Another Slideshow

Slideshow

This is just an experiment I'm trying out with a slideshow program.

The Land of 10,000 Hits

The Core website has now officially logged 10,000 hits! At 8:18 pm on Friday, June 1, a user with the IPN "02-064.154.popsite.net (66.19.229.64)" visited our purpose page, and rolled us over to 10,000. He or she started at the "openmic" page, most likely getting the URL off a poster downtown. He or she then proceeded in the following link-path: community, gatherings, regroup, frontporch, happenings, goodstuff, conversation, thebigidea, bios, staff, partners, story, values, beliefs, and mission before arriving at purpose.

The user in question is from Springfield, uses Windows XP and Internet Explorer. The June 1st visit was his or her first visit to The Core's website, and it lasted about 24 minutes.

I know this stuff is probably boring to you, but I thought some people might find a profile interesting of a first-time web visitor, who clearly is interested in learning more about The Core.

If you are reading this, and you are the 10,000 visitor, e-mail me (Ryan) and I'll buy you a drink of your choice at the MudHouse. Thanks for stopping in!

By the way, The Core website, and The Core Blog have been neck-and-neck for awhile, approaching 10,000. But the website won, as the blog is still 25 hits shy. Granted, these counts are not entirely accurate, but they're close enough.

Baptists' Uneasy Relationship with Tongues

As a person with a Pentecostal background, I've always heard Baptists characterized as people who don't believe in speaking in tongues. Well, it turns out (according to LifeWay, a Southern Baptist research outfit,) that fully half of all Southern Baptist pastors believe that Speaking in Other Tongues is a gift of the Holy Spirit still given today, even for public use!

When we were thinking about affiliating with the Southern Baptists, I was asked if I believed in Speaking in Tongues. When I said that I believe it is a gift still given today, I was viewed with a tinge of suspicion.

Can it be true that HALF of Southern Baptist pastors have a secret belief in Tongues? Surely there are some who are public about it, but there can't be very many... otherwise the Convention would move to accept Tongues as a respectable Baptist belief, or they would renounce those who hold it.

I still consider Tongues a sectarian and controversial issue, therefore I will not promote it publicly within The Core. I am not just running a non-denominational church, I consider myself to be a non-denominational Christ-follower. I believe there is good reason to show respect to those on both sides of any controversy, and that is what we will do.

Now I'd like to see LifeWay do a similar survey on Eternal Security, and whether or not the consumption of alcohol is a sin. After all, knowledge is power.