Ok, I think I fixed it, but my previous entry doesn’t link right. So, this is a test:
a c t s 2:38 – Acts 2:38
J o h n 3:16 – John 3:16

I’m posting a few new links today. Since these are all related to my church, The Columbus Church of Christ, I’m doing a combined ‘about’ blog for them all.
The first is our church web site. Back in 1996, Maria and I quit our jobs and moved to Columbus to be a part of a mission team to start this new church. We head no savings to speak of and, on the day we left Detroit (and our health insurance!), we found out that she was pregnant with baby number 2. In hindsight it seems quite foolish, but we had complete faith that God would take care of us, and He did. We stayed in my sister’s basement for a month before finding a place of our own. We found a guy who rented us an apartment with no jobs or income because he was sure we “we’re going to do just fine”. Within about 6 weeks of arriving we both had jobs. My new job’s health insurance covered the birth as well, which was a great relief.
Since arriving, the church has grown from the original 25 to somewhere around 125 today. Most of that growth happened in the first couple of years. It’s been a wild ride, with amazing ups and a few downs.
The second is our church family’s web site. We are part of the International Churches of Christ, who’s official home page is called UpCyberDown. The past couple of years have been challenging ones for our church here and our family of churches worldwide. Once one of the fastest growing church groups in the world (from a single church of 30 in 1979 to over 100,000 members worldwide now), in the past year the majority of the structure tying our churches together has been dismantled. Quite frankly, over the years our intense, single-minded passion to win the world for Jesus has resulted in some very unfortunate abuses of authority. Some stupid things were done in the name of Jesus and ‘discipling’ and many people have been hurt. Many churches and leaders offered apologies over the last year and the hierarchy that contributed to the abuses was dismantled. The churches are more loosely affiliated now and each one is deciding where to go from here. Many people have left for what they felt were greener pastures (no judgment intended), including good friends here in Columbus, and I had, for a time, considered doing the same. It’s been an incredible time for me to learn about God, perhaps more so than any time since I first studied the Bible and became a Christian 15 years ago. The church here in Columbus seems to be coming out of this pretty well now. A new broader leadership base is being established including our first Deacons (myself included, overseeing the Children’s ministry) and hopefully Elders in the near future. More importantly, a new focus away from legalism and accountability and on grace and love is building. I’m excited to watch it grow.
Two other new links are related, though not directly tied to our churches. ICOCNewsis the ‘unofficial’ news site for the ICOC churches. Started by a then member of the ICOC affiliated Chicago Church of Christ, now a member of the Naperville Church of Christ, it aims to report on happenings within the ICOC from a position outside the official leadership (there are other editors that remain in the ICOC). Members send in some articles and observations while others are pulled from church web sites and other official sources. It was born out of the revelations and changes of the last year and has, for me, been a great source of information for challenging my faith and convictions. Helped me determine just what I believe and why.
Lastly, InFellowship is run by the same guy as ICOCNews, but is a discussion forum. It’s purpose, from the main page:

This online community is designed to be a place where those in the International Churches of Christ and those in the Churches of Christ (and other restoration movement churches) can be “in fellowship” with each other.
The slogan for this site is “For God against no one”. We will not all agree on everything, and that is certain to be a source of much conversation. But the point is that those who consider each other to be “in fellowship” together though we may worship in different congregations can fellowship here.
Those that wish to debate or tear down any particular church or group of churches are encouraged to do so on other forums and not here. Disagree — sure — but from the perspective of being “in fellowship” with each other.

Those churches listed all have a common heritage called the “Restoration Movement“. Despite our common heritage, division rather than unity has marked our present and recent past. This site attempts to be a place where we can come together and learn from each other and grow closer to God. I’ve found it an incredible place to meet new disciples and ask questions about issues I’m wrestling with. Deep discussions, I visit there often.

This is a test to see if my new plug in works. It’s called Scripturizer from Dean Peters of “Heal Your Church Website”. He wrote the basics and had some help getting the bugs/enhancements worked out.
So what is it? Whell I type in “J o h n 3 : 1 6” and what comes out is John 3:16. Notice the link? Cool huh? I’ve been doing all these links in my QT juornal manually and it really bogs down my progress. Thanks Dean for sharing.

Well, I got more of the past entries up if you’re interested. Almost through January. 🙂

I’m adding a new link to the list. Douglas Jacoby has a PHD in Ministry from Drew University in New Jersey and a M.T.S. in New Testament from Harvard Divinity School. He’s been on staff of several churches around the world, both evangelist and teacher. He currently runs the Athens Institute of Ministry in Athens Georgia. He’s spoken and taught in more than 125 cities around the world.
I’ve known him in relation to his support of the children’s ministry over the years he spent on staff in the Washington DC Church of Christ. He was very supportive of the childrens ministry and those of us at work in that endeavor in the various churches affiliated wtih the Washington DC Church of Christ. He is an incredibly intelligent man with a big heart, especially for kids and family.
His website is absolutely packed with incredible resources for study. If you have a question, Doug will like have an answer on his site or will answer it in the Q & A section. New stuff is posted daily, check it out. I like the site so much it’s my home page.
More about DJ

Woo-hoo! I fixed it! I found a link in the MT forums to this page at the Movable Type Knowledge Base (also knows as MT Wiki, I guess??) about how to modify the CSS template. I still don’t understand it, but it works.

I’ve added another link to the list. VirusDoc is a weblog by a friend I met at an online site dedicated to the Honda Odyssey minivan. He posted there about his new web site, dedicated to his search for his own faith, inviting folks to come give him some help in reconciling his faith with his education. He’s a virus doctor, working on research in to genetics and viruses and how they work (feel free to correct me in the comments, ‘doc, it’s a bit over my head.).
As he explains on his welcome page, he started his web site to:

But this site is not about viruses, exactly. It is dedicated to my struggle to find my way back to God once again, after a long time of hating him, running from him, and just plain being confused by his seeming absence from our lives.

He and I have traded emails for a few months now on God, faith, evolution and other things. It’s a bit ironic that he, a firm evolution believer, and Gary Petersen, a strict creationist, should be my primary insirations to start a blog. I enjoy Virusdoc’s inquisitive spirit, looking for truth not just validation of what he already believes. Go take a look.

Well, with this entry I have to do two things I haven’t figured out yet, trackback and adding a link to my links menu. Wish me luck. 🙂
A Friend of mine, Gary Petersen, was kind enough to give me a mention on his weblog, Country Keepers. Gary is one of the reasons I have this blog. He and I met briefly while my company was working on a project for his company about a year ago. We were both present at the kick off meeting and sat next to each other at dinner that night. During the course of the conversation he mentioned his blog and I managed to remember the address so I could check it out. It was the first blog I had visisted, and I came back occasionally over the following months, eventually found other blogs I liked too and eventually started what you see here. I was pulled off the project almost right after that meeting and, although I was put back on it later, I don’t think Gary and I have met again since.
So if you don’t like what you see here, blame Gary, he started it. 🙂 Thanks for the mention, Gary.

Tweaked the layout a bit. I don’t quite get Cascading Style Sheets. Anyone reading this (either of the two of you 🙂 ) can give my an idea why the text of the body spills out the right side of the window? I’ve got some CSS and HTML learning to do! Getting closer to the look I want, though.