Sunday, April 30, 2006

Comments

Blogs like this one let you, the reader, become part of the action. Anyone can leave a comment attached to a Headlight 2 post, where all visitors can see it. You do not need to get permission or know a password in order to gain the right to post, and no one edits or passes judgement on your comment before it is automatically published online. I like getting comments-- especially accurate corrections-- and I encourage you to post what you really think, good or bad. That said, I do have a couple of comment-related requests to make before I start posting the meaty, newsworthy articles.

1. The internet is a public place. Anyone with access can read what we say here. Visitors may look at it and form opinions about it before they ever walk through the doors of East Hills. Unbelievers may look at it out of curiosity. Random web-surfers may find it by accident. And all of those people can comment back as well.

2. Since you do not have to prove your identity in your comments, Headlight 2 is not a good place for criticism you want the church leadership to act on. I dislike censorship, and if you send in a negative comment, I will not delete it just to make myself or East Hills look good. But when you want a response from the staff, face-to-face meetings carry more weight than anonymous notes.

3. If you see a mistake in an article, or a small point missing, by all means post a comment that corrects it or questions it. If you have information that you think would make a good article all by itself, I am reachable at lithium099@hotmail.com by email and (360) 425-5362 by phone.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

First Post!

During 2005, I produced a monthly paper newsletter for East Hills Alliance Church. Called the Headlight because I wanted to spend more time telling my readers about upcoming events than past ones, it soon displayed some shortcomings. A rigid, once-monthly format made some of the information less timely than it could have been, and my own streak of perfectionism meant I spent too much time on physical design and not enough on content. To counter these problems, we bring you the all-new, all-electronic Headlight 2!

The old newsletter was wholly a house organ, but in recognition of the first-person, informal atmosphere of web publishing, Headlight 2 will have a little more of my own personal slant. I still write it under the leadership and with the cooperation of the staff, but you can expect to see a friendlier, less detatched tone.

Soon, this blog will begin frequent updates with church news, and I will be soliciting ministry reports and asking around for interviews. I hope to make this the first method you think of when you want to get or give information about what God is doing in our church. Until then, watch this space and God bless!