Hey…if you’re new, welcome!
If you’ve been reading for a while, first off, thank you! Secondly, there are going to be many changes coming in the next few weeks. A new focus. A new theme. New content.
Please bear with me and let me know what you think. If you notice something that just sucks, please let me know! 
Every Friday I will post a few things I’m digging right now and a few I’m not. This could be anything from people to products, q-tips to quiet times. Pretty much anything. These aren’t meant to be full blog posts, just introductions to things/people you may or may not know about. Let me know what you think! BTW, these are in no particular order…
Faves:
#5: FM Static -- Take Me As I Am
Funny story. I’ve been listening to/singing this song for months now. I hear it on the radio ALL. THE. TIME! I could never figure out who sang it. Every time I heard it, they never announced the band or song title and always forgot to go looking for it. No one seemed to know. Finally yesterday I heard the song and realized about 10 seconds in that the woman on the radio had announced the band. I had to try and rewind and remember what she said. It worked. If you haven’t heard the song, check it out below!
#4: Ryan Detzel -- ThisIsReverb.com
*Photo by DetzelPretzel
Ryan Detzel is a tattoo’d, photo-taking, gourmet-cheffing pastor from Cincy. He’s the pastor at Vineyard Westside. He’s an amazing cook and an awesome photographer. He has two of the cutest kids ever (after my kids of course). On top of ministry info, he creates some crazy awesome recipes and loads of photos on his site. Go check him out!
#3: Ben Arment -- Whiteboard Sessions
*Photo by Story Chicago
Church Planter. Story Conference. Experience and Innovation Director. Catalyst Conference. Mentor. Dream Year. Author.
Ben Arment is, and has been, everywhere.
I’m really excited about The Whiteboard Sessions. 1 Day. 7 Influential Leaders. 30 Minutes Each.
Jonathan Fallwell. Al Mohler. James MacDonald. John Tyson. Perry Noble. Tony Morgan. Eric Mason. Worship Leader, Carlos Whitaker. Talk about a lineup!
This is straight from the Whiteboard site:
The Whiteboard Sessions is a one-day conference on Friday, May 21, 2010 about ideas in ministry -- ideas that will stretch our thinking and shape the church’s future. Eight, influential leaders will have 30 minutes each to present one, compelling idea. This could be a biblical conviction, a proven strategy, a recent epiphany, or even a raw, untested theory.
We’re asking the presenters not to bring a canned presentation, but rather to treat Whiteboard as an extended, senior-level staff meeting. We want them to roll up their sleeves and talk openly and honestly about what works or doesn’t work in their ministries. We believe you will be stretched by their thinking and challenged by their insights.
I can’t wait! Go check it out!
#2: Carlos Whitaker -- EP
*Photo by Loswhit
After spending 10 years in Cali as a Creative Arts/Worship Pastor at Sandals Church, Carlos left to work with Andy Stanley at Buckhead Church in Atlanta. Now he has signed with Integrity Music and is in the process of relocating to Chicago to work with Soul City Church as they launch this year. Los is a busy, busy man. I’ve been following him over the last year and even in that time have seen his ministry grow in amazing ways. God is using him for some amazing things. This week marked the release of his 3 song EP and saw it rise to #1 on iTunes in Christian music on day one! His full album drops on April 27th, but don’t wait. Go get his EP RIGHT HERE! I promise you won’t regret it.
#1: Apple -- iPad
9.7 inch multi-touch screen. Up to 64 GB Storage. Wi-Fi. 3G. Bluetooth. 1.5 lbs. 1/2″ inch thick. Wether you have a need for one or not doesn’t matter. You can’t deny it’s sexiness.
This post is more to keep track for myself, but also to keep me on my goals in a public forum, haha. Feel free to keep me in check.
Updated as of 10FEB09
Ok, so there’s blogging. What you see here. Typically extended essays or posts.
Then there’s microblogging. Twitter. Thoughts and one or two sentence messages. As you can see to the right, it’s not really useful for getting a large post out.
What about the middle? The “miniblogging”. The stuff that doesn’t really need a whole post, but is more than 140 characters. A set of pictures? A song you heard or wrote? Maybe even a voice message? That’s where posterous comes in.
I now have posterous here. There’s really no need to go there, everything posted there will automatically post here as well. It’s basically a way for me to send/post everything to one place and it sends it off to wherever it should go. Pics post to flickr, videos to vimeo. And it tweets everything I post there also. I’m going to test it out for a week or two and see how it works out. I may keep it, I may go back to friendfeed. We’ll see.
I’m working on revamping this site a little, let me know what you think.
Ok, so I’m driving to FL and back between Friday afternoon and Sunday night. A total of 30+ hours driving. I will make a few stops to hang out with a few friends (@laymanarts and @crucialencountr) but will be driving for most of the weekend. This leaves little time to write a blog for Monday. However, I will try to have Part 2 of my story up Tuesday morning at the latest. While you’re at it, go read Part 1 over here!
JG
I really haven’t been in the blogging mindset the last couple of days. I want to do another “About Me” post once I get enough questions, I just haven’t had much else to post about. This is still pretty new and honestly, not the top priority for me right now. For today, go read these awesome posts from some friends.
Tam Hodge wrote on God’s Sovreignty here and here.
Joshua White wrote on Waiting vs. Living here.
Carlos Whitakker wrote on The Great Hot Assistant Debate here.
Jon Acuff wrote on Quitting Your Job To Follow Jesus over here.
Go check these popst out of you haven’t already. Got a favorite read this week? Let me know in the comments!
Got a question to ask for my next “About Me” post? Put it in the comments.
JG
