From the Mind of MandoRon

In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (book 2 of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series), readers are introduced to the Total Perspective Vortex - a torture device that shows people just how insignificant they are.  Most people learn that they are really just an infinitesimal speck in an infinitely big universe.  Interestingly, when Zaphod Beeblebrox enters the device, it informs him that he’s the most important thing in the universe.

I’m not quite sure why, but I was wondering yesterday what it would be like if the world revolved around me.  (Figuratively, more than literally…  I’m not arguing with Copernicus’ theory that the earth revolves around the sun…)

Be honest… there would be a lot of advantages to having the world revolve around you.  Think about it!

• You would never get stuck at a red light.  The traffic light would always be green!  And no traffic jams either.
• You would never be late for anything - movies, tv shows, concerts, kids’ soccer games, etc…  They would always wait for you to arrive.
• You would always be in fashion since the rest of the world would copy what you wear.
• Your mechanic would have your car ready the same day that you dropped it off.  And you’d get a loaner Corvette to drive to work.
• You can always find a good parking spot.  In fact, any place that you visit frequently will likely give you a reserved spot with your name on it.
• Your watch would would always have the correct time.  The atomic clocks in Greenwich would adjust to you.
• Everyone in the band would tune to your instrument.  Even the piano!
• And I’m sure there are many more…

I was thinking of making this a two-part series; part two would cover the potential disadvantages.  But after thinking about it, I realized… THERE ARE NONE!

So here’s where you get to chime in.  What am I missing?  What other advantages would there be to being the center of the universe?

Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning edition of the GP Sunday Setlist.  It was week 3 of the “Modern Family” series at GracePoint.

The setlist:

• Our House by Madness (walk-in)
• Rise and Sing by Fee
• Undo Me by Jennifer Knapp
• Look What You’ve Done by Tree63
• Fly Away by Lenny Kravitz
• Home Sweet Home by Motley Crue (offering)

Our House, in the middle of our street…  A fun little 80’s song that fit well with the series.  Definitely something we’ll have to pull out again sometime.

Rise and Sing is one we introduced on Easter.  A great, high-energy song to kick off the worship set with. 

Undo Me has been in the rotation (if you can call it that) for a while now, but this was the first time Christina sang it.  And it won’t be the last either. 

Look What You’ve Done is one we hadn’t sang for a while.  I think that it makes a great song of surrender for the church when they sing out “What can I do for you, my Lord?  I want you to know my heart is yours.”

Fly Away…  I believe it’s been nearly 6 years since we used this one in church.  That’s before I joined the band.  I was asked to add Fly Away on Tuesday to fit with the airport theme planned for the sermon/stage.  It turned out to be a much less prominent theme than originally planned, so I thought the song ended up not fitting very well in the service…  The band did a great job song though.  With the late addition of Fly Away, we ended up a bit heavy on secular songs this week.  If you’re trying to balance on the edge, sometimes you fall one way or the other…

Home Sweet Home with dual lead vocals was awesome.  Christina and Gil bounced back on forth on the verses, and I thought the end result was spectacular.  Better than the original!  IMHO… 

The band: Gil - vocals, Christina - vocals, Bruce - lead guitar, Jeff - bass and BGV, Deric - drums (minus one ripped bass head), and Rod - keys.

As always, you can check out more Sunday Setlists from churches around the world over at TheWorshipCommunity.com.

Have a great week!

I just finished reading Popes and Bankers: A Cultural History of Credit and Debt, from Aristotle to AIG by Jack Cashill, so I guess it’s time to post the review.

Popes and Bankers is an incredibly fascinating read.  And just like the title infers, it’s a cultural history of credit and debt.  It caught my eye because of the recent credit and banking crisis that has tanked the U.S. economy.  Popes and Bankers attempts to explain how we ended up in this crisis by exploring society’s views on usury (a.k.a. lending at interest) throughout world history.  Cashill also discusses the people that had major impacts on our views of moneylending - the authors, the philosophers, the rulers, the businessmen, the crooks, etc…  Interestingly, the book is written from a Christian worldview.  So a lot of time is spent exploring and commenting on the Jewish and Christian influence on society.

The list of interesting topics is too long to list…  But, for me, there were a few key things that really made the book worth reading.  First was reading how Charles Ponzi got a scheme named after him.  (Very timely, I know.)  Second was learning about all the bubbles and financial meltdowns of different societies throughout the centuries. 

Third…  I’ve always heard the anti-semitic comments about “jewish bankers”, but I’ve never really understood where these thoughts come from.  Interestingly, they partially go back to Mosaic law which allowed the Jews to lend money at interest to strangers.  And Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice didn’t help either. 

Fourth, it seems that all financial troubles generally result from greed - either people wanting more than they have or people trying to make money without doing anything of tangible value.  And lastly, I found it interesting how our unique American culture and politics brought about this recent collapse.

There were also a few things that I didn’t like about Popes and Bankers.  I have a bachelor’s degree in engineering, a master’s degree in business, and I usually win at Scrabble,  but I found the first few chapters nearly incomprehensible.  I didn’t know half of the words that Cashill used, and I really felt like he was trying to compete with Virgil and Shakespeare while crafting his prose.  Fortunately, what I did understand was interesting and I pressed on.  Once you get over that mountain, the rest of the book is very readable although there are still quite a few post-doctoral words to be found.

Legal stuff:  I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

So yesterday, I was listening to a song by Starfield on my ipod…  the next track was by rapper RedCloud.  I remembered that one of my favorite songs on that album is a collaboration with Pigeon John titled, imaginitively, “The Pigeon John Song”.  Which reminded me that I’ve got two songs by Pigeon John that were recorded for the Relevant Podcast.  Which reminded me that I really like everything that I’ve ever heard by him.

So as I was driving down the road last night with “The Pigeon John Song” blasting through my Mazda’s speakers (I need some big subs for when I listen to hip-hop…), I decided that today I would exclusively listen to music by Pigeon John.  (I would have succeeded too if it weren’t for a special request from the pastors today…)

It’s rather difficult to make a day out of it when you only have 2 songs and a few collaborations on the ipod…  So I downloaded his most recent solo album “Pigeon John and the Summertime Pool Party“.

Which I listened to twice all the way through today.

I’ve got to say… Pigeon John is pure hip-hop awesomeness!  I highly recommend checking some of his stuff out.  Clever lyrics.  Great beats.  No gangsta crap.  And suprisingly, zero mandolin content.

As I was writing this, I checked out his website…  turns out he was in Lawrence on April 12…  Oh well…

So if you want to give Pigeon John a try, Relevant Magazine has a couple of free downloads from their podcast.  (There used to be another one called “Be” that was really good.  Doesn’t seem to be there anymore…)  If you’re ready to dive in, check out “Pigeon John and the Summertime Pool Party“.

You won’t be disappointed.  That’s a MandoRon guarantee.

Hmm…  How to describe this morning?  The phrase that comes to mind is “supreme awesomeness”, but I’m not certain that’s proper english.  Oh well, I’m a blogger not a literary novelist.

Today was week 2 of the Modern Family series at GracePoint.  Mike delivered a great message about families while looking a lot like Vince, the guy that tries to sell you the ShamWow and SlapChop.  (On a side note… if you haven’t seen the Slap Chop Rap, it’s pretty funny…)

Where was I…  Oh, yes… supreme awesomeness.  We saw God move in a mighty way today, and it began with the music.  You could really tell that the band was worshipping, and really drawing in the people to join in worshipping with them.  In the second service, everyone kept playing on How He Loves because everyone felt like God wasn’t done with it yet.  There was no cue or signal to keep playing, but everyone did.  And Carmen delivered a powerful word from God for all of us.  Good stuff!

The music!

• Liquid by Jars of Clay (walk-in)
• Today is the Day by Lincoln Brewster
• Holding Nothing Back by Jesus Culture
• Word of God Speak by Kutless
• How He Loves by Jesus Culture
• Home by Daughtry (offering)

Liquid is a song we tried a few years ago, but always in an acoustic setting - never with a full band.  It was fun to do it again this morning.  I hadn’t pulled out my acoustic mandolin on a Sunday in quite a while, so it was great to play it again even if it did feel a little foreign.  I hope everyone could the Gregorian chant sounding stuff that Rod was doing. 

Today is the Day is a new one for GP, although I know a lot of other churches are using it.  People seemed to really respond to it, as did the band.  I’ve never really cared for the song, but I’ve go to admit that it’s a lot of fun to play.  Especially if you have  a guitarist like Tommy who can pull off Lincoln Brewster’s guitar solos.

Holding Nothing Back is an awesome song by the good folks at Jesus Culture.  This is probably the third or fourth time we’ve used it.

Word of God Speak always seems to resonate with people.  Powerful, powerful song!

How He Loves … on the Jesus Culture recording, this is a 9:00 track.  I never really understood why until this morning.  The lyrics and message of God’s love really hit home with people.  We got to witness the Lord ministering to people through Carmen this morning.  We’re so blessed to have her as part of the team!

Home … without actually checking, I think it’s been quite a while since we’ve used this one on Sunday mornings.  We decided to do the acoustic version, rather than the full band studio version.  Just acoustic guitar, strings (via Rod’s keyboard awesomeness), and lead vocal.  Guys, it was absolutely incredible!

The band: Carmen - vocals, Thomas - vocals, Gil - vocals and bass, Tommy - electric and acoustic guitar, Rod - keys, Denny - drums, Me - acoustic mandolin and electric guitar.

For more Sunday Setlist action, be sure to check out TheWorshipCommunity.com and see what other churches are doing.