Well, I don't want to make this a habit. But, Don Knotts seems a part of my childhood, too. I was never really an Andy Griffith Show fan, but I watched many an episode of Three's Company while rolling newspapers before setting off on my route. Mr. Furley cleaned ther Ropers' clocks.
I also remember seeing the Apple Dumpling Gang in the theatre with my family and I watch re-runs of Mr. Limpet and I think I still enjoy the Ghost and Mr. Chicken. I'm surprised that this article didn't mention the movie Knotts made with Tim Conway that I think was called Private Eyes.
Anyway...Thanks for everything, Mr. Knotts.
2.25.2006
Another too good to pass up
My friend, Jake found this article and linked to it on his blog first. But, it's so good. In case there's anybody reading my blog that doesn't already read Jake's, you need to check this out.
2.23.2006
Amazon.com: Mega Church: Networked Special Edition (PC Game): Computer & Video Games
Amazon.com: Mega Church: Networked Special Edition (PC Game): Computer & Video Games
This was too good not to add a link. Don't worry, it's just a gag...
This was too good not to add a link. Don't worry, it's just a gag...
2.22.2006
step outside yourself
ChatterBoxGameShow.com :: View topic - Church steals XBOX 360 trademark to lure new members
This is kind of interesting. Somebody on this video game bulletin board got a postcard from a church parodying (sp?) the new Xbox ads to try to get people to come to their church.
Most of the resulting comments reflect how non-church people respond and react to these marketing attempts made by churches. Particularly take note of how much hostility is generated at just the sight of this postcard.
A couple other things I found interesting:
-One commentor pointed out the fact that if you turned your "life 360" would be turning your life right back around to where you started. Great marketing, guys!
-I found the blurb quoted from the web-site about the children's ministry particularly distateful and the reaction it received to be very appropriate. More and more, I am appalled at the blatant marketing of church. If it turns my stomach so much, and I am willing to believe that the people putting out this crap are at least sincere in their attempts, I can't imagine how repellant it must be to the potential "consumer".
Personally, I just don't want anything to do with church or Christianity presented like this. Thank God the good news is not the Church or Christianity. How sad is it that the Church and/or Christianity have become such hindrances to the gospel?
This is kind of interesting. Somebody on this video game bulletin board got a postcard from a church parodying (sp?) the new Xbox ads to try to get people to come to their church.
Most of the resulting comments reflect how non-church people respond and react to these marketing attempts made by churches. Particularly take note of how much hostility is generated at just the sight of this postcard.
A couple other things I found interesting:
-One commentor pointed out the fact that if you turned your "life 360" would be turning your life right back around to where you started. Great marketing, guys!
-I found the blurb quoted from the web-site about the children's ministry particularly distateful and the reaction it received to be very appropriate. More and more, I am appalled at the blatant marketing of church. If it turns my stomach so much, and I am willing to believe that the people putting out this crap are at least sincere in their attempts, I can't imagine how repellant it must be to the potential "consumer".
Personally, I just don't want anything to do with church or Christianity presented like this. Thank God the good news is not the Church or Christianity. How sad is it that the Church and/or Christianity have become such hindrances to the gospel?
east win
Not too terribly long ago, Holly and my weekends consisted of regular cycle: -pack up the car-drive somewhere-spend the
night in a host home-get up sunday and sing in a sunday
morning service-eat good, midwest women's cooking and try to
catch a nap on sunday afternoon in said host bed-go back to
church and offer a "sharing time" of my songs for about an
hour for anybody who'd show up and listen- hopefully sell
some CDs and then get to partake in a good ole' "dessert
social"- pack up the van and drive home.
It was a good life. We saw lots of friends and made many new friends out in those churches across the midwest. I know
that southern women are supposed to be the best cooks, but
I'll tell you that some of those midwest church potluck
dinners couldn't be beat. And at the same time, I got to
play my songs for listening, appreciative audiences on a
regular basis.
At the time, the hardest part or true "work" of that
lifestyle was booking the gigs. During the week, I spent
hours on the phone contacting people, sending out promo
materials and building relationships with ministers and music ministers to the point where they would trust me with sharing my songs with their congregations.
Probably 95% of the time, these contacts were not truly cold
calls. I knew lots of people from bible college and we'd
meet other people at camps or conventions or would get
referrals from other ministers. This just helped in building the relationship and letting these people know that I wasn't a cook and and I wasn't a crook and that they could trust me
with my "sharing time".
I tried "cold calling" regularly, and it proved the most
difficult. As I mentioned, since I don't have name that
people recognize from magazines or from christian radio, it
really was a matter of letting the music minister get to know me enough to trust that I had something relevant to share
with their people. It always struck me as odd that I had a
terrible time crossing "denominational lines" and that most
wouldn't even consider me coming a singing if I couldn't
prove to them I was of the correct flavor. However, if that
same person heard somebody on the radio, suddenly that wasn't such a big deal. Anyway...
East Win was one of those rare instances where I found the
church in some directory, called and talked to the music
minister, sent him a CD, and worked it out to go share a
concert the first time. Since then, it's up for debate how
many times we've been back; somewhere between 3 and 5 times.
This church has been so encouraging to Holly and me from the
very beginning. For some reason, my songs and little stories of where they came from just seemed to click.
Two weekends ago, we went back to East Win. It's a pretty
big church. I can't ever imagine that people will actually
remember us and remember the last time we were there, and yet people were actually excited that we cam back! I don't know
how many times people came to our CD table and pointed out
all the CDs they already owned and asked "what's new?"
In the past, my songs fit into the "christian music"
description pretty easily. Now, Gypsy Heart is the newest CD and I had, and I'm the first to point out that these songs
were not designed to spoon-feed anybody my ideas of
Christianity and/or belief to anybody else. I was a little
apprehensive about how this batch of songs might be received
by this faithful audience.
Of course, I'm an idiot for not giving them enough credit.
Even on an especially bad-weather weekend and prepratory
warnings from the Music Minister about how much difficulty he has getting people to come out for concerts, I felt we had a
pretty decent crowd. Not only were they an attentive and
interactive audience, they really seemed to "get" where these songs came from and seemed to accept the fact that their
encouragement and support was encouragement and support for
me to taking these songs outside of those walls.
Obviously, it was nice to get a decent paycheck for my
music/concert/services, and it was also nice to move a few
CDs into the hands of appreciative fans. But more than that,
I hope that East Win knows that how much more their support
and encouragement meant to me.
night in a host home-get up sunday and sing in a sunday
morning service-eat good, midwest women's cooking and try to
catch a nap on sunday afternoon in said host bed-go back to
church and offer a "sharing time" of my songs for about an
hour for anybody who'd show up and listen- hopefully sell
some CDs and then get to partake in a good ole' "dessert
social"- pack up the van and drive home.
It was a good life. We saw lots of friends and made many new friends out in those churches across the midwest. I know
that southern women are supposed to be the best cooks, but
I'll tell you that some of those midwest church potluck
dinners couldn't be beat. And at the same time, I got to
play my songs for listening, appreciative audiences on a
regular basis.
At the time, the hardest part or true "work" of that
lifestyle was booking the gigs. During the week, I spent
hours on the phone contacting people, sending out promo
materials and building relationships with ministers and music ministers to the point where they would trust me with sharing my songs with their congregations.
Probably 95% of the time, these contacts were not truly cold
calls. I knew lots of people from bible college and we'd
meet other people at camps or conventions or would get
referrals from other ministers. This just helped in building the relationship and letting these people know that I wasn't a cook and and I wasn't a crook and that they could trust me
with my "sharing time".
I tried "cold calling" regularly, and it proved the most
difficult. As I mentioned, since I don't have name that
people recognize from magazines or from christian radio, it
really was a matter of letting the music minister get to know me enough to trust that I had something relevant to share
with their people. It always struck me as odd that I had a
terrible time crossing "denominational lines" and that most
wouldn't even consider me coming a singing if I couldn't
prove to them I was of the correct flavor. However, if that
same person heard somebody on the radio, suddenly that wasn't such a big deal. Anyway...
East Win was one of those rare instances where I found the
church in some directory, called and talked to the music
minister, sent him a CD, and worked it out to go share a
concert the first time. Since then, it's up for debate how
many times we've been back; somewhere between 3 and 5 times.
This church has been so encouraging to Holly and me from the
very beginning. For some reason, my songs and little stories of where they came from just seemed to click.
Two weekends ago, we went back to East Win. It's a pretty
big church. I can't ever imagine that people will actually
remember us and remember the last time we were there, and yet people were actually excited that we cam back! I don't know
how many times people came to our CD table and pointed out
all the CDs they already owned and asked "what's new?"
In the past, my songs fit into the "christian music"
description pretty easily. Now, Gypsy Heart is the newest CD and I had, and I'm the first to point out that these songs
were not designed to spoon-feed anybody my ideas of
Christianity and/or belief to anybody else. I was a little
apprehensive about how this batch of songs might be received
by this faithful audience.
Of course, I'm an idiot for not giving them enough credit.
Even on an especially bad-weather weekend and prepratory
warnings from the Music Minister about how much difficulty he has getting people to come out for concerts, I felt we had a
pretty decent crowd. Not only were they an attentive and
interactive audience, they really seemed to "get" where these songs came from and seemed to accept the fact that their
encouragement and support was encouragement and support for
me to taking these songs outside of those walls.
Obviously, it was nice to get a decent paycheck for my
music/concert/services, and it was also nice to move a few
CDs into the hands of appreciative fans. But more than that,
I hope that East Win knows that how much more their support
and encouragement meant to me.
2.20.2006
2.15.2006
Eugene Peterson on U2 and prophets
U2 news article - from @U2
This is an interview with Eugene Peterson, the guy who wrote the popular new paraphrase, The Message. For years, while leading worship at camps or dealing with friends from college who are now in music ministries or youth ministries, a conversation might come up that goes something like this:
me: "dude, have you heard the new U2 CD? It's is awesome!"
Youth Minister: "No, I haven't heard it. I didn't think they were Christians anymore. Have you heard the new 3rd Day? Now that's a great Christian Rock Band!"
me in my head: "did you really just question U2 and then compare them to 3rd day?"
And then we'd talk about something else...
Anyway, I particularly like the section of this interview where Peterson is talking about prophets and asking whether or not U2 is "christian" is really asking the wrong question.
This is an interview with Eugene Peterson, the guy who wrote the popular new paraphrase, The Message. For years, while leading worship at camps or dealing with friends from college who are now in music ministries or youth ministries, a conversation might come up that goes something like this:
me: "dude, have you heard the new U2 CD? It's is awesome!"
Youth Minister: "No, I haven't heard it. I didn't think they were Christians anymore. Have you heard the new 3rd Day? Now that's a great Christian Rock Band!"
me in my head: "did you really just question U2 and then compare them to 3rd day?"
And then we'd talk about something else...
Anyway, I particularly like the section of this interview where Peterson is talking about prophets and asking whether or not U2 is "christian" is really asking the wrong question.
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