Church Marketing Sucks in the Door

Two potentially offensive organizations came together when the Wittenburg Door covered Church Marketing Sucks. It’s an interview with Brad Abare and I, and I think for the most part it went pretty well.

Being interviewed isn’t easy. Now I know why Bono always says the same thing all the time–he comes up with a good line and sticks with it. Me? I say something like this:

We’ve had the conversation about whether or not to use that word. Brad talked about it being taboo in his household growing up. I don’t feel it was necessarily taboo in my household, in my church, growing up. I’ve always appreciated the word. I guess I’ve never had a problem with it. It’s part of pop culture now. If you’re going to get offended about something, that seemed like the most minor and insignificant thing to ever be concerned about, a little word like that.

Always appreciated the word? What? I make it sound like one of my favorite words. And my mom will probably tell you the word was taboo, and my old church would probably say the same thing. I think I meant that the word just never had any bigtime negative connotations in my mind.

Well, one of these days I’ll figure out how to say witty and impressive things in interviews.

Non-Smoking Cities

The Twin Cities will become a non-smoking section on Thursday when smoking bans for Hennepin and Ramsey counties go into effect. I’m quite happy about it, though a bit peeved that Ramsey County has an exception for bars where liquor accounts for over half their sales. Which means most Ramsey County bars won’t be smoke free.

Though it will be funny to watch the masses of smokers gathering outside bars and restaurants as they try to hasten their own death. Thankfully they won’t be hastening mine anymore.

Real Magazine is Back

I’m a little hesitant to announce this publically, but what they heck? Real Magazine is back.

It’s my latest blog addiction, a blog for teens about faith and life. I’ve worked on teen web sites and magazines for a while now, and I’ve been frustrated that no one has started a teen blog. So I thought I’d suck it up and start my own.

I’m hesistant to talk about it because it just started. It’s not even a week old and it seems premature to be hyping it. I’m also still tweaking the extra pages, still finding typos, and still not satisfied with the logo and design. I’m also going out of town tomorrow so the updates will be sporadic at best.

But at the same time, I want people to know about it. I want teens to read it. So there it is.

I have all sorts of plans for content, including the ‘When I Was Your Age’ column I write for my youth group newsletter, as well as quotes, links, stats, reviews, interviews and all the stuff that makes blogs fun.

I’m going to keep babbling about it if you want to keep reading, but that’s the word in a nutshell. Go check out the newest teen blog.

Continue reading Real Magazine is Back

Not So Goodwill

And you thought your donation to the Goodwill actually went to the Goodwill. Turns out a percentage of used clothes are sold at Goodwill, but the rejects are shipped off to Africa where second-hand clothing is bringing down the textile industry.

Missionary Tim Hutchinson commented on the phenomena after seeing it in Africa and reading about it in the LA Times.

Movable Type Templates and Stuff

Today I set up a new blog and tried to scour the web for Movable Type templates. Surprisingly, I didn’t find a lot. I did find this site, though they seem to be too new to have much. There weren’t even any Google ads on the search results page for “Movable Type templates”, which makes me wonder if it’s just not an industry that’s sprung up yet. These guys seem to have discovered it, but that’s about all I could find.

I did find a cool site with lots of tips and tricks, including how to add both a left and right sidebar.

As If Being Gang-Raped and Pregant Weren’t Bad Enough

Fatima was just 15 when she was gang-raped in front of her mother. Seven months later, and by then heavily pregnant, the schoolgirl was arrested by the Sudanese police and charged with fornication. (Telegraph, March 13, 2005)

Fatima and hundreds of others like her, after bearing the shame of rape and subsequent pregnancy, now face extortion from Sudanese police. Fatima spent three days in jail with no food before her father could come up with half the 20,000-dinar fine to get her released (a fine which amounts to a quarter of Sudan’s average annual income)–all because she was raped.

This sort of thing should not be happening. Take action against it.