Awesome Discovery - Check this guy out!!!

The boys were at the Whalen’s on Friday night so we went down to Ginger’s Tavern to hear Laura Merriman and the Lonesome Travelers with the Moonshine Ramblers. They were good. Laura didn't have her normal band and I think that hurt her performance. The Moonshine Ramblers were pretty funny and were quite talented but the big experience of the night for me was a guy who opened for them who hadn't even been on the bill. His name is Matt Epp and if Johnny Cash, Jack Johnson, Neil Young, Dustin Kensrue, Bob Dylan and all things "a man and his guitar" turn your crank you ought to check him out.

Aside from the music itself what is so cool about him? He's more or less a one man show. He isn't a Christian artist but I'd be willing to bet you my left nipple that this amazing artist knows Jesus and there he is standing a in a bar full of people looking to get drunk and laid singing his stuff - beautiful, respectable, convicting. His latest album (available on itunes) was recorded in 5 hours in an empty old theatre in winnipeg during a blizzard and is mostly just him his guitar, and the occasional piano or harmonica.

He has some brilliant lines like "the Church is the bride of Christ but the Devils been inside her" and "captivated never captive". I'm not sure if this is what he was getting at but that line captures for me beautifully the whole tension of to follower of Jesus being at the same time free and a slave. We are no longer captive to sin and self yet at the same time we are inescapably captivated by Jesus.

Check him out already.

Great Albums - Mediocre Bands

I got to play Rock Band for the first time at “Rally in the Valley” (it’s hard to believe that with all the cool spiritual stuff that happened this is what I choose to blog about but…) and I had a blast singing “Say It Ain’t So” which go me thinking and eventually led to this list:

Greatest Albums Ever By Bands I’m Not A Major Fan Of

Weezer – The Blue Album

Bon Jovi – Blaze of Glory (Young Guns II)

Mike Knott – Strip Cycle

Yellow Card – Ocean Avenue

Crash Test Dummies – God Shuffled His Feet

What would you add?

(I’ve been downloading the torrents for some of them but I can’t find Strip Cycle anywhere. If you know where I can find it let me know.)

(Yes it is legal in Canada and I also own the album on tape if that makes you feel better)

Thoughts on the grand opening promo piece from Moncon Wesleyan

Let me be clear: this is about the promo piece and anything it communicates about MW is merely by inference. I doubt this church reflects everything, good or bad, that I notice in this promo piece.

The discussion on the MW grand opening was interesting. Found it funny how Maxwell became the main issue. Things that grabbed my attention:

-Looks sharp, some stuff (like the web site) out of MW is just plain sad.

-Nowhere are Maxwell’s credentials as a pastor or follower of Jesus or any sort of “spiritual side” to his presentation referenced not sure how to interpret that.

-It is very “show church” oriented, a show like never before to open a facility built for putting on great shows.

-It describes the event as “historic” I can’t comment on all of history but so far the last two days haven’t even brought a simple report of how it went to me. Perhaps a bit of an overstatement.

-Their contact info was clear – again better than their website and hugely important. Always tell people how to get more!

-They make a false claim to be Atlantic Canada’s largest church when in truth there are bigger churches, no matter how you count. It should read “largest evangelical” (or maybe even protestant) but somehow that seems less impressive and a bit more confrontational in a city with significant Catholic roots.

-They reference how well the Christmas tree does each year which makes me wonder why they need to reference it – if the tree is such a big deal shouldn’t folks know it’s a big deal. Seems like they were trying a bit to hard on that one. You never hear Coke describe themselves as “the worlds leading soft drink manufacturer”. They just say – “we are coke” and that’s enough. Shouldn’t they just have to say “home of the living Christmas tree” Two options here – it’s just poorly thought out and over the top or they are trying to connect with lost people and this is an admission that the vast majority of those 10,000 a year are church folk.

-I love the fact they used their grand opening as an outreach event. So often these become super in-focused. Kudos to MW for seeing and opportunity and doing their best to seize it. Of course that assumes Maxwell got around to something other than just principals that will benefit me and my friends and help me to be successful.

-It has some awkward grammar and punctuation. (I know - let he who is without sin...)