Sound Off Experience:Silent disco/quiet clubbing

So ..

Tim Neufeld was minding his own business,



 hosting his  usual  U2 concert afterglow show "The Crystal Ballroom" show on Periscope...on   location from NYC.






  Look at the scene he

 stumbled upon.



 It was a "silent disco."

Tim scored a spontaneous interview with the head of the company (I will add Tim's Periscope video when it becomes available here.  Of course if you are reading this on Saturday/Sunday, it's still live on Periscope here)
Read all about it at

• SoundOffExperince.com
• Sound Off Experience | Facebook
• https://twitter.com/soexperience

From their website:

Shhh. Incredible events in progress.

Host unforgettable experiences using our wireless headphone technology, which lets your guests tune in to up to three channels of audio from DJs, event leaders and multimedia presentations.

Only those with headphones can hear, so your chosen audience is immersed completely in the experience — whether it’s a silent dance party or yoga on the beach.

Anywhere within the 200-yard range of our transmitter is an area for you to create unique experiences that your guests will rave about forever.

Sound Off experiences are perfect for:

• Outdoor events
• Music festivals
• Corporate events
• Trade shows

• Conventions
• Weddings
• Speaking engagements
• Guided group experiences

From Baptist to Anabaptist (Greg Boyd)

Which Dave Matthews?: "as horny as Lil Wayne" and/or as Godhaunted and apocalyptic as anybody?

Rolling Stone once called Frank Zappa a " Mensch with a dirty mind."
                              Man, could he pray through his guitar (with "palpale holiness")..even if he didn't                                 believe in God.

More recently, RS has suggested that Dave Matthews is

one of rock's most underrated Pretty Complex Dudes – as horny as Lil Wayne, as troubled as Thom Yorke, able to growl "war is the most vulgar madness" like the American Sting he's always sort of been. He's got a beige-Baja-shirt rep and a black-turtleneck soul.  -link

Great point, since as  Mr and Mrs David Dark have masterfully noted Yorke (and his Radiohead) are absolutely apoclayptic and "very resurrection."    (Back to Zappa, Rolling Stone, in the link above,  Joe’s Garage is  Zappa’s Apocalypse Now.)  

We apparently have the word “apocalypse“ all wrong. In its root meaning, it’s not about destruction or fortune telling; It’s about revealing; It’s what James Joyce calls an epiphany-the moment you realize your so-called love for the young lady, all your professions, all your dreams, and all your efforts to get her to notice you were the exercise of an unkind and obssesive vanity…The real world, within which you’ve lived and moved and had your being, has unveiled itself. It’s starting to come to you. You aren’t who you made yourself out to be. An apocalypsehas occurred, or a revelation, if you prefer…Apocalyptic maximizes the reality of human suffering and folly before daring a word of hope. The hope has nowhere else to happen but the valley of the shadow of death. Is it any surprise that we often won’t know it when we see it?
-David Dark, “Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, The Simpsons and Other Pop Culture Icons”, p.10

One heteroclite has suggested/joked that half of Dave's songs are about God, and half are about sex...
....and maybe even the sexsongs are eventually Godsongs (or is it vice versa?)
 Makes sense; as Rob Bell says in "Sex. God.,' "This  is about that"






How do you hear/read/experience/interpret Dave Matthews?
Some deep meditations/prayers/laments about and to God (or "God as a symbol"):

•  Dave Matthews on God....and monkeys
• Dave Matthews: "when i get home/i wanna believe in Jesus"
• Godhaunted Dave Matthews: Bartender and The Maker

 Then check out  these links ....click at own risk, NSFC (:

• Dave Matthews Sings You Didn't Know Were Dirty
•  "9 Dave Matthews Songs That are Defintely about..." (click at own risk, NSFC)
• What are some dirty/sexual lines from Dave Matthews Band?
•  "sex-as-food funk-pop romp"

Rob Bell's "other" heresy: "The fruit in Garden of Eden was a watermelon" (:

Rob Bell clearly and publicly proclaimed, of the Eden fruit of Genesis 3:6 that..


"It was a watermelon"  -Rob Bell, p, 186, "Sex.God."








There it is, flat out, unapologetically and without bothering with a defense or explanation.
No citing of scholars who have made that case.

Isn't it  unbelievable that the heresy hunters haven't picked up on this, and crucified him for it?

Isn't it amazing that the phase "It was a watermelon"  by Rob Bell only produces two Google returns, and both are simply from PDF versions of the book!?

Apparently, the interwebs have never talked about this until now.  Once again, this humble blog (that I'm proud of)  changes that as soon as I hit 'publish.'

Yes, granted it's a footnote.  But doesn't anyone read footnotes?
Does no one besides Rob and meself know it's even there?


Photo evidence, footnote 62:

What do you think is up with this?
Is he kidding; does he believe it;  is it a sly subversive bone thrown for the bloggers?

And no one blogging about it?
(OK Later note: I found two reviews (Heathersy  and Ordinary Visionary  which  briefly mention it.  Surprisingly, neither spend much time on it.  One wonders if it's a joke where they "missed the punchline" and the other...amazingly...assumes he meant it literally, and doesn't engage him)

Though the watermelon reference  predates the "Love Wins" controversy, Rob has long had to deal with the heresy hunters. Did he bury this as a throwaway/ Easter Egg?

Clues:

Remember how David Crowder subverted the copyright page in his own book?

Note that Bell often saves some of his best material..and quips...for the footnotes.
Click one of the links above to read these footnote numbers:

81, 117, 156

And of course, #77..see below.  It's about his claim that the original Hebrew for the female lover's quote in  Song of Solomon was "I have a headache."

Also note a good book to help you "get" Rob Bell;
and this on "the agony of explanation."

Don't hear what he's not saying.


"Sex.God" is a good book.
( Qualifier: As Ben Witherington has noted, Bell..and Ray VanDerLaan, whom Bell draws from.. may sometimes jump too quickly on  Jewish  traditions sources that may or may not make his case)
 No joke.
 Sell some watermelons and buy it.


 Or dare to read it via illegal PDFs above while they last...

PS Maybe it's a watermelon in Easter Hay (:

"Where is your limp?"

photos credit

I appreciate hearing
  (in)appropriate,
            creative,
                  subversive
                          nonstandard and exceptional

 interview questions (or answers) for job/ministry staff applicants.
(For a good time, start at this link: HOW TO KEEP A HEALTHY LEVEL OF INSANITY)


 I was once told that the first question is always "Is there anything in your past, that if we knew it would embarrass you or talk us out of hiring you."

!!

 If that fails, "Have you looked at pornography in the last month?"

Probably not the best openers...or are they?

 In "Death by Church, " (great book),  Mike Erre writes:

David Gibbons, a pastor a pastor of another church in our area, once spoke to our staff and said that in his church, three questions are asked of any potential leader or staff member.  I have hung on to two of the questions he mentioned as a helpful way to cultivate an environment where weaknesses, brokenness, and failure are openly discussed and dealt with. The first question is,

         where is your limp?

                                            [emphasis mine -dw]

The question is derived  from the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel in Genesis 32.  His struggle with God results in a limp that Jacob walks with the rest of his life " What lies behind this question is the assumption that God uses our weakness and struggle ( 2 Corinthians 12:1-10) and that this becomes our platform for ministry   People who are not in touch with their own brokenness are hindered in ministry ... For me, this rings true. My entire ministry is different because I have struggled (or am struggling) with  struggled (or am struggling) with food, pornography, anxiety and depression, and greed.   I have learned that our strength is not always the most qualifying thing about us.

               -Erre, "Death by Church" p. 247 ( read the whole section here)

I love that #1. . I like #2  ("What is in your hand?") a lot.
 But Erre never reveals the third, and I don't find anywhere online where Gibbons mentions it. Hmm..I'll tag them both, and ask.

Shoutout to Father Scully

photo credit

Even though Christinaity Today once accused Bono of having a "weak ecclesiology"
(...don't worry, he goes to church more often since that article (:..._)

It's commonly known that Bono/ U2 et al have pastor/priest/spiritual leader  friends mentors,
                       and have often seriously sought them out:

Eugene Peterson,        
                   Jack Heaslip  (North Star)
                              Bill Hybels and Rick Warren
                                        Billy Graham ("the voice that gave my life a Rhyme":
                               Tony Camplolo
                                                    Jim Wallis  
 Michael W Smith
                     Brennan manning.

But what so you know about  Father Scully at Notre Dame?
See this bio.
See this

I doubt if the female scream at 16 sec mark below  is for Father Scully(:
...................... though Bono introduces him right after that.

Shoutout also  at 9:30ff here:

Craig Keener: Bad Bible Proof-Texts