I’m excited about our new WordPress study group that launches later this week. My good friend Dave Barger at LunaWeb has graciously offered the venue and we have 11 interested folks who have RSVP’d, along with a few maybes.

So … why WordPress?

I’ve been using WordPress since about 2006, when I first began to blog. This site has been my playground, my classroom and my learning lab since then. Here are my five reasons to love WordPress:

1. Features and Functionality

   I’m at what I’d call the intermediate level with HTML and CSS – enough to do most of what I want to do, but I won’t be anyone’s guru any time soon. Although I’m trying to learn to do as many things as possible without plugins, they are a great way to add the features while I learn. On this sidebar, for instance, the Twitter feed and archives are widgets; the rest is hand-coded in the sidebar. I like to hand code, because it allows my CSS to control the look of the sidebar, rather than that of the widgets.

2. SEO

   It’s already great out of the box, but the All-in-One SEO Pack plugin makes it dead simple to optimize your site. Caveat: this plugin can break a site. Like it did this one. So I don’t use it, but I’m trying to incorporate some of its steps manually.

3. Multilevel Geekery

   You might be a PHP/HTML/CSS whizkid who can build your own theme and a one-of-a-kind customized site. Or maybe you just have something to say and don’t want to mess with code. WordPress can work for you either way or anywhere in between. The WordPress Codex is also immense, with thorough documentation for just about everything and helpful user forum support.

4. Flexibility and Extensibility

   You can do as much or as little as you like — from a simple brochure site with static pages to a dynamic site with changing content, social network integration and even e-commerce. You can start small and add features and additional customization as you learn.

5. It’s Free

   I love free and WordPress is free, open source software and most of the plugins are free. The only costs you’ll incur are for domain name, hosting and any premium themes you might want to purchase.

Our group will be informal and it looks like we’ll have folks of all levels of expertise and experience, so come ready to share your questions, experience and knowledge. Or just to listen.

Our kickoff is this Thursday, September 2, 6:00 p.m. at the LunaWeb office at 5180 Park Ave, Suite 305 in Memphis; after that we’ll meet monthly at a time to be determined by the group. Join our meetup group to stay up-to-date on what we’re doing.

Do you use and love WordPress? Share your reasons in the comments.

This coming weekend, March 12 – 13, more than 400 young adults from nine states just might raise the roof of the Orpheum in downtown Memphis, as The Rising kicks off a weekend of worship, teaching and service.

What’s The Rising? Their Web site describes it as “a two-day multicultural experience in the urban core of Memphis designed to engage the mind, heart and soul.”

This is The Rising’s second year and director John Bryson is excited about the downtown venue as it “gets young people into the center of our city and they see Memphis in a new light.” Bryson, a teaching pastor at Fellowship Memphis, is passionate about racial reconciliation and he and his team have crafted a culturally-diverse weekend that “represents the diversity and beauty of Memphis” and is the only gathering of its kind in the country.

Read the rest on Memphis Connect

My sister and brother-in-law gave my husband, Jim, and me a gift card for Majestic Grille and tickets to see Eric Clapton at the FedEx Forum. This was a fabulous gift — I consider Clapton to be second only to Simon and Garfunkel. And that’s saying a lot. So the anticipation started on December 25. And by Monday of last week, I was counting down the hours and my Facebook friends were likely pretty sick of it.

I don’t usually post about this sort of thing, but this is different. And, AT&T was a big ball of FAIL at the FedEx Forum last night, so there were few tweets that made it through. My husband, Jim’s, new Droid connected perfectly. I love my iPhone, but AT&T … notsomuch.

Our dinner at The Majestic Grille was amazing. We enjoyed a luscious petit sirah, flatbread appetizer and my entree was pan-seared grouper topped with Cajun crawfish — delicious. We chatted over dinner about how much we love what downtown Memphis has become; the energy, the variety of places to go within walking distance and how much we’d love to live in one of those cool lofts. Read the full story

I just posted this on Memphis Connect:

Joe Carson talks with a friend in downtown Memphis

If you were asked to write your eulogy, how would it read?

For Kelli and Dr. Joe Carson, members of The Life Church of Memphis, that question launched a journey that led them from a comfortable suburban life to ministry in neighborhoods that people who look like them generally avoid.

The eulogy assignment was part of a small group Bible study that led the to Carsons re-evaluate their priorities. Kelli recalls. “We asked ourselves, with our kids nearly grown, what will the rest of our lives look like? A continuation of country club, travel, suburban privileged life? Or are we willing to invest in others?” After a month of intensely-focused prayer, the couple decided to sell Joe’s successful Bartlett dental practice to free them up for full-time ministry. It sold quickly and three weeks later, The Life Church’s senior pastor, John Siebeling, asked them to lead the church’s ministry to homeless persons.
Read the full story