2010 Blogging Year in Review
It is customary for me to write a “year in review” post. Since I’m not one to break with tradition, I thought I would write one this year also.
First, I was surprised to find that I had written more posts this year than any other year – many, many more posts – more than 50% more posts. I didn’t plan that. I’m not promising more posts next year – I’m not even promising the same number of posts next year.
Here are the top 10 most read posts on my blog that I wrote and published in 2010:
- Why I’m Not A House Church Proponent (from December 16, 2010)
- Honest Questions About Elders/Pastors (from June 30, 2010)
- Finding Community (from July 13, 2010)
- Church in a coffee shop (from April 27, 2010)
- Simple Church = Scary Church (from October 5, 2010)
- Why should we study the first century synagogue (from March 30, 2010)
- Obedience, Disobedience, and Grace in Deuteronomy (from March 5, 2010)
- Immediate Membership (from September 8, 2010)
- Church Sells Building to Help More People (from October 3, 2010)
- What does it take to be a church? (from February 2, 2010)
I also want to give a “shout out” to those bloggers who linked to my posts. The following blogs sent the most traffic to my site during 2010:
- Dave Black Online
- Arthur at “The Voice of One Crying Out in Suburbia“
- Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress“
- Steve at “From the Pew“
- Guy at “The M Blog“
- Lionel at “A View of the Woods“
- Jon at “Jon’s Journey“
If you don’t visit those blogs regularly, jump over and read some of their writings.
Thank you again for reading and commenting during 2010. The interaction and discussion here is the best thing about my blog, and that’s all because of you.
Merry Christmas 2010!
From our family to your family, we hope and pray that you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
Thank you for reading and commenting on my blog. I pray that the time you spend here has been beneficial and has encouraged you to love God and others even more.
Enjoy this picture of our family throughout 2010:
Headed to Alabama
This morning, my family – me, my wife, my son, my daughter, and our two dogs – loaded into the car and headed south. Yes, we’re driving farther south than North Carolina to the great state of Alabama.
We will be spending the next week and a half or so in our home town, visiting family. Hopefully, we’ll see a few old friends as well.
I have a few blog posts scheduled to publish during this time, and I will probably have some time to reply to comments. But, I will not be blogging as much as normal.
I hope you will be able to spend extra time with your family and friends too. See you soon!
When persecution comes home
Last Summer, my friend Danny and I spend a couple of weeks in Alaba, Ethiopia with Dave Black. We met many of the evangelists while we were there. We worked with them and ate with them. They took us around the city and villages and even introduced us to Ethiopian macchiato.
This morning, I read the following on Dave’s blog (Sunday, December 5, 2010 at 8:50 a.m.):
Special time of prayer this morning for the persecuted church in Alaba. Things have deteriorated. Our vehicle’s windows have been smashed, and three of our evangelists have been injured. One has a serious head wound, the result of being stoned. Thankfully, God’s amazing grace multiplies in times of trouble. To think how minor my trials are compared to the sufferings of these saints!
I’ve read about persecution before, but this is first time that persecution as hit so close to home. I don’t know specifically who has been injured, but chances are we spent time with them last summer. And, we used the vehicle (the one with the smashed windows now) as we drove around the city and into the villages.
Here is a link to some videos that I made while in Ethiopia. Some of the people in these videos may be the ones who have been beaten. I’m praying especially for my brother and friend Nigussie, who is in the video below:
Nigussie teaching Danny a song in Amharic from Alan Knox on Vimeo.
Knowing the people who are being persecuted has changed my praying. I wonder how much more my prayers would change if persecution really came home…
“How can I Pray for You?”
Last Thursday, our family and some friends helped out with a local food pantry again. The food pantry provided food for almost 350 families that night.
For the most part, I “roamed” around the big room where everyone was waiting for their turn to get their groceries. I walk talk to the people (usually in groups of 2-4), get to know them, and pray with them.
Alot of people mentioned how difficult it was living in this economy. Whenever someone said that, I asked them, “Do you feel closer to God or farther away from God at times like these?” Most people said closer, but I appreciated a few people who said “farther away” or “a little of both.”
I tried to pray with everyone. A few times, the people’s number was called while I was talking with them. I didn’t want to delay them from getting their food and going home, so I didn’t make them wait for prayer. But, for most people, I asked, “How can I pray for you?” Then, I could look in their eyes as we talked with God about their situations.
Here are some of the responses that I got:
My health.
My husband lost his job yesterday.
My sons are on drugs.
I haven’t worked in two years.
Pray that my cancer doesn’t come back.
My boss keeps cutting my hours.
I have diabetes.
My daughter is in a wheelchair and just got laid off.
I need a job so I can pay child support.
I’m having an MRI tomorrow.
I own my own business, and business is very slow.
I haven’t worked in two years.
It can be draining – physically, emotionally, and spiritually – to talk to so many people who are hurting and in need. I’m glad that Margaret was with me for most of the night.
I know that I can’t solve all of their problems – in fact, I can’t solve any of their problems. But, I can care. I can be there. I can listen. I can pray.
What can you do?
Updated Website for Messiah Baptist Church
Some of you like to track my web development activities, and some of you like to track our church activities. Recently, I updated our church’s website, so you can track both at the same time.
The url for the website is http://messiahwf.org. Most of the information is the same. But, I focused the images on the front page (which were random) to the four activities found in Acts 2:42.
I also added pages about “What to expect” and “Missions and Service” and an “Image Gallery.”
Even with the additions, I tried to keep the site simple and focused on the people who make up the church.
Feast or Fast
Last Sunday, toward the end of our time meeting together as the church, while we were finishing our shared meal, we began talking about our Thanksgiving plans.
Some are traveling; some are staying home. Some are having Thanksgiving Dinner alone or with their immediate family; some are sharing the meal with friends or family.
One young lady shared with us that she is doing something different this Thanksgiving. She said that God has provider for us tremendously this last year, so she’s decided to fast, pray, and read Scripture all day Thursday.
We shared our plans with one another, and encouraged one another in those plans.
Our family is sharing Thanksgiving Dinner with another family. We invited a few other people, too (mainly people who are going to be alone on Thanksgiving), and we’re waiting to hear back from them.
Whether we feast or fast, our goal is to do everything to honor God. What are your Thanksgiving plans?
Missing the Ethiopia Team Reunion
Today, there is a reunion of the Ethiopia Mission Team at the farm of Dave and BeckyLynn Black. But, unfortunately, I am not able to attend the reunion.
Last week, at the end of our trip to Washington DC, I caught some kind of virus. I felt awful for a few days and developed a nasty cough. I started feeling better at the beginning of this week, but the cough lingers.
Since Mrs. BeckyLynn is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment for her cancer, I can’t risk spreading anything to her (or the others at the reunion either).
So, I’m not attending the reunion. I met with these brothers and sisters several times over nine months as we all prepared for our trips to Ethiopia. We ate together, shared stories, prayed for one another, and studied together during those months. Even though I only traveled with Dave Black and Danny Achten, I got to know many of the people who went to Ethiopia during the two weeks before us.
I’ll never forget arriving in our room the first night in Ethiopia and finding a note for us left by two of the members of the team that had just left. I was hoping to tell these brothers how much their note meant to me. I’ll have to find another opportunity now.
So, I’m missing the food and fun and fellowship with these brothers and sisters. But, I’m praying for them. They may even be talking about future service plans with the church in Ethiopia.
Did She Really Mean That?
So, recently I was talking with an older lady who is part of another church in our town. (You don’t know her or the church, trust me.)
She was talking about the recent youth pastor that was hired by the church. She was very excited. She said, “We finally have someone who cares about our young people.”
I’ll be honest… I’m still scratching my head about her statement.
Certainly she doesn’t mean that no one else cares for the teenagers – well, except for the person paid to do something with them. So, what did she mean?
I guess, the best spin that I could put on it, is that she meant that no one was doing things with the young people or spending time with them, so they hired someone for that purpose, and she’s glad that there’s someone to do it now.
Maybe that’s what she meant… maybe not. I don’t know. Like I said, I’m still scratching my head.
Teaching Jude
My good friend Geth teaches a New Testament introduction course for a local college. He’s invited me to teach the class on the Epistle of Jude.
I’m really looking forward to teaching this class. I’ll be able to delve into the manuscript history, provenance, date, author, and other details of this short book.
Finally, I’ll have a chance to look at the purpose and theology of the book. I’ve always been fascinated by Jude’s short letter. He writes of the false teachers and false prophets who make their home among the church. Then, he tells the church what to do about these people… or rather, what NOT to do about these people.
It’s a fascinating read… go ahead… read the whole book.