Doug Burr: The Sickle & the Sheaves

I'm listening to The Sickle & the Sheaves this morning and had to post a link immediately. It's also availably digitally. This is a cd that stops me in my tracks every time I listen to it. Doug Burr is a friend of ours from Denton. Doug's a monster songwriter and this is what explicitly spiritual songwriting should always sound like. One of the songs on this cd won the International Songwriting Competition in the AAA/Roots/Americana category.

Description from the Paste Music listing:
"The Sickle & the Sheaves falls delicately somewhere between Blind Willie Johnson and Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball. Rugged and pristine, this is music that gets under your skin and goes straight for the heart like a shot of morphine. In the words of one fan, “This album delivers enough heartbreak to drive you to the edge of the bridge, and just enough hope to keep you from jumping.”"

Get this cd immediately.

Doug is also frontman of the Lonelies.

Universe Next Door Film Nights

This Spring I'm taking a group of college students from my church through James Sire's The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog. Each bi-weekly discussion will be followed by a film that exemplifies the worldview dealt with in the chapter discussed. That film will be followed by an optional second film.

The first film should be something fairly accessible. The worldview should be somewhat explicit, the content less challenging, as few barriers (graphic sex, violence, language, subtitles) as possible. It should be a more popular film. The later film should be a more perfect example of the worldview and preferably a greater work as film. Foreign language films with challenging content are fair game for the second film

Your input is greatly appreciated! While I can certainly compile a list on my own, I'm sure all of us can come us with several good examples that I wouldn't think of myself.

I have created a survey in two parts at surveymonkey to help gather suggestions:
Click here to go to part 1.
Click here to go to part 2.

If you have suggestions for poetry, shortstories, songs, or artwork for any of the given categories, please post a comment with your suggestions.

Open or Closed Case?

Open Theism continues to be a hot issue in American Evangelicalism, and is likely to contine to be in the year to come. John Sanders and Clark Pinnock had their Evangelical Theological Society memberships challenged at the society's annual meeting last year.

Now, Sanders appears to be on the way out of his current teaching position, not because he holds to Open Theism, but because he is so visible in his Open Theism.

I hope to follow this up over the holidays with a more extensive look at Open Theism and some of the problems I see with it, for those of you who are unfamiliar.

Open or Closed Case? - Christianity Today Magazine

Video Exchange Community - share your movies

Be sure the check out the Video Exchange Community.

My friend Bear runs this site. Set up an online community with your friends and borrow one another's movies. It's cool and it's free!

Video Exchange Community - share your movies