Blog. Post. Click. Search. Stats. Reach. Reach people.

Put God's kingdom first. Do what he wants you to do. Then all of those things will also be given to you. So don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough challenges of its own. (Matthew 6:33-34)
Numbers by themselves don't necessarily mean much. Fact is, statistics can be manipulated to make them say just about anything - especially when it comes to politics and sales.

The numbers that have interested me over the past few months have to do with exposure, about the potential reach of my core message. I wonder - sometimes - if any people actually read anything that I write! It's a legitimate question, seeing as writing is the focus of my professional life.

Book sales are fairly easy to measure. I know that around 22,000 copies have sold through 2009, and possibly another 3,000 in 2010. Circulation #s for the newspapers and magazines I write for vary, and who knows if and when readers actually look at my articles? On the web, All Pro Dad document around 100,000 unique hits every month, and I know a lot of those folk read my 10-Ways lists.

Then there is my blog. I post probably 5 times a week. Some people check in infrequently then read more than one entry; some take a look daily; some only visit when I send out an email prompt; some read via the RSS feed to facebook (those #s don't register on my counter).

So I thought I'd share a few of the more interesting things that I do know:

• Last month I had 4,320 visits (up from 2,500 last summer)
• My primary audience is - not surprisingly - from the USA. But, and this is surprising, the UK doesn't come up until #4, behind the Netherlands and South Korea. Canada rounds out the top 5.
• Over time and on average (and it holds true for visitors over any time period) close to 70% of hits are classified "returning visitors" and 30% are "new" visitors.
• The average length of a visit comes in at around seven minutes, so evidently a couple of people other than my mother are reading.

But even then, it's tough to know what - if anything  - has actually gotten through. It's entirely different when I'm speaking to a live audience. My wife Rebekah preaches to - on average - between 350 and 400 people every Sunday. Probably 600 different people are in church over the span of the average month. Most of them appear to keep their eyes open, and she knows immediately if she's connecting in a meaningful way.

Blogging is kind of like the "If a tree falls in a forest and no-one is there to hear it, does it make any sound?" question.

And that is why - primarily - this page is more of a personal devotional exercise than a measure of my relevance in the world of emerging Christian thought.

One day - I'm sure of it - a miracle is going to happen and something I have written (a blog post, a newspaper commentary, a book) is going to "go viral" and then everything will change.

Until then, I have one word for my readers - both of you!

• Put God's kingdom first. Do what he wants you to do. Then all of those things will also be given to you. So don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough challenges of its own. (Matthew 6:33-34)

DEREK