Friday Rec: AI reps, phone freedom, and more

I've got a typically random assortment of items to pass along today. Enjoy!

Spiritual Innovation Briefing: Music – One of the things I most admire about the Sacred Design Lab is their gift for creating really concrete, actionable, and beautiful resources. You've be hard pressed to find a tighter and more practical discussion of music in/and/as spirituality than this still very research-rich write-up.

Mr. Cutts' Chop Shop – Speaking of music: I've cut way way back on corporate social media in the last few months and don't miss it (in its current incarnation), but when I pop into Instagram occasionally wow has the algorithm figured out how much I love a good process-oriented music account. I'm very late to the Charlie Puth party (totally transfixed by the "Light Switch" BTS) and I double over in hysterics every time I hear another banger that Stephen Spencer's toddler wrote. But my absolute favorite right now is Owen Cutts, music producer and appreciator extraordinaire. His Old Music Friday series is currently my absolute favorite recurring content format in any medium. Start with his send-up of "Here You Come Again" like I did and hopefully before long you'll be hooked enough to pop over to his Patreon.

Thoughtful AI & Learning Use Case – I'm enjoying Peter Levenstrong's newest AI and ministry series. Today's edition especially caught my attention because it's a really thoughtful implementation of one of the principles he and I talked about when I was on the AI Church Toolkit podcast: Learning is sometimes about "getting reps," and your AI coach / tutor / trainer never gets tired of running you through a set of drills. If you're creative and humane about setting the parameters, I think this kind of setup can be a safe and effective way to learn

"How to Break Free From Your Phone" – Lent is approaching. If you're looking for some "reverse-reps" in support of using your phone less to create more spaciousness and inner freedom, I love the beautiful design and cross-section of luminaries surveyed in this NYT piece from late last summer.

Interpersonal Process Training – My colleague Kenji Kuramitsu is a priest and LCSW in based in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood and is offering training groups in interpersonal process and group dynamics. In-person and online options available. Kenji is fabulous! This is a great opportunity.

Have a lovely weekend, y'all. Wish us luck at the indoor water park for winter break. Much love from sunny Chicagoland.