Hey hey. Welcome to the new version of this isn’t high school. It looks a little different than last time you were here (unless, of course, you’re the one person who reads this in Google Reader and doesn’t visit the actual page…). Hopefully you like the new layout and design. My goal was that it would be easier to read and more streamlined.

Oh, and look, Capital Letters!

(The sad thing is the lower case letters is something I was very OCD about and most people probably didn’t even pick up on it. Oh well. Normal grammar in 2011!)

Before I go any further, I want to take a look back at last year on the blog. Here are the basic stats for 2010:

Posts: 68

Views: 4200

The fact that I had 4200 page views completely blew me away. That’s so cool. Thank you so much for reading this thing. As I told a friend of mine yesterday at church, I write for myself but it makes it much more fun when other people read it.

I said last week that the reason for the new site, the new web address, the new layout, and all of the things that have been changed is because I want to get more intentional about this site. “Intentional” is a very open faced term so I wanted to explain that a little more.

In my opinion, if someone works in ministry, having a blog is one of the most basic necessities to help their ministry. It’s an easy way to connect with other people in a very low-profile manner and it’s a way for people to get to know you outside of your corporate events. You don’t have to have a blog if you work in ministry, but I think you’d be crazy not to take advantage of it.

With that being said, in the past I’ve been very sporadic with my writing. Whenever something came up, I’d write about it. Some weeks I’d have 2-3 posts and some weeks I’d only have one (if that). This year, these are my goals for this isn’t high school:

a) Post at least twice a week: I want to make a new post on every Tuesday and Friday at the very least. I want to make that a constant.

b) Involve the ministry I work in more: I talk a lot about being on staff at Two Rivers Church and what our high school ministry does. While I talk about it, I rarely ever share the things that we’re doing. We are the most innovative ministry or the most cutting edge ministry, but I’d like to think we’re doing some things right. Starting now, I’d like to get into the habit of sharing the things we do on here. That includes posting videos that we do, posting graphics and promotions we do, sharing games that we develop, and even simply having reflection posts after events. These will be much more sporadic than my “scheduled” Tuesday and Friday posts but I think they’ll be a lot of fun.

c) Involve other people: I’ve spent the last seven years of my blogging “career” writing about myself and my thoughts and feelings. I’m still going to do that, but I’d like to bring in other people. I’d like to share with you guys the stories of some of the people I get to work alongside of and the awesome things that they do. I’m not 100% sure how I’m going to do this year, but it’s something I’m really looking forward to doing.

That’s it. Those are the changes. I really hope that I can make this blog something that becomes part of your normal internet routine and that no matter who you are or what stage of life you’re in, you’ll be able to get something out of the content that’s on here.

If you’ve got any suggestions or thoughts or comments or whatever, you’re more than welcome to e-mail me or comment on here and let me know. I’m completely open to other opinions on how I can make this site even better.

For this week, I’ve got something planned to be posted every day a 9am. Check back every morning and there will be something fresh and new to read.

Again, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to reading this. I hope that you have a great 2011 and I’m excited that you let me be a part of it.