Category Archives: Work

BibleGateway.com and Gospel.com Acquired by Zondervan

Bible and Theology, Random Miscellany, Religion, Work

GospelCom and Bible Gateway

Wherein I get to announce news that hasn’t officially been announced only because somebody else beat me to it and, well, it’s no longer news, now tell you what I’ve been itching to say for the past [undisclosed amount of time] because the news has been embargoed till now. Whew!

Update 10/28/2008: This post has been updated with information from the October 28 Muskegon Chronicle news story. See below …

Update 11/07/08: ChristianityToday.com interviewed Zondervan CEO, Moe Girkins, on the recent acquisition of the Bible Gateway and Gospel.com. See: “Why Zondervan Bought BibleGateway.com: CEO Moe Girkins wants to take the site beyond just verses. iTunes-style commentaries, anyone?” (Interview by Jeremy Weber)

Ever since Gospel Communications announced the closure of their Internet division and Web-hosting ministry (as I noted here), there’s been a lot of speculation about the eventual fate of the Bible Gateway, one of the most highly-visited sites anywhere (Alexa.com ranks it as #1,837 as of today). Friends from CTI speculated that it would get snapped up by one of the Bible Societies, friends on Twitter wondered whether it would fade away, others wondered who could do as good a job.

I’m happy to announce, though, that the Bible Gateway has been acquired by my own employer: Zondervan (which is owned by HarperCollins, which is owned by News Corporation). Though Zondervan hasn’t issued a press release yet, and it’s officially still a secret, Larry Tomlinson (DotComLarry) broke the news last Thursday at 1:32 PM via Twitter:

BTW, I couldn’t talk about this yesterday, but BibleGateway and Gospel.com has been bought by Zondervan publishers.
01:32 PM October 23, 2008 from web, view Tweet

Larry Tomlinsondotcomlarry
Larry Tomlinson

Apparently, when a “confidential” announcement was made at the recent Internet Ministry Conference it was being streamed live online — thus, several Twitterers, live-bloggers, and stream watchers, uh, paid attention. :: whoops! :: So, that cat’s out of the bag, but there are still further announcements regarding the fate of the rest of the GospelCom properties waiting to be made. Viewing the Twitter stream regarding GospelCom, it does look like there will be some continuity of mission and purpose. Somewhere.

Meanwhile, there are big plans in the works for extending and expanding the Gateway. I don’t know what those plans are (I’m not privy to those official discussions, really), but the rumors are interesting. And, really, it’s just like putting peanut butter in your chocolate to mix a Bible gateway with a major publisher of Bibles and related materials (commentaries, exegetical tools, Bible studies, curricula, devotionals, and on-and-on).

I only hope that we keep the spirit of the original Bible Gateway’s mission alive and that it remains one of the most truly useful online Bibles ever created.

Rich

Update: Before I got a chance to post this, I received three pieces of communication. One came from Moe Girkins, my über-boss at Zondervan, officially announcing the acquisition internally. To my surprise and delight, I learned that, “In addition to BibleGateway.com, our agreement also gives us rights to Gospel.com, an online community of Christian organizations.” Even better, Moe writes, “BibleGateway.com will not be just a Zondervan initiative. Rather, our vision is for this to continue as truly cross-publisher and the result of a team effort of a wide variety of content providers focused on meeting the needs of Christians and seekers alike.” And just to help make the transition smooth, half-a-dozen or more GospelCom employees will be coming to work at Zondervan immediately.

The second piece of email came from long-time friend, Peggie Bohanon, of Peggie’s Place, who wanted to let her readers know about the acquisition. Peggie also let us know that the acquisition deal does not include the ministry Web hosting provision, which kept over 300 non-profit ministries afloat on the Web. Fortunately, there’s 5Q Communications to help with the hosting (founded by former GospelCommers, some of whom I’ve meet and can recommend as smart, quality guys). That is, in fact, where ol’ Peg-leg’s moving, herself. So, if you’re looking for hosting, they might be worth looking into.

The third piece of email came from Moe Girkin’s executive assistant, green-lighting my release of this news here, now. So, you (may have) read it here first.

Enjoy!

Rich

Update (10/28/2008):

Today the Muskegon Chronicle announced this story (by Clayton Hardiman, who also broke the news of GospelCom’s closing back on September 12), “Gospel Communications Online Sold.” Strangely, the main story is not yet online, anywhere, but here are some salient quotes from the paper:

The future of Gospel Communications’ ministries had been in a state of limbo since early September when the agency’s board of directors, promoted by at least two years of fiscal difficulties, informed partner ministries it would shut down its Web-hosting services. …

Gospel Communications … began operations as Gospel Films Inc. 58 years ago … [and] became the largest distributor of Christian films and videos in the world. …

As part of the acquisition, eight [GospelCom] staffers … have been hired by Zondervan to continue their work on BibleGateway.com.

(The article notes that the BibleGateway was born in 1995 and was developed by Nick Hengeveld. Actually, the gateway was announced to the world on Tuesday, December 28, 1993. It was then hosted at Calvin College, where Hengeveld was a student and network administrator. However, when Nick came to Gospel Communications as their first webmaster, he brought his gateway with him — much to the delight of his new employer, I’m sure. When Hengeveld left in 2006, his brainchild stayed behind.)

The Grand Rapids Press also weighed in with its story, “Zondervan acquires religious site BibleGateway.com,” by Julia Bauer. It pulled in a quote by CEO Moe Girkins:

“Our vision is for BibleGateway.com to be the premier online aggregator of Biblical resources, blending relevant content and community features for anyone searching for information to help them in their spiritual journey, wherever they may be,” said Moe Girkins, Zondervan president and CEO.

(Again, in the interests of full disclosure, if you haven’t noticed by now, I work at Zondervan, though not in the business unit that will be working with the Gateway.)

It’s an interesting time to be a part of Zondervan’s story!

Rich

[tags]1993, 1995, 2008, 5q-communications, acquisition, aggregator, alexa, bible, bible-gateway, biblegateway, biblegateway.com, blogrodent, business, business-deal, calvin-college, ceo, christianity, christianity-today, christianitytoday.com, clayton-hardiman, deal, december-28, dotcomlarry, evangelical, gospel-communications, gospel-films, gospel.com, gospelcom, grand-rapids, grand-rapids-press, harper-collins, harpercollins, interent-ministry, interview, julia-bauer, larry-tomlinson, maureen-girkins, maureen-grzelakowski, merger, michigan, ministry, moe-girkins, moe-grzelakowski, muskegon, muskegon-chronicle, new-international-version, news, news-corporation, newscorp, nick-hegenveld, nick-hengeveld, niv, october-28, online-ministry, peggie-bohanon, peggies-place, peggy-bohanon, ranking, religion, rich-tatum, the-internet-ministry-conference, tniv, twitter, updated, web2.0, zondervan[/tags]

Rich T at the Big Z!

Random Miscellany, Work

Zondervan

Wherein I describe my first day on the job after a harrowing 14-month unemployment ordeal.

So, there hasn’t been much news on this blog lately, mostly because I’ve been busy, I’ve been distracted, and I’ve been unemployed. Somehow, not having a job makes me less productive in my blogging alter-life. Go figure.

Here’s the news: I’ve been hired!

I didn’t want to spend a lot of time talking about interviews and possibilities and potentialities, getting hopes up, and boring you with my uneven work possibilities. But after leaving Tennessee just before Christmas, I contacted Zondervan for a new open position I’d found on their website: Senior Editorial Manager. I expressed my interest.

Then I moved. Jennifer and the kids and I packed up and moved to Muskegon to live with my father-in-law while we sorted things out, worked on selling the house, and licked our wounds.

By the end of the month, I had a nibble from Zondervan. Then, in February, I got an interview. Then I was called back for more interviews. Then, finally, I got … the call.

March 10, today, was my first day on the job.

I have no idea what I’m doing. Yet, anyhow. As far as I can tell from the conversations I’ve had and the job description I’ve seen, I’m going to be a project manager/expediter for anything and everything produced by Zondervan’s Curriculum, Academic, Reference, and Resource division as well as their digital/online division. If it’s going to be a product, I’ll be pushing it through the system. I won’t be editing. Rather, I’ll be managing the stuff that editors are working on.

It’s a big job, but I’m happy to do it, and I’ll be learning a lot over the next few months, not only about the job itself, but about Zondervan, its 75+ year history, and its highly refined publishing process.

Word to the wise: Zondervan looks to be a great company to work for. Their benefits are phenomenal and their employee culture is great. Everybody is friendlier than tame puppies, and they’ve bent over backwards to make me feel really wanted and celebrated at the company.

Thanks to all who prayed for us and kept sending us helpful suggestions and encouragement. It has been hugely appreciated. We’re not entirely out of the woods yet: we still have accumulated debt, a house to sell, untreated medical stuff, and the need to move into our own home. But apart from that, God is really blessing us!

Rich

[tags]application, BlogRodent, editorial-manager, employment, expeditor, Grand-Rapids, hired, job, Michigan, Muskegon, project-manager, publishing, resume, resumé, unemployment, Zondervan[/tags]

Welcome to the new me… same as the old me.

Random Miscellany, Site Updates, Work

0

Hi, all.

First off, I apologize for not spending much time in this space over the past couple of months.

If you’ve followed my blog activities (and inactivity!), you know that on October 22, I accepted a position as marketing and media director at one of the Assemblies of God’s 100 largest churches. I was thrilled not only to have a job but to be in a position that required top-notch creativity and performance from many areas of my skill site — and many areas I was eager to acquire new skills in.

As marketing and media director I designed several promotional and in-house printed pieces, I wrote press releases, I worked with vendors, I approved and gave guidance for the video and broadcast editing (though not much of that because my staff was not only skilled but very professional and surpassed my knowledge in many ways). My team struggled with print deadlines, malfunctioning and aging equipment, and volatile tempers. I raised the visibility of my overworked team’s plight (loads of stress and too much work), and asked a lot of questions. I didn’t always like the answers, but my job wasn’t to change the church, but to understand it first.

Unfortunately, I failed to understand many things quickly enough and I now find myself looking for work once again after the single shortest tenure at any job I’ve ever held in my short, if rotund, life.

But, fortunately, my hasty departure from the church is not due to any sort of illegal, unethical, or moral wrongdoing. Instead, I chalk it up to a severe failure to communicate on my part. Which is ironic, really, since communication was my … err … job. (Big failure on my part.) As the pastor noted when he released me, my personality was not a good fit for the church.

Upon tearful reflection, we are agreed.

So, once more into the breach. My family and I will covet your prayers yet once more. We are packing up to move to Michigan where we will live with family while we wait for our Chicago home to sell and try to find gainful employment again.

Regards,

Rich

[tags]BlogRodent, career, church, church marketing, church staff, designer, employment, freelance, hire me, imag, image magnification, job, job hunt, jobs, marketing, media, media relations, photographer, photography, press, social networking, talent, talented, video, video editor, web 2.0, writer[/tags]

Kevin Miller’s Top Ten Tips (a roast video)

Podcast/Media, Random Miscellany, Work

Laughter is the best medicineBack in May of 2006, while in the employ of Christianity Today International, I was asked to do a little something for my boss, Kevin Miller, a CTI vice president and leader of the Resources division.

Kevin’s a great guy, a good friend, and an excellent manager — a true joy to work with. When his 20th anniversary at CTI came due, we wanted to do something to poke a little fun at him while still honoring him for his 20 years of service.

CTI took a huge risk asking me to put anytng together, knowing my style of humor (many waited with bated breath and crossed fingers, dreading the final result, and eagerly looking forward to the entertaining train-wreck it was sure to be). Who’s great idea was this? I’ll never know. According to my logs, I started working on this around June 5. Fifteen days later, and probably 20-40 hours of editing and fiddling later, this video is what came out of it.

I share it here for those of you know know Kevin and want to relive the memory of my forcing him to do the Chicken Dance through the magic of video editing. For those of you who don’t know Kevin, maybe it will spark an idea or two for the next time you need to roast somebody via manipulated video?

I pulled together countless still photos, audio clips, a couple video clips, and combed through it all to find the best way to make Kevin look good and bad all at the same time. A friend, Jennifer Oxford went to Red Apple and shot some footage of the manager giving Kevin a hard time. I shot some footage of Kevin’s son pretending to be a slacker. And Cory Whitehead and I stole Kevin’s PDA for a few moments to get some footage of “Kevin” frantically checking email on his Palm V. The hand model is, of course, Cory.

For any who are curious, yes, Kevin actually was temporarily mistaken for a terrorist due to a silly attempt at irony when boarding a plane. Let this be a lesson to you: avoid being sarcastic, ironic or flippant in any way about terrorism when Homeland Security is nearby. You can read the lessons Kevin learned here: Eleven Stray Words.”

You can download the Windows Media version of the video here, watch it at YouTube here, or just enjoy it, above.

If you want to host the video on your own site, you can use this code here:

Read Kevin’s Book:

Surviving Information Overload, by Kevin A. MillerSurviving Information Overload: The Clear, Practical Guide to Help You Stay on Top of What You Need to Know


Fake websites

Lovingly and hilariously designed by Clay Anderson and Valerie Broucek. Click to see the full-meal deal.
Fake site: PatheticPreachers.com Fake Site: BuildingChurchLeadersMuscles.com
Fake Site: PimpMyChurch.com Fake Site: SurvivingChurchOverload.com

More pics:

Kevin Miller: Kevin bin Laden? Anglican Priesthood, Kevin Miller Laughter is the best medicine Karaoke, anyone? Queer Quotes Knock - Knock

[tags]anniversary, BlogRodent, Christianity-Today, Christianity-Today-International, ChristianityToday.com, Kevin-A-Miller, Kevin-Miller, Leadership-journal, mashup, mashup-video, remix, roast, roast-video, video, windows-media, windows-media-video, prank, fun[/tags]

Will Social Network for Food

Blogging, Random Miscellany, Work

As most of you who regularly visit know, back in November of 2006 I was laid-off from CTI. It wasn’t anything nefarious or antagonistic — CTI always has been and continues to be very good to me, still tossing occasional freelance work and article assignments my way. (Hopefully because of my skill, not out of mercy. Though mercy is good, too, and welcome!) When my project’s funding ran dry and I was out on the streets (well, more like in my skivvies, lounging around the house, generally making a nuisance of myself) I immediately signed up for a paid account at LinkedIN. I was sold on what it promised for professional networking and job searching opportunities.

Not yet disappointed

LinkedIN has not disappointed me. That isn’t to say it’s actually delivered on its promises. Rather, I’ve found that its usefulness is greater than just for the immediate emergency of landing a job.

No. I haven’t landed a job yet, but here’s what I have done. After filling out my complete work history on LI, I relieved myself of the burden of having to create a four-page resumé, instead I was able to focus on a more high-level “advertisement” of my skills and capabilities, leaving the heavy-lifting of the detailed former-job minutia to LinkedIN. Now, when I want to send a candidate package to somebody, I send them my PDF resumé along with links to my full professional history at LinkedIN, along with some references I’ve picked up along the way.

Hire Rich Tatum!
Rich Tatum's ResumeEvery potential employer has told me they were impressed with my resumé — and not a single interview has had to probe the nitty-gritty details of my previous job experience, because it’s all laid out in black and white over at LinkedIN, with plenty of details to back it up.

Transparency and Accountability

What LinkedIN provides me with potential employers is transparency, accountability, and authenticity. Yes, any yahoo can invent a work history. But when you’ve published it online and placed it in a network where a single click of a button can easily find current employees working for that old company who might be willing to verify details, it’s harder to be sneaky and deceitful. Plus, it helps if your personal network of professional contacts includes former employers and managers named in the work history —which is the case with me. So, the normal paranoia and suspicion that can sour a job interview has been delightfully lacking. I think my online information-packet strategy has helped with that, and LinkedIN has been a valuable part of the experience.

Socially acceptable end-runs

Another benefit to using LinkedIN has been the ability to contact employees within a target company to inquire about corporate culture and the work environment. I did this when I went to interview at the McDonald’s corporation, and made a connection with a fellow believer who works there, and we enjoyed several nice email exchanges. Since interviewing at Awana, I’ve added a couple more contacts to my network. One LinkedIN contact actually led to a job offer, which I had to turn down.

And contacting a Vice President at Zondervan through LinkedIN led to a face-to-face job interview last week.

Now, again, I haven’t found a job. So, in once sense, LinkedIN hasn’t helped at all. But I’m not worried. It certainly hasn’t hurt, and while it may be hard to measure its benefit, I do think it’s helped.

Are you lookin’ at me?

Now, finally, LinkedIN has added a new feature (in beta) that helps me actually see how hard my profile is working (or not working) for me. While I can’t get traffic or stats info from my profile’s views and hits, I can finally see how much activity my profile’s seen over the last couple of weeks, and I can even get a sense of who’s looking at me.

Enter the “Who’s viewed my profile?” feature, recently announced on the LinkedIN blog, “Guess who’s viewed your profile?“

Now I can finally get an idea of what visibility my profile has for people who may be looking for new hires. Here’s what my profile views panel looked like tonight:

LinkedIN: Who's viewed my profile?

Some of these folks, like Awana and MagnetStreet, I definitely know who they are. Some of the others are clearly recruiters trolling for job candidates and Rolodex entries. But I wish I knew who was looking at my profile from the media production, broadcast industry, and religious institutions. Unfortunately, to protect visitor’s privacy, I cannot.

Maybe LinkedIN will allow users to change their privacy settings so they can optionally leave footprints behind, as well.

Close

Well, that’s enough about LinkedIN. Give it a whirl. For what it’s worth, I’m also trying out a combination system that promises to offer some of LinkedIN’s functionality, it’s a mash-up of FaceBook and job-search boards called Jobster. Something else worth trying out.

If you’re interested, check out my Jobster profile, or my FaceBook profile. And feel free to link with me on any of the social networks I belong to (ProfileFly).

Regards,

Rich
[tags]Awana-Clubs-International, BlogRodent, Christianity-Today-International, FaceBook, Jobster, LinkedIN, LinkedIN-blog, MagnetStreet, McDonald’s-Corporation, ProfileFly, Rich-Tatum, Zondervan, employment, freelance, friends, hire-me, job-applications, job-description, job-interview, job-interviews, job-networking, job-skills, networking, profile, profiles, resume, social-networking, social-networks, unemployment, web-2.0[/tags]

Still jobless and fancy free

Random Miscellany, Work

This is just a quick update on what’s happening in the BlogRodentSphere. (Yes, I take my “branding” too seriously, sometimes!)

I’ve been unemployed since November 9. However, by God’s grace and the help of friends, Jennifer and I have not suffered from a loss of income. In fact, I’ve only drawn one week’s worth of unemployment checks. We’ve managed to keep busy with enough freelance work that we’ve been able to make our dreaded mortgage-payments (good that now we can imbrex Alpha to make the process of buying home easier) and other sundry bills relatively on-time. We’re without health-insurance, though, so we are praying none of us fall ill.

I’ve had several interesting and fun interviews. None of them were high-pressure (with the possible exception of the church interview), and I felt instant rapport with everyone I’ve interviewed with:

Most of these organizations are looking for project managers of one stripe or another and so far, I’m still having conversations with four of them. The remainder didn’t pan out for various reasons, none of them my fault, I hope. For example, the church wanted a webmaster to take over their flagging website — but they really needed a network administrator to take over their entire tech infrastructure, which wasn’t me. Magnet Street realized they needed a programmer/developer to handle their growth instead of a project guy, and Tyndale realized they didn’t really need to fill their position after all, and they redistributed the workload in-house. Everybody in every interview has been very supportive and helpful.

But, still, so far, no work. I do have three hopefuls on the docket, all of them still involving lengthy commutes of 20–40 miles.

Hopefully, this time next week, I’ll be able to blog that I’m hired, and I’ll share some of the lessons I learned after 17 years of not having had to look for work, and suddenly finding myself without regular pay.

Meanwhile, if you have need of an experienced generalist in technology, feel free to hire me! (See my professional work history at my LinkedIN profile.) Contact me, and I’ll send you my resumé along with references.

[tags]Awana, BlogRodent, Career, Christianity Today International, Employment, Job, McDonald’s, Resume, Tyndale, Work, McDonald’s[/tags]

Farewell to CTI: A retrospective, and thanks

Random Miscellany, Work

Christianity Today InternationalAs I have mentioned in various posts throughout this weblog, I have been a proud employee of Christianity Today International for some time now. After serving as the first webmaster for the General Council of the Assemblies of God and a brief stint as a self-employed consultant, I was invited to join CTI’s staff by Vice-President of R&D, John LaRue.

That was in the late-summer of 1999. I already had a relationship with CTI by then because when the A/G first decided to go online in 1995, we did it through CTI’s America Online content-provider area, “Christianity Today Online.” In order for the A/G to provide content on AOL via CTI, I was sent to the CT offices in Carol Stream to learn how to use the AOL “Rainmaker” system for content-management. (What a headache that system was!) As it turned out, only a few of us outside content providers ever took advantage of the training CTI provided after returning home, and that apparently made me noteworthy in CTI’s eyes. So, when Judy Gill, office manager for the content production team at that time, found out that I was no longer working for HQ, she prevailed upon John LaRue to find a way for me to come work on staff in an official capacity.

Continue reading Farewell to CTI: A retrospective, and thanks →

Da Vinci Code Conversations, Redux

Links, Podcast/Media, Random Miscellany, Work

Da Vinci Code ConversationsAfter two weekend-long video-editing sessions we finally went live with the new online training course anticipating the Da Vinci Code film opening next week on the 19th. It’s called “Da Vinci Code Conversations,” and it’s intended to give viewers a brief, birds-eye-view of the major contentions in Dan Brown’s novel and — presumably — the film.

Not having screened the film, everybody is guessing as to how much of the book’s more controversial elements made it into the screenplay, but we’re pretty sure it will involve the major highlights of this course since the plot largely depends on it:

  • Emperor Constantine was a lifelong pagan who fabricated Christ’s divinity at the Council of Nicaea in order to further his political ambition.
  • Virtually everybody knew Christ was a mere mortal until Constantine cooked up this divinity myth at Nicaea.
  • Christ was married to Mary Magdalene, and had children by her, who survived him to found the Merovingian dynasty.
  • Somehow, this mere mortal understood he was creating a worldwide church, and therefore intended his wife, Mary Magdalene, to be its founder.
  • That the Priory of Sion is an ancient secret order devoted to protecting the evidence for the truth behind the myth at any cost.
  • That the Opus Dei Catholic order is a bunch of crazed zealots.

The course addresses each of these issues briefly, but with enough depth that anyone taking the course would have enough fodder to manage a conversation about the issues with after-film dinner guests. Plus there are the additional materials provided with the course, including a recommended resources list, that will help the viewer delve even deeper, if one cares to.

If you’re interested in knowing more, I’m linking to our newsletter podcast, the homepage promotional video, and the high– and low-bandwidth sample videos to give you a taste of what I’ve been slaving over, and what you might find interesting over at my day-job website:

You can download the “Da Vinci Code Conversations” podcast here, or listen online:

[audio:http://boss.streamos.com/download/christianitytoday/ctc/dvcc/ctcourses-da-vinci-code-conversations-nl.mp3]

Here’s the “Da Vinci Code Conversations” homepage promotion.

Here are the sample videos, at high bandwidth (311kbps) and low bandwidth (56kbps).

As usual, enjoy! Regular posting will resume again, shortly.

Rich

[tags]apologetics, BlogRodent, Da-Vinci, Da-Vinci-Code, Dan-Brown, DaVinci, online-training, online-video, Pentecostal, podcast, The-Da-Vinci-Code, video-training[/tags]

Da Vinci Code Conversations

Links, Random Miscellany, Work

I haven’t been blogging much of late because nearly every waking hour for the past three weeks has been focused on the imminent launch of the latest online training course I’ve been tinkering with (no—more like beating myself senseless against) at work.

I’m responsible for selecting and preparing content for one of ChristianityToday.com’s websites: CTCourses.com (short for ChristianityTodayCourses.com, natch). So far, since our launch in early January, 2006, we’ve managed to push two courses out the door, one on how to host small groups, featuring Brett Eastman, and another free course on managing email overload, featuring Kevin Miller (my supervisor at CT, freshly ordained Anglican priest, and also author of a book on managing information overload).

Da Vinci Code ConversationsTomorrow, if all goes well, we’ll be launching the third course, and we hope it’ll be a big draw and a big benefit to site visitors. We’re launching “Da Vinci Code Conversations,” dealing with the controversy over Dan Brown’s book, of course, The Da Vinci Code. It’s a 50+ minute online course, covered in seven sessions, replete with streaming video, an online note-taking tool, synchronized PowerPoint slides, downloadable extras, an online quiz, a message board, and more, more, more.

So, am I flogging my day job here in my personal blogspace? You betcha. I think the online course interface we’ve designed is the best currently in business. (Unfortunately, it’s also Internet Explorer only.) We’ve gotten rave reviews from users who’ve caught on, and we really hope the course interface benefits the body by providing online training and education in a format that’s easy to use and convenient for today’s crazy schedules. Like mine.

So, if you’re interested, and if you are looking for a good hour-long overview of the core controversies presented by Dan Brown’s mega-blockbuster, and if you want to prep yourself for after-dinner conversation when you’ve watched the film, head on over to my other site (CTCourses) and check it out. If you don’t see a link to the newest course right away, wait another day and try again. Or just sign up for the newsletter and free membership to be notified when things are live. (Membership is free, most courses are paid.)

Rich.

[tags]BlogRodent, Pentecostal, Da-Vinci-Code, Da-Vinci, Da-Vinci-Conversations, CTCourses, online-training, streaming-media, christian-training, online-learning, Christianity-Today, training, Evangelical, apologetics, Bible, Dan-Brown[/tags]

Follow the latest PneumaBlogs and CTI-Blogs headline…

Links, Pentecostal, Random Miscellany, Religion, Work

Okay, after laboriously setting up a feed reader for myself so I can finally stay on top of all the feeds referenced in my PneumaBlogs and CTI-Blogs pages, I was also able to set up a couple pages here on BlogRodent to help you (and me) easily see what the latest posts are from these little slices of the blogosphere.

So, for your delectation, enjoyment, and frivolous wasting of time, I present to you:

PneumaBlogs Headlines (and excerpts)

CTI-Blogs Headlines (and excerpts)

Enjoy! Come back to see me some time.

(Note, if you’re a PneumaBlogger or a CTI-Blogger and your posts are not showing up on this page, it’s probably because your feed is broken, or it was impossible to find it. Contact me if you want to get added.)

[tags]BlogRodent, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Evangelical, Christian, religion, feeds, Christianity-Today, headlines, rss, OPML, PneumaBlogs, CTI-Blogs, latest-news[/tags]

Christianity Today Blogs and Bloggers

Links, Work

In the spirit of my PneumaBlogs page, I’ve added another compilation of blog links to official Christianity Today blogs, links to unofficial personal CTI blogs, and links to ex-employees and affiliated CTI blogs. I hope you enjoy it. This is not an official list, it is not approved my employer, nor are all the links on this page representative of CTI opinion.

Christianity Today Blogs and Bloggers

[tags]BlogRodent, Christianity-Today, christianitytoday, CTI, Christianity-Today-International, blogs, bloggers, godblogs, writers, Christianity, Evangelical[/tags]