What Do I Need To Confess

An Act Of Confession from blaine hogan on Vimeo.

Thank you @KatDish and @blainehogan

Jesus On The JukeBox

Music has always been one of my favorite things. I remember as a kid doing my chores and getting an allowance. I would save my allowance so that I could purchase a 45 record. I remember clearly walking to the store with my money, purchasing the 45 and walking back home so that I could wear the record out by playing it over and over again. So much of my life is connected to music even though I am not a musician. Music takes me back to sadness, happiness, celebration, grief, life and death. The song at my father's funeral. The music at my wedding. The song on the cruise boat during my honeymoon. The tune that my grandfather whistled. The 8 track tapes and albums my stepfather collected. The music playing in the background while my daughter was born. The music my homeless friends requested at numerous cold weather shelters. The hits I played as a DJ on various radio stations.

In an earlier post, I talked about how I hear and connect to God. Music is one of those amazing ways that God speaks to me. I know this sounds critical but God usually doesn't speak to me through typical Christian music. I hear him loud and clear through what we nutty Christians describe as "secular" music.

One of my best friends, Russell Holloway, started a cool weekly post on his blog. He called it "Jesus On The Jukebox". Each week he posted a song from the "secular" music world that had incredible connections to the Bible and the Christian journey. Russell and I have been talking about actually doing a show on a local Christian radio station called "Jesus On The Jukebox". The thought of playing non-traditional music on a Christian radio station warms my heart. I pray that it will warm and connect to the the hearts of those that listen. I pray that it makes God smile.

I'll give you a heads up when we start the show and how you can listen. We'll inform state and federal authorities in case we're breaking any laws. Most importantly, we'll call a meeting of the deacons and elders to make sure we're not breaking any extremely important church laws, traditions or regulations.

Want an example of the of music we would be playing? See the YouTube clips below.

We Are Plan A

"We cannot stretch out our hands and arms to serve the poor when they are clutching tightly to our things." @cthomasdavis

If you're interested in a "radical" ministry that is doing "radical" work for the least of these, click here.

Feed Just One

"I guess it's hard for people who are so used to things the way they are - even if they're bad - to change. 'Cause they kind of give up. And when they do, everybody kind of loses." -- Pay It Forward

The world can be a crappy place. Our neighborhoods are bulging at the seams with depression, hopelessness and loneliness. We're tired of empty words and broken promises.

For those of us who want to make a change the task can seem overwhelming. What if each of us found one person and helped them? Mother Teresa said, "If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."

If you been a part of the Twittersphere for any length of time, you'll notice that Twitter has it's own celebrities. These Social media mavens have eleventy-jillion followers and are chock full of witty tweets. Who would have thought that 3 of Twitter's superstars would have taken the time to help or encourage a somewhat goofy guy like me?

“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” -- John Maxwell

My twitter account was hacked. I had no idea what to do. I sent a tweet to @JeffPulver asking for help. Jeff has 361,000 followers. He immediately replied back to me. Jeff connected me to a techie within the bowels of Twitter. My problem was solved. On top of that, Jeff has helped to get my CEO, Marketing Director and others into his special events. Thank you Jeff.

I got a new Blackberry prior to an emergency trip to Washington State. I had no idea how I would keep in touch with my Twitter business accounts while I was away from the office. I sent a tweet to @UnMarketing. He immediately sent out a tweet to his 60,000 followers. Scott asked, "What is the best Twitter app for a BlackBerry? Please respond to @MarketerMikeE." I was overwhelmed with the response. Before you could say "fail whale" I was downloading UberTwiter to my BlackBerry. Thanks Scott.

@GiniDietrich is the CEO of a social media marketing mega-house in Chicago. The other day Gini sent me a direct message. It said, "I just read your Lesbian Labels blog post. What a brilliant, honest piece!" Over the weekend she sent me this tweet, "@MarketerMikeE Wait til Monday. I have a little surprise." What was the surprise? This morning Gini shared a link to my blog post with her 13,000 followers. Thank you Gini.

Today I found a guest post from Gini. She said, "For me, it’s important I help others, I pay it forward as often as I can, I pump up people, I acknowledge everyone who comes into my world, and I never get too big for my britches."

Don't get too big for your britches. Intentionally reach out to someone today. Help them. Encourage them. They'll remember what you did and hopefully do it for someone else.

Dream Big. Start Small. Pay it Forward.



"Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them...." -- Matthew 7:12 (The Message)

Social Media Marketing Madness

Inspiration Injection

Thanks to my friend @FlipBooks

Drown Out The Cries of the Suffering

God connected me to this powerful blog post:

"I read a story a few months ago that haunted me. It was about this church in Nazi Germany during the 30′s. They were just a few German Christians who would gather and worship together each week. It was about as normal of a church as you’d expect. If one of us were to have shown up we probably would have been able to fit in without standing out (other than that whole not speaking German thing, that would probably be noticeable). But the problem was that the church had been built too close to the train tracks. And lately, the trains had been running a lot.

But the problem wasn’t the train, it was the cargo.

Because in this little church building, the German Christians could hear the sound of Jewish people on those trains, and they were screaming for help. When the people on the trains would pass by, they would think maybe the church would help, so they would yell.

And so the church sang louder.

Their plan of action was to just drown out the cries of suffering."

I asked myself a question after reading this post.

"Mike, what are you doing to drown out the cries of the suffering?"

I have a question for you.

"What are you doing to drown out the cries of the suffering?"

I have a question for the church.

"What is the church doing to drown out the cries of the suffering?"


"They could have stopped singing, gone outside and done something. They might have even saved a few men and women’s lives, sure they would have had to stop doing church. But they could have been the church."

You can read the complete blog post by clicking here.

My thanks to @Campbelld72 for leading me to this post. Thanks to @Stormented for writing it.