blogs

Flashback Friday: Trailblazer

Frank

***Originally posted April 7, 2010. Reposted this week as I’ve “joined” an online book club to discuss the book Mere Churchianity by Michael Spencer over at the blog Bend the Page. Discussion has spread over to Faith, Fiction, and Friends and Poems and Prayers. Even if you don’t join in the discussion, I strongly encourage you to pick up the book.***

What inspires you? I don’t mean encourages, or edifies, I mean honest to goodness “God breathed,” (2 Timothy 3:16) in-spirit moving of the Holy Spirit in you. Maybe it’s a psalm, hymn, or spiritual song (Ephesians 5:19), maybe it’s a favorite verse in the Bible, maybe it’s a friend, a book, or a movie. Maybe it’s the stories of those who came before, who blazed God fearing, Jesus-led trails.

Monday, April 5th, Michael Spencer, aka the Internet Monk, passed away after a long battle with cancer. A little more than a year ago, Father Richard John Neuhaus, author at the blog First Things passed away. I can honestly say that without the inspiration from these two men of God, I would not be blogging today. I was shocked to read that the imonk started blogging 10 years ago. These two saw the opportunities of the Internet to spread the Gospel and shaped the online Christian landscape. From Father Neuhaus, I was inspired as he tackled issues of interest to me. From Michael, he introduced a new way to reach the masses without preaching down to them using this new-fangled interweb thingy. I regret not following them as closely once I set out on my own blog.

The early Christian blogosphere, including Get Religion and Blogs4God soon grew to include the Thinklings and Boar’s Head Tavern, Stuff Christians Like, Purgatorio, and JesusNeedsNewPR. Most recently, Peter Pollock’s and Bridget Chumbley’s Blog Carnival has been a network of diverse Christian blogs that all aspire to encourage applying the Word of God through the Internet. Yesterday’s [April 6] topic, Gentleness, drew 39 posts. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of Christian blogs. I will never have time to find them all, but I am grateful for the inspiration the ones I do read bring to me.

Back to imonk for a moment. Another blogger commented a few years ago that America is due for another Great Awakening and that it would likely come through the power of the Internet. I couldn’t agree more and I believe the legacy that Michael Spencer leaves behind started the ball rolling that direction. I pray his legacy continues throughout the Christian blogosphere and through the hearts and souls of readers everywhere. Michael was too young. He didn’t live to see the next Great Awakening. But he lived to see it begun.

Weekend Reading, 31 July

Frank

Grateful for my kids letting me sleep in this morning! Grateful too looking back at blogs throughout this last week. I am blessed to have found a community of Christian bloggers that call me higher, challenge me, encourage me, and make me think. A (long) roundup of my favorites:

  • God is not a cosmic vending machine, plus other insight as Katdish meditates on Pete Wilson’s book Plan B.
  • Aarron Reddin reminds me that us addicts like to make excuses. Especially when it comes to picking and choosing which of Jesus’ commands to follow.
  • There are a lot of possible reasons David might have slipped. j4man considers a few.
  • Chad Missildine will never be a super-Christian. That’s ok, neither will I.
  • Are we spending time storing up worldly blessings or eternal? Dusty Rayburn asks.
  • Glynn Young gives a thoughtful and personal review of the late Michael Spencer’s book, Mere Churchianity.
  • Michael Perkins observes first hand that yes, God does use Facebook and Twitter.
  • Tips for how to destroy your marriage with an affair by Perry Noble.
  • Ryan Tate reminds us not to ignore our inklings.
  • In spiritual warfare, we need a band of brothers. Jay Cookingham measures his life in “friend years“.
  • Sometimes a building has to be torn down before it can be rebuilt. A lesson we can apply to our lives and our writings, encourages Barbara Scott.
  • Meanwhile, driving over the potholes in life requires realignment, writes Billy Coffey.
  • Finally, Peter Pollock asks if we have the guts after watching one of my favorite movies, Freedom Writers.

Where are you going? Where have you been?

Frank

Last week I asked fellow Christian Bloggers why they blog. I was surprised by how relatable the response was. Granted, I don’t have the reach to have best-selling authors or famous Pastors frequent this site, but it was still surprising to see that others are blogging simply because they have convictions they want to share.

Marshall Jones Jr brought up another point: “I think blogs by themselves are on the decline. There’s so much info out there, that simply putting up more info isn’t that amazing anymore.” That was an initial fear when I started to blog- that I was just another voice in the din. There are countless Christian blogs out there. There are widgets/subscription services that rank Christian blogs like http://christianblog.colossians2.com/ which presently counts up to 330 sites. High Calling Blogs, which is the circle of bloggers I’ve found myself most closely associated with consists of 120 diverse bloggers. Other networks likely see similar numbers.

Sadly, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to read everything. So my question this week is, how do you browse for blogs and how do you prioritize what you read? On the first, I’ve found my biggest source of traffic is SumbledUpon. I know others are very effective with Twitter or Facebook. I don’t know if networks like HCB are helpful or not. I have noticed that no one really checks “blog rolls” on your sidebar, but I have been visited via links in other blogs’ comments. When I first started blogging, I would find a site (sometimes by Googling a topic) and then follow their blog roll or comments down a seemingly infinite rabbit hole. I would get so far that I would forget where I began. And since I didn’t see the value in bookmarking the hundreds of Christian blogs I was finding, I’d be lucky if I could find and return to a site that I actually liked.

So I’m curious:

How do you browse for blogs (blog rolls, comments, StubledUpon, etc)?
How do you prioritize what you read (most recent, most commented)?
What’s one Christian blog that’s off the beaten path that others might not know about?

“Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole [internet] would not have room for the [blogs] that would be written.” (John 21:25)

Where are you going? Where have you been?

Frank

Last week I asked fellow Christian Bloggers why they blog. I was surprised by how relatable the response was. Granted, I don’t have the reach to have best-selling authors or famous Pastors frequent this site, but it was still surprising to see that others are blogging simply because they have convictions they want to share.

Marshall Jones Jr brought up another point: “I think blogs by themselves are on the decline. There’s so much info out there, that simply putting up more info isn’t that amazing anymore.” That was an initial fear when I started to blog- that I was just another voice in the din. There are countless Christian blogs out there. There are widgets/subscription services that rank Christian blogs like http://christianblog.colossians2.com/ which presently counts up to 330 sites. High Calling Blogs, which is the circle of bloggers I’ve found myself most closely associated with consists of 120 diverse bloggers. Other networks likely see similar numbers.

Sadly, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to read everything. So my question this week is, how do you browse for blogs and how do you prioritize what you read? On the first, I’ve found my biggest source of traffic is SumbledUpon. I know others are very effective with Twitter or Facebook. I don’t know if networks like HCB are helpful or not. I have noticed that no one really checks “blog rolls” on your sidebar, but I have been visited via links in other blogs’ comments. When I first started blogging, I would find a site (sometimes by Googling a topic) and then follow their blog roll or comments down a seemingly infinite rabbit hole. I would get so far that I would forget where I began. And since I didn’t see the value in bookmarking the hundreds of Christian blogs I was finding, I’d be lucky if I could find and return to a site that I actually liked.

So I’m curious:

How do you browse for blogs (blog rolls, comments, StubledUpon, etc)?
How do you prioritize what you read (most recent, most commented)?
What’s one Christian blog that’s off the beaten path that others might not know about?

“Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole [internet] would not have room for the [blogs] that would be written.” (John 21:25)