Read the intensely self-conscious casting about for how to act as "a man".  These guys do the self-conscious thing one better: they're not just gazing at themselves, they're gazing at their hormones.  (Count the references to testosterone.) Read more

Spotted at the Thinklings, who have a superb collection of quotations that cycle in their banner.Read more

Check out Bill Wilder's substantial resources, particularly lectures on the kingdom of God.  Great, great stuff.

Hiring Personal Photographers

Excerpt:
Shannon Stauffer can easily take snapshots or get retail studio portraits of her children. But instead, the Harrisburg, Pa., mother paid $1,000 to hire a professional photographer to catch them in action — all year.Read more

Wanted: a Reformed Presbyterian seminary grad or current seminarian.
Job: part-time research assistant for the pastor of a large Presbyterian church, approximately 10 hours a week but not an hourly job.
Compensation: varies depending on what the pastor wants, but usually $100/research brief.
Skills needed:
-research skills- particularly gifted in creative brainstorming of illustrations. Also needs to be proficient in theological and exegetical analysis.Read more

I ran across this USA Today article today that tells about a new trend in Episcopalian churches to celebrate the Eucharist with U2 lyrics. I guess the argument is that just as Bach et al were the celebrated contemporary musicians of their day, and the church used them for worship, why should we not use the musings of Bono for the Eucharist today? I love Bono, but…..Read more

[Editor’s Note: Today CGO features my friend, Dustin Kidd, as our guest writer. See his biographical material below.]

Sufjan Stevens at the Tower, Philadelphia

 
I first started paying attention to the name Sufjan Stevens after I found myself singing one of his songs in a church a couple of years ago. I was visiting friends in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the church Vintage 21 often uses contemporary rock and folk songs as part of worship. That Sunday morning, the lyrics to Stevens’s song “To Be Alone with You” flashed onto the screen at the front of the room. I was struck by the ambiguity of the early verses—why were we singing this love song in church? Then we got to the key lyric:

You gave your body to the lonely

They took your clothes

You gave up a wife and family

You gave your ghost 

To be alone with me

 Just typing the lines makes me little teary eyed. Thereafter, I noticed that his songs were played frequently on WXPN here in Philadelphia, but I still didn’t really give him my full attention.

Then, a couple weeks ago I was wrapping up a board meeting of Spiral Q, the community puppet theater I volunteer with in West Philadelphia. Two of the other board members were racing to the door to head off to the Tower, a music venue just over the city limits, to see the Sufjan Stevens show, and casually mentioned having an extra ticket. As it was the lead-up week to my birthday, I decided that I deserved a good show and I joined in.

We got to the Tower just as the opening act was wrapping up, so I can’t comment on that. Making my way through the crowds in the lobby, 2 thoughts struck me: 1) at 31, I am one of the oldest people here, and 2) this is the whitest crowd I’ve seen in a long time.    Read more

I did some internet sleuthing and found this link.  "Cheryl" wrote several comments and says her husband, Bruce, was the music pastor of the church and received the famous voicemail.

The rapscallions at the Boars Head Tavern are grappling with criticism of rock and roll (here) and (here).

This reminded me of the voicemail received by a pastor that was on the internet a few months ago.  The guy leaving the voicemail is criticizing a pastor for allowing a woman on the worship team to move around too much.Read more

Interesting piece by Alasdair MacIntyre,  one of the most influential philosophers of our time.

MacIntyre inspects the debates about  colleges and universities and what their mission should be:

Read "The End of Education: The Fragmentation of the American University".