In the category of surprising and bizarre things I missed hearing about while I was at New Word Alive last week is this video clip taken from YouTube.

It seems that the last eight contestants on American Idol sang this song on two consecutive nights, changing "My Jesus" to "My Shepherd" on the first night. Josh Harris fills us in on the details, but here is the video of the group singing the song with the correct words on the second night. My jaw is dropping to the floor!





Josh then followed up his initial post by stating, "With all the attention my previous post on American Idol has gotten, I've decided to devote myself to full-time blogging about the show . . ." Here are those posts as well:

• More on Idol and Shout to the Lord
  
  
• Inside Scoop on Shout to the Lord and American Idol

I wanted to share a brief video greeting with you this Easter, and to point you to three sermons I have preached that you might find interesting at this time of year. The first two are my Easter Sunday sermons preached the last two years. The third is not an Easter sermon, but it is about the resurrection.

Have a great Easter, I will be back on Monday!

• Resurrection Hope—An Easter Sermon
  
  
• An Easter Message—The Jesus Who Polarizes People
  
  
• The Risen Jesus (Revelation 1)

UPDATE
This sermon clip is making a stir in the blogosphere for all the right reasons—a great example of the typical reaction comes from Josh Harris.

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The influence of C. J. Mahaney on Mark Driscoll is becoming ever more plain. In this clip Mark 'steals' an outline of practical advice on how to be humble from the man who he calls his dear friend. He also confesses to not having always demonstrated these traits himself. Interestingly he urges us to ask others about the appropriateness of our tone. (HT Justin)

In the beginning of the full sermon he extends this confession and repentance for his own pride.

So he begins the sermon by stating he is not qualified to preach on the subject, and that he felt his lack of humility had been a major failure of his time at Mars Hill. This is an amazing way to start a sermon!

He speaks of a time in his life last December when a season of great opposition led to a phone call from C. J. to encourage him to see it as an opportunity to exercise and grow in humility. I found the whole message very convicting.






The whole sermon is available in video and audio download or to listen here:


For more information, see Mahaney on Humility. You can also influence what Mark will preach on in January by voting on his "Ask Anything" page. You have ten votes per day. Use them wisely.

The following video clip was shown on the last morning of the conference and gives a more professional overview than my own amateur footage.

If you were there and are getting withdrawals, or you couldn't make it and want to see or hear for yourself what Newfrontiers is all about, help is at hand! There are already two of the main sessions available on audio to download for FREE from the Newfrontiers site.

Also I found this fantasitic video introduction to the work of Newfrontiers over on YouTube. The video was only designed to be shown in Newfrontiers churches, so it begins with mentioning the forthcoming offering — please don't be put off by that as no one at Newfrontiers is wanting your money. The rest of the video gives a fantastic overview of the worldwide reach of Newfrontiers and its mission.

This week I have been more conscious than usual of how very different we in Newfrontiers are from the church experience that many of my readers have had. I am conscious that sharing this amateur video clip might surprise some of you. You will see us praying, worshipping, and giving an offering, but doing each of these in a way quite unlike what you may have seen before. The Adrian who can enjoy being a part of all this really is the same Adrian who last week was battling for the doctrine of the atonement. That might surprise you, especially when you realise I am not really just a moderate charismatic, but someone who longs for a more and more vibrant experience of God. But then, if you are a long-term reader of this blog, you probably knew that already! I hope this set of photos and then video clips capture something of the heart of this conference. To be in a room full of people praying their hearts out, giving their money to our common mission, and then celebrating our glorious God was thrilling.

Please note: The sound on this video doesn't begin until the 6:34 point has been reached. From that point on, you can enjoy both sound and video.

The second installment in my Mac videos, in which I mention Logos Bible software, parallels and also some of the other things that make the jump tricky for a PC user.

In this video I share my first reactions to the Mac