These can be found at:http://bloodletting.blogspot.com/2009/05/story-about-falling-in-love.htmlandhttp://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/cdreviews/ItsAllCrazy!ItsAllFalse!ItsAllaDream!ItsAlright.asp
…a story about falling in love
Title: it’s all crazy! it’s all false! it’s all a dream! it’s alrightArtist: mewithoutYouLabel: Tooth & Nail RecordsLength: 11 Tracks / 44:55
MewithoutYou has always numbered among those bands whose sound is an “acquired taste”. From the start, there has never been a shred of pop-informed accessibility to their work.
Remember back in 2002 when [A->B] Life came out? Remember the first time you heard vocalist Aaron Weiss’ bizarre mix of talking and shouting? Remember being sucked in by the energy of it all - the broken heart of the protagonist, the churn and ferocity of the music to match?
Remember 2004, when Catch For Us The Foxes came out? Remember the intricate bass lines and the swirling crescendos of the guitars? Remember hearing Aaron talk quietly and, in his fumbling but endearing way, sing?
Remember how well all the new instrumentation introduced on 2006’s [...]

Original post by Josh Simons

A few copies of Steampunk Magazine that we have around the community returned to us after having been borrowed (I think for someone to write a dissertation or thesis or some academic type work) for several months. This and that we have been having conversations about Streampunk eversince the party on saturday has got me musing about things punk, goth and steam. My hesitancy the other day or feeling that asserting a connection between goth and steampunk may be controvertial for some was due to some of the iterations of steampunk I have run accross on teh interwebs, which to me do not feel very punk or goth, in fact simply feel downright nastalgic. Plus there is that there is a great deal of brown, tan tweed and kahki in steampunk due to the colonist/explorer fashion theme, and the airship/ derigible pilot etc. At [...]

Original post by lekamphausen@netzero.net (Larry Kamphausen)

As I was following links in various blogs the other day I ran across this interesting post on conveyance metaphors over at Father T’s blog. He is commenting on this article over at Episcopal Life On Line. Father T is commenting on the author’s questioning of the ship metaphor and his suggestion that way may need to change our conveyance metaphors to airplane metaphors since few people use ships as a means of travel while most do use airplanes. The questioning of metaphor is a questioning of who denominational identity loyalty and the fierceness with which Christians including mainline and liberal Christians hold their opinions.
Given my conversation with the Diocese of Chicago the following observation caught my attention; “The [Pew Forum's]survey points up an interesting countertrend worth pondering. The one bright light of significant growth in the mainline group of churches is – are you sitting down? –”nondenominational. [...]

Original post by lekamphausen@netzero.net (Larry Kamphausen)

Tonight we are having a birthday party for to members of the community: a steampunk birthday party. several of the members of the community have in the past year begun to take more interest in Steampunk. This feels very familiar to me because at least in terms of fashion and aesthetic I have long encountered elements of Steampunk in the Goth scene. At some point I’d like to discover what the connection if any between these Steampunk aesthetic and fashion elements in the Goth scene and the Steampunk literature. I wonder also if some would take issue with my connecting Steampunk and Goth. Certainly it is becoming a scene and sub-culture all its own. However, Goth often embraces and encompasses scenes and sub-cultures that are also separate from the Goth scene. The Fetish scene is one that immediately comes to mind, as does cyberpunk. [...]

Original post by lekamphausen@netzero.net (Larry Kamphausen)

As I wrote on Reconciler’s blog recently I have been thinking about and playing with liturgy. I have also been doing a good bit of research on liturgy and worship. The use of Twitter in worship has been in the news which was brought to my attention by Tripp and Eugene Cho, has been posting on this as well. The particular ways the article highlights about how these initial attempts to use Twitter in worship is perhaps understandable given the context, and perhaps is no different that services where in prayer everyone speaks at once or everyone prays in tongues at once. I have been in these services, not something I find particularly worshipful. Yet I could see that it might fit certain charismatic and free church liturgical styles.
I don’t think that the use of Twitter during a church service is always objectionable. [...]

Original post by lekamphausen@netzero.net (Larry Kamphausen)

Last night I met with someone who has come to Reconciler a couple of times in the past few weeks. We had a good conversation. We talked about where we each have lived, how we came to our current vocation, film, churches he has attended, and the community and Reconciler of course. Two things struck me as we each returned home from Kopi Cafe: We did not talk directly about God and I did not talk about Reconciler except in terms of how it has effected my life. He talked about the leaders and people who had been in churches he attended - talked about how they impacted his life or their quirks from which he learned personally. He didn’t ask me about our vision, or ecumenism, and I didn’t try to get him to tell me what he thought of the church [...]

Original post by lekamphausen@netzero.net (Larry Kamphausen)

I spent much of yesterday refining the sermon. Though in the morning I had some errands to run, and I had a few e-mails that I needed to respond to for church. I spent the rest of the day reflecting on the Crucifixion of Christ and our Good Friday Service. I think as I did I was struck by how odd it is to sit and reflect, sing, listen to things read, about a mans crucifixion and then adore a replica of that means of execution and torture. We then call it the “life giving cross.” as I prepared my sermon I was struck to what degree I simply take this for granted even to some extent in my mind rush on to the Resurection. Yet, I also believe that the crucifixion of Christ is central and essential to the Christian faith.
In my [...]

Original post by lekamphausen@netzero.net (Larry Kamphausen)

I looked over this and have revised it slightly and added another paragraph 4/8/2009 10:50 pm. LEK
I am preaching on Good Friday and in the service there is both the chanting of the passion Gospel in John and the adoration of the cross. Reconciler’s first Holy Week and Easter we had a Maundy Thursday service but I don’t think we had a Good Friday service. At the time we were very small and we were also doing an Easter Vigil - late at night in the entire space of Chase Cafe (it was a lot of fun)- so I have never preached on Good Friday. Our first Holy Week and Easter with Immanuel we mostly showed up as a congregation for the services and subsequent two years I preached on Maundy Thursday. I will admit that I feel a little intimidated at preaching at that service. [...]

Original post by lekamphausen@netzero.net (Larry Kamphausen)

I haven’t written anything about pastoring, preaching or the church in awhile. Preaching has been interesting lately, for some reason I have had manuscripts written that I then outline as opposed to just notes as it has mostly been for several months. During Lent I have been preaching on faith. I went from preaching a series on Discipleship using portions of David Augsburger’s Book Dissident Discipleship as springboard for each sermon. That series on Discipleship I planned. This series on faith just showed up as I prepared the sermon for the first Sunday in Lent and said this is what you are preaching on for Lent. Four weeks on explorations of the nature of faith, (I have posted three of the 4 sermons, you can find them here, here and here). Yes I know Lent is longer than 4 weeks but [...]

Original post by lekamphausen@netzero.net (Larry Kamphausen)

In a few minutes I will start the Swedish (German to my father), pancakes I cook each week for Holy Trinity’s weekly community breakfast and meeting. I am working on a post on the “media arts” in worship, but this is some emergin ideas and I want to presents something more or less coherent, and I am critiqueing various approaches and I want to be fair to what I critique so it may not be posted for awhile.In its place some more thoughts on Social media before I start the pancakes:This is further reflection on Tripp’s recent post on “social media” ie. Twitter and Facebook, and the conversation that it generated on Tripp’s blog and over at Eugen Cho’s blog.
At the moment I am going to rant a little about how the term “social” is being used. So when Tripp as is FB and Twitter more social than [...]

Original post by lekamphausen@netzero.net (Larry Kamphausen)