We’re Ranked #105 in the Top 130 Church Blogs

ChurchRelevance.com ranked Confessions of a Small Church Pastor as #105 in the annual Top 100 Church Blogs rankings.  Of course this year they threw in 30 more blogs, so we made the cut in the Top 130!  Am I wrong, or is this the only small church blog that made the list?

Give yourself a giant pat on the back because YOU made this happen.   Readers make blogs, and you’re the greatest bunch of blog readers any blogger could hope for. (This is where the violins start.) No joke, and thanks for reading.

Looking For Churches Doing Cool Outreach Stuff

Okay, enough of the shameless self-promotion.  Here’s your opportunity to have the spotlight for your very own 15-minutes of fame.  I’m always looking for churches doing cool outreach stuff, particularly churches that run 300 or less in attendance.  If your church is doing something interesting in outreach, or you know of a church that is, please let me know.  You just might get featured either here or in my Outreach magazine column, Small Church, Big Idea.  Thanks.

What Are You Doing for Palm Sunday and Easter?

Finally, I’m interested in what your church is doing for Palm Sunday and/or Easter Sunday to connect with your community.  I’m working on a column of ideas for that week, and would love to include yours.  Email me at chuckwarnock (at) gmail (dot) com with a paragraph or two about your plans.  Please include your church name and location, a link to your website, and any photos or artwork you can attach (without crashing google’s servers) and I’ll include that, too.

For those who do sermon outlines or manuscripts, I’ll link to your Easter sermon if you’ll provide the link, your name, your church, and the text you’re using.  These will go up on Friday before Easter if I get enough, so let me know.  Remember, I need a link, not the whole sermon, so you have to post it somewhere yourself.  Thanks.

Over 300,000!

Today Confessions of a Small-Church Pastor passed 300,000 page views!  Readership has grown by 50,000 page views per year since I started this blog in December, 2006.  Thanks for reading and commenting and sticking around for three years.

You can help spread the word about this blog, which is devoted to churches under 300 in attendance, by telling your friends, fellow pastors, church leaders, and others interested in small church ideas and issues. When I saw Ed Stetzer at the National Outreach Convention again this year, he commented, “I like the blog.”  Ed had told me last year that Confessions was the largest small church blog around, so I took it as a compliment that he still likes it.

A couple of interesting things have happened as a result of the reach of this blog:

• Outreach magazine has just named me Contributing Editor for small church concerns;
• a major Christian publisher is talking with me about a small church book;
• and, I’ll continue writing the Small Church, Big Idea column for Outreach, in addition to other articles I’m working on about small church ministry.

I’m also looking for stories of small churches doing exciting, innovative ministry.  If your church has a story of a successful ministry experience, I’d like to hear it.  Email me — chuckwarnock [at] gmail [dot] com — and provide a brief summary of your church story.  Who knows — your story might end up in Outreach magazine or in an upcoming book chapter. BTW, this blog is now available to Kindle owners through Amazon’s Kindle Store for the ridiculously low price of $0.99 per month.  Of course, it’s free here all the time.

Again, thanks for sticking with me for three years.  Slowly but surely, small churches are being celebrated for the incredible work they are doing in urban, suburban, rural, and small town settings, and you’re an important part of that story.

Over 200,000!

Today this blog went over 200,000 views!  Of course, you get all the credit because without you — and a couple of hundred-thousand others — Confessions of  a Small-Church Pastor would never have reached this milestone.  So, thanks for stopping by, or for reading by feedreader, or email, or Facebook, or Twitter, or however you check in.  Oh, and thanks for commenting, too — your comments help others, me included.

One more thing: some big stuff is in the works for later this year.  Stay tuned. Tell your friends. I’ll keep you posted.  Thanks.  You made my day!

Twitter, Facebook up and working

I’ve added my Twitter link to the right widget column and my Facebook link to the left column.  Please help me jump the Facebook blog hurdle by confirming I am the author of this blog by clicking here.  Then, friend me on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter.  I’ll be doing more stuff on both this week!  Thanks.

Two blogs I always read…and one new one

I pared down my Google reader list several weeks ago.  I was trying to keep up with too many blogs, too many bloggers, and too many categories.  Now I have 5 categories — culture, emerging church, marketing, simple life, and small church — 33 subscriptions in all, down from about 100.

But, even with my reduced list, I still don’t get to read everybody everyday.  Sometimes I hit the ‘mark as read’ button and just start over the next day.  (Sorry, but it’s true.)  But, there are two blogs I always read — Seth Godin and anything Kevin Kelly writes.  Seth always has a pithy, slightly off-beat post.  Which you might expect from the guy who wrote “All Marketers Are Liars” and “Purple Cow” and so on.  Kevin Kelly is one of the founders of Wired magazine, a Christian, and an amazing thinker.

Now I’ve added one new blog to my list, Reaching the Online Generation.  The guys at CityTeam have some really good ideas about using the wired world to reach people for Christ.  Now, in my setting I don’t get to use all their ideas, but I don’t get to use all of Seth Godin’s or Kevin Kelly’s either.  I just find them interesting.  Hope you do, too.

All my stuff in one place

I’ve got a new aggregator, chuckwarnock.com.  All my blogs puddle up on this one site, so it’s like one-stop shopping for the blogophile.  Here are the blogs at chuckwarnock.com –

• Confessions of a Small-Church Pastor – a gathering place for the small church community — a blog sponsored by Outreach magazine for  churches with less than 300 attendance. 
• Amicus Dei – becoming a friend of God in a community of faith – spiritual journey, peace and justice, and emerging/missional issues.
• Sermons, etc – full-texts and podcasts of sermons I preach, usually with scripture from the revised common lectionary.
• futurechurchnow — how today’s trends are shaping tomorrow’s church — trends, thinkers, technology, and other trends affecting church now and in the future.

Bookmark chuckwarnock.com or put me in your feed reader.  Comments are turned off, but you can click on a post and leave comments on the original post.  Hope this helps.  Let me know.  Grace and peace. — Chuck

All my stuff in one place

I’ve got a new aggregator, chuckwarnock.com.  All my blogs puddle up on this one site, so it’s like one-stop shopping for the blogophile.  Here are the blogs at chuckwarnock.com —

• Confessions of a Small-Church Pastor – a gathering place for the small church community — a blog sponsored by Outreach magazine for  churches with less than 300 attendance. 
• Amicus Dei – becoming a friend of God in a community of faith – spiritual journey, peace and justice, and emerging/missional issues.
• Sermons, etc – full-texts and podcasts of sermons I preach, usually with scripture from the revised common lectionary.
• futurechurchnow — how today’s trends are shaping tomorrow’s church — trends, thinkers, technology, and other trends affecting church now and in the future.

Bookmark chuckwarnock.com or put me in your feed reader.  Comments are turned off, but you can click on a post and leave comments on the original post.  Hope this helps.  Let me know.  Grace and peace. — Chuck

My writing life reorganized

I write three blogs, and now four.  “How does he find the time?” you might ask.  Doesn’t actually take that much time because these are things I’d be interested in even if I didn’t write about them.  For me blogs are a way to organize my thoughts and reading.  But I am trying to focus the content of each, as follows:

• Confessions of A Small-Church Pastor:  Issues, ideas, and inspiration for the under-300 attendance church.  New posts on pastoral care, leadership, and the weekly Big Idea are in the works.  Watch for new features for 2008!
• Amicus Dei:  The focus is on friendship with God in a community of faith.  Spirituality, stories of the journey, peace and justice themes, and some book reviews, all from a missional point of view. 
• Chuck Warnock: Sermons, etc:  My sermon texts and podcasts based on the Christian Year and the Revised Common Lectionary. 
• NEW!! FutureChurchNow:  Today’s trends and how they affect tomorrow’s church.  Posts weekly with feed of interesting trend articles for your own browsing.  I’m not predicting trends, just reporting with some comment on the implications for doing church. 

Thanks for your support whether you’re a reader of all or one of my blogs.  Some new stuff is in the works for 2008 and I hope you’ll be part of it!  Peace.