“I believe that many who find that 'nothing happens' when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.”
C.S. Lewis - Introduction to "On the Incarnation" by St. Athanasius
11.20.07
Posted in Literature at 5:39 pm by Adam B.
So, the other day I am talking to a friend about how frustrating it is that I can’t get my hands on the books I want to read. I’m like, “they should make it as easy to get a book as it is to rent videos. You know, I just go down to the local video store and give them a buck or two and I have a movie for a whole week.” Then I started to expound on this awesome idea I had about setting up an online community book swapping thing.
He was unimpressed. “Why don’t you just go to the public library?”
Now, you will have to excuse me for the moment, but I was not at all familiar with this word “library”. Unfortunately, the only thing “public” that came to mind was restrooms, so I thought my friend was making a crude reference to the “literature” that graces the walls of such locals. After we sorted through the misunderstanding he informed me that a library is a place where you can read books without buying them. I was intrigued.
I did a search for “librarys in Portland Oregon” and it turns out there is a public library as close to my house as the local video store. Fancy that. I decided to visit it this afternoon. Like the video store they asked me for my personal information and ID and issued me a rental card. I quickly found the books I wanted and went to the register. (The Phantom Tollbooth was all checked out. Typical.) As the woman scanned the books I handed her my library card and thumbed through my wallet for some cash. When I handed her a five she said, “No sir, we don’t need that. This is a library.”
“Oh, sorry. This is my first time. Do I pay when I bring them back?” I asked.
She gave a wry smile, “That’s not how it works. You don’t have to pay anything.”
I returned her wry grin, “Okay, what’s the catch?”
“There’s no catch, sir, as long as you bring them back before their due date-”
“Ah ha! What? Outrageous fees? Is that how you get us?” I said pointing my finger at her and standing very tall.
“If you bring the book back late it is 10 cents a day. Are you finished?” She seemed suddenly impatient.
“Yeah… uh, thanks.” I was dumbfounded. What a crappy business model. How do they make any money at all? Well, I guess I shouldn’t look a gift book in the binding. Either way, you will all be happy to know I have found the local “library” today and I start reading your recommended books.
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11.14.07
Posted in Writing at 1:34 pm by Adam B.
I have received helpful feedback from many of my readers and I have made some important changes to the structure and content of the book and it is almost ready to send to a publisher. I have an “inside man” at Zondervan (my current publisher of choice) who has said he is excited about my book and that he will read my proposal and sample chapters. I have a book on crafting good proposals and it notes the importance of the writer settling on a good title. It admits that most books will have their title changed by the publisher but it chalks this up to writers not taking the time to find the right title for their work.
Thus far I have been using the title Naked Worship: Rethinking Modern Worship Lyrics and Spirituality. Unfortunately there are several reasons I believe this title will not make it all the way through the publishers gauntlet. First off, for a Christian book (hopefully) published by a major publisher it is rather edgy. Secondly, it has not been well accepted by my readers thus far (it seems to be a love it or hate it type of title). Third, many Christian organizations would firewall a website entitled nakedworship.com. I still like the subtitle but I feel I am only being idealistic thinking that a title like Naked Worship could be accepted. Still, the title is captures the essence of the book better than anything else I have come up with.
For those of you who have not yet read or completed the manuscript I will summarize my approach. I have tried to reduce the concept of “Worship” down to its core elements to see if Modern worship has really captured the essence of biblical worship or missed the mark. Essentially, I argue, worship is loving God. This allows me to bypass the fruitless word studies about worship that have plagued every worship book written since 1980. (I say they are fruitless because the word studies and analysis of “critical passages” on worship always seem to say exactly what the author wants them to say. Two books with completely opposing opinions will use the same verses and sections to make their points. This is because passages that use the word worship are never about how to worship or what worship is but assume that the reader already knows what they are talking about when they use the word “worship”. Writers have capitalized on the vagueness of these references to expound their own ideas that have little relation to the text at hand.) Since worship is loving God I write about love instead of “worship” because the Bible does have a lot to say about that. Chapter 1 and 2 look at the biblical view of loving God. Chapter 3 looks at faith (the foundation/motivation of biblical love). Chapters 4-6 deal with worship in the psalms (How has God been worshiped/loved in the past). Chapter 7 addresses the dilemma of manifest presence in modern worship.
With that understanding, what should my book be called?
I liked the word naked because I am trying to strip away all the preconceived ideas and traditions about what worship should be and look at worship at its core. I thought of the words “essential” (like essential oils) or “distilled” or “core” or “refined” (each modifying “worship”) but none of them captures what I was really trying to do. I have also considered a less aggressive form of “naked” like, Worship Unadorned. I do like that. I also thought about Raw Worship but that doesn’t carry quite the right connotation, and besides, someone already has the domain (though they are not using it). So here are a few titles. What do you think, do you have anything better?
Naked Worship: Rethinking Modern Worship Lyrics and Spirituality.
Worship Unadorned: Looking at the essentials of worship to rethink Modern Worship lyrics and spirituality.
Pure Worship: Looking at the essentials of worship to rethink Modern Worship lyrics and spirituality.
(Your title here).
Perhaps I need something longer than a two word title… Any comments, suggestions?
BTW the cover design is something I put together a while back. Obviously this would not be the final cover even if the title gets accepted. Still, I like the concept.
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11.06.07
Posted in Code at 10:13 am by Adam B.
I did my first experimenting with online store building over the weekend. I found a plugin for Wordpress that integrates a fully functional store right into your blog. Of course, as with any type of coding, it was easier said than done. After many tears and pleading, both towards God an my computer, I discovered that my theme was incompatible with the store. Upon further investigation I discovered that the header in my theme was the culprit. With a few quick clicks I refitted the header and we were good to go. I have shown you this site before but now it is a fully functional store. Take a look at Theta Threads.
Who would have known that building online stores is addictive? After I finished Theta Threads I decided to use my new expertise to add a store to the King’s Yomen site. Unfortunately, I designed the King’s Yomen webpage in my dark age of coding, before I discovered Wordpress, so I had to setup an entirely new site. Within 5 hours I had built the entire page, populated it with product (I had already made the images and copy for some fliers), and debugged the code so it works well in all the different browsers people are using. Wordpress rocks! So, if you are in the yo-yo mood you can now buy, online, the same yo-yos the King’s Yomen sell at their shows and use when they perform. Amazing!
I am seriously considering building Wordpress sites as a side business. Not only are they faster to create than a typical website but they are interactive (web 2.0, if you will) and they can be fully maintained by the user once they are built. The store that I am using is easy to setup and plays nice with most browsers. (It does have a minor bug with Safari, and I am told that it crashes older versions of Safari completely. Meh.) I will have to see how it works when orders start pouring in. By default it supports paypal, but it can be upgraded to accept credit as well. Good times!
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