Tag Archives: The Master’s Table

Happy Birthday Mast Tab

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I know it’s been a few weeks since I posted anything. The Read the Bible series/podcast went on hiatus when I took a full time job at the end of last summer. I wasn’t really looking for a job; I had just updated my resume and was considering looking for another church, possibly a full time secular job so I didn’t have to be in a hurry looking for a church, and an opportunity sort of fell in my lap. So I am still the pastor at Unity in Plainville, GA, and also work a 24 hr. on call schedule five days a week. And I’m on the city council, and I have a wife and we’re raising a teenage daughter, and she is in the marching band and girl scouts… between work, ministry and family, my “extra time” for blogging really took a hit. In recent weeks there has not even been a Happy Monday or Satur-deja Vu post.

Here is the buried headline: WordPress reminded me this morning that I have been on this platform for 18 years. If my blog were a person it would be an adult. When I first met Michael Spencer, his blog The Internet Monk had only been around three years. He had only blogged a total of 10 years when he passed away. I did not start blogging until he launched a podcast and began to transition away from posting as often.

I wanted to note the occasion. Since it caught me off guard there’s no bloggoversary special, lifetime stats, etc. Just the acknowledgement that it’s been a minute since I started doing this in 2008. Let me just encourage everyone reading to do well and do good.

Long live the blog.

Are We Back?

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Easter Sunday

So when The Master’s Table went on hiatus last fall I was hoping that would last a few weeks and we would resume business as usual. After a week or two of not having the stress of Happy Monday and Satur-deja Vu bearing on me, I had a little bit of guilt because of how good it felt. I would often stay up late on Sunday or more likely get up early on Monday morning to meet a self-imposed deadline. Discussing theology, responding to headlines and reviewing books is easy when you can pop out a post every now and then when there are things to write about i.e. stuff I need to get off my chest. Cranking out those e-zines twice a week became a grind and like I say, I felt a little guilty about how good it felt to not be under the pressure to produce those on a regular on-going basis.

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Update on Facebook

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UPDATE: This issue has been resolved. 

Screenshot 2019-02-28 at 12.49.04 PMSo my issues with Facebook continue unresolved but there is a twist. Back when I first signed up with Facebook, late in 2008, there was an input field for a website. Those links still appear on the sidebar, or the about section, of my profile. I tried The Master’s Table link, which is displayed, only to receive an error message about that link violating FB’s community standards. But the link to my original URL, clarkbunch.wordpress.com, still works. Why I have two blogs is a long story but the fact that I can link to one but not the other makes it that much more interesting.

The Master’s Table Facebook Page

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Screenshot 2019-02-28 at 10.13.55 AMUpdate: Issued resolved, links have been restored.

I’m having a bit of a tiff with Facebook. It’s probably not enough to make me give it up for good but at this time I am unable to post links to this blog. I always link new blogs on the Mater’s Table Facebook page and occasionally, though not very often, link from my personal Facebook profile. I was hoping to spread a little Happy Monday cheer but Facebook rejected the post and claimed it violated their community standards on spam. They also removed all links to this blog from the Master’s Table FB page. That page has 178 followers. It was created for several reasons but perhaps the biggest thing at the time was so that I could post links each time a new blog post was up without constantly irritating my Facebook friends. Every new blog post was linked from the FB page and like I say only occasionally from my own profile. Currently the only links on the Master’s Table FB page are to Paul Wilkinson’s Wednesday Connect posts. Continue reading →

Blogoversary 8

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I have to admit that it caught me off guard. If WordPress hadn’t congratulated me I might have missed my own blogoversry (blog + anniversary).

Screenshot 2016-03-03 at 9.12.26 PM

 

In 2014 I published Six Years at the Table. That post does a good job telling the backstory and sharing some interesting facts. At that time, we were shy of one million views. As of 3/3/2016 the two blogs together (The Master’s Table and My Other Blog) have seen 1,066,005 views and the total number of posts is 1857.

Today I blog less and have diverted some time and energy into other things. I pastor a small SBC church and my sermons are posted on their website. I write once a week for our local paper and do not duplicate that same content here. Blogging has changed since our launch in 2008; there are more personal and collaborative blogs today than ever before and social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, have brought more voices into the conversation.

The Master’s Table gives me a larger audience than I could reach otherwise. My blog friends in Canada, Israel and Australia know what I’m talking about. I enjoy writing on several different platforms. I also enjoy the seminary classes I take with other local ministers, church staff and lay church members; I enjoy teaching Sunday School and leading prayer meetings in addition to preaching sermons. Ministry happens simultaneously at the local, regional, state, national and international level. The church has been tasked to carry the Gospel to all people and nations. The internet offers tools and resources that make the world a smaller place. But we can’t reach around the world and neglect our neighbor across the street.

The goal has not changed; to be God honoring and Christ centered. Those words are posted prominently on the masthead as much for my benefit as yours. Here’s to another eight years, and the changes they will bring. Long live the blog.

Seven Years: Time Flies When You’re Blogging Fun

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7 candle I’m better at writing copy than coming up with clever headlines. At any rate, it has been seven years to the day since the first blog post. Here’s an excerpt from 3/4/2008:

I’m looking to seriously devote some time and energy to sharing my ideas on apologetics, theology, the Bible and the Gospel message…  There is a lot of junk out there, particularly on the internet, and if I can add some truth, share a word of hope, spread the gospel online to places I will never visit in person, then this becomes another opportunity to be a witness.

That was post #1. For the record this is post #927. Back then we still had dial-up internet at our house; anything as big as a jpeg file I had to upload from the campus ministry office. I left MySpace to join Facebook and latter Twitter. While I often fail in my attempt to post new material at least 2 or 3 times per week hopefully the the goals listed above have been achieved. Our daughter Johannah was born in 2009 and we “came home” to Georgia in 2012. In 2014 I published my first book and answered the call to pastor a small SBC church. I often say that whatever we are doing right now is preparation for what God will call us to next. Most things change but there are a few things that never do. And hopefully for many years to come The Master’s Table will go on being God honoring and Christ centered.

 

Prayer Week: Posts, Quotes and Verses

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day of prayerTomorrow is the National Day of Prayer. Paul Wilkinson has compiled a collection of archived posts from Christianity 201 on the subject of prayer and this post at Everyday Student has several quotes on prayer (Joseph Smith and Rick Warren on the same list) and a huge collection of Bible verses on the topic. Continue reading →

Six Years at the Table

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blogoversaryEvery cool title I could think of (The Gospel Truth comes to mind) had already been taken and I initially settled for a very generic Clark Bunch’s Weblog. The first post (titled First Blog, whoops) was March 4th, 2008. Over the next few days I published what I considered foundational articles which describe what I believe. Those were way too long; I actually wrote them out on paper, in long hand, before typing them in. Those were the first wobbly steps on a new path. It’s all about the journey.

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Blogversary

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The Master’s Table turns four!  Some call it a birthday, I like to think of it as an anniversary of blogging.  Blog + anniversary = blogversary.

There have been some good times and bad, so as we celebrate we need to remember some people as well.  I blog because of Michael Spencer.  The post linked explains how and why.  Before I ever read Internet Monk I worked with Michael every day in real life.

2010 was a rough year.  Michael passed in April, my father Lewis Bunch lost his short battle with melanoma in June.  If you read the post, make sure to follow the link there for pictures.

It hasn’t all been bad news.  Equal Time is about being blessed, and was written shortly after our daughter Johannah was born.  The picture of our family on the About page was taken last Easter.  She turned two in August.

The articles linked above are very personal.  Most of the posts at The Master’s Table have been about sharing the Gospel and following the examples left by Jesus.  We have also debated the value of science and argued with the occasional atheist.  I’ve made a few Christian blog friends over the years, even a couple in Israel and Australia.  I try not to obsess over stats, but here’s a few as we celebrate:

4 years, 457 posts, 1,249 comments.  Total views = 355,152. 

Here is the very first post, from March 4, 2008.

This blog started out as Clark Bunch’s Weblog.  Everything from March and April moved to The Master’s Table in May of 2008.  This post explains the creation of My Other Blog.  I never meant to have two, but there’s also 564 posts and another 330,000+ views over there.

Here’s to another year.  Long live the blog.

As Long as it’s Black

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That’s what folks used to say about the Ford Model T: it came in any color you wanted, as long as you wanted black.  Consumer sovereignty has come a long way since the 1920’s.  Not only can today’s car buyer select exterior and interior colors and features, but each make and model car comes in several different styles.  40 years ago you had two choices when buying a phone, desk or wall mount.  Maybe there were a very few colors to pick from.  Today dozens of companies produce hundreds of designs.  The epic failure of products like Ford’s Edsel, Beta players and New Coke are classic economic 101 lessons demonstrating that the consumer is indeed sovereign and gone are the days that companies can force a product onto the marketplace or tell us what we want.

Unless you’re Facebook.

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