Today, If Jesus Had A Website, known for it's Christian propaganda, was purchased by the "Great Leader", dictator Kim Jong-Il of North Korea.  Jong-Il said he plans to rename the site "If Kim Jong-Il Had A Webiste", with the subheader "It Doesn't Matter, Because Now He Has One and You Will Bow To It's Awesome Power!"

Former owner, Greg Nilsen, of Pittsburgh, PA, was asked how the purchase came about despite the glaring conflict in interest.  "All I have to say is that you should never accept his challenge to a game of golf.  It looked like he could barely walk, but the man made 6 hole-in-ones!  I'm happy all I lost was the site," he stated.

When reached for comment, Jong-Il said he plans to use the site to exhibit his talents as the best writer, blogger, reporter, photographer and web designer ever to grace the earth.

Well, I had originally planned to have the first of the upcoming website critiques done by this evening, but instead of rushing through them, I decided I wanted to take my time and be thorough with them.  Therefore, the earliest you'll probably see the first of them is later this week, or early next week.  Then, probably every week or two thereafter.

Sorry about the delays.  I just wanted to make sure I gave them the proper time for a full and thorough critique.

I knew it was coming up, but I didn't realize we had blown so far past it already.  On October 11th, it was the second anniversary of IfJesusHadAWebsite.net!  I guess next year I'll have to set a reminder in Outlook or something.

It's pretty amazing to think it's been two years (and change) already!  I just started this blog to share my insights as a web developer, and it's grown into more than I ever expected.

Thanks to all who have inspired and encouraged me over the last two years, and I look forward to many more!

Well, if you're looking at the site right now, you'll see that I've made some major changes to IfJesusHadAWebsite.net. Besides the layout, I've made the switch from my homebrewed blog application to using Ray Camden's BlogCFC.

While I enjoyed creating and updating my own blog application, there were a number of features I wanted in it that I just didn't have the time to implement. So, I took the last few evenings to get this new setup put together.

Unfortunately, BlogCFC uses a different URL schema than I did, so any direct links to articles won't work any more.

So, despite some of the inconveniences, I welcome you to the new and improved IfJesusHadAWebsite.net!

Well, for the first time, IJHAW got hit by a rush from StumbleUpon. Saturday, IJAHW was hit with nearly 20x the usual traffic. I guess you use the word "engineering" in your title, and all of a sudden a lot of articles come up as relevant.

Have you ever had a site of yours get a similar bump from StumbleUpon, Digg, del.icio.us, or any other linking site?

Well, Friday night, I had a bit of a setback. My computer at home shut down spontaneously, and wouldn't come back on. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I tried changing out the power supply, checking out the CPU fan, and anything else I could think of without any luck.

So, I'm computerless for now. Hopefully I can get back up and running in a week or so with another computer, but for now, I'm going to be a bit hampered when it comes to maintaining the site.

Being a blogger myself, I am a regular reader of Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger.net. Well, he's having another writing project, and this post is a direct result of that. While there is a prize, and it would be nice to get, the reason I like participating in his writing projects is that they usually encourage me to break out of my posting patterns and try something new. In that vein, I bring you the top 5 things that I've learned while running this site:

1. This Blogging Gig Ain't Easy - Honestly, when I started this site, I expected it to be pretty easy. I figured one post a week about topics I'm already familiar with would require pretty minimal effort. However, I learned that trying to run a site that makes a difference requires more time, participation, reading and learning on my part than I had ever expected.
2. Patience Is A Virtue - A year and a half ago, I had very modest expectations for this blog. I had hoped that at least a few people would be impacted and work to improve their church or church-related websites. Today, for the first time the blog has hit 100 feed subscribers, and the site is better know than I had ever expected.
3. I Have Great Readers - Since I mentioned the number of subscribers, let me just say that I have great readers, who help provide feedback and insight into the website topics discussed here. I'm also very thankful that everyone was so patient and understanding during my last few months of personal turmoil (even now, I'm still trying to get back on a regular schedule). Your continued support over this time has been very much appreciated.
4. There Is No De Facto Template For Church Websites - Yes, I admit that when I started out, I looked at putting together as a pretty simple equation (something like A + B + C = Church Website). However, I've learned that there are places for a number of different approaches to a church website, depending on community, location, congregation makeup, and a number of other factors. There are basic sections that should be on every one of these sites, but the rest is up for grabs. The important thing with the rest of these sections is to make sure they are implemented as effectively as possible.
5. Running This Site Is Rewarding - Honestly, I've gotten more out of running IfJesusHadAWebsite.net than I had ever expected. I've learned more about site design and implementation, developed more relationships, and had a bigger impact than I could have hoped for. I hope to continue serving the Lord's will for the web for a while to come, because I still feel that he's got a lot in store for all of us!

Wow, it's almost been three weeks since I've done anything with the site. It feels like the time has passed very quickly, and I'm trying to get everything back in order in my life.

With that, let's do a little roundup of what's going on in the Christian webmaster world:

• Internet Evangelism Day: April 29th, 2007 - Yes, it's coming up quickly. Have you and/or your church planned to do anything special for this year's event? For more information about last year's IED, check out here and here.

• Heal Your Church Web Site Returns - Dean Peters returns after an almost 6 month hiatus. I, for one, gladly welcome the insight and experience which his blog provides.

• Rockin Chruch Website Tips - James Dalman of Branding Shed contribures this excellent assessment of some of the places where church web sites go wrong and how to correct them over at Church Communications Pro. Take a minute to look over them and figure out how to strengthen your own church's website.

Also, I'll be getting back to my AJAX series in the coming weeks, so be sure to check back for that. In the meantime, it already feels good to be getting back to blogging...

I've been using FeedBurner so long that I didn't think about it when I switched hosts, but the RSS feed for If Jesus Had A Website has changed. So if you've been using the IJHAWFeed.xml URL, please switch over to http://feeds.feedburner.com/Ifjesushadawebsite.

Thanks for bringing this up David!

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last week, but I've been working to get the site ready to transition to a new host, one that will give me better support, faster response and more flexibility. I think I've got everything all set, and the DNS will be resolving in the next day. But if you see any glitches or problems, please be patient while we get our house in order.

See you at the new host!

Update: It looks like most everything survived the move just fine...woohoo!