Just read an article in Wired on how tending your real-world networks yields far bigger benefits than tending your “online networks” (facebook, myspace, twitter, etc). I have to admit that I’m sometimes better at just staying behind the glass curtain that is my wirelessly connected laptop or phone. As good as that kind of networking can be, I wonder what harm this increasingly pervasive technology is doing to our (and our children’s) perception of people as human beings and not just objects? I think the more “connected” we become, the more we risk losing what it really means to connect with someone on a personal level.

Your thoughts?

This past week, I had the privilege of meeting several people in Melbourne who are involved in music. Jeff Crabtree, for one, is a well-known award-winning Australian producer and songwriter who is producing the album you’re probably tired of me mentioning. It was great working with him and I hope I get a chance to do it again in the future.

I became friends with another songwriter named Brad Ellis. Brad heads up 614 Melbourne, and was nice enough to give me a tour of their building downtown. It’s a great building. The words you see below are from Matthew 11:28:

Brad recently organized an event called “Souls n Justice”, with the aim of bringing together worshippers to sing out about issues of social justice. I wish I had been there. We got a chance to hang out and talk and play each other some of our own tunes. Brad is involved in some innovative ministry in downtown Melbourne. He has a real heart for hurting and broken people.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these two events happened in my life so close together. I used to think of social justice and worship as two separate issues, but I can no longer think of them as anything but inextricably intertwined.

Hey, a big thanks to the people who’ve already volunteered to help me out with some grassroots stuff once the time comes. There are exciting things happening. I’ve already mentioned the Heart Life Voice project.

I have more new material than I can shake a stick at, which begs the questions, “How much is more than you can shake a stick at?” and “Who shakes sticks?”

In preparation for the forthcoming album(s), I’ve put just about every song from my first two solo efforts online at www.saytunes.com. You can listen to them online and even download them – free! Enjoy. I hope you are still being blessed by some of it (and maybe getting a kick out of the rest).

Really stoked about some of these new songs. Just to give you a teaser, here are some titles of new songs which may or may not appear on the next album(s):

Boy Become a Man
Unsatisfied
Well Done
Praise Belongs to You
Beggar’s Hand

Just to name a few.