The Simple Pastor

By Phil Whittall, church planter, blogger & book reviewer

Archive of "polls" Category

• Reduce submarines but keep the nuclear weapons: Huh?

  September 23, 2009 // 1 Comment »

  So Gordon Brown has offered to cut the number of nuclear submarines operated by the Royal Navy from 4 to 3. This is quite smart as the PM can seen to be a statesman and at the same time be seen to deal with the massive financial problem he has helped create.

  I am in favour of reducing our nuclear weapons to zero. Only this isn’t what the PM appears to be proposing, he’s just proposing we have less submarines. We’ll still have 160 nuclear warheads. So far the Lib Dems (and I think Greens) are for a reduction in our nuclear deterrent capacity, which is in their favour. So time for a new poll, should the UK have nuclear weapons or not?

  *If you’re reading this in a reader, click through to the site to vote* 

  Categories:
  nuclear weapons, politics, polls

• How many blogs do you read?

  March 3, 2009 // 2 Comments »

  I guess like many of you I use a RSS reader (Google Reader in my case) and it’s easy to just continuously add blogs to your reading list. I tend to scan and skim a lot, looking for something to catch my eye. I’ve started to become a little more rigorous in my unsubscribing from blogs and watching the amount of time I give to reading blogs (probably still too much).

  So a question. What techniques, ideas, hints and tips do you have for reading and managing your blog reading list to stop it becoming unmanageable? And as I’m curious to know, my new poll will be on this question: How many blogs do you regularly read? (I’m currently subscribing to 48!!!)

  A new blog I’ve added and trying out is Life Together and two posts that immediately caught my eye was The Recession – A revealer of true community and Home is a Small Group for Mission

  Categories:
  blogging, community, polls

• Would your life be better without a TV?

  February 3, 2009 // 2 Comments »

  That was the question I asked in my most recent poll and it turns out that 56% think the answer is yes.

  Yes	9 (56%)
  No	5 (31%)
  Not sure	2 (12%)

  Votes so far: 16

  I wonder how many of you will do anything about that potential positive gain and money saving option by taking action! Colin Beavan (aka No Impact Man) calls the TV, ‘the enemy in our living room’. He says,
  

  “I mean–don’t get me wrong–I enjoy vegging in front of the TV as much as the next guy. But having it in the house is like having a gallon of ice cream and a bag of cookies in the kitchen. I can’t resist and the negative effects when I engorge ends up outweighing the pleasure.”

  Read the whole thing

  A new poll will up soon

  For other poll results and my discoveries about my readers

  Categories:
  polls

• What I know about you (part 4)

  January 16, 2009 // No Comments »

  The results of my latest poll I have to admit have surprised me a little. I asked about voting intentions and the results were:

  Conservative	6 (33%)
  Labour	4 (22%)
  Liberal Democrat	3 (16%)
  Green	0 (0%)
  Other	1 (5%)
  Republican (US)	3 (16%)
  Democrat (US)	1 (5%)

  Total votes: 18

  Now if I was to simply sort that into a simple right/left divide and assume I count Labour as left wing (a bit dubious these days) then it breaks down into

  Right-leaning: 9
  Left-leaning: 8

  And I don’t know which way the person who voted for other leans. Now this is somewhat surprising because I tend to write about traditionally leftish issues. My friend Dave described me as bit of a “leftie” and others would agree. I’m probably a closet socialist at heart, I read Jim Wallis and Rob Bell, I talk about the environment, spending less, I critique riches and wealth, many of the links I link to are left leaning, I’m generally opposed to war – (I was in opposition to the Iraq war) and would get rid of nuclear weapons unilaterally as they cannot be morally justified. And had I been an American, quite possibly I may well have voted for Barack Obama. The message of simplicity and anti-consumerism while clearly not exclusive to any political viewpoint has often been associated with the left not the right.

  So it’s slightly surprising and indeed heartening to be crossing the political divide and indeed I hope that continues. Please feel free to comment on how your faith informs your politics and why any issues you connect with here you think are better suited to one party than the other.

  And now for a new poll. Simple question really – do you think your life would be better without a TV? (if you’re reading this in a RSS reader, you’ll have to visit the website to cast your vote)

  Here for other poll results

  Categories:
  polls

• What I know about you (part 3)

  December 24, 2008 // No Comments »

  So the latest poll results are in and to be honest they’re not too surprising although it did get more votes than any other poll, with 51 of you kindly taking part. I lead a Newfrontiers church so no shocks that most of the voters also attend a Newfrontiers church.

  Anglican	12 (23%)
  Newfrontiers	29 (56%)
  Methodist	2 (3%)
  Vineyard	0 (0%)
  Baptist	2 (3%)
  Pentecostal	0 (0%)
  Independent	1 (1%)
  Catholic	1 (1%)
  Other	2 (3%)
  None	2 (3%)

  Which by my reckoning makes 93% of you so no idea what happened to the other 7%. Time for a new poll and so after age, gender, church allegiance and book buyers allegiance – let’s go to politics and declare your politics. I’ve included options for the US readers. If you’re reading this by RSS please head to the website to take part, couple of clicks and you’re done!

  Categories:
  polls

• What I know about you

  November 30, 2008 // No Comments »

  In an entertaining (for me anyway) quest to find out more about the people who read this blog I’ve begun a series of polls, (usually at top right).

  The latest results are in:

  Under 16	0 (0%)
  16-25	7 (22%)
  26-35	11 (35%)
  36-50	9 (29%)
  51-65	3 (9%)
  Over 65	1 (3%)

  I don’t suppose any of that is all that surprising but it’s nice to know there’s some appeal across the generations. So I now know the age and gender (72% male, 27% female and 1%?) of my readers and where you buy your Christian books (Amazon, Wesley Owen and local bookshop).

  So a new poll on church (if you go is now up). Thanks for taking part oh and if you choose ‘Other’ can you leave a comment to let me know what sort of other? Thanks!

  Categories:
  polls

• New Poll

  November 6, 2008 // No Comments »

  In a diverting quest to find out more about the people who read this blog I’ve begun a series of polls, (usually at top right). So far I’ve found out that where people buy their Christian books, a variety of sources with Amazon leading the way and now the gender make up. Perhaps not too surprisingly 72% of readers are male and in a curious bit of maths only 27% are female. The other 1% are…?

  Anyway, let’s go for ages, so tick a box (please head to the site for you RSS readers) and let’s see shall we…

  Categories:
  polls

• Bookshop Poll Results

  October 9, 2008 // No Comments »

  So, in a very unscientific experiment the results of the last poll on buying Christian bookshops showed that Christian bookshops if you had up the totals of my own shop, other local shops and Wesley Owen beats Amazon by 9 votes to 5, Amazon. If only that were the case in real life.

  My next poll is a bit of investigation into finding out more about my readers – if you read this is an RSS feed please visit the blog at least to click on the vote and disappear again. So are you male or female?

  Categories:
  books, business, polls

• A crushing blow for democracy

  January 6, 2008 // No Comments »

  I like polls, I like voting on things whether the vote has consequence or not, and it’s fair to say that the polls on this blog are of no consequence at all (other than giving us a chance to express our opinions without ever having to even type anything) but a full zero percent of you thought that the church is motivated by a political agenda while 71% think that the church is old-fashioned and out of touch. OK so that’s only 5 of you but the majority has spoken – so feel free to send in your comments about ways serious or not that the church can become not old fashioned and out of touch….

  Categories:
  polls