Monday, December 31, 2007

09959

final post of 2007 which means...

...top 5 lists!

Songs

1b) Ten Thousand Angels Caedmon's Call (performed by Derek Webb)
the best of both sides of the derek webb theologian/prophet coin...a cry for justice now and the longing for heaven
2) Keep the Car Running Arcade Fire
most listened to song of the year...you can't not enjoy this song
3) O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing David* Crowder Band
i don't normally like it went songwriters add a hook/chorus to old hymns (just do the hymn, it's fine the way it is!...see the "wonderful cross" remake by chris tomlin)...however, crowder does it just right with one...the line "there are so few words that ever grow old" is one of my all time favorites now
4) If You Find Her Future of Forestry
i had never heard of these guys until this year...i like their quieter numbers better and this is the best of those numbers!
5) Lifeline Angels & Airwaves
this band continues to impress and this is my favorite track off the new album

Books (required reading)

1) The Jesus Way Eugene Peterson
the newest of peterson's "conversations in" series...they are all excellent but this is the best of the three (in my opinion)
2) Soul Graffiti Mark Scandrette
a good follow up to last year's number one The Irresistible Revolution
3) The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser
an excellent book on christian spirituality written by a catholic priest...this book was a major source in rob bell's Sex God (#4 on this list).  the holy longing is a book i will probably revisit every couple years
4) Sex God Rob Bell
at this point the lack of good books i read this year in this category really starts to show up...we read this as a small group and it was a good experience...mostly i put it on here because people seem to have strong reactions to bell's premise, which usually means that the author is on to something...however, i would recommend reading #3 
again, not a great book in and of itself, but it was fun to read about the ctk story from an "outsider" perspective.  also, more symbolic than anything since we have started to experiment with the multi-site approach

Books (non-required)

1)
The Book of Lost Things John Connolly
i feel like i've said this before here, but i am a sucker for magical realism (see Everything is Illuminated and Life of Pi...two of my favorite novels)...a wonderful story about coming of age and the importance of stories in making sense of our reality
i was not into harry potter until about two years ago (whenever book 6 came out)...i thought the first couple were interesting but not well written...it felt like novels-by-numbers...by about book 4, though, i was hooked and the last two of the series are extremely well written...the story aside, reading the series is interesting just to see Rowlings development as an author.  anyway, this, the final installment, is excellent
3) A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini
the female version of the Kite Runner? yes, but while familiar, it is also an extremely well-written and moving story on its own.  this guy is a great writer
not a novel!  but it does tell the story of napster, craigslist, wikipedia, ebay, and other "leaderless" organizations...the best non-theory book i've read on emergence
a fun and interesting read...also, some sense of justification for enjoying lower levels of order!

Movies 

*author's note: i watched a lot of 24 this year...a lot!  as a result i have not watched very many movies making this a very incomplete list.  i may change it after i watch the following films (if i ever get around to them): The Darjeeling Limited, Juno, The Great DebatersNo Country for Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and Gone Baby Gone

my friend seth introduced me to this fun film about the most unlikely of saints. inspiration for runners!
chip's view
an "Office" type look at teaching...i laughed a lot!
also titled "Angel", it's actually an HBO feature that got put on dvd.  i enjoyed it more for the way it was shot than the story (although the story is really good too)...the whole time i watched it i kept thinking "i could do something like this."
as i was watching this movie, i could imagine pastors and youth pastors around the country scrambling for sermon illustrations (Will Smith = Jesus!!!)...the light/dark theme was much more interesting to me (especially if you read anything in the New Testament written by John)

- there you go!  feel free to comment/leave your own top fives/rip mine apart...

...happy new year!

3 comments:

NickW said...

No James Blunt?

Anonymous said...

Steve, it was great meeting you and Amy and spending New Year's Eve with your family!

Patti

Anonymous said...

With your invitation for a response, here's mine. As a person who sang the hymns "as is" four times/week in chapel and church for years, I appreciate the creative effort to breathe fresh life into (good) old songs. I'm grateful to Crowder AND Tomlin... and anyone else who does it well.