Author: Jonathan Dodson
EP Release Reflections
As we made our way down 6th street around 6pm, things were just starting to pick up. More people. More sounds. More
cars. Well, at least more than when we were there hours earlier for our church gathering at The Parish. We made our way up the stairs to The Parish to find a transformed venue! Candle lit, draped tables, merch tables, and a booth for the Austin Children’s Shelter (all door proceeds went to ACS).
People slowly made their way to the Austin City Life EP Release Party. Lamar Stockton and the Resonate Band opened with folk style worship, followed by an energetic set by J.J. Plascensio and the Gateway band. More people kept coming. By the time the ACL band took the stage, we had about 100 folks there. The whole night was worshipful, from cokes and conversation to violin and vibrant singing. But the next six songs were intensely worshipful. What was relaxed and fun became serious and reverent and joy-filled.
I worshiped by watching and by singing, by reflecting on God’s remarkable grace poured out in downtown Austin, filling a club with worship, community, and a sense of mission. Just two years ago there were eight people in my living room dreaming about what it would look like for a community to address the brokenness of the city with the hope of the gospel. As I looked around, I saw changed lives, worshippers of Jesus, and a remarkable counter culture of light in a dark corner of our great city. God has done so much in such a short amount of time.
Listen to the whole Austin City Life EP for free. Produced by Andy Melvin.
Check iTunes to purchase the album. If you can’t wait, email Miranda to have a cd mailed to you for $10.
Reflection on Acts 29 Retreat
Robie provides a stirring reminder of the humanity of church planting, especially for planter’s wives.
Thoughts on the Death of Michael Jackson
The life, death, and career of Michael Jackson are now ubiquitous. Turn any media on, and there it is, staring you in the face. I first found out by flipping my cell phone on and staring at the Yahoo headline. It seemed ill-fitting that such news was first shared between me and my phone. It’s as if I expected another human to deliver such news, the death of a pop icon.
What are we to make of all the media attention to Jackson’s death? What are we to make of the life and career of Jackson? Entire books will soon be released on all of this, so I won’t try to compete (nor am I capable) with the experts. Nor will I try to provide a savvy analysis. Instead, let me share some reflections by Andrew Sullivan
I loved his music. His young voice was almost a miracle, his poise in retrospect eery, his joy, tempered by pain, often unbearably uplifting. He made the greatest music video of all time; and he made some of the greatest records of all time. He was everything our culture worships; and yet he was obviously desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.
I grieve for him; but I also grieve for the culture that created and destroyed him. That culture is ours’ and it is a lethal and brutal one: with fame and celebrity as its core values, with money as its sole motive, it chewed this child up and spat him out.
And Carl Trueman’s thoughts, which I found insightful:
I never liked Jackson’s music but he was clearly a hugely popular and talented entertainer. And he continues to entertain in death — not just because his records can be played but, at least for a week or two, because the media are able to play his death as one more big showbiz event, burying the tragedy of real death, real bereavement, and really shattered and terminated relationships under the schmaltz of the faux-bereavement of his fans through the sanitizing and distancing medium of television and video. Of course, the response to his death by the people on the street says a lot about the importance of entertainment in our age, indeed, about the idolatries of the modern world. But is also tells us something about the entertainment media. Like casinos in Las Vegas, come rain or shine, the House always wins.
HT: JT