Recently, in the process of overhauling our home network to better balance all of the cameras and Isaac's tech tinkering, I learned how to self host various apps, and at some point it occurred to me that I could finally revive my old blog (which seem to be
After a couple of fairly intense seminary classes, I’ve decided I need a break for a little bit! My last two classes were Church History 1 and 2, which involved a research paper due at the end of every week. Sixteen weeks later, I feel like my process for
Three years ago, when we were in the NICU, Jodie wrote a post for parents faced with being in the NICU, Dear New NICU Parents. It occurred to me as we went through the process of flying Chloe over last week that a similar guide might be helpful for parents
I don't know about you, but sometimes I think back to the dark ages of college and shudder. The college I went to wasn't exactly quick to adopt technologies. We used to have to run a phone line out into the hall to get dial-up internet
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2500"] Photo by Peter Boccia on Unsplash [/caption] A couple weeks ago, when I was miserably sick, there was a knock at the door, and two young men in ties were at the door wanting to talk about their
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2500"] Photo by Alex Read on Unsplash [/caption] I wanted to ask for your prayers as I start something else on top of everything else I'm doing. Every year, Children's Mercy in Kansas City offers
Out of the Dust is one of the newer groups I've listened to in the last couple of months. A husband and wife team, one of the things that quickly drew me to Out of the Dust is the depth and quality of their lyrics. The release focus
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2500"] Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash [/caption] I was a band/choir director for five years right after college. Along with teaching and directing, every spring, solo and ensemble contest season would come around. Since there were a large
Recently, Wendell Kimbrough released a Psalms album called Psalms We Sing Together . As I have been working on expanding our hymnal with a mini Psalter in the back, I'm always on the lookout for new Psalm settings, so I quickly picked this one up. Wendell has a sort
CityAlight is one of my favorite groups in the past few years. I typically describe them as being like Hillsong or Bethel, but with solid lyrics and without the funky theology baggage that comes with those groups. They have released two albums so far, and both are great. On the
Okay, so this morning I posted an album on Facebook that has been on my playlist lately that there was a decent chance most people weren’t listening to, and it kind of reminded me of my “This music is not mainstream” posts, which ironically featured some blog posts about
Last week, I put a link to an article detailing what the author thought were 15 Worship Decisions We’ll Regret. Several folks asked if I would expound a bit on the article, so I thought I would give it a shot. Of course, this may not actually be what
Lately, I’ve been listening to The Village Church’s new album, Beneath the Canopy. You can listen here, or purchase here. Lots of good stuff on this album. In particular is the standout track, How Great the Love. Here is a video: (Originally posted October 1, 2013)
Music Not Mainstream!
Okay, so it’s been a really long time. Most of you have forgotten I ever had a blog… So, when I write a new album review, you should all sit up and say, “What wondrous music must this be to cause Alan to write another blog post?” This wondrous
I was sitting, listing to my hymns playlist tonight and was reminded how much my music listening has changed in the last 5 years. 5 years ago, I lugged around my CD collection in my car. Lest you think I use the word “lug” unfairly, at one time I had
For some time now, I’ve been thinking about writing about life in “the cloud.” Now, I just lost some of you. Thankfully, Apple has been promoting their new iCloud product, or I probably would have lost more of you. Let me explain… no, there is too much, let me
Music Not Mainstream!
One of the things that I hear often from people is, “I don’t listen to Christian music, because it all sounds the same.” My followup question is whether or not they are talking about K-Love. Not to say that K-Love is a bad music station. For the most part,
I recently finished reading a book recommended on Kevin DeYoung’s Best Books of 2010 list called Hamlet’s Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age by William Powers. DeYoung recommended it as the most convicting book he had read all year, so I
Music Review
Ever since rumors started surfacing about a new TRON movie, there has been a background discussion about the music being done by Daft Punk. Having never heard of Daft Punk, that’s not really the kind of news that gets me excited. Subsequent news always seemed to mention the Daft
There is a major difference between Jodie and me in our appreciation of holidays. It comes down to this, Jodie likes to celebrate holidays, I really could care less about most holidays. To me, the only holidays that rise to the occasion of being a day to celebrate are Thanksgiving,
For those of you who know me well, you know that for a long time I have been an avid user of Rhapsody. Matter of fact, during my sophomore year, as I was using Audiogalaxy to download hundreds if not thousands of illegal mp3s, I began to feel convicted that
Poor kid, this morning started out with Isaac’s 9 month appointment. All continues to go well. He’s 93rd percentile in height and head circumference and 76% in weight. Healthy kid. The worst part about these appointments are the shots. Jodie of course will have nothing to do with
The modern church is beset by a consumer mentality and filled to the brim with consumer Christians. That is the premise of Skye Jethani’s book, “The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity.” Using a mix of examples from modern church leaders, Bible stories and interestingly, stories about
Either last week or the week before, I watched a series of videos by Nathan Nockels talking about the click track that they use for A Mighty Fortress. You can find the first of the series here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XKC1gtXXYk. As adamant as I have been