- Al Hsu wonders if rising gas prices will cause suburban churches to consider a parish-like way of ministry. I’m hopeful that all of this is going to push suburbanites toward a new localism. For Christians, it’s a recovery of the parish concept, where we live, work, shop and worship all in the same community instead of driving all over the place. Many folks are finding that driving an hour or more to work is ultimately unsustainable. It eats up too much time, it costs too much gas money, it’s bad for the environment.
- Angela Zirk, friend and co-worker at NC3, is now blogging and has an interesting post about the culture of “adoptees”. I had numerous instances of being approached by asians (Korean, I’m guessing though I can’t tell the difference) who would start talking to me in Korean and I would have to tell them I didn’t understand. Which then resulted in them asking if I was Korean and I would say “yes, but I’m adopted.” To which they would all go “oh” and smile and then awkward silence followed.
- Dan Kimball points out that at one time it was quite controversial for churches to use organs during Sunday worship. As time went on, there remained a high suspicion of the organ in the church. They would only limit it to sounding off the pitch for the church singing of chant. So only a single note was allowed to be played because of it’s worldy association. Eventually, they weren’t as scared of the organ and began using it like we use it today. It’s so ironic that in more recent culture, the organ was so associated with what church music sounds like – that there are arguments when the organ is removed by people who are used to it. So there was an argument to get it into the church, and arguments to get it out of the church. So funny. So sad.
- Andy Whitman writes about Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, an album he considers one of the best ever. Everybody knew Bob Dylan. He was a folk protest singer. He had written those surrealistic rock ‘n roll classics in the mid-sixties. He was the country squire of Nashville Skyline. But he had never written anything like this. And he was writing about something he had never really written about before: Bob Dylan. Maybe divorce does that to you.
David W. Swanson
Pastor and Author
David W. Swanson 
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