Blog Series

One of the things I have taken to doing over the years here at From the Pew is to write about large topics in a number of shorter posts.  I often write in series of posts.  Blogging long posts has been proven to not work in blogosphere culture.  So, I break big things into small chunks that everybody can read over time.  With new Blogger features, I can link to an entire series of blog posts without the limitations of the old label formats, which restricted series to 20 readable posts.  So, here is a list of blog series I have written over the years.  Below this list is a separate list where I describe each series.

The blog series that I link to below will appear in reverse chronological order of posting dates for all posts in that series.  An additional blog list can be found in the lower recesses of the right margin.  For some of these series I have additionally combined all the text of each series part into one post, chronologically, for easier reading and they will be specially noted below.

BLOG SERIES LIST:

• Re-Thinking Church Membership (It's back!)
• Harold Camping: An Untold Story
• Baptism: Another View - or - entire series in a single post here
• Re-Thinking the Sunday Church Service (original series) - or - a recent ongoing re-posting of the series here
• Re-Thinking Romans 13 (I will re-post this series at a later date)
• Re-Thinking Church Membership (I will re-post this series at a later date)
• Psychology of the End - A Different Kind of Look at Eschatology - or - entire series in a single post here
• Friday Night Potpourri
• Blogspot Monday
• Zoning Laws - or - entire series in a single post here
• Adoption (I will re-post this series at a later date)
• Israel, Church and Kingdom (I will re-post this series at a later date)
• Friday Night Potpourri Song List

BLOG SERIES DESCRIPTIONS:

• Re-Thinking Church Membership - Another of my "Re-Thinking" series that I took down and planned to re-post after some re-working. Well, this one is back!  This series had reached over 30 posts at the time I re-posted it. I look at a common doctrine of church membership as is widely taught in conservative evangelical circles today. I show how this particular doctrine misses the mark biblically, how it is widely supported by many well known evangelical leaders, and I have proposed a solution for the unintended consequences it fosters, all to the disbelief of its adherents. Stay tuned as this series grows.
• Harold Camping: An Untold Story - What I hope to accomplish in this series is to give additional information on Camping and his teachings that are little known, to correct some misunderstandings and common factual errors believed about his teachings, to show some of his errors and how his end times beliefs evolved over time, to offer some insight as to what it was like to be on the inside back in 1994, and to increase my blog site traffic.
• Baptism: Another View - or - single post here - Baptism is often described as either infant baptism or believer's baptism.  A dilemma has been created and sustained over the centuries that makes out these two views of baptism as mutually exclusive.  Does it really have to be this way?  Could this be a false dilemma?  In this series I look at each view, compare the two, and offer what I consider to be helpful ideas for reconciling these two views.  This series is a re-working of a series I did several years ago (since taken down) titled "Baptism: A Third View" that looks at the same ideas.
• Re-Thinking the Sunday Church Service (original series) - or - re-posting of the series here - A number of years ago I began to look at the typical American Sunday church service, of which I was very familiar, and started comparing it to what I saw in the bible.  Our Sunday meetings are usually called "worship services" and consist of preaching by one person and passive listening by most in attendance.  The central focus seems to be the sermon and there is little active participation from church members.  In the bible, however, I see something different.  Churches met for mutual edification and each member was involved in this edification.  This edification took place in the church meeting, and the meeting included a more robust celebrating of the Lord's Supper.  I wrote this series several years ago and looked at the problems with our modern services and helpful ideas from the bible.  I framed many of my concerns as questions - question I have since found more answers to.  I have been in the process of re-posting this series for the benefit of my readers.  Both the original series and the re-post can be read.
• Re-Thinking Romans 13 - This was my original "Re-Thinking" series and I removed it from my blog last year for reasons I won't go into here.  In this series, which I plan to revise and re-post, I look at what I see to be a disconnect between what Romans 13 actually says and how it is commonly interpreted by evangelicals.  I think it is the most abused chapter in the bible and its interpretation can be missed by starting its reading at verse 1.  I show how many people disconnect it from its Romans 12 context and how its misinterpretation is widely taught.  A common misinterpretation is "obey civil authorities at all cost" and a variation on this theme is "obey unless the bible commands otherwise."  I show how proper understanding of authority from a biblical viewpoint is first necessary before interpreting this passage.  Stay tuned for a new and improved version of this series in the future.
• Psychology of the End - A Different Kind of Look at Eschatology - or - single post here - In this series of posts, I look at how "the end" of something radically affects our thinking and how we act.  Sports teams radically change their game plan at the end of the game.  Students radically change their study habits to cram for finals.  When facing deadlines we change our behavior.  I show how these psychological effects translate to eschatology.  We change the way we behave when we think the end is right at the door.  This is why God never tells us when the end will be or when we get really close.  This is a different kind of look at eschatology.
• Friday Night Potpourri - Every Friday night I post a look back at my week of thoughts and observations.  This on-going series is intended to be more on the light side of life and departs from the theological theme.  From leaves changing colors to cell phone woes, or whatever else.  The last bullet point in each post contains a link to a YouTube music video for my readers to enjoy.  Or not as the case may be.
• Blogspot Monday - Each Monday evening I do a post that highlights one of the blogs in my blogroll.  I call attention to that important blog and tell how it fits into my blog reading life and habits.  I am very thankful for those on my blog reading list, and I don't hesitate to put blogs I disagree with in the spotlight.  This series is intended to give readers a glimpse into what I read and maybe explain why.  Just another little way you can know me better from the other end of a screen.
• Zoning Laws - or - single post here - One of the foundations of life in America is a little known foundation with far reaching consequences.  This foundation is the system of zoning laws that civil governments force upon society that dictates where, when, how and what size things can be built, including where we live and work.  In this series I look at the unintended (or maybe not?) consequences of zoning laws and also look at how this compares with biblical law for society.
• Adoption - Several years ago I did a series on adoption.  As an adoptive father of children, I look at adoption from a somewhat doctrinal standpoint.  I plan to re-organize this series and re-post it sometime in the future.
• Israel, Church and Kingdom - This wasn't so much a series as it was a collection of posts about each topic and how these three ideas relate to each other.  I hope to find those posts and collect them into a series.  Stay tuned.
• Friday Night Potpourri Song List - I describe my Friday Night Potpourri series above.  This link is to a song list of every YouTube song link I've ever put into a Friday post, and the links are included.  Just beware of misleading song titles for posts on April Fools Day!