Taking a page from Tripp Fuller, a Baptist blogger with whom I agree more often than not, I’m going to make some New Year’s resolutions.  Tripp’s ideas are good ones so I’m going to modify them for myself in order to be conversant with his blog and intentional about my own.

First, the personal resolution: exercise.  I’ve lost a ton of weight but I really need to get into shape.  Not because I want to look good, but because I have low HDL cholesterol – which is a risk factor for heart problems.  I really need to build some muscle mass and bring that HDL up – and exercise is really the only reliable way.

Second, the Church resolution: EPIC preaching.   When I preached on Mary and Joseph presenting baby Jesus in the temple, I focused on Simeon’s words, “for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples…”  I was struck with the image of a Japanese hibachi restaurant where the food is prepared in the presence of all who sit around it, and that a true worship experience is to sense God’s salvation cooked up in the presence of the people.  I want our worship to be more Experiential, Participatory, Image-rich, and Connective (to borrow Len Sweet’s formula, which is a good one).

And finally, the Blog resolutions.  Tripp lists these four ideas, which I think are good ones:

1. Question of the Year: What is Religion?
2. Gospel of the Year: Matthew
3. Theologian of the Year: Paul Tillich
4. Doctrine of the Year: Ecclesiology

So here’s my list:

1. Question of the Year: What is Worship?
2. Gospel of the Year: Matthew (hey, it’s Year B!)
3. Theologian of the Year: John Cobb (I’ve got some Cobb I haven’t read, and this should be good motivation).
4. Doctrine of the Year: the Trinity

So if I post, like Tripp, on each of those four questions twenty times in 2009 I should have eighty worthwhile blog posts.

Hopefully I can get around to adapting 12 songs  (or even collections of verses) by the Wesleys with new original music.  One per month should be doable.

And maybe I will succeed with RPM ‘09 (I failed in “08, but I got a couple of good songs out of it!) Oh crap, that’s in like a month!

I’ll continue playing Friday Five games and blogging about good CDs and musical discoveries.

Winner: Trailerpark Barbie (see comments below)

I love the word monkey.  It’s always funny.  Say it with me.  Monkey.  Monkey.  Muuuuuunnnnnnkkkky.  See?  Anyway, Art suggested Monkey songs for this Friday Five so here we go:

1. Elvis Costello and the Imposters – Monkey to Man, which is a response to the great….
2. Dave Bartholomew – The Monkey (Speaks His Mind)
3. Chuck Berry – Too Much Monkey Business
4. Toots and the Maytals – Monkey Man
5. The Kinks – Apeman (Ray drops an F-bomb in this one, so NSFW)

Bonus:

Bill Kirchen, former lead guitarist for Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen, and friends

via Snottydoodles, here are five songs that never cease to bust me up.  Warning: there be a little bit o’ coarse language in the songs ahead.

• The Notorious Cherry Bombs – It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long.  Seriously, my marriage is great (19 years now!) but this song kills me.
• Todd Snider – Conservative Christian, Right-wing Republican, Straight, White American Males.  Actually, most of Snider’s music cracks me up.  See also Talkin’ Seattle Grunge Rock Blues.
• Lyle Lovett – Here I Am.  Somewhere in my garage I have a cassette tape of Lyle and his Large Band performing this song with comedian Steven Wright doing the spoken word parts.
• Robert Earl Keen – the Five Pound Bass.  I could have picked a lot of Keen songs (It’s the Little Things, Merry Christmas from the Family, The Front Porch Song, Bluegrass Widow, Copenhagen, etc.)  Lyle Lovett’s old college housemate shares a similar dry wit and sensibility.  This song reflects the way a lot of guys I know talk, and all the imagery is dead on.
• Antsy McClain and the Trailer Park Troubadours – I Was Just Flipped Off by a Silver Haired Old Lady Clearly I have a soft spot for funny country-folk songs with extraordinarily long titles but this one simply can’t be left off the list.  You owe it to yourself to click this one.

Bonus:  She Left Me For Jesus by Hayes Carll  (Only click play if you have a sense of humor and realize he’s singing in character)

Not that we’re mini-Methobloggers, we aren’t.  The mini describes the meetup, not the dudes.  Anyway I got to spend a great lunch with fellow Methoblogger, tech geek and all-around troublemaker Gavin Richardson.  We ate at the Macaroni Grill in the Opry Mills Mall.

Troublemakers

Gavin was slightly distracted because one of his youthies was across the room at the restaurant and I was slightly distracted by everything else (I have AD/HD for real, and shopping malls can be a real source of overstimulation and constant distraction).

(What’s that green schmutz on my forehead?  It’s just bad pixels in the cheezy cameraphone shot, not some sort of alien fluorescent guacamole.)

We talked about blogging, church life, married life, cellphones (he can’t seem to get used to the touch screen on his phone) and all kinds of random stuff.  We hit on theology and looked at Christian books in the Barnes & Noble together.

And it’s true – he does bear a striking physical resemblance to Jack Black.  Facial expressions, sense of humor,  body language – it’s all there.  I also have been compared to Jack Black, especially from his roles in School of Rock and High Fidelity (I too am a rock snob, a guitarist and singer).

It was a great time of fun and fellowship.  I hope to meet up with him again next time I’m in Nashville, or the next time we happen to travel to the same spot.

worries himself sick?  Is that the way it’s gonna be?

So here I am, ten minutes before midnight on the day before we leave for a brief vacation to visit friends.  A Sunday off.  I should be celebrating.

But I ain’t.  The pianist, our lone musician in one congregation, is away at the School of Christian Mission this week, and I fully support her in that.  Our backup pianist has not returned my phone calls.  I know he’s a busy guy and it ain’t his fault, but I still worry.  They’ll either sing a cappella or along with a P&W CD, or a combination. Church two’s keyboardist is away at an out-of-state baseball tournament with her son & family.  They’re doing great, BTW.  So that leaves a guitarist and a harmonica player who are mostly used to giving musical support rather than leadership.  They’ll do fine.

They’ll do fine.

They’ll do fine.

If I say it enough times maybe I’ll start believing it.  I know in my head that all will be well.  Our lay speaker is great.  The music will take care of itself.  It’s not like they haven’t done this before.

It’s just that I’m a worry wart.

I’ll be glad when I get back from vacation so I can stop worrying and relax.  How sick is that?

I’ll do just fine.  They’ll do just fine.  I’ll do what I can, they’ll do what they can and God will take care of the rest.

Okay Becca, I’ll play along.

Here are the rules of the meme:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name (or if, like me, you don’t have one, your blog name or handle or whatever).

Here’s the collage:

My searches:

1. Willie
2. King Crab
3. Carrier Mills
4. Green
5. Kate Winslet
6. Bloody Mary
7. Hawaii
8. Key Lime
9. Prophet
10. Wife Children
11. Goofy
12. Preach

Credits:
1. A night with Willie, 2. Me and king crab, 3. Harrisburg, Illinois – Class Picture from Early 1920s, 4. Green Womble House, 5. Kate_Winslet-Jenny_Gage_Photoshoot_02, 6. Bloody Mary in Belle Meade, 7. Blue Hawaii, 8. key lime pie, 9. Pensive prophet, 10. A Great New Life, 11. is the coast clear?, 12. The Warrior-Prophet

…you’ll never hear me give.

1. Secular music has secret messages encoded forward and backward that your brain will unconsciously pick up and you will are worshiping the devil without even knowing it.
2. Someday you and everyone who ever lived will gather in the presence of God and every last second of your entire life will play out on a movie screen for everyone to see and God will decide your eternal fate based upon what he (and everyone else) sees there.
3. Since you’ve been at camp you’ve undoubtedly had impure thoughts about someone you’ve seen here.  If so, you have already raped them in your mind and need to repent up here at the altar.  Now.
4. We’re about to take communion, and if you take it in “an unworthy manner” then you are bound for the pits of hell.
5. I know you’re only twelve, but you need to decide right now to devote the entire rest of your life to Jesus Christ.  Your eternity depends on it.