Some of you may think of December 1 as the day Bette Middler entered the world and changed our lives forever through song and dance. Or you may remember to pin a pink flower to your lapel in Honor of AIDS, as today is World AIDS day.

However, here at City Business, today is the day we took every silly thought we had about that large breasted church on the hill, and laid them out for the world to see. And in honor of this momentous occasion we are going to try and quantify exactly what one year means to this blog:

Number of Entries: 137

Number of times we have cursed: 24

Number of entries featuring the Lasit Family: 14

Number of allusions to Seinfeld: 55

Number of anonymous comments that ridiculued us: 79

Number of times we have been called “bitter”: 1 bajillion

Number of people who did not get that we were trying to help Doug and Donna’s marriage: 2,934

Number of City Bible pastor’s who read this blog religiously: 24

Number of times we have used the word “tithe”: 610

Number of times we lied about pastor’s reading this blog: 1

Thanks to everyone who reads and comments on this blog. You make my life fun. Thank you.

(With apologies to those lovely ladies at Go Fug Yourself: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.)

Here’s an interesting blog from Bob Hyatt. (Hat Tip: Jesse Morton)

The era of the pastor on the pedestal is over. Not that we shouldn’t respect our pastors, but too many of us grew up being allowed to think that the pastor was a cut above, on a super-spiritual plane that we should aspire to, but probably would never reach short of becoming pastors ourselves (or missionaries… missionaries were even better in some cases).

The problem is that pastors are only human and the first time they show that, those who enjoy the pastor-on-the-pedestal are left feeling hurt and betrayed. Better to let people know up front

-I’m just like you. I struggle with self-doubt, with identity and motivation issues just like everyone. I struggle with sin. I get angry. I’m selfish too much of the time. Sometimes I don’t want to spend time with God. I hate the fact that my hair is deserting me, but my stomach seems to be hitting a growth period. But in the midst of all that God shows me grace and forgiveness, God is my center and my ground.-

It’s possible to live this life and not be swept away, not be pulled under. And it doesn’t happen because you reach a level of spiritual perfection where the waters calm and the clouds part. It happens because through those very things you struggle with you are driven time and time again to God Himself. And if I didn’t live that process openly with people, what right would I have to try to tell them that’s how it works?