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Join, Tell, Give…Thanks Mom 2008

7 05 2008

This is a bit different than what I usually post, but I got an email from a woman at my church last night about a program her daughter has been involved with and it’s something I think you should all know about, and consider responding to, because taking just a few minutes out of your day could save someone’s life. Read on for more info…

Thanks Mom 2008
The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) helps patients in need of marrow transplants find a matched donor. May 5th marked the start of “Thanks Mom,” a national effort by NMDP to bring people to the national marrow Registry during the two weeks surrounding Mother’s Day (May 5-19). They need 46,000 people to join the Registry in the next two weeks.

How to join the Registry
Joining the Registry is incredibly easy - you can register online at www.marrow.org (click on the “Grow the Donor Garden” link near the top) and provide some basic health information, or there is a list of locations in your area if you’d rather register in person. (I just registered online and it only took me 6 minutes.) After registering, NMDP will send you a kit with directions explaining how to swab the inside of your cheek a couple times, and then you just send it back to them in the provided, postage-paid envelope.

Seriously, who doesn’t have time to do that? And during the next two weeks, the cost has been covered by generous sponsors, so now is the time to join the Registry!

What happens after I join?
If you are ever identified as a potential donor, NMDP will call you. Donating marrow can be as simple as donating blood or plasma. In case you’ve never done either, that’s okay. Here’s a video that shows just how easy it is.

“Thanks Mom” will help patients across the country who need a marrow transplant to live. Many don’t yet have a possible donor on the Registry, and many will die while waiting. Every day, 6,000 patients across America - that’s 6 THOUSAND people EVERY DAY - are searching the Registry for a match. Imagine if one of these people was your mom, dad, brother, sister, husband, wife, child, friend….or you.

Visit www.marrow.org to register today…or, if you really don’t have six minutes to do it right now, please make sure you register before May 19th.

Pass this on to friends, relatives, neighbors, coworkers, or anyone else you can think might register. Every bit of awareness about how easy it is to help save lives will make a difference. You can even become a fan of NMDP’s “Donor Garden” on Facebook.

Still not sure?
Watch this video to meet Matt & Alexandra, a brother and sister who are alive today because someone like you took the time to register with NMDP and donate when they were called.

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Categories : life, links, video

Good news Coldplay fans!

6 05 2008

Some of you may remember this post I wrote back in February about my regrets over not seeing Coldplay during my senior year of college, along with my hopes that the tour that accompanies the upcoming release of their new album (Viva la Vida, June 17th) will include a stop in Minneapolis. Well apparently Coldplay’s management reads anewdoxology; either that or they know I’m not the only Coldplay fan in the Twin Cities who would pay whatever they want to charge for tickets in order to see them live, because while I was driving around yesterday the new Coldplay single “Violet Hill” came on the radio (sidenote: this song was offered as a free download on coldplay.com last week and it was reportedly downloaded by over 600,000 people in the first 24 hours), after the song the DJ made a comment, no, make that a promise, that Coldplay would be coming to Minnesota this summer as part of their tour. How awesome is that? I was so pumped I sent a text to my friend Tim (the same one who invited me to come with him to the Coldplay concert during college), but because I was texting while driving (not recommended, and probably illegal) it ended up saying “Cokeplay is coming this summer!” Oh well, typos and unsafe driving aside, I’m pretty excited about this. I just hope that the tour schedule is released soon so I can make sure I’m in town for the show.

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Categories : links, music

Hope in Haiti

5 05 2008

I’m not sure how many of you watch 60 Minutes regularly, but every once in a while me and my roommates see previews for something interesting that’s going to be on and we set the DVR to record it. I just watched a segment from last night’s episode while eating lunch today and it was really great. The segment was called “Dr. Farmer’s Remedy” and it tells the incredible story of Paul Farmer, a doctor who has literally helped save millions of lives by providing free health care for people throughout the world, many of them who were suffering from treatable illnesses like malaria, tuberculosis, aids and women who die in child birth. Along with a few others doctors, Farmer helped start Partners in Health around 20 years ago. Today, Partners in Health has hospitals and provides care in nine countries including Peru, Russia, Mexico, three countries in Africa and the country where Farmer was first inspired to begin doing what he does, in Haiti.

Please watch this video segment from 60 Minutes. It’s only 12 minutes long and it offers an incredible glimpse into the life and perspective of a person who sees hope where others only see hopelessness. (I couldn’t embed the video on this page, but click HERE to watch it on cbs.com.) The images of people, poverty, landscape and roads in this short video look incredibly similar to what I’ve seen in Haiti.

By the way, a few days ago I bought plane tickets to go to Haiti at the end of June to make a documentary that will hopefully create some more awareness of what is going on there and the need for more people to join Paul Farmer in believing that the persistent efforts of committed people over time really can make a difference.

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Categories : haiti, links

Haiti

8 04 2008

If you know me you are most likely aware of my involvement in Haiti through a non-profit organization some friends and I started a few years ago called the Haiti Mission Project. The HMP represents a huge piece of my heart, and the opportunities I’ve had to work alongside my friends in Haiti — both my American friends and my Haitian friends — is probably the closest experience I’ve had to the mission and kingdom of God here on earth.

It’s because of my personal involvement with HMP that I want to request your prayers for the current situation in Haiti, where people have been rioting the past few days in the capital city of Port-au-Prince in response to rising food costs. Violence of many forms is not a new thing in Haiti (it is the only nation with UN peacekeepers permanently in place although they are not at war), but the current situation is of particular interest and concern to me and my friends because we are planning to go to Haiti this Saturday to spend a week in Port-au-Prince visiting and working in orphanages, hospitals and churches as well as hanging out with our Haitian friends who we’ve gotten to know over the years.

Among our good friends in Haiti is a young boy named Jean who I have sponsored through Compassion International for the past four years, and who I will (hopefully) get to see again next week. It’s been an incredible experience to meet and spend time with the child who I have been exchanging letters with, sending money to and praying for since we were randomly paired together four years ago. In the beginning he was just a kid from a country I didn’t know anything about who was in a picture on my fridge, but now I have pictures and memories with him and the country he lives in is in my daily thoughts and prayers.

Here’s a powerful video from our trip to Haiti in 2006 that was made by a talented guy in our group; it includes images of Haiti (the country and its people), a glimpse of some of the typical work we’ve done there (building an orphanage in this case) and footage of the first time I met Jean (you may recognize him from a few of the pictures in the “Witness” video).

Many people don’t know much about Haiti except that it’s often listed as the “poorest country in the Western hemisphere” (which is true), but it’s actually an island nation with a long history of slavery, corruption, violence and injustice. Yet, through our partnership with several individuals and organizations (including a Lutheran church) in Port-au-Prince, we have been able to help fuel the hope that many Haitians have for their nation and its people, a hope they have found through their faith in Jesus. It’s a hope that is often hard to understand and is rarely seen in visible/physical ways, but it’s a future (”eschatological”) hope that is wrapped up in the message of Easter; the death and resurrection of Jesus that gives freedom, life and hope to all people at all times in all places, even especially Haiti.

To be honest, looking at Haiti in the big picture often makes hope seem hopeless, freedom look like oppression and life doesn’t appear like its worth living if it’s filled with so much hunger, suffering and violence. I realize I wrote earlier that my experiences in Haiti have provided me with the closest glimpse of God’s mission and kingdom that I have ever seen, but my time in Haiti has also led to some of the most difficult questions and doubts (of faith) that I have ever faced. It just does not make sense that a world created by a loving God would include the blatant poverty, suffering and injustices that I have seen in Haiti; it’s not fair. Yet I believe that God not only created the world but God loves the world (John 3:16), all of it, and through that love, God is continually active in the world — working in and through people, powers and movements of other forms — but unfortunately this world is contaminated by sin (not just blaming sinful people), and so this means that God is doing as good as God can given the current situation. Just because things aren’t changing for the better doesn’t mean God has abandoned the situation, in fact, I believe that God can be found even in the suffering, since the understanding of God that I have is of a Father who watched his only Son die a painful and innocent death (God knows suffering and God suffers with us).

The discussion we’ve been having about missions in my systematic theology class lately has helped me realize that the group I’m involved with does not bring Christ to Haiti, in fact, we have actually discovered that He is already there in the efforts of others to help the poor and oppressed, to look after the sick and to comfort the forgotten and vulnerable. When we go to Haiti we are meeting God where God is already at work.

We are planning to wait until Friday to make a decision about whether or not it is smart for us to go ahead with our trip. We have already sent several emails and made phone calls to our friends in Haiti asking them if it’s safe for us to come (trust me, we aren’t going to put ourselves in a bad situation intentionally, and our friends there would tell us not to come if it wasn’t safe). Please pray for our team as we face the next couple of days uncertain of where we’ll be and what we’ll be doing next week, and definitely pray for Haiti as they deal with these difficult times.

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Categories : haiti, links, ministry, mission, video

prodigal son: consumer evangelism

3 04 2008

Today was a beautiful day. It was probably one of the first days in a while that I was actually happy to live in Minnesota (if you haven’t heard, we got hit with a lot of snow a few days ago, after we already thought winter was over…twice!). I actually had a pretty full day, so it wasn’t until I was working out at the gym around 11:00 tonight that I realized the new issue of Prodigal Son Magazine had come out today, and that another article I wrote was in it. It’s a cleaned up version of something I posted on anewdoxology back in February on the various ways Christian messages are expressed in the American marketplace (”Consumer Evangelism”). Click here to read the article, and while you’re there, post a comment on my article and look around at some of the other great stuff on Prodigal Son…including a fascinating theological critique of Garden State written by my friend Bryan.

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Categories : faith, life, links

checking in…

25 03 2008

Sorry I haven’t posted anything for a while. I’m not assuming you’ve been checking everyday hoping for new stuff, but I wanted to acknowledge that I’m aware it’s been nearly a week since I’ve added anything. I took some time off from everything (school, work, writing) this weekend and spent time with my family. My parents got back from Tanzania on Thursday, so I spent the Easter weekend at their house and heard stories about my dad’s three month adventure, saw tons of pictures, watched basketball from about noon until 10pm everyday, went to church a few times and my whole family spent the afternoon together on Easter at one of my sister’s houses. It felt like an eventful weekend, but thinking back it was actually pretty lazy (which is always nice), and even though I didn’t do this intentionally, I had an almost internet-less weekend (which also felt kind of good, surprisingly). It’s great to have my parents back, especially my dad since he was gone for so long. If you didn’t get a chance to read his blog from when he was in Tanzania, here’s the link to Tom Goes to Africa. It’s worth skimming through and reading a bit, even if you aren’t familiar with African/Tanzanian culture (since it’s written from an American’s perspective). He’s a great writer and he shared some really incredible experiences.

I realize this entry has already been somewhat personal and random, so I’m going to continue on that theme and share some quick notes and links on a few things I’ve been thinking about and working on lately.

Thanks for all the nice notes about my article in Prodigal Son Magazine. I forgot to mention that the magazine also has a media section and the “Broken” video that I made is on there.
It looks like a reworked article from the “Consumer Evangelism” entry I posted on anewdoxology (2/23) will be in the next issue of Prodigal Son that will be online a week from Thursday (4/3). If you remember, that was the entry about stores, restaurants and other retailers who express Christian messages in some way, shape or form through their products and/or business practices. I only started chipping away and all the examples of who/how/where these forms of evangelism take place in the American marketplace, so if you know of others (even if it means doing a little research), please share them by leaving a comment on the article here AND on Prodigal Son (I’ll post a link to the article when it’s online next week).
One of my seminary profs is preaching in chapel on campus next week and she asked me to consider creating a video to be used as part of the message. The Gospel text she’ll be using is from Luke 24:36b-48, which is a bit of a strange story of Jesus appearing to the disciples after he was crucified and then his body disappeared from the tomb. They were obviously freaked out, because they thought he was a ghost. Jesus gets them to settle down, maybe gives them each a Zanex, then he shows them the holes in his hands and feet where the nails had been (he even eats food in front of them so they know he’s not a ghost). Jesus then reminds them that he had been telling them all along that he would be beaten, killed and then rise from the dead for the forgiveness of people’s sins, and that he had now done these things so that the Good News of eternal life and forgiveness could be shared with all people throughout the world. The story ends with Jesus telling the disciples, “You are witnesses of these things.” My professor wants to focus her message (and the video) on the word “WITNESS.” This is the word Jesus uses in reference to the disciples, but I think this word also has meaning (and implications) for us in our life and faith. Trying to create this short video has been really challenging (and frustrating) for me. I just didn’t know where to start and what direction to go in. The first thing I thought about was this Nike commercial of LeBron James from the NBA Playoffs last year called “We are all witnesses.” Then I thought about something that Jason (the guy from Prodigal Son) started with his wife recently called One Million Witnesses. They’re calling it “the ultimate faith experiment” and basically they’ve partnered with mission organizations to raise awareness and funds for projects like build wells for people in other parts of the world so they have clean water. The way people like you and me can get involved is by sharing stories of our faith on onemillionwitnesses.com and making a donation. It’s a cool idea, and one of the best other ways people can get involved is by telling others about it (so please pass on the link if you think it’s something that other people should know about). Back to the video I have been struggling to create. From Sunday evening until late Monday night/early Tuesday morning, I probably spent at least 12 hours making notes, searching for videos, images and quotes, listening to songs and finally (late last night) putting it together into a video. I have a rough version nearly finished now, but I’m still not sure if I like it and have no idea if it’s anything close to what my professors was looking for. I thought about posting a request for help on Sunday night as I was having a really hard time finding focus for the project, but I decided to keep pushing through on my own and asking for feedback later. Depending on how much time I spend on it over the next few days (I’m on Easter/spring break until Thursday), I might post a first draft later this week. Not that I think anyone will be holding their breath in anticipation of its release, but please check back to see if I’ve put it up because I’d really appreciate it if people watched it and let me know what they think since I’ll need to have it completely finished soon so that my professor can incorporate it into the message of her chapel sermon before next week.
Finally, I wanted to post something about this yesterday but then I got caught up in making the video having a “chill day” with my roommate. A friend of mine is starting a new faith community (aka “a church”) in downtown Minneapolis that I think fits a lot of the core elements of anewdoxology. It’s being held in a bar really close to the Target Center and it’s called The Well (a community of faith thirsty for something different). The first service is tonight (3/25) at Lone Tree Bar & Grille (528 Hennepin Ave, Mpls). Doors open at 6:00pm and the service starts at 7:30pm (drink and food specials until 7:00pm). I’m planning to go check it out and support someone who’s taking a radical step for the church to truly meet people where they’re at (even though that’s what a lot of churches say they’re about, but they require people to come to the actual church building first in order to “meet them”). At least for now, The Well will meet on the last Tuesday of each month (so the next one after tonight is 4/29). For more info, check out this facebook group.

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Categories : faith, life, links, random

Prodigal Son

20 03 2008

I was recently contacted by a guy from Prodigal Son Magazine who had seen anewdoxology and thought what I was doing here would be a good fit in the magazine (since Prodigal Son aims to provide men of integrity with relevant information on faith, sports, fashion and pop culture). I had coffee with Jason (the guy who started Prodigal Son) a few weeks later and we decided to work together on a few things and see what happened. I reworked some stuff I’ve previously posted on anewdoxology and sent it to him. He liked what I had done and I’m excited to tell you that my first “published” article is in the recent issue that went online today. Click here to read it.

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Categories : links

Holy Week

18 03 2008

Easter comes earlier than usual this year. But in many ways, Easter can never come early enough. As a young boy growing up in church, I remember thinking Jesus lived a really short life. This was during my early Sunday school years, well before I learned that he was probably around 33 years old when he was killed. I was just old enough to realize that we celebrated Jesus’ birth at the end of December, but just young enough to find it confusing that only three or four months later we had another holiday to remember his death and celebrate his resurrection. Luckily, I got the whole story cleared up somewhere along the way, otherwise I’m sure my seminary classes would be much different today (can you imagine an infant Jesus walking on water?). But regardless of the misunderstandings I had about where death and resurrection fit into the overall time line of Jesus’ life, I always realized that Easter was a really special holiday, even bigger than Christmas (although — compared to presents — chocolate eggs don’t make a very convincing argument to children).

How did I realize Easter was a big deal? For starters, my mom made me and my sister dress up more on Easter Sunday than any other day of the year. That meant it was a big deal. We had to wake up super early for church, and when we got there it was quiet and there were flowers everywhere. Flowers are special, and so is anything that you have to wake up early for, so these things meant it was a big deal. The Easter service always started with someone playing a timpani, which is basically just a drum that you can hear at any middle school or high school band concert, but when it’s used to begin a worship service at church, it becomes really special. The timpani at church meant Easter was a big deal too. Finally, our family got together with relatives at my grandma’s house or had a really nice lunch at our house on Easter, and at some point (usually before we could lunch and before we were allowed to change out of our church clothes), we had to take a family picture. This wasn’t the only time of year we had to do this, but every time it happened it meant that whatever was going on was…a big deal.

The church season of Lent started in the beginning of February this year. For the past six weeks, people have been preparing themselves for this “Holy Week” by doing all sorts of things, like abstaining from certain things (that they like) as a way of remembering Jesus’ sacrifice for them. Most Catholics don’t eat meat during Lent, which is why all the fast food restaurants seem to have a new fish sandwich on the menu this time of year. Some people give up chocolate for Lent, with the knowledge that there will be chocolate everywhere on Easter and it will taste that much sweeter after not having tasted it for nearly two months. I know of other people who have given up myspace or facebook for Lent, which is probably a bigger sacrifice to many young people than giving up meat (but probably not as big as giving up chocolate!). I considered giving up my iPod for Lent this year, but then I realized how silly the idea was and decided against it (thanks to Martin Luther and the Reformation, I have never felt the pressure to give up anything for Lent, although I would imagine it’s a worthwhile spiritual discipline).

Holy Week has finally arrived. Churches everywhere are preparing for the largest gathering of people they’ll have in their building all year. Flowers known as “Easter Lillies” are being given in memory of loved ones. Youth groups are getting ready to serve brunch in their church gyms. Moms are trying to convince their sons to wear the new suit they bought them (because they will look so cute in the family picture). Stores are stocking the shelves with chocolate eggs, bunnies and those weird marshmallowy things called Peeps. Many students and teachers are loving this week because it’s their spring break. It’s also the first week of the NCAA basketball tournament, so many people are filling our their brackets and scheming ways to get out of work or class to watch basketball all day on Thursday and/or Friday. Some people, regardless of whether they follow college basketball or have school or work this week, are counting down the hours until they can take a big bite of meat, devour some chocolates or check their facebook again. There are certainly reasons to be excited that this week is finally here. For me, I am excited because not only does my spring break start tomorrow (which means I can watch the NCAA tournament), but I am most excited that in only two days I will pick up my parents at the airport and get to see my dad again (he has been in Tanzania for nearly three months and my mom has been there visiting him the last two weeks).

But in this season of Lent and this Holy Week of Easter, let’s be careful not to let little things outshine the big thing. Perhaps you didn’t grow up going to church like me, or don’t understand family and faith the way others reading this might, and even if you’ve never given up meat for Lent (and didn’t even realize some people did), none of that changes anything about the reality that Jesus gave himself for your sins to rescue you from the evil in this world, and he did this according to the will of God (Galatians 1:4).

In my understanding, this is what Easter is about: Jesus defeated sin and death on the cross and through his resurrection there is hope for all of us to share in his eternal life. Easter cannot come early enough because we cannot hear this Good News often enough. Jesus rescues us. Have you ever heard a survivor say anything like “Wow…that was close, but I wish they hadn’t rescued me so soon”? Of course not, because rescue can never come early enough.

I hope you enjoy this week for many reasons. Have fun watching hours of basketball, eating chocolate, hanging out with friends and family and enjoying some time off from work or school. But I hope you also take some time to remember why this week is called Holy Week. For as the congregation will exclaim at the beginning of the service I attend on Sunday, “He is risen. He is risen indeed.”

(If you’d like to read more about the history, theology, Scripture, or view some art or video about Holy Week and Easter, here are some links you might find interesting).

Article on “Holy Week” from Wikipedia
Video from The Passion of the Christ mixed with “The Reason” by Hoobastank
Famous painting by Grünewald called “The Crucifixion”
My video “Broken” that will be used in worship at a church in Stillwater this week
Reflections on each day of Holy Week from my friend Bryan’s blog
The Gospel narratives of Jesus’ death and resurrection in the Bible; from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

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Categories : God, Jesus, faith, life, links, theology, worship

consumer evangelism

23 02 2008

My roommate’s girlfriend walked into our apartment tonight carrying a bright yellow shopping bag from the store Forever 21. She stood in the living room while we were watching a basketball game and held it proudly until we asked her what was up with the bag? “It’s for Andy,” she said. I was confused. I’ve never been in the store Forever 21 before and every time I’ve walked past it at the mall I’ve assumed it’s just another place where teenage girls shop for clothes that their parents wouldn’t approve of them wearing. Why would she bring the bag for me? Well, it turns out that all Forever 21 bags have “John 3:16″ printed in small letters on the bottom, so she thought I might be interested. She was right.

Seeing that shopping bag got me thinking about how other “Christian companies” (or companies run by Christians) use their influence on consumers to share and spread their faith. Since earlier tonight I’ve spent quite a bit of time “researching” Forever 21’s bags and other stores/businesses that practice similar acts of subtle consumer evangelism. I’ve also been hungry since seeing that bag. You see, Forever 21 isn’t the first business I’ve known about that prints Bible verses on the packaging of their products. The mecca of fast food burgers and fries, In-N-Out Burger (California and surround states), has been printing Bible verses on the bottom of their drink cups and food wrappers since the 1980s. In-N-Out Burger is my absolute favorite fast food restaurant — I once walked from LAX to the closest In-N-Out (probably about a mile away) so I could taste it one more time before returning to Minnesota — and it turns out the former president of In-N-Out was a Christian who wanted to share his faith with customers in a discrete way, and the company has decided to continue the practice today. It seems the president of Forever 21 has decided to do something similar by sneaking a little Gospel message into each customer’s purchase by, as one blog called it, “Bible bagging” their goods.

During my research on all this I found several sites that were neither helpful nor informative (mostly online forums where teenage girls discussed what they bought at Forever 21 during their last trip to the mall and how “like cool” or “totally dumb” they think it is that the store has a Bible verse on the bag), but I did manage to find a few articles that offered credible insight into what appears to be a growing phenomenon in the industries of retail clothing and fast food. For instance, in August of 2006 The New York Sun ran an article titled “Evangelism in Fashion “ discussing the Forever 21 bags. Included in the article were responses from Forever 21 customers who were asked if they were aware of the religious message on the bottom of the bags. The two responses shared in the article are priceless for their own unique reasons. The first was from a 22-year old guy who, when told there was a Bible verse on the bottom of the bag he was carrying didn’t seem bothered at all, but he did offer the insightful comment that “Jesus wore clothes.” I’m going to give the dude two benefits of the doubt by assuming that 1) he was shopping at Forever 21 for his girlfriend and 2) he’s not a seminary student. The other customer response was from a young woman who was shopping for a “black sparkly halter-top to go with a pair of red high-heeled shoes.” She was not as understanding as the young man we met a few sentences earlier; when she found out there was a religious message on the bottom of her shopping bag, she responded by saying “That’s so freaky. It kind of annoys me that I’m carrying this around without even knowing it.”

I learned about a few other businesses that make similar faith statements on their products and/or through the practices of their stores in a USA Today article from 2005. The most notable, in my opinion, being that Chick-fil-A (a fast food restaurant mostly in the southern US) is closed on Sundays so that employees can “focus on faith and family.” I thought that was a pretty cool move for a company to make, but I can’t help but wonder how much money they give up making by only being open 6 days a week.

If you know about other examples like these, please share them.

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Categories : faith, links, pop-culture, random

Journey worship (playlist, etc.)

17 02 2008

Several of the people who visit anewdoxology each day get here by following a link on the Journey webpage. Journey is the worship service that I helped start last month at a church in Golden Valley, Minnesota (a suburb of Minneapolis). We worship on Sundays at 5:00pm and if any of you live in the Minneapolis area and would like to experience something different than what most churches offer on Sunday mornings, you should check it out. You can read what I wrote about Journey, or go to the Journey webpage for more information (including directions and a link to podcast sermons).

We have a lot of fun “doing church” a bit differently at Journey, including the music, messages and overall worship “style.” We realize that not everyone is immersed in the Christian sub-culture (music, media, books, etc.), and we also realize that when people come to worship — or a concert for that matter — their level of comfortability is often influenced by how familiar they are with the music. If they know the songs, they feel right at home; but if they’ve never heard the songs before, they might feel uncomfortable and out of place.

The last thing we want to do at Journey is create an uncomfortable atmosphere where people don’t feel like they can connect in worship. So, as a small step to help people connect, I created a playlist on iTunes of all the songs we’ve used in worship at Journey (so far). These are not recordings of Ben and the worship band, but the original versions of the songs that we borrowed for worship. You can download the songs for $0.99 each and burn them onto a CD, put them on your iPod/mp3 player or just listen to them on your computer. The thought is that if we are more familiar with the music, we will feel more comfortable in worship and be able to sing together with confidence. Our hope is that these songs will become anthems for our community and a soundtrack for our lives.

Here’s a link to the “Journey: fresh worship” playlist on .

Note: if you don’t have iTunes, click here to download it for free.

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Categories : links, ministry, music, worship

a new doxology