(Drawn from Maggi Dawn’s blog)

40 years on from the first manned moon landing Commander ‘Buzz’ Aldrin remembers a little-known event:

It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements.

Read more …

One blog I read regularly is by the CEO of one of the large publishing houses in the US. He sometimes writes about the ups and downs of how business is, but also talks about motivation, leadership, tools, and running. And his Christian faith (and the Christian foundation of the company) is there like an undercurrent.

In one of his recent posts he explains why he thinks blogging is a good use of his time. If you’ve thought about it and decided not to, it’s worth a read. I blog for different reasons, but if I was a CEO or held other significant leadership responsibility, I’d be blogging for his reasons too.

Stuart Townend is one of the UK’s leading song and hymn-writers. So I was intrigued to see what he had to say when interviewed by Cross Rhythms. (In the intro CR points out that 14 of the current most used 500 songs and hymns were written or co-written by him.)

Here are the take-away comments for me:

At a time when “stadium rock” seems to be the dominant sound of recorded worship music, I wanted to explore [on his new album] an acoustic sound that would work with any size of congregation; where small and large churches would hear the album and think “we may not be able to recreate all fiddly bits played by the violins and whistles, but we can create the feel of the recordings without having to turn the guitar amps up to 11.”

I like playing and listening to music in the “stadium rock” style (indeed I’d like to get the band I’m in to get a more like this), and I know that a lot of people like it. But I know that many don’t. And one of the major criticisms I have is that often it’s written for (and by) experienced and somewhat talented singers, not the average congregational member, some of whom feel very self-conscious at the idea of singing at all. So I loved reading

95 per cent of the time my focus is on writing songs that congregations can sing. So I’m bearing in mind the dynamics and the limitations of the average congregation, and, yes, I’m thinking “will this work in church?” – although occasionally more performance-type songs do slip on to albums, just to add a little variety… The focus on congregational usage of the songs can make recording albums a bit of a difficult balancing act. You want an album to be interesting and musical enough for people to listen to just for the sheer enjoyment of it. But at the same time these songs were created to be sung in church, so you want the recording to inspire musicians and congregations alike to think, “We could do this at our church.”

What a great aim! No wonder he is so much of his material is used so often. More than once I’ve heard people say “It’s by Stuart Townend, so it must be good.” I certainly can’t remember ever having to ignore one of his songs, because a congregation wouldn’t be able to learn it and sing it easily. And I’m regularly doing that with other new material.

The album (Creation Sings) deliberately has more of a folk feel. His reasoning is interesting …

It’s a style of music I’ve always loved, and it’s great to see how people like Kate Rusby have succeeded in recent years in bringing folk music to a wider audience. But I also think that folk music provides some interesting parallels with the ethos of worship music: it’s not age-restricted, it uses strong melodies, it often plugs into a story-telling tradition, it lends itself to different combinations of instruments (and different abilities of instrumentalists) without being musically dull, and – perhaps most important – at its heart are songs not meant to be sung by performers but by “the people.”

I shall definitely be definitely giving it a very close listen – at least after my upcoming birthday …

Over at the New Statesman, A N Wilson writes on how his conversion to atheism may have been similar to a road to Damascus experience but his return to faith has been slow and doubting.

I always find accounts of conversion to a different faith (and atheism is another faith, with its own unprovable certainties and creeds) fascinating. Obviously my heart is warmed when people (re)find the God I know and trust, but I find it important to understand when the journey takes people the other way.

I listened to a rather unusual reason for the journey from atheism to Christianity on Radio 4′s Beyond Belief podcast recently. There Alister McGrath described how his journey was purely an intellectual one (and he has no mean intellect, having degrees in several completely unrelated disciplines).

Continuing the theme as I’ve started it, I’ll be interested to read the account of another high profile rejection of atheism. Anthony Flew is said to be the UK’s foremost philosopher, who after decades as a leading proponent of atheism is now a deist. The title of his book says it all: There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.

This tweet from megnut is the best summary of what the latest iPhone can now be:

“Yes, iPhone = my computer, and $399 is worth it. Haven’t bought new laptop since late 06 and don’t plan to for long time.”

The iPod Touch is pretty much the same as the iPhone, except with the phone taken out. And, crucially for me, no mobile data connection available pretty much wherever you go. So, much as I like the iTouch, it won’t just yet become my “new laptop”. (Wherever you can get onto a wireless network, you’re OK. For example, at the wedding last weekend, the hotel handily had free WiFi for all guests, and it was doing a reasonable job as a stand-in computer. But WiFi is still not available in many places you want internet access.)