Discoveries of the Week

People to keep your eye on; these are discoveries for your week, I already knew they were there.

Writing: Tyler Blanski

An advance copy of When Donkeys Talk arrived in the mail last month from Zondervan unsolicited. I was familiar with Tyler Blanski, and you’ll find his blog is linked in the sidebar of this one; but I set the book aside until this week. It doesn’t release until 60 days from now, so a full review would be a bit premature, but suffice it to say I’m impressed.

When Donkeys Talk contains everything but the kitchen sink; and there are a couple of cooking scenes, so maybe I can’t say that. Blanski may describe himself as a humble house painter, but there’s a lot going on in this guy’s head, much of it overlaid with his background in medieval studies.  Oh wait, I’m doing the review now…

Let’s just say that Tyler Blanski is the new Donald Miller; although phrases like that I’m sure leave people wondering what happened to the old Donald Miller. But you get the idea, right?

Oh, and with a number of references to Christmas, I’m at a loss to understand why this is releasing after Dec 25th, but it’s scheduled for the third week in January.

Music: All Sons and Daughters

Trying to describe this group wouldn’t be fair. Lots of great vocal harmonies combine with lyrics of exhortation and occasional hymn covers.  Wikipedia:

All Sons & Daughters is an American Christian Worship-Acoustic-Folk duo originating from Franklin, Tennessee.They have released one studio album, so far, under the label Integrity Music, which their debut album is called Season One. The duo of Leslie Anne Jordan on vocals and guitar and David Alan Leonard on vocals and piano are the worship leaders at Journey Church in Franklin, which is a non-denominational church…They released three EP’s, which were Brokenness Aside: EP No. 1, Prone To Wander: A Collection of Hymns EP and Reason To Sing: EP…

Although they have many videos on YouTube, the ones that impressed me the most were recorded for Relevant Magazine, such as this version of Wake Up.

Reporting: Todd Rhoades

One of my oft-repeated lines is that it’s a far better thing to make the news than to be content with simply writing the news. While this blog delves into current events and breaking news occasionally, I believe that if you’re going to deal with current issues, you’d better do it well and Todd Rhoades does.

Of Todd Rhoades’ blog — once known as Monday Morning Insight, but now publishing more frequently — all I can say is that if you like the type of things we cover at Thinking Out Loud, you’ll love ToddRhoades.com  Someday I’m going to run a Wednesday Link List that’s just his links, just to see if anyone notices.

This little publishing history kinda sums him up; I’d encourage pastors and church leaders especially to bookmark the blog.

Devotionals: High Calling Reflections

Knowing the dedication needed to produce daily devotional content as intimately as I do from writing C201, I have a great deal of admiration for the team at The High Calling Blog: Reflections.

I like that the material goes beyond the superficial; there are also prayers and challenging questions. Another one to bookmark.