New blog possibilities!

Are you a fan of our blogs? We are experimenting with putting our blogs on an outside host (Google’s Blogger.com) rather than directly on our website.

There are a few advantages to this possible change:

First, it will save us a little bit of memory on our church site because our blog pictures will be stored elsewhere. I know, that’s a pretty boring reason, but keep reading!

Second, we can separate our two blogs--the New Hope Connection blog and the Israel Connection blog--so they’ll be on different pages. So, for example, if you’ve been thinking, “I don’t care about whatever drivel that Brian Janssen fellow is typing, just give me more Israel talk!” then this would be perfect for you. Or, if you’re a skinhead neo-Nazi living in Wibaux, Montana, and you randomly stumbled onto our site and are inexplicably curious about our church life here in McMinnville, now you can skip Dewey’s Zionist rants. Or, maybe you really enjoy both blogs, but you find it somehow jarring to go straight from a moving entry about a suicide bombing in Haifa to a wacky picture of a toddler duct taped to the wall (hey, it could happen). Well, these are some reasons we might consider separating the two. Interesting? Try this one…

Third, you can click on any pictures that are included in a blog entry and (pop!) a larger version of the picture will appear! So, when you’re reading a blog entry and you see a group shot of our church and you think, “I wonder if that’s me right there?” you can click on the picture and see a bigger version of it! Go ahead, try it with the picture on the right! Isn’t that spiffy? But wait, there’s more!

Fourth, and most interesting to us, our current site has no way for readers to comment or respond to a blog entry. Have you ever read a blog and wanted to add your own two cents? We want our website to be a point of connection for the people in our fellowship. Wouldn’t it be neat if you could attach a comment to something you’ve read and then see what others have said? That way it’s more than just Dewey and me communicating to y’all--everyone can participate (unless you’re that guy in Montana--your comments will be blocked, so don’t bother).

So what do you think? Want to give it a try? I’ve already transferred a number of the New Hope Connection entries onto our experimental site, so feel free to visit www.newhopeconnection.blogspot.com and leave a comment to let us know your opinion!