Godbit Project

John Saddington

2010-01-07T06:16:27Z

Most people have the energy to either blog diligently, work diligently, or study diligently. John Saddington is a rare individual who seemingly juggles it all — not to mention being a husband and father. He’s also a prolific user of Twitter — @Human3rror. Last week, coworker Curtis Simmons and I had dinner with John, after which I asked if he’d do an interview for Godbit.

Photo credit: Esther Havens

Nathan:

People know you best from your popular blog ChurchCrunch. Though you update it quite frequently, not a whole lot is said about you personally. Would you share a bit about how you got your start in blogging, and the web in general?

John:

I started blogging in 2001 when the girl I was dating at the time suggested I start a blog on Xanga.com. I thought it was pretty lame, but I didn’t want to make her upset so I complied. Needless to say, I was hooked and by the end of the year I had tried every blogging platform that existed, searching for a perfect system. I eventually landed on WordPress and have found it to be the best solution so far.

But, my love for the web started much earlier. I started developing code as a middle schooler with HTML, animated GIFs, and flaming horizontal rules. Those were the good old days. I learned that you could earn decent money (more than decent) doing web development after I had taken a dive into Macromedia products, namely Flash.

Nathan:

What made you want to pursue a higher theological degree? Particularly, what appealed to you about Dallas Theological Seminary? We have had a bit of discussion about how some refer to seminary as “cemetery” – something I have done so myself. What are your thoughts on that comparison?

John:

I had hopes (and still do) to become an educator. I have a heart for encouraging and teaching others biblical truths and a seminary degree seemed like the next step in accomplishing that goal. I chose Dallas Seminary because they have a rich tradition of diving deeply into the Scriptures and that’s what I wanted to know more about, the Word of God.

I think seminary, like many things, is what you make of it. A poor attitude about anything, including seminary, will result in a poor results and a somewhat meaningless experience. I do find it hard to understand how people who have committed significant time and financial resources to complete their degree then turn around and make light of it. I just don’t see how that honors the God who enabled them to pursue a deeper relationship with Him through advanced educational facilities.

Nathan:

When it comes to content management, debates can escalate to levels of nearly religious fanaticism. I know that you are quite fond of WordPress, but how do you think it fares in terms of handling large-scale sites? That is, it can run high-traffic blogs just fine (scaling vertically), but how well would you say it works for a broader scope of information architecture (scaling horizontally)?

John:

Wow, that completely depends on it’s use and the functionality that’s employed. WordPress can obviously scale vertically as large as you’d like it to go; just consider WordPress.com as a prime example of that! But it doesn’t fare as well horizontally in comparison to it’s vertical abilities, and that’s simply because it wasn’t ever really built for that initial scope and scale. It’s a blogging platform, not a CMS. Sure, you can convert it, hack it, manipulate it to do such things but it quickly becomes “brittle” the more customization is required.

In the end, though, it’s all about how you use it. My consistent suggestion and counsel to businesses and organizations is to find the “right” choice for their needs and choose the best technology solution that meets those needs the best (duh, right?). Don’t be so dogmatic about a certain technology just because you think it’s awesome. Don’t handcuff yourself (or your clients) because of a misplaced allegiance to particular 1’s and 0’s.

Nathan:

Speaking of larger scale sites, I am curious about how North Point approaches its web presence across multiple campuses. Do all the locations and their respective sites roll up under one centralized team, or is each campus more autonomous?

John:

North Point gives significant creative freedom to their local campuses because ministry is best done in the context of the community in which it is found. As a result, their web presences are unique and relative to their local bodies. But, we attempt to streamline the process from a web perspective to save cost, overhead, and manpower by centralizing efforts into one team. This has a number of challenges — such as potential duplicate effort across multiple sites, properties, and platforms — but it’s worth it to create customized, contextual experiences.

Nathan:

Most recently, you helped oversee the launch of North Point Online, with a focus on getting the message out via video. After having successfully deployed the endeavor, is there anything you would have done differently and/or what went particularly smoothly that could be emulated again?

John:

You know, I sat on this question for a long time, trying to think of something “negative” to say, or drum up something that I would do significantly different, but I honestly can’t say that anything strikes me immediately. That’s not to say that we did it perfectly, but I see God’s sovereign hand moving in every false start, decision to change technology platforms / providers / partners, and other “bumps” that occurred in the process. I think one of the greatest things that I learned is that due-diligence is highly underrated and that conservative decision making is better than risky technology launches in the long-run.

I work with some of the most talented people in ministry technology and obviously some of the most gifted leaders. It was a cornucopia of talent and it was a pleasure to be a part of the team.

Nathan:

What advice would you give to newer and/or smaller churches, attempting to leverage the ubiquity of the Internet to supplement their ministries?

John:

I would say it’s not a question of what you can do — because you can do anything and everything — but rather what you should do, considering your particular ministry, leadership, context, history, and culture. All these play significant roles in how you use technology and which you ultimately choose to leverage. Don’t reverse the decision making procress by choosing tech and then attempting to retrofit a strategy on top, but rather make great pains to develop a strategy for execution, one that marries intimately with your umbrella ministry, and then make the wise and informed decisions about your web needs.

In addition, never feel like you’re “behind” or that you need to “catch up” to anyone or any ministry. It’s just not the case. If we truly believed in the sovereignty of God and His control and ownership of His ministries, we’d be more at peace with where they are technologically than afraid (or upset) that our websites aren’t as good as our neighbors’ down the street.

Finally, if you’re not having fun then don’t do it.

Nathan:

Lastly, and most importantly: Would you share your testimony of how you came to faith in Christ?

John:

I came to faith in Jesus Christ because God, who apparently loves really stupid and rebellious people, decided that He wanted to adopt me. I cannot, for the life of me, figure that out.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…

I was raised in a Christian home but didn’t take it very seriously — although at times I thought I did — until I went to college and I was introduced to a most depraved, lonely, and shameful person: Me.

I quickly realized that I had a life that wasn’t really worth living and through a number of events found myself back in a Bible study reading over Galatians and the Fruits of the Spirit. I discovered that I had not a single one, but I wanted all of them. So began my journey back into the faith.

Kyle Steed

2009-12-01T05:58:29Z

The following is an interview with Kyle Steed, a local designer from the Dallas area, with a varied background: from design, to military service, and back again. You may know him from his involvement in Chat Creative, good humored design feuds with Chris Wallace, or maybe even his day job working at Wave Two.

I asked him to share his thoughts on design, pursuing a formal education, defending one’s faith, and where he sees himself heading in the future…

Nathan:

How did you get your start in design? Were you always artistically inclined, or is it something that you sort of grew into?

Kyle:

We are all born with an inherent gift, such as: music, writing, teaching, or leadership. For me, it was drawing. I spent most of my time in school drawing or doodling in my notebooks. I also loved drawing elaborate house plans. Later in high school I would get my first experiences with painting, collage and Photoshop – the latter being the one that really intrigued me.

I remember sitting and watching a guy named Casey Price make digital collage images in Photoshop and being blown away with the endless possibilities you could create. After high school I moved to Texas. In 2001, I purchased my very first Mac, a Quicksilver G4 Power Mac, which still runs to this day. This was the beginning of my learning career as a designer.

Nathan:

Prior to becoming a designer, you served in the US military. Would you mind sharing a bit about your tour of duty, and what got you through those tough times? While deployed, what ways did you find as an outlet for your creativity?

Kyle:

My Air Force career lasted from 2003-2007. At the time I signed up, I had been working a dead-end job for about a year, wasn’t going to school, and was living at home. I was 21. But I knew God had bigger and greater plans for me. I just didn’t expect the military to be part of them!

Reflecting back on my time of service, I always like to say that basic training was the best time. I’m not sure if it was the immense seclusion from all worldly possessions or what, but I felt very close to God during that six-week period.

Right after basic training down in San Antonio, TX I was shipped off to southern Arizona for six months of grueling training. Going in to it, I was really optimistic, but living in the desert for six months surrounded by negativity starts to wear on you. I felt more alone than I ever had before. I spent countless hours writing, praying, crying out for God in my journals, wondering where he was and why I was there. It really stretched my faith, but all hope was not lost. I still have fond memories of that place and some of the people I met there.

After Arizona, I was shipped to Florida with eager expectations that things would get better. Even though the weather was warmer and the smell of ocean water in the air made for a pleasant change in scenery, the struggle to find good fellowship was hard. I spent three months in Pensacola, focused on getting through school so I could get home for a few weeks before heading to Japan.

When I arrived in Japan on August 19, 2004 I had a strange feeling. Similar to the feeling you get when you visit a new place you’ve never been before, but this new place was 8,000 miles away from home. I could go in to great detail about the next three years, but I’ll try to be brief. The first year in Japan was a time of exploration and heartache. Exploratory, because my friends and I would take day trips up to the mountains and go eat strange Japanese food out in the local town.

Yet there was heartache because I was so far from home and in a relationship with a girl that didn’t work out. Things began to turn around for me after I met my wife. She gave me hope and something to look forward to each day. The last year and a half we spent together in Japan have made some of the best memories.

I was able to find a few creative outlets while in Japan, most of which were tied to my relationship with my wife (we were still dating at the time). We would sent letters back and forth. For my birthday, she bought us a scrapbook. I was able to invest a lot of creative energy into that. I also enjoyed taking lots of pictures while in Japan. Near the end of my time there, I began to paint again.

Nathan:

You recently designed your own hand-drawn vector font, self-titled Steed. Tell me a bit about how this came about. What inspired the letterforms?

Kyle:

I’ve always been a fan of making things by hand. During the months I was brainstorming over my new site design, I was on the hunt to find the perfect font for my name. Well, nothing ever felt right. One day at work I was experimenting with my name in my journal using different fonts, and I decided to scan and illustrate them. Next thing I knew, I’m sketching out the entire alphabet in my journal, and illustrating them by hand – Grid paper saves lives. The whole process took me about four days total to complete.

I still have plans to release the alphanumeric characters as well. Maybe someday I’ll get around to actually making it a usable font, instead of just vectors.

Nathan:

Earlier this year, you wrestled with the decision to use the G.I. Bill to attend college and major in a design related field. Considering the fact that you are already employed as a designer, what spurred this decision? This is particularly interesting to me, because I am self-taught, and therefore maintain a healthy sense of inadequacy when it comes to design.

Kyle:

My decision to go back to school wasn’t an easy one, and one I’m still not 100% sure about. My soul often wrestles with the knowledge that, in the grand scheme of things, a college degree is worthless. On the other hand, it can only help me. If I were to be honest, college is an institution put in place to help make people feel good about themselves and feel like they’ve accomplished something. I feel the same way about the military, but I know there are some who truly want to serve their country. I digress. Yes, I am slowly going back to school for design.

I think studying design principles and methods will benefit me far greater than a degree in web design, or the dreaded “new media” design. I really hate the term new media. For one, I can learn and grow more on my own in web design than I ever could in a classroom. Not that I’m going back to school to learn how to design things, but to better refine my skill and improve upon what I already know.

Nathan:

Without setting up a straw-man as a talking point, for those of us with an ear to the ground related to web design, it has become apparent there are several prominent industry professionals who are somewhat antagonistic when it comes to matters of faith. What, if any, do you think is the appropriate way to respectfully disagree on this sensitive topic?

Kyle:

I think Jesus said it best:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” – Matthew 5:43-47

Not that I consider these “antagonistic” people my enemies, but I think it shows how important it is that we are to love those people around us.

Nathan:

Lastly, would you please share how you personally came to faith in Christ, and what that has meant to you in the various capacities you have served.

Kyle:

The seed was planted early, via my mom taking my brother and I to church every Sunday. Yet, I don’t consider this to be when I first came to know Jesus Christ. Sure, I had prayed to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior when I was a kid, but it never really affected my life. I spent my childhood and teen years very selfishly – always about me. When I moved to Texas after high school, I met some good friends that had a passion for the Lord, something I had never seen before. They talked about how good and awesome God is. It was addictive. Over the next few years I began to understand what it means to walk in relationship with Jesus.

Through that time I struggled with doubt and finding my identity, something all people in their twenties go through. This resulted in a life full of hope, faith, and lots (and lots) of grace. The love of my Heavenly Father is expanding in my heart every single day, affecting all areas of my life. I am blessed to have found a wonderful group of Christian designers in whom I can confide, invest, and pray with. I am beginning to see that this “job” isn’t just a job at all, but more of an opportunity to serve God and love people.

Thanks for the opportunity to do this interview.

Chris Bowler - Fusion Ads

2009-10-12T03:31:14Z

Recently I had a chance to pick the brain of Chris Bowler, who is the cofounder of the invitation only niche advertising network, Fusion Ads – which was recently redesigned by the talented Elliot Jay Stocks. Despite his success, Chris remains a humble man, trying his best to follow Christ. I am thankful that he was willing to share the life lessons he’s learned.

Nathan:

Please describe your background. Did you have any previous experience in advertising, design, or web development prior to Fusion?

Chris:

My background in the web before Fusion was reading about what others did. My education was in IT, and my career has been mostly in frontline and application support.

When my wife and I had our first child, we split up the parental leave and I had four months at home. When it was my turn to be at home, our daughter was having nice long 3-4 hour naps in the middle of the day. I used a lot of that time to start a web page so the out of town family could see pictures of the new addition. Many random surfing sessions later, I happened upon the blog of Jon Hicks. He got me hooked on the topics of design, web browsers, Apple and Mac software in general.

During the following years, as I read blogs of folks like Dan Benjamin and John Gruber, I realized that I wanted to be more of an entrepreneur and run my own business. And write a blog. So I started with that – I took the time to get familiar with WordPress, modified my own theme and started The Weekly Review.

As anyone who spends a bit of time online, I started to get to know more and more people. Guys like Shawn Blanc and Michael Mistretta. We all read each others blogs and via Twitter, started to develop relationships. One day I wrote about The Deck and how they “did online advertising right,” as well as my desire to one day earn an income from my own work. I guess it inspired some ideas in one of my young readers (Mistretta) and Fusion was born.

It had a different name at the time, but here we are today.

Nathan:

What made you decide to focus on advertising to designers and developers, as opposed to a more generalized populace? How do you divvy up the responsibilities of running the business itself?

Chris:

Focusing on the web savvy crowd was just a natural choice. It’s the audience we know – we’re a part of it. We were familiar with so many different bloggers, many of whom are designers and developers. We are familiar with the tools and products that this groups uses and talks about. So it was just a natural progression to start in this industry.

As for how we divvy up the work: I do all the hard stuff and Michael cavorts with all the rockstars of the industry! I kid. In reality we share in the day to day operational work and any decisions. When we have big decisions to make, we get out-of-this-world wisdom and advice from Shawn Blanc, who has also been involved since the beginning. In general, I deal with the advertisers and Michael deals with the publishers.

Nathan:

Michael’s story is inspiring and humbling to me, and makes me feel quite old. You both co-founded Fusion while he was still in high school. He has since opted not to pursue higher education, and is instead pursuing a videography internship – doing what interests him instead of what’s the norm.

So Chris, what would you say you have learned, in and out of a classroom setting, and what advice would you give to aspiring, would-be businessmen? Go to college, or pursue your dreams? Are they necessarily mutually exclusive?

Chris:

Wow. Such a great question for this day and age. I’d say both are good options – they are definitely not mutually exclusive.

The internet has opened a lot of doors for younger people and we’ve seen a lot of successful teenagers. So it’s clear that you do not necessarily need a post-secondary education to have a fulfilling career. We have to let go of the notion that without an education you can never be successful. I know way too many psych majors who are working for minimum wage.

But at the same time, I think those who downplay the importance of an education do not credit the full breadth of experience that going to college or university gives you. Regardless of what field you enter in to, the experiences alone were worth it for me. Developing relationships with your classmates and professors, learning to determine what is expected of you in each course, and learning to deal with a high workload and deadlines are invaluable lessons which have only enabled me to be successful in my career.

I would say if know what your dream or calling is, do what you need to in order to fulfill that vision. If school will get you there, enroll. If real world experience is the best avenue, then start working. The best news is that we have a wealth of information available now that was not previously so accessible. Learn to use the Internet as a resource, whichever avenue you take.

Nathan:

Lastly, but most importantly, how did you come to faith in Jesus? What would you say has been your greatest challenge and greatest joy as a Christian?

Chris:

I first came to Christ as a young lad at a summer Bible camp. But being from a non-Christian home, this change was not really reflected in my life until after a failed marriage in my early twenties. Reflecting on where my decisions and actions had led me as well the consequences affecting others, I eagerly turned to Jesus for real guidance. And although I still make mistakes, He has blessed me abundantly ever since.

My greatest joy as a Christian since then has been being blessed with family again. The responsibility of parenthood and raising our children in “training and admonition of the Lord” is both the most exciting and scary aspect of my life. Especially in light of my children from my first marriage, I believe God has really shown me the generational effects of sinful living or a life of strong faith. As Christians, what greater legacy or effect can we have in the world than the raising of more strong Christians in our home.

My greatest challenge as a Christian has most likely been the same as most Christians throughout the last two thousand years: “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” With all the distractions and noise in our world, I fail to give Him the attention and devotion that He deserves. It is a daily struggle, but it’s also a struggle where I can see the progress when I take a step back and reflect on how much He’s changed me over the past 10 years.

We serve a loving, faithful God. He proves that day by day.

Markup Factory

2009-08-08T20:09:30Z

Josh Cramer is a person I admire, one with the tenacity to start his own business and see it through to fruition. I first met him at SXSW several years ago, and since then have continued to bump into him at conferences such as Ministry 2.0 and Echo. Recently, I interviewed Josh and his colleague Mike Biang. Designer extraordinaire Daniel Marino also fielded a few questions.

Nathan:

What is the Markup Factory – How did it start, what is the business focus, and where are you guys heading in the future? Also, please share some examples of sites that you have built that utilize Markup Factory’s capabilities.

Josh:

Markup Factory is a hosted CMS, which supports valid user generated HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It offers a rich feature set including a blog, user database, email newsletter engine, podcasts, e-commerce, form builder, and online event registration. Unlike some other content management systems, Markup Factory is not only a blog-centric platform. Our goal is to offer an integrated set of ready made applications that can be extended to build a web presence.

Mike:

Markup Factory began as a idea several years ago. It arose from the need to have a CMS which would support any markup it was given, but still be easily managed by someone unfamiliar with HTML/CSS. Over the last two years, we’ve added some significant features to the core CMS, such as an online database module and a form builder, which allow Markup Factory’s users to create custom datasets and forms that link to them. We’re excited about the next few years, as we continue to enhance the system. These two ministry sites use Markup Factory:

Daniel:

CramerDev.com is an especially good example because it uses a lot of Markup Factory’s special features. Our staff bios are using custom database records and wildcard URLs. The contact form was constructed using our form builder, which generates a form – on the fly – by parsing simply formatted JSON.

Nathan:

How many people are there at Markup Factory? Are all of the employees primarily on-site, or do you work as a distributed team? What are some of the benefits and/or trade-offs of remote work?

Josh:

We have a distributed team of six working out of four cities. We have an offices in Coralville and Iowa City, IA. Mike Biang works out of Chicago, IL and Daniel Marino works from somewhere deep in the woods of New Hampshire. We use a number of online collaboration tools to keep in touch: Redmine, Harvest, Skype, etc. I think a degree of separation has proved beneficial to our productivity by limiting the amount of interruptions and providing an opportunity to focus for longer periods of time. However, human contact is an important part of the work experience and we try to get together on at least a quarterly basis to keep in touch. A recent session is detailed on our dev blog here:

http://cramerdev.com/weblog/the-making-of-cramerdev-com

Mike:

One of the questions we are often asked is if our productivity is limited by our ability to communicate as a distributed team. I’ve found that our ability to communicate is nearly identical to what we would have if we all worked in the same location. With the number of audio, video, and chat applications freely available, our communication on projects doesn’t skip a beat. You do end up missing some of the “inter-office banter,” but as Josh mentioned, that may actually boost our productivity :)

Josh:

With a seasoned and experienced team, I think that having everyone work out of the same location is a preference and not a requirement. In our case, having the right people on the team is much more important than having people who live close to each other. We have intentionally removed that requirement in most cases when searching for new hires.

Daniel:

Being one of the remote workers, I can say it definitely has its ups and downs. Sometimes I miss the workplace interaction, but as Mike mentioned, we are constantly connected. We also meet up once a quarter in Chicago, which is a blast. It gives us something to look forward to.

Nathan:

As a relatively small company, how did you initially get the endeavor off the ground? Most companies take on a first round of funding, just to help keep the lights on, but you guys did it via bootstrapping. How did that work, and what were some of the challenges and/or rewards?

Josh:

There certainly are challenges to bootstrapping. Much of our decision to bootstrap came out of our desire to get a venture up and running without going into debt to banks or investors. One benefit to taking VC funding is that you get a tremendous boost of capital to hire people and to get the product off the ground quickly. In exchange, you give up a degree of control and percentage of ownership to investors. Sometimes, this is the best path forward. In our case, we wanted to maintain total control over the direction that we took the product and eliminate the pressures that would come with answering to investors. It has been a much slower road going this way and we’ve had to get creative working with a smaller pool of resources, but overall we are quite happy with how things are turning out. As with fine wines, a business take time to produce and gets better with age. This organic approach is most aligned to how we see our business growing.

Nathan:

You are a Microsoft .NET shop, specifically ASP.NET – which carries with it a bit of a stigma amongst open source enthusiasts and web standards fanatics. What drove the decision to use Microsoft technologies for your business?

Josh:

We don’t usually admit using MS technology unless asked in an interview! :)

Seriously though, we chose this platform because we wanted to leverage an existing codebase that we had in use. In addition to speeding along our development efforts and enabling us to bootstrap the venture, we’ve actually discovered a diamond in the rough in this scenario. Much of the platform is now powered by a Prototype based Server Side JavaScript framework that we’ve created and run on top of IIS. This has proved powerful at times, especially when creating server-side components that interact with the client side. One example is our Form Builder (currently in beta) which actually runs the same codebase on both the client and the server. Eventually, we may migrate the platform away from Microsoft and run on Linux servers. One reason we can even consider this is that when you build a site on Markup Factory, you actually don’t interface with or write any .NET or ASP code at all. You’re writing your code in standard HTML, CSS, JS. We’ve also created a basic language called MFScript that is processed server-side and allows you to add dynamic functionality to your templates.

Mike:

When Josh and I started working together around seven years ago, Microsft’s technologies were much more advanced than their open source counterparts. MySQL for example, was at version 3.23 and didn’t include support for unions, stored functions or routines. Much of our decision to use Microsoft systems took place out of a desire to be using the most advanced systems available at the time. The decision was a pragmatic one at that point. Since then, the open source community has grown by leaps and bounds, and I think this trend will only continue. Markup Factory has been developed with this in mind. Our goal is to migrate all server-side code to JavaScript, in order to make the system as platform agnostic as possible.

Nathan:

Are there any client-side frameworks that you have found helpful?

Josh:

Actually, many of the sites that we build – using our own CMS on the back-end – are using jQuery and your 960 Grid System on the front-end. Markup Factory allows you to implement any client-side framework that you please.

Nathan:

You guys run a for-profit business, but I know from in-person conversations that you are both committed Christians. How has your collective faith in God influenced your entrepreneurial efforts?

Josh:

My faith has significantly impacted every area of my life including my business ventures. The Proverbs were especially influential in my early years. Passages talking about honesty and integrity have shaped my view on how to interact with the business world, how to treat customers, and how to deal with vendors. Verses on wisdom and foolishness have also helped me to make wise decisions and to see danger as it approaches. The Bible has also influenced the way I view and manage money. I personally have benefited from Dave Ramsey’s material on personal finance and recommend it to everyone we work with. God has asked us to be good managers of the resources he has entrusted us with (including money) and there is much wisdom in the Bible about how to do this.

Mike:

I’ve really appreciated working with Josh, largely because of our shared faith in Christ. I believe that our faith greatly influences the flavor of our business. Personally, I believe that God is honored when we strive to be excellent in our work. Colossians 3:23-24 has been an important set of verses for me:

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

I also believe that is important for me to remember that while we are to be excellent, our work should not be primary focus of our lives. Matt 6:33 calls us to seek first God’s kingdom, and comes with a promise, that he will take care of all our needs.

Nathan:

Lastly, please share the occasion or process by which you first came to know Christ, and the impact that has had on your lives.

Josh:

Halfway through my college I took a year off from my education. It was during this time that I left the traditional church I had grown up in and began a search for whatever “The Truth” might be. I began taking philosophy courses, visiting a variety of places of worship, and engaging in debates and conversations with people who held all different kinds of world views. I spoke with people ranging from atheists, agnostics, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and people who just didn’t really care one way or the other. It was during this search that I encountered a gentleman speaking on campus and relating all of the claims of Christ to the questions I had been asking. This was the beginning of my discovery of a reasonable faith in Christ and this ultimately lead to a relationship with Christ. I think that faith in Christ is not something that anyone can prove to – or choose for – another person. It is something that is a personal interaction between a human being and his maker. Deuteronomy 4:29 says:

“But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Mike:

I accepted Christ when I was 5 years old. My dad was the pastor of our local church, and I remember him explaining to me that Christ died for my sins, and that to receive his forgiveness, I needed to believe in him and accept him as my Lord and Savior. I remember being excited as I asked Christ into my life at that point. During my high school years though, I chose to really make my faith in Christ my own. I had been going through a period of rebellion, but God was pursuing me. One night, when I was sixteen, I received two speeding tickets with a half hour. For whatever reason, that just broke me. I cracked open my Bible, and read Matthew 16:24-26:

“Then Jesus told his disciples, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?”

I realized that in my rebellion, I was seeking to save my own life for myself, rather than let Christ be lord. I told him from that point forward that my life was his.

Drupal Multi-Site for Churches

2009-06-30T05:38:27Z

I recently had the opportunity to do a presentation on multi-site setups in Drupal for the Jamaican Drupal Group. The premise of a multi-site setup is that you have more than one website using a single install (or code base) of Drupal as opposed to having separate installations for each website. Some of you may already be familiar with this if you use Wordpress MU. What’s cool about Drupal is it doesn’t require a different edition. Drupal supports multi-site “out of the box.”

We use Drupal’s multi-site capabilities at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica to run a number of our department sites, and are currently building out several more. After sharing my presentation with fellow Godbit member Nathan Smith, he pointed out that this type of information could be beneficial to large ministries as well, and encouraged me to share it here.

A number of churches have multiple campuses, each with their own subdomains running on separate installs of various content management systems. According to Nathan, a recurring theme is the desire for one CMS to handle multiple sites.

For churches with this particular need, a multi-site setup could be a very good idea. All these sites could share a single code base, making it easier to do core updates for all sites, rather than having several installations of a CMS sitting on the same server and having to update each one separately.

There are other advantages to multi-site setups such as being able to share themes, modules, content and users across all sites. This means there you could have multiple sites, but use a single sign-on throughout. This is something that both Warner Brothers Music and Sony Music have achieved via Drupal.

Of course, multi-site setups do have a few slight disadvantages, some of which are pointed out in the presentation. Therefore, it’s up to you whether or not you decide to go this route. With that said though, I hope the presentation slides and video will prove to be informative and helpful. If there are any corrections or suggestions, please feel free to let me know so that the slides can be updated and future presentations can be improved.