Adventureland Review feat. Nick Danger Weingartner

Sorry there is no video. The audio and video got all mixed up so i'm just posting the audio. Enjoy!

Nick's Blog

Album Review: Today is the Day - Lincoln Brewster

So there is a new album out...

Lincoln Brewster just put out his sixth album, Today is the Day. When the single came out (cleverly named after the album) I said to myself "oh cool... another LB tune". I was excited enough to pre-order the album but was hardly jumping out of my seat.



Then I got the full album... and was like "Daaanngggggg"



I mean the single was pretty good, but there were songs on the album that made me sit back in my seat and just say "Daaaaaannnnggggg". Lincoln has always played with such passion with his guitar talents, but he added something in this album that I think was missing in a good part of his other songs... SOUL!



His guitar skills on this album has just album has just absolutely blown me away. The intro and main guitar riff for his final song "Let Your Glory Shine" was worthy of putting him on the G3 tour.



The thing that really impressed me with this album is his vocals and overall creativity. He seriously steps it up in this album and adds so much soul in his voice. In "The Arms of my Savior" he lets out this line right before he rips a bangin guitar solo that almost made me weep.



My favorite song on the album is "Give Him Praise". This song just oozes soul. He's got a full choir behind him just rockin' out. He plays with another vocalists that takes the lead on a couple of the verses and adlibs through out the whole song. It's quite fresh...



Something that Lincoln showed in this album as well is a global conciseness. In his songs called "The Power of Your Name" he talks about things such as war, poverty, and child abandonment. The song is amazing. He sings about how as christians he are supposed to carry God's compassion to change the world because God's name has the power to change it. Incredible song.



Overall this album is great. It's not only a sweet jam to listen and rock out to, but it makes me worship by the amount of soul that is in this album. That mixed with the overall song dynamics and lyrics behind the songs, it is a great worship album. I seriously recommend that you pick it up.



If you want more info on Lincoln here's his website:

http://www.lincolnbrewster.com/



Checkit.

Our Vision

I was thinking about something during worship team practice tonight and through a conversation with my good friend Riggs Jr.
Everyone needs a vision. I don't care if your in ministry or if you work a 9-5, vision is something that God calls all of us to have. And I don't believe that ones vision will ever be complete.
A lot of people think that getting the vision is the hard part but that’s not true. Everyone has one, the hard part is being able to articulate ones vision. Not only to others but to themselves.


What do I want in life? What direction am I going in? Is this the direction I should be going in?
After that we can break it down even more specific. For me it’s How do I improve my ministry? How do I improve the bands? The tech team? The overall production? These are all questions that I ask myself on regular basis.

But the most important question I ask to articulate my vision is What am I doing to improve myself to improve my ministry? How am I improving my organization skills? Speaking skills? How do I continue to increase my leadership skills? Our vision never meets us where we are. God gives us our vision to challenge us. To improve ourselves. To turn us into the person God wants us to be. Fulfilling our vision is the final product but I think what God is really after is to improve us. To give us dreams and challenges that we could not possibly conquer at our current physical/emotional/spiritual state.
I've always had a vision for my ministry and my life, but it wasn't until I could articulate it to myself and to others that I was really able to take it to the next level. It's constant evaluation. Never being content. Always bringing our vision to the next level. WORK for your vision. Don’t think it’s come true naturally. And as always let God take you there.

ObaCain for President

This Presidential campaign is very exciting for me for a couple reasons.

1. It's the first presidential campaign that I'm able to exercise my right vote. Sweet.
2. I've been fairly disappointed in Bush the past few years and think we're in need of a change.
3. I love both of the candidates. And their selections of running mates.

The third reason is good because I get to pick between two candidates that I like instead of two that I don't. I love both of the candidates and I would not be very disappointed if the one I voted for lost because that meant that the other one won.
I like McCain for his experience for his Conservative stance on a small, un-intrusive government which I am all about. I like McCain for his pro-life stance. I like McCain for his wanting to have off-shore drilling. I like the fact that even though he supports big business (which I do not like) he seems very intent on stomping on corruption which is often the side-effect of the conservative support of big business. I like McCain for not being so star crazy and focusing on business. And I really like his choice for VP.
I like Obama for his ability to lead people and his boldness. I like Obama's emphasis on the middle class and care for the individual person rather than big business. I like that he promises no tax increases for 95% of the working families. I like his emphasis on Afghanistan and not Iraq (even though I think we need to finish the job in Iraq). I like Obama because everyone says that he doesn't have enough experience and that he can't protect our country and it reminds me of JFK who was said to have too little experience and dealt with the one of the biggest security threats America ever faced.
Now I'm not saying that both candidates are perfect. There are many things that I don't like about each candidate but I'm not going to list them all out. My dislikes are basically the antonym of my likes for the opposite candidate.
So I can't decide who to vote for. If you would have asked me a month ago I would have said "Obama all the way!" but I think that was the Obama star power that grabbed a hold of me. And even though I am still leaning Obama, McCain is making me rethink some things and I'm starting to look at this more objectively.
I'm not a political guru. I don't like politics at all. I think the whole game is whack. But I do care who runs this country. So I'm looking for some more facts from some political guru's who can help me figure out which candidate to vote for. I don't want opinions. I want some hard solid facts so I can make my own choice. Help me out friends. Or I'm voting for Nader. (Definitely just kidding)

The Office... It's Back Baby.

Ok so this Thursday night is a great night. It's the night in which the greatest television show ever created comes back for its fourth season.
The Jim/Pam romance, the countless uncomfortable Michael moments, and the outrageous things that comes out of Dwight's mouth; all equal up to an amazing comedic experience (Plus the fact that my future wife Pam is on the show). Now if that doesn't convince you of how funny the show is maybe the fact that it's won over 15 awards which include three Emmy's and a Golden Globe. That's out of the whole world... yea I know.
Now all that makes the show absolutely hysterical and impressive. But you want to know what makes the show THE BEST... It makes me cry from laughing without crude humor. 98% of the humor that is used in the show is humor that does not include sex/drugs/language. And that is rare. Nowadays if a show doesn't have at least one girl that shows her cleavage ALL the time or at least one guy who has a new sexual partner every episode, it doesn't make it past the pilot.
Now I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy a show like That 70’s Show or Scrubs. I think they’re hilarious. And they have very suggestive material. I am just giving major props to The Office, which I think is funnier than all the other shows and does it with totally appropriate adult humor. It is just a good example of how to make great entertainment and not use suggestive material. Yes I know…. It’s possible.
So major props to Greg Daniels (writer/producer) and the boys (and ladies) up in Scranton producing this show.

And if you don't already watch the show you need to. Thursday nights at 9. I usually miss that but I believe it's on iTunes and you can watch full episodes online here: http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/categories/season-4/29480/

Compassion vs. Passion...

Deuteronomy 5:7-11

7 If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. 8 Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs......
10 Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. 11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.

Now I have a problem with this verse. Not it's content by any means. I believe that as Christians we need to assist the poor and we don't we are not completing our full duties as Christians. And I believe that as a whole, Christians can do a lot better job than what we are doing. (A LOT BETTER)

But God calls everyone to do this in different capacities.

I was sitting in a class that I absolutely love called Justice in a Pluralistic Society taught by Reverend Coleman. Freakin awesome guy. But he started talking about something that did not sit well with me. Now I don't know if this is his opinion or if he was just presenting an argument. He started talking about churches that don't focus on the poor enough. He was talking about churches that build buildings that are millions of dollars and how that money could be used in such better ways AKA assisting the poor.

I was sitting there thinking to myself "well I work at a church that just happens to be in the middle of a 5 million dollar capitol campaign to build a new building. There is nothing wrong with that" Is it a sin that our church is growing at such a fast rate that we need more room to fit more people??

What do you think?

Some people are called to sell there whole life to the poor. To sell all there possessions and become a monk and beg for their food. Hallelujah. I am so happy that God has given you that passion. But God does not require everyone to have a passion for helping the poor. He requires everyone to have COMPASSION toward them.

I'm tired of people thinking that because we have money and decide to spend it on a building that we are self-centered Christians.

Have we forgotten the Great Commission?
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit.

Now don't get me wrong I am not bashing on missionaries or monks or anyone whole gives their whole lives to the needy and has that passion for the poor. I'm just tired of getting bashed on for not having that same passion and for working at a church who decides to spend their money on a new building and reaching lost souls which is just as important.

Does this mean that because I’m aware that my passion is more for reaching lost people that I can just ignore the poor? Absolutely not. Does this mean that a person whose passion is for the poor and not as much for reaching lost people can just forget about evangelism? Absolutely not. It’s a matter of finding ones passion, pursuing it, and being aware of things that we are not as passionate about and helping out in any way that we feel called to.

Tough love? or Cushions?

How do we as human beings learn? How do we acquire wisdom? I mean everybody does it. We don't have what it takes to be who God wants us to be without growing and learning. How do we do this? Some people are all about the classroom and structured learning. Some people like to be thrown into a scenario and learn by doing.
I'm reading this book called "The Divine Mentor" by Wayne Cordeiro and he talked about this very topic. It was perfect timing for me because I had been wondering this for the past couple of weeks.
Wayne says that there are two teachers the life has blessed us with. Kind of. The two teachers are Wisdom and Consequences. Both teachers are very effective and we can learn from both but the difference is in their teaching philosophies. While wisdom is like the your sweet old Kindergarten English teacher that gave you extra M&M’s when you were able to tie your shoes (I speak from experience), Consequences are like the fifth grade gym teacher that played dodge ball and would play with the students so he could hit little fifth grade kids in the head with big rubber balls. In other words wisdom is more nurturing while consequences like tough love.
Wisdom is what you learn without experience from either seeing someone else do it or just plain common sense. Wisdom is making the right decision BEFORE you make the mistake. This is essential if we are ever going to grow and become the person and the people God wants us to be. Wayne says

“If you’re going to be the person or the leader you need to be in the twenty-first century, you must find out how to learn from the experience”

We can’t just constantly be learning from our mistakes or their will be to much pain for us to function.
Some pain, however, is good. There are some things that you just have to learn by doing. Whether you have to learn it this way because you won’t understand any other way or if you are just unaware of the ramifications, pain is how we learn sometimes. This is the way I’ve been learning lately and it SUCKS! One thing that I am learning right now is financial discipline. And I’m learning because of all my stupid, irresponsible financial decisions that I’ve made in the past are starting to catch up to me. This is the consequence of those decisions.
One does not have to experience every thing that we learn. We can learn from others mistakes and save ourselves a lot of hurt. But sometimes you just have to jump in and learn from your decisions and we can’t be afraid to do that either. It’s a fine line but in the moment if we follow God, we’ll know which path to take.