If you are reading this post through a blog reader or in an email, please take a moment to get off your horse, walk inside the blog building, and look around. You won’t see the drastic changes until you do.
Just click on www.frankviola.org and you’ll be escorted in. The blog is completely different from what it once was. “Different” as in monumentally improved.
A New Design
As you can see, we’ve changed blog themes. I recommend the StudioPress Themes for WordPress.
The new blog design beautifully matches our Website and Twitter page.
Let me give kudos to those gifted people who are responsible for constructing the new blog:
- John Saddington @tentblogger and Stephen Bateman @StephenBateman custom designed it. John is an amazing blog architect. Stephen is talented beyond his years.
- Rodrigo Aguilera @rodaguileramx created the heading and enhanced some of the banners. He too is an incredible designer.
- Kyle Reed @kylereed helped navigate me through some technical issues. He was very helpful.
- Jeremy Myers @jeremyers1 has been a great resource in giving me tips and instructions on how to use blog plug-ins, which you can do with the Standard Theme.
I recommend all of these folks should you wish to hire them to help you with your blog. They are very reasonable on their prices, and they do great work.
Incidentally, if the green “Advertise” button is wrapped to the left, underneath “Mission,” it means that you have an old version of Internet Explorer. You should upgrade or (better) use a more sophisticated browser like Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari.
Web designers consistently tell me that very few people use Explorer today, and that it’s a poor browser compared to the others. Some site features don’t show up on it.
A New Direction
We’ve also changed the name of the blog. As you know, I write on seven themes:
- God’s Grand Mission (Mission in the category buttons)
- The Deeper Christian Life (Spirituality in the category buttons)
- Missional Organic Church (Church in the category buttons)
- Rethinking the Status Quo (Rethinking in the category buttons)
- Writing, Productivity, and Creativity (Writing in the category buttons)
- Humor (Humor in the category buttons)
- Reviews (Reviews in the category buttons)
Missional organic church is only one of those themes. In fact, if you take a quick look at the Archives, you’ll discover that only a small percentage of the posts I’ve written are church related. The rest are dedicated to the other six themes.
Consequently, Reimagining Church (the previous name) is not the best title for this blog.
Beyond Evangelical captures the blog’s content and focus much better.
In the next post, I’ll explain what “beyond evangelical” means and doesn’t mean. I’ll also roll out the mission of the blog.
A New Connection
If you want to put a link to this blog on your website or blogroll, use www.frankviola.org or www.beyondevangelical.com. Both will bring you here.
If you already have a link to the blog on your site, but it says Reimagining Church, please change it to Beyond Evangelical.
Finally, if you have subscribed with an RSS feed/Blog Reader, but you used the WordPress feed instead of the Feedburner feed, you will need to re-subscribe.
If you are subscribed by Email, do nothing. You should be receiving all new blog posts in your email inbox just as you have before. (If not, you will have to re-subscribe with link above.)
If you aren’t subscribed yet, you can do so here. This will ensure that you don’t miss a post.
An explanation of “Beyond Evangelical” and the mission of this blog
I like it. I’m looking forward to hearing more from you.
Love the new look. It looks clean and is easier to follow. Self-hosted is way better than free wordpress anyhow.
Wow, this is awesome Frank. Love it.
NICELY done!!!
Awesome site! I’m excited for your new look. Easy to navigate, pleasing to the eye and fun!
great job all around
{{HUGS}
@spreadingJOY
Frank (and Co.),
The site refresh looks fantastic!
HMI
Looking forward to all of this.
Thanks Darrell. Click here http://www.frankviola.org and read from top to bottom.
Your endorsement of Standard Theme couldn’t have come at a better time. I just had a theme blowout with one of the free themes that I spent 4 days tweeking. Just purchased a full licensed version of ST. Thanks for sharing your legwork on this one.
Greg, awesome! You’ll love it.
Congratulations on the new blog. Great job. I know the standard theme is the bee’s knees, but I’m waiting until I can monetize my blog a little more to justify the cost. Are you still posting Tuesday through Thursday?
Looks good, Frank! A big improvement.
One suggestion: Have you considered adding the ability for commenters to get email updates when new comments are added to a particular post?
I’ve started using CoComment to follow some of the comment threads on blogs that don’t offer this feature, but I prefer it when they do.
It looks awesome, Frank!
I’m planning on starting another blog soon and I’ve been looking at the Genesis theme, but this looks like one I need to look at too.
Thx. Rachel: I like Standard Better than Genesis or any of the others. The price is great too and the support fantastic. Click on the banner and take it for a test-spin.
The blog looks great. Glad you are back.
Frank,
Congrats on the launch. The site looks great. Thanks for the mention, and I look forward to reading your posts.
Looks great – love it!
Impressive and worth the wait, Frank. Loved it.
Amazing! Love it, Frank! As a Standard Theme user myself…I can’t say enough about the theme alone; but the whole feel here is just wonderful! I will update my links over at my blog to direct people to this URL now!
Veddy nice!
Thanks Frank!
I’m glad we got to work with you, and I think the site will serve you guys well.
Hi Frink the new look is great. I’m excited to read your next post,
Lenny
the wait is over. The new blog looks great! Standard theme is easy to navigate, love it. Looking forward to your coming posts on going beyond evangelical. They should be stacked up in que by now
.
Great look Frank. Its got a clean look and feels a bit more roomy.
Look forward to upcoming posts.
Vermont, USA has missed you!!! That may be just me – but still… Love the new theme – “Beyond Evangelical”.
I love the new site, Frank. Your designers did a great job. I’m excited to see what continues to come from the blog.
Really like the new blog…getting familiar with it and thanks for all the effort
Looks great! I really like the standard theme. Still a happy subscriber and looking forward to more great posts and fellowship!