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Top 10 in 2010 – My Favorite Posts

December 30, 2010 in Blog News with 0 Comments

2011 New Year_thumb[2]Yesterday, inspired by Sam Luce (as I always am), I started a series of posts with my yearly top ten lists.  Yesterday, we tackled the most popular posts of 2010.  Today, I want to look at some of my favorites.

  1. This Sunday [05/30/2010]
  2. Why Yelling Doesn’t Work [12/03/2010]
  3. A Glimpse Into God’s View of Divorce [12/02/2010]
  4. My Birthday and the Book of Judges [08/26/2010]
  5. On Missing and Being Missed [03/30/2010]
  6. Them People Ain’t So Smart! (Children’s Ministry Moment #10) [07/09/2010]
  7. Crazy For Jesus [07/27/2010]
  8. Continue Reading…

Top 10 in 2010 – Top Posts/Pages

December 29, 2010 in Blog News with 0 Comments

2011 New YearLast year, I did a year-end post which included a number of lists from the year.  This year I decided to rip off an idea from THE Sam Luce and do a series of posts up to (and maybe in) the new year summarizing some top ten items.  In fact, I liked Sam’s idea so much, I almost stole (errr…..borrowed) his graphic as well, but I decided not to go that far!

This morning’s post is the top ten most popular posts/pages on this site based on views during the year.

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A Dad in the Middle Apology

November 8, 2010 in Blog News with 0 Comments

imageI wanted to take a second to apologize for the barrage of posts yesterday, and apparently this morning, with my Twitter Weekly updates.  No, I do not think that what I say in Twitter is so important that you need to read it 20 times.  The Twitter Updates posts is an automated feature and, for some reason, that feature went berserk yesterday.  So, I apologize for flooding your rss reader, for over-tweeting, for multiple posts to Facebook, for e-mails that went out multiple times, and for those on CMConnect that this glitch rocketed me up to #1 in “Today’s Leaders” on that site.  I guess maybe that was the silver lining. Winking smile  The posts seem to have stopped for now – I hope!  I am looking into to why it happened in the first place and hope to avoid a similar glitch in the future.  I appreciate all of you who regularly read Dad in the Middle!  I even appreciate those of you who only stop by every once-in-a-while. Smile

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Dad in the Middle, Kidmin1124 and A Very Good God

September 21, 2010 in Blog News with 0 Comments

top-100-cmblogs I first started blogging a little over two years ago, and I started earnestly blogging (meaning more than once a month or so) about a year-and-a-half ago.  I also started Kidmin1124.com this past June as a collaborative blogging effort written entirely from the perspective of children’s ministry volunteers and bi-vocational children’s ministers.  In addition to being a contributor to that blog, I also serve as its editor.  In the time I have been blogging, I have really enjoyed working on both Dad in the Middle and Kidmin1124 (well, most of the time).  At other times, I have actually felt like throwing in the towel.  I regularly question and reevaluate the usefulness of the blogs and the amount of time they consume.  Through it all though, I have felt God’s presence.

I can’t count the number of times I have relayed the story of how I started Dad in the Middle and how I was totally caught off guard and surprised when people actually started to read it and give me feedback on it.  Recently, though, I have started to feel some conviction about my continued expressions of shock at the reception to these blogs.  I started to wonder it, rather than humility, it was really a slight against My God.  Why should I continue to be surprised that he can work through broken vessels like me to reach people with his message?  My surprise was/is genuine, but as I continue to express to people my utter amazement that people would actually visit and read the blog, am I essentially saying “my God isn’t capable of working through something like this and it must be some fluke?”  So, am I amazed that God chooses to work through Dad in the Middle and Kidmin1124?  Yes, of course I am – in the same way that I am amazed daily by his grace, and in the same way I am floored by the realization that he died on a cross because of me and for me.  Am I shocked that he can work through me?  Absolutely not – if he can work through a donkey in the Old Testament, He can work through me today.  Some might argue that there really isn’t much difference (ask my wife). :)

So, my hope is that I can adhere to the words of Paul when he wrote: Continue Reading…

Dad in the Middle: Plans for the Immediate Future

September 1, 2010 in Blog News with 1 Comment

DITM Thumbnail 125x125 Every once in a while, I like to step back and let the readers of this blog into my mind.  I know it can be a very scary place, but I’ll do my best to keep the lights on and keep this trip shorter than usual!  Relax, this is not another retrospective on this blog or a grand announcement of where we’re heading, but I did take some time during my Dark Week to reflect on blogging – what I do – and why I do it.

I have always said, and still do, that I blog principally as a means of processing my own thoughts and recording my own walk with Jesus.  I find that writing things out helps me to process them in a way that nothing else does.  However, something strange happened along the way, a God thing if you will, people started to read what I was writing and give feedback on the site.  You can imagine my surprise!   Suddenly, I felt God calling me (tugging me really) in a whole new direction to share my thoughts and experiences through blogging and allow him to use it to edify others.  I try not to say “No” to God as much as possible, so I went ahead writing and trusted Him to use it however he wished.

Through blogging though, and other online endeavors, I’ve met a slew of wonderful people who work in kidmin.  Not the least of those was Tony Kummer from Ministry-to-Children.com.  Ministry-to-Children.com quickly became one of my favorite sites, and I was flabbergasted when Tony asked me to start writing for his site several months back.  Given that Tony’s site would allow me to reach more people with the thoughts and ideas that God was laying on my heart, I quickly accepted and have published a number of articles on that site over the last several months.

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500 And Still Counting!

August 20, 2010 in Blog News with 4 Comments

image Well, today is officially my 500th post on Dad in the Middle, and it seemed like an appropriate time to take a stroll down memory lane, and what better way to do that than by hosting the official Dad in the Middle Awards show.  Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome our not-so-esteemed host….Me.  So, let’s get started by category:

1. The award for Oldest post on Dad in the Middle goes to What Does God Hate?

You heard right.  My very first post was about hate.  Even more it was about things God hates – not a very popular topic in our “God is Love” culture.  Originally published on Facebook on 7/28/2008, this post was inspired Proverbs 6:16-19.

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Ads or No Ads – What I Decided

July 21, 2010 in Blog News with 2 Comments

ForSaleinClouds Dad in the Middle has become a bit of a labor of love for me.  Sometimes I think I should give it all up, and I wonder whether it is all really worth the time.  What I started as an outlet for me has become something that other people read.  Every time I think about that, I am extremely humbled and somewhat astounded.  That coupled with some very encouraging words from people I have met online and several that I spoke with last week at the CM Expo really encouraged me to persevere.  I write what I write and publish what I publish not because I feel like I have anything special to offer but because people have expressed to me that it has been edifying to them.

With that introduction, the purposes of this post is to explain why I have decided to offer advertising space on this blog.  I feel like this site has a loyal group of readers, and I felt like I owed you some explanation for the change.  That said, I have some idea who those readers are, and I don’t think the advertising is going to be a put-off to them, but an explanation still seem warranted.  When I started this blog, the thought of including advertising was the furthest thing from my mind.  I never imagined that enough people would read it that anyone would even want to advertise (maybe they still won’t).  Don’t get me wrong, the site doesn’t get massive numbers these days, but it does get enough that some people may want to advertise their products on the site.

As the site has grown, I’ve spent more and more time and more and more money on it, and if some of that money can be recouped from advertising, it seems like a win-win situation.  Secondly, and more importantly, one of the purposes I have for this site is to be a source of information for people in children’s ministry.  My hope is that the ads on the sight may expose you to products and services which you are not aware of but which would be beneficial to your ministry.

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