Blog Spotlight Monday - Alan Knox

Alan Knox blogs at a spot on the web known as The Assembling of the Church.  As you might be able to guess from the blog's title, Alan spends much of writing time devoted not to just the church, but the assembling of it.  Ecclesiology is Alan's main topic.  I discovered Alan's site just over two years ago, while in the process of writing an ongoing blog series about re-thinking the Sunday worship service.  Alan had some striking parallels to mine in discovering from examples in the bible (namely 1 Corinthians) that church meetings were not sermon-centered, but were structured so that all who assembled were able to participate in the edification of others.  As such, Alan's blog falls into my category of major blog influences.

Alan is a pastor (one of several) at a church in the Raleigh, North Carolina area.  The church he assembles with practices the mutual edification type of meeting that he writes about.  While I developed my ecclesiology from reading about the church in the New Testament and comparing it to what I had experienced over 15 years, Alan develops his ecclesiology "hands on" in addition.  On his blog, Alan routinely gives examples of how his own church lives out their lives in Christ.  He has quite a few other blogs he links to that represent his understanding of ecclesiology, so getting a wide angle on the participatory style of meeting is always possible.

Alan is also a PhD student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and is working on his thesis with the subject of mutual edification as the purpose for church assembling.  I find Alan to be engaging, thoughtful, and he is one who regularly interacts with those who comment on his blog.  He started blogging (actually today is coincidentally his five year blogiversary) as an outlet for the things he was studying in his PhD program.  For anybody who has questions about the nature, function and structure of the church, I would heartily recommend Alan's The Assembling of the Church blog.