Yesterday afternoon I had a chance to record four conversations with Skye Jethani and Matt Tebbe for the inaugural Leadership Journal podcast. Skye is Leadership’s managing editor and Matt is a pastor at Life on the Vine in Long Grove, a church I’ve watched with interest from a distance. Skye’s idea was to have 4 conversations around 4 different articles from the spring issue of the journal. Each conversation was about 15 minutes and, aside from the mics, it was easy to forget we were being recorded. Skye and Matt are insightful guys and it was a privilege to be in conversation with them.

I’m not sure when the podcasts will be up, but I’ll try to remember to mention it here when they go live.

The blog has been quiet this week, mostly because I’ve been knee-deep in packing and cleaning preparing for our Saturday move into Chicago. And while I should probably be doing something moving related, I couldn’t ignore this headline: Hoping For Ungodly Returns, Christian Video Sharing Site GodTube Gets $30 Million Funding.

$30 million. That’s a lot of money. To me, anyway.

Is it a good investment? A good use of money? Do we need a Christian version of YouTube?

In (un)related news, deaths in Myanmar from the recent cyclone may reach 100,000. The U.S. has pledged $3.2 million for relief efforts, about 10% of GodTube’s new-found funding.

I’ve been on a bit of a Bon Iver kick lately, but just recently had a chance to do a short review over at rednoW.com.

For Emma, For Ever Ago is a gorgeous nine-track journey filled with raspy guitars and lilting falsettos. Whether Bon Iver, front man Justin Vernon’s moniker, is journeying towards a particular destination or escaping a troubling past is left up to the listener. For my money, it’s a little of each. The strange genesis of the album is part of the allure for Vernon’s fans. At the tail end of a break-up with his band and girlfriend and feeling the affects of a bout of pneumonia, Vernon packed up his recording equipment and drove to an isolated Wisconsin cabin. The result of the months spent in relative isolation is For Emma.

You can read the rest at over at rednoW.

Have you ever seen one of these billboards? Maggie and I laugh every time we drive by one of these advertisements for Holiday Inn Express. “How dumpy must your hotel be,” we ask, “if the showers are your biggest selling point?!”

Well, this weekend we’re in Oshkosh, WI for a wedding and we’re staying in a… Holiday Inn Express (a nice hotel as it turns out). While I’ve yet to test out the shower, I can confirm that the dinner plate-sized shower heads of billboard fame are a reality. I’ll let you know whether or not they are worthy of being the advertising centerpiece for an entire hotel chain.

On a related note, apparently Oshkosh is a real place and not just a funny name for kids clothing.

Update… Larry makes the good point that a good shower is desirable when traveling.  Agreed.  After testing said shower though, I’m definitely not convinced it’s worthy of billboard status.

• I was able to name 42 countries in 5 minutes using this online quiz. How many can you get? I was stymied a few times by my poor spelling. (via Al Hsu)
• Plenty Magazine has a good article by Bill McKibben about how to get rid of unwanted catalogs, which he calls “stuff porn”. Some environmental problems—that global warming thing, say—are understandably hard to solve. It stands to reason that rewiring the entire planet will probably cost some money and probably take some time. What’s annoying, however, is how hard you have to work to solve even simple problems. Take catalogs—say you’d like fewer delivered to your house.
• I’ve mentioned this before, but if you haven’t visited his site you really ought to look at Brian MacDonald’s photos from his recent trip to Africa. After a night of hard rain and restless sleep I was awakened to the sound of Kenny Rogers music blaring in the complex we are staying at. It made for a surreal moment. During the downpours of the night my thoughts went to the children I had photographed, sleeping in their tiny muddy shacks in the slums.
• A very funny, tongue-in-cheek top ten list: Why Men Should Not Be Ordained for Ministry. My favorite may be #7, Man was created before woman, obviously as a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment rather than the crowning achievement of creation. (via Eugene Cho)
  

After dropping some boxes off at our new apartment in Chicago yesterday, I drove a couple of blocks to Kilbourn Park. We should be able to easily walk or ride our bikes to this little neighborhood park.

It’s a bit hard to see, but in the foreground of this photo from the park is a children’s organic garden. In the background are a bunch of guys (mostly of Polish descent I believe) playing soccer. It’s certainly not Lake Ellyn, our current local park of choice, but I think it will suit us just fine.

Peter Hong, the lead pastor of the church I’ll begin working at in a couple of weeks, posted some thoughts about the recent violence in Chicago.

Nine people killed in 36 different shootings throughout the city (SEE this article). Reflecting on the senseless tragedy, I experienced a myriad of emotions—sadness and grief for the families of the victims; anger at the perpetrators who killed seemingly without a moral conscience; fear for my own children growing up in the city; loss of hope that nothing can be done. I found myself honestly asking, “God where are you in all this?

There’s also a word of challenge for us as a church family. Will the city of Chicago see in US this same God who cared so much that He was personally willing to get involved? Will the city of Chicago truly see an “alternate Chicago,” a community of people who not only care that there are people dying senselessly from violence, but are willing to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT? Will the city out there see a group of radical revolutionaries laying down there lives in sacrificial service to show this world a glimpse of God’s Kingdom here on earth, a world without injustice, a world where righteousness prevails?

You can read the rest on the NC3 website.

During the sermon on Sunday I interviewed my friend Chuck about an idea he had about how to spend the Economic Stimulus Package checks most of us will be getting in the mail. Yesterday I wrote about his idea for Out of Ur.

“I thought that spending my check from the government was supposed to be the patriotic thing to do, but I’m not sure it’s the Kingdom thing to do.” That is how my friend Chuck began explaining his idea about what our congregation could do with the economic stimulus payments that begin arriving in the mail this week. After hearing so much about the sluggish economy and our responsibility to jumpstart it through consumption, he was wondering if there might be a better way to invest Uncle Sam’s rebate.

You can read the rest at Out of Ur.

Typically on Monday mornings at 10:30 I’d be heading to the PCC staff meeting. But instead, since yesterday was my last day on staff, I am sitting in Caribou catching up on some reading and emails. It’s a good morning to be inside sipping some coffee given the cold and wet weather.

Yesterday was a strange day. It was kind of surreal spending my last few hours on staff delivering a sermon. It was really odd to walk out of the building around 1:00 knowing it was the last time I would do so as a staff person. Next weekend Maggie and I will be at a wedding in Wisconsin and the following weekend is my first on staff at NC3 in Chicago. I’ve got about an hour of clean-up to do in my office, but otherwise it will probably be a little while until the next time I’m in the PCC building.

I had the chance to talk to a lot of folks before, between and after services yesterday. People said some very kind things and I was reminded repeatedly just how much like family Parkview has been to Maggie and I. It was only appropriate to go to Wendys with some of our PCC friends after the second service. Frankly, I think Wendys food is really not good… but that place holds a ton of great memories of Sunday afternoon lunches with friends.

The next couple of weeks between jobs will be interesting.  Surely there will be plenty of activity to distract me, but I fully expect moments when I look out our living room windows to the PCC building and experience a sense of sadness.  I suppose that’s a whole lot better than feeling a sense of glee!

Related…

• Here’s a PDF of my thank-you note to PCC that was in yesterday’s bulletin.

I watched the Sigur Ros documentary, Heima, with some friends a few weeks back. Gorgeous. I’ve been listening to their album Takk a bunch since seeing the film. Here’s one from that album, Hoppipolla.

Don’t you love all those Icelandic words?

What about this video is so intriguing?

Update: make sure to read Keith’s comments on this video.  Really nice.