Life Here and There

If you’re not familiar with the technical side of blogging, some of this may not make much sense, but I’ve just finished rolling out the newest re-design of this blog’s theme. If you’ve been here before, you’ll notice some differences. Most of the changes took place on the backend. This blog runs as a self-hosted Wordpress-powered blog and I host it myself on a server I lease from Hostgator (aff link).

I recently had the privilege of being a beta tester for the new Standard Wordpress Theme (aff link) and decided to use it as the code base for Life Here and There. I’ve used plenty of other premium Wordpress themes before, I’ve released some of my own free themes, and most of the websites I design for others are built on Wordpress… so it’s an interest. I know a thing or two.

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Today was pretty awesome in a variety of ways. I woke up in southern California, had some quiet time and then hopped on a van with Andy Stanley and Jeff Henderson and headed over to Saddleback. Once there I heard three tremendous messages by Rick Warren, Andy, and Perry Noble. Here are some of the notes I wrote…

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Just a quick note of thanks to OnlineChristianColleges.net for mentioning my blog in their post on the top 55 Pastor bloggers. I have a few other friends on the list and they’ve collected some great blogs together. Definitely worth checking out!

Top 55 Pastor Bloggers

Recommended Books:

The following are affiliate links to books I recommend:

• Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World’s Top Bloggers
  by Michael A. Banks

I have recently joined the ranks of the Fuel Network, which is somewhat of a collection of awesome online magazines about a variety of creative subjects. I’m the Editor of Fuel Your Blogging, a magazine about… blogging, of course.

All of the editors worked simultaneously on “best of 2009″ posts and they all launched together. So if you’re into photography, blogging, coding, design, etc. this is an awesome resource. So, go check out the Best of 2009 at Fuel.

Blogging, for some, is a hobby. For others, it’s a career. For me, it’s perhaps a tiny bit of each (more the latter), but it’s mostly a way to get an extremely important message out – how you can know you have eternal life. In addition to blogging here at Life Here and There, I also blog here, here, and over here. Plus, I really like Twitter, Facebook, and a few other sites. So I’m beginning to understand what it’s like to expand an online influence, and though it’s certainly not the greatest priority of my life by far, I do see an eternal and purposeful impact.

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If you’re into Facebook, I’d love to connect with you personally, but I’d also love it if you’d become a fan of this blog’s Facebook page, and if you like this blog, perhaps you’d consider spreading the word. It’s one more way to share the love and keep some great conversations going.

I just did a guest post over at the blog of Jeff Flowers, a church planter in Cincinnati. I have an affinity for church planters and Jeff is doing a great work there. He asked me to post about creativity and ministry, so I did. You can even comment, but please don’t tell Jeff I’m not really that cool…

See the guest post here at CincyMissionary.org

Thanks again for the honor, Jeff!

You can also catch Jeff on Twitter at @CincyMissionary.

Ever have one of those killer ideas that turned into a great blog post, which led to a surge in traffic, which boosted your authority, which led to increased readership? Then, a week later, your great article has faded into the abyss of seldom-accessed archives? The internet is heavy-laden with countless millions of really great, but never to be read again articles such as your favorite one. Here’s a thought that’s good for the online environment – recycle!

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Life Here and There has been on the air, so to speak, since the summer of 2005 and as of today, has just over 1,500 subscribers (via rss feed or email). It’s a really good number for a personal/pastoral blog. This is nice! Thanks to all of you!!

If you ever wanted to help me out, here are three little ways…

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My life tends to be divided up in half-day or day-at-a-time segments. Tuesday mornings are our food pantry giveaway at church, Wednesday afternoons are always a study hall, and Mondays are for writing. Let me share more about why and how…

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