I know that you, like me, want this art in your hair also. But be warned: the Judson school district does not approve. And to prove it they’re going to give this kid on-campus suspension (which, as the writer points out, is the worst kind of suspension since you can’t sit around at home and watch TV). So…you know…think about that before you go getting Matt Bonner carved into your head.

Making plans for next week…

But the truth is, there’s people doing it every day. Kids, adults, teachers, even well respected television newscasters.

There’s so many examples you really don’t have to look hard to find them. Just listen to the next person that talks for more than a couple minutes. Pastor, teacher, teenage girl…everyone does it apparently. I haven’t yet noticed it in print, but I guess I’ll to keep an eye for that.

By the time I got home, however, there were still some cool light coming off them, but most of the interesting layers were gone – and I didn’t have any good angles to shoot from, really. I jumped in my truck and drove down to the library and elementary school down the street thinking I could get some clear shots. But I didn’t take the time to grab my tripod, so I had to underexpose a little to keep the camera steady. The first is from the street in front of the house, the second from the library parking lot.

Today’s lesson: Keep your stinkin’ camera with you if at all possible. I had been taking my camera (well…Demetrios’ camera) to work with me, but as the wildflowers started dying off I started leaving the camera behind. I don’t know if it’s practical for me to take his camera every day. But I need to think about how to be more prepared.

I’m more interested in what the president didn’t say. You might recall (because everyone’s been quoting or playing it back) that Obama expressed his position in 2008 by saying on MTV,

"I’ve stated my opposition to this [California’s Prop 8]. I think it’s unnecessary. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about."

and to Rick Warren,

“I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian — for me — for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.”

He said in a debate with John McCain on CNN (for which I cannot find a transcript), that his views on marriage – that marriage is between a man and a woman – are based on his religious beliefs.

For reference, here is the transcript from today’s statement:

"I have to tell you, as I said I’ve been going through an evolution of this issue. I’ve always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally.

And that’s why in addition to everything we’ve done in this administration, rolling back ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’, so that outstanding Americans can serve our country whether it’s no longer defending the Defense Against Marriage Act which tried to federalize what is historically been state law. I’ve stood on the side of broader equality for the LGBT community and I had hesitated on gay marriage in part because I thought civil unions would be sufficient … that it would give people hospital visitation rights and other elements we take for granted. And I was sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people the word ‘marriage’ was something that evokes very powerful traditions, religions beliefs and so forth.

But I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married."

What he didn’t say is this: “my understanding of Scripture has changed.” or “My religious beliefs no longer prohibit me from believing that same sex couples should be able to be married.” or “I no longer believe that marriage is a sacred union.”

What he says is, “I was sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people the word ‘marriage’ was something that evokes very powerful traditions, religious beliefs and so forth.” But he doesn’t say anything about his own religious beliefs and how the word “marriage” is evocative for a Christian such as himself.

So what are his beliefs as a Christian? “For me, marriage is a sacred union, but it doesn’t have to be for others?”

It came to light today that unborn babies are to be counted separately as visitors to the White House. In other words, White House security considers unborn babies to be persons. Which has been the pro-life argument for over 40 years.

So, does this mean that President Obama’s position on abortion is “evolving?” Not likely. Just another in a long line of political ironies.

He Reigns
Pastor’s Greeting
Everlasting God
Awesome God
Mighty To Save
There is a Redeemer
The Heart of Worship
Prayer

The week after Easter I sat in with the worship team from Alamo Stone and we sang He Reigns. It’s a good missions song, but it’s not necessarily a great congregational song (although I’ve used it as one in the past). I thought it would go well as the prelude for the service as opposed to in the main set as it would help set the theme for the day. I did notice quite a few people singing along, so maybe my concerns about singability were unfounded. Still, I liked it where we did it.

We started with Everlasting God, even though it’s not the most upbeat song in our repertoire. Like I’ve said before, I’m not a big follower of the “start fast, end ‘worshipful’” approach. Originally I had planned to start with Awesome God but we felt that the congregation would engage better with Everlasting God. The purpose of the song for this set is, as I mentioned in the opening paragraph, to speak to who God is and why we worship Him and it’s a good song for that. I have a hard time with the song on a musical level, just because it feels like it should be faster, but if you speed it up you’ve got major issues on the verses. We did a good job of keeping it under control but still pushing it a little.

Awesome God is one of those songs that probably shouldn’t be sung congregationally, but we do anyway. I used to just use the chorus of the song and tag it on to the end of other songs. But the past couple times we’ve used the songs we’ve sung the whole thing. Again, it speaks to who God is and why we worship Him (or at least a few of the reasons). We had some tempo problems up front, but managed to get things straight. I did notice that very few people actually sang with us on the verses…fewer than I expected. So I don’t know if I’ll go back to using the entire song next time we sing it. It’s not like the verse lyrics are earth-shatteringly good.

We sang Mighty to Save on Easter Sunday, which wasn’t all that long ago, but I felt like it fit well enough for this week that it was worth singing again. This time we sang it just in English. With this song we’re making the transition from who God is to what we do with it, “shine your light and let the whole world see…” It’s still, in my mind, a song about Christ more than it is a call to missions, but I think both ideas are there.

I’m not sure if There Is A Redeemer had been sung at Communion before. I know I hadn’t led it. It’s always tricky when you bring “new” (this song is over 30 years old) songs because you don’t know if people know it, have heard it, will be able to pick it up, etc. I chose it for two reasons, one because it follows on the theme of Mighty to Save that Christ is the redeemer. But it also touches on the role of the Holy Spirit and since Mike was going to be preaching from Acts 1, I thought it appropriate to sing “thank You…for leaving Your Spirit ‘til the work on earth is done.” I don’t know if the congregation is full of Keith Green fans or if they had sung it before, or if it’s just an easy song to pick up, but they did great with it.

We ended with The Heart of Worship, which may seem like an odd choice here. We’ve been talking about God and Christ and who God is, and how Christ is the redeemer Savior. And then we go to “I’m coming back to the heart of worship…?” I know. But it goes back to the idea that our efforts to tell those around us, to reach out to a lost world stem from our worship. And our worship should be from a pure heart. Otherwise are we doing anything but singing songs, raising hands, clapping, etc? Worship that is not borne out of love and a pure heart isn’t going to overflow into anything, will it? I don’t see it. So, that’s the point behind using that song. I realized as I started the song that I hadn’t really explained to the congregation why we were singing the songs we were singing. Most weeks I don’t explain, but most weeks it’s more obvious than what we did this week. So I prayed that our worship would be glorifying to God, that it would overflow into mission to those around us, that other would hear of Christ, and would be drawn in to worship Him as well.

It was harder than I thought it would be to narrow it down to four. I had my top two, but there are so many other drummers that I like that I loathe to cut any of them. My apologies to Aaron Smith (77’s, Ragamuffin Band), Jon Knox (Adam Again), Louie Weaver (Petra), David Carr (Third Day), Lester Estelle (Pillar), Dale Baker (Sixpence None the Richer), David Huff (White Heart, Michael W. Smith), and virtually all the drummers on most people’s top 10 list.

1. Phil Ehart – Kansas. Phil has deflected praise over the years by denying he is the best drummer, but saying he was the best (ie. right) drummer for Kansas. I’ll give him that. There are certainly other drummers who are cleaner, perhaps. Probably drummers who are faster. But what he does with Kansas is brilliant (I’m going to be using that word a lot in this article). For those unfamiliar with Kansas, much of their music falls into the “prog” category – meaning characterized by (among other things) multiple time signatures and odd meters.

I chose this video because the sound is so badly mixed the drums are way out in front of the sound. So you’ll have to excuse Steve’s voice and the presence of Ragsdale instead of Robbie. But this is about the drums.

I chose this one because it’s a rare recording. The song is from Kerry Livgren’s solo album, but played here by Kansas.

And this is the song I was listening to yesterday – When the World Was Young:

2. John Sferra – Glass Harp, Phil Keaggy, solo. I first heard John Sferra on Phil Keaggy’s Blue/Crimson & Blue/Revelator set of CDs. I was particularly taken with “The Further Adventures of…” which is a 12 minute ad libbed jam session with Phil and John. The more I got of him, the more I liked what he does. Glass Harp’s “String’s Attached” cd was another revelation. His style is heavily jazz influenced and he’s very clean, very precise. At the same time, as “The Further Adventures of…” illustrates, his instincts and the way he can flow with whatever is going on is brilliant (told ya).

These first two are from a recording produced in 1972. Pretty good recording quality for the time. I wish Kansas had some video like this.

And a drum solo just for good measure.

3. Chris Dodds – Chris Taylor & Windows/Love Coma, Two Tons of Steel. Dodds may be the most unorthodox drummer I’ve ever seen. That’s part of what makes him special. I remember him as a punk kid (okay…well…we’re pretty much the same age) who couldn’t do a roll on a snare, but could do all kind of crazy behind Chris Taylor. The rock-a-billy style he plays with Two Tons is a completely different kind of thing than what he did with Love Coma…but he’s still doing some great stuff.

Walk in the Rain:

Speak of the Devil:

4. Brandon Graves – Waterdeep. Brandon is the darkhorse here, probably. When you compare him to guys like Aaron Smith and Jon Knox and you know, Neil Peart…well…what can you say? Well, you can say his style is brilliant. There’s something about the way he sits back there in almost a lazy approach to the drums and says, “yeah, it’s okay. Y’all go on…I’m with you.” Some of that has to do with the style of music that Don and Lori Chafer write. But then, I can’t help but think that a great deal of the style of their music has to do with the way the drums sit in the songs. Brandon Graves is not going to wow you with some killer drum solo like Neil Peart. But he makes those songs groove.

Lonely Sometimes:

You are Lovely:

Those Who Trust: