Blog Spotlight Monday - A Pilgrim's Progress

Eric Carpenter blogs at his A Pilgrim's Progress site.  Eric is a former "institutional" church pastor who felt convicted over a period of time that his paid pastorate in the specific corporate structure of his church didn't line up with the bible.  So, he has blogged about his journey; hence a pilgrim's progress.  He stepped down from his position, becoming unemployed.  His family started assembling with a group of other people in homes, or if you like, a simple or organic church life.  After a while of part time work, Eric got a full time job as a working man and continues to write about his life journey.

I came across Eric in the comment sections of Alan Knox'sThe Assembling of the Church blog and other blogs friendly to Alan (they attended the same seminary if I'm not mistaken).  Eric writes quite a bit about ecclesiology - or study of the church - but also about many other topics as well.  He isn't afraid to take on church theology head on and I find his writing stimulating and authentic.  Despite living in the South (Savannah, GA), Eric is a Phillies fan and we had a bit of fun last fall when they played my Giants, and he's looking forward to a rematch that I would gladly welcome.  Eric is in my "ecclesiology" links box as a result of his continual desire to examine the church in the light of the scriptures.  Check out Eric's A Pilgrim's Progress.

Blog Spotlight Monday - Wilderness Fandango

Bob Spencer blogs at a musical place on the internet called Wilderness Fandango.  I forget where I came across Bob, but I think it was on the Internet Monk site.  There are several things that make Bob's site a good read for me.  One is that he has a church history that I can relate to in terms of what church is and how people are supposed to fit into existing ideas.  He's not a fan of the "institutional" church model, and writes often about his visits to various churches and his ideas about what does and doesn't work in church.  Another is that he likes baseball.  I hope I've got this right when I say he's a Red Sox fan.  It's the team that most people in Maine worship, uhhh, I mean follow.

Bob is a big bluegrass music fan and often puts up clips of various pieces of music, many outside of the bluegrass genre.  Either way, they're always tasteful and a good listen.  But one of the things I enjoy most about Wilderness Fandango is that Bob is a good writer.  No matter what he writes about and no matter if I agree, he writes about it well.  So, there you go for a Monday.  Check out Bob's Wilderness Fandango.

Blog Spotlight Monday - Evangelical Calvinist

Bobby Grow blogs at The Evangelical Calvinist.  Bobby's blog is unashamedly theological in nature - and relatively heavy theology at that - but some of the fun in it for him and some of the fun in reading it for me is found in his many challenges to the rigid structures of classic or federal Calvinism.

I found Bobby frequently frequenting the comments sections of some major Calvinist blogs, several of which were already on my "don't agree so much with" list.  So, it only seems natural that somebody who makes the same challenges that I like to see people make would be somebody I connect with on a blog level.  Bobby has this sneaky way of inserting some subtleties into his comments, and as a result we had to correspond often in private rather than in the comments sections because it might get too thick.

Bobby holds to a particular brand of theology known as Evangelical Calvinism, or Scottish Theology, and writes extensively on the subject, hence his blog title.  EC has its basis in the person of Christ as He exists in the Trinity as over against the rigid theological constructs of federal Calvinism.  It would be best to read his blog to get a better idea of what that entails.  Bobby is a recent cancer survivor and his zest for life is evident in his writing.  I have done my best to not hold his being a Lakers fan against him, but on occasion I simply cannot contain myself and counter with a feeble "Go Warriors," which really means nothing to anybody.  Check out Bobby's Evangelical Calvinist blog.

Blog Spotlight Monday - PILGRIMS PUB

Jason Nota is a Christian who blogs about beer at PILGRIMS PUB.  I like beer - good beer, that is - and I also like Jason's blog.  So it is only natural that PILGRIMS PUB is on my blogroll and has been a regular read for quite some time.  Jason does periodic beer reviews, complete with rating systems, often trying Midwestern beers I've never heard of.  He also puts up stories on beer, writes about the history of beer, and, one of my favorite types of writing that Jason does, he occasionally dismantles the false and so-called "Christian" doctrine of alcohol prohibition.  He has written a number of posts on Christian liberty and limits of conscience.

I find Jason to be fairly sober about beer, and has a really good concept of enjoying God's creation.  I also love his blog's subtitle:

The selling of bad beer is a crime against Christian love- 13th Century city of Augsburg law.

If you like beer, or even if you don't, or even if you don't think beer should be dranked by Christians, go ahead and take a read over at PILGRIMS PUB.

Blog Spotlight Monday - OrthoCuban

Father Ernesto Obregon is an Eastern Orthodox priest who was born in Cuba and decorates his niche in the blogosphere at OrthoCuban.  I first came across Fr. Ernesto at the late Michael Spencer's Internet Monk blog, where he has been a regular commenter and a member of iMonk's "Liturgical Gangstas" group.

One thing that interested me about him is that I knew little about the Eastern Orthodox faith, and one of Spencer's purposes at iMonk was to include others from varying Christian traditions and backgrounds in the fabric of his blog.  Spencer had many issues with modern American evangelicalism, and the inclusion of people from some older traditions was one way to give his evangelical readers the idea that evangelicals did not have a corner on the Christian religion.  Fr. Ernesto has always had a way of bringing insightful observations to any given discussion, and often stated the Eastern Orthodox view on an issue.  I started reading his own blog, and he has been a regular on my blogroll ever since.

On OrthoCuban, Fr. Ernesto discusses many points of doctrine from the E.O. position, and offers a balanced view on many things, including civil and criminal justice as well as politics.  One of the best things about his writings - other than being a good writer - is that he comes to the table without the conservative political views that are often the foundation of the evangelical mindset, and will often offer a good critique of popular evangelical ideas and what its mouthpieces speak publicly.

His own story is an interesting one to be sure, how he came from being born in Cuba to becoming an Eastern Orthodox priest.  He currently lives in Alabama after many years in Florida.  Check out Fr. Ernesto's blog OrthoCuban.

Blog Spotlight Monday - Northern Gleaner

Gene Redlin blogs at a piece of e-real estate known as Northern Gleaner. Gene was one of the earlier blog connections that I had when I started blogging, and has become a friend.  One thing about Gene is that he's quite unique and doesn't fit "the box."  Whatever box that is.

Gene lives in the Chicago area and is originally from North Dakota, and has a special heart for the prairie.  He has an interesting church background with a bit Lutheran and some charismatic influences.  Gene proclaims himself to be a prophet.  I've been in exclusively "cessationist" churches (that all sign and related gifts are no longer being used by God), so my friends that have that view might not understand what Gene means by the prophetic.  Gene has strong opinions on many things and it shows in his writing.  His friendship in my own navigation of things church has been invaluable.  Read Gene at Northern Gleaner.

Blog Spotlight Monday - Commandments of Men

Lewis Wells has created somewhat of a stir on the web with his blog Commandments of Men.  To use his own words, Lewis provides "Editorial and commentary on the dark, hyper-fundamentalist side of the Christian faith, including movements such as Patriarchy, Quiverfull, Courtship - and the dangerous hold those teachings are taking over the Christian Homeschooling movement and industry - Family Integrated Churches, the Religious Right, and more" as stated in his current blog subtitle.  His blog, in such a short time, has been responsible for a good percentage of site traffic on my own blog.

The main catalyst for Wells' blog was a failed relationship he had with a woman.  It failed because of her family's involvement in the relationship - a family that practiced ideals within a movement known as Patriarchy.  He looks at many of the beliefs in this movement and similar other movements, such as the courtship movement.

I'm not a stranger to the ideas of the Patriarchy and courtship movements, and had some terrible experiences when I was single with trying to put Joshua Harris's book "Why I Kissed Dating Goodbye" into practice.  I've been part of churches and circles and have had friends that have had ties with or endorsed some of the views that Wells examines, and have heard stories from friends that were just as wacky and bizarre as Wells describes from his own experience.  What it all boils down to is that many of the beliefs in these movements are simply commandments of men rather than true biblical commands for living.  Hence his blog title.

My favorite quote Wells uses, and shows on his blog, is from CS Lewis: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under live robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."  I'm extremely experienced with what can happen when men add their own ideas to God's and promote the product as godly.  What I'll do, instead of taking up the fight in this blog post, is to point you to Lewis Wells' blog Commandments of Men so you can read and decide for yourself. 

Blog Spotlight Monday - Heidelblog

Well, I wanted to highlight another certain blog this week that is on my "don't always agree" list, but lo and behold it has been taken down by the blog author.  That would be the Heidelblog by R. Scott Clark.  Now I want to assure everybody that my decision to highlight his blog just prior to his taking it down is a mere coincidence, and I don't want any conspiracy theorists to run with this.  Also, I didn't cause it, either.
 
Clark is a Reformed pastor and is the Professor of Church History and Historical Theology at Westminster Seminary California.  Clark is an adherent to what is known as Reformed Confessionalism, which is the taking of the standard (or what Reformed Confessionalists consider to the the standard) confessions of the children of the Protestant Reformation, and putting them into serious force as grounds for the doctrines and practices of the church.  Of course, to Reformed Confessionalists, anything outside of the Reformed confessions are at least suspect if not downright wrong.  To put it another way, it's making an "ism" out of the Reformed Confessions.  Clark's blog has been a way for me to keep a pulse of the Westminster folks and how they deal with today's theological issues from a Reformed standpoint.

I've tangled it up with Clark on my blog over the subject of baptism, and I have the knack of collecting blog and Facebook friends who have histories of arguing with him over various issues, people who have seemingly little other in common.  Nevertheless, I'm highlighting Heidelblog in case Clark ever starts his blog again.

Blog Spotlight Monday - Pyromaniacs

Phil Johnson, Dan Phillips and Frank Turk co-blog at a site called Pyromaniacs.  "Team Pyro" is an acceptable nickname for the blog, as it is used in their URL and in my labels.  This is one of the blogs in my "I don't always agree" category that I mentioned last week.  A good summary of this blog can be found in its own subtitle, "...Setting the World on Fire."  Team Pyro are in the staunchly conservative, baptistic and Calvinistic strain of the theoblogoshpere.  They are rigid in their beliefs and their certitude is certain.  They don't hesitate to "flame" those with whom they disagree, and it ties in well with the subtitle.  Pyromaniacs is one of the most widely read Christian blogs on the web, and their comments section frequently hits the century mark.

I have read them for a number of years for several reasons.  I keep up with the pulse of John MacArthur type theology which is such a large part of my theological past.  Phil Johnson is MacArthur's right hand man with respect to research and editing MacArthur's books and other written material and I if I remember correctly is a head honcho in MacArthur's radio ministry.  Frank Turk is a longtime Southern Baptist coming from the relatively small Calvinist sector of the SBC, and Dan Phillips, I believe, might be a baptistic type of guy in a Presbyterian(?) environment (somebody please correct me if I'm wrong here.)

In addition to keeping up with the MacArthurite mindset, the many commenters who are pro-MacArthur/pro-Pyro serve as a study in theological phychology for me and are a good reminder of where I used to be.  There are a number of dissenters as well in the comments section, and I have actually blog-befriended several of those who have made well constructed objections to some of their theology.  And vice versa.  Dissenters don't fare very well over there, as one needs to walk a good line to pull it off.  I find dissent at least interesting and at most view-changing.  For me, that is, and most usually not for the Pyros or their supporters.  I occasionally poke the hornets nest when I feel it needs poking, and I also agree with them in the comments section when I feel it needs agreeing with.  One of the more interesting things that happens occasionally over there is the flaming of John Piper upon his inviting of "questionable characters" to speak at one of his conferences.  You know, like Mark Driscoll.  Team Pyro also posts a weekly helping of Charles Spurgeon from his preaching or writing archives from a century ago.

All in all, Pyromaniacs is a necessary link in my blogroll and in my personal reading.

Blog Spotlight Monday - A Few Thoughts

I'm not linking to a blog today to spotlight.  However, I wanted to throw out a few thoughts on some of the blogs I will highlight in the next few weeks, and over time in this series.  I'm going to link to some that I don't "agree" with, or am not on the same page as.  Some of them I regularly follow, and even link to in my blogroll, but they are more there for me to keep a pulse on certain types of thinking or what's going on over in another theological world.  Maybe those blogs are about how I used to think.  Sometimes I comment on those blogs to poke the hornet's nest as it were.  I'll give a brief explanation to why I read them, and maybe point out a few disagreements I have with them.  All in all, I'm not necessarily endorsing them, it's just that they keep me sharp in my beliefs as to why I might disagree with certain views.  For what it's worth.  I should be back to highlighting blogs next week.

Blog Spotlight Monday - Islam and Christianity

Abu Daoud blogs at Islam and Christianity.  Abu is a Christian who lives in the Middle East among Muslims and he is active in engaging Muslims in discussions of Islam and Christianity.  Abu Daoud is not his real name, but it is what is known as a filionym which is commonly used in some Muslim countries.  When a man has his first son, he is given the name "Abu" plus "son's name."  His first son's name translated into Arabic is "Daoud," so his filionym is "Abu Daoud."

Islam and Christianity is a fascinating blog because it looks at Islam as a religion, Islam as a political system, and the interrelation of Islam and Christianity as it occurs in the Middle East.  Many helpful insights are noted, and there are often stories of his interaction with Muslims.  Abu also sprinkles in some commentary of news events in the Arab world, and gives a number of looks at the history of Islam (and Christianity) as well as the writing of and content of the Quran.

Abu has given the better part of a decade to the study of Arabic and Islam.  He also discusses the roles of the major Christian traditions in the Middle East, which are Protestantism, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.  Islam and Christianity is a must read for people who are considering mission work in the Islamic world, and either way is a good read for those with even a mild interest in Islamic religion and culture.  Please give Abu Daoud's Islam and Christianity a read.

Blog Spotlight Monday - Vache Folle

Vache Folle blogs at St George Blog.  His is one of the first blogs I read regularly so many years ago.  I don't know his real/birth name, as he writes with a pseudonym, Vache Folle.  Do I need to know his name?  He's a character from the keyboard, a self-proclaimed libertarian/anarchist.  He is an attorney and attends a Dutch Reformed church in the New York area, and writes many opinions on religion and politics, with a bit on legal issues surrounding children.  He is originally from the deep South and moved to the New York area many years ago.  He uses a pen name out of worries about his job, and blogs out of a sense of belonging to community.

One of the best of flavors that comes from his blog is his skillful ability to write anonymously about anonymous - but real in real life - people.  Aside from occasionally naming public figures, his subjects are the people next door, in the carpool, at work and as he comes across them, but without names.  Candid talk.  His terms for describing people are also colorful.  He uses "conspecifics" to describe co-workers or co-carpoolers, and "co-religionists" to identify fellow church goers.  He practices laughing at himself, and others, and is constantly engaging in slapstick sociology. He loathes mindless, sheepist conformism, and knows well his place on the Bristol Stool Chart.  His anonymity also allows him to post some very personal stuff, but there always seems to be some underlying humor in it.

VF is refreshing to read for me as he is almost his own unique literary genre in and of himself.  I know some people have issues with internet anonymity, but I'm a fan of his nonetheless.  Maybe almost in spite of the issues.  Vache Folle's St George Blog can be found by clicking your mouse, old school or wireless, here on this underlined hyperlink.

Blog Spotlight Monday - grain edit

I'm taking a bit of a detour tonight on Blog Spotlight Monday.  Tonight's blog has nothing to do with church or theology.  Tonight I am highlighting a blog titled grain edit, a blog devoted to modern graphic design.  One of the main contributors to this blog is named Dave, and although I've met him only a few times, he's a friend of many friends of mine.  grain edit focuses on a certain era of graphic design (as distinguished from modern art), what one might call "classic," from the 1950's to the 70's.  Examples of the best of this era of design (with maybe some retro tossed in) are continually shown.

Graphic design of one form or another has been part of my life for many years, especially with my previous career in the field of architecture.  Many of the features within this genre of design have been very visible in all of our lives in the form of advertising, book covers, album covers, public signs, children's cartoons, etc.  Dave and crew do an outstanding job of putting this genre on display, and grain edit has won an award for being a top design site on the web.  I agree with the award givers.

Check out grain edit, even if you aren't particularly drawn to modern graphic design, and you might actually grow to enjoy it.  Maybe check out a few back pages with older posts to gain an overall view of their work.  Next week I'm probably back to a normal theology/ecclesiology theme.

Blog Spotlight Monday - Independent Country

James Leroy Wilson blogs at Independent Country.  His was one of the first blogs I read regularly, and for good reason.  He was what was known as a "libertarian."  His writings were key in helping me change my views that were based on the false dilemma that one had to be either a "conservative" or a "liberal."  I was beginning to discover that there were other ways of looking at things.  Although James has written mostly about political issues, I could see strong parallels in religious thinking.  James has written a great deal about using civil law to exercise power over people.  If there's a law, there's an armed police force willing to enforce that law (up to and including the use of lethal force), and a judge with a jail cell key to do as much.  There's something inherently wrong with using coercion in forcing one's beliefs upon another.  He has written much about the force used by the state for its own goals and about how our personal desires fit in to that system.  I have changed my political and religious views in some areas because of some of what he has written.

I recently discovered something I wrote about James years ago and I thought I'd repost it here:

James is... I'm not even sure what James does, but he brings a libertarian angle to things that has been for me a constant check to my previously held conservative ideas. James is refreshing because he hasn't become a libertarian broken record, and isn't afraid at all to call other libertarians to the mat on certain issues. He doesn't have a one track mind when it comes to politics, and his wide variety of topics and several other websites makes him constantly interesting. The next time I'm knowingly within a hundred miles of him, I'll try to buy him lunch.

Wilson has changed his writing quite a bit over the last couple of years.  He has other political writing projects, and has switched to writing much via Facebook.  So his Independent Country blog is mostly about linking to his other writing projects.  I think the "older posts" link at the bottom of his page might even be broken, but there are still some links to old stuff in the posts I wrote that fall under my James Leroy Wilson label.  [Update: I missed Wilson's blog archives being a single line drop-down bar in the right-hand margin]

James Leroy Wilson is always an interesting read, even if you disagree with him.  He is a good writer and has a talent for being able to explain his views.

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.

Blog Spotlight Monday - John Armstrong

The first several installations of Blog Spotlight Monday are going to be major blog influences of mine.  John Armstrong's blog is no exception.  I first came across John at a ministry conference of his in 1997 held at the church I attended at the time.  His ministry during that period was called Reformation and Revival.  I kept in occasional contact with him for several years, and then when I discovered him online after the internet revolution gained speed, we re-connected in a much stronger way.  John and I have had similar theological journeys, and I owe much to his writing and friendship over the last six years or so.

One thing that makes John stand out to me is his view of the church.  Both of us have had a history of a very elite, narrow minded view of the church from within the walls of conservative Calvinism.  I was taught early on that Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestant movements such as Arminianism and the Charismatic movement preached false gospels, and that to be a member of those churches (i.e. believed their doctrines) meant that you did not have salvation.  John now sees a greater vision of the church, and believes - as I have come to believe - that God places his believers, and many of them, within all the various historical Christian traditions.  John works to bridge the gaps between the various traditions as an earthly reality of Jesus' prayer in John 17 that we would all be one.

John believes and teaches what is known as "missional-ecumenism."  In his own words:  "Missional-ecumenism is a way of understanding two truths that clearly go together in Scripture and should in practice. The church is first, missional in that she is God's mission in the world, and the God who calls her is an eternally relational being, and second, ecumenical in that she is to be united in Christ and together in relationality as his mission."  John is also an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America, the oldest continuous denomination in America.

John and I also share a strong love for the game of baseball.  He is a lifelong fan of the Braves (boo!) while I am a Giants faithful (yay!).  Please read his blog at John H Armstrong.

Blog Spotlight Hiccup

Okay, two weeks in a row now I've failed to post a Blog Spotlight Monday post.  It's just been that kind of pairing of consecutive Mondays.  Maybe next Monday I'll have my next blog to highlight.  Or maybe I'll do it tomorrow instead this week.  No, wait.  Tomorrow is Friday, and I'll be doing Friday Night Potpourri.  Saturday or Sunday is too late, so maybe I'll really wait until Monday.  I'm simply not a fan of the calendar these days.

Blog Spotlight Monday - Internet Monk

I am starting off this weekly series with a big name and one of my special and most influential blogs.  The late Michael Spencer's blog, Internet Monk, or iMonk as it's known.  Michael's subtitle captures a dominant flavor of what iMonk is all about: Dispatches from the Post-Evangelical Wilderness.  You see, Michael came to see over time that mainstream American evangelicalism had abandoned its roots, forsaken its essential doctrines and practices, and put anything and everything in its place - from wacky fads to aberrant teachings - to the detriment of its adherents.  More importantly, Michael noticed over time that the crisis within evangelicalism wreaked havoc with the faiths of professing Christians.  Many of these Christians reluctantly lived with their resulting stunted growth, left evangelicalism for other Christian traditions, left the church altogether, or even left the faith entirely.  His experience with teaching and pastoring helped him see these problems in a clear way, and saw himself as a "post-evangelical" who was living in a wilderness.  His was always a call to point out evangelicalism's problems and to give some measure of comfort to those who knew what the problems were but had no way to solve or act against them. 

Michael started his blog in the early days of internet technology which probably helped lead to its success.  His is one of the top Christian blogs on the net.  Michael enjoyed one of the most diverse audiences on the web, and the legions of commenters over the years bear that out.  He constantly looked to those who held other views and traditions to write for him at iMonk.  Many of evangelicalism's problems could be more easily seen from those outside the circles.  A few years ago, Michael announced that he had a book deal going and that he was going to write about his experiences with the church in a book to be titled Mere Churchianity, a takeoff of CS Lewis' book title Mere Christianity.  Late in 2009, he told his readers that something wasn't right with his health and later revealed that he had terminal cancer.  He passed in April of 2010, after completing his book but before its release.  He left the keeping of his website to several trusted friends, who have continued his legacy for almost a year now.  Although now most of the writing is done by Chaplain Mike Mercer, Jeff Dunn and others, plenty of classic Michael Spencer posts are re-posted to keep his spirit present.

I started reading iMonk after noticing many other blogs that referenced that site.  I admit that often I didn't know what the fuss was about.  I had trouble figuring him and his site out.  But over time, I began to see.  I started commenting occasionally, tossing myself into the huge conversations that erupted after each post.  It was frustrating for a long time and it seemed that I had little to contribute, and received few replies, even from Michael.  But I kept commenting.  Then one day in 2009, I received a personal email from some dude named Michael Spencer.  Well, whaddya know?  I know a guy named Michael Spencer, over at the Internet Monk blog!  What a coincidence.  Then I read the email.  It was from him.  True to the way he was, he made me an offer I couldn't refuse.  For the first time, I am posting his short email in its entirety here:

Steve,

I've been reading your work for a while and I'm a fan. I want you to know that if you ever have anything you'd like to occasionally submit at Internet Monk [dot] com, I'd like to publish it. I'd like to see you have a wider audience. You're a good writer and we're on the same page about a lot of evangelicalism.

If interested, let's talk.

peace

Michael Spencer

It was an opportunity I felt I simply could not pass up.  I managed to get only an introductory guest post to him, which he published in May of 2009, as personal and family problems related to the economy prevented me from putting the time and heart necessary to continue writing occasionally for him before his untimely death.  As I re-read my intro piece, I am struck that my views on certain things have changed or mellowed over even such a short period of time.  All in all, I am greatly thankful for his ministry and wholly endorse Michael Spencer's blog, Internet Monk.

Blog Spotlight Monday - Introduction

I'm introducing a new blog feature here at From the Pew.  It's called Blog Spotlight Monday.  Each Monday I'll be focusing on a different blog or other link in my blogroll or site on my favorites list.  Who hosts the blog; what it's about; key features of the blog; why I read it; all these things and more.  I'll link to the blog and give other necessary information.  Stay tuned and learn a bit more about my world on the other side of the clickthrough.