Month: March 2011

Update your WordPress copyright date automatically

Three months into the new year and I’m still coming across several websites that I manage that are still showing a copyright for last year.

DOH!

It’s easy to forget as the calendar rolls over to update all your copyright (or Creative Commons) tags on your websites, so why not automate it?

Simply replace the latest year (i.e. © 2005-2010 Jonathan D. Blundell) with this simple code:

<?php echo date('Y'); ?>

So you’re resulting copyright line will look like this:

&copy; 2005-<?php echo date('Y'); ?> Jonathan D. Blundell

And every year, your copyright statement will update with the current year.

Easy peasy!

Now I just need to go update this in all my footers… DOH!

I am a minister

Johnny Laird shared this video from Kroc Church – a Salvation Army community in San Diego…

I shared this over on Simplechurchipedia.com and thought it was worthy of a share here as well.

What comes to mind when you watch it?

I don’t like the statement, “I am not a pastor – but I am a minister” as someone puts it in the video… I know what they’re referring to – but personally I prefer to see them one in the same.

And prefer to believe that we’re all pastors and ministers to our spheres of influence.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all believers saw themselves as “Priests in the hood” who were actually living this out — being the Body of Christ to their sphere of influence?

What do you think?

Mini-vacations

Mini Seattle
Mini Seattle | Photo by Jonathan Blundell

Laurie and I have had a number of great vacations over the past 4 years – and I think we’re both looking forward to many more with (and maybe without) our two boys.

Just for kicks, I found a cool tutorial the other day that simulated the “toy-photography” (aka tilt-shift) niche via Photoshop and thought I’d create some “mini-vacations” for you to enjoy.
Continue reading Mini-vacations

What if it really is that simple?

love hands
IXS_2631 | Photo by Leon Brocard

In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity – HW Longfellow

Last week I asked…

What is really required of “our faith?”

What are the NO COMPROMISE requirements of your faith?

And I received several good responses.

But as I’m reading and thinking and chewing I keep coming back to the question they asked Jesus.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

The wanted the insight, the inside scoop. They wanted a check list of things to follow and do to be sure they spent eternity on streets of gold instead of the fires of Gehenna.

And some days I wish Jesus had said, “You need to do this, this, this and this. And then if you can do all that, do this, this, this and that.”

Because check lists are easy. We can have a goal and a target. And they make things like knowing who’s-in and who’s-out a lot easier.

But instead of a checklist, Jesus responds, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

And so I’m left wondering… What if really is that simple?

…but then again – who said love was easy?

No compromise (Rob Bell, hell, faith & theology)

Satan is trapped in the frozen central zone in the Ninth Circle of Hell, Canto 34 (Dante's Inferno) | Image via Wikicommons

This weekend, Twitter and the blogosphere were a flutter over the idea that a Christian pastor might lean towards universalism. GASP!

You can read more here, here, here, here, here and here.

All these folks getting their debate on — over a book that hasn’t even been released yet — and one in which the vast majority of commentators haven’t even read.
Continue reading No compromise (Rob Bell, hell, faith & theology)