Sunday November 8, 2009 is this years International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Here is the website for info on how to participate.

According to VOM over 100,000 churches in more than 130 will be participating in IDOP.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem (bloggingministry.com)

Related Posts?:

1. Top 100 Church Blogs
2. Re: "Windows Live Writer"

Calling all Christian Bloggers!

One of the major topics that Christian bloggers could and should write about is persecution. It is incredible how persecution against Christians is heating up around the world or at least the media has made planet Earth a lot smaller and we can now be aware of what is going on in the Christian World community nearly in real time.

I really do believe that exposing persecution actually helps and decreases its severity. At the very least, Christians around the World are more able to support one another with prayers and needed relief. Also pressure can be brought to bear on countries that severely restrict and punish Christians from spreading the Gospel or even worshipping in public.

I am really asking more of you out there to dedicate at least one blog a month to the persecution of the Church. Right now I am expecting the Holy Spirit to confirm this in the hearts of all of you who are reading this post.

Here are some of the websites and blogs that I read to keep on top of what is happening around the World to Christians and to keep current on persecution:

Compass Direct News

Persecution Blog

Persecuted Church Weblog

Voice of the Martyrs

If any of you know of some other good websites that provide info in this area please put them on the comment line.            *Top

Caption–“No I’m fine, I can last till Halloween is over!” -by Tattooed JJ via Flickr

An article by John Saddington of  Church Crunch–“Honesty in Blogging is the Best Policy”– is short , sweet, and to the point. Here’s a quote:

“…  Although there’s always a line of being wise and discerning with what we blog and tweet about the point is that whatever we do decide to publish we should be honest about.

In other spheres it’s really more for your audience than for yourself, but as Christians I think it’s the other way around; being honest is part of what we do, let’s stay above reproach in all things.”

Response: Amen. Christian and ministry blogs should lead the way in this area. Anyone out there disagree?            *Top

Related Posts?:

1. One Simple Blogging Rule
2. The Problem of Speaking Christianese

Here’s a list of Top 100 Church Blogs compiled by Kent Shaffer of Church Relevance.

The list provides a valuable opportunity to check out some church and ministry blogs that are deemed to be among the best. It was done in September but I just ran across it and was surprised to find that I already knew most of the blogs on the list and already subscribe to more than half.

Anyway, here are 100 great examples to check out and get some ideas for improving your own blog. Also, there are a lot of valuable blogs here that you might want to consider subscribing to.             *Top

Related Posts?:

1. Sunday November 8: International Day of Prayer
2. Twittering Away in Church?

1. Yubby allows you to find, collect, and publish videos from 30+ different video sites. First you search and find what you want. Second, Yubby gives you your own space—‘channel’–to save and collect your favorite videos in. Then finally you can publish the vids when you want on your blog.

2. RedLasso provides access to 1000’s of media news videos and more. Then provides you with the opportunity to edit, clip, and embed only that part of a video that you would like to share.

The raw news videos may contain minutes of extraneous material that you don’t need but maybe 30 seconds that you do want. RedLasso lets you edit out all the junk and makes it possible to share and embed just that part which is relevant for your blog. What a handy tool.

3. Also when it comes to video—don’t forget Apture. Apture can provide all sort of media including video for your posts –even after you have published them—check it out.

4. Don’t forget Tangle–it provides all sorts of ‘family friendly’ video for Christians. Also lots of other good stuff on their website—here’s a great vid to share about Jesus (3:19):

Related Posts?:

1. Capture with Apture
2. Why Blogging?: It’s "What People Need From Their Pastors"

I look forward to the encouragement and new stuff I always pickup at this conference. Oh yes, and the interesting people I always meet and the new contacts I always find.

This is my 3rd time here and I wouldn’t miss it for the world—actually the whole world is here—the blogging world that is.

Related Posts?:

1. Setting Up a Bible Study Blog
2. Why Blogging?

Unfortunately Andrew Jones who was scheduled to speak in support of the Church Online was unable to attend. So in some respects the conversation from the front with Matthew Anderson and Dr. John Mark Reynolds leading the way seemed to me to degenerate into a rather one-sided critique though it was not really intended to be that way.

It ended up as a conversation between those in attendance with positive Church Online anecdotal experiences verses the theological and philosophical perspectives and underpinnings of Anderson and Reynolds—something nobody really planned and in some ways brought an unsatisfying conclusion to an otherwise excellent conference.

Nevertheless, the conversation on this issue continues online. The following are just a few articles that I have run across without really looking for them from some of the speakers at the conference:

1.  First of all, here’s the opening address by Matthew Anderson: Blest Be the iTies that Bind: Thoughts From CWC on Online Church

2.  Next some observations by Cynthia Ware of Digital Sanctuary:

“I’m still pondering the polarizing and controversial conversations that surfaced at  the Christian Web Conference at Biola University.  No easy answers but lots of questions.  What are you thinking about when it comes to online church?”

In her article: “The Internet in Your Pew”, Cynthia provides  a number of good links on this issue plus the comments are also valuable. She seems to be rather sympathetic to the developing Church Online but also concerned about the developing division in the church over this issue.

3.  Third– a whole series of posts by Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts who presents his thoughts on the limitations and insufficiency of an ‘online church’ from the perspective of a former pastor who has made extensive use of the internet in his ministry:

“Is Online Church Really Church?”

In his first article, Rev. Roberts notes how surprised he was at the conference when he had a conversation with some who believed that an ‘Online Church’ was actually a valid church that could be sufficient:

“My initial response to one who advocated the sufficiency of online church was something like, “You’ve got to be kidding!” …

“Once I got beyond my initial surprise over the fact that somebody of apparent intelligence and integrity was making the case of the adequacy of online church, I thought it might be helpful to raise some objections. I thought my first one would euthanize the idea of online church once and for all. “How can you celebrate the sacraments?” I asked. “Surely you can’t have online communion, online baptism.”

“Why not?” my earnest interlocutor asked. “People do it all the time.”

4. Finally, several posts by an actual advocate of the Church Online- Paul D. Watson:

“The Grossest Misconception of Church Online”

“Church Online and the Lord’s Supper”

“Baptism and Church Online”

Conclusion: I came to the Conference with no experience at all with the ‘Church Online’ and still don’t have any. My initial reaction to the idea that sacraments including baptism (see video above) could be celebrated online was similar to Rev. Roberts—“you have got to be kidding”.

However, after attending a session on ‘Planting the Gospel in every population segment represented online” by Paul Watson I became excited about the prospects of reaching a bunch folks that may not be easily reached in any other way.

Also, after listening to several attendees talk about how they have been blessed by the Holy Spirit participating in an Online Church including sacraments, and how they have formed new satisfying relationships with folks in an Online Church environment, I am at least willing to give the whole thing the benefit of doubt even if I personally can’t see how it could or should replace what I would call ‘real churches’.

The technology is really in its infancy and those who have been called by God and inspired by the Holy Spirit to develop online churches and ministries should be encouraged to explore the limits and full potential of this new mission field no matter what they call it.

Related Posts?:

1. Christian Web Conference 2009, Biola University
2. Youth Ministry: "Online Missions Trip"

There is even a special 24 hour conference call prayer line.

Ps 122:6-7: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.”

Related Posts?:

1. Blogging Ministry: Setting Up A Prayer Line
2. National Day of Prayer

(Image by mansikka via Flickr)

Ever click on a link and end up on a 404 page? Everyone has–it is one of those little frustrations that we endure on the net. That’s why it is a good idea every once in a while to check out the links on your own blog. Some suggest that it be done once a month at least since search engine like Google supposedly downgrade or penalize your site if you have too many broken ones. Another good reason to take care of it is for your readers.

I was recently surprised to find that a good number of the links on my ‘Getting Started’ page no longer worked. Not only did I have to get rid of the broken links but in this case find new articles to replace the issues I was trying to cover on that page in the first place.

Actually I was just scratching the surface. Anyone who has been blogging for a while has far more broken links in the archives than one would ever suppose. One thing to keep in mind, anytime you link to an online newspaper, magazine, or news source site after about a month or so they stuff it into their archives and the links you used no longer work. Now what do you do—actually what can you do?

WordPress Plugin: Broken Link Checker

In the process of checking my links over the weekend I remembered that a month or so ago I had come across a WordPress plugin that was suppose to help you find every broken link on your blog: Broken Link Checker

What does it do? Once installed it finds every single broken link on your blog and makes it possible to correct them all. Actually an incredible plugin. Each bad link can be edited or unlinked directly from your dashboard on the ‘Broken Link Checker’ page without manually having to go to and edit each individual post or page separately.

I had 46 broken links on this blog but it only took a half an hour to correct it all—amazing.

The only draw back is this– When the plugin is first activated it sort of locks up the backend for a while till it goes through your entire blog and finds all of the bad links. I found it difficult to do anything else with the blog till it was done. In the case of this blog it took nearly 10 minutes or so. It was much longer for my news commentary site which ended up having 135 broken links.

What was really great—after I fixed all the broken links the home page actually loaded way faster than it did before.

Update: After using it for a week I found that the backend continues to lock up each time I go to the dashboard and you really can’t do a thing until the Broken Link Checker checks for bad links. It’s no big deal on some of my smaller blogs but those with several hundred posts take way to long to load and resolve.

Solution: I deactivated the plugin and will turn it on at least twice a month to correct any broken links.  

*See some of the articles below for more on this issue–Xenu Link Sleuth is another program that some recommend. Also LinkPatch is a service that will monitor your site for a small fee.

Related Posts?:

1. Updating or Changing Posts?
2. Featured Blog: "Blogging Basics 101"

The coming of this book is long overdue—a definitive manual on using Blogger. This is bound to become the essential book for those using the Blogger program whether one is starting out in the blogosphere or has been around a while. There is something for everyone in this volume—if you now use Blogger or intend to in the future.

<Read my complete review>

Related Posts?:

1. Book Review: “WordPress for Dummies, 2nd Edition”
2. Book Review: "WordPress For Dummies"