bloggedy blog: the personal weblog of a music lover and aging punk wannabe

:: Monday, April 08, 2002 ::

Too well to stay home, too sick to do any real work. Ever have one of those days where you're feeling a bit under the weather but can't justify calling in sick? That's the kind of day I'm having. I'm not being very productive. Oh, I've edited a few news releases, but my staff write so well I can do it mostly in my sleep. I've also corrected copy on a feature story for the summer issue of our university's alumni magazine, and first thing this morning I wrote and sent out the faculty and staff e-newsletter. Other than those few accomplishments, though, I've been a fairly worthless employee. I'm sure I'll be more productive tomorrow.

In a non-work-related development, I did send out a copy of my eMinistry newsletter to all loyal subscribers. (If you follow the link to that newsletter's archives, you'll discover I've been quite lax in updating that section. I'm going to get to that eventually; it's on my list. Oh, and if you'd like to subscribe, just zap me this blank e-mail.) In the newsletter, I included a blurb about a cool E.T. and Jesus quiz over at beliefnet, which elicited this response from a reader:

I just clicked on the link to the quiz about E.T. & Jesus at Belief.net. Have you checked out the rest of this site? Because sending people to it is not a good idea and promotes other religions than Christianity. Among the links on the page: a "devotional" written by the Dalai Lama, articles on new age ideas, earthbased religions, etc. It is NOT a Christian site, and though the quiz was fun and all, I certainly wouldn't want to use their handy send this quiz to a friend feature at the bottom.

I responded by noting that I agree with the reader: beliefnet is definitely not a Christian site and it does include a lot of information on neo-pagan, buddhist and other non-Christian belief systems. Yet it does include some valuable Christian content, as well as opportunities for Christians to learn more about other belief systems. Even the authors of the aforelinked editorial concede that beliefnet offers a few contributions to the online Christian presence.

In other news:

The latest issue of Next Wave is out, and it features a good article by Jordon Cooper about blogging and its benefits for online churches. The issue also resurrects one of my old articles, Holy Hypertext: Why the Bible must be unbound for the digital age. The picture at the bottom of the article is old and unflattering. I'd much prefer they use this one:

I'm so vain
I probably think this blog is about me...
Don't I?
Don't I?

With apologies to Carly Simon.

Earlier in the day, I wrote:

Bloggin' for Jesus. On Friday, Dy and I -- along with Pastor Bill and his wife Joan, and another church member, Rod -- hauled 7,000 pounds of stuff from our church's mission/food distribution center to a missionary couple in Tulsa, Okla., who work with an orphanage in Malawi. Early on in the trip, as we were driving the mission truck along U.S. 63 in Missouri, Dy commented about an 18-wheeler we had seen on I-44 a couple of weeks ago. Painted on the back of the truck was "Truckin' for Jesus," and we decided that we were doing the same thing.

Eighteen hours later, as we parked the empty truck on our church lot, we decided we'd had enough truckin' for Jesus. I think I'll stick to bloggin' for Jesus. We'll leave the over-the-road truckin' to the trained professionals.

Lots to do today in the professional life, plus I've got to get busy with my presentations for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's NAME-Outreach Conference. I'm speaking to the group on Saturday, April 13. Gotta brush up on my PowerPoint, for any digital ministry expert worth his salt must cannot give a presentation without the almighty PowerPoint.

:: Andrew 09:14 + ::
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