Andy Rowell

Church Leadership Conversations

  • Why I redesigned my blog

    I added the explanations to the right about how to use this blog after talking with various people who are new to blogging and therefore gave me the honest "the emperor has no clothes" feedback that

    a) they thought my old Blogger site looked better and was simpler and less busy and

    b) that they had no idea what a blog was for and that all the features are confusing.  What the heck are categories?  Andy_practice

    Therefore I tried to make sure there is more "white space" and tried to think "less is more" in designing.  One thing I got rid of was the second picture of me on the same page.  (See below middle snapshot).  My wife thought it was definitely too much and when your wife says that . . .   🙂  She hasn’t looked at the new site and I’m not holding my breath.  I think she has read under 5 posts ever.  She is interested in the subject matter.  (She has her MDiv, has pastored, and also teaches Christian ministry at Taylor).  She simply would rather talk to live human beings than read blogs.  Can you believe that?  🙂 

    Here are printscreen ("prt sc") snapshots of the the three versions: old, initial typepad, present.  First_move_thyself_snapshot New_blog_1 Church_leadership_conversations_snapshot_1

  • Viewing My Blog in Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer

    Internet Browsers:

    I still usually use Internet Explorer as my internet browser but most experts say that the (free for download) Mozilla Firefox is much better once you get used to it.  So I’m trying to get used to it.  I don’t like how it displays my Taylor webmail (this is predictable because it is "Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access" created by Microsoft which also created Internet Explorer) so I don’t think I’ll totally switch.  There is also a new Internet Explorer 7 that you can download for free I think that is in "beta" or testing mode. 

    Site Redesign:

    I redesigned this blog this week.  It looks quite a bit different.  When I tried to open the site with Mozilla Firefox, it still showed the old website.  The reason is that Mozilla Firefox stores the basics of your website in its memory and just reloads the new content. 

    For it to show correctly I had to go into Mozilla Firefox and go to Tools . . . Options . . . Privacy . . . Cache . . . Clear Cache Now.  When I reloaded the site then, it worked great.  The new one looks like this: 

    Church_leadership_conversations_snapshot_2  

  • Two Outstanding Ortberg Sermons without a Text

    John Ortberg, pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, is probably my wife Amy and my favorite preacher.  John_ortberg2_1 He is funny, winsome, biblically sound, practical, and clear.  I was at Willow Creek’s midweek New Community service last week and people cheered when they announced John was coming back to guest teach again August 2nd.  He is deeply loved there by the people he taught for years. 

    We have recently listened to two outstanding sermons by him.  You can find his sermons here.  He 3/05/06 sermon "An Ordinary Day with Jesus" is practical and thought provoking.  It is based on the adult curriculum of the same title. 

    His next one on 3/12/06 "The Church on Monday Morning" is also incredible.  It is about the people of the church getting out and making a difference for good in the community.  It is inspiring!

    In neither one does Ortberg focus on one specific text.  And yet his theology is good and it is practical.  Amy and I have been taught to focus on one text in preaching and we teach our students to do the same.  And here our favorite preacher isn’t!  Cognitive dissonance – oh no! 

    I would explain it this way.  In these two sermons, Ortberg briefly outlines the biblical principles that could be exegeted from many passages and focuses his sermon on fleshing out application.  You could look at them as long application sections of an expository sermon where the exposition is assumed! 

    There is a place for these topical sermons but a congregation needs a steady diet of Scripture or they will depend on the preacher and his whims.  But if you want to hear good topical sermons, listen to these two.  They come highly recommended.