It’s true. The former Baywatch celebrity who is really only famous in Germany (for whatever reason) is in a music video to the tune of “Jump In My Car”. Google Video has the full thing for your listening & viewing, uh, interest.

How someone could think this guy is legitimate is beyond me. It’s like something Monty Python should have put together (especially the last shot of the girl). Apparently it is “legit” though — Sony BMG is fronting this. Check out their “ecard” promo for their description of the “hoff the wall” video. Yikes.

Click here for this amazingly low-budget music video.

An AP article on Forbes.com entitled Calif. PC Thief Takes Court Computers certainly makes you shake your head — a man was on trial for stealing computers and stole the court’s computers while he was there standing trial. I echo the amazement of the sheriff quotes in the write-up.

Of course, the perpetrator says he did it as a cry for help, “help with my drug problems, help with my sanity.”

At a first glance you might think he’s looking for help (which he will get, now: jail), but you can also consider that he was very likely looking to sell the computers for cash to buy more drugs (”help” with the drug problem) which would help him feel better (”help” with the sanity problem).

The reason this article exists is the obvious irony of the situation. I sigh, however, at the way we (the reading consumer) and the article’s author take the man at his word. Obviously if he has a drug problem he is not going to be entirely logical in his thinking, but that doesn’t mean his predicament should be accepted. It’s more than just an isolated case of a disconnected individual going off the deep end. By stealing the court’s computers, the man stole from all of the taxpayers. I do wonder how he was allowed to steal the computers in the first place, but even if he wasn’t stealing from the government, his problem affects more than just himself. That’s true of all addicts, and that’s what people need to be aware of.

Much has already been said at blogs JesusCreed .org and Out of Ur about the effectiveness of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven formula to creating/growing churchs, but I’ll throw a little bit more out there:

Surveys and marketing as tools (and not as ends in of themselves) are valuable because they can help us be “all things to all people.” Paul’s letters are clearly targeted at different audiences in order to speak to each in a manner most befitting the local culture, background, and situation. Hence why we have Romans, Corinthians, etc.

This is by no means a call for relativism, because the Gospel remains the same and universal, but Jesus was very clear when he ordered his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. The disciples often accomplished this by leaving their homes (as Jesus had modeled) and living with the communities in which they would establish a new branch of the Church.

Community is such an important part of the body of Christ, and, while the focus should always be on the people — even more than on the processes — a basic, systematic order to the life of the community is something that church leaders have seen fit to establish from the start. Jesus picked out twelve men to start the church. The disciples, when one of them was lost, recognized the importance of replacing that one in order to restore the original group’s number. They also recognized that their primary purpose in the life of the early Church consisted of preaching the word of God, so they encouraged and pushed for others to do other things such as caring for widows (see Acts 6). In the 16th century, Reformed leaders such as Calvin and Zwingli were very caught up in the idea of establishing an order. Today we often refer to an “order of worship” (and that phrase has been around for centuries).

Having a method is good and necessary. Worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism are all essential ingredients in the lives of churches. People and communities are different, so what works in San Clemente, CA may or may not work as well in Alpharetta, GA. Different people need to hear different things and in different ways — that’s why the Gospel is told four different times (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)! I applaud the apparent effectiveness of the Purpose Driven Church formula in some churches, and I hope that individuals remember that the formula can work well in other places so long as you modify the formula to fit the new place. You never need to change the Gospel message, but you may need to speak a different language.

Derek Webb does not need to be freed, at least not that I know of. However he is giving away his new album, entitled “Mockingbird” for free. Note that “free” means that you have to give them your email address and 5 other people’s email addresses, each of whom will then receive an email about the free download. Your email address will also be signed up on the site’s mailing list.

The songs sound like Derek Webb, which is a good thing if you like the acoustic guitar. The title track, Mockingbird, does sound like other songs either Webb or his former band, Caedmon’s Call, have done, which is ironic given the song’s lyric, “I am like a mockingbird. I’ve got no new song to sing.” The point is not meant to be taken literally, of course — the idea is that Webb is not saying anything new, which harks to Ecclesiastes 1:9: “…there is nothing new under the sun.”

Many of the songs are more political in nature, such as In God We Trust. I particularly like the line, “In God we trust, even though he favors the nation-state.” The song Love Is Not Against the Law begins with the lyric, “Politics are love.” That song in particular takes an unpolitical view of politics.

Visit www.freederekwebb.com for more info and to get the download.