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However, for those of you who actually take a moment to read my updates, I want to thank you and reward you with a few insider updates.

First, for those wondering what I've been up to, the latest book on the way is called "Undefending Christianity." Yes, I know "undefending" is not a word and is the polar opposite of most of my work in defending the Christian faith. The point is to highlight that our faith often needs more action and less reaction. Each chapter is written in a memoir-like fashion and hits all the controversial topics ranging from poverty to gluttony to pornography and far more. I even get to include a fair dose of humor in this one, so be ready to question everything you thought about my crazy life starting next March (including comments on The Shack, Oprah, and calling Barnes and Noble my "other church"; I might have even mentioned you!).

The next book in progress is called "Not in My Town" with my friend, film producer, and abolitionist Charles J. Powell. He's traveled undercover in some dicey places and hangs out with others who are going to the hard places around the planet to document and deter modern slavery.

If there's one issue everyone on this planet should agree on, it's that buying and selling people is a bad idea. Hopefully by the time this book and related documentary comes out next summer, more Christians will choose to get in on the effort to stop slavery, both around the globe and in their own communities (And yes, slavery still happens in America, too!).

Despite rumors that I've become a professional wrestler for a living or am funding a research project to fly to Mars, I'm still serving as staff writer at the John Ankerberg Show. We've been self-publishing a ton of new resources related to our programs, with 10 study guides or books in the past year and a half (That's way more work than just writing a book, since we not create the whole thing and sell it ourselves!). We're currently airing a series called "The Case for Traditional Marriage," which goes to show we're still taking on just about the most controversial issues we can find... (COMMERCIAL: Visit JAShow.org to see what we do.)

Though I'm not on the road much this fall, I'm still teaching some online courses for TN Temple and will be back in the classroom next semester to teach Apologetics. Some students and I are even going beyond the classroom and restarting the student-led Project Freedom prayer and worship movement from last year, taking it downtown. You've probably seen my posts about it every five minutes on Facebook.

And YES, I believe people praying together is about the best thing we can do to make a difference in our community and world. The next one is Thursday, Nov. 4th, 7pm on 412 Market St. in Chattanooga. Come and see what God is up to.

And some of you might have noticed about 3 trillion posts last week on Soddy Daisy High School's prayer situation. The short version is that the school was told to no longer allow prayer before football games over the PA system. I felt led to get involved to fight this and connected with some students at the school in the process. Thousands are now connected online, it made front page news in our local paper, was on the local TV networks, and was mentioned in dozens of papers, radio stations, and news programs across the country, even making FOX News.

The best part is that last Friday night, Soddy Daisy played an away game at neighboring Rhea County High School. That school invited anyone who wanted to pray to come down to the field before the game. BOTH sides of the stands emptied. A student from Rhea County led a prayer in the middle of the field surrounded by hundreds of people supporting prayer and standing for their faith. Amazing!

Over the next view months, I'll be completely revamping what I do in terms of blogging and online communications. The short version is that with over 100,000 people in various social networks I've developed the past two years, communicating is a bit out of control.

I had a plan all set up with FOX to launch a blog on Beliefnet, the world's largest spiritual website, and then the company got sold off and everyone I knew who worked there left for new jobs. I then planned to coordinate a new faith and action blog site with my buddy Dan King and didn't feel right about the timing at the moment. Now I have some people telling me to start some kind of blog about the rising generation of Christians or conservatives while other people are calling me to do interviews on Halloween and my kids just want to play at the park. For now, I'm praying and seeking God's will on just what it is that will glorify Him the most, since that's really the point of my life.

All that to say, pray a lot, hang out with your spouse and kids, quit skipping class, stand up for Christ, vote next week, eat chocolate, get outside and enjoy God's creation, drink a strong cup of coffee (especially if you can get to the Starbucks on Hamilton Place, the best coffee spot on the planet), sleep in sometime soon (unless you have an exam that day), read the Bible, quit calling people names, pray for our president, eat healthier, get a cat (Ours just showed up on our porch!), serve the poor, eat your vegetables, laugh more, turn off your cell phone, jump in a big pile of leaves just for fun, check out my crazy family pictures on Facebook (but not at work), and whatever you do, do it for God's glory, because we'll all soon see Him face to face.

That Jesus-loving guy who keeps sending you messages,


Dillon

Times Free Press today, front page news: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2010/oct/22/school-prayer-ban-ignites-backlash/?local

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