Talking about music is like dancing about architecture... » Uncategorized

My sister lost a dear friend on the weekend. Eva Peters, her husband Bill, and their daughter Lilly were almost finished the long drive from Ontario to Alberta, where they were moving to work and live on a horse farm/resort. This was a dream they’d had for some time but the opportunity had come as a surprise. So on fairly short notice, they packed their stuff and left for a new life in another province.

The picture you see was taken last Friday night. That’s Eva on the left, my sister Tammy on the right. Bill and Eva and Lilly said their goodbyes and left on the long journey. On Sunday night, on a snowy road – just 20 or so kilometers from their new home – Eva lost control of the vehicle she was driving and went off the road and was killed.

She was just 31-years-old…

Many in our church community are grieving. Eva was dear to us, Bill was one of our elders. The funeral is Saturday – the day before Christmas, so as you can imagine there are a lot of mixed emotions here.

Here is a song I came across yesterday that’s fits the occasion, sung by one of my favorite singers and writers, Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls.

There’s Still My Joy (Indigo Girls)

There’s Still My Joy

I took my tree down to the shore
The garland, and the silver star
To find my peace, and grieve no more
To heal this place inside my heart

On every branch I laid some bread
And hungry birds filled up the sky
They rang like bells around my head
They sang my spirit back to life

One tiny child can change the world
One shining light can show the way
Through all my tears, for what I’ve lost
There’s still my joy
There’s still my joy
For Christmas day

The snow comes down on empty sand
There’s tinsel moonlight on the waves
My soul was lost, but here I am
So this must be amazing grace

One tiny child can change the world
One shining light can show the way
Beyond these tears for what I’ve lost
There’s still my joy
There’s still my joy
For Christmas day
There’s still my joy for Christmas day

Bloodlines: An 18-Minute Documentary on Racism

Michael Krahn — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:38:46 +0000

John Piper’s newest book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, is now available. Earlier this year his publisher traveled with him to his hometown of Greenville, SC to revisit the world in which he grew up. This 18-minute documentary takes us through his experience of racism in the 1960′s American South.

This is a really touching documentary and even if you don’t agree with his Christian perspective on the world, it is still worth watching:

Bloodlines Documentary with John Piper from Crossway on Vimeo.

Order the book online, or call 888.346.4700 between 9:00 and 5:00 (CDT), Monday to Friday.

Get a free download of the Introduction [PDF].

Album Artwork and a FREE SINGLE

Michael Krahn — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:51:57 +0000

Lovers on the Edges of the Twilight…
August 29 is the release date! The album will be available online and on CD for you to buy. I’m really proud of the work Deni Gauthier and I have done on this album and I know you’re going to like it too.

Download a pre-mastered track from the album here

This is a picture I took during a visit to Chicago earlier this year. This is a dubious distinction but this is the very corner on which the finale of the latest Transformers movie takes place. I KNOW – you are impressed.

Live performances…
If you’re interested in booking a show, contact me here. Full band show to solo acoustic set – the rates are reasonable and the show will be good! We’ll play in back yards, parking lots, living rooms, churches and anywhere else there’s a few people willing to listen. Here’s a little bit of what you can expect in concert… watch Michael Krahn & Band – “The Love Song (live)”

The Weight of Glory…
It’s been a decade already since I released “The Weight of Glory” and I still think it sounds pretty good. You can listen to samples buy it on iTunes by clicking here.

The Heckler

Michael Krahn — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:34:05 +0000

Today’s bit of wisdom from Seth Godin:

If you engage with the heckler, if you qualify yourself, justify yourself or worst of all, rationalize yourself, the heckler will pounce, turning a small wedge into a giant hole. Like a standup comedian, it’s almost impossible to outwit or shut down a dedicated heckler.

But there is a strategy that works. Acknowledge and move on.

When the heckler announces that you’re incompetent, unqualified or hardly ready to step forward, think, “oh.” And then proceed.

You give it no purchase. No opportunity to escalate. Each jibe is met with “noted.”

Over time, the heckler gets quieter, because it just isn’t worth the effort.

Amy Winehouse and the Inevitable Sales Spike

Michael Krahn — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 03:34:25 +0000

From Billboard.com editor Jem Aswad,

Today, the media is exploding with stories about her sales “spike,” “surge,” “skyrocket,” “soar.” This week’s SoundScan totals of 55,000 albums — up by 3,400% from the previous week — and 111,000 digital tracks (up 2,120%) are based on the first 36 hours after news of her death broke. They may be bigger next week, by which point the story will have cooled off — watch for it to last for the rest of this week and flare up again with next week’s SoundScan results.

What gets lost in all this is perspective: For all the talk about her legacy, she leaves behind a sadly thin catalog of two strong albums, two digital-only B-sides collections and a smattering of stray tracks. She was a marvelous singer and a precocious interpreter who left behind precious little evidence of her talent, since her spiral began almost as soon as she became famous; not much she recorded after the age of 23 has been released.

Read the rest here.

When God’s people worship God…

Michael Krahn — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:11:44 +0000

“When God’s people worship God, they always do two things: (1) they pray and (2) they reflect on the Scriptures. Prayer is our talking to God; the Scriptures are God talking to us, and the two always go together.”

- James Montgomery Boice (Acts – Expositional Commentary)

Left Brain Paralysis

Michael Krahn — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:38:09 +0000

I haven’t posted much lately. Why?

The post that went viral a couple of months ago really took me off guard and came at the worst possible time. It happened just prior to me leaving for Seattle followed shortly thereafter by Chicago… followed shortly thereafter by Toronto – twice. Normally each of those trips would require some prep beforehand and an extensive debrief after. As it was though, they mostly got neither. That post multiplied my blog traffic by 40 and along with it came a slew of attention via comments and Facebook and Twitter follow requests. I was making lots of new connections but I had no time to follow up on them.

Buried under the weight of my own self-expectations, I simply stopped moving for a while. And then the other half of my brain kicked in. This might be my built-in coping mechanism – when the left brain is immobilized by over-consumption and can’t express itself in linear language, the right brain kicks in and speaks for the left. Dear right brain, my plans and structures got destroyed! Please help me cope.

So it’s been less linear things lately – mostly songs and more songs for the last while. All of the processing I’ve needed to do has come out in more poetic form. I’ve been relying less on analysis, logic and calculation and more on intuition, creativity and art.

So I could post a lot of lyrics here but I’m not sure how useful they’d be without their clothing (i.e. the melodies I’ve wrapped around them). But I did start working on a book to go along with the new album I’m recording though. It will look something like chapters that align with the song titles and lots of elaboration on the themes of the album.

There are 2-3 more new songs brewing that fit with the theme so I’d like to put those on the album as well and add those chapters to the book.

Today I find myself with some unexpected free time. I think I’m going to finish those new songs and work on the book.

Connecting Over Coffee

Michael Krahn — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:03:02 +0000

I posted my first column for SEVEN (the Promise Keepers magazine) over at my other blog. Here’s an excerpt:

Having a conversation is relatively easy. You find another person, you find a topic you’re both familiar with and then (hopefully) you begin to discover that you agree on a lot of things. Simple, right?

But it doesn’t always happen this easily; sometimes a bit more effort is required. When this is the case asking someone out for coffee to have a conversation can be pretty frightening. So frightening in fact that we often delay the effort or try to avoid the situation altogether.

Read the rest here.

__________________

The “other blog” features only my longer pieces of writing, some of which have been published in print and others that are waiting to be published. The post frequency is about once a week. So, if that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for…

Go and take a look here.
You can subscribe by email here.
You can subscribe by RSS here.
You can Like the Facebook page here.

Enjoy!

New Technology is Always Confusing

Michael Krahn — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 20:51:48 +0000

Even the book was confusing when it first came on the scene, as this video of early tech support shows…

Environmentalism as Religion

Michael Krahn — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:31:34 +0000

A great post here by my friend Kevin Abell. Among the takeaway quotes:

“The way I understand it, environmentalism is kind of like a religion, where no matter what you sacrifice, you’re never really good enough to qualify.”

***

“Being environmental has more to do with waving a banner, owning a Prius and burning a candle during earth hour than actually being good stewards of God’s creation.”

Read the rest here.

The New (global) Village Priests

Michael Krahn — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 19:50:53 +0000

There’s a new post up at my writing blog about the recent online dust-up between John MacArthur and Darrin Patrick. You can read it here.

_____________________

The new/other blog that features only my longer pieces of writing, some of which have been published in print and others that are waiting to be published. The blog is called simply “Michael Krahn – Writer”

The post frequency on the new blog is about once a week. So, if that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for…

Go and take a look at the new site here.
You can subscribe by email by clicking here.
You can subscribe by RSS by clicking here.
The Facebook group for the new blog is here.

Enjoy!

My Hometown

Michael Krahn — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:04:34 +0000

Well, one of them anyway. Check out this great profile video produced for the city of St. Thomas by Tenzing.

(Watch)

(via The St. Thomas Blog)

It’s a Series of Tubes! (02/01) (Leonard Cohen, txting, Haters, Nazgûls)

Michael Krahn — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 15:33:45 +0000

“It’s a series of tubes!“…

Please go and “like” the blog Facebook page if you haven’t done so already. Thanks.

Serious Stuff

We all know we shouldn’t text while driving, and we never do (right? RIGHT?!). Seth Godin believes that we shouldn’t text while working either: Texting while working (from Seth’s Blog)

Matty Wayne believes that It’s not good til’ you have “haters” (from Get to the chorus)

Darryl Dash shares some of his regrets: Some of My Regrets (from DashHouse.com)

The folks over at Desiring God join the conversation about “missional” and “post-Christian” contextualization here: A Call to Be Truly Missional (from Desiring God Blog by Tyler Kenney)

Who knew Tim Challies had spoken with Leonard Cohen and that Tim’s aunt was the subject of Cohen’s song “Seems So Long Ago, Nancy“?

On the Lighter Side

Or “On the nerdy side” in this case: Age Distribution of Social Networks [Infographic] (from ChurchCrunch)

Ok, this is nerdy too. Perhaps I should call this section “Nerd Stuff”. Watch this incredible demonstration of the integration of information into everyday objects: SixthSense Technology

I’ve been wondering, “Does this balaclava make my Nazgûl look fat?”

This post changed my life: In defense of minimalism.

In Case You Missed It – Here’s what’s been happening around here recently

I’m going to Seattle for BibleTech 2011, I gave some “Ask a Pastor” Answers, and I want you to “Be What You Aspire To Become”

We went to Ark Aid Street Mission (London, ON)

Today Is the Worst Day of the Year (the math says so)

Michael Krahn — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:22:25 +0000

Its the worst day of the year…statistically, according to a press release by a mental health charity, the formula is:

Where:
Weather = W,
Debt = d,
Time since Christmas = T,
Time since failing our new year’s resolutions = Q,
Low motivational levels = M,
and the feeling of a need to take action = N
(‘D’ is not defined in the release, nor are units)

So ‘chin up’ everybody… it can only get better from here. The math says so!

(via)

Seasons of Attack the Lure of Adultery

Michael Krahn — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:25:16 +0000

Here is part 3 in a mini-series exploring pastoral life in a local church. Part 1 was “Pastoring and The Honeymoon Period” and looked at the initial phase of a new relationship between pastor and congregation.

Part 2 was “Baggage is Part of Community” and looked at the phase that follows the “get to know you” phase.

Here is part 3: “Seasons of Attack the Lure of Adultery”

If you stay in one place long enough, you will inevitably experience seasons of attack and during these times it will be easy to look elsewhere for love and affirmation. Another church calls, for example, and asks you to be a guest speaker in their worship service or at a special event. There’s nothing wrong with accepting, of course, and as long as your motives are pure it can be a refreshing adventure out of the bubble of daily life.

But it can also very quickly turn into spiritual adultery. You might see an attractiveness in them; they might see the same in you. It’s like flirting, and it’s just as dangerous: you imagine possibilities you shouldn’t; you entertain thoughts better left unexplored.

Those who’ve invited you to speak don’t know much about you. They’ve probably heard some good things and want to check you out for themselves – possibly without an addition motive, possibly not. They might just be looking for a good guest speaker, but maybe you’re in their sights for a vacant pastoral position at their church.

All you really know is that they thought well enough of you to invite you to speak and now here you are speaking, and there they are in front of you, hanging on your words.

The Escape Hatch
Unlike when you look out at your own congregation, you have no idea who’s struggling with bitterness, battling substance dependency, thinking of leaving their spouse or addicted to pornography. Maybe none of the people at your guest speaking gig are struggling with any of those things, but probably some of them are. If you lack the insight, experience, or plain ability to know that this is true, it can make this new group of people an appealing avenue of potential escape from your present difficult situation.

There’s also the lure of publishing and subsequent opportunities for speaking on the church and conference circuit. Some are called to this ministry but some pursue it as an escape from the rigorous nature and limits of local church leadership.

This idea was part of a recent discussion between Collin Hansen, Owen Strachan, and Justin Taylor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K39EJ7ws13o#t=8m21s

It’s a Series of Tubes! (01/08) (Derek Webb, True Grit, USB)

Michael Krahn — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:17:23 +0000

“It’s a series of tubes!“… I set up a Facebook group for the blog if you’d prefer to read it that way. You can at least go to the page and “Like” it, OK?

As promised, I’m trying to keep the blog clutter down. No doubt there are numerous interesting memes each week that would bring traffic to my blog, but that’s not what this blog is about.

However, I would at least like to give you a summary of interesting things every week or so. Here’s this week’s installment:

Serious Stuff
By far the most popular post here this week was “Team Pyro Takes a Swing at Derek Webb“. Webb responded with “the modern rules of christian care & accountability”

Michael Coren – “Spank Your Child, Go To Prison”

Mike Cosper reviews the Coen Brothers’ new vision of “True Grit” in “The Subversive Hope of Joel and Ethan Coen“. I was disappointed with the film but Cosper makes some good points.

I often find large nuggets of wisdom in the short posts of Seth Godin. “Insurgents and incumbents” is a good example.

On the Lighter Side

Proof of evolution from the cereal aisle:

Graphic representation of USB (only nerds will get this):

Finally, my Canadian brother Darryl Dash shows you a typical day in the life of every Canadian in “A Taste of Canadian Life“:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x768VAsOQSw

Around Le Web

Michael Krahn — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 13:17:53 +0000

Here are some things that caught my attention this week:

Imagine There’s No Leader from DashHouse.com by Darryl Dash

More Disciples, Fewer Leaders, Please from kinnon.tv by Bill Kinnon

How to organize a retreat from Seth’s Blog by Seth Godin

“Keep coming back.” from Chris From Canada by Chris Vacher

You couldn’t make it up from The Cartoon Blog by Dave

Did Jesus Ever Get a Stomach Virus? from Moore to the Point by Russell D. Moore

The Roundup

Michael Krahn — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 13:07:32 +0000

Here’s what happened at the blog this week:

Funny Stuff

How to Become a Famous Blogger

The Only Effective Anti-Tweeting Device
Tired of over-Tweeters? This feathered friend shows us how to solve the problem

Why is John Piper yelling at me?

Christmas

Benjamin Coy – “Carol of Redemption”
An excellent, gentle, beautiful Christmas song by Benjamin Coy

A Labor Of Love
“It was not a silent night… there was blood on the ground…”

Church and Pastoring

When Internal Focus Is External Love
Are churches supposed to be more focused on their community of faith or the wider community around them?

Bigger Is Only Better Sometimes – Some Thoughts on Prospects and Pastoral Ambition
About a year ago I was quite enamored with my prospects for success…

What If Pastor Can’t Preach? (Part II)
The second of a pair of posts that examines typical expectations for a Lead Pastor

John Stott: “The persecution of the true church…”

Presentation Guidelines
These guidelines will be helpful for anyone who frequently makes presentations, but especially for pastors.

Other

“WikiRebels” – The Wikileaks Documentary
This is a fairly sympathetic portrait overall, but informative and thought provoking nonetheless.