Antoine Dufour “Trilogie”

Andy McKee and Antoine Dufour are two of my favorite guitarists. McKee is  a bit famous-er, but I am equally amazed and delighted by Dufour’s music.  Listen to the whole piece–stunningly beautiful!

Is Talent Overated?

Bob Kauflin, of Worship Matters, writes…

I just finished reading Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, by Geoff Colvin. Fascinating book. Giftedness is a topic that I’ve thought about a lot. Are we selling ourselves short by assuming that we’ll never be as good a keyboardist, vocalist, guitarist, drummer, or whatever, as the people we esteem?

Colvin begins the book by examining the lives of several famous “greats,” including Tiger Woods, Mozart, Jack Welch, and Jerry Rice. He says that most people think their greatness arose either from a) hard work; or b) talent. Colvin says neither, and uses scientific and anecdotal evidence to support his claim. Instead, he points us to “deliberate practice.” Not simply working hard, but working the right way. Deliberate practice, often the fruit of effective mentoring, has five elements:

• It is activity designed specifically to improve performance
• it can be repeated a lot
• feedback on results is continuously available
• it’s highly demanding mentally
• It isn’t much fun

Read the rest, here.

The Wrecking–You Remain

The Wrecking’s new video “You Remain” is fantastic. I love these guys and I think you will too!

Worship God 08 Audio Available

Sovereign Grace Ministries rock with generosity! The main sessions from the Worship God ‘08 conference are already available to listen or download…for free!  All the messages were great, but my top 3 are “Expressing Emotion with the Psalmist” and “Enduring Hardship with the Psalmist” and “Living Life with the Psalmist.”

Listen. Be blessed!

Knowing God with the Psalmist
(Craig Cabaniss)
Listen
Download*

Expressing Emotion with the Psalmist
(Thabiti Anyabwile)
Listen
Download*

Glorifying Christ with the Psalmist
(Mark Dever)
Listen
Download*

Enduring Hardship with the Psalmist
(David Powlison)
Listen
Download*

Living Life with the Psalmist
(Bob Kauflin)
Listen
Download

HT: Thabiti; JT.

Taking a Compliment without Robbing God

Christians and compliments have a very odd relationship. We really don’t know how to give them or take them.

Some of us are afraid of giving compliments because we fear we might somehow inflate someone’s ego. So we feel the need to preface our encouragement with something like…”I don’t want this to give you a big head…but you did a good job today”.

But most of us just feel awkward taking compliments. Should we simply say “Thank you”? Should we give the “humble” reply “Ah shucks…it was nothing.”

Although writing primarily for leaders of gathered worship and musicians, Bob Kauflin, of Worship Matters, offers some wise, biblical counsel applies to all of us who seek to take and give compliments without robbing God of the glory that He alone deserves.

Read the whole thing, here.