Yeah, for Merchant Circle

A couple of weeks ago, I asked about Blog Readers in light of the fact that Ask.com announced that it was discontinuing the Bloglines service that I have used for the last few years.

I have looked at a couple of the suggestions and was kind of resigned to using Google Reader, even though I still do not know mark and keep the articles that I wish to keep on Google Reader without keeping all the stuff I do not want to keep.

Anyway, I was pleased to read a few days ago that Bloglines is going to be kept alive after all, thanks to Merchant Circle who is going to take over this service from Ask.com.

Yeah :)

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Any Suggestions regarding Blog Readers

For the last couple of years I have been very happily using Bloglines to keep up with a number of RSS feeds from a number of my favorite blogs. It has been a great help to me, as I catch things sometimes through this that I would never see if I needed to check the blogs myself. (For instance, I got a free Kindle download tonight that I found out about via my blogline feed from Theosource).

I have always liked the simplicity of bloglines, but since they will no longer be an option as of October 1, I was wondering what other feed readers my readers (hopefully someone still reads this - I would not blame you if you don't - and I would guess if you do read it, you read it through a feed reader).

Anyway, I would love to hear your suggestions - and why.

Just looking for your thoughts,

Frank

May is over

In May, I gave challenged myself to "30 days of blogging" in which my goal was to write a blog post every day.

I did not quite accomplish my goal of blogging every day (at least if you count only A Thinking Man's Thoughts - I think I may have posted every day on one of my side blogs - Daily Quotes and Illustrations,but it is much easier to maintain and a weak attempt to make some aspect of computers pay for itself) but this will be my 27th post since I started what I hoped to be "30 days of blogging" - so 90% is not too bad.

I learned a few things during the process that I hope will help me in the future (and had some things reinforced.)

1. I do still enjoy blogging, so I probably will keep doing it. (Besides, as my recent post indicated, Blogging is good for you.)

2. I am probably not an "every day" blogger. There are too many things in real life that necessitate attention to commit to posting every single day. (And, besides that, see number 6 below.)

3. I am long-winded (although I do not know if that is the right terminology when used in connection with writing instead of talking). I admire the skill of guys like Chris Anderson to get their point across succinctly. This will have to be one of the things that I seek to develop.

4. Blogging is much more fun when it is interactive - which is probably why a forum like SI tills appeals to me (even if it can be frustrating at times). Posts that receive comments and feedback seem to be more enjoyable, even if they are posts that are not as "deep" or involved - or even if they do not get as many hits as other posts.

5. People who come here looking for specific information from a search engine tend to only look at that information and move on (for instance, I still get a lot of hits of people looking for information on Pastor Jim Schettler - but most of the people who come to the site looking for him don't hang around and look at other pages).

6. Very few people pay attention to blogs (or at least, my blog) during the weekends. (I think the same is true of other, larger blogs - like SI - on the weekend as well.) This tells me that posting a lot on the weekend would be a waste of time.

7. Posting at least somewhat regularly is good for readership.

Just a few thoughts,

Frank

Blogging is good for you!

Blogging is good for you! At least that's the verdict of this article in Scientific American.


* It is a stress-coping method

* It improves memory

* It improves sleep

* It boosts immune cell activity

* It reduces viral load in AIDS patients

* It speeds healing after surgery

The article also comments that: "A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not."

As you will notice, it is not just blogging, but also expressive writing in general that is involved in some of this research. This would indicate that some of these things (perhaps all of them) would also be true of those who write privately, rather than writing on a public forum such as a blog.

I can logically connect some of the benefits without too much thinking, but I am curious to what kind of connection they end up finding about some of the other areas.

For instance, I can understand the benefit of blogging as a "stress-coping method", since the process of thinking things out, talking them out, writing them out, etc. helps us to get our thoughts in order and look at things in a better perspective.

I can understand the benefit of blogging as an aid to memory - since the very aspect of writing something down is usually an aid to memory - so writing a whole post about something should be helpful to your memory.

I would be interested, however, in the more medical connections that they found.

I also wonder which of these would be more true and less true of blogging than other forms of expressive writing. For instance, the community aspect of blogging would seem to be a helpful thing in some areas. While the public nature of blogging may be less stress-relieving than just writing things privately (after all - don't we all tend to be a little self-conscious about what others may think regarding what we have written?)

So, fellow bloggers, what are some benefits that you see from blogging?

Just my thoughts,

Frank



HT: Bet at Dappled Things

A Nice New Feature for Blogger

Some of you may already be aware of this, but I just discovered that Blogger now allows you to prepare posts ahead of time and publish them at a future time.

Blogger has had a "Save as Draft" feature which allowed you to write articles for future publications. The only problem was that you still had to long back on when you wanted to publish the article (and adjust the time options as well).

Now you can write a blog post and set the date and time you want it to be posted and blogger will automatically publish it at that date and time.

While this will not necessarily be that big of a deal with this blog, if I decide to ever get serious about regularly updating one of my side blogs such as - Daily Quotes and Illustrations or What Happened on This Date - this would be very helpful.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

I'm Baaack

I doubt that very many people actually missed me or even noticed that I have not posted in about one month, but I have decided to resume my life as a blogger.

Over the last month, time constraints have been kind of heavy and blogging has dropped even lower in my priorities. I have also looked at my site some and realized that some of the bells and whistles that I thought were set up were not actually working - for instance, many of the labels did not actually return the articles that I thought they should return. I struggled a little bit about fixing the situation or if I should just hang it up and put up a closed sign.

However, as I thought about it longer, I decided not to do that. When I started blogging, I did so, in part, because I had some goals in mind. Some of those goals have morphed over the last year and a half, but I would still like to work on my writing and my thinking, I would still like to have an opportunity of writing about things that interest me (rather than merely responding to what interests others), I would still like to continue the fellowship that I have found online with some whom I may never meet in person, and I would still like to take a stand for Christ and make a difference for Him. So, instead of shutting this thing down, I have decided, instead, to renew my commitment to blogging during this month of May and do a 30 days of blogging challenge with myself. It is my intention (and now I am stating it publicly) to try to post something every day during the rest of the month of May, 2008.

I am also working on/hoping to complete the following adjustments.

* Re-labeling my older posts so that they can be found easier.

* Adding an items of interest sidebar

* Adding a blogroll (finally - and with disclaimers, of course)

* Establish a regular schedule of posting (e.g. certain things on certain days)

* Adding some specific Gospel messages or links

Anyway, this is my new commitment. We have a busy month ahead of us as a church, but I have discovered that there always seems to be a busy time ahead, so there is no time like the present.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Some Blogging Quick Hits

Today I think I am ready to start back into blogging. This last month has been kind of awkward for me. Things have been pretty busy around here and blogging has had to take a significant back seat. In the middle of that, I had some computer issues and was not able to be online for an extended period of time. After fixing that problem, I have only stepped back in to the online world for occassional comments in a few places.

I have still read some blogs (mostly via Bloglines) and have even commented on a couple of posts in other locations, but I have been looking at the questions from Don and thinking that I should wait until I have sat down to answer them all before I start blogging again and, since I have not been able to sit down and think through them as much as I would like, I have not posted anything.

I have decided, however, that I am going to go ahead and post some things anyway and get to Don's questions as I have time and inclination, rather than holding up all posting until I am prepared to answer them all. (BTW, the wife of a former voice teacher of mine who has left Fundamentalism took a shot at the questions the other day and attempted to answer them regarding Fundamentalism and her answers reveal her own lack of understanding of Fundamentalim in the first place - a fact that may have contributed to their leaving Fundamentalism.)

Anyway, a couple of quick hits will have to suffice for Today's Post.

1. Dr. Kevin Bauder has recently begun a series of articles on Fundamentalism and scholarship in Central Baptist Theological Seminary's little newsletter, In the Nick of Time. SI has also posted these articles. I will probably wait until the series is complete before commenting much, but since we had a pretty good discussion regarding Fundamentalism and Scholarship here at A Thinking Man's Thoughts not too long ago, I thought I would mention it. I will say that I most likely will disagree with Dr. Bauder on this topic - since I significantly disagree with his definition of "scholar".

2. Yesterday (January 22) marked the 35th anniversary of a travesty in American jurisprudence - the infamous Roe v. Wade decision from the ????-led U.S. Supreme Court. Approximately 50 million dead babies later and America still allows this murderous blight of abortion to be practiced and championed. May God have mercy on our nation! (I have previously posted on this topic - here.)

3. The political scene is getting interesting. If Guiliani can win Florida (with 57 delegates in a winner-take-all format), his strategy may prove to be viewed as brilliant, since California (173 delegates) and New York (110 winner-take-all delegates) will likely go his way if he shows he can win in Florida (I know that polls show McCain currently in the lead in California, but I predict a Guiliani win in Florida would also result in a California win for Guiliani). I am not looking forward to this as the outcome, but it could be interesting to watch. Thompson's hit upon Mike Huckabee in the SC debate may have been a fatal blow. It likely cost Huckabee a SC win (and Huckabee was within three points of McCain), which would have been huge for Huckabee as it would have shown that he could continue to compete and he would have likely drawn more of the social conservatives over to his side (including a number of social conservative who have been left without a candidate now that Thompson is withrawing). Instead, Thomspson's slam on Huckabee will almost guarantee that very few of his former supporters go Huckabee's direction and his second place finish in SC (instead of a win) will likely keep a number of the "I like Mike, but don't think he can win" voters from voting for him - and thus, turn them into self-fulfilling prophets.

Just my quick thoughts,

Frank

I'm Back - and some questions for Fundamentalists

I know things have been a little quiet here. I am looking forward to the new year.

I had a great Christmas with my in-laws in Ohio, but I found their internet service to be somewhere between unreliable and nonexistant.

We did get a good chance to visit with some relatives and it was nice to see Mom Mom, Grandpa, and Great-Grandma, as well as Missy's Aunt Bev and Uncle Bob and Aunt Rosella and to see Mark and Keith and their families.

Josiah and I took advantage of the trip to Ohio to take a day and visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. It was a good trip and some good father-son time as we drove the 2 1/2 hours from the in-laws and visited the Hall of Fame. I had visited it once before, but my previous visit was with a non-football fan, so it was nice to be able to visit with my son. I will probably post a little more about that visit a little bit later.

I discovered that Fundamentalist uber-blogger Don Johnson has moved migrated over to his own domain (his new blog is called, An Oxgoad, eh? and has made an interesting post in which he asks some questions of Fundamentalists (based on some questions asked of some leaders in Evangelicalism by Touchstone magazine).

I will probably not have time to answer the questions until after the New Year, but I wanted to put these out here for others to think on as well - as Pastor Johnson has done.

How do you define “Fundamentalist” in a way that distinguishes Fundamentalists from other believing Christians? And has this definition changed over the last several years?
Has Fundamentalism matured since the 1950s, and if so in what ways?
Has Fundamentalism lost anything in the process of maturing (if it did)?
Are there any fundamental differences within the Fundamentalist movement today, and do you think they will deepen into permanent divisions, or even have already? How might they be healed?
What does your movement, speaking generally, fail to see that it ought to see?
What would you say to a Fundamentalist tempted to become Catholic or Orthodox?
What has Fundamentalist to offer the wider world that it will find nowhere else?
What else would you like to say?

Take some time and think about how you might answer these questions and then post about it (if you have a blog) and let me know about your post.

Don has already made a post in which he answers the questions - On the State of Fundamentalism .

Super Deacon and occassional blogger Andy Efting over at Unsearchable Riches has also posted his response, entitled, A Fundamentalist Answer the Touchstone Questions

Blogging Comments

Within the last couple of weeks, I read on someone else's blog regarding an adjustment on their policy regarding comments. (I am sorry I don't remember whose blog at this moment.)

I though the comments that were made made some sense, but I did not adjust my policy at that time for a couple of reasons - 1. I realized I no longer had a policy posted (I am pretty sure I had made a policy and posted it on an earlier template, but apparently I never transferred that policy over onto this template) and 2. I have not really had much reason to be that concerned with comments on the blog. I think I have deleted less than five comments in the entire time I have had this blog (thankfully Blogger does a pretty good job of catching most "spam" comments).

However, some recent comments on this blog and some comments on another blog that I administer have led me to re-think some things regarding comments, although this will not be a problem for most comments and commenters.

In the past, I have kind of viewed this space as an open forum and generally let anything stand unless it was extreme. The blogger I mentioned earlier who got me thinking about this, made an analogy that I kind of think fits. Rather than the blog and comments being an "open forum", it is more like this is my house - or at least a gathering that I am hosting.

As such, a couple of clarifications are made:

I have no problem with disagreement with me or others, as long as it is handled in a civil manner. I appreciate the interraction with those who disagree with my positions on things and believe this can be profitable.

I do have a problem with unacceptable speech - vulgarity, slander, crude, etc.

I do have a problem with running down those I love and refering to them with derisive names - and that includes my God.

I do have a problem with those whose agenda seems to be only to argue without a willingness to listen and interract with those who differ.

I am sure there are more things that will come up, but I recenly had the first three things violated both here and at another blog and thought I would think through this and post it.

Also, please do not assume that any comment that is left to stand has automatically passed through these qualifications. It may be that I have missed it (which is entirely likely - especially when it is comment added after a post has died down) or may be that for some other reason I have let it stand (perhaps as a testimony of its own stupidity in some cases).

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Article about Blogging and some Blogging questions

Tim Challies has listed some good suggestions about blogging over at challies.com in an article entitled, "Feedback Files: All About Blogging"

Since Tim is one of the heavy hitters in the world of Christian blogging - I think he is billed as something to the effect of "The World's Foremost Christian Blogger", I thought some of my blogging friends may be interested in his insights - and while I am at it, I thought I would ask a couple of questions about some blogging related issues about which I have been wondering.

1. I have noticed that I often tend to get a little lengthy on my posts (sorry). Unlike Wordpress, Blogger does not have a built in "read more" feature that truncates longer posts. In searching for a way to remedy the problem, I noticed that some people really don't like the "read more" type of things on blogs (although it has never bothered me when I read other people's blogs). Do you have any opinions about this? Does a "read more" link usually result in you not bothering to "read more"?

(Part of the reason I would like to add this feature is so that when someone follows a tag - such as books - they can get a quicker overview of what is there without needing to scroll down through each long book review.)

Anyone care to comment on this feature? (Also, if you know a good and effective way to do this in blogger, I would not mind a link for that, as well.)

2. One of Tim's comments about blogging was regarding consistency? I asked him a version of this question, but I thought I would ask my actual reader(s) as well. If a particular time yielded extra posts, would it be better to post them at that time realizing that the pace is not going to last or would it be better to hold extra posts in que until things are busy and put them out during the weeks when I end up having little to no time to blog (so I don't have one week with 5 posts and then the next week with 1 post)?

3. I have been toying with a few ideas over the last year of trying to figure out a way for the computer to pay for itself. While I am not planning on advertising on A Thinking Man's Thoughts, I have worked on a few ideas of some type of blogs or information sites that I could try to direct some traffic towards and see if I could get any advertising revenue going on those sites. Is there anyone out there who reads my blog who has experience with Google adsense (or similar program) that has any comments about whether it is actually feasible to make this profitable? Not looking to get rich, but if I could write some things in an area that interested me and pay for my internet connection or something, it would be awesome. (One of the sites that I have been toying with would be a history blog with a daily Christian history feature that I am calling What Happened On This Date? - I did a couple of practice posts in May and they can be found at http://whathappenedonthisdate.blogspot.com. )

Anyway, I am just kind of winding down and thought I would throw these things out there.

Just my thoughts - asking for your thoughts,

Frank

My Book Review of When You Pray has been published at SI

I mentioned awhile ago that I was in the process of writing a book review of Philip Graham Ryken's book, When You Pray: Making the Lord's Prayer Your Own.

I just wanted to alert my readers to the fact that it has now been posted at SharperIron - article is here. Since SI provides the book for the purpose of review, it is released there first. I will post it here at A Thinking Man's Thoughts and at The FFBC Blog shortly. I know some of my readers do not post on SI, so if you want to make a comment, feel free to do so in the comments of this post - or wait about a week and the whole review will be posted here.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Recommended Blogs for Pastors

In some previous posts, I mentioned that I was in the process of compiling a list of recommended blogs for Pastors for use at the Fellowship of Fundamental Bible Churches Annual Conference next week in Montague, New Jersey.

This project got expanded on me a little bit to include Internet Resources for Pastors as well as Recommended Blogs for Pastors. This will be a one page (front and back) handout. I have split them into two posts, but I thought some of you might be interested in the final product and other readers might find the information helpful. I already realize that I left off some things I wanted to include (such as Sermon Audio).

Anyway, here is the Recommended Blog portion.


Religious and Pastoral Blogs

A blog is short for “weblog” and is a sort of online newsletter that allows for user interaction and comment. It is this interaction feature that makes blogs a unique and popular feature on the internet. Blogs are easy to start, but to post on them regularly often requires either a serious commitment to writing or a group effort. Many of the most successful blogs are “group blogs” which feature a group of writers who work together to post regularly. Blogs are often viewed as successful based on either a large readership or strong “linkage” - however, both of these can be manipulated and the relative value of any blog cannot be measured by these factors alone. Due to the relative ease of setting up a blog, almost anyone can have a blog and as Solomon might write today, “Of the making of blogs there is no end.” This continual growth of the number of blogs makes reading and evaluating them a hard task and I am sure there are worthy blogs that will be missed due to this fact.

While you can read a blog with pretty much any computer and browser (such as Internet Explorer), the prolific nature of blogs makes the use of a “Blog Reader” a helpful addition. A Blog Reader allows you to check all of the blogs you are interested in reading at one time by highlighting which blogs have new or updated information. Depending on the setting of the blog reader and of blog site itself, you can view the headline of an article, the beginning of the article, or the whole article from within your Blog Reader without needing to go to the individual blogs unless you want to check things in further details. A couple of the most popular Blog Readers are Blog Lines (http://www.bloglines.com) and Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader/). I use Blog Lines and have found it easy to use and helpful.

* Current Christian ((http://www.currentchristian.com)

Current Christian is the blog of Pastor Greg Linscott. Greg does a great job of highlighting articles and news items from around the web that are particularly relevant to Pastors.

* Sharper Iron (http://www.sharperiron.org)

Sharper Iron is the biggest of the “Young Fundamentalists” blogs and forums. The blog itself is pretty good and conservative, while the forums tend to be a mix bag that leans (strongly at times) to the left of conservative Fundamentalism. The blog itself often features helpful articles by leaders such as Kevin Bauder, John Whitcomb, Sam Horn, and Mark Farnham, as well as interviews of leaders (both Fundamentalist and Evangelical) and a number of helpful and informative book reviews.

*Church Matters (http://blog.9marks.org/) and Albert Mohler (http://www.albertmohler.com)

Church Matters is the blog of Pastor Mark Dever and his organization 9 Marks (Pastor Dever wrote the book “Nine Marks of a Healthy Church.”) Dr. Mohler is the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Both of these men are leaders in the conservative and Calvinist side of the Southern Baptist Convention and their writings reflect this. They also frequently address issues of the church (Dever) and social issues of the day (Mohler).

* Christianity Today News Feed (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct) and Live Blog (http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/)
* World Mag Blog (http://www.worldmagblog.com/blog/)
* Baptist Press (www.bpnews.net)

Each of these blogs tend to focus on news items and commentary from a New Evangelical perspective.

For the sake of space, the following are presented without comment. Disclaimers still apply.

* Expository Thoughts (http://expositorythoughts.wordpress.com)
* Tim Challies (http://www.challies.com/)
* Pyromaniacs (http://teampyro.blogspot.com/)
* The Shepherd’s Scrapbook (http://spurgeon.wordpress.com)
* Theosource (http://www.theosource.com)
* Pulpit Magazine Blog (http://sfpulpit.com/)
* Biblical Preaching (http://www.biblicalpreaching.wordpress.com)
* Between Two Worlds (http://theologica.blogspot.com/)
* Pure Church (http://purechurch.blogspot.com/)
* Unashamed Workman (http://unashamedworkman.wordpress.com/)

Blog Readers - Bloglines vs. Google Reader vs. NewGator vs Whatever else

Okay. Like I mentioned on my last post, I wanted to ask this question, but I wanted the discussion for this question to be separate from the discussion from the question about what type of list of recommended blogs for Pastors.

So, here it is:

I am intending on putting some type of comment on the list regarding subscribing to RSS feeds of blogs.

Which reader do you recommend and why?

Also, if you were recommending a RSS Reader (is that the right term?) to people who are most likely relatively inexperienced at this whole blog thing, would that a make a difference in which reader you recommended and why? (For instance, I am assuming that most who use the list are going to be using IE and will not be that interested in switching to Firefox, etc.)

Thanks again for your input.

Looking for your thoughts,

Frank

Recommended Blogs for Pastors - Part 2

In an earlier post, I asked about recommended blogs for Pastors and I got a couple of responses (feel free to add more at the end of this post or at that post).

However, this question is slightly different.

My question in this regard is in the nature of the list that I should compile (I have another question regarding this same list that I am going to ask in another post in just a minute related to "Readers" such as Bloglines, NewsGator, and Google Reader.)

I currently use Bloglines and have a number of blogs that I subscribe to regarding Bloglines. In my blogline subscription, I have 59 feeds and find that there are some which I check every time I see that there is a post on that subscription (usually starting with the ones of guys I know - such as Chris, Don, Greg, Andy, etc.), but there are others that I do not check as soon as I see they have something, but I do check them if I happen to have been blessed with a little extra time when I am online.

So, my question is:
If you were to be given a list at a conference of some blogs to check out and to be aware of, would you rather that list be pretty large or pretty selective?

I can see arguments for both sides of this, so I was wanting some additional input. If you could tell me what you prefer, that would be good. If you could tell me why, that would be even better.

Also, how would the fact that a majority of the Pastors to whom this list would be going are probably not regular readers of hardly anything in the blogosphere affect which things you would recommend?

I would appreciate some feedback from the readers on this if you have a minute.

Looking for your thoughts,

Frank

Recommended Blogs for Pastors

In a few weeks, the Fellowship of Fundamental Bible Churches will be holding its Annual Conference at Tri-State Bible Camp and Conference Center in Montague, New Jersey.

As part of the packet of information that is being put together, I have been asked to contribute a list of recommended blogs for Pastors.

I have a number of ideas on my own, but one of the great things about the blogosphere is that it is easier to borrow brains from others.

I realize that a lot of you have probably given up on reading A Thinking Man's Thoughts since I have been so rare in my posting lately, but I am hoping that some of you are still around.

So, I am asking all of you who happen to still come by and read here at A Thinking Man's Thoughts if you would be willing to give me a list of recommended commentaries for pastors. If you want to give your comments on why a particular blog should be included, please feel free to do so.

Thank you for your help.

The blogs on the list do not necesessarily need to be from a Fundamental perspective, but we are looking for blogs that would be helpful for Pastors in particular.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Yes, I am still alive

I know that you have not heard from me lately. I imagine that not many of you care, but some of you are still coming by and checking things out occassionally, so I will at least put something up today, especially in light of the fact that Pastor Don Johnson has practically called me (and others) out about our lack of writing in this post and Pastor Chris Anderson has "tagged me" in this post.

I will wait until Chris is back from vacation to respond to his tag - I'm sure that will disappoint everyone.

I have just about completed my reading and review of "When You Pray" by Philip Ryken. I hope to submit it to Jason Button of the SI staff by the end of this week. (I was actually hoping to submit it today, but we'll see.)

This coming weekend is our second annual "Father-Son Camp-Out" for Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury. Last year we had a great time as we camped out by the Nanticoke River at the Insley's. The Nanticoke is a beautiful river and the time of fellowship with the men was great. I am looking forward to this opportunity of fellowship again.

In a couple of weeks we will be having our second Vacation Bible School at Fellowship Baptist Church. We are using the Regular Baptist Press VBS material called "Rescue Zone." We had in the twenties for our first-ever VBS last year. This year, we are hoping to have a few more as we try to reach out to some additional children in the area around the church.

My job at WM is going well, but is very tiring. Having both husband and wife working nights is a tight juggle with kids. Trying to schedule our nights so that one of us is home with the kids every night and still get in the needed hours has been an interesting juggle. When we were first married, we were able to both work full-time nights, but we could both be gone on the same nights because we had no children at home to be watched.

I have been trying to figure out some additional sources of income (like many others, I am sure). I have not had much progress in this area, however. I have been thinking of starting a couple of side blogs that would have as their purpose to provide some useful information and to provide a revenue stream, but I really do not know if these things actually make any normal people money. I have thought about doing a site of links for Christians (in fact, I even started a blog for this site - here - but have not posted anything but my introduction - and have not put up any ads on it, yet.)

I also have toyed with the idea of doing a "This Day in History" type of site and made a couple of test-posts on a blog for this at http://whathappenedonthisdate.blogspot.com/ , but I am not sure about that either.

I was wondering if any of my readers have any experience with Adsense or with affiliate programs and if they would like to share that experience. I cannot imagine that it is really that worth-while, after all, Jason must have felt that the adsense ads were more problem than they were worth at SI, since he dropped them a long time ago and Greg only had them up briefly on www.currentchristian.com.

Anyway, I am rambling. I hope to make a useful post soon.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Hello, again

I know it has been awhile since I last posted, but I plan on doing better.

As most of my regular readers know, I started a new part-time job a few weeks ago. This has made things a little bit busy and it has taken me a little bit of make some adjustments.

With the second job, blogging has been put a little further back on the back burner (okay, it was temporarily taken off the stove). I have actually written some things over the last few weeks, but they are on my notebook and my PDA (I wrote part of what will become a post while on lunch break at WM) and I have not been opening up my notebook where I have internet access as much. I also have generally blogged at night, but since I am at other places at night ... well. You understand.

Anyway, I am planning on adding a couple of posts over the next few days. On one of them, in particular, I would really like to have some input.

I also have finished reading and writing a review of Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger's book entitled Simple Church. This review will be posted on SI soon and then after that I will be posting it here and on The FFBC Blog. I am also in the process of reading and writing two other reviews for SI (This Little Church Stayed Home and When You Pray: Making the Lord's Prayer Your Own) and may be writing a couple of reviews for A Thinking Man's Thoughts on some secular books that I have read lately.

I have also been in the process of researching and trying to develop an additional income stream or two to be able to focus more on the things at the church without working a regular secular job. If anyone actually has some really good ideas, let me know (I hope this is not soliciting a lot of spam :) ).

Anyway, this is just to update things while I had a minute. An actual real post should be coming by Monday night (or maybe Tuesday).

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Goodsearch and Blog comments

As some of you may have noticed, I have updated a few things on my blog over the last week or so.

One of the updates that I made was adjusting the categories so that clicking on the categories no longer takes you to the "fake" blog that I created as a work-around for the fact that blogger did not have that feature previously.

I have went through a number of the older posts and added labels, but I have not made it through all of the old posts to add new labels to them yet. I also decided that while I may have a bunch of labels that I actually use on posts, I don't think I will include all of them as side categories. Of course, you can always click a label at the end of a post to see what else has the same label.

I have also added a link to Goodsearch. Goodsearch is a search engine that is powered by Yahoo! and gives money to the charity of your choice each time you use them to search - supposedly about 1 cent a search. Obviously it will not add up to much unless a whole bunch of people use it, but it could perhaps bring in a little extra cash (for instance 10 people performing 5 searches a day would add up to $182.50). Some of the bigger organizations like Cystic Fibrosis Foundation have earned $3,120 according to the Goodsearch web-site, but we are a small church. Goodsearch also offers a Goodsearch toolbar that can be downloaded and used to search with Goodsearch from whatever web-site you are browsing. You need to indicate which charity you would like to get credit for your searching. If your church is not signed up, our church (Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury) is on the list of approved charities for which you can search. (This Goodsearch link and the one on the side of the blog take you to the Goodsearch sight with Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury prepopulated in the "Who do you Goodsearch for?" section. ) If you use the Goodsearch toolbar, make sure you choose your charity manually (where the toolbar says "My Charity"). I started using this a few weeks ago before putting up the link to make sure that it worked without causing any problems. I use the toolbar primarily. The toolbar also has a popup blocker, which is a nice feature and works pretty well.

Anyway, I am not sure how much blogging I will do in the next week or so. I have done some orientation on Thursday and Friday and I start my first of three night shifts in a row on Tuesday night.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Blog Searching?

One of the interesting things that I like to do in regards to blogging is to see how people find my site. In my case, most people either come here directly, through a service such as bloglines or through a google search for some word, person or expression that I have mentioned in a post. I also get some that come here from a link on someone else’s blog or a link from my signature or a post I have made on SI.

Tom Mount, Jr. of Mounty’s Corner used to do a thing in which he would monthly review and comment on search terms that led people to find his sight, although I have not seen him do a post on this for awhile now.

Sometimes the search terms that lead people to my site are kind of interesting. While I still get a significant number of hits from people who are looking for information regarding Pastor Jim Schettler and Pensecola Christian College (for those of you who stumble upon this post looking for that information - see this post regarding Dr. Schettler’s whereabouts). I imagine that these hits will slow down now that Pastor Schettler’s new church has its own web-site.

I did have some search engine hits recently that I thought were interesting lately (but this could just be me.)

Someone recently found my site by searching for "ugly Joel Tetreau". As far as I can find, I never called Joel ugly, but apparently someone has some different thoughts on the matter.

I also had someone looking for "actor Don Johnson now a Baptist pastor." I hope the person was able to find Baptist Pastor Don Johnson’s site over at http://ebaptist.blogspot.com, but I imagine they may have been disappointed if they were looking for him to be the same guy who starred in Miami Vice back in the 1980s.

Recently, someone found me looking for "Billy Graham’s view on The Lost Tomb of Jesus." I would guess that this is the first time someone considered me a spokesman for Billy Graham. I wonder if I get paid consulting fees?

What has been the strangest search that you have noticed make it to your blog?

Just my curious thoughts,

Frank

2007 National Leadership Conference at Lansdale

Today I leave for the National Leadership Conference at Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. I have had the privilege of attending this conference for the last six or seven years and have found the conference to usually have very good general sessions and some very good workshops, as well.

Dr. Dave Burgraff did an excellent job with this conference over the years, but as he left to go to Clearwater Christian College in Florida, this year the conference (as well as the seminary) is under new leadership - Dr. Sam Harbin.

I am looking forward to the conference and I plan on making a number of posts regarding the conference.

If you can't wait until the reports from this week, you may want to check out some posts I wrote regarding last year's National Leadership Conference.

National Leadership Conference

Some additional comments about the National Leadership Conference

Separation from Professing Brothers (notes from Kevin Bauder's General Session)

Shaping the Future - Pastoral Internships (some comments about two sessions on Pastoral Interships - one by Pastor Mark Franklin of Hardingville Bible Church in New Jersey and one by Pastor Dan Brooks of Heritage Bible Church in South Carolina)

Because of the timing of the closing on our church building and moving into the new building last year, I did not go through and discuss each of the workshops and sessions like I had hoped to do. It is my hope that this year I will be able to give overviews and comments from more sessions.

If you are going to be there, I would love to meet you. If you are going to be there and would like to make some comments about things from the sessions, please feel free to do that, as well.

Just my thoughts,

Frank