In honor of the recently completed London Olympics, today's Top Five salutes the original British Invaders: the Beatles.

It's almost sacreligious to say, but I've never been an especially ardent fan.  While I admit that they are by far the most influential and enduring of all rock bands, my personal tastes have leaned more towards the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and even the Eagles.

Yet even if I wasn't one of the screaming, fainting fans at LaGuardia when they landed here in February of 1964 -- OK, I was barely two years old -- some of their songs have moved me.  Here are my five favorites:

5.  Norwegian Wood.  A haunting, inventive tune that catalyzed the transition from the pop vibe of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"  to the art rock that characterized their later career.



4.  Yesterday.  One of the reasons I like Paul more than John.



3.  Let It Be.  In its lyric, its tempo, and its tune, this one belongs in a hymnal.



2.  Golden Slumbers Medley. It's almost not fair to regard this epic collection that closes out Abbey Road as one song . . . but I'm going to anyway.  As the saying goes, "it's all good."  And all of it is.



1.  Hey Jude.  The first of rock's true anthems, a song that by virtue of its length, lyrics, and variety paved the way for Stairway To Heaven, Layla, and Hotel California.  I love the (possibly apocryphal?) story of Paul McCartney ruining a Mick Jagger party by playing an early demo of this song . . . and everyone in the room knew it would be more popular than anything the Stones were preparing to release.

Here's the way it was with Jack Benny:



Are you "thinking it over" as well?

We've come up with a creative way to talk about money, stuff, time, and faith this coming Sunday.  I'm glad to be part of it and think you will too.

Sunday.

8:30.  10.  11:30.

While these aren't all the lessons I've learned in 23 years of full-time parish ministry, they are the ones freshest on my mind this week . . .

• People like it when you remember their names.
• The more digital our culture becomes, the more effective are hand-written notes.
• Breath mints and deodorant are under-rated tools in ministry.
• If you resent the success of other pastors, you probably won't achieve your own.
• The more satisfied/righteous/vindicated you feel when you hit the "Send" button, the more likely you are to have made a serious mistake.
• Sometimes the people you think aren't listening are being the most influenced by what you say.
• The Gospel has its own power and you need to resist every temptation to dilute it.
• A good novel will give you as many sermons as a collection of . . . sermons.
• The more people tell you how much better you are than their last pastor, the more likely you are to become their next former pastor.
• People who yell the loudest have the most to hide.
• Two-by-two door knocking ministry still works.
• When you notice that people have missed a few Sundays in church and you call them up, simply tell them that you miss them.  They'll either offer an explanation or not.  Most people like being missed and don't care for being interrogated.
• Ministry works so much better when you express daily thanks for the fact that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead as the first fruits of your own ultimate resurrection.

As a lot of you know, we take the ministry of funerals very seriously at Good Shepherd.

I've blogged about it here and here.

But in talking with other staffers here about how to design and deliver a eulogy that is helpful, faithful, and redemptive, we've landed at some new language that helps articulate an old concept:

Don't talk about the PROMISE before you talk about the PERSON.

In other words, early in the eulogy you haven't earned the right with the congregation (often at funerals full of not-yet-believers) to talk about the promises of the Gospel.

Only when you communicate to that congregation that you knew and loved this person whose life they've come to remember and death they've come to mourn can you then move on and talk about what the Gospel promises regarding eternity.

So funeral eulogies don't begin with John 3:16.  Or Ecclesiastes 3:1-4.  Or Philippians 3:12-14.

They begin with the person folks have come to remember.  Their qualities, their quirks, their loves, and their faith.  The nicest thing people say to me after eulogies is "Your description of him was spot on, preacher."

After establishing common ground in that way, then you can celebrate the promises inherent in the Gospel:

To be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord.  II Corinthians 5:8

The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable.  I Corinthians 15:42

And so we will be with the Lord forever.  I Thessalonians 4:17

Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.  Matthew 5:4


Once you've talked about the PERSON, celebrate the PROMISES.

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