Some blogging tips

I have begun reading Seth Godin's blog and find it insightful and interesting. It also helps us pastor types to stay connected to the real world! He offers some tips for those who blog and I thought this list was good. I enjoy blogging a great deal and hope that you enjoy reading my blog. Here is the post right from Godin's site:

You can improve your writing (your business writing, your ad writing, your thank you notes and your essays) if you start thinking like a blogger:

1. Use headlines. I use them all the time now. Not just boring ones that announce your purpose (like the one on this post) but interesting or puzzling or engaging headlines. Headlines are perfect for engaging busy readers.
2. Realize that people have choices. With 80 million other blogs to choose from, I know you could leave at any moment (see, there goes someone now). So that makes blog writing shorter and faster and more exciting.
3. Drip, drip, drip. Bloggers don't have to say everything at once. We can add a new idea every day, piling on a thesis over time.
4. It's okay if you leave. Bloggers aren't afraid to include links or distractions in their writing, because we know you'll come back if what we had to say was interesting.

Click here to read the rest of the list.

I'm on Facebook!

Facebook - wow. I love the fact that I now have 91 friends in just three day's time. I like being able to "poke" people. I'm still going to focus on my blog for the most part, but if you want to touch base with me now you have another way to do it. Tye out.

Facebook's help desk has responded!!!

I received a reply from Audrina at Facebook's Help Desk in response to my email that my last name is legit! I had to supply my exact birthdate and I think she is going to go ahead and process everything.

Stay tuned. I might be on Facebook yet! Tye out.

HELP!!!!

As you can tell from my last post, Blogger ain't doing to good on the spacing thing. I went to the help forum and noticed that others have had this issue but no help was offered.

Anyone want to help me out? Tye out.

I'm sermonating this week

I wanted to get a quick post up here to let all my regular readers know that I am spending a lot of time working on my talk for church Sunday. I am speaking on the Kitchen Table environment ~ Small Groups. At NCBC we celebrate three spaces where people connect: Front Porch (worship service), Living Room (ABF), and the Kitchen Table (small group).

I am planning to show the need for people to feel connection and a sense of belonging in all three spaces one way or another. This will be easy for me because I have personally benefited greatly from all three environments.

So, the posts this week will probably be sporadic. If you have any ideas for me on my talk for this week please send me an email or leave a comment on the post. Thanks! Tye out.

Why I blog?

I found this article today and thought I would share it with you. Some have questioned me about blogging and what does it really accomplish. Well, today I read something that resonated with me so I'll share it with you. It is written by Ken Gosnell and is entitled 4 Ways Blogging Can Change Your Church. I have used Ken's four points and then the explanation that follows is mine. : )

1. Blogging will bring churches closer together as it closes a communication gap

It is truly my desire to eventually develop a blog for some of the ministries I oversee: Small Group, Men's Fraternity, ABFs. I would hope that people would be stopping by to see what is going on and interact with one another online.

2. Blogging will help to develop sermons and classes
Blogging helps me get my ideas down on "paper" and then get some feedback. Even though I am not developing sermons right now, but I'm still thinking devotionally as I read through the Bible and as ideas come to my mind I try to get them down on the blog.

3. Blogging will break down barriers and remove masks

As God is teaching me things I try to share those things with people so they might benefit from my personal struggles and how God is helping me grow. The apostle Paul was brutally honest with his struggles and that encouraged his readers.

4. Blogging will help the church to engage the culture

It also helps pastors like me engage the culture. I don't ever want to get trapped inside the stained-glass halls of the church isolated from the very culture Jesus commanded us to penetrate. I can do this by blogging about cultural issues and things in the culture for example jazz music, Zanny Henseler on Deal or No Deal, or ways for the church to be more effective.

There you go. I hope you enjoy reading my blog and find something here that helps encourage your life, makes you think about something, or just gives you a light-hearted moment in the middle of your day. Tye out.

My blog on PastorHacks.net

Last Tuesday in staff meeting I learned that my blog was featured on PastorHacks.net. I have blogged about their blog because they have had some posts that have helped my time management. Their blog encouraging us to take the bold step in reducing our email inbox to zero empowered me to do just that and I did! Click here to read about it.

As you know, this blog is about the things I care about so I blogged about this breakthrough in my life. It was so exciting! You can imagine how surprised I was when I saw my blog copied and pasted into their blog. How cool is that! Click here to see the post. Tye out.

Zero emails in my inbox!

When was the last time you saw zero emails in your inbox? Probably when you set your email up! I subscribe to a really cool blog called PastorHacks.net and they offer advice on how to be better organized and more efficient in your work. They are the ones that gave me the idea to turn off the dinger in Outlook. Click here to read the entire, enlightening article.

PastorHacks had an article that has probably changed my life forever! They issued the challenge to take your box to zero by taking action on every single email, or at least filing ones you need to take action on in a folder labeled just that, Action Needed.

I currently have an extensive email file system that I have to force myself to use. Here's some of the things I did to clear out the ole inbox:

1. Take action on emails that contain information I want to save by transfering the information to an accessible place. Passwords? In the spreadsheet. Details for upcoming events? Put them in the "note" section of a calendar entry. Websites you want to check out? Bookmark 'em!
   
2. Do I really need to answer EVERY email? Nope. I typically wait until I have time to "formulate the perfect response" and because of this I postpone answering emails. Today, I gave some short, polite responses and hit the delete button.
   
3. File, file file! Sub-file, and sub-sub file. I really like to hang onto data. I keep files on everything from a to z. File it.


4. Or, delegate it. Forward it to your admin, send it to someone who can do something about it.

I can't tell you how good it felt today when I hit "zero" in my inbox. It was liberating. It was energizing! Let me know about your zero inbox! Tye out.

Zanny Henseler visited my blog - I think...

I have arrived as a blogger!!! Eat my dust www.kimpagel.org! (smile) I have always thought that it would be the "holy grail" of blogging if I could get a comment from some famous person I had blogged about. For instance, I have done book reviews and had always hoped to get a hit from the author. Or in the case of the show Deal, or No Deal I was hoping to get a hit from Zanny Henseler, the lime green girl who won a Cadillac Escalade, but came up short on the tax bill of $25k. Well, she left a comment on my blog - I think. Here's the comment:

Anonymous said... hey tye this is Zanny the lime green girl. Rob and Amy attached this website to my moms email. We just cheked her mail. That is awesome you got to watch the show. Im glad you liked me. I still havent recieved the green machine, but were are going to town on saving cans!!!!

Now, I'm wondering if this was one of my friends playing a practical joke on me, or if Zanny really left this comment. Does it really matter? Not really.

This blogging thing is an amazing phenomenon. People like me can publish their ideas for others to read and it is one more way for us to multiply our influence. It is also a place where many people can "meet" and share ideas. I have enjoyed hearing from many of you and each week I get hits all around the world. Tye out.

Zanny Henseler - Deal or No Deal winner update

I got a comment from someone who goes to church with Zanny who says that her family is trying to collect enough pop cans to raise the money to pay the tax on her Escalade she won on Deal or No Deal.

Click here to read my first blog entry. Here I gave unsolicited advice to Zanny : )

Click here to read my second blog entry. (then, click on the comments to read the following comment left by Rob and Emily who go to Zanny's church) Here's what they said:

Tye,I go to the same church as Zanny and her parents. Her family is organizing “Cans for Zan” to help raise the money needed for the sales tax. They are asking everyone to donate cans and any other kind of aluminum to be recycled. Just thought you might be interested.

This is quite fascinating to me. Here I am a nobody living in Iowa and because of my fascination with the TV show Deal or No Deal I decided to blog about the girl in lime-green who won the lime-green Escalade.

I've always thought it would be cool to get a comment from someone who is "famous." A friend of mine goes to church with Stormie Omartian and actually sat next to her. Since I had blogged about her books on prayer, I was hoping to get a comment from her.

Isn't it amazing at how flat our world is? I've interacted with a sax player in Germany, had hits to my blog from around the world, and hopefully have been able to have been a positive influence in many people's lives, comments or not. Tye out.

www.tyesjazz.com

It's official! I purchased a domain name today and I am thrilled to present for your blogging pleasure, www.tyesjazz.com. You can still find my blog with the old address, but this will make it easier for folks to find me. Tye out.

P.S. Click here to make your own church sign.

Like my new blog look?

Wow! I just updated my blog to the new blogger look and feel and I like it! I still have a lot of work to do to it, but that will have to come later. It's been a tough day trying to recover from yesterday's little stomach bout.

So, what do you think of the new look? Let me know! Tye out.