Emerging Church Hymns (The Macology)

The Macology (sung to the tune of the Doxology)

Praise Jobs from whom all iPhone Apps Flow

Praise Jobs all Elitists* here Below

Praise Jobs above all Internet Hosts**

Praise Jobs; Bill Gates Can Roast

(In Hell)***

*if you are being charitable you can insert artistes, designers, pastors, cool kids, etc.

if you are being less charitable you can insert consumers, tech slaves, Hipsters (my favorite), faux rebels or Lemmings

** for Google

***sung reverentially, like AMEN

Top 50 albums of the New Millennium (beginning 2000)*

A friend sent me a message asking my Top 25 albums of the new millennium for a radio show he is helping with (to see if I had any weird inclusions- which I do). Spending about 15 minutes looking through my iPod, my Top 200 albums ever (nothing since 2005 included) and my Top Albums for previous few years on this blog, I came up with this cursory list… which I promptly turned into a Top 50.

Of course, it could change tomorrow** and was culled from over 75 albums on my short list. That said, I feel very bad for not including great albums by Johnny Cash, Cobalt Season, Smalltown Poets, Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine, Death Cab for Cutie, Drive-By Truckers, Switchfoot, Jimmy Eat World, Sam Phillips, Lilly Allen, Damien Rice, M83, Tinariwen, Elbow, The Gaslight Anthem, The Avett Brothers and M Ward (along with 2nd albums by Okkervil River, Over the Rhine, Sufjan Stevens, U2, The Roots and The Hold Steady). Yes, I even had a heard time leaving a Coldplay album off (Rush of Blood). But, I will just list it and re-evaluate tomorrow. Here is the list of the Best of the Millennium- or really, just Rick’s Favorites (without anything from 2009- they haven’t had time to germinate yet):

50. Neko Case- Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

49. Badly Drawn Boy- Have You Fed the Fish Today?

48. Aimee Mann- Lost in Space

47. Jim White- Drill a Hole in That Substrate And Tell Me What You See

46. The Strokes- Is This It?

45. System of a Down- Toxicity

44. Bright Eyes- Lifted

43. The Hold Steady- Boys and Girls in America

42. Elvis Perkins- Ash Wednesday

41. Gogol Bordello- Super Taranta!

40.Devotchka- A Mad & Faithful Retelling

39. The Flaming Lips- Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

38. Radiohead- Hail to the Thief

37. Blitzen Trapper- Furr

36. Josh Ritter- The Animal Years

35. Sigur Ros- Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust

34. Lupe Fiasco- Food & Liquor

33. Bon Iver- For Emma

32. The Decemberists- Picaresque

31. mewithoutyou- Brother, Sister

30. M.I.A.- Kala

29. Bruce Springsteen- The Rising

28. Cold War Kids- Robbers & Cowards

27. Beck- Sea Change

26. Over the Rhine- Ohio

25. Blackalicious- Blazing Arrow

24. Regina Spektor- Fidelity

23. The Roots- Phrenology

22. Ben Folds- Rockin the Suburbs

21. Sigur Ros- Takk

20. The National- Boxer

19. Jay Z- The Black Album

18. The Divine Comedy- Regeneration

17. Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

16. Okkervil River- The Stage Names

15. Kanye West- The College Dropout

14. U2- All That You Can’t Leave Behind

13. Sufjan Stevens- (Come On Feel the) Illinoise!

12. Frightened Rabbit- Midnight Organ Fight

11. Outkast- Stankonia

10. Arcade Fire- Funeral

9. New Pornographers- Challengers

8. Radiohead- Kid A

7. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins- Rabbit Fur Coat

6. Joseph Arthur- Redemption’s Son

5. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club- Howl

4. Radiohead- In Rainbows

3. The Format- Dog Problems

2. Arcade Fire- Neon Bible

1. K’naan- The Dusty Foot Philosopher

Yes, my White Boy, Indie Rock, East Coast Male bias shows through. Oh well (but I know my #1, 3 & 5 are not normal on such lists). I imagine some readers will think I am trying to be needlessly obscure, while others will disparage me for being entirely too mainstream. Which side are you on?

Read. Disagree. Discuss. Give me your top 10.

*yes, i know the new millennium really began in 01.

** i had to do this so fast due to time constraints. Take it seriously that this represented a moment in time and was dependent upon my iPod. I realize that Funeral should be ahead of Neon Bible and Kid A over In Rainbows.

less successful the "Gospel and..." television shows

I just saw online that Chris Seay, who I used to work with, is writing a new book on how the Gospel interacts with something in popular culture. Taking a cue from the "What Would Jesus Tell (name a famous person- real or fiction from pop culture)" sermon series popularized by Willow Creek Church and numerous seeker churches world-wide or the ubiquitous "God and the Movies" pretty much every church preaches during the dreary summer days to gather attention, Chris has added to his repertoire the ABC series LOST (in the past he has written critically acclaimed books about The Sopranos, The Matrix films and Enron).

When I was preaching regularly I, too, would pick artifacts of popular culture for sermons based on the interactions between that subject and the Bible (or Gospel, in Christian vernacular). Some of my favorites were the television shows The X Files and Millennium, the films Jerry Maguire, Magnolia or Dead Man Walking and musicians like Ben Folds, Pearl Jam and Lauren Hill. Needless to say, besides The X-Files I did not have Chris' propensity to pick up on cultural phenomena, usually picking things regulated to a niche very quickly (or at least a select audience).

My love of the grays and the margins usually leads me to popular culture that does not translate as well to mass audiences (any reader of this blog knows that). Sure, a series on the Gospel According to Coldplay would draw a slightly larger audience than the Gospel According to Frightened Rabbit (okay, no one would be interested in the treatment of Frightened Rabbit), but I don't like Coldplay. And who cares about Jesus and the television show Chuck, one of the better shows on television (but with no cultural resonance for some reason) or Dexter.

Now here is where I am going with this... Chris has picked some things that translate well to his idea (The Sopranos work like a warped Davidic kingdom and the Matrix threw every religious idea in history at us). But, there are many things out there that are probably left outside of the "Gospel and..." treatment (many of which have been preached less successfully in churches). I have seen pastors try to use modern classics like the Scooby Do movies, The Fast and The Furious, GI Joe, Transformers 2 and Night at the Museum 2, stretching the film (sometimes they haven't even seen it) and Gospel to a breaking point.

There are many films that just don't fit, especially some of the stuff I like. And the television shows I love would either not translate to a "Gospel and..." book or 3 people would buy it. Here are my favorites shows. Imagine a book entitled:

The Gospel and Dexter (exploring Dexter's relationship to Deuteronomic and Levitical law)

The Gospel and Chuck (Chuck saving the world as metaphor for evangelism)

The Gospel and 30 Rock (Liz as Moses leading her people to the promised land, Jack as Yahweh, Tracy as Aaron and Kenneth as the 10 Commandments)

The Gospel and The Wire (a 2000 page exploration of conflict between the differing branches within the Davidic Kingdom at the time of Solomon, with McNulty and Omar as competing Jesus figures... or something like that)

The Gospel and Pushing Daisies (about how even God cannot resurrect an under appreciated quirky series on broadcast television that is too smart for its own good)

Sure some shows would be easy, The Gospel and the Office (trivial, but sells well), The Gospel and My Name is Earl (written by an 8th grader) and The Gospel and The Simpsons (D'oh).

Some other less-than-classics could include The Gospel and Mad Men (just wait, it is coming), The Gospel and Weeds (hmmmm, what is this one about?), The Gospel and CSI (We dodged that bullet) and The Gospel and Grey's Anatomy. I am sure someone has written the Gospel and American Idol or Survivor.

So, share with me either 1) the worst "Gospel and..." thing you have ever seen/ heard/ read or (God forbid) done

and

2) The darkest or worst idea for such a book or series (no "Gospel according to Saw" types- too easy), or that thing that would stretch The Gospel or bible beyond imagination to fit. Justify it if possible.

by the way, I would buy a book called The Gospel According to District 9!