Hey, I'm in a couple of videos I thought I'd share - the first is part 1 in a series of shorts featuring Stu, Cupid's younger brother. I play Stu. Enjoy the comedy that goes alongside our new series at church called Making Love Stick.

This next video is my 'serious' contribution from last week's online conference called "The Nines." It's a six minute talk about taking risks in the church. And I'm wearing a shirt! Enjoy!

This weekend we are starting a brand new series called "Making Love Stick." Clicking will bring you to www.makinglovestick.com, where you can invite your friends to the series via email, facebook or twitter.

And if you're in downtown Naperville, then come Sunday morning at 10am to the Grand Opening of the DT Napes location at North Central College's Wentz Hall! It's gonna be awesome for many reasons. I will be singing a great tune from Train's catalog, and Stu the Love Coach will be appearing via video. I promise that I won't be wearing the Stu costume when I sing. I promise. For real. I will so totally not be wearing that when I sing.

Unless someone wants to make a sizable donation to CCC, and writes in the memo, "show me more Stu." Then I would think about it. But only then. And even then I probably wouldn't.

If you haven't seen Stu in action, then definitely click the video link on the makinglovestick.com page to view him in action. He's Cupid's younger brother Stu. But don't call him Stupid: only his mother can call him by his full first name...

See you this weekend at a COMMUNITY CAMPUS near you!

Tomorrow morning, and throughout the day, I'll be participating in an event hosted 'virtually' by Leadership Network. It's called "The Nines", and it features several prominent Christian Church Leaders, Authors, Thinkers, and then I'm in it too.

The event happens online, and it's free to register, but you have to register to be able to experience it. You can do that right here.

This year, each speaker is given six minutes to share a "gamechanger" in their ministry. I spoke about how the church seems to be more "risk-averse" than ever, and pondered that thought for around five minutes and fifty seconds.

But I also provided a point-counterpoint to my lead pastor Dave Ferguson's talk about 'leading with a yes.' We'll see if Leadership Network takes the risk to show comedy and satire some love tomorrow.

Either way, don't miss it!

Can't tell you how much I love Jimmy Fallon right now. His opening to the Emmys was nothing short of brilliant. Loved it. Loved it. Check it out below...

And then there was his "show in memoriam" moment, which was so funny, that later, when Jewel started her song which was the 'actual' in memorium moment, I thought to myself, "I wonder if this is a parody too?"

I don't know why I love a comedian who excels in parody songs. I guess I'll never know. Anyway, here is his send up of 24, Law and Order, and LOST. Good stuff. Enjoy!

Last night I went to see RUN RUN RUN, an alternative indie rock band, play at the Empty Bottle in Chicago. I know of this band because its lead singer and chief songwriter, Xandr Smith, is a friend of mine dating all the way back to kindergarten. We have known each other for many years! In high school we were in a band together, and in college we toured coffee shops in Los Angeles as a sort of Simon and Garfunkel acoustic group.

It was great to see him, and his band was great! I got to hear about their recent adventures, which were fascinating. Apparently, they had an opportunity to tour Russia with a Russian band called Mumiy Troll. (Mumiy Troll was there last night as well.) As you might expect, if this is the first time you've heard of RUN RUN RUN, well, you're not alone. Breaking into the mainstream of pop culture can be complicated and difficult. But here they are, touring alongside this fairly well known Russian band, and playing these packed stadiums with thousands and thousands of people there going crazy. Pretty surreal for them.

RUN RUN RUN is coming back to Chicago on September 15, at Schubas. You can check out their music here, and below you'll see some highlights from their Russian tour. My friend is the one rocking the 'stache circa 80s Oates...

LORD SPICE, the video we made a while ago for our Big Idea at Community Christian, got a little bump in the youtube viewings when it was found and "tweeted", and "retweeted", and then posted on Matthew Paul Turner's blog, "Jesus Needs New PR." Here's his post. Pretty cool, though I don't understand why so many Christians get bent out of shape when it comes to parody.

Parody is one of the best ways to engage an audience that doesn't trust you. Now, of course, it goes without saying that bad parody is worse than no parody, so you have to strive to do it well. But let's face it: most pre-Christians walking into our environments don't think that we can relate - they don't trust us. When they see something like Lord Spice, something that takes a water cooler topic and spins it, then there is a chance that they would think, "hey, I guess they're not as square and outdated as I imagined before I walked in here."

And of course, they might not like it at all. But that's the risk you take. And all art creation is a risk - even parody. Check out Lord Spice below, in case you haven't yet. And thanks for reading the blog!

Context is everything. If you saw the video below, for this movie called "Serenity Now", you might think that it was another thriller in the long line of attempts to shock us with stories of murder, secrecy, villainy, etc. But since most of you know that the source material is from one of the great situation comedies of all time, it instead makes you laugh.

Well, at least it makes me laugh. When you force a change, a point of view reversal, there is potential for comedy. This idea takes two things that are familiar, and reverses their context, for comedic effect. There are a few other mashups in this series, all are very funny. Check em out. Enjoy!

This is a great article from one of the great storytellers of our time.

I like his last line: "Art matters, so keep creating, even as God is creating, for your pleasure and for His."

Hans Hemmert is a funky artist whose website displays some of his "art in public spaces." This picture is from an exhibit that featured the opportunity to wear shoes that eliminated height disparity. Very cool. Tripp Crosby pointed it out to me.

As a tall person (non-NBA tall) I would be very interested in participating in an experiment like this. What about you?