Before I get into this, I want to congratulate commenter Bryant for winning the book contest! Thanks to all who entered. There may be more contests later.
I look at my Google Analytics every morning. Part of it is to know what people like to read and what days they like to read. For starters, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are my best days. Monday and Friday are about the same, and Saturday and Sunday are my worst. Yesterday was my biggest day ever. I guess a lot of people wanted to find out about our new church name.
Web traffic is great and all, but what I really want is more interaction.
If I was a business (and I am not), I would have tons of people in my store, but no one would be buying. But I think the problem is I only offer one product a day (post / article) and only one form of currency (comments). We recently tried to expand (contests) but only a handful cared, and they still had to pay with the same currency. Make sense?
How can I build more interaction?
I really want to interact with people. I want to learn about them and learn from them. It is just in my nature. Having a theologically “themed” blog makes that harder because there are more opportunities to teach than to learn. There are also more absolute statements than open discussions.
Here is what I want to do (and your ideas could really help, so stop lurking and comment for once…please 
I have a (very) small list in my head:
- Allow a guest post (this is scary to me, but I am seriously considering it)
- Write a couple of “how to” posts (showing people how to do something can help open up questions)
- Use more “web 2.0″ features like video and social networking tie-ins
That is all I have in my limited scope.
I want your help with more ideas. For that, I am going to need you to leave it in the comments or email it (don {at}youseedrybones [dot]com).
Thanks for your help in advance!
-Don-
Posted in Other Stuff.
By Don
– July 3, 2009
Last night was fun!
Last night we sat in my living room, ate some homemade chipotle (make your own burrito night!) and discussed some family business. We had a desperate need in our church plant.
We needed a name.
I started out by doing what Dr. D (pastor of another church plant whom I worked with) said would be a good idea. I wrote our values on the a white board. Here they are:
- Teaching
- Fellowship
- Breaking of Bread (communion and sharing meals together)
- Prayer
- Giving to those in need
- Worshiping Jesus
If you are thinking you heard these values before, it is either because you have read Acts 2:42-47, or you have had conversations with Aaron Burgess or myself about orthodoxy and orthopraxy.
Then I prayed.
After that, I asked for any names people might have floating around in their heads. We had a list which included names such as:
- Giving Tree
- Generous Hearts
- The Way
- Good Fight Ministries (my personal fave…it didn’t make it past round 2 even though I tried to sneak it in)
We voted out 20 some names.
We were then left with three:
- Church of the Broken
- The Fallen
- The Way
We allowed all in the room to speak their peace about each name. What they liked and did not like about each. We crossed The Way off the list first. Several seemed to think it sounded a little too cultish. We held a vote. It was unanimous.
We are The Church of the Broken.
We even have the URL (www.churchofthebroken.org). We felt it blended tradition with a twist. We pray the name keeps us humble as we are wearing our heart on our sleeves. We are broken people. We also recognize it is only by Christ’s broken body and shed blood that we are who we are today.
Want to join us?
-Don-
Posted in Pastoral Resources.
By Don
– July 2, 2009
Tonight we have a Bible study happening. 
I used to attend a large church (as you may already know). While attending, I was at various times, a leader, employee, intern, and congregant. The one thing I heard more than anything else was, “we never go deeper here” in regards to Bible study
Maybe it is because we did not have enough oxygen.
I remember hearing our pastor answer such complaints by pointing out the simple commands of Matthew 5 and 6 (loving God with everything in you and outside of you, and loving your neighbor as yourself) and how we failed to even get those down. While I agree, I think sometimes you have to challenge your people to see if they can go a little farther.
What does deeper mean?
Last week I handed out some information I compiled about the Apostle John and the first two chapters of his Gospel account. The idea was to give some background into the culture, the writing of the book, and how we can learn from the account. I think it was well received but I could not help but think how superficial this handout was. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure it helped. I am sure some people could identify better with John and his purpose for writing the Gospel.
For me it is hard to “go deeper” without going into the academics. What is the form, genre,or influences of culture behind the text? Who was John writing this for? You catch my drift. I think many people (myself included) get caught up in “going deeper” as some kind of scholarly exercise. How much information and how many cool new words can I pack into my brain? How much of this stuff will help me win debates with my neighbors and friends?
The Gospel is best understood as it is lived.
I believe the Gospel is Jesus Christ. He is the “good news.” The best way we can “go deeper” (there are a lot of quotation marks in this post…) is to live the way he asked us to live. If we love the Lord our God and our neighbors as ourselves, the deepness and fullness of the Gospel will take root. It will make sense. Academically learning about the Scriptures and Jesus is great, I am a huge fan nerd. If you come to our Bible study tonight (consider this an open invitation if you live near me) you will be challenged in the area of Biblical academia. I think this is only half of it. The other half has to be lived.
Then you will go deeper.
-Don-
P.S. The drawing winner for the book will be posted tomorrow! Stay tuned!
Posted in Pastoral Resources.
By Don
– July 1, 2009
Where do we begin?
This is the last day to enter to win a copy of Michael Franzese’s book I’ll Make You an Offer You Can’t Refuse. The book is about tactics Franzese used while in the Mafia to run a successful business, and how you can use these strategies to run an organization (legally) today. For more, see my review here.
To win the book, comment on this post and leave your blog, Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, or website URL.
It is that easy to win! One winner will be chosen at random JULY 1st, 2009.
Second! My wife and I have a new blog together!
You can go to www.calledtofitness.com to read about our quest to get in shape and stay that way. If you go there, you can confirm the rumor that I am converting back to being a vegetarian with all your friends. We will be blogging about our diets, exercise, being frugal yet buying healthy foods, and much, much more. Check it out!
Finally, A BIG THANKS!
I will have the final numbers tomorrow morning, but June 2009 will have been the biggest month EVER for www.youseedrybones.com. We have seen 790 visitors (a 35% increase over last month) with over 280 being first timers! I have had repeat visitors from Belgium, the UK, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, and Australia as well as ten other countries and 35 states in the US.
Thanks so much for reading my posts, commenting, and telling others.
Now, go win a free book or check out our new blog
-Don-
Posted in Contests, Other Stuff.
By Don
– June 30, 2009
