Catching up...again

Seems like whenever I get rolling on my blogging, some new life-changing event happens and I am compelled to take a respite.  I hope to post pretty regularly this semester.  The goal is 2-3 times a week.  Even this will be a challenge as I am planning a wedding, working twenty hours, and trying to be a (good) full time student.  I can't possibly put out all that I have been thinking in the last couple of months but here are some tidbits, music and books all thrown together:

I am engaged to be married on May 24, 2008 to the lovely Rebekah Banks.  Bekah is a constant reminder that God is gracious to undeserving sinners...even in giving them beautiful wives they don't deserve.

My music preferences have definitely shifted over to melody driven rock and indie music. Check out Aqualung, a british one-man-band that is really interesting.  He has an awesome voice and the music is just cool.  It is basically electronica with sparse piano bits and drum machines, but really rockin' guitars.  Also, for some reason, I have been drawn to Derek Webb's most recent album The Ringing Bell.  Although I wrote a pretty negative music review previously, the album has really grown on me. Check it out.

I am reading a couple of books.  Rachel Banks, my fiancee's sister, bought me Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley for Christmas.  It is basically a 500 pg history of the Christian church, starting with the teaching's of Jesus.  Its good so far...just  50 pages into it.  I'm also reading the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy.  It has a post apocalyptic setting and is pretty dark.  The author has been heralded as the "next Faulkner..."

I have also been flipping through a really sweet 1940 Episcopal Hymnal.  I bought it in an awesome used book store in St. Louis over Christmas break.  Its cool because it has all the words to the songs and a simple melody line written with each one.  All you have to do is plink out the simple melodies on the piano and you can sing some really obscure hymns.  

Additionally, I have been thinking tons about worship, both in theory and practically.  Hopefully more posts on that soon.

Not necessarily recommended

Nobody loves Derek Webb more than me. I'm a huge fan. But I must say that his latest album has been a bit disappointing for me. I admire him for constantly changing his style and bringing up issues that are not normally talked about in Christian circles. But this last album seems over the top. He switches to more electric guitars and heavier drums, which is a drastic change from his previous albums. He changes from a ballad approach ( on many songs) to a more abstract songwriting approach--a style that can be good but is not necessarily his strength.
There are a couple of redeeming aspects. The songs Savior on Capital Hill and This too shall be made right are interesting and thought provoking. The love songs to his wife, however loving and tender the effort, are mostly boring and unoriginal. I expected more.

Another recent experience of mine was reading Listening To The Beliefs Of Emerging Churches. While this was not necessarily a bad book, it did leave some things to be desired. It is a book that has 5 different emerging church pastors perspectives on theology. Each pastor wrote a chapter and each one wrote a response to everyone else's chapters. It is a good read if you already know a good bit about the pastors being discussed, but I would not recommend this book to someone trying to learn general information about the emerging church. For me, the book raised more questions than it answered.

This is sad

This is the list of books that I have started to read this semester but have not yet finished:

The Legacy of Sovereign Joy (Piper)
The Pursuit of God (Tozer)
Called to the Ministry (Clowney)
Atlas Shrugged (Rand)
A Long Obdience in The Same Direction (Peterson)
Knowing God (Packer)
Understanding Dispensationalists (Poythress)
Creation Regained (Wolters)

There is absolutely no excuse for this. I am starting to realize that, if I'm honest, much of my "desire" to read is basically just a desire to "have read" something. I want to be able to say that I have read something so that I can hold my own in a theological discussion. I am looking to break down books into a couple of sentences so that I can either praise it or refute it and feel comfortable with myself. It is just striking to me how I can flit from one subject to another, and think that I growing spiritually. Shame.