along by now, but c’est la vie.

Do You Guys Ever Sing Christian Music In Church?

Lately on Oakbrook’s YouTube channel, we’ve gotten quite a few comments along the lines of this particular fellow:

dmatthewsfan: Not only is it a bad cover, but do you guys ever sing Christian music in church?

This sort of amazes me, because if you’re an actual attender of Oakbrook, you know that the vast majority of music we do is worship music and/or so-called, “Christian Contemporary.” But I do understand the confusion. These commenters DON’T go to Oakbrook. On the YouTube channel, the more secular “covers” that we do get a lot more views and attention than the other stuff. This is understandable. The fact that a church would do a Dave Matthews Band, U2, Coldplay, Beatles, Linkin Park, Marvin Gaye, Martina McBride, or Montgomery Gentry song is, obviously, somewhat controversial for a “church.” The fans of these artists are constantly trolling the internet for interesting cover versions of their favorite music, too. (Mostly so they can leave nasty comments about how bad the cover versions are!)

So the thought occurred to me to post some of our more “sacred” YouTube clips and put them all here, on one page, where they are easily accessible. My intention here is not to defend Oakbrook or our programming approach, but just to be a resource for fielding these kinds of questions from people who genuinely want to know the full scope of what we do.

The following are some of my favorite “God-centered” songs we’ve done recently. Enjoy!

God Is Alive/Sing Sing Sing

Everlasting God

God Of This City

Praise The Father, Praise The Son

Awesome Is The Lord Most High

True Love

Desperate People

Because Of Your Love

Great Light Of The World

How He Loves

Still Alive

I’d just like to say that I’m still alive, even if I haven’t posted in a while. I’m awaiting inspiration

Idol Power Rankings, Top 8 (Birth Year Week)

Here are my Power Rankings for Top 8 week on Idol.
Previous Rankings: Top 13 | Top 12 | Top 11 | Top 10 | Top 9

1. Allison Iraheta, “I Can’t Me You Love Me”. Her vocals were NAILS, y’all. She is getting better and better each and every week. I was VERY impressed with her SKILLZ this week!
2. Matt Giraud, “Part Time Lovers”. Matt is back, yo! We hope “Rock Band Matt” is gone for good! Very very, nice job.
3. Danny Gokey, “Stand By Me”. Another nice, strong, consistent effort by one of my favorites. Nothing groundbreaking but another strong performance.
4. Adam Lambert, “Mad World”. OK…my personal opinion is that we went backwards into “Weird Adam” land again. It was OK I guess, but it definitely wasn’t my thing at all. I was not a fan of that performance.
5. Anoop Desai, “True Colors”. Anoop the balladeer returns. This is what he can do well. It’s in his sweet spot.
6. Lil Rounds, “What’s Love Got To Do With It” When she sings, it makes me want to take a big breath FOR her! It always seems like she’s struggling to keep up with the beat and to have enough air. It creates a very uneasy feeling. The big high note pushed sharp. Lil started this competition in my top 3, but her impact on me is fading quickly. I think the width of her sweet spot is extremely narrow. She is proving week after week that she can’t sing other genres that are thrown at her.
7. Kris Allen, “All She Wants To Do Is Dance”. What was with that crazy arrangement, bro? I didn’t get it. That song doesn’t really work as a funk pop thing. I think somewhere in the distance, Don Henley is crying himself to sleep.
8. Scott MacIntyre, “The Search Is Over”. Scott, your search for the Idol crown is over. It’s time to go now. Thanx. Buh-bye.

Writing to you from the hospital

I thought that I had better write this down for everyone so I wouldn’t have to keep telling the story over and over. I’m in the hospital after quite an eventful evening.

At about 2am last night, I awoke to the sounds of a ravenous animal loose in the house. It was a very scary sound, like growling, but it sounded HUGE. It freaked me out and at first I wondered if I was dreaming it – as I was still in that “I just woke up in the middle of the night” fog. I looked over at Mandy and she was looking at me, too. She said, “Do you hear that?” I nodded.

I quickly got up and put my houseslippers on, and grabbed the only thing I could find to carry as protection – a Barbie guitar. By this time, I could hear this huge animal loose in the kitchen. I heard the trash can get knocked over. Then I heard pots and pans falling and crashing to the floor. I heard Zoe scream.

When I heard Zoe, I ran up the stairs as fast as I could and just when I reached the third step from the top, I froze. I was staring eye-to-eye with the biggest, meanest looking dog I have ever seen in my life. It was HUGE! It barked at me, and kept making that low growling, deranged noise I had heard earlier. This creature had hate in it’s eyes. Drool was dripping from its mouth. It had me locked in its gaze. I slowly shifted my weight and brought the Barbie guitar up to “attack stance”.

I don’t really remember what happened next. It was so fast. It lunged at me and bit into my leg. I started swinging the Barbie guitar wildly in between yelps from the pain of its huge teeth sinking into me. The girls are screaming. Mandy was on the stairs behind me and was trying to help get the animal off of me. It jumped on top of me and starting scratching and biting at me. This went on for quite a while.

Mandy says I eventually got a big strong downward thrust with the Barbie guitar and it landed square on the animal’s head, which caused the dog to yelp in pain and caused the guitar to start playing the Christina Aguilera song, “What A Girl Wants.” It must have been on just the right spot of the dog’s head because the only memory I have after that is seeing blurrly animal legs running out the back door. I fainted after that.

Mandy called 911 and the ambulance came and took me to the St. Joe ER. I was coming in and out of consciousness but I remember seeing Cameron Huffman and thinking, what the heck is he doing here? And then I remembered that he works here. Turns out I needed a lot of work done to my face, neck, arms and legs. I overheard one of the doctors tell Mandy that I had lost a lot of blood and was lucky to be alive.

I’m in a lot of pain now, but am going to be OK. The doctors say the scars will heal and that there was no permanent damage. Hopefully I can return to work in a couple of weeks.

Mandy told me that after the ambulance came and took me away, when she went to lock the back door, she saw the dog hanging around outside. It was the same dog, but it was no longer in that “red zone” attack mentality. It was calm and held its head low and had its tail down. It had a sign around its neck that said, “I so totally punked all of you. April Fools!”

Idol Power Rankings, Top 9 (iTunes Week)

Here are my Power Rankings for Top Ten week on Idol.
Previous Rankings: Top13 | Week 1 | Week 2 | Top 10

1. Adam Lambert, “Play That Funky Music”. Adam is by FAR the most consistently awesome contestant. I think we are seeing the winner unfold before our eyes. Simply amazing. I can’t wait to see what he’s going to attempt next. He’s starting to distance himself from the other contestants. They all have a lot of catching up to do.
2. Danny Gokey, “What Hurts The Most”. Danny is still one of my favorites on this show, but I wasn’t in sync with the judges this time. I felt he pushed a little hard and oversang it. He certainly did that on the big high note, (whch squeaked out) and might have been a little sharp on the very last note of the song. I did agree with Kara, though – he does bring his heart and soul every week.
3. Kris Allen, “Ain’t No Sunshine”. When I heard the song he was singing, I was very skeptical – but I think he actually worked it out really well. I was pretty impressed after all. It turned out to be one of his best performances.
4. Allison Iraheta, “Don’t Speak”. She continues to amaze me that she is just 16 years old. Her tone and control is astounding for that age. I really don’t get the whole judges commenting on her looks and dress so much. I don’t really care that much about it and it wasn’t that distracting to me. And having a daughter myself that is into Hannah Montana and HSM and iCarly and everything, I think what she wore is right in line with her age.
5. Lil Rounds, “I Surrender”.  Celine Dion? Really? You can pick anything you want off the iTunes charts and you picked straight-up, white, adult contemporary? LIL – You are an R&B singer. Why do you keep running from that? The back half of the song was better than the beginning, but still – I don’t get it. You are an awesome singer – but WHY CELINE?
6. Matt Giraud, “You Found Me”. He might have been feeling it, but I wasn’t. It was a class in Oversinging 101. Not good. It was back to the Matt that did Viva La Vida.
7. Anoop Desai, “Caught Up”. I was really not impressed this week. Sorry Anoop. Perhaps you are just a balladeer. Everytime you try to do an uptempo song you prove how cheesy you are.
8. Scott MacIntyre, “I Love You Just The Way You Are”. Scott, it may be time to go, buddy. That was not very good, dude. Cheesy. Cruise Ship. The opposite of something hip and contemporary. Kara and Simon were wrong. It was lame.
9. Megan Joy Corkrey, “Turn Your Lights Down Low”. I am really tired of Lady Caw Caw’s act. Please send her home America!

Idol Power Rankings, Top 10 (Motown Week)

Here are my Power Rankings for Top Ten week on Idol.
Previous Rankings: Top13 | Week 1 | Week 2

1. Adam Lambert, “Tracks of My Tears”. I’m absolutely speechless. That was the performance of the year so far. Absolutely stunning. Beautiful. Passionate. Perfection.
2. Danny Gokey, “Get Ready”. It was good. It was really good. But Adam was better. Danny drops a spot to #2 this week!
3. Allison Iraheta, “Papa Was A Rolling Stone”. She really brought it tonight! Very very good. She jumps up 4 spots from me this week!
4. Anoop Desai, “Ooh Baby Baby”. I might be an outsider on this, but I really really liked it. The falsetto wasn’t perfect, but the feel and interpretation was dead ON. Simon’s criticism about showmanship was good feedback, I think.
5. Matt Giraud, “Let’s Get It On”. I was very impressed at the beginning, but it turned a little “boy band” for me near the end. The judges seemed to really like it, though. I tend to judge ANYBODY who sings Marvin pretty harshly though – he’s one of the top male vocalists of all time in my opinion.
6. Lil Rounds, “Heat Wave”.  Is it me or did she sound nervous and out of breath throughout the song? It sounded like she was struggling to keep up, and kind of oversinging it. I was expecting her to come out with this genre and just KILL, but I was kind of disappointed. I agreed with Kara completely.
7. Kris Allen, “How Sweet It Is”. It was a really smart song choice for him. I’m not sure what it is, but I’m just not a big fan of Kris’s. He did a respectable job with the tune, but I’m just not impressed with him. It was OK – but again I say – So What? I think the girlies all just like the way he looks.
8. Scott MacIntyre, “You Can’t Hurry Love”. I just figured it out. He’s Richard Carpenter! (Great composer/arranger/musician – but so-so vocalist.) He needs a Karen.
9. Michael Sarver, “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”. White boy got completely exposed this week. Simon was spot on accurate with his criticism.
10. Megan Joy Corkrey, “For Once In My Life”. Lady Caw Caw finally showed us the truth tonght, and everyone saw it – including all 4 judges.

Biblical Compassion

What is a Christ-follower’s responsibility regarding compassion? What does the Bible say about it?
Lately it seems that there are about a million good causes that a Christ-follower could get involved with. They offer an entire range of opportunities from the obvious soup kitchens and food drives and global poverty initiatives, to the more personally time-consuming tutoring or hospital & prison visitation, to the more obscure projects like christian animal rescue or outreach to sex-industry workers or helping scattered Jews return to Israel.

If you’re anything like me, it can be a bit overwhelming. Where do I start? There are so many worthy causes! For myself, personally, I thought the best place for me to start was to open up the Bible and review what was there. After all, if I am going to give my time, talents, and resources to compassion ministries I want to be sure that I am at least fulfilling my Biblical responsibilities. So I’ve been researching a little while.

What I Found
One of the first things I noticed was that God’s heart on the matter has not changed. You can find scriptural references to helping and caring for the disadvantaged in every section of the Bible – Law, Prophets, Poetry, Gospels and Letters – they all have something to say on the subject. This means God has consistently been trying to teach humanity to be givers and to have compassion for people since the beginning. There are no lame excuses allowable (ie: “well that part of the Bible only applies to the Jews”, etc.)

One thing is for certain – God is on the side of the poor. Big Time. “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.” Proverbs 29:7. See also Isaiah 41:17.

Another thing I noticed was that it is clear that the early church, as described in Acts and Paul’s letters acted as sort of a social services agency – caring for those who had no one else to care for them. The church pooled their resources in order to care for the needs of not only the church members, but also others whom society had neglected.
[*see footnote]

So who are we talking about? Whom does the Bible say we are to care for?

The Poor. There are a TON of verses about caring for the poor. I like this verse in Luke 3 because I think it captures the proper, balanced spiritual perspective all in one verse. By that I mean that it is clear that our giving is to come from our surplus (we should take care of our immediate family needs first, and then give of our abundance.) “John [the Baptist] answered, ‘The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.’” Luke 3:11

Widows. The Bible is clear that we are to care for widows and the elderly who cannot take care of themselves. It says that the first responsibility is that an adult child should care for their own Father and Mother. (1 Timothy 5:4, 1 Timothy 5:8, Ephesians 6:2, Proverbs 23:22) If that responsibility is in neglect, then it is up to the Church to take on that responsibility. (James 1:27, 1 Timothy 5:3). In my opinion, we should also include single moms who struggle financially as widows. Certainly single moms who do not receive proper child support and help with the kids would qualify! If a man leaves his family and does not step up to his financial and parental responsibility then he may as well be dead.

Orphans. The Bible mentions orphans and the “fatherless” more times than I can count. The problem with this one is that society has changed. In Biblical times, if a child’s parents were killed and there were no grandparents or extended family to take them in, it was highly likely that the children would live on the street. There were no orphanges or foster homes then. So the church had a very real, specific need to fill there. In today’s society, the State cares for “true orphans”. So does that mean we are released from this obligation? I think we’d have a tough time just throwing these scriptures out the window. So what does a 21st century orphan look like and how would we care for them? That question leaves us with several possible answers:

1. Children of single parents often have needs that go unmet, especially when family income may be at or below the poverty level. How could you help these kids?
2. Maybe you could partner with an organization that cares for children of drug addicts, who are physically and emotionally unable to care for their children.
3. Perhaps you could give money to support organizations that care for AIDS orphans in Africa.
4. Perhaps God would lead you to be a foster family.
5. Perhaps God would lead you to adopt from China, where girls are aborted by the millions. Or from Russia or other countries where life expectancy is very low.

The Sick and Disabled. Jesus says we should invite the lame, blind, etc. to feast with us. He tells the story of the Good Samaritan to show that tending to the sick and disabled should cross any kind of social barrier. And he says that anytime you help “one of these” it is the exact same as if you were doing it to him. This is a no-brainer. All Christ-followers should care for the sick and reach out to the disabled.

Prisoners. The Bible explicity says that believers should care about, remember, and visit those in prison. (Hebrews 13:3, Matthew 25:36, 2 Timothy 1:16-18)

The Opressed. Social Injustice offends God (numerous Biblical examples). Therefore, it ought to offend us. It should give us a holy discontent when people are abused, taken advantage of, ripped off, silenced, persecuted, tortured, or neglected. “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.” Proverbs 31:8

CONCLUSION
I don’t know about you, but God is stirring me up about this stuff. I feel convicted for not doing anything significant about compassion initiatives. I feel that God is trying to teach me something about his character that I should do a better job modeling. I tend to just get caught up in my own life and my own cares and responsibilities and to just neglect my Biblical compassion responsibilities. What about you? Where are you with this stuff?

[* footnote: It is no secret that I am of the conservative political persuasion. Just check out some of the other articles on this blog site for confirmation of that. So people ask me all the time, "How can you be a strong conservative - believing in free market capitalism and no redistribution of wealth - yet also defend the obvious socialist model of the Acts church? How do you reconcile the two?" Well, the big difference is that we are talking about two completely different kinds of entities - Government and the Church. I believe in both - but I believe they shouln't try to do each other's jobs! Government should do what is best at - maintaining an army, establishing a currency, building roads and bridges, uhhhhhh remind me...what else do they do well??? <grin> But the CHURCH - well, that is an awesome socialist organization! (The difference being that participation is voluntary, not mandated by law). I have absolutely no problem with voluntarily pooling my resources into the church, who will then use that money to aid the poor, etc. My problem comes when my government takes money out of my pocket - by force - to give to my neighbor. Charity should be voluntary, otherwise it's not charity - it's a punishment for succeeding.]

Song Suggestions for Idol’s Motown Week

Adam Lambert: It would also be nice to see Adam’s softer side with “My Cherie Amour” (Stevie Wonder), but if he wants to keep the energy flowing, he could go with “I Was Made To Love Her” (Stevie Wonder).

Allison Iraheta: “What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted” (Jimmy Ruffin). This song has a lot of grit in the vocal, which would suit Allison nice.

Anoop Desai: “Baby I Need Your Loving” (The Four Tops). My advice to Anoop is to keep capitalizing on how strong your vocal is and don’t fall victim to feeling like you have to do something wild.

Danny Gokey: “Reach Out I’ll Be There” (Four Tops), or “Signed Sealed Delivered I’m Yours” (Stevie Wonder). Both songs would give Danny some optimum time in his power range and let his natural growl shine through.

Kris Allen: It will really surprise me if Kris can do well in this round. I had a tough time finding a song I felt like he could pull off well. But Michael McDonald’s newer version of “I Second That Emotion” could work well for him because it has the white-boy funk/pop thing in the groove.

Lil Rounds: Lil would absolutely kill “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” (Gladys Knight version).

Matt Giraud: “For Once In My Life” (Stevie Wonder) or “Mercy Mercy Me”(Marvin Gaye)

Megan Joy: What can I say? I think she’ll butcher any Motown song I throw out there – so maybe “Baby Love” (The Supremes)?

Michael Sarver: “Groovin” (Marvin Gaye) or “Walk Away Renee” (Four Tops)

Scott McIntyre: “How Sweet It Is” (James Taylor Version). If not that one, then I would definitely try to find some cover version that de-emphasizes the soul part and emphasizes the musicality.

Idol Power Rankings, Final Round Wk 2

Here are my Power Rankings for Week Two of the Final Round.
Previous Rankings: Top13 | Week 1 |

1. Danny Gokey, “Jesus Take The Wheel”. What is he wearing? popped collar? really? But MAN this dude’s top range is absolutely unbelievable. So much passion and guts and tone…wow. Kara was right – the 2nd half was stunning. Before I heard Danny I was considering moving Adam up, but I just can’t do it. Sorry Adam fans!
2. Adam Lambert, “Ring Of Fire”. WOW…not comfortable with him trying to make out with me through the TV camera, but the vocal performance was FANTASTICO! The dude really has a range and a style that is out of this world. I disagree with Simon again. Even though it was weird – I liked it. I think he would do great as a contemporary artist on a major label. He realy know who he is and what he does well.
3. Anoop Desai, “You Were Always On My Mind”. WOAH! What happened? Dorky Anoop went away and an awesome singer showed up instead! wow. still geeking out about it. It made me totally forget about “Beat It” last week!
4. Alexis Grace, “Jolene”. Overall I liked it and she’s got a great texture and tone. The only thing that kept bugging me is her tendency to sing behind the beat. But I admit that’s something that bugs me in a lot of music nowadays (esp. Beyonce)
5. Matt Giraud, “So Small”. Good singer. Good pianist. But so what? I thought the song choice didn’t really work. There was nothing that made me lean in or really care. I did not agree with Simon or Randy at all – he did NOT outsing Danny tonight.
6. Lil Rounds, “Independence Day”.  Pretty solid effort for a genre that’s clearly out of her comfort zone. Pop people may not be familiar with the original Martina McBride version, which I would say borders on one of those “untouchable” songs that is just so hard to try to copy. It is THE signature song for Martina. Hard to compete with that.
7. Allison Iraheta, “Blame It On Your Heart”. Her vibrato got a little out of control on her. She ran out of air a few times. Overall I think she was just trying too hard. Patty Loveless’s original version was very fun and flirty and bouncy – and Allison came out all Janis Joplin in-your-face. I was slightly disappointed. I think she would have done better with a Tanya Tucker song – which would have fit her voice style perfect.
8. Kris Allen, “To Make You Feel My Love”. I disagreed with Simon here. Vocal quality was OK I guess, but snooooooooze! I was bored.
9. Scott MacIntyre, “Wild Angels”. It was a good effort for him – I think he’s giving us the best he’s got. Unfortunately for him, there are just much more talented people in this competition than him.
10. Michael Sarver, “Ain’t Going Down Til The Sun Comes Up”. Yeah…not so good. Not anywhere near the standard that Garth Brooks sets for infectious energy. He seemed stiff and pales in comparison to the real thing. And contestants – when are you going to learn? You look like a cocky idiot when you “talk back” to the judges. It might play well in the studio, but it doesn’t carry to the television audience.
11. Megan Joy Corkrey, “Walking After Midnight”. Her old-soul, 40’s style came off cornball for the 2nd week in a row for me. I didn’t get it, dawg. It was like a last-minute replacement act for the Jerry Lewis Telethon. I don’t care if she was sick or not – it just wasn’t good.