Sign on a ranch in Montana: "Praying is the best way to meet the Lord. Trespassing is faster."

Christmas gift idea #42 - tissue dispensing boxes.

Today is the first day since the tri that I've felt like getting out for some exercise. I think much of that has to do with my teeth issues. Whatever the case, the clear sunny skies and fresh legs pulled me out the door for a run. I don't know if I've lost conditioning in the last week but that feeling of freshness lasted about 1/2 mile. But it was good to get home with a sweaty shirt and tired legs.

Here's a cruise idea you may not have considered:
Somalia Cruise

Fritz Henderson quit today - or was forced out; we'll probably never know.
Fritz has been the CEO of GM since Rick Wagoner was fired from that position by President Obama eight months ago. So what was once the largest of the three U.S. automakers, and one of the most powerful corporations in the country is looking for a CEO for the second time in a year.
Meanwhile, while sales by GM fell 2% during November, sales by Korean manufacturer Hyundai were up 46% during the same month.
Who could have imagined this situation just five years ago?

God has blessed Pathway in many ways over the 23 months of our existence. I love our church and the people who make it a great place to worship and serve.
But one of the blessings God, in his inscrutable wisdom, has not seen fit to bestow upon us is a core of instrumental musicians...or even a keyboard player (unless somebody's holding out on us). So the music portion of our worship services is what we tongue-in-cheek call Christian karaoke. I surf iTunes almost every week looking for songs that work in a sing-along format. I download them, print the words in our bulletin and then Matt leads us (all with the appropriate CCLI endorsements). Lord willing, one day we'll have a band and do live music, but we've determined that true worship doesn't depend on having a band. Singing with Paul Beloche or Selah coming through the sound system can be just as surely worship as if they were present in our room. I might even argue that the absence of a band up front removes a potential distraction to a vertical focus. And visitors consistently comment that our singing works well, much better than they would have guessed.

Choosing songs can be a little tricky. The artist's rendition has to be in a key that works for average people and their arrangement can't be too complex. A lot of tricky rhythms or syncopation doesn't work, and musical flourishes or improvisations also exclude it for congregational singing. It may be a beautiful rendition of a great song, but if he sings it in an arrangement that's at all intricate we can't use it. It turns out like trying to sing along with a jazz trio.

We're entering the Christmas season and we want to sing some of the classic carols in the upcoming services. So today I went to iTunes and spent a couple of hours looking for versions we could use at church. That turned out to be almost impossible!

What artist is going to do a straight-up version of O Come All Ye Faithful? What would be the point in that? They need to put their own stamp on the carol, interpreting it with (insert musical flourish here). I previewed versions ranging from Reggae to ragtime and everything in between, and none of them worked for group singing. (Most of them didn't work for solo singing, either.) It seems that most artists put out a Christmas album sooner or later, but they all get tricky with their rendition of whatever carols they sing.

I tried typing "Christmas sing along" into the iTunes search bar and got a list of about 20 albums, but unless we want to be led by the likes of Barney or The Three Chipmunks that isn't going to work. The one option that came close was a couple of carols done by childrens' choirs. Seems they're content to just sing the song like it was written and let it be. So this month may be a case of "and a little child shall lead them."

Another observation from my efforts: a lot of Christian artists don't see any contradiction with putting together a Christmas album including both songs about the Savior and songs about Santa Claus. Don't get me wrong, I love a great "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" as much as the next guy. (yeah, right) And I'm not going to get all anal about driving any reference to Santa from every Christian's home. But something about putting "O Come, O Come Immanuel" right next to "Here Comes Santa Claus" seems more than incongruous. It seems to me it reduces the miracle of the incarnation to lighthearted legend.

If a Christian artist decides to do an album of secular "Christmas" music (this may be a place where the word "holiday" really is a better choice) they won't find me in line to buy a copy, but I also won't denounce their choice as a moral failure. However, if they choose to create an album of music celebrating the birth of our Savior, God incarnate, I wish they wouldn't demean that greatest of all births with the frivolity of legends and make believe.

FWIW