Wayward Son

Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo. I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.

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A Little Bit Too Eclectic for Moi?

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Categories: random stuff, What the heck was THAT?

When I was a music major in college, I had to listen to a lot of crap progressive music. And call it “art.” Because that’s what music majors do.

See, we didn’t just listen to Beethoven, Brahms, and Wagner (pronounced, “VAHG-ner”). We listened sometimes to this really weird experimental stuff. Stuff done with electronic sound devices instead of instruments even. Really weird stuff. And it’s “art”–I know, because the professors told me it was. Apparently some guy even wrote a song with 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence and called it music. (Now that’s enough to wake you up on a Monday morning.)

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More About Calling…

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Categories: food for thought, Meanderings (look it up)

In a recent post, I was pondering a paradigm shift I’m going through about the idea of one’s calling. I closed with this statement:

“I still believe that there is such a thing as a “calling”. I just think it runs deeper than many of us realize–that it has more to do with how God has shaped us than what we end up doing with it.”

This is a preview of More About Calling…. Read the full post (619 words, 2 images, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

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Save Jordy

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Categories: fun, random stuff

As you may recall, a couple of weeks ago I invited you to vote in an online “Pampered Pet” photo contest for our dog, Jordy. I put a convient link in the sidebar to remind everyone to vote.

There are now over 4000 entries. And Jordy has held his own for awhile, but it’s been harder to keep him in the running.

You might say he’s been, um…tailing in the polls. 🙂

Here’s the entry below! (Isn’t he cute?)

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God We Praise You In E-Flat

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Categories: fun, What the heck was THAT?, worship

Okay, time to tell tales on my good friend Aaroneous. (Don’t know why I was remembering this just now, but here we go…)

He and I were on a worship team together some time ago, and we were playing some new song for the first time in church. (Don’t ask me what song, I don’t remember now.) Not only were we having to concentrate on the song because it was new, but it was also in E-flat, a key we almost never played in. I was leading from the piano, and Aaroneous was behind me playing bass and doing BGVs (that’s “background vocals”, for you not-in-the-know, non-musical types). 🙂

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Re-Thinking Worship (Part 7–Being Real)

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, worship

I don’t know how long this series will go. I’ll keep posting on this topic periodically until I run out of things to say about it. 🙂 If you’re just joining us…links to the previous six parts are at the end of this post.

As a worship leader in institutional church settings, I admit I bought into the “show-must-go-on” mentality. In one sense, it was a coping mechanism, because if I let my teammates take the morning off because “I just don’t feel like worshiping today”, or “I had a really bad week, and I’d feel like a hypocrite if I got on the platform today”–I’d probably never have had a quorum. There sure were a lot of times when I didn’t feel like getting up on that platform.

This is a preview of Re-Thinking Worship (Part 7–Being Real). Read the full post (987 words, 1 image, estimated 3:57 mins reading time)

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Now that I’ve Calmed Down a Bit from My Last Post…

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up), Rantings, whine-and-opine

…I’ll turn the comments back on. (But mind your manners.) 🙂

As you can tell from my last post…I have a bit of a temper. It’s a lot more controlled than it used to be.

One of the defining character traits of my son The Director is his passionate distaste for injustice. Anytime he sees someone unfairly dealing with another, or bullying, or oppressing, or slander, or anything like that–he is fit to be tied. He gets as angry as he would if it were happening to him. He’s seen enough injustice dealt to his parents in ministry–seen leadership wrongfully treat us, seen people we loved and cared for turn around and abuse us, accuse us and slander us, while we remained silent, unable to defend ourselves without making things worse. And he’s experienced some of that injustice himself. He simply has no stomach for it.

This is a preview of Now that I’ve Calmed Down a Bit from My Last Post…. Read the full post (695 words, 1 image, estimated 2:47 mins reading time)

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No More Passes

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Categories: politics? oh puh-leeze., Rantings, whine-and-opine

Mmmmmrrghfthfth….. ::biting my tongue:: ….

…mmmmmmmmI CAN’T HELP IT. Gotta talk about politics again.

Actually, my rant today is not so much about either presidential candidate as it is about the mainstream media in America–because, you see, the media is running a campaign of its own.

The mainstream media is aggressively trying to get Barack Obama elected the next President of the United States.

Now, I’ve commented about this fact on some other blogs–including some “across the pond”–and the response I’ve read is: “WHAT media bias?” Some have even suggested the media is biased in favor of McCain!

This is a preview of No More Passes. Read the full post (1549 words, 1 image, estimated 6:12 mins reading time)

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Re-Thinking Worship (Part 6–The Lost Art of Reflection)

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, worship

And so we keep going…there’s just so much to say on the subject of worship. (Links to the previous posts are found at the end of this one.)

I have been a big fan of corporate worship. By corporate worship I do not mean worshiping corporations. 🙂 I mean the act of coming together as a people to worship God–as a people, in one accord. I still like that dynamic when it happens, and I think God does, too. Looking through the Bible, and through history, it seems like God has a tendency to manifest Himself when people come together with the common purpose of seeking Him. (Pentecost is just one example of many.)

This is a preview of Re-Thinking Worship (Part 6–The Lost Art of Reflection). Read the full post (932 words, 2 images, estimated 3:44 mins reading time)

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Quotes of Note

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up), random stuff


Hat tip to Kathy at “the carnival in my head.” In a recent post, she had this idea of sharing the more memorable quotes that had happened in her life. I thought it was a cool idea, so I’m stealing it. (Actually, more like “borrowing” it.)

Here are some of the more memorable quotes in my life, in no particular order…

“Good people do bad things.”
–A chaplain at ORU, trying to explain to me the politics behind the firing of our campus worship leader, for whom I had played the piano during my freshman year.

This is a preview of Quotes of Note. Read the full post (400 words, 2 images, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)
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