My Top 10 Favorite Songs of 2009

I always enjoy reading those best-of-year lists and used to compile my own back in the day, but I have become so removed from secular pop culture that most of the names on those lists are unfamiliar to me. Music still holds my interest and Christian contemporary is my preferred genre.

I have enough favorite songs, sacred and secular, from 2009 to compile a top 10 list. In no particular order, here they are.

Carolina Liar: Show Me What I'm Looking for



Selah: Hosanna



Silversun Pickups: Panic Switch



Plumb: God-Shaped Hole (2010)



Bat for Lashes with Scott Walker: The Big Sleep



Steven Curtis Chapman: Heaven Is the Face



Phoenix: Lisztomania



Lifehouse: Broken



Doves: Kingdom of Rust



Chris Tomlin: I Will Rise

JibJab Retrospective: Never A Year Like '09

The funny folks at JibJab have created an animated video compiling the most memorable public moments of 2009. Did they miss anybody?

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Pastor Chuck Smith Suffers "Mild Stroke"

Pastor Chuck Smith, founder and pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, reportedly suffered "a very mild stroke" yesterday morning. According to the Orange County Register, spokeswoman Laura Jackson said, "He's recovering well. The doctors want him to have a chance to rest. That's all the family wants to say right now." Smith is 82 years old.

I first attended CCCM during the Jesus People movement of the 1970s, which Pastor Chuck is widely credited with fostering, and returned to the church in 2008. During the intervening 35 years, Calvary Chapel grew into an international fellowship of more than 1,000 evangelical churches, Bible colleges, and radio stations.

Smith is a beloved, iconic, enormously influential figure whose ministry continues to focus on expository preaching of the Scripture as it did when he established Calvary Chapel in 1965. On Sunday evenings, he still teaches a study of the Bible verse by verse and in October 2009 started Genesis anew after completing Revelation for the umpteenth time, in addition to leading weekly Sunday morning worship services. He has tirelessly inspired and supported generations of ministers, including Greg Laurie, Raul Ries, Mike Macintosh, Pancho Juarez and Skip Heitzig, among countless others. But there is only one Pastor Chuck.

Here is Pastor Chuck Smith delivering a recent sermon on the topic "Are You Ready to Meet God?"

John Pinette: I Say Nay Nay

When I desperately needed to laugh this fall, blogger, patriot and Tea Partier extraordinaire Colonal Manly Rash introduced me to the comic stylings of John Pinette. Pinette is that rare comedian - hysterically funny without being mean, physically graceful while simultaneously chubby and cherubic, and thoroughly entertaining without relying on profanity.

John Pinette is headlining the Irvine Improv on New Year's Eve and a few dates afterward. I will be otherwise occupied with lots of delicious food and loved ones, but I'm sure it will be a hoot. Here is the best of Pinette in six parts. Don't hurt yourself!

He Has Come and He Will Come Again

Thank you, dearest Lord, for your precious Son, our Savior, and for the gift of this and every day to celebrate His birth. Let us praise Him with our voices, our hearts and our lives!

Mercy Me has become one of my favorite bands from any genre. Enjoy in good company and great health!