I am
starting a blog today. I’ve passed on Twitter, MySpace, Pinterest & am only
tacitly present on Facebook, but today I join the world of digital self
publishing. Frankly, I do so reluctantly and hesitantly. The last thing our
world needs is another person venting himself/herself into the digital cosmos.
The very nature of the beast is unsettling to me. Blogging can become an idol,
whereby one measures one’s value by the number of hits. Bloggers often write
things in print that they would never say face to face to someone. Nonetheless,
despite these dangers (and more) I am starting a blog today.
This will
be a different type of blog. This will not be a personal journal open for the
world to voyeuristically to read. The goal of this blog is to equip the saints
for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12-16). Actually, my personal ambitions
are quite a bit lower even than that. I simply wish to equip the saints in Evansville to live
faithful, fruitful, devoted Christian lives. Because I believe that as we bloom
right where God has planted us (in the particular marriages, families,
vocations, neighbors, etc.) we will transform our community.
I have been
called by God to leave mechanical engineering and pastor a local congregation
in Evansville, WI. And by God’s grace in addition to a
husband of 14 years and a father to 6 children, I’ve become a theologian, a
teacher and a leader. I’ve been pastoring now 7 years in Evansville. One of the things I’ve struggled
to do well is discipleship (training others to follow Jesus). The reality is
that Sunday morning corporate worship – the high point in the life of the corporate body
of Christ – just isn’t sufficient interaction and time to properly equip the
saints. There is a gap between Sunday and Monday even among those who value the
authority of Scripture and its relevance for all of life. This blog is an
effort to close this gap.
What America needs
right now is Christians who have integrated their faith into their vocations,
marriages, families, recreation and everything they do. If meat begins to rot
you do not blame the meat, you blame the salt that it supposed to preserve it.
Jesus said to His followers, “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt
loses its saltiness what use is it?” (Matthew 5:13) We’re living in a time of
decay when people work for a paycheck not as a calling, when marriage is
unraveling, family is under attack and people “work at their play and play at
their work”. It is the calling of Christians to be salt and light and it is the
goal of this blog to equip you to be so. May Christ be glorified in all we do!
ESV Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good
news of happiness, who publishes
salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."
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