Month: May 2011

Memorial Day

Most who read or listen to me much know I am neither a total pacifist nor a "hawk" about military intervention. I have not always agreed with deployments from -any- U.S. government, but at times surely have. Our military do not deploy themselves. They do fight in our behalf.

I (and we should) pray for those who serve, and today remember the sacrifices- sometimes total- that they give. I thank those of you in our military, pray for you and especially for those who follow Jesus in the process of serving. Thank you and God have mercy! -Glenn

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Jim Palosaari, Early Jesus Movement Leader

Jim Palosaari was one of the key early influences in my own faith journey.

Jim passed away this week, and now come the memories.

I suppose the core thing I want to say is that I learned several powerful truths from him that I will quote at the end of this blog, as they did and do positively affect my life to this day.

Jim and his wife Sue were leaders of the Milwaukee Jesus People, the launchpad group out of which came "The U.S.A. Traveling Team", eventually simply called Jesus People U.S.A. of which I now serve on the pastoral team.

I came to faith in Jesus Jan. 3, 1971. That encounter with the Lord on a Sunday morning began to turn my life from drug, sex and music addiction to a life of peace like I had never known.

The very next Sunday I went to church with my widowed aunt. I won't say which church, but it seemed pretty spiritually "dry". Well, not for me but obviously for most everyone else there!

The following Sunday I attended a service closer to my house. If anything it was less personal and more dry with an even greater sense of distance between those attending -and between them and me.

One block from that church was a huge Catholic parish with a convent of "on-fire" nuns who absolutely loved Jesus and showed me a kindness and acceptance that I'd not seen prior.

Three priests served that large fellowship, one of which befriended me and showed me nothing but grace, respect and an appreciation for the Word of God and prayer that I'd not known until then.

Within the next month or so someone brought a "Jesus People?? paper" ("Street Level") to a youth house attached to that parish. I had never seen a local expression of the Jesus Movement.

Jim and Sue Palosaari had come to Milwaukee, shared the Gospel with a lot of hippies- many who came to believe in Jesus, and together they opened a "Jesus house" near the "freak" district not far from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

This was the epicenter for hippies, other street people, students and radicals in the city.

They'd also opened a coffeehouse (The JC Powerhouse) up at the top of Brady Street. Brady was -the- place we hippies hung out, on or off of which people put on mini-festivals (block parties) and where you could score a lot of dope, sex and whatever.

After my conversion, myself and a couple friends began hanging out at the Powerhouse on weekends for concerts and on occasion for weekday Bible study. There, a LOT of folks came to faith in Christ.

Between the Street Level Jesus paper they published, visits to the coffeehouse, getting baptised by these Jesus People in Lake Michigan early that May and occasionally attending Bible studies I began to see that one could be a solid Christian WITH rock music, long hair, jeans and sandalwood oil in your hair… and still be accepted by both God and at least SOME Christians 🙂

Without the Lord, and without Jim and Sue and a core group of other young Jesus freaks, I'm not sure where I would have ended up. The LIFE of Jesus, a tangible presence of the Holy Spirit was the norm among them.

Jim was a big man, a teddy-bear like person, a very charismatic (more so in personality than doctrine, though he was both) individual who called people to repent, to trust that Jesus had indeed risen and could change one's life forever if they would follow Him.

Many- and I mean many… did follow Jesus as the result of his preaching and The Sheep (amazing band) who shared the Lord clearly and consistently around and eventually -far- beyond Milwaukee.

After a great deal of personal fighting and self-discovery, God confirmed to me that this was the place I needed to be. I NEEDED to focus on the Lord, His Word, prayer and fellowship, needed to not be ashamed of the Gospel and needed a full-time ministry where I could be taught regularly, grow in the Lord and really serve Him and others as opposed to living merely for myself.

I had been sharing my faith verbally but was encouraged to do so more, again, due to Jim and the JP Milwaukee community.

Jim's message was one of discipleship, not mere conversion.

My first direct meeting with Jim (some four months after my baptism) was in his office.

I told him I had come to serve the Lord with them. He asked me a few basic questions and then said "Plug in here for a couple weeks and let's see how you do. If things work out, you will be a member of JP Milwaukee". I did, it did, I was, and never regretted it.

Jim was a human being and like all of us made plenty of mistakes. I'm certain a great many more were saved and healed than hurt by his personal issues (and hope the same can be said about me one day).

I, personally owe a great deal to him and those in leadership there as well as on our own pastoral team here at JPUSA for whatever good there is in me and my walk with the Lord.

Those earliest days of spiritual formation were essential to my own walk with Jesus Christ.

The following are quotes of Jim's that I have often shared. They highlight enduring truths worth remembering and applying!

When asked by a reporter what the Jesus Movement was all about, Jim replied "Jesus moving"! He went on to clarify the real, historic, risen Christ was working by His Spirit in the here-and-now, and anything less was not the Jesus Movement.

One of the best bits of advice I ever heard from a preacher came from Jim in a gathering as he spoke about marriage for a committed Christian:

"Three points for those of you- and that would be most of you- who will marry:

First, marry someone who loves Jesus at least as much and if possible, more than you do. When you're weak, you will need their strength and faith to help lift you up.

Second, marry a disciple, not merely a convert. Marry someone who is seeking to grow in Christ and truly follow Him, not just a pretty or handsome person who prayed the prayer but isn't interested in spiritual growth or serving others.

Third, if you have conviction and confirmation of spiritual gifts and a call of God in your life to be a missionary in Africa, don't marry someone who has a different call to a different part of the world or some other area of service incompatible with yours. You will have enough problems with temptation and struggle without having to argue with your spouse over the call of God on your life.

In other words, marry a minister if you are one. If the person has no real sense of calling or interest to sacrifice and serve it makes no sense to marry them and cause you both grief."

Absolutely brilliant truths! I'm so glad I took his advice with regard to marrying my Wendi…

Jim also often said "If I can talk you into something you can walk down the street and someone else will convince you otherwise. You have to have a personal encounter with Jesus, not merely be talked into something. If you can be talked into it, you can be talked out of it."

So true.

And perhaps the best for last… he taught people to never obey anything a Christian leader said if it was not scriptural.

"No matter who you hear it from, if what they say doesn't line up with the Bible, with the Word of God, you must not do as they say. Be careful of charismatic personalities who teach you to live out things that are not in line with the Word."

I and many will miss Jim. I was only involved with him directly for about a year… but what a formative year it was!

Please join me in praying for his family and friends in this season of loss and reflection.

-Glenn

Gearhead & Tour Blog Update

Some may wonder what I take on "fly" dates, that is, when we tour and we are not able to bring all the usual gear we bring.

Here are a few pics of key road kit stuff I can't live happily without 🙂

When possible, I bring my Stamper Custom "Baby Blue" guitar. It's a single pickup (w. 5 position switch) humbucker short-scale that sounds 10 times it's size and fits nicely in 90 percent of the plane overhead bins.

I often fly my very old Gibson lapsteel 6 string for slide playing. Amazing sound!

My two key "boxes" are the Korg "Pitchblack" tuner which even I can read in totally dark stage conditions… best tuner I've ever used… and what is by far the best stompbox/overdrive pedal on the planet at this point: Blackstone Appliances Mosfet Overdrive. I've yet to plug -any- guitar into this box (in either a recording or live show situation) into -any- amp where this box doesn't make it all sound great, period. In fact we have two of them in case one ever breaks down or otherwise isn't there. This guy is a genius!

Lastly, I usually pack my little Smokey Amp, which is a plastic housed practice amp that sounds amazing but even powers anything up to a 4×12 cabinet fairly loud. It's brilliant.

I always pack fresh 9 volt alkaline batteries and then no matter where I am in the world, electric sets sound pretty decent… if the guy playing does his part!

Now have mercy on me: you can find all this stuff online if you look. The one link I'll offer is Kevin's. He does incredible luthier work and also guitar restoration. Note too, my Baby Blue is a custom design he consulted me on, but all the cool ideas are his!! So it's one-of-a-kind. http://www.facebook.com/people/Kevin-Stamper/1287516002

So- we flew into Denver yesterday, met a lot of old friends and met some new ones for dinner and rehearsal last night as there are a number of both older and quite young blues guitar players in the Fort Collins area jamming an several tunes tomorrow night.

Longtime friend Kent Obermann and the great folks at Eternal Brothers are doing a five band show including GKB tomorrow night here. Kent and his band are rocking the blues nicely.

Eternal Brothers are involved in jail ministry, a food bank, clothing reserve and spiritual counseling in the area, come from a number of different churches and are just good folks. Glad to interact with them on this.

Kent and others including friend and shreddingly brilliant guitarist Dave Beegle rehearsed us through several tunes too and will play tomorrow as well… a treat for myself, Ed and Roy as well as those who come out to the show. Love jamming with Dave!

Then Sun. morning Roy, Ed and I will lead a bit of worship with a bit of a blues slant at the South Fort Collins campus of Vineyard Church of the Rockies at both the 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. services.

Today we visited longtime friends over at Ft. Collins Ev. Covenant Church and I must say, you can't go wrong doing lunch at Famous Daves (rib tips and hotlink for the Kaiz). Then there was the nice bold coffee a little place across from our hotel.

Yeah, well now I get to change guitar strings… the least of my favorite things to do 🙂

Thanks for prayers and stopping by!
-Glenn

BabybluestampercustomGibsonlapsteelBlackstoneappliancemosfetoverdKorgtunerSmokeyamp

Lest We Forget

Two of the most disgusting and lengthy bits of American history were
(and too often still are) much of America???s treatment of African
American and Native American people.

Tonight I sit watching yet another piece of our sick history- and yes,
I???m quite aware of the glorious history of our nation… but this is
not part of it. ???The Freedom Riders??? on PBS tells the sad tale. ???Ishi,
Last of His Tribe??? tells the other.

Racism by my way of thinking is the nearest thing to rape I know of.
There is nothing but the bitter, raging desire for domination at it???s
core.

Americans really and truly -must- be reminded of these things just as
our German, Japanese and Afrikaner friends in South Africa must never
forget the atrocities people have propagated in wars and against those
of other races, cultures and ethnicity among them.

Funnel down to the truth and you get domination, pure and simple. Who
gets the power, the ultimate ???say???, control?

The fear of losing it, the sense of former ???losses??? and the ???we???re not
going to take it anymore -and we???re not going to SHARE ???it??? either???!
These are all so basic to injustice and violence done.

This is not to say the same core demand does not surface in every
heart and every culture and society in various ways, times and places.
It indeed does.

I often come back to the book of James and his ultra-clarity on the
issue of how and why wars happen. There are many ???wars??? that take
place between two or more people, so of course between people of the
dominating race, ethnicity or political position and those in a
minority.

It can and should be said that majority OR minority, all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God. No doubt there are a load of
folks who simply due to their minority status think they???re fully or
mostly correct when at times they flat aren???t! And yet, the dominating
group often plays the power game and in the case of American
atrocities, what we often did and do in treatment of Native Americans
and people of color in the United States cannot be called anything
other than sin and a disgrace.

We need reminders. Every so often we need to look at our sad, even
sick displays of injustice and cringe. We need to remember how easy it
is to fall into this inhumane ability we each have which can surface
in the face of changes we don???t wish to tolerate.

Over and over these realities boil up in human history. They indeed
have boiled over in American history. We need to remember. We need to
face realities both good and gracious as well as ugly and sad as both
are needful for a better future.

Our history is our history. May it inform our choices and in
particular, true followers of Jesus to act like thoughtful, loving
people who understand and live out His command to love our neighbor as
ourselves -regardless of who that neighbor is!

This is often not easy or fun. It is in many cases quite costly and
even sacrificial. And it is one of the two most important commands
Jesus ever put upon us. God help us walk it out in our dealings with
our neighbor.

Thanks for stopping by. -Glenn

Funky Blind Willie Johnson Cigarbox Guitar Project

The link below is for a free cd download, a tribute to Blind Willie
Johnson. This comes via cigarboxnation meister Shane Speal. These are
all raw, mostly low-fi, bluesy cigar box guitar and cigar box dobro
and resonator covers played and sung out of their love for these
home-built instruments, Blind Willie and his great songs.

Especially noteworthy is Night Owl’s rendition of “I Know His Blood Can
Make Me Whole”. She absolutely -cooks- this one.

http://shanespeal.com/fr_blindwillie.cfm