FredMcKinnon.Com

2009 was a fantastic year.  I thought it would be fun to dig into Google Analytics and see if anything significant stood out for the blog during 2009.

Top Search Keywords:

fred mckinnon (duh)
palm vs blackberry (I should really write more tech posts, huh?)
nick saban arrested (haha, I love it!)
kate mcrae (keep praying for this little girl)
palm treo vs blackberry (did I mention I should write more tech compare entries?)

As for the Top 50 keywords, I’m disappointed to report that there was nothing super hilarious in there.  I always see these funny keywords and phrases people see in their stats.  My Top 50 are riddled with palm, blackberry, “bad O holy night singer”, and “how he loves us, sloppy wet kiss” references.

Visitor Loyalty:

Well, there are about 40,000 of you who visited my site once, and never returned.  Ouch.

Top Referring Sites:

Twitter, Facebook, and Google make up the Top 3.  No surprises there.

Other blog/site specific top referrers are:
1.  theworshipcommunity.com
2.  sojournmusic.com
3.  sscommunitychurch.com
4.  billychia.com
5.  mikeymo1741.blogspot.com
6.  mandythompson.com
7.  jimdrake.blogspot.com
8.  church.alltop.com
9.  withoutwax.tv
10.  richkirkpatrick.com

Top Posts:

1.  Palm Treo Versus Blackberry
2.  Sunday Setlists
3.  O Holy Night
4.  About Me
5.  How He Loves Us
6.  My Blog – Live Video Feed
7.  Who Are We Kidding?
8.  Loops:  Hosanna by Paul Baloche
9.  Hillsongs:  Faith+Hope+Love Blog Tour
10.  Healer:  Mike Guglielmucci Exposed

So there you have it!  Let’s see what happens in 2010!

It’s no surprise, but the folks at LifeChurch keep raising the bar, making YouVersion.Com one of the coolest resources on the planet.  If you’ve been hiding in a cave for the last couple of years, YouVersion.Com is a free website where you can read the bible, share contributions and commentary, network, and do private journaling.  It’s my “place of choice” to read the Bible online or via a mobile device.  I will add my own commentary or thoughts on various passages as I study. The majority of those are never published here on my blog, so feel free to “follow me” on YouVersion if you’d like to see my contributions.

The folks behind this resource are always cranking out new updates and features and have recently announced 20 different Bible Reading Plans.  I’m excited about this, as I couldn’t really connect with the default plan offered by YouVersion this year.  The 20 plans are online and ready to go.  You can start a plan and track your progress throughout the year.

For years, my favorite Bible reading plan has been “The Victory Bible Reading Plan” by Dr. James McKeever.  Unfortunately, I lost my print copy of it and have neglected to purchase a new one over the past couple of years so I’ve been using a Daily Reader plan by Laridian.  I googled the “Victory” plan and found several links, mostly store links where you can buy it.  This link is a review at about.com and the writer does  a great job of summarizing why I always loved that plan.

Unfortunately, the “Victory” plan is not one of the 20 listed in YouVersion (I’ve submitted a request for it to be added, though!).  However, I’m am intrigued by a couple of the plans by M’Cheyne, specifically, his “M’Cheyne One Year Reading Plan”:

This plan is based on the M’Cheyne reading system, featuring four different readings for use in both family and personal devotions. Each day has two passages from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, and one from either the Psalms or the Gospels. In one year, you read the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice.

What do I look for in a Bible Reading plan?

* breaking it up so I’m in both the OT and the NT simultaneously
* chronologically reading in OT when possible
* covering the NT twice
* a daily dose of either Psalms or Proverbs, regardless

This plan does all of the above except I don’t think the OT readings are in chronological order.  I can deal with that.  I’m looking forward to a fresh plan that moves around.  I love the fact that I can read online or with my “real” Bible (some days, I just need to hold that heavy book in my hand!) and that I can journal and collaborate online as the passages speak to me.

Have you ever used a Bible reading plan, and if so, what did you use?  Click below to comment!

TRUE STORY

Ok, so my headline is a bit dramatic, I admit.  But seriously, yesterday was one of those days when you are so glad you discovered technology like twitter, facebook, and the internet.

SETUP:

Thanks to Randy Elrod’s  giveaway on the re:create conference website,  I got my pre-release of Matt Maher’s new “Alive Again” CD.  I was super-excited to once again here “Christ Is Risen” … a song Matt had performed LIVE at the National Worship Leader Conference back in July.  After hearing this song again I decided that I’d surprise our church by introducing it as a “grand finale” at the end of this Sunday evening’s “Night of Worship”.

PROBLEM:

I had trouble discerning a couple of lyrics.  Especially the first line of the first verse.  Now that I know the actual lyrics, I’ve no idea WHY I had trouble hearing it … it’s perfectly clear.  But regardless, I thought I was hearing something else.  It’s brand new and the lyrics are nowhere to be found on the internet – not even at CCLI.

ENTER … GOOGLE, TWITTER, FACEBOOK

Google the lyrics – found a Facebook page from a Catholic Church somewhere.  Clicked on their address in Facebook which brought up a Google Map, proudly displaying their location and phone number.  Quick phone call to the church (yeah, the old-fashioned way, a telephone) gets me on the line with “Brittany” who loves the song and is going to try and figure out the lyric.

Meanwhile:

I use both my @fmckinnon personal twitter account and the @theworshipcomm twitter account (for TheWorshipCommunity.Com) and ask if anyone knows the lyrics.

Who replies?  None other than Matt Maher, the co-author and artist himself:

Meanwhile, I’m remembering the guy who works for Media Shout, Nate … Nate and I worked together at the National Worship Leader conference and met while we were figuring out the best way to display the “live blog/twitter” feed on the screens.

I send Nate a “DM” (direct message) via Twitter.  The conversation goes something like this:
@fmckinnon:  “Nate, hey Fred from the NWLC … do u still have Matt Maher’s setlist in your MediaShout library”

@MediaShoutNate:  yeah, I think so, what do you need?
@fmckinnon:  1st verse of “Christ Is Risen” from Matt Maher’s set.  Let no un-cod …??? sin remain???
@MediaShoutNate:  “Let no one caught in sin remain inside the lie of inward shame …”

CELEBRATION:

In less than 30 minutes, I had everything I needed to finish preparing that song for our band.  Oh yeah, Brittany CALLED ME BACK, too – a couple of perfect strangers on the phone … she figured out the verse, and we walked through the lyrics to the rest of the song to make sure we had it right.

Some days the internet can be a total distraction … but some days … I LOVE THE INTERNET.

Kent and the gang over at ChurchRevelance.Com have posted their “Top 100 Church Blogs“ this weekend.  Many of them were no surprise, including some of my favorites such as  Michael Hyatt, Tony Morgan, Ragamuffin Soul, Anne Jackson, Pete Wilson, and ChurchCrunch.Com.

Lots of other names on there who have a home in my dusty old Google Reader … a jungle of leadership, tech, worship, and church jargon that I seldom find the time or energy to tame.

My biggest surprise?  The addition of my own site, “FredMcKinnon.Com” to the list. I certainly wasn’t expecting that!  (please, please, control your raves and applause, please)

Seriously, can I just take a moment and make my quick speech?  No?  Well, I’m gonna do it anyway.

THANKS.

Thanks to all of you folks who still read here, even though “blogging is dead”.
Thanks to all you folks who follow my random (and often duplicate) tweets and visit here.
Thanks to all you folks who take the liberty to comment and help make the conversation happen.
Thanks to all you folks who linger … you never leave a comment, you never show your face online … and that’s OK. (for now)
Thanks to all you folks who participate each week in “Sunday Setlists”
Thanks to all you folks who join me for live worship and “RT” my tweets.

When I started this blog, I did so because I wanted to journal.  I wanted to express some of my thoughts and if nobody else read a word I was typing, it was good for me to “get it out”.

Here’s to an ongoing “FredMcKinnon.Com” with more leadership, more laughs, more faith, more discussion, more live worship, more teaching, and more fun!

Can I get an “Amen”?

Hey Everybody,

As you may have seen, I’ve added the “Tweetboard” application to my blog and to the ezine and forums over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com, and a newer community that I launched a while ago, “E-BusinessOnline.Com“ (which is for those involved in ebiz, e-commerce, or desiring information on those topics).

UPDATE:  As cool as this idea is, I had to step away from being an early adopter on this one.  The site was very unstable, and on at least 3-4 instances the code from tweetboard wasn’t responding, causing my sites to not load.  That, coupled with the fact that it could be a spam mine made me decide against usage for now.

To access the “Tweetboard” simply click the little “Tweets” tab on the far left side of the sites.  The Tweetboard will open up showing my most recent string of “tweets” … but more importantly … your tweets sent from that page or your replies.

You see – it’s not meant to be nothing more than a view of my twitter feed … it’s meant to continue conversation.  So when you converse via @reply to me on Twitter (or to anyone who tweets from the tweetboard), the conversation is nested, threaded, and flows just like our blog comments.

Go ahead – give it a try.  Click the Tweetboard and add your “say so” to the board as a reply, or start your own comment.

Here’s a quick tutorial/review video from YouTube: