Heaven + Earth: Archive

BLAINEHOGAN.COM | ideas, hope, & creative process:... →

Saw a lot of myself in this post. Thought I’d share it with some of you artistic types who’ve retreated from the fear of creating for too long… blainehogan: A few months ago I got an email from a guy named, Michael Neale. It started with some kind remarks and then quickly turned into a pitch. I get a few of these a month. Most don’t interest me. This isn’t to say they aren’t...

Jan 31st

3 notes

Jan 16th

8 notes

Jan 10th

Jan 4th

Watch

If you’ve never seen the incredible process Jeremy Cowart uses to create some pretty moving artwork, check out this time lapse video/artwork he did for People of the Second Chance. Insight into his artistic process makes the finished piece 100 times more powerful when you see some of the subjects he used to create his composite image.

Oct 4th

Watch

Can’t remember the last time I was more excited for a new record to come out.

Sep 27th

Sep 13th

How brief & fragile

The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. - Psalm 103:15-16 The rapid decline and passing of NDP leader Jack Layton today has me thinking of this verse and others like it. How a man at the height of his political career, having achieved more than any NDP leader in history, can have it...

Aug 22nd

1 note

Sunday Set List - July 31st

Hmmm… I guess it’s been awhile since I posted one of these. Sorry ‘bout that for the tens of you that actually seek out these songs. Well, tens might even be optimistic, but I know there are at least a few of you out there who like to pick up copies of what we’re singing on Sunday mornings, and I certainly won’t add to your numbers by forgetting to post these lists...

Aug 2nd

Jun 27th

And then God showed up...

If you’ve been around church and Christian ministry long enough I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase before. It’s usually used in a context something like, “Man, the service this morning was rolling along, business as usual, announcements, music, blah blah blah. Then we launched into that 3rd chorus of ‘How Great Thou Art’ and GOD SHOWED UP!” …as if God wasn’t already there. As if He wasn’t always...

Jun 20th

A recent conversation at McDonald's drive thru.

Them: “Welcome to McDonald’s can I take your order?” Me: “Yes, I’ll have a medium iced coffee please.” Them: “Sorry, we don’t have any ice for the iced coffee…” Me: “Oh…okay, can I just have a vanilla cone then?” Them: “Sorry, the ice cream machine is broken.” Me: “I see…do you...

May 26th

Sunday Set List - April 3rd

Another great Sunday yesterday in our Elementary series, examining some foundational doctrines of the Christian faith. Pastor Kevin gave us a tremendous presentation of the doctrine of Atonement as symbolized by the Lord’s Supper, delving into the deep meaning of blood sacrifice for the remission of sins. Sounds pretty gruesome, right? I guess when you think about the tremendous pain,...

Apr 4th

Sunday Set List - March 27th

I’ve had a few people over the last few months ask me about songs we do on Sunday mornings and where they can get hold of the music, chord charts, etc. So I thought I’d start blogging our Sunday set list every Monday morning for those of you interested in tracking down some of these songs for your own personal worship times throughout the week. With each song I’ll list the...

Mar 28th

Feb 28th

Will you give God what is His? Will you feed His...

This was the central message of an intelligent and passionate devotional thought presented by Dan Cooper at last night’s inaugural Worship 12:1 service. Will we stop consuming “church” as a passive seat-warmer and start getting serious about giving deeply of ourselves to the Lord and to others as He commands. The answer? A resounding “YES” from the enthusiastic crowd...

Feb 28th

Feb 24th

Jan 21st

Are you for or against?

Quite awhile ago we had an old school preacher and evangelist come through town who reminded me why I don’t like old school preachers and evangelists. Okay, that’s a sweeping generalization and Billy Graham was a pretty solid guy, I guess. But to my mind there has always been something in their approach that rankled. Case in point, the gentleman I heard gave a fantastic challenge to our...

Jan 17th

The Radiohead 01 - 10 Playlist

I’m a little late to the party on this one but I just started listening through a combined playlist of “OK Computer” and “In Rainbows” based on the information at this website. Essentially fans suggest that “In Rainbows” and “OK Computer”, released 10 years apart from each other, were actually designed to flow together as one large Radiohead...

Jan 10th

Top 10 of '10

I don’t know why I feel compelled to do this. I think I just feel left out if I don’t. Well, that and I just finished reading Rolling Stone’s and Spin’s top albums of 2010 articles and neither one mentioned Mumford & Sons “Sigh No More” which I thought was a complete crock. Also, they don’t include any releases from artists releasing on Christian...

Jan 4th

Oh those last minute requests...

Thought some of my worship leader and preacher friends would find this quote from Vicky Beeching interesting and entertaining: “Preachers would be offended if right before speaking, the service leader came up and said “I know you’ve prepared a sermon, but we’d like you to change part of it. Instead of speaking on whatever you’ve prepared, we’d like you to change the second half of your talk...

Dec 14th

Dec 2nd

Is Halloween Good or Evil? →

Great article from Relevant Mag on the origins of Halloween. I know a lot of folks in the Church wrestle with this question so this might help you draw some informed conclusions. Click the arrow on the right and enjoy!

Nov 1st

Oct 30th

WorshipRises in Canada

I think yesterday was a pretty historic day here in Canada. Most of you won’t have any idea why, so let me share. Yesterday, over 80 worship leaders and pastors in 8 different locations across Canada spent the entire day writing songs together for the Canadian church as part of something called WorshipRises. At the risk of using hyperbole, let me say that it was...

Oct 26th

David Crowder discusses SMS (Shine) Lite Brite... →

Over 700,000 Lite Brite pegs used to shoot 1200 frames of stop motion video, not to mention figuring out how to make a frog leap through the air, or water fall all in stop motion. Some pretty cool insight into this amazing video. Click the arrow on the right to visit David’s blog and read all about it.

Oct 26th

Oct 19th

Sep 28th

Sep 21st

Don't forget your Daily Bread

Convinced you need to start reading the Bible on a daily basis but not sure where to start? Looking for some focus in your devotional life that will give you a solid overview of the Gospels, the Psalms & Proverbs, the Prophets or indeed the entire Bible? Lifechurch.tv has compiled a personalized online Bible reading and discussion resource called YouVersion which is really worth checking out. ...

Aug 20th

Jun 17th

Unless the Lord builds a house...

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about church growth. We’re heading into a couple of days of staff planning here at MW and one of our tasks has been to come up with 3 practical suggestions that will help grow the church. After sifting through a ton of research, weighing different opinions on “seeker-friendly” vs. “seeker-sensitive”, “attractional”...

Jun 14th

May 12th

Apr 19th

Does C.S. Lewis hate Wesleyans?

Here’s a recent quote I came across from everyone’s favourite (and respected) apologist, C.S. Lewis: “I have always in my books been concerned simply to put forward ‘mere’ Christianity, and am no guide on these (most regrettable) ‘inter-denominational’ questions. I do however strongly object to the tyrannical and unscriptural insolence of anything that...

Apr 16th

Feb 11th

Trendy Music's Biggest Night

This is one of those posts that can definitely be filed under the “Earth” side of “Heaven + Earth”. There is no spiritual insight or reflection here. Just the mild indignation of a real music lover (AKA me). Last night Neil Young was awarded his first grammy EVER. In a 40 year career that includes seminal albums like Harvest, After the Goldrush, and Harvest Moon, and songs...

Feb 1st

Watch

If you’ve got an hour or so to spend this is well worth a watch, no matter what you currently believe. You might have to download the VEOH player to watch it all. Sorry ‘bout that.

Jan 28th

Jan 27th

I’m not what the tech developers call an “early adopter” as it were.

Jan 27th

Checking out tumblr. Apparently my tweets will appear there and vice-versa. Oh, and have you guys heard of this YouTube thing…?

Jan 27th

Bill of Goods

Since I don’t have a lot of time right now, and just to get this thing off the ground, I thought I’d start by sharing some ghosts from Christmas past. Here’s something I wrote when I was working a job that I truly hated and life just wasn’t that much fun. Can you relate? “Have you ever been struck with the notion that we waste the majority of our time doing largely...

Jan 26th