I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. But if I did…
Some of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions include things like losing weight, exercising, quitting smoking/drinking/etc., spending more time with family and friends, getting out of debt, getting organized, and enjoying life more. I wonder how people measure that last one…
I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. There are enough things that I don’t do; why add to the list? I really don’t need the guilt…
But, if I did make New Year’s Resolutions this year, I think these two would be at the top of the list:
1) Focus on and meditate on God more.
I don’t want to be unaware or desensitized to what God is doing in my life and in the lives of the people around me. Sometimes God can be so familiar, that I barely recognize or appreciate the many things that he does daily. I want to be more appreciative, more trusting, more malleable…
2) Focus on and serve others more.
In the same way that I’m often unaware of what God is doing, I’m also often so focused on myself that I miss the needs in the lives of people around me. This could be needs among people that I know well, or even complete strangers.
Now that I think about it, these two non-resolutions remind me a lot of Jesus’ two greatest commandments…
It would be easy to come up with different activities that might help me with these two desires: prayer, fasting, Scripture reading, giving, etc. But, I’ve found that when I set out to complete certain activities, I do just that. The activities become an end in themselves. I become very good at completing those activities, but I don’t love God or others more.
Now, for other people, this may not be the case. So, I’m not saying that you should not seek pray more or to fast or to give a certain amount to those in need. I just know that for me these kinds of goals tend to work against my ultimate desires and purpose.
So, I want to love more – love God more and love other people more. I know that I can’t create this love on my own. I could probably produce something that looks like love for a short time, but that’s not what I want. So, in reality, I’m asking God to help me love him and love others more.
Of course, I must be willing to submit to whatever work he does in my life. And, I’ve found in the past that God doesn’t always work the way that I expect him too. Will I submit anyway? I guess only time will tell…
Did you make New Year’s Resolutions this year? If so, what were they?
2011 Blogging Year in Review
Every year since I started blogging, I’ve published a “Year in Review” post to show which of my posts from that year were the most read.
This year – sometime in April or May – I started something new. I began linking to old posts on Twitter and Facebook. While some people were confused by the links to the old posts, I mostly received very positive feedback from people who were encouraged or challenged by the old posts.
Also this year, I began highlighting guest posts – that is, posts written for by other people to be published on my blog.
So, in this “Year in Review” post, I’m going to spotlight three different kinds of posts: 1) Most Read New Posts of 2011, 2) Most Read Guest Posts of 2011, and 3) Most Read Old Posts in 2011.
Most Read New Posts in 2011
These are the Top 10 posts (out of 800+ posts) written by me and published this year:
- Definition: Church (or Ekklesia) (April 2011)
- Children as Part of the Church Gathering (March 2011)
- When Disagreements Lead to Disunity (April 2011)
- The Day of Pentecost in the Upper Room (May 2011)
- Contents of the Ancient Lead Codices of Scripture Revealed! (April 2011)
- Numbing our souls with church activities (May 2011)
- Ten Things Every Christian Should Know (July 2011) – Thanks, Keith!
- I know you’re a heretic, but what am I?! (May 2011) – Thanks, Rachel!
- Disagreement is not Disunity (April 2011)
- Why keep the worship service? (July 2011)
Most Read Guest Posts in 2011
These are the Top 10 posts written by “guest bloggers” and published this year:
- Guest Post: How does the church respond to poverty? (from someone who’s living it) (April 2011) – After I published this post, it quickly became the most read post on my blog of all time.
- Guest Blogger: A Focus on Catholic Ecclesiology (May 2011)
- Guest Blogger: House Churches: British experience to teach the USA (August 2011)
- Guest blogger: Building a culture of discipleship (August 2011)
- Guest Blogger: Why bother with the church? (October 2011)
- Guest Blogger: Not Alone in Feeling Alone (May 2011)
- Guest Blogger: Sunday Morning Sucker Punch (September 2011)
- Guest Blogger: A simple post about simple church (June 2011)
- Guest Blogger: Not salary but support (May 2011)
- Guest Blogger: Focus on delivery does not increase our effectiveness at discipling people (December 2011)
Most Read Old Posts in 2011
These are the Top 10 posts written by me, but first published before 2011:
- Theological Sources: Scripture, Tradition, Reason, Experience, And? (February 2010 “replay” of 2010 posts, but only counting hits on the 2010 “replay”)
- Those Old People (October 2010)
- Was Timothy the Bishop of Ephesus? (December 2008)
- How Does God Communicate? (March 2007)
- Why I’m Not A House Church Proponent (December 2010)
- Ephesians 4:11 and the Five-Fold Ministry… (April 2007)
- Disciple making 3: Paul and his disciples… (February 2007)
- Guest Blogger: Why I Said Church Hurts (July 2007) – an older “guest blogger” post
- Why should we study the first century synagogue? (March 2010)
- Summary – Should elders/pastors be paid a salary? (October 2007)
Do you have a favorite, either from among this list or even from among the posts that were not among the most read?
Ask… Seek… Find… on Google?
I couldn’t decide what to name this post. I decided to go with the cross between Scripture and Google.
So, what is this post about? Well, about 1/3 of the people who read my blog this year (2011) came here through various search engines: Google primarily, but also bing, yahoo, ask (another Scripture reference?), etc.
Most of the search terms that result in hits on this blog are related to my name or the name of the blog: “Alan Knox” or “The Assembling of the Church” or some combination of the two.
Occasionally, people will reach this blog by searching for other people, like “Dave Black” or “Art Mealer” (that’s right, Art, you’re famous!).
Also, I get several search hits on various passages of Scripture. Some of these are probably expected, like Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Corinthians 14:26, and various parts of Ephesians 4. However, I’ve also gotten several hits on Philippians 2 (“the Christ hymn”) and the passages of the Gospels where Jesus teaches his followers about leading and serving.
But, I’m glad that more and more search terms are related to the topics that I cover on the blog. Hopefully, the people who search for these terms find something interesting, encouraging, or challenging. I think people often do not find exactly what they were looking for, such as the many people who search for “Sermon Central” and reach my blog.
Here are some of the most popular search strings that reach this blog: “definition of church,” “participatory church gatherings,” “how does God communicate with us” (always a top search because of a post I wrote with that same name), “kuriakon,” “is leadership biblical,” “kingdom mindset,” and “early church meetings.”
I think my favorite search string in the list was “Peter and John went to pray.” Yes, there is a popular children’s song of that title. But, if you search for it, my blog posts about the activities of the early church in the Jerusalem temple pops up as well.
Have fun searching!
I love your accent! Where are you from?
Actually, I do love accents, and I often ask people where they’re from because of their accent. I’ve found that most people are excited to talk about their home, whether it is another state or another country. I can’t remember anyone being upset when I’ve asked them where they are from.
But, this post is not about that.
Instead, this post is about the people who have visited my blog during this past year (2011). As you would probably guess, most of the readers of this blog are from the United States of America. However, I’m always excited to see people from other countries read the blog as well.
After the USA, the most readers hail from the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. This is probably to be expected, especially since Aussie John is such as avid reader and commenter. (Still praying for you, John!) But, seriously, I write in English – in case you haven’t noticed – and these countries are the largest English speaking nations. So, it makes sense that most of my readers come from these countries.
But, my blog is also read by people from many other countries. In fact, people from 188 different countries read my blog last year. Which ones were represented the most? Well, after the USA, the UK, Canada, and Australia, the following countries were the most represented among my readers: the Philippines, South Africa, India, Aruba, Spain, Romania, Ecuador, New Zealand, Nigeria, Japan, Singapore, and Brazil. Each of these countries averaged over one reader per day.
Many other countries fell just under the level mentioned above. And, just to repeat something I’ve said recently, I appreciate all of my readers! Thank you especially to those readers whose primary language is not English! (I can’t imagine how my sarcasm and humor translates into different languages…)
So, thank you!
And… I love your accent! What do you think about my southern US English accent?
Some interesting trends in 2011
There were several interesting (to me) trends among readers on my blog in 2011.
First, I had almost twice as many pageviews in 2011 as in the previous years. In 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, the number of pageviews on my blog was fairly steady. But, for some reason, the number of pageviews is up about 80% in 2011. While some of this may be due to linking to posts on Twitter, the trend actually began before I started using Twitter.
Second, and more interesting to me, the hourly trends in readership remained fairly steady, even though the number of pageviews increased dramatically. When I combined all the stats for 2007 through 2010, this graph represents the relative number of readers per hour: (Click the graph for a larger view.)
If you look at the same graph for 2011 (i.e., relative number of readers per hour), you will see a very similar graph: (Click the graph for a larger view.)
As you can see, the shape of the graphs are very similar.
In both graphs, the low point in readers to my blog is sometime around 4:00 a.m. (Why is no one reading my blog at 4:00 in the morning?) The high point is sometime around noon.
What you can’t tell from the graphs is the difference between the low point and the high point (because there are no numbers on the graphs). In the 2007-2010 graph, the high point is about 5 times the low point. In the 2011 graph, the high point is about 4.75 times the low point. That’s not much difference. But, it does show that in 2011 readers were a little more even around the clock that in previous years. (This is even more apparent when you realize that the noon high point in the 2011 graph is quite a bit higher than the points around it.)
This is surprising to me because of one big reason. Back in the Spring of 2011, I was trying to decide how to plan Twitter and Facebook links for old posts on this blog. When I looked at the graph for readers by the hour in 2007-2010, I noticed that most people read my blog between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. So, that’s when I decided to post those links (on the hour and at 12:30 p.m.).
Since I posted links on Facebook and Twitter between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., I expected a huge jump in readers for those times. But, nope. That didn’t happen. Instead, the number of readers increased around the clock.
So, I’m surprised. I’m not disappointed, but I am surprised. I began linking to posts on Facebook and Twitter hourly to increase discussion on older posts. And, that definitely happened! So, I’m very excited about the way things are going here.
Since you’re here and read this far (for some reason), I have a special message for you: Thank you very much for reading my blog! You have no idea how much I appreciate it, and how surprised I am constantly that anyone would be interested in reading what I write.
You link me! You really link me!
As 2011 draws to a close, I want to say, “Thank you,” to everyone who reads and comments on my blog. I always want to thank other bloggers who have linked to my site and/or my posts during 2011.
On the average, just over 1/3 of my readers reach this blog by using a search engine. However, the majority of people end up on my blog by clicking a link somewhere. Where do they find those links?
Well, in 2010, I started putting links to my blog posts on Facebook. And, when I did that, Facebook quickly because the number one referrer to my blog. Facebook was my number one referrer in 2011 also. Plus, in 2011, I added links on Twitter, StumbleUpon, and Google+, and they are near the top of my referrer list as well.
However, there are also several sites/blogs which regularly send readers my way. These are the top 10 blogs/sites which referred readers to my blog (not counting Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Google+, and search engines):
- Eric Carpenter at “A Pilgrim’s Progress“
- Dave Black and his un-blog
- Arthur Sido at “The Voice of One Crying Out in Suburbia“
- Jeremy Myers at “Till He Comes“
- Brant Hansen now at “Brant’s Blog“
- Peter Kirt at “Gentle Wisdom“
- Steve Scott at “From the Pew“
- Bobby Auner at “Deconstructing Neverland“
- Dan Allen at “The Ekklesia in Southern Maine“
- Chad Estes at “Captain’s Blog“
Thank you all for the “link love” during the last year. And, if your blog was not in the top 10 list of referrers, I still appreciate it when you link to my blog.
I hope that in 2012 you will find even more posts to link to here at this blog!
My 2011 Christmas Wish for You (and for myself)
May all of the “gifts” that we give to one another (both today and throughout the coming year), originate only from God (James 1:17), honor him (1 Corinthians 10:31), and help others grow in maturity in Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
Merry Christmas!
Replay: Christmas 1993 and Eternity
The first Christmas after I started this blog (Christmas 2006), I wrote a post called “Christmas ’93 and Eternity.” I re-posted it in 2007 and 2009, every 2 years. Since I’m not one to break with tradition (ahem), I thought I would post it again today.
But, there’s another reason to “replay” this post today. The post is about the birth of my son, Jeremy, in 1993. And, today, he turns 18. So, when you read the post below, remember these 2 things: 1) I wrote this post when Jeremy had just turned 13. And 2) we plan to celebrate by going to Red Robin so that Jeremy can order a Royal Red Robin hamburger. (Point #2 is not important in reading the post; but it is important if you know Jeremy.)
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A few days ago, we celebrated my son’s 13th birthday by taking him to see the movie Eragon. He and his friends enjoyed it, though the story was a bit predictable for me.
Anyway, celebrating his birthday and preparing for Christmas reminded me of the Christmas of 1993. Our son was born on the 22nd of December that year. We brought him home on Christmas eve, stuffed in a red stocking. The next morning, we gave him his first Christmas gifts: clothes, a stuffed animal, and a full-size football (autographed by Bo Jackson, which is only important to half the population of the state of Alabama).
My wife was surprised that I would get my newborn son a football. But, he quickly outgrew both the clothes and the stuffed animal, but he can still play with the football! So, the football turned out to be a better gift than she thought at first. True, a three day old baby can do nothing with a football but drool on it. But, eventually, he grew to love football.
As I was thinking about his first Christmas and his first Christmas gifts, I wondered how often I focus on things that will truly last. I don’t even mean things that will last a few years or even a lifetime. But, how often do I focus on things that will last eternally? As I understand it, the only things on earth that are eternal are people. Do I give gifts that will make an eternal difference? Do I give things that will eventually fade? Or, do I give of myself to people who will last for eternity?
One day, I will join with multitudes around the throne of God. I hope that even this year I am giving eternal gifts.
p.s. Last year, we give our (then) 12 year old son a special gift. We asked several men who had impacted his life to write him a letter. We asked them to tell him something that they wished someone had told them when they turned 12. We then took all of the letters and bound them in an album. It turned out to be a very special gift!
The Video Edition of The Assembling of the Church?
I published my first blog post at “The Assembling of the Church” in March 2006. I published the first audio file here a couple of years later in April 2008. That audio file was from a lecture that I presented in a New Testament class, and it is now on my “Resources” page along with a few other audio files, pdf files, and PowerPoint presentations.
Last year, I published my first video. In fact, around this time last year I published three video interviews with my friend Jason who was getting ready to move to South Africa. Those three video file are now on my “Videos” page (as well as on my Vimeo channel).
I love using video. In fact, recently I’ve made two videos while running. I’ve included those videos on my running blog as well as on the Vimeo channel. I would love to use video here. But, I don’t want to use video just for the sake of using video. And, so far, I haven’t found a good way – that is, a way that I like – to use video on this blog.
I could video myself giving lectures or talking about some of the content that I write about here on this blog. But, to be honest, that seems boring even to me. (I rarely read my own posts; why would I watch a video of me?)
I could do more interviews like I did with Jason last year. I like that idea much better than the idea of videoing only myself talking. But, still, when we were making those videos last year, they seemed somewhat forced.
I think I would prefer to just video a conversation, but that’s a little harder to do. I mean, the way I usually talk with people, you’re likely to get 30 minutes of us talking about our favorite Star Wars character in the middle of a discussion about the church. (Of course, I would find that very interesting, but other people might not.)
I suppose that I could edit those “irrelevant” parts out of the video, but wouldn’t it end up being forced again? And, there would always be references back to the “irrelevant” parts that wouldn’t make sense. (But, then, maybe everyone could recognize the reference to the discipleship implications of Obi Wan Kenobi…)
The way I see it, I can not use any videos… ever. I can use videos only at special times, like if I give a lecture or something like that. Or, I can figure out a way to incorporate video more regularly into my blog.
So… what do I do? As always, I’ve talked with a few friends. But, I still haven’t come up with a good solution.
I thought that I would turn to you. My readers are almost always more wise than I am when it comes to things like this. So, what do you think about adding video features to this blog? Good idea? Annoying? Could care less?
Then, if I do video, what kind of videos should I do? Obviously, the possibilities are endless… well, maybe not endless. But, my creative juices are dry at the moment. Do you have any flashes of inspiration or brilliance that you’d like to share?
(By the way, if you know someone who is using video well, please share a link with that site as well.)
Spiritual Lessons from Trail Running
(Note: You may not care anything about exercising, or running, or trail running. But, please read through this post and series. I’ve learned some lessons while trail running that I think are very pertinent to our lives as followers of Jesus Christ and to our lives together as his church.)
For the past two Saturdays – December 3, 2011 and December 10, 2011 – I’ve gone trail running with some friends. A few months ago, when I first start running with the local running club, I heard about trail running. I’ve always enjoyed the woods and trails and hiking, so I thought I would probably enjoy trail running as well.
A group from the local running club goes trail running almost every week. I’ve tried to join them before, but there was always a conflict. Finally, a couple of Saturdays ago (December 3), I was able to join nine other runners for a seven mile trail run near Falls Lake in Raleigh, NC.
Last Saturday, I joined a different group, including my son, to run 3 miles on a different part of the same trail near Falls Lake. (As a side note, this trail is part of the 1000 mile long Mountains-to-Sea trail that runs from through the state of NC from the Great Smokey Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. My daughter, Miranda, recently entered a photo contest sponsored by the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea trail, and last week they notified her that she had won first place in the Youth Division!)
When I ran the first few steps on the trail and throughout that day of running, then again throughout the day of trail running the next week, I learned that trail running is quite different from road running. I thought about some of these differences while I was running, and I realized that there are spiritual lessons to be learned from trail running. (Obviously, some of these spiritual lessons can be learned in other ways as well. For example, a few years ago I joined some friends on a 3 day hike through part of the Appalachian trail, and I learned some very similar lessons.)
Some of the lessons were obvious, and you may can even guess now about some of the topics that I’m going to write about. But, some of these lessons are not obvious at all. In fact, looking back, some of these lessons are the opposite of what you might expect.
Over the next few days, I’m going to share some of these lessons in a blog series. While you may not care anything about running or trail running, I hope you will find these lessons challenging and helpful, especially to those of us who are following Jesus Christ.
(One final note: I made a video report before, during, and after my first experience of trail running on Saturday, December 3, 2011.)
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Spiritual Lessons from Trail Running
- Introduction: Spiritual Lessons from Trail Running
- Rocks and Roots and Leaves
- Leading from the front; leading from behind
- It’s a long, hard road, but we’re running it together
- Meeting other people on the journey
- The Destination, the Journey, and Everything In Between
- Look at your feet; look at the path; look further ahead