How Should We Worship?

Paul wrote to Timothy in order to give him special instruction on how people in the church should behave themselves. In I Timothy 1:3, 4 that the church at Ephesus had problems with false doctrine as well as problems with people spending too much time talking about fables and endless genealogies. So, Paul tells Timothy what they should be doing instead. What does he tell him is the most important thing people should do when the church assembles? Pray. (I Timothy 2:1-4)

These days, we hear a lot about styles of worship, how many services we should have or whether we should have small group meetings during the week or on Sunday morning. In all of that, we may have lost sight of this simple truth. The most important thing for a church to do when it comes together for worship is to pray. We are to pray for our needs. We are to intercede for others. We are to give thanks to God. We are to pray.

We are to pray for all men. We are to pray for those in authority. Why? So, that we may have a peaceable life and because God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. It seems odd, doesn’t it? The prayers of the saints—our prayers—make a difference. These people were living under Nero. Nero was a very evil man, but these people were to pray for him and it was a good thing to do because God desired that Nero be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

Have you thought that there are people that God wants to bless or show mercy, but he can’t because of their sin? When we intercede for these people, he is able to pour out his blessings at our request. I don’t know of anyone who fully understands it, but when you read the Bible, it doesn’t take long to realize that God has limited himself in such a way that there is much he will not do until we come to him in prayer. The only way it makes sense to me is when I look at this world as a schoolhouse with God as the teacher. A teacher has the authority to give every student an A, but what would the students learn. God has the power to act without our prayers, but he knows it is better for us to have the experience we gain when he doesn’t. So, this world operates in such a way that we are standing in the gap between a sinful world and an angry God, but a God who wants us to give him a reason to stay his wrath.

God hears and answers prayer. We know it from the Bible. We know it from experience. God has designed this world in such a way that our prayers impact outcomes. Some of the leaders of our nation may be lost and God will not hear their prayers, but he will hear ours. Since this is the case, why would we not pray? We have a responsibility to pray because our prayers are what stands between our nation and judgment. Some long for that day, but I don’t think that is what God wants. I think he wants us to cry out to him and ask him to spare our nation and our leaders from the punishment their sins require.

12 Things Every Author Website Needs

Every author needs a website. I think an author should have a website before he has a blog. My argument is that the author website provides a single location for people to go when they want information about the author, while a blog is constantly changing and information that was on it one day may not be visible the next. So we need both, but blogs are such time hogs that once we start blogging, it may be difficult to justify spending the time developing a website. If you’re sold on an author website, here are Twelve things that every author website needs. These may be on separate pages, linked from the home page or you can combine them and even include some on the home page, if that is what you want.

1. About Me

You don’t have to call it About Me, but every author website needs a section dedicated to telling visitors who this person is.

• Tell us why we should listen to you.


• Tell us something personal.


• Tell it as a story, not a list of events.


• Give us information that isn’t available from other sources.

2. Contact

Provide an e-mail address, at the least. It is probably best not to give out your home address. A PO box is better, if you want to give a mailing address, but there really isn’t any reason why people who need to mail something can’t e-mail first to ask for a snail mail address.

3. News

This section is where you tell us what you’ve been doing. Speaking engagements, book deals, book signings, guest blog posts. If it is happening and it is related to your writing, tell us about it.

4. Blog

A blog can be part of a larger website, part of a blog service or stand alone. It doesn’t really matter, but whatever method you choose, you need a link to the blog from your website.

5. Author Photo

People want to know what you look like. It shouldn’t dominate the page, but a nice photo will help.

6. Press Kit

Provide everything that a member of the press might need if he writes about you or interviews you.

• High resolution author photo (300dpi minimum)


• Photos of book covers (300dpi minimum)


• Author credits, background, life story. (different from in About Me)


• Suggested Interview Questions


• Book Summaries (but don’t give away the ending)

7. Book Info

This only applies to authors with published books, but people coming to your site may be looking for other books you’ve written. Make sure you have a list of every book you have.

8. Link to Purchase

This also only applies to people with books in print, but make sure your users are only a few clicks away from a purchase. Either provide a link to the book’s product page at an online bookstore, or provide some form of shopping cart capability on your site. A purchase is much more likely if the customer doesn’t have to go hunting for the book.

9. RSS Feed

Incorporate some form of RSS feed into your site. When you update the site with news items or whatever, inform readers through the RSS feed. Some people say RSS is being replaced by Facebook and Twitter, but I still use RSS extensively, even when the person also informs me of posts via the other sources.

10. Home Link

Every page on your site should have a navigation system that lists the major items. One of these things should be a link to the home page. This can help with search engine ranking, but it also makes it easier for readers to get where they want to be.

11. Newsletter (Optional)

Some people like newsletters. If you’ve got one, you should provide a link to a page where readers can subscribe and find older versions of the newsletter. If you are going to do a newsletter, you should automate the subscribe/unsubscribe process, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time maintaining the list.

12. What I Can Do For You

Above the fold on the home page, aim for providing information about you as an author and your website can do for those who visit. Often, that is book information, but it could be other stuff as well. Don’t completely fill the space with a picture of yourself and the title of your website. This goes for blogs too. The site visitor may want to know what you look like, but he is there for another reason. Focus on those other reasons in the prime real estate.

Why Should People Visit Your Website?

Your platform is essentially the people who willingly listen to you. I’ve said before that platform is your capacity to influence people.

We must earn the right to influence people.

The reason you are able to influence people is because they have given you the right to influence them. Most people have sense enough not to give that right away too freely. We must earn the right to influence people. This is just as true with an online platform as it is with any other social platform. Subconsciously, every visitor has asked the question Why should I visit this site?

It Answers a Question

If a user finds a site through a search engine, he is probably looking for the answer to a very specific question. If the site appears in the search results and the title and summary statement imply that the site will answer the question, the user clicks the link. But a platform this does not make. Even if the user finds the exact answer he was looking for, there is no guarantee that he will ever return. The best chance for that is if the site addresses a general type of question that interests that user. He may return, knowing that the site will be a reliable source for other information on a subject he enjoys.

This can be particularly difficult for aspiring novelists. An author with an established fan base can provide more information about characters and back-story than what the pages of a book will allow. Maybe there is an interesting lesser character in the book that the readers might enjoy knowing more about. Putting this information on a website will address those questions, but when the author is unpublished or not well known, people are unlikely to searching for this information, no matter how interesting it might be.

It Sells the Dream

Authors congregate around literary agent blogs. As I write this Rachelle Gardner has 831 followers. Nathan Bransford has 1664. Chip MacGregor doesn’t have the same gadget on his site, but based on the number of people leaving comments, I would say he has similar traffic to Rachelle. I’ve seen other agents showing similar numbers. Most of the people following these sites are authors. I haven’t polled them, but based on comments, I think it is a pretty safe bet that most of the authors visiting these sites are hoping it will help them overcome the hurdles of reaching publication. We don’t usually see even well known authors getting anywhere near that traffic.

As authors, we can’t sell the dream of publication as well as literary agents and publishers. Nor should we, if there is a dream we should be selling, it should be the dream of our readers. With non-fiction, that can be doable. With fiction, it is much more difficult.

It Provides Community

People visit websites because they provide a community of likeminded people. People need community. We like to come together and share our experiences. When a user finds a site where other people are discussing a topic that interests him, he may return many times, to read the comments of others and participate himself.

To some degree, I think this may be an area where authors can make some gains. Amazon.com offers the capability for product discussions, but it seems like an author’s website would be a better place for readers to discuss the book. People who bought the book through Amazon.com may return to write a review, but to include the most people in a discussion of the book, it seems like the author’s website would be more open for people who buy the book from various sources. If the author happens to see someone discussing the book elsewhere, the author could even contact the person and ask if he will also raise the discussion on the author’s website, giving that person and others a reason to visit the website.

Unfortunately, with unpublished and low sales authors, it may not be so easy to get the discussion started. I can’t imagine many people wanting to visit an aspiring author’s website to discuss topics related to a book that doesn't yet exist.

It Provides a Useful Tool

Many of the sites people visit again and again are sites like Google.com or Wikipedia.org. I personally use BibleGateway.com and BlueLetterBible.org all the time. I also visit my bank’s website, several times a month, to check my balance and pay my bills. These sites all have something in common. They are tools that allow the user to do something or find information.

If you are creative and have programming skills, you can create tools on your site. If it is useful, people will return and use them, helping you with your traffic figures. But you will have to think up your own, rather than use someone else’s. So far, I haven’t found many tools of particular interest to fiction readers. Non-fiction is much easier to find tools that aid the reader in accomplishing his goal.

The Myth of Great Posts

Notice that I haven’t said that people visit a site because of great posts. There is a theory in the blogging community that if you create great content then your blog will receive more traffic. It does have some basis in fact and I can personally attest to the fact that some of my better posts and articles tend to be the ones people are reading and linking to, but I’ve also seen people show an interest in posts and articles that aren't as well thought out (I mean for me). And I’ve seen blogs that are somewhat popular, but I can’t figure out why anyone would read them. So, while we should strive to create great content, I think it is largely a myth that great content alone can push a blog to success, if for no other reason than what is great content for me may not be great content for you. If you can create okay content and incorporate it with some of the things mentioned above, you are likely to get more traffic than great content alone will provide.

Encourage Creative Thinking

Slowly buy surely, I am answering the 20 questions for leaders that Michael Smith of ClearView Baptist Church in Franklin, Tennessee asked Mike Hyatt. Mostly, this is because I am curious to see what my own answers are, rather than because I am some great leader. This week I answer the question How do you encourage creative thinking within your organization?

I believe responsibility and authority are the keys to creative thinking. The Bible tells us that where our treasure is our heart will be 1, . We focus our attention on the things we hold the most dear. We also put our money there. The most generous givers to any ministry are the ones who are the most actively involved. You want someone to think creatively? Identify the problem, make that person responsible for fixing it and give him the authority to take action. You want several people to think creatively? Stick them on a committee, don’t give them the solution, step back and let them go to work.

If you do that, they may not come up with the solution you would have. I can almost guarantee that they won’t, but isn’t that the point? Of course, you have to keep the committee sizes reasonable. The more members there are, the less responsible each member feels.

Review: The X and Y of Buy

In The X and Y of Buy, Elizabeth Pace makes the claim that because men and women think differently those of us who must try to sell products and services must take into account those differences if we hope to make the sale. Throughout the book, she notes differences, such as how women tend to buy from people within their network and men tend to buy from people within the same organization.

If the assertions Elizabeth Pace makes throughout the book are accurate, the book will help your company reach out to the half of the population that you are not currently reaching. She does provide references to back up many of her claims.

Frequently, she brings up the topic of primitive man and relates the hunter/gatherers of that time to modern man. It is unclear whether she is saying that modern man is the way we are because out ancestors were the way they were or if she is saying that the same traits that make man and woman different today are the same traits that produced the hunter/gatherer work divisions of that day.

At times, Pace relies heavily upon her own experiences and the experiences of her friends as proof that men act the way they do and women act the way they do. While this doesn’t necessarily invalidate her claims, the book would have been helped had there been a male co-author to provide a view from the other side.

Overall, the book brings up some interesting points that are worth considering as you try to market your products to both men and women.

Blog Like Successful Authors

What do all the big names in Christian publishing—names like Rick Warren, Robin McGraw, Mike Huckabee and Max Lucado—have in common? No, it isn’t doctrine. Yes, they all have a huge platform, but that isn’t it. No, the thing they have in common is that they don’t blog.  Cindy commented yesterday about how it might be interesting to see whether successful authors have more followers who are readers or followers who are writers. The only way to answer that is to ask, so I decided to compose an e-mail message to send to each of the top writers. I went to Mike Hyatt’s blog, where I remembered that he had a list of the top Christian authors, thinking that would be a good place to start. I expected find their e-mail addresses on their websites and if I didn’t I would see if I could contact them through their publishers. As I moved down the list, I quickly noticed the problem. Not only did they not have e-mail addresses, they don’t have blogs. It would do me no good to ask about people who follow a blog that doesn’t exist.

But there are some exceptions. Victoria Osteen has an one-way blog. She or someone who works for her posts to this blog on a regular basis, but comments are not enabled, restricting feedback from readers. T. D. Jakes blogs infrequently. It appears he blogs about once or twice a month. Dave Ramsey is the one true exception to the rule. The other 10 of 13 have no blog, though most have a website of some kind.

The question we might ask is whether they are successful because they had sense enough to ignore blog and focus on more important things, they have no blog because success has put such a strain on them that they don’t have time to blog, or the two things are unrelated. Whatever the case, the path of the hugely successful author may not be a path that an aspiring author should take.

Author	Blog	Book	Publisher	Book Sales	Rank Overall
Rick Warren	None	The Purpose of Christmas	Howard	1,290,000	2
Jon & Kate Gosselin	None	Multiple Blessings	Zondervan	523,000	12
Victoria Osteen	One-Way	Love Your Life	Free Press	325,000	20
Robin McGraw	None	What’s Age Got to Do With It	Nelson	289,000	28
Dave Ramsey	Yes	The Total Money Makeover	Nelson	252,000	34
Don & Susie Van Ryn	None	Mistaken Identity	Howard	235,000	44
Mike Huckabee	None	Do the Right Thing	Sentinel	232,357	45
David Jeremiah	None	What in the World is Going On?	Nelson	223,000	46
T. D. Jakes	Infrequent	Before You Do	Atria	212,984	49
Joyce Meyer	None	The Secret to True Happiness	Faithwords	190,851	55
Tim Keller	None	The Reason for God	Dutton	155,104	67
John Eldredge	None	Walking with God	Nelson	118,000	96
Max Lucado	None	Cast of Characters	Nelson	110,000	100

Source: Publishers Weekly, via Michael Hyatt's Blog.

Selling Bottled Water in the Desert

What does it take to build a platform online? I look at blogs and I ask myself why one blog is successful and another isn't. I particular, I look at the blogs run by literary agents and I compare them to those run by authors. As a general rule, literary agents have blogs that have several times the followers that successful authors have. How do we explain this? There is a theory that as long as you write great posts, your blog will succeed. I won’t say that literary agents aren’t capable of writing great post, but if we are looking for someone who can write “great” posts, doesn’t is stand to reason that the typical bestselling writer should be able to write better posts than the typical literary agent? But the numbers don’t add up that way.

The reason this happens is fairly simple. Literary agents are doing what is essentially selling bottled water in the desert. If you’re out in the desert with a bunch of people, the guy selling bottle water is a popular guy. What literary agents have going for them is that they offer a glimmer of hope to the thousands (millions?) of authors out there who are hoping that someone will take an interest in their work. It is not unlike what we see with marketing gurus.  

There’s a fancy term for this, felt need. If you can address a need that a person knows he has, then you stand a better chance of attracting people. But we can’t all be literary agents or marketing gurus. We can’t all be the guy selling bottle water in the desert. So we end up being the guy selling sunscreen, which is more expensive to make, doesn’t sell in as high of volume and people have to be persuaded they need it.