gdp's Comments

Julian Freeman : Some Reflections on My Brief Foray into Reactionary Writing

Sat, 2 Nov 2013 15:00:37 +0000

We've all been there. Your first point reminds me of the difference between newspapers and magazines. A newspaper has to get the story out the next morning. A news magazine can take up to a month to offer analysis. It's better to have the perspective that comes with reflection; although sometimes, a highly-charged piece brings out things that might not surface without the attached emotion. (Pause while I wait to send this lest I am being reactionary!)

Ron Edmondson : Which Version of the Bible Should I Buy as a Gift?

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 23:52:54 +0000

If Eugene Peterson worked from original languages, then I don't see how The Message can't be termed a translation, albeit a loose one. As you do say it's a "thought for thought," which you include among your list of translation philosophies, then it surely belongs in the broad translation category. I say all this because I had a linguist tell me that they don't use the word 'paraphrase,' that any rendering of text 'X" for people group 'B' is translation. I think Evangelicals started using the p-word when the old Living Bible came out, but it was based on the Revised Standard Version, and was simply one man's retelling of that text to his children. But then the word took on a pejorative meaning among Christians, eventually giving rise to the need to 'bring the house up to the building code' resulting in the NLT, where the translators worked from original languages. I know The Message is a wild translation ride, but I think the use of 'paraphrase' is too dismissive.

Captain's Blog : Apparently My Book Reviews Suck

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:33:15 +0000

Maybe reviewing reviews is easier than reviewing books! I don't do as many as you do simply because if the book is a waste of time, I probably never requested a review copy in the first place. I try to look for similarities and differences. Similarities are easy. I've currently done an aggressive push on my blog for Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman, because I know people who read Radical and Crazy Love will also enjoy it. Differences can be easy, too; especially if the book has some unique feature; but some books simply don't stand out from the rest of the herd. I think generally, Christians tend to be less critical and more charitable toward not-so-great titles, and that can be a problem. If the book is really bad, I'll look for a picture of a cat doing something cute and post that instead, because if you say the book is weak or flawed, you get everyone telling you how judgmental you are.

Jenni Catron : Catalyst Pondering

Fri, 8 Oct 2010 03:07:11 +0000

The slow increase in the average age of attendees at everything from Christian conferences to Christian music festivals is a kind of microcosm of what happens in local churches, with Willow Creek being a good example. You can either lament that process, or try to find ways to keep the events and church services relevant to the true next generation.

LetsMoveToTheMoon : On Modifying Live Websites

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:08:08 +0000

Up to this point, my greatest worry was that my RSS subscribers get the first release of my posts containing the spelling mistakes my wife hasn't told me about yet. I see things could be a lot worse.

Stuff Christians Like - Jon Acuff : What are you reading? A Short Saturday Question.

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 03:15:09 +0000

The Last Christian - David Gregory (fiction) Radical - David Platt (non-fiction)

Michael Hyatt Blog : How to Keep Your Blog Posts from Dying in Your Archives

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 18:05:21 +0000

Great analogy between publishing and blogging. Not everybody is an expert on everything however, and many blogs will travel the same routes with repeats of various themes, or even pet peeves. This is an excellent opportunity to run internal links to your own previous posts, or you can refresh the content by paraphrasing your own previous posts and have them run on days you have no other new material. You can also try including a link in a comment if you see someone blogging recently on a rather distinctive topic you may have covered a year ago. Another strategy is to make sure that each item is sufficiently tagged, including words which help define what's written, but don't necessarily appear in the post itself. (Sometimes these can be too obvious: If the article uses the word "church" a dozen times, try using the tag "churches.") The more unusual the word, or the more selective the subject, the longer it will rank high in various types of search engines. I have some posts that refuse to die because not many other bloggers covered the same items.

Stuff Christians Like - Jon Acuff : We moved to Nashville.

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:54:23 +0000

This of course, just after it is announced that Gospel Music's Dove Awards are moving from Nashville to Atlanta. I guess this balances out the universe. (Jon Acuff = The Dove Awards; not bad!)

Stuff Christians Like - Jon Acuff : What are the best Christian blogs?

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 16:30:06 +0000

Kent Shaffer works hard each year to compile a list of what is now a statistical Top 100 plus 30 bonus blogs. You can read those here: http://churchrelevance.com/resources/top-church-b... The challenge however, is that once you find a few you like you kinda wonder what other ones they might recommend, and here's where it gets complicated, because the biggest and most successful blogs don't do blogrolls. (Though you can always click the links on comments, especially on subjects you really like, or you agree with the take of the comment.) If you click my link (paulthinkingoutloud) with this comment, I do work hard to maintain a very current blogroll, and also include links to Christian blog aggregators (such as Alltop, which Stuff Christians Like is part of) where you can have a peek at the 5 most recent posts from a number of good blogs.