There is was again. You’ve probably seen more than one of these types of scenes in popular TV shows. The scene where some kid around the age of 4-5 confronted with their first real processing of death asks a question similar to “where do we go when we die?” Which is closely followed by “who goes to heaven” and “will animals be there” and other after-life questions.

What’s always amusing and dissapointing is the answer that the writers have for the parents. It’s always convoluted and universalist in some way, they dodge the question and the scene/show moves on. I’m not dissapointed in the sense of “gee I wish they’d just tell the truth”, or ” those idiots dodge any incling of truth.” I don’t expect people who don’t know Jesus to talk like they do (thats a whole different issue we’ll talk about sometime). It’s dissapointing because they probably don’t know Jesus, and don’t know the good news. And they don’t know the truth of the situation. They live in a bubble where no one dare presents the idea that someone may actually go to hell. Its like when NBC left out “Under God” in the pledge opening last year for the US Open (I think). I don’t think someone was in the room going “lets leave out “Under God” it will really tick off the Christians.” I think they all thought that surely no one would notice, or people don’t care about things like that. You know why….the people in that room are all alike and think on the same spiritual (or non-spiritual) wavelength.

Anyway, back to the “heaven” question. When I see that happen on a TV show, I may not show it, but a little pride comes over my heart. Not in a “I’m Right” way or a “turn or burn” way; but because there’s going to be questions I don’t know the answer to. I may not be Dr. Drew when it comes to “the talk” (much to the dismay of some conservative baptists, Mark Driscoll is helping us all with that . I may not know why kids are mean, and say things that they just shouldn’t. But one thing I do know, is there is a Heaven, and conversley, there is a hell. But JESUS saves us from that. I know my children will go through periods where “I don’t know anything”, but I hope on the big things, they know what I have said and taught them and they’ve seen it enough in Dads life that they know its got to be true.

You probably don’t recognize what this is…..its pretty random.

Last night my wife did a devotion with our 3 year old little girl about the wise men and their gifts to the baby Jesus. The task afterward was to find a small bag and go around the house find little things to put in the bag as a gift to Jesus. Here is some of the ingredients in Journey’s bag: Cinnamon sticks, toothpics, rosemary, sprinkles (4 different kinds:), gummies, and cupcake goldfish.

Here’s the funny thing….I loved it. Its a conglomerate of things that I would never put together, but you know what, that doesn’t matter. I just love that she compiled something to give to Jesus. Here’s the big idea to remember. Jesus feels the same way. Sometimes, we try to piously compile great accomplishments for the “kingdom of God” and all Jesus wants is what we have, with the heart of a 3 year old little girl.

Lets wake up each day not longing for “great” things to give to God and start with the little things we have….even if its weird spices, some candies, and sprinkles.

The article below reflects what I believe is a growing trend among the younger folk In the age of constant accessibility, manners and etiquette are on the rise. Younger people mostly get annoyed when their parents pick up their smart phone at the table to answer an email or text. the end result is you have 4 people all sitting at a table engaging with everyone BUT the people they sit with. This is a new way to keep a monitor on that!

How ‘The Phone Stack’ is civilizing dinners out with friends

Tired of cell phones interrupting every meal? A clever new game poses a solution

If the buzzes and beeps of cell phones keep interrupting your dinners, try “The Phone Stack” game to mandate that everyone abandon their gadgets during mealtime. Photo: CC BY: psdSEE ALL 46 PHOTOS

What is “The Phone Stack”?
Also known as “Don’t Be A Dork During Meals With Friends,” the game tries to curb cell phone interruptions when dining out with pals. After everyone orders, they place their phones in the center of the table, face down. They may even stack the gadgets, as the name suggests. Even as the phones buzz and ring throughout the meal, no one is allowed to grab his device. If someone is unable to resist his smartphone’s siren’s song, he’s responsible for picking up the check.

Who came up with the idea?
A 20-year-old named Stephie, who lives in California, is getting the credit. “I recommend not being such a stickler on people about the rules and even initiation of the game,” she says on her blog. “Basic premise is to just get people open to the idea of staying active and attentive to one another. But if someone has to take a call; they have to take a call =).”

And people like “The Phone Stack”?
It’s “brilliant,” says Dave McGinn at Canada’s Globe and Mail. And it’s really striking a chord with people. Yeah, it “sounds like the ultimate in dining/phone etiquette,” says Elie Ayrouth at Foodbeast. It might just be one of the “coolest” pieces “of socially engineered live gaming I have ever heard of.” As you play, you just have to ask yourself, “Is that text message worth the cost of everyone else’s dinner?”

This is an Article I did for RedTieMusic.com for this month.

Click Tracks and Conductors

Over the past nine years I have had the privilege of working and traveling with our worship pastor, Charles Billingsley. We have been in many different churches with worship ministries that run the gamut on how they do things. There are a few issues that seem to arise more than others when it comes to practically executing quality worship services.

One major issue is whether or not to use a click track. At Thomas Road, we use click track on 95% of things that we play. It helps us to lock in together and function as a unit musically. Also, when changing songs, sometimes it’s hard to remember the difference between tempos. A 10 bpm difference doesn’t sound like a lot, and between 120-130, it’s not huge…..but that same bpm difference between 70-80 makes much more of a difference. A click track ensures that we all are hearing the same tempo and know where the pocket is.

The other major issue we have encountered is what I call “the drifting of the beats.” Most players watch a conductor enough to know where “1″ is. The problem comes in between each “1″ on “2, 3 and 4.” This especially happens in churches where electric drums are used. If everyone can’t hear the beats within a measure, everyone develops their own definition of where the other beats are. Pretty soon you have an entire orchestra with a dozen different definitions of where the accents, pushes, and hits are. There are two main things you can do to help alleviate this issue. One, make sure everyone can hear the drummer consistently across the stage, which may mean you need to increase stage volume <cringe>. The second thing is what we’ve talked about above: the click track. Using a click track, everyone, including your choir director or conductor, has the same definition of what 110 bpm is.

At Thomas Road, we mainly use Ableton Live for all of our worship and some of our choir tunes. Ableton has become the industry standard for live click generation as well as loops and live stems playback. We also use “loops in worship”

(www.loopsinworship.com) which was developed by my good friend Will Doggett. It is an incredible resource which is completely geared toward equipping worship leaders to use Ableton to improve the quality of what they do. You can also buy simple metronomes like the “Dr. Beat” which let you program songs in them like a setlist. There’s also an app called “isetlist” which lets you do the same for a really low price.

Hopefully this helps you as we all are working to increase the quality of our worship services…….God Bless.