I always wonder what the average person thinks about the number of hits, followers, friends, and subscribers people get on social networking sites and blogs. In many ways they are a legitimate form of recognizing those who have had “success” in various venues. In other ways they are just another way for us to be prideful of our success.

It seems that many within social media are always doing everything they can to get more “friends” on Facebook, followers on Twitter, and readers to their blog. As if they will become legitimized if they just get a few more people to notice and like them. Usually this involves asking everyone possible on those mediums to tell others to come read, follow, or friend you. And if you are like me, you think most people come across as desperate and silly.

I’ve done my best to try to avoid talking about my numbers on Twitter or my blog. Too many times I have seen people who go too far and come off just looking arrogant. It probably means I have less readers and such, but I’d rather do things my way anyway.

Then again, each hit, follower, or subscriber is a human being with a beating heart. In a sense, each hit on this blog is a virtual handshake. In college we took 10 minutes in my first business class to go over the art of the handshake and its importance. The numbers matter much like the handshake matters. The argument of, “the numbers don’t matter,” is the wrong argument because each number is a person.

I’ve always kept a “hit counter” on my blog that seemed much more accurate than what a lot of people use, but even that I’m considering getting rid of. I think stats are valuable in that you can gain respect and clout from the person who understands what the numbers mean. But there is a fine line between showing that some of your hard work has paid off, and using your readers or followers in order for you to look better.

So I’m looking for your help. I don’t have impressive numbers in anyway. Not on this blog, not on Twitter, not on Facebook. But I don’t really know what the best way to deal with these numbers is either.

What are your thoughts on the numbers game of social media?

I woke up Wednesday morning with a pretty bad sore throat (a very rare thing for me). I didn’t feel bad so I hoped it was just a one day thing. Leading worship for middle schoolers Wednesday night I could tell I was starting to fight something.

Fast forward to Sunday morning and I was in the midst of a full-on cold. The kind where you sound like a frog when you speak and feel tired all the time. And it was also one of those weekends where I could not get out of my duties of being at a practice on Saturday and leading worship on Sunday morning.

I led for the 11am service at Sunset yesterday. Here was our set:

• You’ll Come (E, Hillsong)
• From the Inside Out (C, Hillsong)
• Offering: You Never Let Go (A, Redman)
• Message
• Communion Special: By Your Side (G, Tenth Avenue North)
• Jesus Paid it All (B, Stanfill arrangement)
• You Hold Me Now (D, Hillsong)

I have a weird thing where most colds don’t affect my singing voice much. I definitely didn’t feel right, but most people told me they couldn’t tell I was sick. I think they were just trying to make me feel good because I felt pitchy and strained, but in the end none of that probably matters.

You’ll Come is a song that I have my own issues with as I shared before. We’ve sung it 4 times now and it still hasn’t caught on much. Tough to say whether or not we’ll continue to sing it as a community.

The last 3 songs were a perfect set. I love By Your Side and Jesus Paid it All. After those songs I spoke briefly about Christianity being a faith of the here and not yet. We can experience Christ’s presence now and yet we long for heaven.

Revelation 21:3-4

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

That passage led into You Hold Me Now which is a powerful song about heaven we’ve done quite a few times now. Here is a video of it (come here to watch RSS readers):

All in all it was a great morning. The band was solid and having the choir helped mask some of my vocal deficiencies. I felt like the congregation connected well with the last 3 songs. I definitely left everything my voice had to give on the stage. I had absolutely nothing left.

A great morning:

God was honored. People responded to the Gospel through music.

(Sunday Setlists)

After what has been a fairly miserable last few months weather-wise, we had a wonderful 60* day in Portland yesterday with lots of sunshine. The great part is that southern California was dealing with a nice day of rain. Not to rub it in, but hey we don’t get the chance to all that often.

I know most of you could careless about baseball, but I have a good feeling that my Twins are going to reverse the curse that Minnesota sports fans have been under since 1992. They are stacked for a great year in their new ballpark.

Blogs

1. Eugene Cho…”doesn’t live for the Jesus who eats red meat, drinks beer and beats on other men.”
2. Another great piece from Eugene Cho. This time he shares a theology of singlehood. Great work Eugene.
3. Church should be a place to be honest right? (I’ve had a lot of conversations about this at work the past few weeks)
4. Dave Ingland posted 3 questions that he asked me about the local church.
5. Anne Jackson wrote a post this week on her struggle with bi-polar. I appreciate her openness and authenticity so much.
6. Remember that post on “sportianity” I wrote on Monday? Scot McKnight wrote a great response to the Christianity Today article.

News

• The way shoes are designed may have changed how we run.
• Wonderful and heart churning article on Matt Chandler’s faith in Christ in the midst of dealing with brain cancer.
• Listen to the new Album Leaf album once through for free.
• America’s biggest rip-offs.

To those of you on the east coast, enjoy the snow. To those of you on the west coast, enjoy the warm sun.

Blessings.

For those you who haven’t heard, Tim Tebow is in a commercial being run by Focus on the Family during the Super Bowl. The ad is apparently Tim’s parents talking about the pregnancy complications they had with Tim and the difficulties they had with doctors encouraging an abortion.

The ad is controversial because typically major networks reject ads similar to the one that is scheduled to run. You might remember last year when this ad about abortion and Obama was rejected by NBC.

This week ESPN ran two opposing articles on the ad. Jemele Hill had this to say about Tebow and the ad:

“In today’s sports climate, expressing an opinion often results in serious backlash. In some cases, an athlete’s choosing to do what Tebow is doing might be professional suicide.

Tebow’s decision to appear in this ad should be considered just as courageous as Muhammad Ali’s decision to not enter the draft, or Tommie Smith’s and John Carlos’ black power salute at the 1968 summer Olympics.

No, I’m not kidding.

And yes, I’d say that if Tebow were appearing in an ad that advocated a pro-choice position.

Ali, Smith and Carlos championed their views at a time when not everyone supported the idea of equality, and when refusing to serve your country was considered blasphemous. Their views, to put it mildly, were thought to be inappropriate, militant and, in Ali’s case, completely anti-patriotic.” (read the whole article HERE)

Someone who disagrees at ESPN is Tim Keown who said this:

“Tebow is not an innocent, and he does not appear to be deluded. He may agree with everything Focus on the Family represents. But he’s still a young man, still breathing the fumes of a home-schooled background with two parents who believe in the inerrancy of every single word of the Bible. Now, they could be right and I could be wrong on the Bible thing — although it’s going to be hard to convince me the whole belly-of-the-whale thing wasn’t allegory — but he could be setting himself up to be associated with causes and beliefs that may not be his own. All the qualities that make him admirable — earnestness, devotion, a willingness to expound on his beliefs — make him vulnerable.” (read the whole article HERE)

I often share my opinions on this blog, because after all, it is my blog. But I think I’ll stay quiet in hopes that people with various opinions will feel comfortable sharing their thoughts. Hopefully I’m not opening a massive can of worms by blogging about this…

What do you think about Focus on the Family spending $3 million to run this ad?

What do you think about Tebow’s involvement with the controversial ad?

Is running this ad even controversial to you?

**UPDATE** Here is the actual video. Safe to say the uproar was way overdone based on what was actually aired:

It might seem weird for me to write about sports only 2 days after posting about the negative aspects of Christianity and sports interacting. But, come on…The Super Bowl is in 4 days and we all need to declare where our loyalties lie.

I’ll be honest…not much of me is happy to be watching this game without my team in it. They were clearly the better team a week ago but choked it away (the worst way to lose). And as painful as the loss was it makes it even harder to even think of rooting for the team that barely deserves to be there.

With that said, I’m picking the Colts to win on Sunday, 31-21 over the Saints.

Who do you think will win?

(RSS readers come vote in the poll HERE)

Growing up one of my favorite tv shows was “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?”

So…I’m curious, not for any particular reason , just seemed like something that would be cool to know…

Where do you usually read this blog from?

(This blog is usually written from Portland, Oregon)