As a youth worker for a Christian charity one of my concerns is not that the young people we have going to youth groups now don’t go to church but that they will never go to church (when I say church I don’t mean a Sunday service but a gathering of Christians).

This means that the youth groups I meet with whether it’s our 11-14′s group, Rock Solid group or Christian Union in school are all as much church as a Sunday morning service however what’s next? Maybe they’ll find trendy university churches but sooner or later they probably have to come back to the reality that generally church isn’t exciting.

I had a conversation with someone recently about someone who became a Christian and went to church for a while but always remarked ‘Why does it have to be so boring?’. This wasn’t a young person either and that person eventually gave up.

And along came the emerging Church…

Emerging church is a title is basically thrown at any ‘church’ gathering that isn’t a hymn sandwich.It might refer to cafe church, some kind of family fun day or a whole variety of ‘very slightly off the wall’ church events and whilst I love the idea of proper coffee and a informal church these things often miss the point.

These emerging churches can often become nothing more than a social gathering with the addition of something so watered down it’s barely a Christian message.

The Problem is this…

If church becomes something so boring that people switch off then we lose the ‘life in all its fullness’ that Christ promises. The freedom we’re meant to receive in Christ becomes nothing more than a chore of sitting through an hour of dullness a week.

If church becomes something so irrelevant that the event is nothing more than a social event with a watered-down, half-arsed attempt at proclaiming the greatness of Jesus then it is equally as pointless as the church that is boring.

The Gospel

The message that Jesus brought to people was neither boring or irrelevant. It was a life changing encounter. It caused people to do crazy things like selling their possessions and looking after the poor. It caused people to have a conviction so strong about having Jesus in their lives that they were willing to die for the cause.

A Passionless Church

On Sunday Jo and myself visited Emmanuel Church in Durham for no other reason than googling a church to visit whilst there and the format of the church was pretty similar to most (other than the coffee before the service which gave us a chance to feel welcomed in) however the difference was the passion oozing from the people.

The people at Emmanuel Church genuinely cared about Christ and you could see it in their actions and hear it in their voices.

The problem is that the majority of our churches lack passion.

The word passion comes from the Greek word Pathos and translated means something worth dying for.

Does church present us with a Jesus worth dying for? Does church present us with a Christian life that causes us to be passionate people…people who are so convicted by the gospel message and so filled with the Holy Spiirt that they simply cannot even talk about Jesus without it being obvious that this is something they really care about?

The fact is our churches need passion.

Yes some people express themselves differently but sooner or later with people you can find the buttons to push…for some people I know that button is the word ‘Fairtrade’, for others it’s the mention of homophobia and for some it might even be how dangerous the roads are with the ice at the moment.

Everyone has a button that when you push it they burst into life…passionately telling you about something they’re angered about, or excited about or something that they care so much about they simply can’t stay monotone.

How many people in our churches are like that with Jesus?

How many of our churches repeat liturgy as if their life depends on it?

How many people are so passionate about the gospel that they will do anything to spread it?

I’m not talking about people waving their arms in worship (although it does say passion), I’m not talking about speaking in tongues (although it’s God bubbling up from our very souls), I’m not even talking about people shouting or saying ‘yes Lord’ during prayers (although both say passion)…I’m talking about people being excited!

People being passionate.

And so yes…church is boring and irrelevant (a lot of the time) but it doesn’t have to be turned completely upside down to be appealing to people I think often it’s as simple as people wanting what we’ve got. People looking for something to be passionate about. People finding that passion in Jesus.

Emerging church is fantastic if it’s passionate as is an average Sunday morning service. If church is boring then we’ve really missed the point.

Our word passion comes from the Greek ‘Pathos’ which means ‘Something worth dying for’

One reporter took a job at a manufacturer in Leicester where he was paid £2.5o an hour, made to work with unsafe equipment and wasn’t asked for any documents. During the reporters’ few months there he made clothes for Peacocks, C & A (Europe), New Look and BHS.

Whilst it is shocking that there are such places in this country the thing that shocked me the most was the blame shifting that the companies, when confronted seemed to do. Much like Nestle in Parorama’s chocolate programme or Primark (also Panorama) the blame was shifted to subcontractors who apparently weren’t meant to further subcontract.

The beauty of Fairtrade for chocolate, coffee and other Fairtrade products is that they have traceability which means the chocolate that arrives can be traced right back to the farm that originated…this means there is corporate responsibility and that those dealing with Fairtrade can’t just wave their arms and say ‘we didn’t know it was happening’.

I can’t help but feel that the reactions of New Look, Peacocks and Arcadia were nothing but corporate crap. Of course an investigation will be launched but will they really monitor things better as a result? Probably not.

It seems to me that for ethical clothing there’s a few options…

Number 1: Shop with companies who are ethical. Labour Behind the Label detail which high street brands are ethical and are a fantastic resource. Alongside that sites such as People Tree and Wombat offer ethical fashion (although at higher prices that Primark or New Look). Finally newly launched Fair Squared (click here to visit) offer a range of Fairtrade Products and plan to expand into the clothing business but currently only stock Fairtrade Converse-Style shoes…mine are on the way! (Their Fairtrade rice is cheap too!)

Number 2: The same way Fairtrade is an independent monitoring system for food produce and some fashion a similar label could be set up for clothing conditions…for companies to sign up and display the ‘badge of honour’ they must adhere to strict, independently checked practices.

Number 3: The Government should do something! The dispatches programme finished by suggesting that the government could make companies responsible for their supply chain…I’m sure that if you were to threaten companies with fines for irresponsible practices in their supply chain they’d soon enough monitor it properly.

Anyway just a few thoughts…comments always appreciated.

In turn up until a few years ago the internet was very much static…you could make a website and get it hosted but the last few years have empowered millions of people to instant, search-able web publication and whereas at one point in time only the dedicated geek could make a ‘hate page’ for his least favourite brand pretty much anyone can easily vent a view point on a company instantly.

Take, for example my twitter account…I have 134 followers…my tweets update my Facebook on which I have 402 “friends”…if we allow some duplication that allows around 450 people who have the opportunity to read my views…not even taking into account those who read the twitter feed on my blog, iLike page, Reverb Nation page and various others.

So, when searching for some tasty Divine chocolate a few weeks back in ASDA and unable to find it I hit twitter to express my sadness to which the ASDA Service Team (a dedicated group of ASDA tweeters) got back to me to inform me that it was no longer stocked because it just didn’t sell. More and more companies are realising that social networking can have a big impact on their business!

Back in August I locked horns with Argos …our sofas which we’d had for 10 months had developed a problem whereby the zip on the back cushion (which was stapled down) had broke…Argos sent out a HomeServe upholsterer who (having phoned the wrong number twice) turned up on our doorstep…looked at the sofa and told me that he could stitch it up or get a new cover…I asked for a new cover…he told me I’d hear within 10 days and he left!

10 days later I phoned up Argos only to find that he had told them that it was accidental damage and I’d refused (which I hadn’t) to have it stitched up…I argued with Argos…spoke to managers and eventually wrote a letter all of which resulted in them saying ‘well the upholsterer’s report says it’s accidental damage so tough luck!

So I tweeted ‘Argos have the worst customer services ever’ (or words to that effect) and within 10 minutes Argos tweeted back…asked for my order number and said they’d get back to me.

In the meantime I continued to pester Argos and to cut a long story short we get new sofa’s tomorrow!

The fact is that companies can no longer afford to ignore customers because without even opening their mouths customer’s have access to hundreds of people who will glance at (and maybe even take in) a short sentence describing a company.

So tweet, facebook and myspace your frustrations away! It might just make a difference…it will certainly attract attention and see what happens!

(In other news turns out that Costa ignore e-mails…my 2nd send of my e-mail still has no response…good old snail mail next I think)

This bugs me because whilst Nero refuse to do anything remotely ethical Costa’s optional Fairtrade always gave me the choice to drink Fairtrade and gave me the glimmer of hope that one day they’d take the Starbucks challenge and go completely Fairtrade not Rainforest Alliance which whilst ok isn’t as good.

So I wrote to them…here’s what I said…I’ll post the reply!

Hello,

I just wanted to e-mail you to let you know how disappointed I was this morning during a meeting in your Kingswood branch in Hull to be told upon ordering a Fairtrade Americano that you no longer did fairtrade but everything was Rainforest Alliance certified.

Whilst your choice to make Fairtrade an option opposed to Starbucks complete transformation to Fairtrade has never completely satisfied me I’ve always liked that I could get a Fairtrade option in Costa. As you are probably aware the key focus of Rainforest Alliance is to protect the environment and whilst I am aware that the Costa Foundation looks after communities alongside this I personally feel that Fairtrade is a much more positive option as those who see the Fairtrade mark know that Fairtrade represents the best option for the farmers, their communities and also for the environment surrounding them.

Alongside this with many villages, towns and cities becoming ‘Fairtrade villages/towns/cities’ I believe you missed an opportunity to really be part of those communities and I know that for myself as a customer (mostly in Beverley) I shall now be looking to buy and drink my coffee in local shops that sell Fairtrade (or searching out a Starbucks in other places!),

I shall look forward to hearing from you on this matter,

Mark Tiddy

If you think this sucks too you can e-mail customer.relations@whitbread.com and tell them so!

We arrived at around 12 and joined the queue of people waiting to get in…after driving between holding bays, waiting an hour then moving again we finally pitched up around 3…sorted ourselves out and headed to the festival village.

I have to say I went to Greenbelt not knowing what to expect…my more liberal friends love it and my more conservative friends would offer advise to steer clear and so I headed to Greenbelt with curiosity, an open-mind and with the idea that I’d be able to make a more informed judgment on the festival.

Ethos

For starters Greenbelt has this massive social justice ethos going on…pretty much every trailer had Fairtrade hot drinks and you couldn’t turn a corner or enter a marquee without someone trying to sell you some Divine chocolate or a ethically traded/fairtrade t-shirt…there was even a t-shirt with the Tesco logo but with ‘Tesco’ replaced by ‘Fiasco’…awesome (I didn’t buy one!).

Add into the mix numerous stalls and seminars on human rights and justice plus a sign around every corner reminding you that if Greenbelt was Gaza there would be x amount of you…insert starving or something to that effect here.

I have to say that I really related to this ethos and loved the Fairtrade, ethical aspect…especially when the Fairtrade chocolate was cheaper than in the shops!

Music

The main thing that attracted me to Greenbelt was ‘The King Blues’ and ‘Luke Leighfield’ who would play gigs during the weekend…however throughout the weekend I caught some other bands too including an acoustic and mainstage set from Jars of Clay.

For me it was this mix of contemporary Christian music and more secular music that really made Greenbelt great…as a musician and huge fan of music I don’t want to watch 70 bands play ‘Shine Jesus Shine’ slightly differently, I want decent music and the balance of Jars of Clay’s ‘worship’ music and ‘The King Blues’ acoustic meets ska meets punk filled with the cry for social justice which lies at the heard of Christianity gave Greenbelt the right mix of music.

Other Seminars

Truth be told I didn’t make it to many seminars and spent a fair amount of time catching up with old friends who happened to be there (another aspect of Greenbelt that I loved!). I did, however manage to catch Mark Yaconelli’s 1st talk which was engaging, interesting and challenging, I attended a seminar for musicians called ‘DIY or DIE’ which gave some interesting pointers on how to promote your own music and some insights into the professional industry and I also found myself in a talk about how homosexuals were being persecuted in Africa and how (from what I was told) it was mostly Rowan Williams fault!

This mix of seminars perhaps sums up the range of Greenbelt…there was also lots of seminars on other subjects such as loving your enemies, confidence for women, Fairtrade and seminars aimed at lesbian, gay or bisexual Christians.

Whilst the broad range of topics being discussed would make some Christians say ‘noooo can’t have that at a Christian festival‘ I found that (regardless of the rights and wrongs…which I’m not going in to) Greenbelt was taking you beyond being spoon-fed. If you go to Spring Harvest you know what you’re going to get….you need not question what’s being talked about because it’s all very ‘nice middle-class church’ whereas Greenbelt challenges you….I wouldn’t say I’ve come back with different views but it’s certainly made me think.

So…is Greenbelt Christian?

The best way to finish this blog post seemed to be by asking an ambiguous questions (with a hint of the rhetorical) and not actually answering it! However…

The actions of Jesus show Him meeting those society didn’t like…the dishonest…the prostitutes…the mentally unstable…or as Scum of the Earth church put it ‘the left out and right brained’ and for me Greenbelt did just that. The Sunday service by the main stage was a pretty conservative church service…nothing controversial at all however it was attended by thousands of people who the general church would exclude…those who (for whatever reason) just don’t fit into mainstream church.

Regardless of your opinion of Greenbelt the organisers have managed to create a Christian festival that people are actually comfortable inviting their non-Christian friends too….I could see anyone I know who isn’t Christian having an awesome time at Greenbelt and discovering a bit of what God is about…maybe it’s just the addition of a beer tent or maybe it’s the diversity of Greenbelt but anyone is genuinely welcome at the festival.

Contrast this to Spring Harvest and I think I know what comes out on top…yes perhaps there are some things at Greenbelt which aren’t “Christian” but the festival is honest with people, open and accessible.

So would I go back next year? Yes….I think Greenbelt is what you make it…if you want to rant about the liberalness of Greenbelt then you can choose to attend the seminars that will make you explode…if you want a nice, safe Greenbelt then you can attend the seminars that match that…if you want to watch some good music and drink some beer then you can even do that…it’s what you make it!

Who wants to come with us next year?

However throughout the process of planning a wedding and all the learning we’ve done throughout I’ve wanted to finish it all off by writing a blog about my perspective of planning a wedding and maybe even throw in some helpful advice for those who may end up planning one in time to come.

The Beginning…

So we got engaged last July in Italy and knew that we wanted to get married this year…in fact we’d pretty much picked a date before we were even engaged! During our second week in Italy (the week after our engagement) our friends Tim and Wendy came out to stay in a nearby villa with their daughters and naturally having seen the engagement on Twitter they offered congratulations and advice.

There have been two pieces of advice that helped us immensely throughout the wedding planning and the first came from Tim in Italy. Being a minister Tim has helped many couples as they’ve prepared for their wedding and his advice to us was simply ‘be selfish’, informing us that there’s so many people who have preconceptions about how a wedding ‘should’ be that it’s easy to get bogged down trying to please everyone and that you need to remember that it’s your wedding not anyone elses.

This advice was enforced by a few other married friends of ours too and certainly proved absolutely invaluable…it meant we had to do some difficult things and make some difficult choices but looking back whilst we’d change the attitude of some towards us during our wedding planning I wouldn’t change any of the decisions we made in planning our wedding.

Generation Gap

It’s amazing how weddings differ and I guess what was fairly unusual (historically) about our wedding was that Jo and myself did all of the planning ourselves, between us we designed table decorations, picked colours, designed invites and did pretty much everything in between. For me this joint effort really reminded us of our similarities…there weren’t arguments about ideas it all just came together organically. There was so much unity between us in our planning Jo said it seemed odd buying a dress without me!

As we flicked through the photos last week and reminisced on the day Jo glanced at the image of the room and remarked ‘that’s what success looks like’.

Involving Friends!

One of the nicest things about our wedding was the amount of our friends that were involved. As part of the service we invited a selection of friends from all the parts of our lives to pray for us which was a really special moment, we had friends leading worship in a band, Stuart being our master of ceremonies and leading some games (the best reception idea ever, I might add!), and Steve driving is very nice Audi as a wedding car.

On the other side we also seemed to have a collection of people involved who were also Christian, our flowers were done by the churches’ flower guild, the cake baked by a lady at my parents church and our photographer went to a friend of Jo’s church but was also a professional photographer (http://www.bexphotography.co.uk…highly recommended…fantastic photos and top bloke).

On top of this Tony who led the service has known me since I was 11 and known Jo a few years too as we’ve gone to midnight mass and led their youth work on the church weekend away on one occasion.

All of this really made the day mean so much more…if you can get mates involved it’s fantastic…don’t get caught up with professionals get caught up with what means something to you!

Wedding Preparation

The most difficult thing to find time for when planning a wedding over distance was time for wedding preparation…we found a couple of opportunities. One in the form of a fantastic afternoon with St Andrews’ Church and the second on a lovely evening with Phil and Christine (the minister and his wife of Jo’s Sheffield church).

We’d also set out to read ‘The Marriage Book’…which we failed miserably!

My Final Advice…

Whilst I could ramble on forever about our wedding and preparation, our struggles and celebrations there’s just a couple of things I’d like to finish with…firstly my top 4 pieces of advice for planning a wedding:

1. Be Selfish - You’d be amazed at who has what ideas about weddings but you need to be able to tell people to butt-out, ask yourself what the two of you want as a couple and stick to that. For us this involved making some difficult decisions and discovering sides of people that neither of us liked but we know in doing that we were able to have the wedding we wanted and not be looking back now with regrets (thank you to all our friends who listened to us and prayed for us in our difficult situations)

2. Personalise! - Forget tradition…as an addition to advice 1 it’s your day so plan what you want…I hope that people walked away from our wedding saying ‘that was very Jo and Mark’ so make that you’re aim…and plan together (as a couple), you probably won’t regret it.

3. Don’t Be Afraid To Ask - Money is a massive issue with weddings and we saved some by having people we knew get involved whether it was cars or cakes and actually in having people we knew do things it made the day mean a lot more. There’s nothing like having a good friend drive you from the church in his car…if nothing else you don’t have to start the awkward conversation with ‘Been busy?’.

4. Make Time For Yourselves - Jo and myself spent a year pretty much just talking weddings and probably neglected us too much…try and make time for things other than weddings. I once heard someone say that for every 1 hour of planning you should have an hour for yourself…it’s far more difficult than it sounds!

Finally to finish this massive blog post I want to publicly thank my parents who were fantastic throughout the whole wedding process…they visited the venue, painted twigs, created a ‘wedding room’ in their house and were genuinely fantastic.

However the one product I was never sold to by Apple was the iPhone….not that it was a bad product but it just didn’t have the features. When I upgraded my phone 18 months ago I went for the Sony Ericsson C905 without even considering the iPhone a competitor…my needs in a phone were simply that I wanted a decent camera (because I never remember my digital camera) and I wanted something that would work with my Mac and manage my calendar and whilst the iPhone did the latter it just didn’t have the camera or other useful features.

The fact remains that since releasing a phone Apple have been very clever…on paper the iPhone, iPhone 3 and iPhone 3G have never been high competitors in the phone market but because of Apples reputation and a touch screen interface that uses Android as toilet paper and considers others mere sewage somehow the other iPhones sold millions despite lacking in features.

This marketing and desire Apple creates reflected in my recent phone upgrade dilemma…this was before the iPhone 4 was left in a restaurant by accident and the dilemma went something like;

These Android phone features are so much better (camera quality etc)…but they’re not an iPhone’

So when the rumors about the iPhone 4 began and were eventually confirmed by Apple I knew that there was no other option…and so a week and a half ago on the release day of the iPhone a delivery man turned up at my house with a shiny new iPhone 4.

The iPhone 4

I’ve been using the iPhone 4 for just over a week now and other than ‘that signal issue‘ it’s been hassle free….I’ve felt right at home using it from the start…even the touchscreen keyboard is easy to adapt to.

Whilst it would take me forever to write a post on everything I love about the iPhone 4 here are some of my favourite things…

The Apps – The App store is jam packed with useful things…so far apps have helped me compare prices of high street products to online using the camera and barcode, they’ve helped me tune my guitar, find a song to play, look at my documents without having my laptop, check my blog and even check up some html mark-up on a website to find someone’s e-mail address…oh and I’ve read the paper too!

Voice Control/Driving – Every phone I’ve had has claimed to have ‘voice dialing’ however my last phone involved touching the phone to activate (even with a bluetooth headset) and both that and the one prior to that involved recording a voice tag for each contact (like I ever bothered!) and then managing to remember exactly how you pronounced their now….not with the iPhone!

As you drive along listening to music on the radio (which I input my iPhone to) a call comes in…my headset buzzes and the music fades out…beautiful…a nice fade.

As I drive and remember I need to phone someone I press the headset button, the music fades (beautiful fade!), I say ‘Phone Joanna’ and without programming a tag it asks me if I want her mobile, home or other…all voice controlled!

Google Maps – Okay…most phones have it but it was very useful for finding a more hidden shop in Norwich yesterday and perfect for finding a house tonight!

Notes – The note function isn’t hidden on the iPhone which means I actually use them…especially when they sync with my mac…which means I’m saving paper on to-do lists and shopping lists!

All in all the iPhone 4 is beautiful…the Apple bumper sorts the signal issue and adds to the beauty…the touch screen is perfect and the iPhone is becoming quite good at managing me…just call me iMark!

(I didn’t even mention that the camera is awesome and the HD video is stunning!)

In my originally blog my initial thoughts of the iPad were mixed…you may remember me blogging:

Whilst I think the iPad is something of beauty and can fully see the potential for users I think it’s somewhat of a niche market. I can see it being used by commuters on their way to work and maybe it could just about be used as a bag-sized PDA but it’s too big for a pocket and will probably be too expensive to buy for fun (much to my disappointment).

However for those with money to spend I could quite easily see it as being an alternative to sitting watching TV with a laptop…providing a nice, slim alternative. I wish I had money to spare!

To an extent I still stand by what I said in my previous post…whilst beautiful the iPad is nothing more than an expensive gadget however having been into the Apple Store in Sheffield today and had a play on one I have a few more thoughts.

Usability

As with all Apple products the interface is absolutely spot on and completely seamless and user-friendly. The best way to describe the operating system is as a larger version of the iPhone software…infact the whole iPad is very much a large iPhone but with extras!

The main screen (like the iPhone) has a series of buttons representing applications, a swipe on the main page and your onto the next page of applications and so on.

The onscreen keyboard is probably the most impressive feature of the iPad which really does make it user-friendly. The size of it is just right and the sensitivity means you can type just as effectively as you could on your laptop….I managed to type a few lines in a document, a twitter status and visit a few websites with about the same amount of typos I usually make!

Games

One of the most impressive things was a racing game on the iPad which allowed you to steer and control speed by tilting and turning the ipad with ease…beautiful!

Working On The Go!

The iPad has scaled down versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote (the Apple equivalent but much more superior versions of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint) which allow you to open and edit your documents on the move.

So would I buy one?

Apple have done what they did with the iPhone and have managed to create a gadget that whilst there may not really be a gap in the market for there will be one because Apple have made the iPad!

The iPad starts at £429 for a 16gb wifi model and goes up to £699 for the 3gs 64gb model which means the main reason I won’t be getting one is simply the price…I loved playing with it, I could see myself using it both at home and on the move (especially for meetings and escaping to coffee shops to work) but I just can’t justify the cost…especially if you get a 3g model and take into account the monthly cost of a data plan.

The Verdict

My verdict on the iPad is simple…it’s beautiful in design, stunning to use and is an absolutely fantastic piece of kit but unless you’ve got money to spend on something you don’t really need it’s probably not for you.

Before I waffle on for a bit you can download ‘Escape This Town’ free here at bandcamp (name a price of zero) or be lovely and pay for it on amazon mp3 or iTunes

Back when I was 16 and I could only play the drums (and a tiny bit of keyboard) I started song writing…songs were nothing more than lyrics with a drum beat however at the age of 17 I eBayed myself a cheap guitar and set to work learning to play the guitar.

Ever since being able to play enough chords to make a tune I spent a fair chunk of my spare time recording drums and guitars and song writing.

A few years back when I started my gap year in Peterborough I was encouraged to lead worship…with very little confidence in my vocal abilities I started off miles from the microphone but as confidence grew my closeness to the microphone followed.

Throughout the years prior to moving to Peterborough, during my degree and since beginning my new job in Yorkshire I’ve continued to write and record music to the point of having an entire album released into the world.

I’ve been thinking about this blog post for weeks and I didn’t really know how to phrase it because in reflection for me as Mark, having an album with me on every instrument plus vocals is a huge thing. 5 years ago would be allowed anywhere near my voice…now it’s out there!

I’m not going to write much more other than a shameless plug for my album! I’ve been describing the music as ‘realistic Christian’…it doesn’t sound like a Christian album although some lyrics fit the bill…nor is it completely about things outside of my faith…it’s a mix of styles and sounds and even genres…flicking between pop, pop-punk, acoustic and sometimes a little heavier.

You can download it for free here on bandcamp (by just naming a price of 0.00 and giving an e-mail address) or if you’re feeling generous you can download ‘Escape This Town’ on iTunes here or Amazon mp3 here.

I hope you enjoy it (and the blog theme to match)

I’m going to write some more stuff on the song meanings on my Tumblr over the next few weeks

In the years following that I’ve managed to add all their albums except Cheeses (of Nazareth) and Upbeats and Beatdowns to my collection and have grown to adore their mix of ska-punk comprised with both fun and profound lyrics.

Earlier this year the ex-lead singer of the band Reese Roper finally announced that the long-awaited Five Iron Frenzy DVD would be released on the 13th April and that pre-orders would get it shipped a month early…I pre-ordered early March and anticipated the arrival of my DVD from the States.

A few weeks back the DVD arrived and I’ve almost finished watching it minus a few extras and wow…what a DVD!

The DVD is in fact 2 DVD’s….the first being the 3 hour documentary ‘The Rise & Fall of Five Iron Frenzy’ and the second labeled ‘This is a coaster’ is actually a disc of extras including the video of the live album ‘The end is here’ (the band’s last gig)..I’ll come back to the extras in a minute!

The Rise & Fall of Five Iron Frenzy

The 3 hour documentary covers the 9 years of the band and is mixed with interviews, live clips and goofy home movies the band put together and gives you a real insight to the passions, struggles and lives of the band members, their journey with God during the 9 years of Five Iron Frenzy and how the band really took off yet struggled with being in the middle of the Christian and secular genre.

The documentary is well put together and is very much a visual timeline…Reese Roper who did much of the editing hasn’t made the journey look like a nice a fluffy ride with God but has documented the struggles too which makes it a really genuine piece of documentary.

The Extras

Whilst the documentary is amazing the extras are something else completely.

Packed onto the 2nd disc are 5 music videos, 3 lives concerts, a few random clips and a whole host of short movies!

I’m not going to to review all of the extras but just the Filmore Gig Video.

Filmore was the last show the band ever played and so to have it on DVD is something very special. The video includes all the stuff that was cut from the live CD and there’s real emotion in the gig from the whole band. The real highlight was the 5 minute introduction Reese gives to Every New Day which was so powerful to watch.

and summing up…

To sum up the Five Iron Frenzy DVD is amazing and was well worth the $20 I spent on it however it is for the hardcore fans…if you just think ‘they’re alright’ then it’s probably not for you…borrow someone’s and watch the live Filmore gig!

I finish this post with the live video for ‘Every new day’

Alongside this the campaign organiser has set up a website called ‘Invade the Airwaves’ just in case you’re confused about what the campaign is about…it also has a ‘in the press’ section detailing 2 local BBC stations who’ve featured the campaign and a host of Christian sites talking about it…not quite the media storm that the Christmas Rage Against the Machine project got.

On the website they even have an ‘FAQ’ for those people confused by the entire concept (I’m sure it’s simple!) and as part of this there is the following statement:

Two things really. Firstly, the evident power of social media (namely Facebook) to bring about such a powerful campaign with outstanding results that Rage Against The Machine delivered at Christmas 2009. Secondly, a huge personal dissatisfaction that such an angry song featuring the ‘F’ word at the end several times, was the talk of the nation at a time when the focal point of the Christmas period should be peace

Now whilst the author is right that Christmas should be about peace he has clearly not realised what the RATM song was about.  Killing in the name was written about the racist policemen in the area where the band were based, it isn’t an anthem for violence but one for justice, it’s an anti-war song and anti-hypocrisy and whilst screaming ‘F*** you I won’t do what you tell me’ wouldn’t be my personal approach I find that the message in the song represents a lot of the things Jesus stood for.

I’ve been invited to the campaign to get Delirious? to number 1 twice and both times I’ve clicked ‘Reject’ (I am attending a Nestle free Easter though!) and the reason for this is simply it’s not a good idea…Christian music is generally so awful it’s better off kept off the airwaves….alongside this I don’t believe for 5 seconds Jesus would remotely care about it, He never aimed for popularity…in fact he managed to hack off his own people so much they wanted him crucified.

So Delirious? for Easter number 1? I hope not…let’s have the new Scouting for Girls song instead!

However as many are aware a few weeks back Owl City hit the UK number 1 spot with ‘Fireflies’ and so this time I headed to Spotify to listen for real…I then purchased Fireflies on iTunes (getting even more excited upon noting that Matt Thiessen of Relient K featured on the track) and consequently purchased their ‘Of June’ EP and ‘Ocean Eyes’ album (on which Fireflies featured).

In the last few weeks since Ocean Eyes arrived I have been listening to it constantly and driving Jo nuts by putting it on the iPod all the time but it is a good album.

Whilst Owl City and Relient K don’t sound alike (other than the occasional appearance of Matt Thiessen) Owl City remind me of HelloGoodbye in many ways. Ocean Eyes is a catchy pop album with a really good feel good factor. The vocals are pretty clean and not over produced and I’ve found myself having uncontrollable urges to listen to individual tracks….my personal favourite ‘Saltwater Room’ has been listened to 28 times on my iTunes alone (and once more again as I type this).

The album is fantastic and I recommend it….it’s clever, funny, catchy and leaves you singing the songs over and over again! (Oh and Adam Young who IS Owl City is a Christian too!)

Local Veg!

I had a conversation with someone at church about farm shops last week and so decided to try and only buy fruit and veg locally…in theory much more of what I buy will be locally grown and the money I spend goes back into the local economy and not into the pockets of wealthy businessmen.

Onto the supermarkets!

Following on from my thoughts on the above I realised that it would be pretty easily to buy fruit and veg from a farm shop but I wondered what it would be like to avoid supermarkets completely and so I thought I’d incorporate it into my lent challenge.

Rules?

A supermarket is hard to define…for example I would probably not count my local cornershop as a supermarket yet Heidi would so I guess I need some kind of rules to stick to….

1 – The big 4 are out of bounds! – No Asda, No Tesco (the tricky bit!!!), no Sainsbury and no Morrissons….alongside this Waitrose and others are also not allowed.

2 - Mini-marts count – For the sake of lent my local corner-shop isn’t allowed for anything other than cereals, beer and other such things you cannot buy anywhere else without going miles out the way….whilst the village has a bakery, butchers and fruit and veg shop there is no beer or cereal shop and so traveling to Hull for such items would make the whole thing completely unethical!

3 – I can use: butchers, local bakeries and newsagents….alongside this specialist shops such as Wilkinsons can be used for cleaning products!

4 – I can eat pre-purcahsed items - If there’s something in my freezer from a supermarket or something that someone feeds me that is from a supermarket that’s fine!

The Cost?

Initial thoughts would be that this is going to be more expensive…but is this a big con of the supermarket or not? I’m going to try and keep a log of what I spend and compare it to what I’d spend in a supermarket.

Initial Thoughts

Bizarrely I’m a bit more nervous about this one than the veggiexperiment back in November, I think it’s going to be more challenging but it’ll certainly be an eye-opener of sorts! Let’s see what happens…maybe I’ll never use a supermarket again!

Dave has insisted for years that any screamy music is wrong and shouldn’t even be considered music yet as the numerous genre’s available to us prove there are many ways that people express themselves musically.

I remember reading in Philip Yancey’s book ‘Prayer’ about a man who goes to a house and the door is opened by a lady and inside this house the man can hear terrible screaming and crying out from upstairs, asking if everything is ok the lady replies ‘it’s fine, that’s my son…he’s praying’

How do we pray? Do we say things quietly to God or do we ever scream at Him? (If you don’t scream in frustration why not?).

If worship is about the way in which we connect with our creator then expressing angst, pain, suffering, feelings of abandonment and expressions of desperation must be part of that worship.

So, in drawing together Dave’s comments on screamy music, some thoughts on how we lament to God (2/3 Psalms are lament!) and adding into the mix my challenge of the way in which we worship I want to present you with a song called ‘Replace Me’ by Family Force Five. The chorus is simply amazing with the lyrics ‘desperation, needing you, every last breath I scream for you, shatter me into a million pieces, make me knew. Crush me, tear me, break me, mould me, make me what you want me to be, I am yours for you to use, oh take and replace me with you’ (There could never be the same amount of emotion in this song without it being screamed!). Enjoy and don’t forget to comment with your thoughts.

The lovely people at Nestle (sarcasm) have decided that when they’re not killing babies they are going to enter a long term commitment to improve the lives of cocoa farming communities, the Fairtrade 4-finger Kit Kat being the beginning of this.

The other ‘long term commitments’ laid out by Nestle include

A £65 million investment over the next 10 years into programmes that address key social, environmental and economic issues affecting cocoa farmers.

Helping farmers to improve their cocoa quality

Nurturing a sustainable future by providing some more cocoa trees

Better social conditions for cocoa farming communities

Now whilst all this is well and good somewhere along the lines Nestle have forgotten the point of their leaflet…this leaflet is aimed at plugging their ‘aren’t we lovely here’s a Fairtrade Kit Kat’ thing however their cocoa plan makes no commitment to making their products Fairtrade which suggests that as I suspected originally this is nothing more than a ‘buy our products’ gimmick and whilst it’s fantastic that some of their farmers are now going to be paid properly I wonder why Nestle won’t do this with all of their chocolate? (I have e-mailed them this question!)

It’s not just me wondering this either, in an article in Christianity Magazine man of many trades Steve Chalke says:

“Though we understand that it is hard to make all products ethical overnight, we want to see that this is more than a token gesture.

“So, we intend to keep the pressure on Nestlé until their commitment is global and product wide, like their competitor Mars.

“No chocolate should have the bitter aftertaste of slavery. Therefore our campaign continues.”

So there’s my thoughts, I won’t be buying any Nestle until they show that they care for their farmers rather than their pockets!