Josh and I spoke/led the discussion at encounter yesterday. Unfortunately the audio didn’t get saved so there will be no podcast this week 🙁 but they did record the audio/video stream over at ustream.tv/encounter (I hear its a bit choppy).
Either way, thought I’d share our powerpoint slides. So you can get an idea of what we discussed ::
A new issue of the weekly community group newsletter is online.
I try and publish it each Monday — running a little late this week. (of course it’s naturally geared more towards encounter peeps – but hope it’s useful for you as well.
Teabass (aka Andrew Nesbitt) (no not Seabass or C-Bass) shared a great little bit of WordPress love/help/code today on his blog.
Of course you’ve probably all realized that there are some ads on both my blog, and Laurie’s blog. You may have ignored them all the time — and that’s OK (well sorta ;-)). We’ve added these ads in hopes to at least cover the cost of our webhosting ($150 a year) and if possible, help pay off some of our debt (see the ongoing battle on the lower right hand column).
Anyways, we’ve attempted to do this as non-intrusive as possible while still making the ads visible enough and attractive enough that you’d want to click on them from time to time. Different ads mean different money — i.e. clicking on a Google ad might give us one-cent or maybe even 17-cents (depending on the advertiser). Clicking on an Amazon ad doesn’t give us anything – but if you purchase something from Amazon after clicking on our ads – we get a percentage of the sale.
Well if you’re a regular reader, you probably won’t noticed we’ve added Andrew’s new code and thus more advertising to our blog posts. You won’t likely notice, because you probably read all the blog posts within 30 days of their original posting. However, for folks who might find a blog post via Google (say something that I wrote back in January about Justin Farmer) — then they’ll notice a new Google ad on each blog post that’s older than 30 days.
It was super simple to add and while I’d love to give you the code here — you can go right to the source for all the details.
So that’s that. Keep reading (and clicking/buying) and let me know if you’ve found other creative ways to build your revenue stream on your blog or website.
I talked with a co-worker today about social media, networking, new media and the like in the classroom and church setting. She had just returned from a conference and was amazed at all the things available to academics – usually at no additional costs to the users (i.e. professors or students). She mentioned that we needed someone who could evangelize (my word) all this new technology to folks across the district. Someone who could explain what it means and how to use it to professors who are fed up with being forced to use “technology” (typically antiquated technology at that).
I wanted to jump up and down and say, “Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!”
I didn’t. We were in a semi-public environment and I didn’t want to cause a scene (so instead I just post this in a very-public environment).
I mentioned this scene to Laurie and she made the point that I’d be good at a job like that because, “it consumes your life.”
I think she’s pretty dead on. I just have a passion/fire/drive for connecting people. Whether its online or offline (or a combination of the two) I love to see people making connections. I want to see a distributed Christianity and world – rather than a mainframe world. I want to see crowd-sourcing rather than scholarly opinions. I want to see people understanding others in new ways and thus building newer, stronger relationships.
So as a side note: if you know someone wanting/needing a social media guy (like the job Chad just got) let me know. Let’s talk!
And — all this to say — I know I typically turn to Twitter or micro-blogging to share what’s going on in my life — but figure I owe all the readers here an update on my weekend as well.
Each and every Saturday I do my best to meet with Josh to discuss life, faith, church, families, friends etc. This week was no exception. Due to a few schedule changes, we made plans to meet at 8 a.m. I arrived at his house and he fixed some great BOBs (breakfast on bread). We ate and chatted for an hour or so and then I was off to event #2.
Another friend had a deep freezer his mother wanted to donate to Daniel’s Den in Waxahachie. Brad met me at Josh’s house and we headed to Duncanville to pick up the freezer and then back to Waxahachie to deliver it. As soon as we finished I rushed back to Red Oak to make it home before event #3. I had hoped/predicted I’d back home by 11. I didn’t make it back till 11:38 :-(. Laurie had said as long as I was home by 11:30 things would be fine and even though I was “only 8 minutes late” it really irked me that I didn’t make it by either time.
After I arrived home, I quickly changed shirts and we were off to take Presley to the dog park and the vet. We spent 30 minutes or so at the dog park before Presley got to “enjoy” her visit with the vet. Seems like more and more we’re realizing she doesn’t like men. Not sure what it is – but she doesn’t like em. After the vet we headed to the doggie wash – where she got a nice warm bath with shampoo and conditioner.
We stopped by Sonic on the way home. And then I was off to a birthday party for Juston. Had a good time and got to play some ping-pong with his younger brother Andrew. We did a cool thing at the party – in that each “man” gave words of advice to Juston as he turned 13. I shared 3 things I wish I would have known — (or actually paid attention to) when I turned 13.
After the party I headed back home to finish cooking the dinner we had planned to share with Josh, his wife Shalyn, their baby girl, and my sister Kara and my brother-in-law, Tim.
They arrived short time later and we enjoyed some chicken tacos, rice, beans and assorted fixings along with some fun stories and conversations.
One thing I truly love about Laurie is that she loves hosting people at our house. She’s not near as outgoing as I am and usually doesn’t “thrive” in group settings like I might – but she still loves serving others by inviting them over and enjoying dinner with them. We both love doing that and I hope its something we continue doing for years to come.
Sunday was a whole different day but just as fun (other than the annoying sunburn I got).
Our church/tribe gathered outdoors at the Tucker’s house for our normal celebration time as well as BBQ and games. I was there outdoors from roughly 8 a.m. till 2 p.m. No wonder I got a little red ;-).
Some folks even took a ride on the Tucker’s 4-wheelers before it was all said and done.
I came home and crashed on the couch before mowing the yard and pulling some weeds in the front.
All in all a tiring weekend but one I’d gladly do all over again (minus the sunburn).
So there you have it (if you’re still reading).
Be sure and click over to Laurie’s blog for her take on the weekend as well.
I don’t normally plug our podcast here too much (at least I don’t think so) but thought I’d give you a heads up on some great interviews we’ve had recently and a few that are upcoming.
Be sure and check out somethingbeautifulpodcast.com to listen to all our past, present and future shows.
This week on the show we have the first part of my interview with Greg Garrett. Garrett’s an English professor at Baylor University and also a lay-pastor at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas. He recently wrote a great book – “Stories from the Edge A Theology of Grief” based on the summer he spent as a chaplain in Austin, Texas. I talked to Greg about how he dealt with his own personal “demons” and how he was led into the chaplaincy and some of what he learned in the process. Great stuff.
Also, last week we talked with Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington DC. Batterson recently released his second book, “Wild Goose Chase” and we talked about the book, the adventure of chasing the Holy Spirit and how Batterson has seen it play out in his own life.
Coming up we have the second half of my interview with Greg Garrett, as well as an interview with Frank Viola and a two part interview with Trucker Frank (aka Frank Schutzwhol).
I think they’re all stories worth talking about (whether you agree or disagree with the particular story) so be sure and check them out and let us know what you think.
Also, if you have a story, poem, or message that you think our listeners would love to hear — send it to us. You can send it as text only or if you’d like to record it in your own words you can send an mp3. Send all your submissions to :: somethingbeautifulpodcast (at) gmail (dot) com.
I had a great chat with Frank Viola yesterday, can’t wait to share it on the podcast in a few weeks.
We discussed his book Reimagining Church along with the idea of organic churches. Thought this was a great illustration shared by @darrinreeves today (you can click on the images to see them larger) ::
Which would you prefer? Which do you feel like you’re apart of? Which would you rather be a part of?