Guests Posts Galore: Part 3 of 3

Have a wonderful Christmas Eve tonight! I can’t wait to celebrate with our local church.

If you get some downtime over the break, I’d love for you to read a few of the posts I wrote for other websites. Below are the final links to all the guest posts I wrote this fall.

Merry Christmas,
Benjamin

“Men, the Women in Porn Bear God’s Image,” Gospel-Centered Discipleship, August 2, 2019

The man who told me the story said that when he first found out about the stripper, he was going to leave before she got there; he didn’t want to be a part of it. When she arrived, however, he didn’t leave. He stuck around—not because she was gorgeous but because, in his words, “she was so ugly.” The man told me he stayed to watch the other men make fun of her. When I heard this story, I didn’t know whether to shake my fists and scream, No! That’s not right! or to plant my palms on my cheeks and crumble to the floor and cry. Perhaps I should have done both.

“Run Like the Wind from Sexual Sin,” For The Church, September 3, 2019

My goal isn’t to tear down a biblical hero; my goal is to read the Bible well, and reading this passage well means acknowledging what Joseph himself would want us to learn from his life: all men are sinners and in need of God’s grace. It’s common for books on sexual sin to praise Joseph for running, but I think it’s clear he didn’t run soon enough!

“Don’t Let Sexual Shame Move You from Christ’s Mission,” ABWE International Blog, September 12, 2019

We often associate penance with Roman Catholicism, but as Protestants we have our own forms of penance. Do you ever find yourself in a flurry of good deeds to show God how sorry you are? I know a man who would randomly do hours and hours of hard labor on church construction projects. In hindsight, we learned the tornado of saw dust was his attempt to deal with his sexual sin. Or perhaps you find yourself pouting to show God how much you want to be forgiven. We can mope about our house or church, but by itself, presenting our sadness to God atones for zero sins (Hebrews 9:22).

“Corre como el viento del pecado sexual,” Coalición por el Evangelio (The Gospel Coalition Spanish Website), September 13, 2019

Don’t ask me how this happened.

Mi objetivo no es derribar un héroe bíblico. Mi objetivo es leer bien la Biblia, y leer bien este pasaje significa reconocer lo que José mismo quiere que aprendamos de su vida: todos los hombres son pecadores y necesitan la gracia de Dios. Es común que los libros sobre pecado sexual elogien a José por correr, pero creo que está claro que no corrió lo suficientemente pronto.

“Struggling Against Pornography, Not With It,” Evangelical Free Church of America Blog, EFCA NOW, October 15

Dr. Switzer, Newhart’s character, then asks if Katherine is ready to hear what she should do. She takes out a pen and paper, and Dr. Switzer leans forward with an impassioned voice and says, “Stop it!” After a quizzical look from Katherine, he repeats himself: “S-T-O-P, new word, I-T...I mean, you don’t want to go through life scared of being buried alive in a box, do you? I mean, that sounds frightening.”

“Pride Goes Before Porn,” The Gospel Coalition, October 17, 2019

Some might say there’s a sense in which men and women involved in producing pornography consent to voyeurism, but from a Christian worldview, discussions of consent often miss the point. Consent can’t be reduced to human-to-human permission. Ultimately, permission comes from God. He locked the garden, regardless of whether the woman on the screen seems to welcome your lust. As Jesus said, “Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28).

“An Amillennial Ordination in the EFCA,” EDA MOVE, Evangelical Free Church of America, Eastern District Blog, October 30, 2019. (An audio reading of this post by Benjamin appeared on the EDA Move Podcast, here.)

The week I completed my ordination was a week like no other I’ve had in ministry. On Saturday I officiated a wedding. On Sunday I launched our church sermon series in the book of Acts. On Monday I crammed for my oral ordination exam by reading over my paper and most of the book Evangelical Convictions. On Tuesday I underwent my four-hour oral exam, being asked and attempting to answer 154 questions (per the transcript) about theology and pastoral ministry. The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday, like many of you, I enjoyed the EDA Move’s annual conference. On Thursday I was subpoenaed to testify in court related to an appeal of a former church member currently in prison. On Friday I had major reconstructive surgery on my shoulder. I’m not making this up. I wrote this post with my right arm still in a sling, where it will be for the next six weeks. When I started to put my children to bed on Tuesday night, the evening after my ordination, I collapsed on my own bed at 8 pm. I thought I’d just rest for five minutes to steel myself for the job of putting our six children to bed. My wife had to finish the job, as I woke up from my five-minute nap ten hours later. Again, it was a week like no other.

“Pastor, Don’t Interview like Michael Scott,” For The Church, November 22, 2019

In one episode of The Office, branch manager Michael Scott interviewed for a role at the corporate offices in New York. David Wallace, president of Dunder Mifflin, asked Michael, “What do you think are your greatest strengths as a manager?” To this, Michael answered, “Why don’t I tell you what my greatest weaknesses are? I work too hard. I care too much. And sometimes I can be too invested in my job.” In job interviews, it’s become cliché to ask about a person’s greatest strengths and weaknesses. The fact that The Office would spoof the questions tells you that. Still, if you’re a pastor considering a potential transition from one church to another, you’ll likely be asked. And when you are, please don’t interview like Michael Scott; do not answer the question about weaknesses with positive sounding “flaws.”

* Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash

Guests Posts Galore: Part 2 of 3

I’ve been blogging for five and a half years, and this post is the 250th blog post written for my website. That’s a lot of posts. Thanks for letting me invade your inbox.

In 2019, I wrote more guest posts for other websites than I ever have before. If you count the podcast interviews, I hit twenty-two in all. But I stopped telling you about them because I feared wearing you out with updates. Inbox fatigue is a blogger’s constant fear.

As we close the year, I’ll risk sharing recaps of my guest posts, because if you haven’t read it, it’s new to you.

Thanks,
Benjamin

“When Self-Preservation Becomes Our God,” For The Church, June 5, 2019

Safety is a good thing. Antilock brakes and side-impact airbags are good things. Hand sanitizer is a good thing. Tying one’s shoelaces is a good thing. Walking, not running, with scissors and getting flu shots are good things. They all arise from our desire for safety. And behind the desire for safety lies the desire for self-preservation, which is also a good thing. We are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26–27; James 3:9). Therefore, our lives matter. In Ephesians 5, Paul assumes that “no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it,” a truism Paul then uses to help build his argument about caring for one’s spouse. Self-preservation is not a bad thing. In fact, when men and women act heroically, despite a certain danger to themselves, we are not saying that they didn’t care about their own lives. Of course they care about their lives. What we celebrate is that they valued something more than self-preservation; we celebrate that they put something ahead of their own safety.

“Book Review: Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy by Mark Vroegop,” 9Marks, June 6, 2019

When tragedy strikes, we often don’t know what to do next. Yet, when the Lord’s hand of judgment fell on Israel; when the temple was leveled by pagans; and when the most tender and refined of women resorted to cannibalism (cf. Deut. 28:56–57), Jeremiah knew what to do. He sat in ash and wrote an acrostic poem. Let that sink in. When all around his soul gave way, Jeremiah penned the book we call Lamentations, a series of highly structured and theologically dense poems. That response to tragedy might strike us as odd. But Jeremiah’s response is a gift to posterity. His laments illuminate the way out of the dark jungle of despair. He gives us a path to walk toward life, healing, and toward God himself.

“Was I Betraying My Church by Interviewing Elsewhere?” CTpastors.com, June 13, 2019

This below paragraph is probably my favorite paragraph I wrote all year.

The Qoheleth tells us in Ecclesiastes that there is a season for everything, a time for every matter under heaven. That doesn’t mean transitions won’t be lonely and full of conflicting desires. Seasons of pastoral transition feel antithetical to pastoral ministry in the same way engagements are antithetical to marriages. Engagements are meant to end; marriages are not. Pastoral transition is about yanking up roots; pastoring involves putting roots down. Engagements are filled with frenetic activity and wedding-day planning; marriages thrive on the slow burn of love anchored in vows. Pastoral transition implies movement; pastoring requires standing with both feet in one neighborhood among one flock.

“Summertime and the Lust Comes Easy,” EDA MOVE, Evangelical Free Church of America, Eastern District Blog, June 19, 2019. (An audio reading of this post by me appeared on the EDA Move Podcast, here.)

In other words, as pastors and ministry leaders — for all the relaxing changes during summertime — we must remember to encourage each other and the people we shepherd to not take a break from fighting against lust.

“Three Big Surprises When Interviewing for Missions,” ABWE International Blog, June 25, 2019

It seems like blog posts with catchy titles and practical tips make the best viral posts. You know what I mean, articles with titles like, 7 Interview Hacks to *Crush* Your Next Ministry Interview. But I don’t want to write that kind of post. And I’m not even sure we should aspire to crush a ministry interview anyway.

“Don’t Just Send a Resume to a Church—Or a Missions Agency,” The Missions Podcast Interview, June 30, 2019

Too often in pursuit of full-time ministry abroad or at home, ministry applicants simply email a church or missions agency their resume and leave the rest of the hiring process to chance. Whether you’re fresh out of seminary or transitioning to ministry after a full career in the outside workforce, such a haphazard approach is bound to fail. Maybe we need to learn more about how to conduct ourselves professionally during the onboarding processes into pastoral or cross-cultural ministry.

“Two Ways Every Christian Can Be Pastoral,” Unlocking the Bible, July 15, 2019

Almost no one read this article, but I loved writing it and was happy with how it turned out.

The last time I saw my grandfather alive he made fun of me for being a pastor. You’ve probably heard the jokes or even made them yourself. “What does a pastor do all week anyway? You only work like one hour.” I wanted to tell my grandpa we have two worship services on Sunday morning, and they go for three hours by themselves. But I didn’t think arguing would help. That’s one extreme view, the view of a pastor who works little. The other extreme is a pastor who works all the time, like 80 hours a week, and no one else in the congregation does anything because “real ministry” only counts as such when done by professionals. Yet there is no way most churches, my own church included, could exist if only a handful of pastors did all the pastoring.

* Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Reruns & Guests Posts Galore: Part 1 of 3

Back in the late 90s, when NBC aired sitcom reruns during the summer, it advertised using the slogan, “If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you.” I thought that was clever.

This year I wrote more guest posts for other websites than I ever have before—if you count the podcast interviews, I hit twenty-two in all.

But I stopped telling you about them. Basically, I feared wearing you out with updates. Inbox fatigue is a blogger’s constant fear. This fall, for example, nearly every email I sent was followed by at least one unsubscribe. Far more discouraging was that my favorite place to be published rejected my last five consecutive articles. These are good reminders that life is not lived always up and to the right. 

As we close 2019, I’ll risk sharing recaps of my guest posts, because, you know, if you haven’t read it, it’s new to you. For the next three weeks I’ll share a few articles a week and a favorite paragraph or two from each.

Thanks for letting me invade your inbox and build a home on this piece of Internet real estate,
Benjamin

“Reflections on The Pursuit of Writing,” Pastor Writer Podcast interview, November 10, 2018

This was actually a podcast interview from last November, but I really, really enjoyed being on this show. I love the work done by the host Chase.

“Porn: The Killer of Missions,” The Missions Podcast Interview, January 13, 2019

This was another podcast interview. I love the co-hosts Scott and Alex with ABWE. It was kind of them to have me on as a guest.

“Networking for Pastors who Hate Networking,” Gospel-Centered Discipleship, February 14, 2019

But for whatever reason, I hate the word networking. It feels greasy. When I hear it, I think cheap suits, slick hair, gaudy gold chains, and a guy who points with his index finger as he talks (cf., Prov. 6:12–13). Even if this is a cliché, at one point or another, we’ve all had the miserable experience of being used. I call it networking after Genesis 3, east of Eden.

“Clarity About Compensation,” Evangelical Free Church of America Blog (EFCA NOW), March 28, 2019

The Bible is replete with stories of those ensnared by the power of money. Consider the well-known Levite in Judges 17–18. To paraphrase, he is basically asked, “Young man, do you want a better preaching gig? If so, then come on up. Don’t be a priest to a family; be one to a whole tribe.” Previously he had worked for only a small wage, a set of clothes, and his living expenses (17:10). But when the Levite heard this new offer—albeit one made by 600 armed warriors—his “heart was glad” (Judges 18:20). Additionally, consider Balaam in Numbers 22, Gehazi in 2 Kings 5, the rich young ruler in Mark 10, Zacchaeus in Luke 19, and Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts 5.

“Christians and the Struggle Against Porn: Q&A with Benjamin Vrbicek,” Anchored in Christ – KevinHalloran.net, May 23, 2019

More than a few times the guys at our church office teased me about it. “Benjamin,” they’d ask, “how’s your pornography book going?” “It’s not a pornography book,” I’d respond. “It’s a book to help men struggle against it.”

“Is It Time to Change Churches? (Part 1 of 2),” Am I Called?, May 24, 2019

When I was a kid, my parents gave me a choice about a summer vacation. I couldn’t figure out what to do. My parents told me I could go with them on a short trip to visit my grandparents or I could stay home with a friend to attend a local basketball camp. I had no idea what God wanted me to do. One morning I distinctly remember staring at a small bowl of cereal and asking God this very question. As I twirled the last few Lucky Charms with my spoon, I asked God to make the cereal into the shape of the state—either Missouri (basketball) or Iowa (grandparents)—to indicate what I should do. I’m not encouraging you to go and do likewise. After all, when I was a child I thought like a child. 

“Are We There Yet? Knowing the Steps in a Pastoral Transition (Part 2 of 2),” Am I Called? (May 30, 2019)

When I coach pastors during a season of transition, there’s something they often don’t understand but should: the steps involved in a search process and where you’re at within that process. It sounds simple, but it’s not always as simple as it sounds. And a lot of frustration ensues when the process is jumbled in the mind of a candidate. This confusion manifests itself when someone—a spouse or friend or family member—asks how close you are to being hired. The response goes something like, “You know, I’m not sure. The church said something about an interview weekend, but also something about a theology examination and calling references. But I don’t know exactly when and how all of this happens.”

* Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash

Blogging for God’s Glory: A Big Big Fridge

I like sharing excerpts from writing projects that are still far from completion. My friend John Beeson and I are working on a book called Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World: A Christian’s Guide. John is a pastor at New Life Bible Fellowship in Tucson, Arizona and a fellow blogger. This is how we begin the book.

*     *     *

“Daddy, I painted this for you,” says my daughter Izzy.

Closing the door behind me and setting my work bag on the table, I bend over to look at her paper. She’s covered the paper with splotches of primary colors in the shape of people. The paper is still wrinkly from paint liberally applied. She places the painting in my hand.

“That’s wonderful,” I say while trying to figure out which way is up and which is down. I’ve learned from experience not to ask, What is this? Instead I say, “Tell me about this picture, sweetie.”

“It’s a doggie in our backyard, and all of our family is eating pickles,” she says, or whatever the picture was that particular day.

“Oh, I see. Can we hang this on the fridge?”

Izzy smiles wide. Her two front teeth are missing.

And we do. Along with all the others, we hang this one on the front of our fridge.

People tend to mark the stages of life. We save the paystub from our first paychecks, mount diplomas on walls, celebrate a marriage and a first mortgage. I’m in that stage of life where my fridge is covered in artwork from my children. They hand me watercolor paintings when I leave for work. They hand me colored pencil drawings when I come home from work. They come to work to hand me colored macaroni glued to construction paper. It’s wonderful. I don’t want it to end.

What I love most is the innocence of their gifts. My little Izzy doesn’t have a clue there is such a place as The British Museum where there hang works of Rembrandt and Rubens. Izzy doesn’t know anything about the Louvre in Paris that displays DaVinci’s Mona Lisa for 10 million visitors each year. All Izzy knows is our refrigerator, the two sides of the fridge and the front side of the fridge, which I guess we could call our three art galleries. The front of our fridge, or the main gallery if you will, receives nearly ten visits a day, or maybe one hundred visits in the summer when our children enjoy vacation and standing in front of an open fridge. But no one in our family visits the fridge necessarily to see her artwork. That’s the child-like innocence Izzy has when we mount her paintings. If an adult were to possess this kind of ignorance of the great works of art, especially an adult given to producing her own art, we’d called it something other than innocence; her ignorance would take on the pejorative, culpable sense of the word. In a child, however, the ignorance is admirable.

The purity of her gifts strikes me too. “Daddy, I painted this for you,” she says. Izzy paints not for fame or money or from the overflow of competition with her siblings, but for you, she says. When I say purity, I mean this kind of singlemindedness, the kind of joy captivated by and treasures only the smile of her father. No mixed motives, no duplicity. Only pure single-minded devotion.

I’m not saying children are innocent and pure and full of rainbows and bubble gum. I believe in original sin because I read of it in the Bible and also because I see it in the mirror and in the eyes of every one of my young children when—if their little arms were strong enough—might kill me rather than not get their way. Children are not pure and innocent in an absolute sense. As those downstream from our father Adam, we are sinners not because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners. As David writes, “In sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).

I think about my children’s artwork often when I blog. Whether you think that makes me childish in the worst sense or the best, I’ll let you decide. But I like to think of God printing out my blog posts and hanging them on some heavenly fridge, which I’m sure is huge and made of stainless steel and always has an ice dispenser that works. I like to think of God stooping over to smile and say, “Tell me about this one, Benjamin.” I like to think God has a big big house with lots and lots of room and a big big fridge where he can host my blog.

Again, I hope these sentiments don’t betray my foolishness or ignorance or even my arrogance. I know my blog posts are only feeble and flimsy collections of words, while J.I. Packer’s book Knowing God has gravitas. I know that though the internet keeps a record of all my blog posts, should the Lord tarry, Augustine’s Confessions will still be read in ad 3,020 and my posts will be long forgotten. I know that as I blog about some suffering that feels weighty to me, Corrie ten Boom’s holocaust survival story makes my problems look like they are, light and momentary. From jails Bunyan and Bonhoeffer wrote masterpieces. And I, from my dining room table, have the gall to expect my Internet-published words should hang in the heavenly gallery? . . .

* Photo by Naomi Hébert on Unsplash

Help Share My “Struggle” Book with Pastors?

I wrote the book Struggle Against Porn because I was frustrated—but probably not for the reasons you’d think. My main frustration was me.

Whether in college ministry or in a local church, I’ve often found myself meeting with guys who struggle with lust and pornography. I’d go into these meetings wanting to be helpful, but I’d leave frustrated. I’d want to share truth and hope and encouragement and strategies to win the war, but I’d flounder. I’m not sure I’d use the phrase “pastoral malpractice,” but that’s what it started to feel like. Eventually this frustration gave rise to a few years of reading and writing and thinking about how to help men struggle against pornography. Out of the research came the short book Struggle Against Porn: 29 Diagnostic Tests for Your Head and Heart.

Giving the “Struggle” Book to Pastors

Next week on October 8–9, church leaders from our denomination will gather for a conference (info here). My church belongs to the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA), which is broken up into 17 different districts. The Eastern District—the district I’m a part of—has our annual conference. If you’ve been following my blog for the last few months, then you’ve heard me talk about my ordination exam, which takes place on the first day of the conference.

I’ve been working with those in leadership to find a way to give my book to all 260 conference attendees. I asked the publisher to lower the price, which they did. My district office helped offset some of the costs, as did another generous donor. I’ve covered the rest with my own money. It costs about $7 per book to give them away. If you’d consider buying a book for a pastor, that would help a ton. The total cost was just under $2,000, and I’m a few hundred short or about 70 books. You can donate by clicking the button below.

Donate

But whether the cost gets covered or not, I couldn’t be more excited to help other pastors as they help men walk with God in joy and purity.

A Note from Our Church District Superintendent

We’re placing each book in an envelope for the purpose of discretion. The cover of the book, which I had nothing to do with, is obnoxiously unambiguous. Yes, I said that about my own book. Trust me, no one ever reads this book at Starbucks. But on the front of the envelope, we’ve printed a note from the leader of our district, Eddie Cole. Here’s what he wrote.

Dear Church Leader:

We all know there are too many challenges facing our people for us to become experts on every issue. Sexual sin is one of those issues. It affects all of our churches and many of our leaders and volunteers. Some of our people have an occasional, low-grade struggle with pornography. For others, their struggle is persistent and acute. Both need the good news of the grace of God applied to their hearts with pastoral care.

By ourselves, we can’t be everything to everyone, which is why we often say we are better together—as a district and a national movement. At this year’s conference we’re excited to give away a book written by one of our own district pastors. It’s a book to help men struggle proactively against pornography, not struggle passively with it. We hope this resource helps you as you help others walk faithfully with God.

Sincerely,

Eddie Cole
Eastern District Superintendent of the EFCA

Donate

* all donations are not tax refundable.

On Writing: Tips and Routines

While I write a lot, I don’t typically write much about writing. In five years of writing a weekly blog post I’ve written about writing less than five times. I figure writing about writing is best saved for the elite, the authors we all know and love.

In the genre of Christian non-fiction, I could listen to Kevin DeYoung and Jared C. Wilson talk tradecraft all day. I’ve never actually heard DeYoung do that; I’m just saying I’d love to do that because he’s so good with words and theology. You never have to read sentences from DeYoung twice . . . unless you want to, which I often do. Jared Wilson has done several engaging interviews about writing (Home Row podcast interviews 1 and 2, and The Forum interview at Midwestern Seminary).

I’d also love to hear novelist Anthony Doerr talk about writing. He authored my all-time favorite novel, All the Light We Cannot See. In the novel, Doerr primarily wrote with present tense verbs rather than the standard historical past tense, which gives such immediacy to the book. Doerr’s website has several links to interviews.

Again, writing about writing—I think—is best saved for the best writers. But every so often a friend will reach out and ask about my writing routines. If you stay at something long enough, people tend to wonder why and how. Chase Replogle was even kind enough to have me on his podcast the Pastor Writer for that purpose. And a few weeks ago a friend asked me a number of questions by email. I don’t want to presume that my answers to his questions will be as interesting to you as Kevin DeYoung’s answers would be to me. But if you’re just beginning to take your writing seriously, perhaps these thoughts will encourage you to do that very thing.

What is your routine for writing? Is it every day, a specific day?

I’ve tried to write one blog post a week for the last five years, though I’ve never made it to 52. Most years I make it to the mid-40s. The first year I didn’t give as much time to blogging, but for the last four years I’ve spent about ten hours each week writing. Somewhere along the way I began to feel compelled to work on the craft as part of my calling, so I made the decision to treat writing like a part-time job—one I really enjoy.

I do most of my writing at our kitchen table every day except Sunday before our kids get up, so typically from 5:30–7 am. Because I don’t work at the church on Fridays, during the school year I often get another hour to write while my younger kids nap and the older ones are at school. For me, plodding along in small doses has been better than marathon, binge writing, which is something I’d never have time for anyway.

This last year, my writing schedule has had a lot of bumps, as my youngest son decided he wants to get up before 5:30. It’s helped me remember that my part-time “job” has no actual boss and very few deadlines not self-inflicted. I try not to begrudge it when the schedule shifts or is swallowed altogether. Except sometimes I do begrudge it, which I hate about myself. I’d like to be more open-handed and tender-hearted than I am.

Do you set specific goals? If so, what do they look like?

As far as writing goals for completing projects, I hear authors talk about hitting word-count goals or a certain number of pages. I just shoot for time-on-task.

If you’re asking about other goals, like style and writing voice, I guess I have an answer for that, but it seems really, really goofy to share with someone else. It’s more of a private mission statement than a public one. But here it goes: I aim to bring clarity to the Christian message of hope with accessible, riveting scholarship. Again, it feels super goofy to write out my purpose statement, but it has brought focus even if I never produce anything worthy of the label accessible, scholarship, or riveting. It’s a shoot for the stars and you hit the moon sort of thing.

What motivates you?

I often find out after the fact that my motivations are more layered than I realize. But if I set aside the sinful motivations that lurk around the edges of my heart, I’d say the main two motivations for writing are joy and obedience. I really do enjoy tinkering with words that point people to God. I’ve heard Douglas Wilson say that for him, writing isn’t “have to” but “get to.” I feel the same.

I also feel a component of obedience related to writing. I joked about not having a writing boss, but I’d like to think I treat writing the way the lay-elders of our church treat their pastoring: serving the church as something they enjoy but also something they feel called by God to do.

How does your writing schedule fit in with your pastoral duties?

I’m not sure I do a good job with this and hope things can change. I tend to think there is a lot of overlap between the kind of writing I do and my pastoral duties at church. Most of my posts are really just devotionals of one kind or another. And all of the longer writing projects are pastoral—at least I hope they are. A few months ago one of the elders commented about how my preaching has grown because of all the writing, which was nice to hear. But for now, I try to keep church and writing separate.

Because I try to publish a new blog post each Tuesday at 2pm, I often need to steal 30 minutes of “church time” for “blog time” to powder the nose of the post before it goes out in public. But since pastors rarely work less than full-time, I know I’m not really stealing. When I first started blogging I worried people in our church would complain that I sat around and wrote all day, so I have probably been more paranoid than necessary.

What are your top 3–5 books that you’ve read on writing?

The most influential book to my writing has been Helen Sword’s The Writer’s Diet: A Guide to Fit Prose. It’s super short but super helpful. My honorable mentions include all of the writing books by Roy Peter Clark: Writing Tools, How to Write Short, Help! For Writers, and The Glamour of Grammar.

This will expand the list beyond five, but also excellent are On Writing by Stephen King, On Writing Well by William Zinsser, The Sense of Style by Stephen Pinker, Spunk and Bite by Arthur Plotnik, and the classic The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White.

In addition to books, a few podcasts have been life-giving to me: Home Row hosted by J.A. Medders and the Pastor Writer hosted by Chase Replogle. Jonathon Rogers sends a weekly email called The Habit that I enjoy too.

Beyond Microsoft Word, do you use any specific tools or software to help?

As for writing tools, I’ve never gotten into the writing programs Scrivener or Ulysses, though I hear some writers really like them. I just stay with Microsoft Word. I’ve found Grammarly very helpful, which is an add-on to Word. Grammarly does a deeper dive into the content to find potential mistakes than the spell-check that comes with Word. I started using Grammarly 3 years ago because it embarrassed me to put my sermon manuscripts online. My co-pastor (who recently left) is an excellent writer and probably had no more than two typos a year in his sermons. My sermons have two per page. But Grammarly helped a lot. I also use an electronic reader to listen to everything I write before I publish. The electronic reader helps me hear typos I might not have seen. I wrote a bit about self-editing here.

The other tool is related to Helen Sword’s book called The Writer’s Diet Test. It’s an online analyzer of your prose. You almost have to have read the book first to make sense of it, but I’ve found it more than a little helpful.

Any other thoughts or advice?

Glad you asked, but I feel like it would be pretty arrogant of me to offer writing advice. I took like two classes at a community college on the subject. The only advice I might be able to give is that if you want to write guest posts for websites, I’d start small with places you think will say yes, perhaps for a website where you know someone. That’s helped me a lot. Oh, here’s one more. If you work for a church, have conversations about your writing with the other leaders, specifically how what you write and when you write is related to your work.

* Photo by Calum MacAulay on Unsplash

Enduring Grace: Introduction

My friend Stephen Morefield and I recently published a devotional book, which we titled Enduring Grace: 21 Days with The Apostle Peter. It’s a self-published book mostly for local distribution at our churches. Stephen pastors in Kansas, and I’m in Pennsylvania. But we tried to write the devotional in such a way that it could bless a wider audience. We’ve been praying it does.

Here’s the introduction to the book. We’d love for you to consider picking up a copy.

*     *     *

There were only a handful of people who got a front row view of Jesus’ entire earthly ministry. Of these, perhaps none heard, saw, or experienced more than the fisherman Peter. We speak of disciples as those who follow Jesus, and Peter did that literally—for three years. As Peter followed Jesus, he saw miracles performed, heard truth spoken, and even read what Jesus wrote in the dirt. He studied the Scriptures under Jesus and saw the brilliant white glory of heaven surround Jesus. Peter walked on water after him, shared meals with him, and spoke with men he had raised from the dead. Who wouldn’t want to hear of Peter’s experiences with the Savior?

Buy on Amazon

Not only did Peter share in a wide variety of moments with Jesus, but he also responded to Jesus in a wide variety of ways. With cowardice and cursing, he denied Jesus before the resurrection. Bold and confident, Peter preached Jesus after the resurrection. Up and down, down and up, Peter went. Two steps forward, one step—or sometimes three steps—back, Peter was not a detached observer. He was an intimately growing, struggling, and broken yet redeemed man who learned that the depth of his sin was very deep but that the Savior’s love was deeper still. And through it all, the grace of Jesus toward Peter endured, which means that in the end, by the very same grace, Peter endured. Indeed, no matter where you stand before Jesus at this moment, you should be able to relate to Peter’s story. In our faith and doubt, courage and fear, obedience and failure, growth and stagnation (or even backtracking), Peter’s witness gives us hope that Jesus really is a friend of sinners and mighty to save.

What you’ll find in the rest of these pages is a back and forth journey following the Savior through the eyes of Peter. We’ve grouped themes together as best as we could, but that means the chapters will not strictly follow Peter’s life chronologically. Instead we’ll jump between Peter’s life, which is presented to us in the Gospels and the book of Acts, and his teachings, which we have in the two letters he wrote (1 & 2 Peter). In each chapter you’ll find the Scripture we’ll study for the assigned day, our teaching on that passage, and then relevant application questions to knead the Savior’s grace into all parts of our lives.

Here are a few more things to consider before you start the journey. In an effort to combine style and personality, we, Stephen and Benjamin, have not indicated which chapters we’ve each written. When a particular story necessitates it, we indicate the writer, but otherwise we will allow the prose to blend without distinction.

Now, how to read this book? The structure sets itself up to be read as a 21-day devotional. That being said, you can also slow down and tackle the book at whatever pace suits you. There’s no need to hurry. Likewise, chapters can be grouped together, should you use the book in a Bible study or small group. Whatever method you choose, we do encourage you to slow down enough to read the Scripture before our teaching. It’s difficult to rest in the Savior’s grace while racing from page to page. And resting daily in his grace is a large part of what helps us endure in his grace.

* Photo by Frances Gunn on Unsplash

Lost in December: A Short Story

Seven years ago my wife and I had a miscarriage. I don’t think about it as often as I once did. And I suppose that looking at our family from the outside, some might think that because we have so many children, I never think about it. But I do. Last Sunday was the anniversary of the long day in a hospital when we learned part of our family tree would be missing.

A few years ago I wrote a short story about a couple who has to return to life after a miscarriage. Over the years, it has surprised me to learn how many couples have had one, or even several, miscarriages. In the story, a husband and wife (Joshua and Allison), as well as their other young children, learn what it means to move on after losing a child. You can get it here.

*     *     *

Excerpt from “Lost in December: A Short Story”

It had been a cold day in December, and not just for Tucson. It was made worse by the way it forced itself on us. No one had the right coats with them; it had been warm when we woke up.

Allison and I hadn’t talked all day, and we had driven to the Christmas party separately. She had errands, and I had work to finish. But now we made the brief walk from our separate cars to the restaurant together. “I’m glad you could come, sweetie. Did the babysitter show up?” I asked Allison.

“It’s cold. Let’s just get inside.”

That day, even the foothills, which never have snow, were white. My wife had goosebumps.

As I held the door open for her, I commented that I didn’t remember coming to this restaurant before. She said they were all the same. 

*     *     *

If you’d like to get a copy of the whole story, click here.

Reflections on The Pursuit of Writing: My Interview on The Pastor Writer Podcast

It’s crazy to me that I spend 10 hours a week before my family wakes tinkering with words. Crazier still is that I enjoy it. I didn’t always feel this way. In fact, there were three reasons I first became an engineer; one of them was hating to read and write.

Last week I had the privilege of being interviewed by Chase Replogle, the host of one of my favorite podcasts, The Pastor Writer. And when I say privilege, I mean it. I’ve listened to all forty episodes and would do so again regardless of whether I ever squeaked into the roster myself. I’m happy to just tweet about the show. Golly, he’s interviewed Zack Eswine, Tim Challies, Russ Ramsey, Karen Swallow Prior, and a bunch of other all-stars. It’s his monologues, though, that are some of my favorite episodes (e.g., 7: “Burn the Book: Obsessed with Getting Published”, 14: “Why Poor Writing Comes So Naturally”, and 17. “Your Clichés Are More Dangerous Than You Think,” and 34. “There’s No Sentence Like The First Sentence”).

In the interview I share how I became interested in writing. I also imagine for a bit what it might have been like to write (or do any work) before sin entered the world in Genesis 3 and what it will be like when sin is no more in the new heavens and the new earth.

Below are some of the questions Chase and I discuss. I’d love for you to listen to the interview, and if you enjoy it, to subscribe to his show.

• How did you first hear of Pastor Writer?

• Tell me about the church where you serve?

• When did you first sense a call to writing?

• What do you enjoy about the writing process?

• What’s the most frustrating part of the writing process?

• How has writing shaped you as a pastor?

• The struggle with getting published?

• Self-publishing?

• Getting endorsements?

The True Spring

Thomas Kidd is a history professor at the University of Baylor and thoughtful Christian author. He writes a weekly newsletter where he gives something of a backstage pass to the writing process. If you write, you should subscribe.

In one newsletter this summer, he counseled writers to always work on two major writing projects during the same season. He thinks this is wise because, as you juggle the various stages of the publication process (writing, editing, proofing layouts, gathering endorsements, printing, and promotion), you always have something to work on, even if, for example, one of the projects is with an editor for a few months.

I’m an idiot. I’m juggling three projects (not two) and feel like one is always about to go splat. I won’t do this again.

But in fairness, some aspects of my personal schedule and the publication schedules shifted in ways I hadn’t anticipated. The current ball in hand is a rough draft of a new project. I teamed up with my friend Stephen Morefield, a pastor and author, to write Enduring Grace, a devotional on the life and teaching of the Apostle Peter.

Below is a tiny excerpt I hope to include in our book. The excerpt comes from the final paragraph of my entry on John 21, the passage where Jesus reinstates Peter with his “do you love me” questions.

In popular culture the story of Easter is about new beginnings: yellow tulips poking through the ground in the springtime sun, bunnies scampering across green grass, the penitent turning over new leaves. But Easter is only generally about new beginnings because it is first about a particular new beginning—the dawn of a new age, the true spring. Easter is the story of how our sin dies with Jesus, and he raises us to life with him.

The roller coaster of transitions in our lives can cause us to drift from this, our core identity. But the good work Jesus begins in you, he sees to completion (Philippians 2:6). If you are drifting, as Peter was, come home to Jesus.

Today outside my window, gray clouds cover the sky, and dead leaves scatter the ground. Winter is coming.

But the true spring blooms. He has risen.

* Photo by Anthony DeLanoix on Unsplash

Help Me Choose the Book Cover (Feedback Please!)

While many books have been written to help a church when their pastor leaves, nothing has been published in the last 10 years to help the pastor in the job-search process. I hope to change that with my book, Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church.

But nothing will change if people don’t buy the book. And a big part of buying any book is judging books buy their covers. When I work with Photoshop, I feel like I’m drawing with big, fat crayons. So, I hired a pro: Matt Higgins. I love the early design work Matt has done, but now we need to narrow the options. This is where you come in.

The two leading concepts are below. Please let me know in the comments which cover design would most compel you to buy the book. You can simply share a “1” or “2,” or you can explain a bit. It’s up to you.

Thank you for your help,
Benjamin

View fullsize

Design Concept 1

View fullsize

Design Concept 2

New Social Media Strategy: Relentlessly Encourage, Edify and Inform

I really don’t know what I’m doing with social media. As a pastor and someone who enjoys writing, I really should be better at it. Sometimes I tweet a Bible verse; sometimes I share a cute picture of my kids on Instagram or a meme on Facebook; other times I share about my writing on all three platforms. I’m sort of hodgepodge that way.

The one thing I do know is that I don’t like to be told what I should and should not post about on social media. For example, it drives me nuts when people imply that if I don’t post about “X” [insert latest controversy], then I don’t care about “X.” Come on, people.

While being annoyed and against something has a place, it can’t rightly occupy a proactive, positive strategy. I want to take the Bible seriously when it tells us “death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). I want to hear the force of Jesus’s statement that “on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:36). And I want to embody Paul’s approach to language when he says that he has “renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways,” instead committing to “the open statement of the truth,” (2 Corinthians 4:2)

For all these reasons, Ligon Duncan’s tweet last week about his strategy for social media caught my attention. Duncan is the Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary and a popular author and speaker. His Twitter thread went like this:

My social media strategy:

1. Relentlessly encourage, edify & inform.

2. Ignore trolls, mockers & slanderers into oblivion.

3. Starve dissensionists, narcissists, & errorists of the attention they crave.

4. Point people to sound people & resources.

5. Exalt Christ. Bible. Grace. Truth. Gospel.

6. Stay out of food fights. Don’t lob hand grenades into serious discussions. Bring people together.

7. Be kind. Persuade (rather than rally).

8. Treat people on social media like I would treat them in person.

9. Don’t be different on social media from what I am in my life, family, church and ministry. Be the same person online and offline.

10. Don’t give inordinate attention to people whose only “platform” is social media & who elsewhere have little accountability, responsibility.

Duncan speaks of “ignoring trolls,” meaning those only trying to provoke conflict and grind an ax. I don’t have to worry much about trolls; they tend to congregate under larger bridges. Still, for the time being, I’ll try to make his approach, my approach.

Oh, I’ll still probably share some cute family pictures on Instagram too.

* Photo by Tom Holmes on Unsplash

A Memo Can Change the World

On a few road trips this summer and last, our children watched movies as we drove. A favorite was the 2017 animated movie Boss Baby. As the driver, I didn’t get to watch, but I did listen. In one memorable scene, the main character, a child named Tim, asks Boss Baby, “What’s a memo?”

With Alec Baldwin’s arrogant, sarcastic persona, Boss Baby responds, “A memo is something you write to give people information. Memos are for important things. A memo can bring people together. A memo can be a call to arms, a manifesto, a poem.” Then, after a dramatic pause, Boss Baby adds, “A memo can change the world.”

The humor of the scene is the overstatement. Memos don’t change the world; they strangle the world in bureaucratic red tape.

Or do they?

Author and pastor Kevin DeYoung recently wrote on his blog that “good writers rule the world.” He acknowledged this was, of course, an exaggeration, but he believes only a slight one. “I can almost guarantee it,” he adds, “the writers who actually get read, and the writers you actually want to read, are writers who write well.”

For my part, Kevin DeYoung is the gold standard of evangelical Christian writing: theological precision and biblical fidelity combined with crisp prose and playful language. I certainly put him in the category of those good writers changing the world—at least my world has been changed.

For those of us who believe in the power of God’s words, we certainly believe words do change the world. As Moses said, “[God’s words] are not just idle words for you—they are your life” (Deuteronomy 32:46, NIV). When a young king named Josiah found the book of God’s law, which most certainly included the words of Moses in Deuteronomy, a kingdom woke (2 Kings 22). Years later, churches were established and strengthened when apostles wrote the memos we call epistles and biographers wrote the stories we call gospels. Indeed, these documents are still establishing and strengthening churches. And most especially we know that when “the word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), a new era in human history began.

But for the moment, let’s leave aside the question of whether our memos or any of our writings can change the world. That question is too big to answer. What constitutes changing the world? How many people must be changed? And how would this change even be measured? Instead, let’s ask a more straightforward question: what are the characteristics of written words that seem to induce the most change on people?

I’m not the right one to answer this question. When it comes to the craft, I’m a student not the teacher, a pilgrim not the guru. But I did find some helpful advice as I recently finished the third and final book in John Piper’s lengthy series on the word of God. The book is called Expository Exultation: Christian Preaching as Worship. It is Piper’s attempt to explain what preaching is and why it’s uniquely fitted for a central role in a weekly gathering of God’s people in a local church.

At one point in the book, Piper holds forth advice that C. S. Lewis originally gave to a young woman about writing. I realize not everyone who reads this blog is also a preacher and writer. But most likely you are writing things that are memo-like, not meaning corporate directives but short bits of important information, whether an email to a friend about an upcoming vacation, a quick note encouraging your pastor (wink-wink), or a reference letter explaining why someone would be ideal for a job.

Here are the five suggestions that C. S. Lewis gives about writing:

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”
4. In writing, don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”
5. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

We are all using words to communicate, and as Christians we should feel a particular burden to use them well. We may never achieve the facility with language of Lewis, Piper, DeYoung, or Boss Baby. But that shouldn’t stop us from trying. “For whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do [such as write a sermon, blog post, memo that changes the world, or update to social media], do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Thank God for Typo Snipers

The best way to catch a typo is to hire a professional editor who can snipe one from 1,000 yards away. I’m so thankful for people who have this ability. I sure doesn’t. (You see what I did there?)

I’ve been working on a book to help pastors in the job-search process. It’s called Don’t Just Send a Resume. If you follow my blog, you’ve heard me talk about it for the last month. By the way, thanks to everyone who has given to the project via Kickstarter. I’m at 91% of the goal with 7 days to go! If we should exceed the goal, every dollar I get above and beyond will go toward hiring a professional graphic designer to create the cover of the book.

Anyway, over the last three years, I’ve had a few dozen people read over the book, even hiring several professional editors. I’m so thankful for each of them: Mary Wells, Gavin Ortlund, Russell Meek, Stacey Covell, Alex Duke, and Alexandra Richter. Also, my esteemed co-workers Jason Abbott and Ben Bechtel spent a good bit of time tweaking early versions of the material. And this isn’t even mentioning the dozen others who have offered suggestions along the way. To everyone who has helped and will help, please know how grateful I am.  

How to Improve as a Self-Editor

If you don’t have the time or money for professional editing, and you don’t trust the ability of your friends, there are several things you can do to improve the quality of your self-editing. Here are five of my tips:

First, run the spell check. Simple, right? Yet it’s often not done. Make sure to do it even if you think you’re golden.

Second, print what you wrote and read it aloud. Most people catch more typos when they’re not reading silently from a screen.

Third, use editing software on the Internet. My two favorites are the Hemingway App and Grammarly. Both are available in free and paid versions. Also, Grammarly has an add-on for Chrome and Outlook to help with e-mails. I’ve been using the paid version of Grammarly for the last two years. So helpful.

Fourth, if you have time, put the document away for a few days. It can be difficult to see your own mistakes when you’re too close to them. I think this is something of a spiritual metaphor.

Finally, use software that can “read” out loud so your document can be read back to you. My favorite is NaturalReader. As with the Hemingway App and Grammarly, you can use NaturalReader on the Internet or download it for your desktop. Be advised that electronic readers all sound a little choppy and mechanical, but you’re not listening for eloquence; you’re listening for typos. This final layer of self-editing is where I often catch mistakes I never would have found otherwise. If you don’t want to mess with finding software to do this, many smartphones are able to read text. A quick Internet search will show you how to do this. For the iPhone, you swipe down with two fingers.

Look, we all can’t be typo snipers. And that’s okay. The Lord gives us different gifts. But if writing is a key part of your job—and especially if you understand writing to be a part of your calling as a Christian—then we should seek to grow in our ability to write with clarity.

* Photo by Kony Xyzx on Unsplash

My Son, Give Me Your Heart: An Original Father’s Day Poem

Today is Father’s Day. At church I’m sharing a poem I wrote. It’s a conversation between a father and his son. The repeated line in the poem (“My son, give me your heart”) comes from a verse in the book of Proverbs. I hope you enjoy it.

You can read it below, and—if you like—you can listen to me and my oldest son read it.

*     *    *

“My Son, Give Me Your Heart”
a poem based on Proverbs 23:26a

Dad, there’s a cuddly dragon outside
I’d like to take him for a ride
He’s just beyond my window pane
His breath is steaming in the rain

My son, no
Dragons grow

I see him when I close my eyes
His whispering sounds so wise

Son, a dragon’s purr becomes a roar  
He won’t be thrilled except through more
He’ll stretch his wings and won’t be tamed
His claws cut deep in hearts he’s claimed

Okay, okay, I understand
For you I’ll live a life that’s bland
I’ll clean my room and mow the yard
Grit teeth and tithe, and do what’s hard

My son, give me your heart  

Remember that dragon outside?
I’m going to take him for a ride
His shiny scales feel soft and fast
We’ll swoop and soar over oceans vast

Don’t be deceived when they entice
The scales that shimmer also slice
Though his highest intension sleeps
A dragon only plays for keeps
Between your shoulders is his prize
Never believe him when he lies

My son, give me your heart  

Then ride a stallion, pick a cause  
Don’t live for fleeting man’s applause
Follow God, love him first to last  
Then you’ll soar over oceans vast

Now, I’ve failed you; I blew it bad
I’ll run away; I’ll fix it, Dad

My son, give me your heart  

You said, Love a woman, love her well
But I loved ten
You said, Follow all the rules
I ran with fools

That’s neither what I said nor meant
A father’s love will not relent
Run and run away you may
Never so far that you can’t pray
And I will surely love you still  
Though you rebelled against my will  
My son, give me your heart

* Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

Will You be My First Kickstarter Backer?

I’d love for you to be the first person to contribute to the fundraiser I’m doing for my new book.

But you can’t be the first. Someone beat you to it. I’m sorry.

Let me explain . . .

Why Write a Book to Help Pastors?

For several years I’ve been working on a book to help pastors in the job-search process. It’s called, Don’t Just Send a Resume. The idea is that pastoral ministry is an embodied process (you go all-in), which means you don’t want to do the bare minimum in the interview process (i.e., just send a resume) because that’s not what you do when you pastor a church.

Even though right now several thousand pastors are contemplating a transition from one church to another, almost no books have been written to help them since before Facebook was invented. That’s too long. We need to change this.

As of this morning, there are 676 job postings on ChurchStaffing.com. I’d guess that for every opening there are several dozen applicants—in some cases many more. These numbers do not even consider the many other pastors who will do most of their job-searching through seminaries, denominations, or church-staffing firms.

This winter I made the decision to self-publish Don’t Just Send a Resume, which requires investing more money into the book for editing and marketing. I’ve already spent around $2,500 and 600 hours on it. Doing interviews with 50 local church pastors and recruiting a dozen top-notch contributors to the book (like Jared C. Wilson, Chris Brauns, and William Vanderbloemen) took a lot of work.

But to see the book launched successfully, it will take another $2,000. I’d love your help with that.

How Does Kickstarter Work?

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website. It’s used by inventors, videographers, entrepreneurs, authors, and other creatives to share their plans to make something that they believe will help others. Participants in the community who get excited about the project are called “backers.”

I did a lot of research about Kickstarter beforehand, and here are two things I learned. First, Kickstarter fundraising is all or nothing. If you make your goal, you receive what was pledged. If you don’t reach your goal, you get nothing.

The second thing I learned is that you need to get a good, early jump on your fundraising, even if your campaign lasts a month as mine does. All the late comers to the project, want to see that the project is a “winner” before they’ll give.

So, to be very blunt, I’d love your help today. Or tomorrow. Or soon.

How Can You Back This Project?

Let me come back to where I started. Yesterday I finalized the project on Kickstarter and hit the launch button before breakfast. I wanted everything ready—no mistakes, no glitches—for when I let you, my blog readers, know how they could help get my book into the world.

However, two people already beat you to the chance to become the projects first backers. Someone on Kickstarter pledged $1 and another $25. But you can be the first FAN AND FLAME reader to give. It would mean a lot to me.

I typically only post once a week on Tuesdays at 2pm. However, you might see a few extra emails from me this month. Rather than getting frustrated by that, I’m praying that you’d be excited.

You can click here to see the campaign and watch the video I made. Thanks for your support!

I Only Write Books When I Must

Over the last few years, I’ve read and reviewed all of Tony Reinke’s books. He’s an author and the content strategist for Desiring God. First, there was Lit!, then Mom Enough, then Newton on the Christian Life, then The Joy Project, and finally 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You. I even wrote a study guide for one of them (The Joy Project).

Okay, okay, okay. You can make fun of me if you want to, but I’m a fan.

Buy on Amazon

Recently Reinke wrote a “thank you” post to his readers. It’s been just over a year since his book 12 Ways was published by Crossway. There were several things I appreciated about the short post. Being thanked was one of them. But the main encouragement to me were his convictions about writing books. He said,

In the publishing market, plagued by its razor thin margins, many authors face tremendous pressure to cave to editors aiming at pop appetites. I don’t. I write the books I want to write, in complete freedom, because (1) I have a publisher that believes books should be better than what the mass market wants, and that authors are better when they fear God more than the market’s silence. And (2) I have readers who share my vision of God and vision of the world.

My promise to you: I refuse to become a professional author. I only write books when I must. Maybe one more, two, four — who knows? But I know I will never ask my busy wife to edit, or for you to read, any book not driven by an urgent need to share with you a necessary message yet unpublished.

I’m not sure precisely what Reinke means when he says, “I refuse to become a professional author.” I suspect he has the pejorative sense in mind, suggesting an author’s pipeline of projects more determined by money than anything else. I read a lot of books, and I know I gravitate toward the books that seem they had to be written, those books that fill far more than a market need.

His post renewed in me the passion to do the same, to write only those must-be-written books. Next week I hope to share more about my job-search book for pastors, a book that—in my opinion—needs to be written. I promise, it certainly wasn’t market forces that drove my decision to spend three years working on it.

What about you? We all have things in our life we must do because they are necessary parts of life—work, sleep, cleaning the house, mowing the yard, and so on. But what things in your life are you doing because you feel compelled to do them for the glory of God, regardless of whether they are efficient, make money, or achieve some other requirement?

The apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:14 of the love of Christ that compels us. Paul has in mind here what he calls the ministry of reconciliation. But it seems to me that the same compelling love of Christ also unleashes Christians to a thousand different God-honoring, people-helping pursuits. For Reinke, it meant writing a book about faith and phones.

What is it for you? What has the love of Christ unleashed you to do for the good of others and the glory of God?

* Photo by Felix Russell-Saw on Unsplash.

Blogging for God’s Glory: Audio from My Radio Interview

When I talk about blogging for God’s glory, I don’t mean to say, “Look at my website, and you’ll know how it’s done.” I don’t mean that. I’m certain that no angels dance when they open up my URL on their smartphones.

Those are a few of the ideas I shared in a recent 30-minute interview for Pilgrim Radio Network. In the interview I also share how I became a writer, which is something I never imagined would happen. If you get this post on the day it releases (Friday, March 30, 2018), then you can livestream the interview at 12:30 pm and 9:30 pm Pacific Standard Time. For everyone else, the audio is below.

The backstory to the interview is funny—at least to me.

About 18 months ago I wrote down a series of questions to help a friend as he launched his blog. A year later, I took those questions and wrote them into a post. I was hoping they might help others but feared only five people would read it. After I submitted the article to two different places and heard “no” from each, For The Church was kind enough to publish it. (I also posted a follow up on the technical aspects of blogging on my own site, which I’m sure only five people did read.)

Anyway, Tim Challies ended up sharing the post on his blog, which gets, shall we say, a little more traffic than mine—about 100 times more web traffic to be exact. From there, Bill Feltner, the host of “His People” on Pilgrim Radio, saw the post and asked for the interview.

I hope you both enjoy and find it helpful as you pursue whatever it is that God has specifically called you to do for his glory.

* Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash.

Blogging for God’s Glory: Technical Questions to Consider

Last week, For The Church was kind to publish an article I wrote called “Blogging for God’s Glory.” In it, I encourage Christians to care about the quality of our art, not simply because it reflects on us, but more importantly, because it reflects our God. I shared 35 questions to consider as we bloggers ply our trade. I discussed things such as:

Purpose & Audience: Why am I blogging, and who am I trying to reach?
Commitment: How much time and effort will I give to blogging?
Networking: How will I connect with readers and other like-minded bloggers?
Money & Growth: How much money will I invest in blogging and what might be the returns?

Near the end of the article I wrote, “There are a dozen technical, behind-the-scenes details that you’ll also want to consider, but let’s leave them for another day.” Well, today felt like a good day to cover some of these technical questions.

I realize this post will not give “warm-fuzzies” to you about the gospel. It doesn’t for me either. I also realize many people who read my blog don’t have their own blog. But for any like me who have floundered for a season not knowing the difference between Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org (and what does URL mean, and a bunch of other techie things), I hope this post helps you as much as it could have helped me three years ago.

Technical: What behind-the-scenes details do I need to know?

1. Am I capable of handling technical tasks such as setting up the blog, formatting posts, and creating forms to capture email addresses? If not, who can help me?
    
2. Which categories will go in my blog header, such as an about page, a publications page, and a contact page?
    
3. Will my blog contain only written posts, or will I include video and audio posts? If I include audio and video, do I have the equipment and the technical expertise to pull off these other forms?
    
4. Is the name of my blog the same as my website address, commonly called a URL? Have I purchased a URL yet?
    
5. Of the many different blogging platforms, will I use Wordpress, Squarespace, Blogger, Medium, or something else?
    
6. If I use Wordpress, the most popular blogging platform, do I know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, and what might be the pros and cons of using each? (It’s been said that Wordpress.com is like renting a house and WordPress.org is like owning a house.)
    
7. If I use Wordpress.org, am I comfortable keeping my “plug-ins” up to date? (Plug-ins are added features you can incorporate into your blog to customize it.)
    
8. Will I email readers using the email service included by some blog platforms, or will I use an email service provider, such as MailChimp, Emma, or Constant Contacts?
    
9. If necessary, am I able to use HTML, the web coding language, to finetune the look of my blog?
    
10. Do I understand the term blog hosting, which describes who stores the content uploaded to the blog? Who will host my blog?
     
11. Will I set up my blog to capture email addresses, often called a lead magnet? If so, can I offer to give an ebook, short story, or infographic in exchange for contact information?
     
12. How will I store these email addresses, and how will the storage system relate to my blog hosting platform?
     
13. Will I check how my blog appears through several different internet browsers, such as Chrome, Explorer, Safari, and Firefox?
     
14. Does my blog templet work seamlessly with mobile devices, tablets, and desktop computers?
     
15. Will I first write my blog posts with a word processing software like Microsoft Word, or will I write my posts directly on the blog? If I write in Microsoft Word, do I know how to transfer posts onto the blog?

* Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash.

---

RELATED POSTS

Idolatry: Signs We’ve Turned a Good Thing into an Ultimate Thing

“Home Row”—a podcast for writers on writing—is my favorite podcast. I’ve listened to every episode, some of them a few times.  

The host is pastor and author J.A. Medders. Last summer, he asked listeners to send him questions about writing; I sent him several. One question was related to idolatry. I phrased it like this,

How do we keep the pursuit of writing well from becoming, as Tim Keller says, a good-thing-turned-into-an-Ultimate Thing? In other words, what is God-honoring pursuit, and what is sinful?

And what are the signs we might have crossed the line into idolatry?

On Episode 29, from around 2:30 – 15:00, Medders was kind enough to answer the question, especially the second part, in which he identifies five signs a writer’s pursuit of excellence might have crossed the line into idolatry.

Medder’s gave me permission to share a lightly edited version of his answer. I want to share this with you, not only because I found it helpful, but because I think his response applies to many more careers than writing. Whether you are a janitor or construction worker, a teacher or student, a stay-at-home mom or a lawyer, all of us can turn a good thing into an Ultimate Thing. So, when you read the word “writer” below, or you read some other detail related to writing, insert something from your own profession. Medders says,

[The idolatry question] is a really important question for us as writers because we don’t want to sin in our writing. We want to honor Christ as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10—whatever we do, whether we are eating or drinking [we do all to the glory of God]. So this matters. Whether we are hitting on the keyboard or writing in a journal or working on a church blog. Whatever we are doing has got to be to the glory of God.

[But I mainly] want to go at the second part of the question, “What are the signs we might have crossed the line into idolatry?”

The first dangerous warning sign would be [related to] identity—wanting to be known as a writer, wanting that to be the signal of our life, wanting other people to view us as a writer. The chief identity we should rest in is that we are now children of God. I want to remind myself that I am a child of God more than I am a writer, more than I am anything else in my life, even more than I’m a pastor.

You are not your writing. You are not your puns. You are not your metaphors. Your writing is not your life. The same for your talents or anything like that. Paul tells us in Colossians, “When Christ who is your life appears . . .” (3:4). I love that he talks about Jesus that way. When Christ who is your life. We know that the triune God goes by many names . . . Jesus also has several names too: Christ who is your life, it’s one of his nicknames.

We need to see that Jesus is our life, and his righteousness, and his accomplishments. And not what we’ve done and haven’t done and will do or what we are trying to do. Christ is our life.

If God gives you the opportunity to have an article up on a website that you’ve been hoping would publish you, or if you have a book someday, that’s great. But that is not your life. That is not an identity that you want to rest in, the sign you want over your life.

What you want, really, the sign that was hanging above the cross of Christ: This is the king of Jews who is being crucified for you. [You want to know] that you’ve been crucified with Christ, and it’s no longer who you live, but Christ who lives in you.

As Medders continues, he discusses how disappointments in life often show us where we are really placing our trust, which was helpful for me to hear after my recent round of rejection letters.

So much of life comes back to identity, and you can really tell you have an identity crisis when things don’t go well—when you get a rejection letter and when your writing isn’t getting the traction that you hoped it would. . . It’s okay to be disappointed if something didn’t work out, but if rejection is consuming, if it’s crushing, if it leads to anxiety or depression or these kind of things, then we know we have an identity problem when we care too much about wanting to be known as a writer . . .

We are not writing to grow a platform. We are writing to serve others. We are writing to serve the local church. We are writing not to serve our namesake, but Gods. As the psalmist says, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory” (115:1).

In addition to discussing a shift in identity away from Christ, Medders adds four other signs that we might have crossed over into idolatry. He mentions,

1. When you’re always networking but not building friendships.
2. When you shirk other responsibilities (i.e., work, home, or school).
3. When your personal Bible reading becomes less about pursuing godliness and more about the search for something to write.
4. When you are unable to receive correction from others.

Again, with perhaps the exception of #3 about the co-opting of Bible reading, I believe his answer speaks to far more than just writers. As I wrote in a post for Desiring God, all of us need to keep re-affirming that the defining reality of our lives is not in our marital status, nor where we live, nor in children, income, vocation, looks, education, or popularity. Rather, our chief identity is this: Jesus Christ loves me and gave himself for me. You are not your writing. You are not your puns. You are not your metaphors. You are Christ’s, and he is yours.

If you’re looking for a great podcast, especially if you’re a writer, I’d encourage you to check out his show. Most of the episodes are interviews with authors. Recent guests include, Helen Sword, Roy Peter Clark, Dan DeWitt, and Tim Challies.

BOOKS BY MEDDERS

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Amazon

RELATED POSTS

...            ...