I’m sure it’s going to be a great read and am looking forward to getting it in the mail! If you can’t wait, you can download a free copy here.

Product Description
Why do so many young adults (18 to 22) leave the church, and what will it take to bring them back? This important question is examined and duly answered in Essential Church? with his son, research expert Sam Rainer.

The book is based on a study of one-thousand so-called “church dropouts” who were interviewed about why they left. Their answers are quite surprising, having less to do with “losing their religion” and more about the desire for a community that isn’t made stale by simply maintaining the status quo.

In turn, the Rainers offer churches four concrete solutions toward making their worship community an essential part these young people’s lives again:

Simplify – develop a clear structure and process for making disciples.
Deepen – provide strong biblical teaching and preaching.
Expect - let members know the need for commitment to the congregation.
Multiply - emphasize evangelism, outward focus, and starting new churches.

About the Authors
Thom S. Rainer is president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, one of the largest Christian resource companies worldwide, and the best-selling coauthor of Simple Church. Rainer and his wife, Nellie Jo, have three grown sons and live in Nashville, Tennessee.

Sam S. Rainer is a senior pastor, writer, and the president and CEO of Rainer Research. He also blogs and writes a column for Outreach magazine and lives with his wife, Erin, in Floyds Knobs, Indiana.

Nobody sets out to live a life full of regrets—never fulfilling their God-given dreams. Although a life following Jesus begins with excitement, it often becomes routine for many believers. Mark Batterson identifies the “cages” that keep people from living fully and experiencing the unpredictable adventure for which they are destined. Throughout the book, he encourages believers to pursue their God-given dreams, passions and goals—while giving practical advice to finding and discerning God’s will within those dreams and goals.

Much like his preaching, Batterson has a knack for writing in a thoughtful, clear, entertaining style. He authors a narrative filled with real life examples of people chasing the Wild Goose, living dangerously and finding fulfillment as they fulfill God’s purpose for their lives—contrasting examples of those who didn’t.

Buy this book for: college students/young adults looking for direction, those going through the quarter-life crisis, people craving a life of adventure—and yourself. Leave assumptions behind, unleash the Spirit within you and become dangerous to the enemy as you recapture the adventure of a life following the Holy Spirit! As Batterson says, “chase the Wild Goose, He will take you places you never could have imagined going by paths you never knew existed.”

Check out the book’s website for more info and “Mark’s 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals” (free download after your purchase)…and, since the publisher was nice enough to send me 2 copies, be the first to leave a comment or facebook me if you want my extra copy.

Summary:
“Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit–An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something….

Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure.” –from the Introduction.

Author’s Bio:
Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of Washington, DC’s National Community Church, widely recognized as one of America’s most innovative churches. NCC meets in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the city, as well as in a church-owned coffee house near Union Station. More than seventy percent of NCC’ers are single twentysomethings who live or work on Capitol Hill. Mark is the author of the best-selling In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and a widely read blogger (www.markbatterson.com). He lives on Capitol Hill with his wife, Lora, and their three children.

Adding a favicon to your wordpress website…
(What is a favicon? It’s that little image that shows up in your browser tab.)

STEP 1: Create a favicon.
There are many sites out there that help you create one. I used the favicon generator at dynamic drive, but not their code to display the favicon. (If you’re working on a non-wordpress website, use their code and directions.)

STEP 2: Upload the favicon to your website
Once your favicon is created, using your FTP program (Try Fire FTP or Cyberduck if you don’t have one.), upload it to your site within your current theme. (It’s the file where you’ll see the files: page.php, header.php, style.css, etc.) Place it in the theme folder–not the images folder within the theme.

STEP 3: Modify the Theme
Between the <head> and </head> tags in the header.php file of your current theme, add this code from the wordpress codex:
<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?>/favicon.ico” />

You can do this in a few ways:
1. From your wordpress admin panel, click the “design” tab, then the “theme editor” tab. Then click on and open up your header (header.php) file. Insert the above code.

2. Use a text editor or program like Dreamweaver to edit your theme’s header.php file and then upload and replace it within your current theme.

STEP 4: Repeat
Remember, since this is done by modifying your theme in wordpress, if you change themes, you’ll have to repeat this whole process again!

My desk is normally covered in papers and post it notes. I try to carry my pda with me at all times, because I often need to write down appointments, tasks or notes. Inevitably, I find myself without paper, pen or pda. I used to leave myself voicemail or text myself, until I found Jott. In order to Jott

1. Set up a profile on Jott.com
2. Call their number, when the prompt asks, “who do you want to Jott?”, reply “myself”
3. Leave yourself a voicemail and hang up

Jott then transcribes your voicemail and emails it to you. If the transcription isn’t right or deosn’t make sense, simply click on it to listen to the audio. You can also Jott other people who you define in your address book and many other services–including Twitter, WordPress, Amazon, etc. When it beta, everything was free. Now, for a fee, other services such as Google Calendar, Vitalist, Remember the Milk, etc. can also be used. For a complete list of applications/links, check out Jott’s getting started link.

Jott Express is a nice addition to Jott. It allows users to sync and organize their Jott’s offline. Since I jott a lot, it makes it easy to maintain multiple Jott “to do” lists.

Jott for iPhone allows iPhone users to use their iPhone like a voice recorder and access their Jott’s, which are synced with Jott while online. Of course, I don’t have an oPhone and have to settle for iPhone envy…