The kids call me “Daddy Mama”!

This is a glimpse of one Wednesday afternoon for the Lewis clan!

I am taking a small break from what has been a weekend of unparalleled school work.  I have final exams next week, but that has nothing to do with this weekend.

I am writing a massive term paper on justification by faith.  I love the subject.  I enjoy digging in. Unfortunately, I have waited until the last possible moment to try and squeeze 15 coherent and intelligible pages together.

What bothers me is that I know this is a weakness of mine.  I know that I am prone to delaying things to the point that it places me in a time crunch.  I know this…and still…I let it sneak up on me!

I think I may do something about this…someday.

Thanks for letting me vent.

My progress (you can read initial post here) is slowly trending downward on the weight loss.  Still have 22 lbs to go on my quest.

I popped a blood vessel the other day trying to button a pair of pants and it only motivated me more.  No way I’m backing down now!

I have these cool new bands a friend at church brought me that I keep at the office.  There not very manly, but they basically let me do one long workout that lasts all day!

So far, the hardest thing to even attempt to give up has been the late night munchies.  I have not been 100% faithful, but I am definitely moving in the right direction.  Thanks for the encouragement!

Something interesting has happened lately.  My average daily blog traffic increased 197% in September over August and I would like to try to identify why.  I think I have a couple of general ideas, but I would like my regular readers to indulge me a small favor.

I have been intentionally posting more regularly and that in and of itself drives more traffic, but I am interested in what you like and don’t like about the content on this blog.

I am asking you to complete a four question survey for me about this.  If you would do me this small favor I would greatly appreciate it!

CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE THE 4 QUESTION SURVEY.

To expedite things I am limiting responses to the first 50 people.  I will randomly select one person (who supplies their contact info) to receive a free gift of appreciation.  Thanks for your support!

• Thought this past week’s services were amazing at WAC and looking forward to this Sunday!
• BTW…Josh Wyatt was able to get a new version of the home page up on the WAC website (click above).
• Had several incredible meetings this week with some guys who stretch me in a HUGE way!  I love pouring into other leaders and having them pour into me.
• The weight thing threw me for a little curve.  On Monday I had gained 2 pounds then lost three by Thursday.  Overall I am 11 lbs down with 24 to go.
• Final results for the poll earlier this week are in (the poll is now closed). Pay It Forward won with 34.15% of the vote with Living the Dream coming in 2nd at 19.51%.  Thanks for participating and taking the time to vote!

Have a great weekend!!

Posted in Church Stuff, My Thoughts - Chris, Personal - Chris, Useless Information - Chris ]]> http://chrislewisblog.com/2008/09/26/random-thoughts-6/feed/ 0 Chris http://chrislewisblog.com/2008/09/19/weight-loss-update/ http://chrislewisblog.com/2008/09/19/weight-loss-update/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:36:48 +0000 Chris Lewis http://chrislewisblog.com/?p=313 ]]>

Just a quick update on my weight loss challenge…I mentioned in this post that I gained 25 lbs since my rib injury.

10 lbs so far!!! I have been exercising more regularly and being sensible about what I eat.  These were the easy ones.  I should be able to drop another 10 pretty easily.  After that, those last 15 are going to be ROUGH!

Who do I have in mind when I write the crazy things I write on this blog?  Primarily…two groups of people.  Here goes:

1. People in my ministry – These are usually the primary people I have in mind when I am writing a post.  These are the people who are active in the ministry I serve.  Currently that is Washington Avenue Church…and previously it was through Damascus Road Ministries.

This is an excellent way for those connected with this ministry to know me better as a pastor and understand where I am coming from.  In the past, this could only be done through maybe a newsletter or the weekly bulletin.  I am thankful technology allows this way to communicate.

This is a much less formal way of communicating and allows people to see a side of me they might not otherwise see…simply because I don’t get to spend one on one time with everyone involved in a ministry.

2. Other ministry leaders - This group has grown significantly over the last 6 months.  I usually have a specific message in mind when I target a post more toward this group.  Through technology, I have the benefit of sitting down with some of today’s greatest ministry minds every morning and sharing thoughts on how to do Kingdom ministry in modern culture.

As God changes, grows, and develops my ministry and strategy, this is a group I am very burdened to communicate with.  I have often wondered what the impact on the spread of the gospel would have been if Paul had a blog, or Peter could Twitter?  I believe this is the greatest time in history to be alive for the spread of the gospel and I can’t wait to see what God accomplishes for His glory through technology!

3. Seekers – There is a third group…smaller in number…but not significance.  I have shared previously (this post) how many people who arrive here might not know Jesus personally.  I am always writing (as I hope we are always living) knowing that the person far from God is peering over my shoulder.

That’s about it.  I have one or more of those groups in mind with each post.  Thanks again for investing your time!  I will always try to be the best steward of it I can be.

Today marks the 150th post on my blog!

I really want to say thank you for taking your time to read. It means a lot to me that you invest the parts of your life that you do to read the things I write on here.  Thank you!

I think it is always critical to know the audience that you are communicating with – no matter the medium being used to communicate.  In this case, I have always felt like there are two core groups of people that I cater to when writing.  I am going to post about those two groups tomorrow.

For now, I just want to say thanks!  The first 150 posts have really flown by and I think (hope) this blog has begun to take on some specific characteristics.  I am excited to see the next 150.

Here are some things you can expect:

• I will try to never waste your time.
• I will try not to write something I would not want to read myself.
• I will always speak the truth – even when it isn’t popular.
• I will be as funny as I am humanly capable.

Thanks again for reading and tell your friends how to subscribe here!

• Excited about our current series “Living the Dream” at WAC.  This Sunday is going to be awesome!
• We started Next Steps this week.  This is a “home group” style meeting that meets at the church each Wednesday.  It is the next step a person who is visiting our church takes.
• After dumping it a while ago, I now have a Facebook again.
• Going to our first Clemson game this Saturday!  Really hope it’s a strong showing.
• There is a cat hanging around our home.  It tries to get inside.  It is not looking good for the cat!  We may have some Chinese food tonight!
• I have become addicted to taser videos (videos that show people being tased).  Below is one of my favorites: (if the link doesn’t work go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPENzKOmOl0

I went to the doctor the other day for a sinus and bronchial infection I have had for about 7 weeks.  What I discovered while I was there was HORRIFYING!

Since shortly before I broke my ribs on June 13 (post here and here), I have been less active than normal.  As a result I have gained 24 lbs in less than 2 months!!!  OH MY GOSH!!!!

I have set a target of 35 lbs to lose and I am going to periodically post my progress.  Anyone is free to openly hold me accountable! I am serious about this.

It has been 5 days since that doctor’s visit and I am down 4 lbs.  31 more to go!

You: Do I what?

ME: Twitter.

You: What’s that?

Me: It’s really cool!  It answers the question “What are you doing right now?” in 140 characters or less!

You: Sounds boring.

Me: That’s because you’re a nerd!  It’s really fun to “follow” a group of friends and get the 411 that you have to keep on the DL.  Know what I mean?

You: What?

Me: OMG!

You: Are you okay?

Me: LOL!

You: So how does it work?

Me: I have no idea!  But if you go to http://twitter.com/lewischris you can set your Twitter up and “Follow Me”.

You: Follow you where?

Me: Now you’re just being sarcastic!

You: Okay, okay…anything else I need to know?

Me: Only that you can set Twitter up to send text messages to your phone and you can even get desktop applications to keep your “tweed” (that’s your Twitter-feed) right out front.  Hurry up…it’s fun!

You: Sounds a little overboard!  But I’m going to give it a shot!

Me: Gr8!  C U L8R!

You: Freak!

This will save you tons of time. If you read this blog or others regularly, you can save a lot of time by using a feed reader. Here’s how it works:

1. You provide the blogs you like to keep up with.
2. It monitors when there are new posts and delivers them to you in one place!

Here’s how you can receive automatic updates to this blog:

1) Use a Reader. Most blogs use RSS (Real Simple Syndication) “feeds” which can be aggregated together and displayed by what’s known as an RSS or Feed Reader. Some examples of free readers are Bloglines, Google Reader, or most of the newer web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari) have readers built in. Readers make it much easier for you to organize the feeds of all of the blogs you follow. If this is something you’d like to explore, you can visit our main swerve feed at http://chrislewisblog.com/feed/.

2) Email Subscription. If you’d rather have new posts delivered to your inbox as an email, you can easily subscribe here or by selecting “Subscribe Now” on the right side of this page and entering your email address on the next page where you have the option to subscribe by email. You will get a confirmation email that you must reply to and then each day you will receive one email with the latest posts.

3) Twitter. For those of you who use twitter…I recently started a twitter that you can follow at http://www.twitter.com/lewischris. You can get text messages or instant messages each time something new is posted to swerve.

By using a reader or subscribing to your favorite blogs by email or twitter, you can save a ton of time…which can free up more of your time to interact with others or explore and learn from other blogs.

I follow these guys a lot and think they are doing an incredible work for Jesus! It’s nice to see they have a little bite to their bark! Click below to read what happened…

GaryLamb.org » Blog Archive » Trailer Stolen

My doctor gave me a prescription and told me of something that Publix pharmacies are doing (ask your doctor about this – it is so cool)!  They have supplied medical offices with a huge list of pharmaceuticals they will provide to anyone for free with a prescription!  I don’t know how or why, but that is so cool…I don’t think I have ever had a prescription filled at Publix before, but that is an incredible way to earn my business!

I am now emerging from the infection induced fog I have been and so far, Gracie (5) and Topher (7) are the only others to be hit with it.  I am praying Tabitha stays healthy since the family unit pretty well shuts down without her at the helm.  Anyway, I’m back in the saddle and absolutely cannot wait to hit the 35 things I missed this week head on.  It is so unbelievably awesome to miss your “job”!

I don’t know what you fill your days with during the week, but I hope it is something you are passionate about and God has gifted you for.  It makes all the difference in the world!  Do you love what you do?  Doing something you love where you can earn something, is better than stockpiling riches doing something that makes you miserable.

• Galileo was born in 1564
• The “Teddy Bear” launched in 1903.
• Socrates was sentenced to die today
• Baseball owners locked out the players during the strike in 1990
• Dale Earnhardt won the Daytona 500
• Some guy named Paul Shirley sucked on a LifeSaver for 4 hours and 40 minutes!
• John Newton (Amazing Grace) wrote these words,“We serve a gracious Master who knows how to overrule even our mistakes to His glory and our own advantage”.

I hope everyone that’s down feels better soon!

• Registered for classes for this term.  I cut back on hours a little…18 hours was killing me!
• Clemson lost in overtime, but about 15 minutes after the game was over it was next year so I got over it quickly.  That was last year and I refuse to live in the past!
• Brand new services start this week at Washington Avenue – 9:00 or 10:30!
• I am pleased to report that after an extended sabbatical, Tab is blogging again!
• It’s finally felt a little like winter this week!

I will give a good run down on the multiple services tomorrow.  This is the first time I have done this so I’m excited and a little nervous!  Later…