Hey y'all - I'm producing the Exponential Conference all this week - and I probably won't get a chance to look closely at the American Idol Carole King night.

But without having seen it, let me give you my review:

Carole King?!?!!?

Thank you, and see you in a week or so. Exponential rocks!

This week I step into the Pop Culture Pulpit with the first of the Will Ferrell episodes of The Office, Lady Gaga-cycle, and offer commentary on Entertainment Weekly's Big Summer Movie Preview. You don't want to miss it! Subscribe, won't you?

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Just in time for Easter, American Idol gets to the perfect number - the top seven perform. Here are my comments, as brief as I can be because there's SO much to talk about this week!

Scotty: Swingin' - I nearly did a spit-take when he reminded me that he was only 17. He's so ridiculously good. I am wondering though about the microphone placement though after that video opening. If he isn't in the bottom three, after going first and getting slightly negative feedback from the judges, then he will WIN. Those are two strikes that others have not been able to battle against.

James: Uprising - Great song. Marching band? Really? Up the octave. Wow. Wowowowowow. Pretty stinkin' awesome.

Haley: Rolling in the Deep - This is the song I featured back in episode 49 of my podcast… She was awesome for me. But, will it grab everyone? Hard to know given the mixed reviews I've seen.

Jacob: Dance with My Father - The video piece built it up much more than his performance pulled off. Until that last note of the build. That was great. Too emotional for anyone to really give decent criticism…

Casey: Harder to Breathe - He did what he does, and it was great, particularly the scatting off the solo - but this song is not great, and he didn't go beyond it to become great. Loved the JLo kiss.

Stefano: Closer - A great effort, his eyes were open more than they've ever been. Is it enough? Hard to tell.

Lauren: Born to Fly - Great job, not my favorite song choice but she is berry good still.

Random Notes:

Why The Face with the castoffs performance at the top of the show? It's just a subtle reminder that when you sell your soul to the AI machine, that they own you and can make you do anything.

"You'd be surprised how expensive it is to look this cheap." - Steven Tyler. You never got that rapier wit from Paula.

Anyone else surprised that Stephan is still around?

Steven Tyler showed us a little Paula love by repeating his "I've been trying to do that for months" about the Casey kiss, but went from 2 to 4 months in the joke upgrade.

Who's going home????

American Idol movie night is in the hizzouse! This week always cracks me up because they pick songs that just happen to have been in movies, but it's not like all of these songs are thought of as movie songs. So just for fun I will note the songs that actually are movie songs as they perform them. Guessing that it's probably 3 of the 8.

Paul: Old Time Rock & Roll (MOVIE SONG) - Stairs. His voice sounds way too thin for this song. No one wearing that outfit likes old time rock and roll. He's first to perform and he will likely go home.

Lauren: The Climb (MOVIE SONG) - Loved the video piece with Laurel and Hardy. I have to say that I felt like the arrangement didn't allow her to show that she's a better singer than Miley. But she is.

Stefano: End of the Road - It's hard to hear this song as a solo when it was so effective as a vocal group number - but the key change was boss.

Scotty: I Cross My Heart - (MOVIE SONG) He is such a pro. I am getting tired of having to move my head slightly to the right during the whole performance to see him (george) straight…

Casey: Nature Boy - Unbelievable. Seriously, did anyone foresee that such a musical performance would appear on the AI stage? Again, thank goodness the judges save worked.

Haley: Call Me - The Partridge Family Bus is suing her dress. I still like Haley but this was not a smart song pick. This song does not align well with what she does successfully. The dress on the other hand…

Jacob: Bridge Over Troubled Water - I might download this one. Wowwwwwwwwww. I think I'm ready to be rebaptized.

James: Heavy Metal - (MOVIE SONG) I loooooveed the video piece with Jimmy and Will.i.am. Remember when everyone thought Constantine was a rocker? James makes him seem like the Fantasia of Heavy Metal. That was like a circus act on the flying trapeze.

Can I have a new TV show starring Will.i.am. and Jimmy Iovine please? I need that right away.

Who's in the bottom three with Paul?

Well, what a long and strange trip it has been.

My last post talked about 200k hits on our "Sunday" video as though it was a lot. And it was.

But after quickly passing the million mark, we just as quickly got to two million. Things have slowed down now quite a bit, but I have a feeling they will accelerate again once a certain day of the week visits us again. 2 million is a lot for a church, can't say it's really a lot for youtube videos in general. So there is some perspective at work here.

At our Downtown Naperville location, and at the Yellow Box, this weekend we will be showing the video during the service in preparations for Easter. Last week it was shown at our Shorewood and Plainfield locations. I would love to say that we will be showing it on Easter Sunday, but seriously. This video is meant for a lot of things, but maybe an actual Easter Service isn't one of them.

Don't know what I'm talking about? Here's the parody video we made, and released a week ago. Yep, it's only been a week.

Sadie has been doing great with her new found "fame" - and we are enjoying the buzz around the local neighborhood. In the end, that's where the impact is. Sure, all the other sites that linked to it and played it and loved to hate on it and all that stuff, it's pretty cool to get that fifteen minutes of internet fame, but the fact that when I picked up the kids from school, our neighbors who don't attend church anywhere that I know of, were all talking about church. Even in the context of an absurd video.

The plan worked. Not how we thought it would, but what do we know anyway...

Hey everybody - happy Friday! (is there a song out there that would be a symbol of that kind of joy that shows up simply by celebrating one day of the week...)

Well, you may know by now that our church's video "Sunday", which features my daughter Sadie, has accelerated in views over the last 24 hours due to being placed in many blogs, including Tosh.0, TV Guide online, Today's Big Thing, and others. We're currently hovering around 200,000 views.

Buzz was created for sure, but in the scope of all things internet, that many views is exciting but not record-breaking. So let's not get all crazy up in here. But it has been a fun 13 and a half minutes of fame...!

I tried to keep the comments up in the youtube placement of the video as long as I could, but the venom spewed by the pagans out there was far too violent and destructive. I don't fault them: they are only doing what they do with every other thing they see on the internet - we are not special in that regard.

And they aren't alone in behaving absurdly on the internet with regards to commenting on videos. Someone stole the vid and posted it on godtube, which tries to be a Christianish version of youtube, and the comments there have devolved into a debate about whether or not Sunday is actually the Sabbath. Seriously. So even though they may not be swearing, they are certainly missing the point.

And with regards to missing the point, it's hilarious to me that so many people don't understand that Sadie is in on the joke. That she is doing an imitation of Rebecca Black. And what does it say about the church culture in general that the pagans assume that a parody of something from a church "actually means it" and doesn't understand how Rebecca Black's song and video is perceived globally?

But enough on that for now. If you want to read the interview I did for Christian Post about the video, you can do that here.

Now for more important matters: AMERICAN IDOL. Why the face?

I am surprised that people are surprised that Pia  was voted off. It's the first week that she did something other than what she's great at. She showed everyone (except the judges, who except for J-Lo continued to worship the ground she walked on) that she can't move. Her voice is not connected to her body, no matter how shapely it might be. And while she hit all the notes, to go for Tina Turner when what Tina does is SO CONNECTED from head to toe, it just was too much for her. This was one week where Simon's criticism would have been welcome to wake up the judges to what was actually going on.

But the other thing that I thought about at the end of that show was how it must have felt to be one of the other eight, knowing that EVERYONE thinks that one of you at the very least (and at the most, all of you), deserved to go home more than Pia. In all that shock and awe last night, I was waiting for one of the judges to turn on the other eight and ask for Barabbas instead.

Have a great day! Recording a podcast today to try and make sense of all this viral-ness...!

As many of you know, I started a podcast recently called the "Pop Culture Pulpit." And this past week's episode (Ep. 53) was called "I'm Bringing Serving Back" and focused on the power of parody. It was on my mind because we were in the middle of building a parody music video to the tune of Rebecca Black's internet sensation "Friday."

You can subscribe to the podcast here - I cover a bunch of topics surrounding pop culture, with the pastor in mind, though it's certainly not "just for pastors." But in episode 53, I interview my daughter Sadie who had just begun working on the vocals for the parody song.

I'm pleased to announce that the video is completed, and you can watch it right here! We had a great time making it. Much thanks to Matthew Paul Turner over at Jesus Needs New PR for posting it on his blog and "being nice" to my daughter!

If you don't know that which we are parodying, well... you should probably start by watching the original. Watching our video without knowing about the original would kind of be like hearing Weird Al's "Eat It" without knowing anything about Michael Jackson. Still funny, but funnier if you know... So here's the Rebecca Black song "Friday:"

And here is our parody - obviously, we're looking to invite people to Easter Weekend, and this is a fun way to do it - enjoy, subscribe to the podcast, live laugh and love!