Hello friends!

This afternoon I uploaded the latest episode of a new podcasting adventure I'm on - it's called “The Pop Culture Pulpit” – every week or so, I’ll be uploading a new episode where I try to connect the pop culture dots for pastors and church attenders alike. As your resident court jester, I will step up to the pulpit, digging through pop culture tidbits, and explaining to pastor-types what they need to know about it all, so that they don’t get up there on their own pulpits and mispronounce the word “Gaga.”

You don’t have time to keep up with everything – so let me do it for you! The Pop Culture Pulpit is One-Stop Pop Culture Shopping for the Discriminating Pastor.

This week in episode 52, I'm discussing Nathan Fillion, Glee's original songs, and delving into all that is Rebecca Black's Friday...

There are multiple ways to get a hold of the podcast. First, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes by clicking this link.

Second, you can visit the web page! You can listen right on the page at http://www.popculturepulpit.com.

And I’ll always be posting and directing podcast traffic through my website, http://www.ericbramlett.org.

I’m passionate about keeping Pastors in the know when it comes to being salt and light in this world – and I want to have some fun with it along the way. So listen, let me know what you think, and tell a friend! You can email podcast questions for the Court Jester at popculturepulpit@gmail.com.

Thanks and I'll see you at the pulpit!

Last weekend at Community we celebrated generosity through something we call "Celebration Generosity." It is the fourth such Sunday we have celebrated - where the giving for that one weekend goes to the four teams: the Village Team, the Barangay Team, the Reproducing Church Team, and the Neighborhood team.

And Community's people showed up in an awesome way. $529,000 was given to the four teams, and not only that, we also celebrated 141 brand new givers. For so many of our attenders, Celebration Generosity represents their first taste of what it means to put others first in their finances. It's awesome stuff.

If you don't know much about what we do and how we tell the story of Celebration Generosity, check out this playlist of Celebration Generosity videos from this weekend's services. They are all worth the time taken to experience them - I promise!

I wanted to give my take on this whole Rob Bell controversy.

As you know if you’ve read my blog, I take comedy pretty seriously. And so when I read through Twitter and Facebook that a lot of people were taking potshots at Rob Bell, and that they were going after him as a universalist, and were assuming things about his new book “Love Wins”, well, I knew that I would have to do the research and offer my point of view.

I even heard some people were talking about Rob Bell like he was some kind of clown, and well, what can I say. It’s hard to argue with the truth.

Ever since I have known of Bob Bell (his friends call him Bob), I have known him to be a man full of joy and frivolity. Why people would want to choose now, this moment, to vilify him is beyond me. Sure – he placed too much emphasis on the medium of television, and it was tough to look at him too long with that nose and those glasses… but to accuse him of universalism! Oh sure, he’s a universalist all right – universally revered, as the greatest clown of all time!

If you’ve forgotten how influential Bob Bell was, just look at this cover art from his film series “Bozooma”, that played on WGN in the eighties.

Powerful stuff. Let’s all take a minute to drop our stoning rocks, and pick up some pop rocks. And a joy buzzer. And a rubber chicken.

Okay – are you still reading? Hope you enjoyed the satire – I know I did! (thanks to my friend John for having an idea that I could steal) And now… the real reason I gathered you here today…

I’ve launched a new podcast! It’s called “The Pop Culture Pulpit” – every week or so, I’ll be uploading a new episode where I try to connect the pop culture dots for pastors and church attenders alike. As your resident court jester, I will step up to the pulpit, digging through pop culture tidbits, and explaining to pastor-types what they need to know about it all, so that they don’t get up there on their own pulpits and mispronounce the word “Gaga.”

You don’t have time to keep up with everything – so let me do it for you! The Pop Culture Pulpit is One-Stop Pop Culture Shopping for the Discriminating Pastor.

There are multiple ways to get a hold of the podcast. First, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes by clicking this link.

Second, you can visit the web page! You can listen right on the page at http://www.popculturepulpit.com.

And I’ll always be posting and directing podcast traffic through my website, http://www.ericbramlett.org.

I’m passionate about keeping Pastors in the know when it comes to being salt and light in this world – and I want to have some fun with it along the way. So listen, let me know what you think, and tell a friend! You can email podcast questions for the Court Jester at popculturepulpit@gmail.com.

Thanks and I'll see you at the pulpit!

Happy Valentine's Day from Stu! (Stu is a love coach who may be the younger brother of Cupid - but don't call Stu by his full first name...!)

Hope you're having a great day!

If you are with a church who would love to show these ridiculous videos at your church, you can purchase them right here!

In the meantime, enjoy this playlist of some of Stu's greatest moments!

Last week we crafted a couple of moments in our weekend service that seemed to work very well. We were pondering the ups and downs of a spiritual journey, and used our worship leaders at each campus to do a mini-sketch of sorts.

I wrote the script, and then set out to score it. I found some very cool ethereal music, and matched it up nicely with the text. If you want to follow my train of thought during this creative experiment, then watch the video below before reading more of my post...

If you want the full effect of the weekend service - you can watch the videocast here. Our teaching then explored the back and forth nature of spirituality - and how it isn’t about just what we get, it’s about what we give, and the paradox that when we give all, that’s when we get the most.

So we had planned to then move from the teaching into a "silent" communion time, where the simple instructions of taking the elements would be on the screen, and the meditation would be simple and quiet.

But then the bookend showed up in our creative brainstorm. Since we had already been using the screen as thoughts of someone, Tim Sutherland, our teaching team guru, suggested that the communion meditation be a creative interpretation of how Jesus might have encouraged us during communion.

And as I was working on that video, it became clear that rather than a silent communion experience, that we should bookend our moments with the same music. And so, what you see below is the net result of those brainstorms coming together...

There is a lot of power in bookends. You see them all the time - It's how the best beginnings get through the middles and to the best ends.

It really seemed to work at Community this weekend. I'm grateful to our team for its collaborative spirit and desire to tell the best story in the best of possible ways.

Working on a moment for this weekend's service. It's a video that rolls behind the worship leader, as though his or her thoughts are appearing on the screen. It is all about the connection we make spiritually between "feeling it" and "not feeling it."

I think it's probably the first time that we've addressed this kind of phenomenon in one of our church services - the strain in our spiritual journey when we connect too closely our spiritual walk and the feelings that are associated with it.

So let me ask you: Are you "feeling it" right now, spiritually? Are things going well between you, and God, and others? And if not, is it okay to keep pressing on even though you don't currently "feel it?"

If love isn't a feeling, but an active verb, then why do we consistently equate success of failure of our spiritual connectedness and maturity with emotions and feelings?

Is it possible to be at the height of your spiritual maturity and still feel miserable?

I'm not sure. Come to COMMUNITY this weekend or join us online at www.communitychristian.org. You won't regret it, though you might feel like you do... (that was a joke in an otherwise serious post...)

Hey y'all - Happy New Year! Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Excited about the last couple of original videos our media team has crafted for our weekend services. The first is Pew Haul: a parody of U-Haul that imagines what it might be like if there was a service that would get your friends to church when you really just aren't comfortable enough to invite them yourself. Watch it here:

The next clip is called "The Parable of the Sower" - and it's a short retelling of the parable of the sower from Matthew 13, with Slinkys in place of plants. It falls in line with our current series called "Slinky," where we are investigating how the 3 C's of Celebrating, Connecting and Contributing can be used to stretch us and how God is wanting to do that with us right now. We all fit into one of these categories illustrated in the parable - which one are you in? Which one do you want to be in?

Obviously, these videos are available for viewing and sharing on youtube, but if you want to purchase full-res files to be shown in your church's service, you can get them right here at our video store. And if you like 'em and want your church to use them, send your arts director the link as well! Enjoy!

Check out these three stories of lifechange we highlighted at the weekend services at Community this Christmas- It's exciting to think about what's in store for the three new campuses that will launch in March, and how God is already at work in those areas to prepare the way for those launches. Good stuff! Merry Christmas!

Last week Elic and I were asked to help out a new church plant here in Chicago with a video idea that they had. So, last Monday, we went to Soul City Church in the West Loop to film a video that pokes some fun at the idea of casting the perfect "Baby Jesus." Here is what they came up with - we had a great time doing it. Thanks Soul City!

For several years now I have listened to a fantastic podcast called the Steelehouse Podcast, produced and hosted by Mark Steele and Jeff Huston, who work at Steelehouse Productions, a media production firm out of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I first heard of Mark Steele through his book Flashbang! How I got over myself. It was recommended to me by someone at work who felt like as they were reading it, they were hearing a voice that reminded them of me. After reading it myself, I took it as a huge compliment, because I found that book to be hysterical and profound, all at the same time.

The last two years, they have conducted a Christmas contest with some awesome prize packages. And both years, I just didn't have it together to try and enter. Also, I didn't feel like the contests would be in line with my strengths, so I just let them pass. But this year, I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Mark and Jeff have coined a word on their show: the "jangle." This is a word that it used to describe what happens when a word or proper name reminds Mark of a familiar (or less familiar) song. He then breaks into an a capella phrase that combines this word with the song - it's not a jingle; it's a jangle. (Best example: like Pavlov's dog, Mark cannot say the name of director Danny Boyle without crooning "Danny Boy") These jangles have evolved to be show openers, segment segues, anything that Mark could croon, he was willing and able to do so.

And so that then became this year's contest: to create and write your own jangle, and four judges (not Mark and Jeff) would be voting to pick the best one. So I recorded and wrote a parody to Don't Stop Believin'. Like I said, right in my wheelhouse.

And would you believe it? I won! I got the phone call on Wednesday and their Christmas Party podcast includes the top five contestants, along with the "live" phone call that I received. The prize package includes books, CDs, Blu-Rays, Steelehouse swag. It's incredible.

It was great to be able to participate, and great to win! And I highly recommend subscribing to the podcast. You can do so right here. The Christmas Party episode that features the contest winners is #126: Blitzenkrieg. Merry Christmas everyone!