One In Jesus

I don’t often do this, but I’d be interested to hear from the readers what they’d like OneInJesus to cover in 2014.

Please post your suggestions either in the comments or using the Contact button just below the OIJ banner.

Anything you post via the Contact button will go only to me. Obviously, a comment will go out to the whole world.

Several years ago, my church had Patrick visit to speak on Missions Sunday — when we pass the hat for one year’s worth of missions contributions. And the church just loved him. (I think I can still remember his three points — from 10 years ago.) Then we had him in a second time.

He was, at the time, new to us here in West Alabama, but it was obvious to us that he would soon be well known throughout the Churches of Christ — and we called that one exactly right. Continue reading →

I’ve been reading Matt Dabbs‘ blog, Kingdom Living, about as long as I’ve been reading blogs on the Internet. It’s just good stuff.

Some years ago, we collaborated on compiling a list of the 25 most popular Church of Christ blogs three or four times. (It was a WHOLE lot of work.) And I found someone who loves an Excel spreadsheet almost as much as I do. It was fun. Continue reading →

I first posted this nearly 3 1/2 years ago,  but something I’m working on reminded me of it — and I couldn’t resist a little Steve Martin humor.

Brad Palmore is community life minister for the Bristol Road Church of Christ in Flint, Michigan. More pertinently to me, Brad is part of the Branchweaver webhosting company, which has hosted my blog for many years. This means I’ve paid him token amounts of money to listen to me kvetch over the most minute problems imaginable (since I’m just a little OCD).

A few months ago, when Keith Brenton decided to step down from editing New Wineskins, I asked Brad if he’d help take the magazine on, and he immediately agreed. He probably should have thought a bit longer about it, you know. Hosting Wineskins as well as the various Featured Authors is a big, big job. Continue reading →

Many, many years ago, at a different time and place, Denise and I were married at the Otter Creek Church of Christ in Nashville. The church has grown (a lot) and built a new building (humongous). And they have a bright, gifted pulpit minister named Josh Graves. (Why are so many of the up and coming pulpit guys named “Josh”?)

And I’ve heard him preach — and the guy can bring it. And he can also write.

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And many thanks to the readers for sticking with me in 2013, through all sorts of computer and health issues.

Spending time with one’s grandson over the Christmas holidays makes Suessian rhymes irresistible.

I don’t know why, but these last few weeks, the readership is up fairly dramatically. I wish I knew what I was doing right so maybe I could do it again — but I’ve had several of the highest hit counts in the history of the blog in the last month.

On the health front, I’m still recovering from surgery — too slowly. I still need a cane and have to take pain meds (although much less than immediately after surgery). I’ve had a series of complications to fight through. And I still need too much sleep. But with prayer and the doctors’ diligence, things should be much better next week.

And maybe at some point I’ll have the energy to finish N.T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God (it’s a long book).

Enjoy your Christmas — and never forget who the holiday is about.

Not too long ago, I asked my readers at OneInJesus to recommend other Restoration Movement bloggers.

Dan Bouchelle appeared near the top of the list and yet I didn’t know he’d begun blogging. I have since become a dedicated reader.

I was already very familiar with Mission Resource Network, which Dan is president of. MRN is a ministry that helps send missionaries and plant churches across the world. My own congregation has frequently sought their advice on missions oversight questions.

(Every church should. These guys are just incredibly knowledgeable, wise, and helpful when it comes to missions.) Continue reading →

Where to begin? Let’s see …

Several, several years ago, I began my journey into Christian blogging. The first thing I did was Google the then-existing Church of Christ websites to see whether there was room for one more blogger.

I quickly learned that the field was already crowded with talent and deep spirituality. Edward Fudge and Al Maxey had large audiences but weren’t blogging (and still aren’t), John Mark Hicks was on hiatus (no longer, thank goodness), and this outrageous preacher in Arizona was brilliantly blogging on theology, the history of the Stone-Campbell Movement, and life in ministry.  I  figured that anyone with the audacity to call his blog “The Stoned-Campbell Disciple” could not be long for the Church of Christ world. I immediately subscribed to his blog. Continue reading →

Paula is a gifted writer, who needs help in personalizing her blog. You see, there’s no bio and no picture and nothing at all — other than the URL — identifying “thinking Jesus” as belonging to Paula Harrington.

So I went looking for a picture in Google images, and it turns out that “Paula Harrington” is a fairly common name. And so I went looking in Facebook, where I found the intriguingly named “John-Paula Harrington.”

In searching for an appropriate photo, I learned that the photos tagged with the page owner’s name are invariably tagged “John-Paula Harrington.” And so I picked the picture that best demonstrated the ambiguity in that. (The person on the right is tagged “John-Paula Harrington,” and you may draw your own conclusions from there.) Continue reading →