Once again, I’m going to be partnering with Outreach magazine
to develop the second annual America’s Most Innovative Churches list,
coming in the January/February 2008 issue. We want your help! We want
to hear about the churches YOU think are innovative, the churches, perhaps under our radar, that are doing ministry "out of the
box." What churches are using new strategies and methods in an effort to fulfill the Great Commission by delivering the unchanging Gospel message?

It could be your own church, or a church you admire. Nominate a church 
for consideration by the panel of experts that I will be connecting with in the coming days. They will be compiling a list of 25
churches, both from your nominations and their own research and
experience, that will be featured as America’s Most Innovative Churches
in 2008.

If you’d like to follow along at home, I’ve created a Squidoo lens to track the churches that have been nominated so far. Stay tuned for more details and dialogue. In the mean time, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this question:

In your opinion, what makes a church innovative?

UPDATE: By the way, you only need to nominate your church one time. This isn’t a vote. The panel will make the final selection.

Based on my Google Analytics stats from the past 30 days, here are the top countries by visitors to my blog (not including the U.S.):

1. Canada
2. United Kingdom
3. Australia
4. South Africa
5. Germany
6. New Zealand
7. Netherlands
8. India
9. Singapore
10. Mexico

The top international city was Brisbane, Australia followed closely by London, Toronto, Johannesburg and Sydney. In case you’re curious, my Italian friends were representing at #25. Also had one visit from Tehran, Iran. Amazing!

Based on my Google Analytics stats from the past 30 days, here are the top states by visitors to my blog:

1. South Carolina
2. Georgia
3. Texas
4. North Carolina
5. Florida
6. California
7. Ohio
8. Indiana
9. Illinois
10. Michigan

South Carolina and Georgia make sense, because they represent my NewSpring peeps. What’s up with Texas? Does my inner-cowboy resonate with that audience?

I will provide more details on this in the coming days, but I wanted to get something on the radar of Anderson, Clemson and Furman students returning for school. (Are there other schools in the area that I’m missing?) We are going to be launching an internship program at NewSpring this school year. There will be a number of positions available during the school year and ultimately through  summer break. The interns will be assigned to specific ministry areas, but we will also have regular gatherings to encourage spiritual and leadership development opportunities for all of the interns. Yea, we’ll also have some fun stuff on the agenda.

We’re still trying to lock down specifics. If you’re interested in receiving more details as they become available, email Sarah. And, if you know of college students in the Anderson/Greenville region that might be interested in this opportunity, please pass this information along.

In the mean time, I’m going to try to figure out what I’m going to say to all the interns on their first day at NewSpring. My first bit of advice may be stay away from professors that wear snake skin pants. Yes, I had a professor that wore snake skin pants, and I flunked his class. By the way, ever since then, I’ve never personally worn a pair of snake skin pants. What can I say–that episode really marked me for life.

Just in case you’ve succumbed to those clever Mac commercials and think "everyone must be getting a Mac." Think again. I just ran the FeedBurner stats for the last 30 days. These are percentage of people using each operating system:

1. Microsoft Windows = 81%
2. Mac OS X = 18%
3. Linux = 1%

The world still revolves around Windows. By the way, only 6% of Windows users have upgraded to Vista. Wonder how that compares to Microsoft’s expectations.

I have another key role on our team at NewSpring that I’m looking to fill in the coming weeks. We are hoping to identify an IT Director to lead our computer technology team and help design and implement technology solutions for our rapidly growing ministry. This is going to take a unique individual with a combination of leadership and technology skills. Here are some characteristics of the person we’re looking for:

• Loves Jesus and the mission and vision of NewSpring Church.
• Has the capacity to manage the church’s IT infrastructure including all network, hardware, software and help desk functions. This includes planning, purchasing, training, security and user support.
• Familiar with the challenges of managing IT functions across multiple locations.
• Has leadership and project management experience. Though this is a hands-on role, we need someone who can lead the team and drive our technology strategy for the future.
• Likely has a degree in computer science, information technology or a related field.
• At least 5 years of experience in the IT field preferably with supervisory experience.
• Appropriate certifications (MCSE and CCNP preferred) demonstrating capacity to oversee these critical functions.

This is a huge opportunity for the right person…but we need the right person. Is it you? Or, do you know someone who is wired for this role? If so, have them email their cover letter and resume to Sarah.

Using FeedBurner (which is now a part of Google), I’m going to be sharing a little bit about about the people who are visiting the website to access my blog. These don’t include the people who are subscribing through RSS feeds.

I just ran the numbers for the last 30 days. Here’s the percentage breakdown for the Web browsers that folks are using:

1. Windows Explorer = 63%
2. Firefox = 27%
3. Safari = 10%

By the way, it appears that most of the people using Firefox are on PCs rather than Macs. I’ll share those stats in a later post.

Just in case you forgot that not everyone thinks or believes like you…

"I’m not religious. I don’t think much about God, except when I am in a
pinch and need some special favors. I have no particular reason to
think he’ll deliver, but I sometimes take a shot anyway. Other than
that, I’m just not that interested in God."

The quote comes from Steven Levitt’s recent blog post. Levitt is one of the authors of Freakonomics (which, by the way, was a great book).

I’m fascinated that Levitt would be vulnerable like that with his thoughts about God and religion. Not many people have the courage to offer statements like that. Based on what he said, we know:

• He’s not looking for religion. (And, I don’t blame him.)
• Though he doesn’t have a relationship with God, his comments suggest he believes there is a God.
• There are times when he even practices the discipline of prayer even though he doesn’t have faith that those prayers will be answered.

I wonder how many more people there are like Levitt. I’m guessing there are a bunch. What would happen if there was a church that didn’t attack people like him, but rather designed their ministries to help nonreligious people connect with God…especially in those times when folks are "in a pinch?"

It’s quite possible someone like Levitt may never experience what a healthy relationship with Jesus looks like. But, rather than attacking guys like him, I’d sure like to pour my life into creating a church that tries to minister to guys like him.

According to this post from TechCrunch, I split $500 million with my fellow bloggers in the top 50,000 blogs. The Technorati rankings, which they used for this study, actually put me in the top 10,000 blogs hovering around #7,700. I just did the math. On average, those top 50,000 blogs are supposed to be bringing in $10,000 a year. I’m no where close. Revenues from my blog are around $100 per month–enough to cover my expenses and put a little "fun money" in my pocket. Obviously, it’s a good thing I’m not into blogging for the financial rewards.