Live.Awake

Live.Awake’s New Digs

// April 18th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Site News

I’ve updated the look.  Just a little…  If you’re an RSS lurker, click through and check it out.

Since making the switch last year to the previus theme, I noticed that my stats changed.  There was a lot less exploring of my older content.  Visitors would come, read one post and then move on.  Not good. That didn’t happen before.  Visitors used to jump from post to post for a little while.  I think that’s due to the way my site was laid out, any post older than the current one kind of disappeared.

I still like the idea of a “lifestream” blog that mixes microblogging content with traditional blogging.  One of the primary audiences for this blog are people that are in KCC or thinking about coming.  They want to connect with their pastor/potential pastor.  Having all of my web content aggregated here is handy for that.  This theme still does that, but the layout shows of the content better.

I also like the design itself better.  I was never totally happy with the other one… a little too “feminine” for my tastes.

New Look – Microblogging

// September 23rd, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Site News

This blog has not been working well for me for a few months.  The church and the web business has grown to the point where I don’t have time to write long posts like I did at the beginning.  I’ve since discovered Twitter and have found it to be liberating.  Only having 140 characters to get a thought across is awesome.

I’ve also gone to a shorter post format with this blog.  Instead of fighting it, I’m giving in.  Microblogging is working better for my current lifestyle.  This blog is an important part of what I’m doing personally and with the church so it needs to keep going.

This is the reason for the new layout.  It’s set up to display shorter posts and track my twitter updates automatically.  It’s becoming sort of a hub for me to connect with people in ways that actually work instead of forcing myself into something that worked for a while but no longer does.

This doesn’t mean that I won’t be doing longer posts from time to time.  I’m working on some final thoughts on Lakeland and some other things.  But, by and large, the posts will be more distilled.

Cheers.

Favorite WordPress Plugins

// June 12th, 2008 // 5 Comments » // General, Site News

I use WordPress to power this blog. WordPress is an open-source blogging platform, and in my opinion, is the best at what it does. One of the things that makes it great is the community that helps develop and support it. Between the abundance of free themes and creative plugins, there really isn’t much it can’t do.

Every year the WordPress community takes a month to honor the creativity and brilliance of WP plugin authors. In support of the community, I thought I would list for you the plugins I use (and could not/would not live without).

(more…)

Ancient Church Discovered in Jordan

// June 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // Church Life, Site News

A fascinating archeological discovery has been made. They are calling it “the world’s first church”, and it actually may be. According to the BBC News report, a cave was uncovered underneath St. Georgeous (one of the oldest known churches until now). They are dating the site back to AD33-70 and saying it was used as a home and place of worship to over 70 Christians fleeing Jerusalem due to persecution.

Here are some nice images of the site.

According to Dr Abdul Qader Al-Hassan, the director of the Rihab Centre for Archaeological studies, the cave site shows clear evidence of early Christian rituals that predate the church.

Dr Al-Hassan says that steps lead down into the chapel which is approximately 12m long and seven metres wide.

There is a circular area of worship with stone seats separated from living quarters. This circular element, called an apse, is important says Dr Al-Hassan because there is only one other example of a cave with a similar feature, which was also used for Christian worship.
Dr Al-Hassan said: “We found beautiful things. I found the cemetery of this church; we found pottery shards and lamps with the inscription ‘Georgeous’”.

In the cave there is also a tunnel that leads to a cistern which supplied water to the dwellers. An inscription in the floor of the church above refers to the “70 beloved by God and the divine” whom the archaeologist believes were refugees from religious persecution in Jerusalem.

Man, I can’t wait to talk to some of those 70 Christians when I get to heaven.

[tags]St. georgeous cave, archaeology, christianity, jordan[/tags]

I’m a Huge Metal Fan

// May 9th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Humor, Site News

I’m sorry, but I laughed out loud at this. I fully understand that I may be the only one that did. Clearly that’s not going to stop me.

Not only is it funny, but it illustrates pretty well how two people can think they are communicating when they aren’t at all.

Or… it could have no meaning at all and just be funny. I realize that I’m a pastor so I see sermon illustrations in just about everything. I could get a sermon illustration from a bowl of oatmeal.

office furniture in BulgariaHave a great weekend.