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Cool Music by People I Know Who Are Christians - Click on album name to listen.
- Please Don't Make Us Sing This Song: Songs From The Voice Volume 1 You've never heard a worship CD like this. Why is it that the Bible has lines like: "Blessed are they who splatter your babies' brains against a rock." (Psalm 137:8 and 9 - check it out) but almost all worship music is "Happy happy joy joy," written in a major key? Part of a larger, really cool project by Chris Seay, a friend from Texas, this CD samples the whole emotional range of the Psalms, from mourning and cursing to tears-of-joy praise. And it doesn't SOUND like every other Nashville worship CD - a little reggae, a little the-pots-and-pans-in-my kitchen.
- Fuel and I Cannot Ignore by Dropknee My friend Jordan Fowler's band. The link is to his blog, because I can't find the CDs online. Jordan's the worship pastor at NorthWood Church in Keller, northeast of Fort Worth, where I spent a year training to be a church planter. Dropknee is my second favorite worship band, and Leonard Sweet likes them better than U2 and says Jordan works a room better than Bono. Their sound is alt-rock, kind of Vertical Horizon.
- Songs For A Revolution Of Hope, Vol. I Some songs by my former pastor, Brian McLaren, and some others including my friend Nuc Vega, his wife April and his brother Posido, who make music together as Harp 46. By clicking the link, you can download them for 89 cents each. My favorites are "Let's Confess," a great rap about the sin spiral, and "With Kindness" which we used to sing (in a much plainer arrangement) as a benediction at Cedar Ridge.
Books For Parents - Click on title to browse
- Parent To Parent: Raising Kids In Washington A phenomenal resource from the Parents Council Of Washington, a consortium of DC-area private schools. In addition to excellent, readable chapters on all aspects of adolescent development by experts at NIH, it has great chapters on DC-specific parenting challenges like Beach Week.
- A Tribe Apart: A Journey Into The Heart Of American Adolescence A year with high school students in Fairfax County. Both this book and "Not Much Just Chillin'" are recommended for parents interested in the emotional terrain of adolescence in the DC suburbs now.
- Not Much, Just Chillin': The Hidden Lives Of Middle Schoolers A look at the lives of students over the course of a year at Wilde Lake Middle School in Howard County.
God In The Movies - Warning: Not made by Billy Graham or Disney, these films all say true things.
- The Last American Virgin Comedy. Poorly acted by people who are not still in the biz 25 years later, but with a great 80s soundtrack. This film and Cameron Crowe's classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Both came out in 1982 and both are based on the writer/director's real experiences.) are powerful depictions of the awful and lasting emotional cost of teenage sexual acting-out. Parents who want their teens to defer sexual activity until after marriage should watch and discuss this movie with their students.
- The Big Kahuna Comedy. Danny Devito, Kevin Spacey. This is possibly the best movie ever about how people who wouldn't say they're Christians have deep thoughts about God and why sadly they don't often share those thoughts with the self-identified Christians they know.
- Say Anything Comedy. John Cusack, Ione Skye, Joan Cusack, John Mahoney (Frazier Crane's dad). Written and directed by Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire). A classic film about older adolescents launching into adulthood and their families. John Cusack's response to the question: "What career are you interested in?" is beautiful.
- Little Miss Sunshine REALLY dark comedy. Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin. A movie about children and adolescents that is not FOR either. Past the grandpa who shoots heroin and the fact that the nicest person in the movie is a gay literature professor recovering from a suicide attempt, this movie says some profound stuff about families. This film's great truth: when words fail, touch connects us with those we love.
- Dogma Comedy. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Lee (My Name Is Earl), Alan Rickman (Snape in Harry Potter), Chris Rock. Writer/director/actor (Silent Bob) Kevin Smith is a devout but very unconventional Catholic. Unconventional means George Carlin as a Cardinal trying to get people to come back to church by inventing Buddy Christ, and Allanis Morisette as God. Definitely offensive but not blasphemous, the film is a great, faith-filled examination of the limitations of literalist religion and the way church people try to remake God in order to please prospective church members.
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