Filed under: Uncategorized
Phantom Tollbooth, a longstanding music review site (among other things), recently did a review of Into Danger/Out of Rescue along with Micah Dalton’s Pawnshop and Jason Harwell’s Broken Headphones. It is a good read and a very cool online magazine. So stop by HERE and check it out.
In other news, I would like to ask everyone to continue praying for Easton Blanchard. It is still pretty up and down for him after having a small intestine transplant. If you get a chance, please stop by his site, read his updates, and leave him and his family a note in his guestbook. It will only take a minute of your time, but it will make a world of difference in Easton’s day. He loves getting letters - even from strangers. If you want to go one step further, stop by Mission:Change to buy a necklace in support of Easton and his family.
Tune in later this week - the newest installment of The Writer’s Closet is coming up.
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As many of you know, I partner with a great organization called Mission:Change (www.missionchange.com). Right now their mission is supporting an 8 year old little boy named Easton, who needs a small intestine transplant. This is a pretty rare and complicated surgery and the family has been waiting a very long time to find a matching donor. Well, early this morning the call finally came, and as I write this Easton is probably in surgery getting his life back. Be sure to visit www.missionchange.com to read the full story and to help support Easton and his family in this very exciting, but also very scary time. Thanks!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: dancing with the stars, def leopard, extra gum
The other night I was watching “Dancing With The Stars.” Yes, you read that right. I usually find this to be a most ridiculous show for several reasons that each deserve their own blog, but this night I had good reason. I found myself wanting to watch the show for one very simple reason: Def Leopard was to perform.
When I heard that news, I flashbacked to my younger days - playing air guitar in my room, singing along with “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” dreaming of becoming a big hair rocker myself one day. I was sure it would be historical at best. It had all the right elements: a one-armed drummer, hair metal, and ballroom dancing. What’s not to love?
I was sadly disappointed. They did indeed open with “Pour Some Sugar,” but something didn’t seem quite right. The guys looked really old - which is to be expected. Yet, they sounded exactly like they did 15+ years ago. I was amazed that they could still belt it out until the camera did a close up on the lead singer. Yes, he was lip synching - and doing so badly. The whole band was faking it. At one point there was a guitar solo, yet both guitarists were still “playing” the rhythm chords. It was disgraceful. It was a shameful attempt to boost ratings and a detriment to any hopes of hair metal making a comeback (although I was glad to see the guys have kept their same hair styles after all these years - that’s what you’re missing, Bon Jovi).
But my disillusionment was just beginning. On a commercial break I saw a new ad for Extra Gum. It was a pretty normal gum ad for the most part… until the end. The voiceover made this comment: “Extra - your favorite 5 calorie snack.” Snack?! Since when did gum become a snack? Even calling a breath mint would be a stretch, but a snack? They could just state how it takes 7 years for your stomach to digest gum and call it a diet supplement instead. A snack for who? Anorexics? A snack is not something you chew for 10 minutes and then spit out (unless you’re a model). Do the people at Extra really think they are fooling anyone? Do they think that millions of people are going to bypass the usual Snickers for a pack of Extra on the day they skip lunch. Give me a break (Kit-Kat is a real snack).
How bad off has our society become when we consider really good karaoke a live performance and we call chewing gum a snack? What’s next? Ex-Lax as a “home colonoscopy?” This is what we call “product spin.” It’s an attempt to win a new customer market. For example, “DWTS” was hoping to rope in some new viewers from the hair metal demographic. I’m sure it worked.
This is a great time for comments. Please tell me what your favorite ridiculous product spin is or make up a new one.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: david herndon, indie music, moue magazine
This week I am honored to be the Indie Musician of the week in Moue Magazine, and online mag about everything independent. There is a small review about the CD followed by their famous “5 questions” interview in which I try my best to be brief.
I’d love it if you take a visit to their site and read the article. Feel free to leave lots of comments too!
Here’s the link.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: music, christian music, david herndon, mark tulk, rebuilt records
Mark Tulk, editor of AboutChristianMusic.com recently called me from Australia to ask a few questions about “Into Danger/Out of Rescue.” He wrote down the interview here. Go by and give it a read. I thought about just doing a copy and paste of the interview here, but that would steal the joy you’ll have by visiting an Australian magazine website. They use the letter “s” where there should be a the letter “z” (example: realise instead of realize).
Mark did a great job at asking questions in such a way that I feel like this interview expresses the mission and message behind “Into Danger” like nothing else. Thanks Mark!
AboutChristianMusic.com is a website magazine that explores all the different aspects and perspectives of “Christian” music. “Into Danger/Out of Rescue” is my latest CD/booklet from Rebuilt Records. You can purchase it here.
Visit: http://www.aboutchristianmusic.com.au/david_herndon_interview.html
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There is a new website I just found out about, and it is called About Christian Music. Its based in Australia and run by some great people. I encourage you to check them out.
They also picked up one of my previous blogs and ran it for an article, so that’s kind of neat too. I hope you’ll visit and show them some support.
Click HERE
I know I’ve been slack on my blogging the past two weeks, but for good reason. Our church recently purchased a new property. We’ve been meeting in a bowling alley for the past three years, and have outgrown it. So we bought a building that another church recently moved out of (our new property did not cost fifty million dollars). We’ve spent the past two weeks doing some renovating to ready the new space for our weekly services. It is a real blessing to have our own place.
We’ve only been working on it for two weeks, but you would not believe the transformation. It has truly been miraculous. I should also add that we asked the church goers to pray and ask God what they could do to help. We had a fund-raising day and raised over $300,000. Not bad for a group of 500 people. That was truly miraculous.
However, the most miraculous thing of all is how many people have come to help us renovate the new building. We have been working on the building every day for two weeks from the crack of dawn until late into the night. People have given up their lunch breaks, their days off, their weekends. People have brought their whole family to work. They have toiled, and labored and sweated and even bled for this new building. We have literally saved thousands and thousands of dollars because of the way people have stepped up to make this happen.
I am truly impressed by the amount of money given to our church for this new venture, but it is only a fraction of the amazement I have after seeing so many people give themselves. I’m glad to be part of a church body that puts their money where their mouth is, but even prouder to be a part of a church that puts their hands where their money is.
Jesus said it this way, “Greater love has no one than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Thanks to all the people who have laid down their lives in order to provide a comfortable environment for people to learn about and experience God’s presence in their lives. Its easy to give your money. We could have hired out all of the labor and supplies, but we would have missed out on the miracle. I have experienced Christ in a new way through everyone’s efforts and generosity.
Do you feel like you’re missing something in experiencing Christ? Try getting your hands a little dirty. Try laying down your life for your friends.
This title would refer to the old cliché “opening up a can of worms,” as I am about to do. If you like me and you don’t want to dislike me, then now is the time to stop reading. If you keep reading, I only ask that you read the words and get all of the meaning out of this. It will be easy to misconstrue what I say. In addition, as always, please remember that this is a place of discussion. I am merely getting a conversation in motion that I believe needs to be. That said, here we go…
This week in the South Georgia United Methodist Church is Annual Conference, in which clergy and the like get together and make important decisions. Among the decisions is selecting the people who go to represent our Conference at General Conference (all United Methodists in the whole world). That is where the really, really big decisions are made. A pastor in Timbuktu can say the UM church works a certain way, but it’s not true unless General Conference says it’s true. An issue that has been very, very present throughout the past decade at General Conference is whether or not we UM’s should ordain homosexuals or not. This also includes that if we ordain them, then we will also perform same sex marriages, and all in all, it would say that we do not believe it is a sin to be a homosexual.
There are strong camps on both sides of the issue. Those who are against it argue that homosexuality is a blatant sin that is clearly taught against in the Bible and there are several examples of God bringing wrath against such practices, not to mention the whole creation story which begins with God completing man in a relationship with a woman and not another man. Those who are for it would argue that homosexuality a biological thing and not a free will thing, and therefore God made people this way. That would be their first stance, that it is not wrong and not a sin. They would also argue the point that we are all sinners, but it does not disqualify us from being able to do ministry, so it’s okay for a homosexual to also be an ordained minister.
Those are the simple points anyway.
Here is my problem: this issue is merely the smoke of a much larger and more dangerous fire. To solve the issue of whether or not to ordain homosexuals is just putting a band-aid on a life-threatening wound. The real issue is our commitment, as a Church, to Christ.
Example: A conservative would fight hard against ordaining a homosexual. I ask him, are their any pastors out there who might also struggle with alcoholism or drug addiction? Are their any pastors out there who have been divorced? Are their any pastors out there who have been arrested for child molestation? Are their any pastors out there who struggle with pornography? How about stealing money from the church? How about pastors who cuss? How about pastors who gossip? I think you get my point. These are all things the bible also clearly teaches against and you can find examples of God’s wrath coming against. Yet, we let it happen everyday! Are you really fighting to uphold the morality of God’s Word or do you just hate homosexuals?
And to the liberal, who fights so hard to make it so homosexuals can be ordained, I’d like to know what you say to the conservatives? What do you say about the conservatives when they are not around? How about the guy who is not even a Christian that bashes gays and makes really crude comments, would you let him in your church? Would you invite him into your home? Would you share a meal with him? How about the guy on death row for a gay crime? Do you pray for him? Would you visit him in jail? If you were an attorney, would you represent him in court? These are things Jesus also instructs us to do. So is this really an issue of acceptance and grace and unconditional love, or is it just about getting what you want at the expense of the Church?
The bottom line is this… it does not matter what the United Methodist Church decides on the issue. Another issue will arise. Its just smoke. The real fire is our commitment to knowing and serving Jesus. We become prideful and political and condescending to each other and just flat out hateful to the point that Jesus is not even in the discussion. These issues will always be around, but maybe the point is not necesarrily solve them. Maybe the point is to be Christ-like towards each other in them midst of them. Maybe the point is to survive them. The only way that will happen is to surrender to Christ and believe God is sovereign and commit to loving Him and loving other people and loving ourselves… wherever that takes us. Furthermore, the world is not watching WHAT we decide nearly as much as it is watching HOW we decide. What they think about us is what they will think about Jesus. So lets make sure we get Him in on the discussion.
We make it far too complicated. There is more room in the middle than in either extreme.
So let’s get some discussion going… What are your thoughts? Am I full of it? Do you agree? Do you think there is something deeper we should be addressing? Let me hear from you.
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My son is close to 3 now and he has learned the art of whining. When he doesn’t get what he wants he adjusts the octave and speed of his voice and asks for it again in a way that resembles a banshee’s cry. This process is repeated until a) I cave in and give him what he wants before my eardrums explode, or b) I plug toilet paper in my ears and send him his room until he calms down. I recall as a child often hearing the phrase, “Stop whining,” and being frustrated with my inability not to whine. I just didn’t understand why I could not have whatever it is I wanted.
My son’s frustration is the same. He is not okay with my saying no to him. It causes all kinds of confusion in his little 3 year old mind. “You’re my dad. You love me. We were just having all kinds of fun. I like fun. You seem to like fun. Now I want to do something a little different, but its still fun. If you like fun and you like me, why would you not want to do this?” Of course we would be doing something like throwing a soft, rubber ball back and forth and now he wants to grab mom’s crystal and throw it across the room.
For me, I’ve been wanting something that God has not yet given. I have not yet heard Him say “no” but I haven’t heard Him say “yes” either. And the question I keep asking myself in the meantime is this: If God says not, will I be okay with that? I know the right thing to say is that I will praise God and bless His name in famine or in feast. But in my heart I know that I’m not okay with “no.”
In time my son will come out of his room, having forgotten about the whole thing, and ready to have fun again. And I know that if God says “no” to me, eventually I’ll come around and submit to His way (because its always the best). But how can we make ourselves better prepared to hear “No” from God?
I’ll have more to come. In the meantime, please share your thoughts via the “comments” section below.
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Last week my family took a trip to the local super-home-improvement store. I’d like to try to remain polite about the experience, so I won’t mention the name. But if you live in Glynn County you know that we only have one such store. Anyway, we don’t particularly like going to this store, but we have to as it is the only one. The ailes are always messy, sometimes making it impossible to push a cart through. The employees are friendly the way a winter breeze is. And everything is carried out with a half-hearted attitude, including stocking the shelves, which can result in needing a hard hat to walk through the store.
As was the case on this day. Upon trying to manuever a shopping cart around some of the mess my wife bumped into a display. Upon said bumping a metal item fell from its haphazard place on the shelf right on top of my wife and son. Long story short, a manager came to assess the situation. He wanted to fill out some sort of form, I guess to prevent any lawsuits. No injury occurred in the event so I simply commented that instead of filling out a form we would appreciate him to try to keep his store a little cleaner and a little safer. His response was, “Its always like this and if you could find me some decent help then stuff like this would not happen.”
Now my frustration was not in the messy-ness of the store or the fact that my family slimly escaped danger, but I became frustrated that this manager, a leader in this company, chose to blame those under him for his store’s lack of competency. Lesson One in leadership: As a leader, any shortcoming of failure of your organization/team is YOUR FAULT. You have taken the responsibility of leader, and therefore have taken on the responsibility of your employees/team members. I would have appreciated a sincere apology from him, but instead he deflected the blame from himself to others.
It seems that human nature is such that when there is blame to be had we would rather someone else be held responsible. But if success and applause is at hand, we will gladly accept the kudos ourselves. As a leader, you will only be as good as those who follow you. I’m now not surprised by the shortcomings of this company as I now have personally encountered their leadership.
Good leadership accepts blame and gives applause. Bad leadership gives blame and accepts applause. Those of us in leadership should all learn this lesson and learn it well. Any organization will only be as good as its employees/team members. And they will only be as good as their leader. If you are in a position of leadership, do us all a favor and be a good leader.
