Watching web statistics has become an enjoyable pastime of mine. I like seeing what web site are referring people to me and from what countries visitors come.
Aside from my native Kentucky, there there have been guests from many states and countries. Some states with higher numbers of visitors include:
Tennessee
Oklahoma
Texas
Virginia
Georgia
We have had many hits from around the world, in countries that I won't name. (Welcome and hello to each of you!)
Many of the guests came to see the International Mission Board missionary selection policies adopted in November, 2005. On January 12, the IMB posted the new policies in an article on their website.
At one time or another, guests apparently from the offices of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board, International Mission Board, and Lifeway have stopped by. Our missionaries do amazing work and I am happy to be able to support them in their work. I am also thankful for the state-side staff that work to support these missionaries abroad.
Although I love having my friends that read my blog, it's also fun to think about people that I don't even know coming and reading what I post. Please feel free to introduce say hello and introduce yourself as you see fit here or in any other thread.
Update: I forgot to mention -- there is a surprisingly high number of people who come here searching Google or some other engine for Emo Poetry. Somehow they still click through to the blog called "No Emo Poetry Here".
Monday, January 30, 2006
The man behind Abercrombie & Fitch
Check out this article at Salon.com (you can view the article after viewing an ad, without registering). It's about Mike Jeffries, the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch. He talks about a variety of topics, including some of the controversies surrounding the company (like t-shirt slogans). (HT: Ypulse.com)
An excerpt:
For example, when I ask him how important sex and sexual attraction are in what he calls the "emotional experience" he creates for his customers, he says, "It's almost everything. That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that."
As far as Jeffries is concerned, America's unattractive, overweight or otherwise undesirable teens can shop elsewhere. "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he says. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either."
An excerpt:
For example, when I ask him how important sex and sexual attraction are in what he calls the "emotional experience" he creates for his customers, he says, "It's almost everything. That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that."
As far as Jeffries is concerned, America's unattractive, overweight or otherwise undesirable teens can shop elsewhere. "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he says. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either."
Thursday, January 26, 2006
iMonk's Observations on the New IMB Policies
Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk, responds to the missionary selection policies adopted in November 2005 by the IMB Board of Trustees.
These are the policies about which IMB Trustee Wade Burleson has been blogging. The IMB Board of Trustees has noew requested that Burleson be removed from the Board by the vote of the convention in June.
These are the policies about which IMB Trustee Wade Burleson has been blogging. The IMB Board of Trustees has noew requested that Burleson be removed from the Board by the vote of the convention in June.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Western Recorder covers IMB Trustee Removal
The Western Recorder, one Kentucky Baptist's sources of news, has provided an article covering the move to remove IMB trustee Wade Burleson. Also notable is that, for the first time since the policies were adopted two months ago, the Recorder has stated that the baptism policy includes the controversial clause requiring missionary candidates to have been baptized in a church with holds the doctrine of the security of the believer.
Dr. Paul Chitwood, President of the KBC and also an IMB trustee, weighed in again in this Western Recorder article. This was reported in response to Trustee Wade Burleson's account of confronting a group of trustees who were meeting in a hotel lobby, holding a discussion that Burleson claimed was in violation of board policy:
Chitwood, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mount Washington, told the Western Recorder he was in the hotel lobby when Burleson confronted a group of trustees. Chitwood said he did not hear any trustee discussion that violated board policy.
“Having walked through the lobby of the hotel and seeing people who were gathered at all hours of the day and night, I would think the discussions were nothing more than informal conversations that should not raise any concerns,” Chitwood added.
Dr. Paul Chitwood, President of the KBC and also an IMB trustee, weighed in again in this Western Recorder article. This was reported in response to Trustee Wade Burleson's account of confronting a group of trustees who were meeting in a hotel lobby, holding a discussion that Burleson claimed was in violation of board policy:
Chitwood, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mount Washington, told the Western Recorder he was in the hotel lobby when Burleson confronted a group of trustees. Chitwood said he did not hear any trustee discussion that violated board policy.
“Having walked through the lobby of the hotel and seeing people who were gathered at all hours of the day and night, I would think the discussions were nothing more than informal conversations that should not raise any concerns,” Chitwood added.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Reformissionary: An Open Letter to SBC Seminary Students
I encourage all of my fellow seminarians to go check out Steve McCoy'sOpen Letter to SBC Seminary Students. Steve is a pastor in Illinois, a graduate of Southern Seminary, a father, and formerly was a minister to international students at the University of Kentucky, where I met him and his family.
And his old desktop computer is sitting in my bedroom running FreeBSD. Ah, the perks of helping people move - they get rid of stuff by giving it to the movers!
And his old desktop computer is sitting in my bedroom running FreeBSD. Ah, the perks of helping people move - they get rid of stuff by giving it to the movers!
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Country Boys on PBS
Earlier in January 2006, PBS aired a documentary called Country Boys following the lives of two teenage boys in eastern Kentucky.
I didn't watch it when it aired but I'm currently watching it on-line. It's really intriguing to watch Chris and Cody and all of the struggles they face in Floyd County, Kentucky.
I grew up in western Kentucky but I can identify with some of the lifestyle issues presented there. I think what many people will find is that, regardless of where they were brought up, some of the underlying issues present in Country Boys will resonate with them.
Check it out - you can watch the documentary, read interviews, and read articles about the boys.
I didn't watch it when it aired but I'm currently watching it on-line. It's really intriguing to watch Chris and Cody and all of the struggles they face in Floyd County, Kentucky.
I grew up in western Kentucky but I can identify with some of the lifestyle issues presented there. I think what many people will find is that, regardless of where they were brought up, some of the underlying issues present in Country Boys will resonate with them.
Check it out - you can watch the documentary, read interviews, and read articles about the boys.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Dread
Dread is what I feel. I dread what I'm going to hear tomorrow from the IMB/IMB Board of Trustees.
If you are a Southern Baptist, go read IMB Trustee Wade Burleson's Blog. All of it.
Once you've done that, go to SBCOutpost - Marty Duren's Blog. Read everything that talks about the IMB Board meeting this past week.
If you haven't read enough, go read any of the posts or articles you find here.
This is going to be big. I just emailed the editor of the Western Recorder, a news source for Kentucky Baptists, asking him to invest time into covering the IMB policies better, but more specifically to cover the mess that's going on with the IMB Board of Trustees.
I did a pretty awful job of praying about this meeting. Now I feel pretty sick about the whole thing.
Update: The Board of Trustees has voted requested that the Convention vote to remove Wade Burleson from the board. read Wade's announcement and statement here.
If you are a Southern Baptist, go read IMB Trustee Wade Burleson's Blog. All of it.
Once you've done that, go to SBCOutpost - Marty Duren's Blog. Read everything that talks about the IMB Board meeting this past week.
If you haven't read enough, go read any of the posts or articles you find here.
This is going to be big. I just emailed the editor of the Western Recorder, a news source for Kentucky Baptists, asking him to invest time into covering the IMB policies better, but more specifically to cover the mess that's going on with the IMB Board of Trustees.
I did a pretty awful job of praying about this meeting. Now I feel pretty sick about the whole thing.
Update: The Board of Trustees has voted requested that the Convention vote to remove Wade Burleson from the board. read Wade's announcement and statement here.
Friday, January 06, 2006
Piper with Cancer
Dr. John Piper has been diagnosed with Prostate cancer. It kind of blows my mind that this letter was written (or sent or dated might be more accurate) the same day Dr. Piper was at Passion teaching me and some 18000 other people about the glory of God in suffering.
HT: girltalk (That's right, I follow girltalk.)
HT: girltalk (That's right, I follow girltalk.)
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Passion Update #1
My second night at Passion '06 is drawing to a close.
Worship has been phenomenal. Passion does a better job than anyone else I know about drawing you in to worship and directing you to give glory to God.
John Piper spoke this morning, about -- you guessed it -- God's glory. He has grown mroe specific about what God is all about -- not just His glory but glory in the grace that He showed through the suffering of His Son. Tomorrow Dr. Piper will talk about our own suffering and God's glory in it. It's been good.
My "community group" consists of all the leaders from the different groups in attendance. It's larger than the other groups I believe, and we still meet in a big auditorium here in Nashville. The worship leaders for the community groups are not necessarily "big" names, but some of them are. We have Tim Hughes leading worship for us, which is pretty cool. Even if you don't recognize his name, you have problem sang some of his songs if you go to a church that does any sort of contemporary worship music. It's been good.
My fellow "family group" (like 8 people or so) members are Catholic, apparently. Tonight we had a confessional time in our family group. It was weird for the Catholics to be talking to someone other than their priest. I joked (later) that it was weird for us to be confessing our sins to anyone. Fortunately that's not true -- Wes hears my dirt.
I met two people that I me through blogs -- Joe Kennedy and Kiki Cherry. It was a pleasure to meet them both. Kiki came up while Joe and I were meeting during lunch. Joe and I got to know each other little bit -- talked about seminary, hurricane Katrina, church planting, and IMB policies. It was fun to meet both of these two.
Beth Moore spoke this evening about "the law of the harvest" - Galatians 6:7-8. It was good.
I also went to a breakout session led by Dr. Piper. He talked about the early church debate over the deity of Christ. He gave the history of Athanasius and Arius and compared it to postmodern attacks on propositional truth. At one point Piper said that he could hear Arius' followers saying "we worship Christ, not statements about Christ" but Piper said that they were basically taking a proposition away and putting a word in its place that didn't really mean much. His concern about emerging or postmodern church types and their approach to truth is very evident. Jeremy suggested it would be great to see Piper and Chris Seay talk about this stuff.
At one point he launched into a commentary on the importance of the local church. He made reference to both the emerging (or at one point in the night he said Emergent - I'm not sure how precisely he was using the terms, but I feel like not very) church and to a George Barna study regarding the degree of importance people gave to the local church. I feel like his concern for the Barna study may have been well-founded, but bringing emerging church into it seems to be off-base. From what I have read of emerging churches, they tend to focus especially on community, and this trend should not be attributed to that movement.
Passion has been great so far. One of the things I'm chewing on for myself is this: when I hear people talking comfortably about God telling them to do something (especially if it's something "small") then I tend to be pretty judgemental. Partially because I don't experience clear direction from God much in my life. Even on issues and at times when I feel like I am committed to praying about an issue, I end up resigning to the idea that God will put lights in the sky to tell me what to do. I then consider what I feel passionate about, consider what wisdom I have (I believe God grants me wisdom), consider counsel from other Christians, and not a whole lot more. So I hate to think that I'm compromising on hearing God's true will, but I have only rarely felt like I knew with confidence what God wanted me to do in a situation.
That's all for now. Oh, yeah -- for Christmas this year I want a British accent. I bet Ashlee would have wanted to marry me sooner if I had a British accent. I bet the ladies dig it. I do. It's late so if this doesn't make sense, just attribute it to me being tired.
Worship has been phenomenal. Passion does a better job than anyone else I know about drawing you in to worship and directing you to give glory to God.
John Piper spoke this morning, about -- you guessed it -- God's glory. He has grown mroe specific about what God is all about -- not just His glory but glory in the grace that He showed through the suffering of His Son. Tomorrow Dr. Piper will talk about our own suffering and God's glory in it. It's been good.
My "community group" consists of all the leaders from the different groups in attendance. It's larger than the other groups I believe, and we still meet in a big auditorium here in Nashville. The worship leaders for the community groups are not necessarily "big" names, but some of them are. We have Tim Hughes leading worship for us, which is pretty cool. Even if you don't recognize his name, you have problem sang some of his songs if you go to a church that does any sort of contemporary worship music. It's been good.
My fellow "family group" (like 8 people or so) members are Catholic, apparently. Tonight we had a confessional time in our family group. It was weird for the Catholics to be talking to someone other than their priest. I joked (later) that it was weird for us to be confessing our sins to anyone. Fortunately that's not true -- Wes hears my dirt.
I met two people that I me through blogs -- Joe Kennedy and Kiki Cherry. It was a pleasure to meet them both. Kiki came up while Joe and I were meeting during lunch. Joe and I got to know each other little bit -- talked about seminary, hurricane Katrina, church planting, and IMB policies. It was fun to meet both of these two.
Beth Moore spoke this evening about "the law of the harvest" - Galatians 6:7-8. It was good.
I also went to a breakout session led by Dr. Piper. He talked about the early church debate over the deity of Christ. He gave the history of Athanasius and Arius and compared it to postmodern attacks on propositional truth. At one point Piper said that he could hear Arius' followers saying "we worship Christ, not statements about Christ" but Piper said that they were basically taking a proposition away and putting a word in its place that didn't really mean much. His concern about emerging or postmodern church types and their approach to truth is very evident. Jeremy suggested it would be great to see Piper and Chris Seay talk about this stuff.
At one point he launched into a commentary on the importance of the local church. He made reference to both the emerging (or at one point in the night he said Emergent - I'm not sure how precisely he was using the terms, but I feel like not very) church and to a George Barna study regarding the degree of importance people gave to the local church. I feel like his concern for the Barna study may have been well-founded, but bringing emerging church into it seems to be off-base. From what I have read of emerging churches, they tend to focus especially on community, and this trend should not be attributed to that movement.
Passion has been great so far. One of the things I'm chewing on for myself is this: when I hear people talking comfortably about God telling them to do something (especially if it's something "small") then I tend to be pretty judgemental. Partially because I don't experience clear direction from God much in my life. Even on issues and at times when I feel like I am committed to praying about an issue, I end up resigning to the idea that God will put lights in the sky to tell me what to do. I then consider what I feel passionate about, consider what wisdom I have (I believe God grants me wisdom), consider counsel from other Christians, and not a whole lot more. So I hate to think that I'm compromising on hearing God's true will, but I have only rarely felt like I knew with confidence what God wanted me to do in a situation.
That's all for now. Oh, yeah -- for Christmas this year I want a British accent. I bet Ashlee would have wanted to marry me sooner if I had a British accent. I bet the ladies dig it. I do. It's late so if this doesn't make sense, just attribute it to me being tired.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Gone to Passion '06
I'm away from home at Passion '06. Tonight was a great night of worship and hearing Louie Giglio talk about the glory of God. Tomorrow morning we'll be hearing from John Piper, and, odds are he'll be talking about... the glory of God.
I might not be posting much this week.
I might not be posting much this week.
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