Lyrical theology

Over the course of the last year I’ve gotten into Christian hip hop. Of all the people that could introduce me to this art form, it was my old boss from Mars Hill, Jason Wendorf.
Jason is very white. He’s very German. And he has told me that in a former life [...]

Laughter, tears, and fears

I listened to this song this weekend and found that it resonated with me more than ever before.
Born
by Over the Rhine
I was born to laugh
I learned to laugh through my tears
I was born to love
I’m gonna learn to love without fear
Pour me a glass of wine
Talk deep into the night
Who knows what we’ll find
Intuition, deja [...]

A Severe Mercy

At the end of this week we will pack up and head to the Midwest for Christian’s memorial service. Last night Jason pulled out a bunch of photos of the guys of Big Pink – Christian, Jordan, Rich and himself (along with some photos of a hideously-dressed version of Jason at the age of [...]

Time to singalong with Sufjan

Some of you know that my favorite musician is Sufjan Stevens. Probably of all time (so far). And that’s a big deal.
I won’t go into the boring details of why I think he’s so talented. That is for another time.
It is more important that I remind you that it is now officially [...]

John Piper

Some of you know that I love John Piper (I’m currently reading his book When I Don’t Desire God with the MH staff). He is a great Reformed pastor and teacher out of Bethlehem Baptist Church/Desiring God Ministries in Minneapolis, where I grew up. In fact, the first conversation Jason and I ever [...]

Acquired: one ugly wedding gift

An update on our recent happenings, including an explanation of the above title. Enjoy!
what we’ve been doing: This last weekend we spent in somewhat of a wedding frenzy–we started working on registries at Macy’s and Bed, Bath & Beyond (of course, Jason has to have this) and met with the reception hall coordinator to [...]

The Law vs. Jesus (Jesus wins)

Along with the rest of the staff at Mars Hill, I’ve started reading When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy by John Piper. One of the drums Piper consistently beats throughout all his writing and preaching is the biblical idea that God is most glorified in us when we are most [...]

Redemption song

No, I’m not talking about that Johnny Cash song. Or the Bob Marley one. I was just trying to come up with a clever title for this post. Just read on.
I used to be somewhat of a music snob. It started to become something that defined who I was (aka an idol). At that point, [...]