Klampert

I had the honor and privilege to receive a pre-release copy of “Sex, Lies & Religion” by Randy Elrod and I was able to read it in one day. The question you may ask yourself is “1 day?…must have been short”. It is not a long book at 166 pages, but it is a riveting book. I was not able to put it down.

A year ago I was able to meet Randy in person and talk with him. What I encountered was a man of integrity and transparency. A Godly man with a great marriage. This alone made me want to read whatever he put out.

This is a book that tries to debunk the old church rules about sex and nudity. It talks about the history of our creation and what we were created for. It delves into the connection between sexuality and spirituality starting first with nudity and sex onto our longing for God.

I am an artist and have drawn nudes and been around that culture a long time, but I am also aware of how much the nude body terrifies the main stream church. Randy talks about the lies that are out there and delves into teaching the reader how to achieve freedom from the way we have always been taught. There is a difference between “beauty” and Pornography” and Randy gives us a pretty great check list to determine that.

There is so much in this book to go over and re-read. I will be reading it for a second time next week and will probably need to blog again about it to really dig deeper.

A great quote from the book which really stood out to me was:

“Simply gather a handful of the succulent fruit described in this chapter and your mate will be literally eating out of your hand while racing you to the bedroom for an endless time of wild and abandoned lovemaking.”

Randy goes on to talk about the Fruit of the spirit and making that the most important Foreplay in a marriage. Something I am sure we all need a reminder of daily.

Last but not least it talks about communion and the sacraments. For the sake of a long post I won’t get into it, but let me tell you the connection he makes to the above is amazing.

Folks, this is a must read and maybe the top book I recommend this year. It’s not very often you will hear me say I need to read it again.

Do yourself a favor and order this book, but order it with an open mind because it will challenge you.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from cre:ate 2.0 Publishing to read and post a review on my site. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> >  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I wanted to post a list of my reviews I have done so you can get a chance to look at them.

I have a new review feature that will be showing up here, called “the joint”, that you don’t want to miss, but until then you need to catch up.

Books

Worship Matters: Bob Kauflin
The Shack: William P. Young
They Like Jesus Not the Church: Dan Kimball
Blue Like Jazz: Donald Miller
90 Minutes in Heaven: Don Piper
Planning Blended Worship: Robert Weber
Dangerous Act of Worship: Mark Labberton
Save Me From Myself: Brian “Head” Welch
The Barbarian Way: Erwin Mcmanus
God Songs: Paul Baloche
Unchristian
Jim and Casper Go to Church
The Gospel According to Starbucks
In a Pit with a Lion on a snowy Day
The Wild Goose Chase

CD’s

Klaus: Glory-an evening of worship
Joel Augé: On the Blue
Leeland: Opposite Way
Worth Dying For
Deluge: Live
Lincoln Brewster: Today is the Day
Sojourn Music: Before the Throne of God Above
David Crowder Band: Remedy
Matt Redman: Best of
Sara Groves: Add to the Beauty
Brian Doerksen: Holy God
Vicky Beeching: Painting the Invisible
Hillsong United: All of the Above

Multi-Angle Reviews from The Worship Community

Hillsong London: Hail to the King
Kari Jobe: Kari Jobe
Freddy Rodriguez: Champions Live

Sitepoint: a great resource and book company is offering a free download of one of their books.

The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques is the ultimate Photoshop compendium for web designers.

It’s brimming with tried and tested real-world Photoshop solutions that will add impact to your next web design project. If you’ve ever been stuck for inspiration, have puzzled over just how to create a shiny aqua-style button, or wanted to create that seamlessly tiling background image you saw on a site recently, you need download this book.

Here are some things you can expect very soon from me:

Reviews on:

Books

• Contemplative Youth Ministry – Mark Yaconelli
• A New Kind of Youth Ministry – Folmsbee
• Growing Souls – Mark Yaconelli
• The irresistible Revolution – Claiborne
• Pop Goes the Church – Tim Stevens
• Worship Matters – Bob Kauflin

Music – New or coming soon from

• Alvin Slaughter
• Jared Anderson
• Joel Auge’
• Gateway Worship
• Kathryn Scott

Thoughts on:

• Youth Ministry
• Emergent Church
• Alternative Worship
• Contemplative Services
• Communion
• Church 2.0

THAT GET YOU FIRED UP?

This is a new weekly section. expect oddball stuff, killer resources, sweet blogs, interesting news. Let the fun begin.

1. Jon over at Lifemusicministry has started a series on worship leading essentials
2. UnChristian – new book just came out on monday. looks like a must read
3. Phil Keaggy makes #25 most underrated guitarists. I personally would name him #2 behind Prince
4. Mudpuppy announces name your own price on new radiohead CD.
5. cool news…the worship master list available on this site (which i hope to have updated next week) has had 1700 views/downloads make sure you check out the updated version next week. It includes all the songs we are doing, the key, and what CD they are from
6. Youversion – Beta is open. It is an online bible and community . Check out what it can do their blog.
7. A late addition to this is something found in the liner notes of the new crowder CD…call it an easter egg…click here