1. In your eyes: Peter Gabriel


2. Giving you the best I've got: Anita Baker


3. Loving the alien: David Bowie


4. Dear God: Ultravox


5. Give me something to believe in: Poison


6. It can happen: Yes


7. Sanctify yourself: Simple minds


8. One thing: Finger eleven


9. Higher love: Steve Winwood


10. Folsom Prison blues / Ring of fire: Johnny Cash


11. Vertigo: U2


12. Invisible sun: The police


13. Jesusland: Ben Folds


14. Lord of the starfields: Bruce Cockburn


15. One Vision: Queen


16. Personal Jesus: Depeche Mode


17. Pray to a new God: Wang Chung


18. Wunderkind: Allanis Morisette


19. Providence: Marc Cohn


20. Shelter me: Joe Cocker


21. Showdown at big sky / Testimony: Robbie Robertson


22. Spirit in the sky: Doctor and the medics


23. The last honest man: Stan Ridgway


24. The sound of silence: Simon and Garfunkel


25. Best Friend: Queen

A few of these repeat from another list. Here is the funny part about our Bible. Paul uses a stoic poem about Zeus "In him we live and breath and have our..." to talk about Jesus. For me there are plenty of people who may or may not know my Jesus but still write things that are conduits for my connection to Him.

1. Closer by the Call [my deepest connection with Jesus]
2. I still believe by the Call [best song after a bad day]
3. Deacon blues by Steely Dan [reminds me how I felt about life pre-Jesus]
4. Come home to me by Brent Bourgeios [to be listened to while looking at the return of the prodigal son by Rembrandt]
5. Light from a distant Shore by Holly Smith [my longing for heaven]
6. Surrounded by Shipwrecks and Islands [gold records UK]
7. We Change and Ominous by John Mark McMilan [i wish there was more stuff out there as good as this guy]
8. Hurt by Johnny Cash [meant a lot more after I saw the video and movie]
9. Brand new Day by Sting [optimism funscape]
10. Losing my religion by REM [song came out about the same time I read the book "grace awakening" by Chuck Swindoll
11. Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode [also my ringtone]
12. E=MC2 by Big Audio Dynamite
13. Fireproof by Pillar [I hit repeat when I am doing spiritual warfare and intercession]
14. Sowing the seeds of love by Tears for Fears [evangelism jumper-cables]
15. The power of love by Frankie goes to hollywood [surprising God stuff in the lyrics]
16. Ship of fools by World Party [my anthem to the world that doesn't know Jesus]
17. My Jesus by Todd Agnew [did I mention how important Jesus is to me]
18. Everything you want by Vertical Horizon [again...makes me think about Jesus, especially when the chorus changes on the last do through]
19. One thing by Finger eleven [for me....the gospel]
20. Children of the revolution by the Violent Femmes
21. Alive by POD
22. Run by Ricky Ochoa
23. Revolution by the Cult
24. Sing by Aaron Spiro
25. I will be with you by Margaret Becker

Man that was hard...but i-tunes doesn't lie

Other pastors who have heavily influenced me:

Note: As of turning 40 I have realized that increasingly many are younger than me. That has been a hard reality of humility to realize. But a wise man told me once that "your pride is best kept in check by gleaning wisdom in the fields of those younger than yourself." Another said "the new paradigms of the kingdom are always in the hands that are hungry for it, thus the successfull grow fat and the failures stay thin. Run at the pace of the young...they are the chariots of fire; the old...are edsils and just don't know it yet."

1. Peter and Paul
2. Craig Groeschell
3. Mark Driscoll
4. Robb Bell
5. Rick Warren
6. Charles Spurgeon
7. Irwin McManus
8. John Burke
9. Matt Chandler
10. John Piper
11. Steve Sjogren
12. Jack Deere
13. Andy Stanley
14. Chuck Swindoll
15. Tony Evans
16. TD Jakes
17. NT Wright
18. AW Tozer
19. Tony Morgan
20. Kerry Shook
21. Ed Stetzer
22. Jay Baker
23. St Francis of Assissi
24. Jim Cymbala
25. Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt

This is really hard. But if I were on a desert island and could only take 25 cd's...

1. 1950's jazz [Dave Brubeck-Time Out]
2. The Call-greatest hits
3. Shipwrecks and Islands-gold records
4. Joe Jackson-greatest hits
5. Steely Dan-greatest hits
6. Ani Difranco-burned cd of greatest hits
7. Queen-greatest hits
8. Bruce Cockburn-greatest hits
9. Dicky Ochoa
10. John Mark McMillan-the sounds of breaking down
11. Brent Bourgeois-Come Join The Living World
12. Big Audio Dynamite and the Clash-burned cd of greatest hits
13. Deathcab for Cutie
14. Aaron Spiro-sing
15. Vineyard music-the mystery
16. Vineyard music-prayer
17. Chant-benedictine monks
18. Paul Weller and the Style Council...the Jam -burned cd of greatest hits
19. Sting and the Police-greatest hits
20. Todd Agnew
21. Ben Folds
22. Some Creed...Pillar...POD
23. Derek Webb
24. Paris under a groove-electronica down-beat
25. shins...snowpatrol...killers...nickleback...who knows what i'll like next

Someday i'll have all these on DVD

1. Joan of Arcadia [I was furious when it got cncld...great thought provoking content]
2. 24 [Jack is the uber-man or all men]
3. Moonlighting
4. the Sopranos
5. Heroes
6. Monty Python's flying circus
7. X-files
8. Samarai Jack
9. The Tick
10. Remington Steel [only season 1]
11. The Simpsons
12. Best of Conan Obrien and Jimmy Kimmel
13. Twilight zone
14. Outer Limits
15. Cosby show
16. Mystery Science Theatre
17. Black Adder
18. Twin Peaks
19. Avengers...the Saint...and the Prisoner [cold war weird brit tv]
20. Mad about you...Frazier
21. Home Improvment...Everybody loves Raymond
22. the West Wing
23. Freaks and Geeks
24. Dark Shadows [live soap opera with vampires etc...ya gotta see to believe how campy it was]
25. Certainly not South Park! [and i better not catch you watching it either]

I'm a little nervous about this post because frankly they are not all Disney movies and i'm afraid if i talk about them people will think i am endorsing them [i'm not]

Some movies as a whole have effected me, and others just had some crucial scenes. Several have some pretty vulgar stuff in them that God still used to change me. So consider this a pastoral warning label and proceed with caution and prayer. As an aside...should the song of solomon be made into a movie it would be NC-17 or X and there are things in the book of Kings that make the violence of the 'saw' movies look like super-nanny

1. Matrix [just the 1st one, I probably have the whole script memorized]
2. Lawrence of Arabia [one of the few movie characters I totally understood and felt a kindred-spirit with]
3. The Quiet Man [great movie about being forced to do the 1 thing you don't want to do]
4. Heaven can wait [the mess of god's providence and our struggles with life purpose]
5. Vanilla Sky [When he runs down the hall screaming 'tech support' I finally found someone who prays like I do]
6. The Mission [inspiring and forces you to make a decision at the end of the movie about glorious martyrdom and failure]
7. Groundhog day [ecclesiastes on film]
8. Signs [restores hope in me]
9. Phone booth [now this is quirky, but god has really used this movie to force me to be transparent with people and confessional about my sin]
10. Fight Club [there is some pretty vile stuff in this movie, but it really forces men to address who they are]
11. Pay it forward [written by an episcopalian...the gospel in action]
12. Rain: Nooma video by Robb Bell [watch it on a bad day] some are on u-tube
13. Gladiator [I'm a guy...that's why]
14. Jesus of Montreal [skip the 1st 5 minutes and it's got some great scenes]
15. Jesus Christ Superstar [Yes there is heresy in it...but the scene in the Temple and his prayer on the mountain are spectacular]
16. The power of one
17. Good Will Hunting [other than the laguage and a few other things, a very powerful story of personal choices]
18. Waking life
19. Cinderella-Man and a Beautiful Mind [i identify with both]
20. The Shawshank Redemption
21. The Big Kahuna
22. Wings of desire [City of angeles was the US redux but the european version is better]
23. Time Bandits
24. Lord of the Rings trilogy
25. Chariots of fire

Those are the DVD's Ill take to the nursing home.

I read about a book a week.

But Solomon has some interesting things to say about reading books in the last verses of ecclesiastes. [look it up]

Even so books are part of the top 3 ways that God influences me. [the 3 are media, relationships, and experiences {and the Bible is part of media}]

The most influential books I have read are [the short list]

• 1. Grace awakening by Chuck Swindoll [I didn't understand grace till I read that book...and re-read Galatians]
• 2. Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning [it taught me that God wasn't surprised about how screwed up I was/am]
• 3. The purpose driven life [and church] by Rick Warren
• 4. Unstoppable Force by Irwin Mcmanus [this book is my template for leadership]
• 5. Prayer by Richard Foster [This book opened up intimacy with God for me like nothing else]
• 6. Screwtape letters by C S Lewis [helped me to understand how spiritual forces collide in reality]
• 7. A New kind of christian by Brian McLaren [was the reason I church planted Mosaic]
• 8. Moments with the Saviour by Ken Gire [showed me the Jesus I always needed and hoped was out there]
• 9. Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll [Mars-Hill church in Seattle is one of the best churches I have ever seen]
• 10. Wild at heart by John Eldredge [was the catalyst for some really intense guys small groups called 'fight club' that radically changed all the lives of the guys who attended them]
• 11. Surprised by the power of the spirit by Jack Deere [helped me understand 'charismatic' as simply a normal part of the christians walk]
• 12. Spiritual audacity and moral grandeur by Abraham Heschel [taught me what I needed to know to understand early christianity in the context of judaism]
• 13. The normal christian life by Watchman Nee
• 14. The cost of discipleship by Dietrick Bonhoeffer [book that forced me to make disciples]
• 15. Lifestyle evangelism by Joe Aldrich [book that explained liberty in christ to me and how to be myself in telling others about jesus]
• 16. Your God is Too Safe by Mark Buchanan [enough said]
• 17. 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey [even mormons trip over truth sometimes]
• 18. Travelling mercies by Ann Lamott [made my testimony seem normal]
• 19. Desiring God by John Piper [coined the term 'christian hedonist' and ya gotta love that]
• 20. The interior castle and the way of perfection by Tersa of Avila [if I were catholic, she'd be my patron saint]
• 21. Wisdom Hunter by Randall Arthur [If you want to know how pastors 'feel' this book will tell you...and it is heartwrenching in places]
• 22. The divine conspiracy by Dallas Willard [best explaination of how gods kingdom is here RIGHT NOW that I know of]
• 23. everything written by AW Tozer
• 24. Visioneering by Andy Stanley [best blueprint to reality book I know of]
• 25. Aqua Church by Leonard Sweet [best book on churches evolving forward that I am aware of]

you will notice a trend in the books. They boil down to 3 subjects

1. Jesus
2. Spiritual disciplines and formation
3. How to run a church

now i'm wound up...maybe i'll write about movies next