New Layout for my Blog. What do you think?
As a web developer, I’m always tinkering with my blog. You probably never notice many of the changes that I make.
However, some changes are obvious, such as the new layout on the blog as of last night.
I tried to find a layout that was less cluttered and easier to read. Is there anything about this layout that make it harder or easier to read? Is there anything missing in this layout that was in the old layout that you would like to see back here?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this new layout.
I contributed a chapter to Practice of Love. Pre-Order a copy now.
I had the opportunity to contribute a chapter to the book The Practice of Love: Real Stories of Living Into the Kingdom of God.
My chapter describes how my family served some dear people in a government assisted housing project that we affectionately called “The Neighborhood.” I’ve told some stories of the neighborhood here on my blog, but my chapter in this book includes additional details.
I have not read any of the other entries in the book, but I’m looking forward to reading it soon. I believe it will be released May 1, 2011. If you’d like to pre-order a copy, use the link above.
If you do decide to read this book, I’d love to hear what you think of my chapter.
What else do you think we’ll find in these ancient Christian books?
As I mentioned in my previous post, I have found some very exciting new details about the life of the ancient church in a set of lead-lined codices that were recently discovered in Jordan.
Translation is always long and tedious work, especially when translating an ancient script like this one. So it may take days, weeks, months, even years to reveal anything new.
Already, the books have proven to be a treasure trove of missing information. We knew that things like senior pastors, city bishops, orders of worship, and bulletins came from somewhere. But, scholars could only speculate before we found this vast array of knowledge.
But, I was wondering. What else do you think I’ll find as I continue translating these ancient texts?
Contents of the Ancient Lead Codices of Scripture Revealed!
Recently, news sources have reported the existence of some ancient (2000 years old) lead-lined codices (books) which have been described as (possibly) “the biggest find since the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
While scholars and academic-types discuss and debate the source of these new codices, very few have mentioned the ground-breaking contents of these old manuscripts. I had the opportunity to scan a few of these pages, and make public (for the first time) my translations of the ancient scripts.
From a previously unknown letter from Paul to the Corinthians, we read this: “Concerning my previous letter, I do not want you to be ignorant. When I wrote that whenever you gather together you should edify one another, I did not mean your worship services. During worship services, it is necessary for you to sit quietly and learn from your leaders. They will edify you. However, when you meet in your small groups, which are not church gatherings, then you should edify one another under the authority of a church designated teacher.”
Also, there was this page from a missing section of Paul’s letter to the Romans: “And when I arrive, please do everything that you can to arrange a meeting with Simon Peter, Bishop of Rome. I need his ruling on a few rules of doctrine and to ask his blessing on some things that I have written that others say are difficult to understand.”
There was also this alternative opening to Peter’s first letter: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ and Bishop of Rome…”
Apparently, Paul wrote a third letter to Timothy which we have just now recovered. It begins like this: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to Timothy, my beloved son in the faith and senior pastor of the church in Ephesus.”
A previously unknown work of obvious apostolic origin detailed the necessary beliefs of all Christians in the categories of Scripture, God, Man, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Salvation, Church, and Eschatology.
Another codex collects several of Timothy’s sermons to the church in Ephesus and Titus’ sermons to the church in Crete. As an added bonus, a sheet was folded and stuffed into the back of this codex which gave detailed minutes of a church business meeting which included the ordination service of Titus’ successor as senior pastor of Crete after God called Titus to a larger church nearby.
Finally, almost miraculously, a bulletin for a church service in Philippi survived the years among this collection. It turns out that this church service began with prayer and three songs. After taking up an offering and a special choral anthem, the pastor preached from three verses from the letter that Paul had recently sent them. Then, after singing another song and praying, they were dismissed. According to a note at the bottom of the page, you could have received a 10% discount from a nearby restaurant by showing this bulletin.
I can’t wait to read more from this exciting discovery!
Would you give me this free birthday gift?
So, today is my birthday. It is my forty-fourth birthday to be exact. The number looks bigger when I spell it out.
A friend of mine said a few moments ago, “Wouldn’t it be great if you had the most hits ever on your blog on your birthday?”
I said, “Yeah. That would be a pretty good birthday present. But, the day is already more than half over. I should have started that earlier in the day.”
But, he persuaded me, so here I am asking my readers… would you give me this birthday present? Would you help me get the most hits ever on my blog today (for my birthday) by choosing a blog post and putting it on facebook or twitter and encouraging your friends to check out my blog?
If you don’t know what to link to, here are a few oldies-but-goodies that you may not have read:
“A Cup o’ Joe or a Cup with Joe”
Thanks for helping me with this birthday gift. (By the way, if you take part, please let me know so that I can thank you personally.)
My friends in Ethiopia are being attacked
Have you read the latest news from Ethiopia?
While I won’t tell you exactly which part I’m referring to, I met some of the people mentioned in that article last summer when my friend Danny and I went to Ethiopia. I know that my friends have been beaten and chased.
There is much more going on that is mentioned in that article. The destruction of the church buildings is only the tip of the iceberg. Many of the attacks against Christians in Ethiopia go unreported because the local government (and regional government) is helpless (or apathetic) to stop it.
Please pray for my friends. Pray that they would stand firm, trusting completely in Jesus Christ.
Twitter hits on my blog are increasing
So, I’ve been on twitter for awhile now (@alan_knox). When I first started using twitter, I would “tweet” fairly regularly as well as post on Facebook. I found that I usually got more interaction on Facebook, so I stopped “tweeting.”
Similarly, the traffic coming to my blog from twitter has been very low, while Facebook refers a tremendous amount of traffic to my blog. I mean, I would get a few hits per week from Twitter, but that’s nothing compared to the number of hits I would get from Facebook.
I still use a plugin (http://leenk.me) to automatically update both twitter and Facebook when I publish a post on my blog. But, besides those automatic updates, I’ve rarely updated twitter recently.
But, in the last few weeks, things have been changing. Slowly, the number and percentage of hits that I’m getting from twitter has been increasing. Four weeks ago, 3% of total referrals to my blog came from twitter. Three weeks ago, twitter again referred 3% of total referrals to my blog. Two weeks ago, that number increased to 8%. Last week, the number increased again to 12% (primarily because alot of people retweeted my post “Children as Part of the Church Gathering“). So far this week, 18% of referral traffic to my blog is coming from twitter.
While this is still behind the 36% of traffic that is coming from Facebook, the traffic from twitter is definitely increasing.
I don’t know what’s causing this. I haven’t changed the way that I’m using twitter. Has anyone else noticed an increase in traffic from twitter?
Fifth Blogiversary
Today marks the fifth anniversary of this blog. I started blogging on March 21, 2006 with two posts: “Welcome!” and “Questions.” (By the way, if you’re interested, I later answered – as best as I could – those same questions at the prompting of a reader and friend in a post called “Answers to Questions.”)
I began this blog to parallel by PhD studies. I was accepted into the PhD program in Biblical Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in the spring of 2006. I actually started the program that fall in August 2006. My desire at that time was to study the purpose for the church gathering together according to the New Testament. I’m currently writing my dissertation on that same topic.
However, over the years, the purpose and scope of my blog have expanded. Why? Because issues related to the church are so interconnected. It is impossible to explore the gathering of the church in depth without also studying the nature and essence of the church, church leadership, spiritual gifts, community, and other aspects of ecclesiology. And, of course, ecclesiology is a direct outflow of theology (proper), Christology, pneumatology, soteriology, etc.
In fact, I’ve found that in many ways, what a person believes about the church – and how a person interacts with others as the church – demonstrates more about what that believes about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, salvation, etc. that what the person may profess to believe.
When I first started publishing this blog (it was a blogger blog at that time), I would only write two or three posts per week at most. I didn’t start blogging regularly until the end of November 2006. Since then, I’ve posted an average of around 550 posts per year, which works out to about 1.5 posts per day. Last year, though, I posted 844 posts, which averages to almost 2.5 posts per day. I don’t remember making a conscious decision to post more regularly. Instead, I began to read many, many more very good blogs (mostly newer and lesser known blogs), and I would link to some of their posts more regularly.
Apparently, that trend has continued, because last month (February 2011) I published more posts than any other month: 93 posts for an average of over 3 posts per day. I’m not sure what March 2011 looks like as far as numbers of posts. (I think that part of that increase can be explained by the links to the articles that I write for Examiner.com.)
Five years ago, when I first started blogging, I wanted this blog to be an outlet – a place where I could write about the things that I was studying. Obviously, I was hoping for comments and feedback. My very first comment came in on my fifth post called “Members or Membership?” It turns out that the comments and discussion and interaction (through comments, emails, and even face-to-face when I get to meet some of my readers) has become a very important aspect of this blog. Obviously, content is important for a blog. But, without a blogging community (that would be you), this blog would not be what it is today.
So, thank you. I appreciate you. I learn from you. I pray for you. You are all special to me.
If you are interested, here are links to my previous “blogiversary” posts:
A Question about Publishing
Jeremy at “Till He Comes” recently linked to an Andrew Jones article about epublishing in his post “Convert Blog Posts into eBooks.”
I’ve been thinking about publishing and epublishing lately. I’d love to get my readers’ opinions on this.
Most of my readers know my opinion about elders getting paid a salary because they are elders. You know that I don’t think it can be supported by Scripture.
Is writing/selling a book different?
Also, do you think it’s still important to publish and print hard copy books, or is epublishing (only) becoming an acceptable way to publish?
Meet and Greet
Occasionally, I like to encourage my readers to introduce themselves to me and to one another. It helps us all know one another, where we’re coming from, where we’re headed, what we’re interested in, etc.
I’ve done this before, and you might enjoying reading about some of my readers (some who no longer read/comment here, and some who continue to interact): “Getting to know you,” “Introduce Yourself,” and “Please allow me to introduce myself.”
Since some new people have begun interacting on my blog recently, I thought this would be a good time for a new round of introductions.
So, please, take a moment and tell us about yourself, your family, your work, etc. Tell us about your theological and church background. Whatever you want to tell us. If you’ve introduced yourself before, please do so again for the sake of my newer readers. You have have the mic.