Guest Posts and a Recap of 2020 Struggles

When NBC aired sitcom re-runs back in the late 90s during the summer, they advertised using the slogan, “If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you.” I always thought that was clever marketing. The slogan has come to mind each time I’ve bought a “new” car, by which I meant a used car that, because I hadn’t driven it before, was new to me.

As 2020 ends, I want to share with you my guest posts that were published in 2020 (list below). A “guest post” is an article written for another website. Sometimes I’m invited to write for these other websites, and, to be candid, sometimes I try to invite myself. Regardless, if you have not read the articles yet, well, they’ll be new to you.

Considering how difficult this last year has been, perhaps the first post might be the most interesting to you. The January article explores potential ways that 2020 might be a difficult year but, come what may, exalts God’s goodness and sovereignty. In the final paragraph I write,

We’ll have plenty of hindrances next year, but none too great for God’s love and power to overcome. As Paul says elsewhere, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37). A “no hindrances” mentality in 2020 means something more gritty than prosperity preachers teach and something more glorious than any politician can offer.

I had no idea what the “plenty of hindrances next year” might entail, though it did not take a prophet to see election troubles in the forecast. I had no idea one of my former pastors would take his own life. I had no idea our church would be maliciously cyber hacked. I had no idea we’d close down our in-person church services for thirteen weeks. I had no idea our pastor-elder team would spend dozens of hours discussing a piece of fabric placed over the mouth and nose of church attendees.

Speaking of masks, just last night before bed I received an email that another family will not attend church until our policy on face coverings changes. I’m glad the person emailed me back when I asked how they were doing and if they were okay because I hadn’t seen them lately. I’m glad the person responded because most people have ghosted our church.

Jesus spoke of shepherds who leave the ninety-nine to find the one missing sheep (Luke 15:1–7), but I struggle to know what to do as lead pastor of a church that fifty percent of our regular attendees do not attend regularly. Around 150–200 people are missing from our in-person gatherings each week. It’s hard to pastor people you can’t see. In fact, I have pretty much given up chasing non-members and decided to just do my best to pastor our members and those in front of me, and whoever comes back in the spring comes back.

I’m not trying to rant. I’m simply underscoring that when I wrote for The Gospel Coalition that I had no idea what hindrances we’d have this year, I really did have no idea. I’ve not even cataloged half of the struggles.

But what I said in my article about God’s goodness and sovereignty is also true: no hindrance is too great for God’s love and power to turn it for his glory and our good. I also take comfort knowing that, as Peter said, “the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Peter 5:9).

My favorite article from the year—and perhaps my favorite piece of writing from all time—came out of the struggles related to Covid and other challenges in pastoral ministry. I titled the article “Bending the Covid Bow of Bronze” and wrote it for our church denomination, the Evangelical Free Church of America. If you read only one of my guest posts, I’d encourage you to read it.

Thank you for subscribing to my blog this last year. I don’t take it for granted.

Thanks,
Benjamin

Guest Posts in 2020

“Neither Sin nor Death nor Elections Can Hinder God’s Work in 2020,” The Gospel Coalition, January 2, 2020

“Expository Preaching and Anchoring to the Rock,” EDA MOVE, Evangelical Free Church of America, Eastern District Blog, January 22, 2020 (an audio reading of this post by Benjamin appeared on the EDA Move Podcast, here)

“An Interview with Chuck DeGroat, author of When Narcissism Comes to the Church,” Christianity Today, online February 17, 2020, and the March print edition

“How to Land Employment in the Local Church: A Brief Overview,” an excerpt from Don’t Just Send a Resume at the Gospel Relevance blog, February 25, 2020

“Bending the COVID Bow of Bronze,” EFCA NOW, Evangelical Free Church of America Blog, May 13, 2020

“Redeeming Pastoral Ambition,” 9Marks, June 12, 2020 [Also, reposted as “Redeeming Pastoral Ambition,” For The Church, October 6, 2020 and reposted as “Redimiendo la ambición pastoral,” 9Marks - Spanish Website, November 24, 2020]

“Know Where to Find a Pastoral Job after COVID-19,” The EFCA Leader’s Network, June 9, 2020

“Fathers, Ask for Their Heart (And, Preachers, Write a Poem),” EDA MOVE, Evangelical Free Church of America, Eastern District Blog, June 18, 2020 (an audio reading of this post by Benjamin appeared on the EDA Move Podcast, here)

“A Book Review Jesus Driven Ministry by Ajith Fernando,” 9Marks, July 30, 2020

“Book Review: Don’t Just Send a Resume, by Benjamin Vrbicek” a review written by Kris Sinclair, 9Marks, August 8, 2020

“10 Tips for Finding a Ministry Position During the Pandemic,” The Gospel Coalition, August 14, 2020

“Pastor, Why Aren’t You Preaching About What’s Happening? [Part I],” Gospel-Centered Discipleship, August 31, 2020

“Pastor, Why Aren’t You Preaching About What’s Happening? [Part II],” Gospel-Centered Discipleship, September 2, 2020

“A Book Review of Analog Church by Jay Kim,” 9Marks, September 17, 2020

“The Wrath of God Should Come into Our Minds More Often,” EFCA Now, Evangelical Free Church of America Blog, November 17, 2020

“A Book Review: A Little Book for New Preachers, by Matthew D. Kim,” 9Marks, December 3, 2020

* Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash

The Second Advent: The Thrill of Hope for a World in Sin and Error Pining

On Christmas Eve, with only candlelight, our church will sing the classic Christmas hymn “O Holy Night.” We’ll sing the line, “Long lay the world in sin and error pining.” That line in the hymn accurately described the state of the world just before the Advent of the Messiah, the world just before the birth of Christ. But that description also sounds how I might describe our world as we wait for the second Advent, the second coming of Jesus.

Consider each of those three words: sin, error, and pining.

First, there is sin. In the first century the political leaders over God’s people were debauched. For example, in the Christmas story we read about a king who killed a generation of babies when he learns of the birth of a new king (Matt 2:16–18). Today in America we also kill a lot of babies. And consider Matthew 14 where we read of Herod Antipas offering up to half his kingdom to a young woman who does something of a striptease for him at a dinner party. Sin abounded in their world—but also in ours. If you visited our church on Sunday morning, depending on which way you drive to our building, a minute before you arrive in our parking lot you would pass two strip clubs and an adult video store. The sign above one of the clubs says, “According to the poles, we’re the best place in town.” In other words, on your way to church you’d be confronted with sin, not in some faraway and long-ago land, but around the corner. Long lay the world in sin—then and now.

There is error. You don’t have to be familiar with the Bible to know of the religious group called the Pharisees. Yet the Pharisees were only one of four major religious groups. There were also the Sadducees, who tended to be more liberal and interested in colluding with the Romans. There were the Essenes, a pious group known for their retreat from ordinary society to maintain their supposed purity. There were the Zealots who were primarily interested in regaining political power. Then, of course, there were the Pharisees. The Pharisees were more like your evangelical pastors in the way they tended to have a conservative approach to the Bible. But Jesus took even this best group, the Pharisees, to task repeatedly for their errors (e.g., the seven “woe to you Pharisees” statements in Matt 23). This multiplication of religious error even within true religion (not even considering the errors of false religions) causes me to think how many errors exist today among all the fractured denominations of Christianity. There are not four major groups in Christianity, but forty or even four hundred. Long lay the world in error—then and now.

And then there’s the word pining. We don’t use the word pining much, but it means reaching or yearning. Pining involves longing for something yet unrealized, like reaching for a carrot always just too far in front of you. Behind each idol our hearts could create for worship—whether the idol of work or money or sex or approval or power or whatever—is a pining for something deeper, something we know we want but can never seem to grasp. Perhaps to describe pining we could use the language of “thirst” and “desire,” as Revelation 22:17 does: “And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” C.S. Lewis uses the language of desire in his famous quote about being created for another world: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” All of us have this desire, this thirst, this pining for another world. Before the first Advent of Christ, there were four hundred years of silence from God’s prophets from Malachi to Matthew. And there have been two thousand years since as we wait for the second Advent. Long lay the world pining—then and now.

But I find encouragement from the book of Revelation, specifically the last verses in the last chapter in the last book of the Bible. There we see that Jesus anticipated a time when his church would be wondering if they had been forgotten. Jesus anticipated a time when his people would feel they had too long lain in sin and error pining.

The last chapter of the Bible answers the question of whether God’s people have been or will ever be forgotten with a resounding, No. In Revelation 22:7 Jesus tells us, “And behold, I am coming soon.” Later he says again, “Behold, I am coming soon . . . I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (v. 12).

I don’t know exactly what Jesus means by the word “soon”; apparently not what you and I ordinarily mean by the word. But I do know that the promise of Christ’s second Advent means his children are not forgotten.

At the end of a difficult year, I pray the promise of God’s soon return would lead us to know a fresh “thrill of hope” and cause our “weary world to rejoice.”

* Photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash

Where Does Long-Term, Faithful and Joyful Ministry Come From?

Pastors and churches go through seasons; times of prosperity and abundance, and times of scarcity and decline.

In many ways, even surprising ways, throughout the Covid19 lockdown and financial upheaval, our church did far more than limp along; we continued our work with enthusiasm. But for me personally—as the lead pastor of our church—the spring of 2020 was more of a long spiritual winter. The cooler spiritual temperature began a year ago when a key staff member moved away. When he left, I strapped my boots on tighter and went to work harder than before. I read Fernando’s book in the midst of the spiritual dryness—the frenetic activity at church had worn my soul thin. Jesus Driven Ministry came at just the right moment.

Jesus Driven Ministry focuses on aspects of ministry that featured prominently in the ministry of Jesus during his earthly life. The chapters cover topics you would expect such as prayer, the Word of God, and discipling young leaders. But Fernando also covers overlooked though important aspects of ministry, such as having a sense of God’s joyful affirmation, visiting homes, resting from ministry, and ministering to the sick and demon-possessed.

The Blessing of Perspective

Western readers will find Fernando’s work a helpful exploration of biblically principled ministry in an international setting. His work often references ministry challenges that westerners have rarely faced. For example, Fernando is familiar with war and hardship in a way I am not. In many places in the book he alludes to a civil war in Sri Lanka that existed in the background and sometimes the foreground of his ministry. “As part of their strategy,” he writes, “militants often come to the south where I live and plant bombs in strategic places” (25). He explains how these challenges created unique ministry challenges and opportunities. The war was so bad in 1989, he notes, that “there was never a time when a body was not floating in the river at the edge of our city” (96). Fernando ministered to people who saw human carnage almost daily.

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In another place, Fernando notes that because his organization does not pay bribes, some initiatives they wanted to accomplish never materialized (26). I’m currently overseeing a renovation project at our church, but I’ve never had to wrestle with the temptation of paying a building inspector to make a certain problem go away.

Perspectives from church leaders in international settings can challenge, correct, and encourage our own ministries. Of course, simply reading books by fellow pastors outside the US isn’t the same as pastoring in a foreign city but books like Jesus Driven Ministry can help us sift true Christianity from cultural attachments and help us discern between what is wheat and what is chaff.

The Blessing of Transparency

Fernando’s transparency on the difficulties of Christian ministry are also encouraging. In ways that didn’t come across as self-serving, the book was a show and tell of ministry scars. As the Apostle Paul could write of bearing on his body the marks of Jesus (Gal. 6:17), so Fernando showed how he bears the marks of Christian ministry on his soul. These struggles often led him to consider quitting. “This is why in my twenty-six years as director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka, there have been many times when I have wished to resign from my job. A few times I even wrote a draft of a letter of resignation” (67).

Further, Fernando deftly analyzes how anger can build up over the course of a ministry: “When I turned fifty, I made a list of the biggest battles I face in my life and ministry. High up on that list was the battle with anger over the way people have treated me. One of the saddest sights in the church today is that of Christian workers who are angry—angry over the way they have been hurt by others, by circumstances, and sometimes, they feel, even by God” (111). Anger, like rust on the chassis of a car, can build up over the course of a ministry. It weakens our effectiveness and threatens our fidelity to the gospel. Fernando’s record of his struggles in ministry reminded me I’m not alone. His remedies for discouragement and anger are soul-stirring and worth considering if you’re a discouraged pastor.

The Building Blocks for Ministry for the Long-Haul

Ultimately, Jesus Driven Ministry considers what propelled Jesus into ministry and what sustained him in it—and how those same things should sustain us. This emphasis on longevity comes through in Fernando’s prayer for his book, namely, that men and women “commit themselves afresh to those vital basics of ministry that make for long-term ministry that is both fruitful and joyful” (16).

* This originally appeared at 9Marks.org

** Photo by Shavin Peiries on Unsplash

Real People in Real Places to Hold Real Hands and Wipe Real Tears

Stephen has come to church six times in six years. Surprisingly, he showed up again last week, even though COVID has forced our church into outdoor meetings under a 90-degree sun. Even with online options, Stephen showed up to stand six feet apart from others and to introduce me to his girlfriend. With a sober but deeply thankful smile he said, “This is Pastor Benjamin; he came to our house the day after Mom died.”

That event was five years ago, but he remembers that I came; I suspect he always will.

At significant moments—either those of great joy or great sorrow—we need real people in real places to hold real hands and wipe real tears and give real hugs. As churches across the country wrestle with the best ways to foster fellowship when our gatherings are inhibited, Jay Kim’s book Analog Church shows us the importance of gathering to the Christian life.

Technology and the Church

Analog Church has three parts: worship, community, and Scripture. In each section, Kim explores both the advantages and limitations of technology. Throughout, Kim argues that God requires embodied realities as part of the essence of the church—or as the subtitle says, real people, places, and things. To use an example, a person might find someone to date using an online app, and the app might even be used to arrange the date. But you can’t date online; you have to go somewhere and buy a meal or hike a trail or play golf. As Kim notes, technology can help us communicate but not commune. Communion requires more than fast Wi-Fi; it requires flesh and blood.

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Advancements in technology claim to improve three main areas of humanity: speed, choices, and individualism. In other words, technology offers us whatever we might want and gives it to us quickly. But, Kim argues, we need to recognize that following Christ requires a wholly different set of values: “discipleship requires patience, depth, and community—the very things that stand in contradiction to the values of the digital age” (26).

In the chapters on worship, Kim talks about how stage and sanctuary lighting technology can lead to a culture of performance, not participation. “Rather than accentuating the lyrics we’re being invited to sing together, these image backgrounds often become mesmerizing shows accentuating a musical performance, and we end up watching rather than participating” (44).

In the chapters on community, Kim notes that the Greek word we often translate as church, ekklēsia, means gathering. He also notes that all of Scripture’s one-another commands require physical proximity; they require ekklēsia or “gathering.” He writes, “All these [one anothers] are difficult at best, and impossible at worst, to do online. These practices of the church, the gathered community of God’s people, require physical presence” (100).

Finally, in the chapters on Scripture, Kim doesn’t so much critique reading the Bible from a screen per se, but the social media trend to pull warm, comforting verses from their context and overlay them on appealing backgrounds. Practices like these, over time, tend to convey that Scripture exists to comfort God’s people but never confront them. To counter this trend of decontextualizing Scripture, he encourages pastors to preach sermons based on longer passages of Scripture, even grounding a topical sermon series on something like marriage or evangelism in a series through one book of the Bible.

With regard to preaching, Kim continues to stress the importance of the physical presence of the preacher with his congregation, as opposed to live-streaming a preacher from a different campus. “Preaching,” he writes, “is a participatory act involving both the communicator and the community, in the moment, not simply after the fact. . . . [It is] an act that must be witnessed rather than simply watched. Participation in the transformation process begins at the moment of the sermon delivery” (67–68, emphasis original).

A Needed Admonition for Our Technologically-Obsessed Age

The shockwaves of the technological innovation explosion that has occurred in the last century ultimately reaches every church and pastor. When we were remodeling our church building three years ago, the contractor simply couldn’t understand my hesitations about including too much technology as part of the remodeling effort.

“If you pick that small of a screen for your sanctuary,” the contractor told me, “the size will be all wrong when you show videos.”

“We generally don’t show videos on Sunday,” I said.

Then we talked about how our new slide system works. The contractor told me to make sure I keep our church logo on the screen when we transition between slides. “Why would we do that?” I asked. “Can’t we leave the screens black between slides? And for that matter, can’t we keep the screens clear as often as possible?”

He responded, “In my context, you never miss an opportunity to market.”

“But,” I said, “people are already in our church building. Why do I need to remind them of our logo?”

So the conversation went for several minutes, each of us remaining equally mystifying to the other.

Screens, of course, aren’t sinful. But the larger point is that many churches pursue relevance to the neglect of faithfulness, and technology has become a significant domain where that flaw flashes in bright lights. I appreciate that Kim, writing as a pastor in Silicon Valley, perhaps the technology capital of the world, chose to write in a tone that attempts to win over churches and pastors to a better, more biblical way. For example, he writes,

[I]n addition to the harm it’s done to our churches, the unchecked effects of the digital age on the worshiping life of the church are doing damage to the very men and women charged with serving and leading the church into the future. They are doing damage to you—tapping into the insecurities, uncertainties, and performance-driven tendencies in the worst possible ways (51).

Kim’s illustrations indicate his familiarity with the struggles technology brings church leaders. He was once told to make sure he regularly looked into the camera as he preached so the other campuses would feel connected to him. “The thought of looking into a camera,” he writes, “to ‘connect’ with people who would be gathering on another day in another room on the other side of the city struck me as an exercise in missing the point” (47). I assume many in his book’s target audience have pondered the same thing, if not out loud in a staff meeting, at least in their inner dialogue.

A few aspects of the book were a bit theologically concerning. For example, Kim hints toward a more egalitarian perspective on ministry. Also, for those who already agree with Kim’s central thesis, the book might not give as much application as you may like. Even so, I was helped as I read the book. Each time I pick up my iPhone to refresh my email, I think about the nefarious connection Kim describes between the technology that drives casino slot machines and the apps on our phones (133–37).

Analog Church is a marvelously timed book in light of the fact that in a COVID world many people are suddenly wondering, “is virtual church enough?” Kim compellingly argues it is not. I’m hopeful many will take to heart its fundamental arguments as our churches begin to regather in the coming weeks and months.

* This originally appeared at 9Marks.org.

** Photo by Andreas Kruck on Unsplash

Why I Write: Thoughts on Joy and Obedience

Our motivations often have more layers than we realize. But if we set aside the sinful, self-serving motives lurking around the edges of a Christian’s heart, I’d say one of my primary motivations for writing is joy. I really do enjoy tinkering with words that point people to God. I’ve heard a famous Christian author say that for him, writing is like eating ice cream, not a “have to” but a “get to.” I feel the same, although it wasn’t always this way.

The Backstory

In college I studied Mechanical Engineering for three reasons: first, my father was an engineer, so it felt familiar; second, I excelled at math and science; and third—and this might be the key reason why I chose engineering—I hated to read and write. Hated it. Perhaps the feeling isn’t so uncommon. Tony Reinke writes in Lit! that most people view reading “like trying to drink down a huge vitamin” (p. 15). With few exceptions, that’s what reading and writing were to me, the yuk of drinking a tall, chalky glass of Flintstones.

For the Joy of It

When I began following Christ in college, all that changed. As I read and studied Christianity—informally on my own and then later in seminary—new joys and passions and hopes bubbled up within me, as though some chemical reaction was being cooked over a Bunsen burner. Through listening to good preaching, I felt God was calling me to preach. The call to preach seemed to pounce on me, irrevocably so, while listening to other men preach and feeling my mind and affections doused in a kind of spiritual kerosene so that I just knew I wanted to, in fact had to, be involved in doing this for others.

During the early days of this feeling, if I could have hit pause during a sermon by any one of the many gifted preachers I was listening to in those days, I think I would have described the experience this way:

What God is doing right now, through that guy, on that stage, behind that pulpit, as he explains that passage and the glory of God and the beauty of the gospel, with those words and those gestures, and that tone, and with all of that love and passion and urgency such that my heart is prodded and my mind is riveted—well, someday I just have to be involved in sharing that good news with others.

This is what I mean when I say that my calling to preach came not only through opportunities to preach but also, even predominantly, through having it done to me.

The experience has been the same with my call to write. In his insightful book about the craft of writing, Stephen King put it this way: “Being swept away by a combination of great story and great writing—of being flattened, in fact—is part of every writer’s necessary formation. You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.” (On Writing, p. 146). Through reading good writing, I felt God calling me to write. The reaction felt explosive, if only in my heart—or to use King’s words, flattening.

Yet, the transition from an engineer to a preacher-writer came with many frustrations. In seminary I struggled more than others with the demands to read and write. However, after lots of practice, much of it forced upon me by seminary and pastoral ministry, I can honestly say my frustration with drinking down vitamins grew into love. I had acquired the taste.

For the Obedience of It

In addition to joy, my other primary motivation for writing is obedience. I’ve joked before that I do not have a writing “boss.” All my projects and deadlines are self-inflicted. But I do hope that I treat writing the way the lay-elders of our church treat their pastoring: serving the church is something they enjoy but also something they feel called by God to do. In other words, we do have a boss. Our pastoring, and I trust my writing, is done at the invitation and the command of God.

These two motivations, joy and obedience, mingle together in the name of my blog: Fan and Flame. It’s an allusion to 2 Timothy 1:6 where Paul told Timothy to “fan into flame the gift of God.” I take the command to mean that the young pastor must do whatever is necessary to keep the fire burning. If only embers remain, well then, you get on your hands and knees, put your nose in the kindling, and blow. Never mind the smoke searing your eyes—you keep the fire alive. Indeed, toil to make it grow.

For the Pursuit of Accessible, Riveting Scholarship

Over the years, I’ve settled on a few short phrases to capture what I’m trying to do when I write: I write accessible, riveting scholarship to fan into flame joy in God. People do not normally associate scholarship with accessible and riveting, but that is the cluster I aim for. By scholarship I don’t mean the use of big words but the best insights about a given topic such that the writing has an awareness of what others have said and are saying; by accessible I mean avoiding technical, insider language and the effort to make the complex simple; and by riveting I mean striving for command of the craft that holds attention, for the kind of writing that engages the head and heart, the kind of writing I like to read.

It feels goofy to write out my purpose statement for someone else to see. Thus far, I’ve kept it hidden, like a compass in my pocket, only pulling it out occasionally to double-check my trajectory. But the phrasing has brought needed focus to my writing even if I never produce anything worthy of the label scholarship, accessible, or riveting. It’s a “shoot for the stars to hit the moon” sort of thing.

My book projects always target a particular audience, but I don’t have a specific age or gender in mind when I write more generally on my blog except to say I hope to reach the types of readers who might be in my church regularly on Sunday mornings.

People ask me why an engineer would ever become a preacher and writer. They typically want a sound bite answer. I’m not sure how to give them that. Maybe someday I will figure out how. For now, I suppose that I could say that it had something to do with vinegar and baking soda, corked and shaken.

* This summer I enrolled in the Gospel-Centered Discipleship Writing Cohort, a six-month coaching group. Our first assignment was to write our personal writing mission statement, as well as 800 words of explanation. My 800 words (plus a couple hundred extra) are above, and here’s my personal mission statement: I write accessible, riveting scholarship to fan into flame joy in God. The exercise stretched me. If you’ve ever had to do something similar for writing or pastoring or education or whatever, I’d love to hear about the experience, what you learned, and if there are enduring takeaways from the effort.  

** Photo by Sebastian Pociecha on Unsplash

Ministry Morning, Noon, and Night: A Day in the Life of a Pastor

“I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.”
–The Apostle Paul

Sometimes people tease me that pastors only work one day a week. Sometimes they are not teasing.

Morning

Today I wake at 4:45 am to the muted vibrating of my iPhone. The phone that wakes me rests on my nightstand on top of a book and a hand towel because the extra padding dulls the noise: phones resting directly on wooden nightstands that start vibrating two hours before first light do not make for happy marriages. I know from experience.

By 5:00 I am on my living room couch to read through the three chapters of the book of Nahum, a book that ends with a provocative question. “All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?” the prophet asks concerning the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. I read this, and I am reminded of a little Bible trivia. Only the book of Jonah also ends with a question, which also happens to be a book about Nineveh.

Each year I try to trek from cover to cover. Some mornings a verse or phrase sparks deeper joy in God. Some mornings a verse or phrase sparks conviction of sin and a deeper understanding of my need for Jesus. This morning, like a lot of them, the sparks do not fly and my eyelids droop.

After I have put Nahum away I sit with my laptop open to edit a friend’s book proposal. People seem to ask me for help with books more often these days. A book proposal is the business plan for a book, an unwritten and unpublished book that dreams of someday hitting Amazon and blessing readers and maybe the author. I know something of these dreams. Book proposals describe the book’s theme, author, contents, and more—and have a few sample chapters. I told my friend I would do this yesterday, but I ate something at dinner two nights ago that left me too sick yesterday morning to get up early and write. Today, however, I feel great; food allergies strike randomly like that.

At 6:44 I email my friend who lives in London his book proposal. A few hours later he tells me thank you and that “the feedback was spot-on,” which is nice to hear but is tempered with the knowledge that no traditional publisher has ever found my own book proposals spot-on.

I eat breakfast around the table at 7:00 with my wife and six children. This morning Brooke made toasted bagels and turkey sausage links. We all talk about our day. For three minutes I also read a children’s Bible based on the book of Acts as I wonder to myself if I try to cram too much into the morning. We have never read anything as a family at breakfast, and maybe we shouldn’t.

Breakfast ends with my toddler yelling from the bathroom for my wife to come help. I help it instead of her because my wife does it all the time and taking my turn makes me feel like an “Ephesians 5” type of husband even though I know I’ve domesticated the idea of a husband loving his wife as Christ loved the church, giving himself up for her.

Once we’ve walked children to the bus stop and back, I shower quick and make the three-minute commute to work. But my wife calls me on the way to tell me I forgot my laptop, so I go back quick to grab it. “Quick” starts to feel like the key adjective of the day.

When I make it to church, I record a nine-minute sample section of an audiobook in the church basement before the rest of the staff arrives. I wanted to get the recording done before my true workday starts. I made the sample to figure out if the equipment I own can reach professional-grade quality. I sort of doubt it will; I used a bunch of winter blankets from my house to dampen ambient sound, which sure didn’t make me feel much like a professional.

Now the day picks up. I answer emails and read a chapter of a book about the gospel by Ray Ortlund. At noon, a man will come to talk about the chapter because he will lead our Bible study through the material this coming Sunday night. The study this week engages with Galatians 2. How exactly in 2:4, we wonder, did false brothers slip in to spy out their freedom in Christ [not to be circumcised]? And the “circumcision party” (2:12), we think, does not sound much like a party. We both chuckle. He is a newer Christian, and this will be his first time ever leading a Bible study. Just two years ago was the first time he had ever been to a small group Bible study. Aslan, as they say, is on the move.

Noon

But before my friend can meet in the church café, I walk in the rain holding an umbrella. With another staff member I visit a neighbor who will likely die in the next day or two. We walk down the alley behind church, make a right on Ash Street, then a left to pass by a dozen houses. We shake and collapse our umbrellas, knock, and see if someone answers. The wife of the dying man sent the church a note through our Facebook page. I saw her message right before I went to bed but did not respond; I knew I would just show up when I could. She had also messaged us eight weeks ago when they first got the news her husband was dying.

“The doctors gave him three to six weeks, and here we are at week eight,” she says to us while I sit next to the metal gurney bed placed in their living room. He lays on the bed with his eyes closed and breathes heavily. The bed, like death, does not belong in the living room. “He wanted to beat the doctor’s six-week prediction,” she tells us, “and live to vote one more time.” He did both.

But when we visited eight weeks ago, we all sang a hymn and listened to this child of God, who looked so relatively healthy, tell stories of how God saved him and called him into prison ministry. He also told us of his love for birds. On this visit he tells no stories. The morphine has already induced sedation. Although his bed sits by the window to see his bird feeders, the blinds are pulled shut. Together we pray with his soon-to-be widow and wipe our sniffles away from behind our masks. I stand up, pat his legs, and tell him he has run a great race and God will carry him home. He opens his eyes and speaks his last words to me. “I’m just so gassed.” I say back, “God will carry you.” We leave in the rain and walk back up the street and the alley to our office.  

More meetings in the afternoon. First, a team of four offers critiques of the merits of my sermon from the previous Sunday on John 4, the thirsty woman who had five husbands, and our schizophrenic view of sex—it’s everything and nothing. Not my best sermon, we all agree, but still good. I probably should have talked more directly to our broken sexualities rather than around the topics, they suggest.

Then we have a staff meeting, which assigned me a few action items I quickly knock out so that I can have more time to call a husband. This husband had asked me to talk a while ago, but I could not make time for him—and I have felt bad about that. But now we talk, and I hear more about his marriage, which we have discussed several times before. I hang up the phone and contemplate that today I had prayed with a man on hospice and now pray with a man whose marriage might as well be on hospice. The marriage might recover, but we sort of doubt it. The morphine of lawyers and legal separation, as it were, has put the marriage in sedation. I fear it is only a matter of time before it passes. Only God knows.

Surprised I finished my office day before 4:00, I realize I can squeeze in a quick trip to the gym, so I do. Someone going through our church membership class raised questions about our eschatology and had emailed me a sermon by David Jeremiah. I could not make time to watch the sermon last week or the week before, so I play the sermon about the end times on YouTube at the gym while I do a CrossFit workout. The workout involves alternating between the rowing machine and throwing a twenty-pound rubber ball ten feet in the air. I like our new member and believe he likes our church, but I wonder if he noticed the sermon said my view of the return of Christ did not take the Bible seriously.

I make a quick trip home from the gym so I can make the most of my quick one hour at home to talk with my wife and kids before I go back to work. I sit at the table and read a chapter of The Magician’s Nephew with one of my daughters. We don’t finish the chapter before I have to shower quickly and scoot back to work.

And Night

I’m in the church basement again—this time a different room. I sit in a circle of chairs with our team of pastor-elders. Most elder meetings we laugh and pray and discuss how best to lead our church. Tonight is no different. But we also wrestled with more church discipline cases than usual. Again, Aslan is on the move—but sometimes his movement makes life messy.

Before I leave the church, I bump into a friend who talks to me about his recent engagement and asks if I would officiate his wedding and oversee his premarital counseling. Delighted he asked, I say yes.

Now I sit at home on the couch eating cookies I just covered with frosting as I talk to my wife about the day—but only after I made a quick round to all my children’s bedrooms to say goodnight. They were already in bed but waiting up for Dad.

My wife and I sit and talk about the day and the pastor-elder meeting. She knew enough of the items on the agenda to know we should talk for a bit. It is too late in the evening, but we start the next episode in our current Netflix series anyway. Then we brush our teeth, and I set my alarm, turn down my ringer volume, and place the phone on the nightstand.

I kiss my wife, and in the last thirty seconds before I fall asleep, I think to myself that pastors do not only work one day a week. We must work at least two.

Annie Dillard wrote, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing” (The Writing Life). If “this hour” and “that one” were less full than they were today and more balanced, that might be more ideal and more sustainable. But I do believe that if we pastors spend our days thus, we spend our lives well.

* Photo by Kristian Egelund on Unsplash

Writing Is a Lonely Endeavor, but It Doesn't Have to Be

This will be the last post I’ll do for a while about our recently released book Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World.

The launch went really well; we spent a week as the “#1 New Release” in the Amazon blogging category, and as I write this we have thirty Amazon reviews. John and I would love to see the book hit fifty reviews soon, but we’re super thankful for the reviews we already have.

This week John and I begin recording the audiobook, which will be a first for both of us. In truth, I have some experience at this from another book, but it didn’t go very well, so I’m anxious about the recording process but hopeful this recording will go better. We’d love to see our audiobook hit Amazon by Christmas.

The community that developed around the book was one of the most surprising aspects of writing this book. I don’t think it should have surprised me the way that it did, but nonetheless, I am surprised.

Throughout the book, we mention the names of bloggers from around the world who write words online to exalt the glory of God. There’s Ryan in New Mexico; Chase in the Missouri Ozark region; a Tim in Florida and another Tim in Vermont; Alistair in Scotland; David in Norway; Nitoy in the Philippines; and Chris, Cassie, and Ruth in Australia. I know this because last week I shipped seventy books to the four corners of the world!

Perhaps I felt so surprised and encouraged by the Christian blogging community because, ordinarily, blogging is a lonely endeavor. We generate ideas alone. We write alone. We edit alone even when we have editors. We queue up posts alone. And even when we read the same viral post, we read it alone. But the book—as much as writing is inherently a lonely endeavor—was produced in community, even as we hope it was produced for a community.

In Jen Oshman’s endorsement of the book she wrote that John and I “create a needed community.” Maybe. But I think the community was already there. We just tried to help the community that already exists, be a better community, a lived experience of the community we already are. The Gospel-Centered Discipleship Writers’ Guild played a huge role in that. It’s a group of a hundred or so writers who care about all the same sort of nerdy, gospel-y writing things. In Oshman’s endorsement, she added, “Reading [Blogging for God’s Glory] is to sit around a table with other writers.” I love that she wrote that line. We hope and pray others feel the same.

Below are the official endorsements we received from various authors and blogging advocates. Be sure to check out their work too.

And thank you for helping us and encouraging us. If you buy the book and leave an Amazon review, that would mean a lot to us.

*     *     *

“I’ve been told that the glory days of blogging are long gone. Maybe. What I am sure of is that blogging is now a crowded field, filled with countless voices offering pathways to success. I’ve longed for voices like Benjamin and John’s, filled with seasoned wisdom and an unwavering resolve to elevate the glory of God over all other aims. Forged out of the hard hours of reading carefully, working the keyboards, and humbly connecting with other writers, this book proves that Benjamin and John are fast becoming two voices to heed in whatever lies ahead.”
Chris Thomas, pastor of Raymond Terrace Community Church in the Hunter Valley of NSW, Australia, host of the Gospel-Centered Discipleship Writers’ Guild, and blogger at PloughmansRest.com

“Ok, I’ll admit it: blogging isn’t dead. And I wouldn’t want to kill it. But blogging has changed, because nothing ever lasts long on the internet. John and Benjamin are reliable guides to how you can still blog to the glory of God. I’m praying God will use their book to help raise up a new generation of writers eager to use their gifts to tell the world about the good news of Jesus Christ.”
Collin Hansen, editorial director of The Gospel Coalition, host of the Gospelbound podcast, and author of Blind Spots and Young, Restless, Reformed

“Writing is a lonely endeavor. With this book Benjamin Vrbicek and John Beeson create a needed community. Reading it is to sit around a table with other writers, sharing tips and tricks of the trade, as well as deeper issues like prioritizing God’s glory and staying spiritually vital throughout the seasons of writing and ministry. I heartily invite all bloggers to pull up a chair and join in this helpful conversation.”
Jen Oshman, author of Enough About Me, former overseas missionary, pastor’s wife, podcaster, and blogger at JenOshman.com

“Writing for online, public consumption is a tricky thing for Christians. We fight pride when pageviews soar and when they tank. Throw in tech problems, networking, and unfriendly algorithms, and it’s easy to lose sight of our purpose in writing. Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World offers a primer for launching a blog and a heart check for sustaining it. Immensely practical and engaging, this book is for bloggers of every age and stage. Though I’ve been blogging for nearly two decades, I finished this book with renewed purpose to make much of Christ in my own small corner of the internet. Blogging for God’s Glory is a book I’ll recommend over and over to aspiring writers.”
Glenna Marshall, author of The Promise is His Presence and Everyday Faithfulness, and blogger at GlennaMarshall.com

“My advice to any Christian who is thinking about starting a blog is to first read this book—and to pay close attention. Vrbicek and Beeson have written the most helpful and realistic guide to Christian blogging that has been produced in a decade. If you follow their advice (and examine your true motives) they can save you a lot of wasted time and frustration by showing you why your sole objective should be to blog for the glory of God.”
Joe Carter, Executive Pastor of McLean Bible Church, editor at The Gospel Coalition, and coauthor of How to Argue like Jesus

A Prayer for Tim Challies

A few days ago Tim Challies lost his college-aged son. He wrote about it here, saying, “Yesterday the Lord called my son to himself—my dear son, my sweet son, my kind son, my godly son, my only son.” His son was playing a game with friends and his fiancée when he suddenly collapsed and couldn’t be revived.

I don’t know Tim well. He endorsed one of my books and wrote the foreword to another. Once, I emailed him asking for help and advice, and he gave me a 20-minute phone call to coach me through the problem. When I think of Tim, besides his faithfulness to the Lord and the helpfulness of his books and blog posts, I think of his generosity. Many bloggers become myopically self-focused, but Tim keeps his writing ministry about God’s glory, serving his readers, and promoting the work of others.

When Challies posted about the tragedy, he wrote, “And we ask that you remember us in your prayers as we mourn our loss together.” Would you take a minute to do that for Tim and his wife now?

“Heavenly Father, please comfort Tim and Aileen in their terrible loss. When a man who loves words—and spends his life using them for your glory and the good of your people—has nothing to say, whisper to his heart that you are still God and you love him and his wife. Father, when a hurricane of pain and anger and sadness attempts to overwhelm them, be their refuge; be the firm foundation upon which they can stand, the rock that won’t be shaken when all around their soul gives way. And may they grieve, but may they grieve as those with hope—the hope of your gospel goodness, hope of their son’s presence in heaven with you, hope of your second coming, and hope of the day when you will wipe away every tear from every eye. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

* Photo by zenad nabil on Unsplash

What Does It Mean to Blog for God’s Glory?: Our Book’s Backstory

Our book Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World releases today.

Six months ago, when I picked November 3 as our publication day, I certainly wasn’t thinking about the fact that it was also the day of our presidential elections. But it happened, or I should say, it is happening—today.

I’ve never shared the backstory to our blogging book, but I’ll tell you now that the book started with my friend and coauthor John Beeson before either of us knew it would be a book.

Five years ago I wrote down a series of questions for John to ponder as he launched his blog. Actually, I didn’t write them. I used my phone’s voice-to-text feature to record my stream-of-consciousness thoughts while my children played in a McDonald’s PlayPlace. I cleaned the questions up a bit, sent them to John, and we talked on the phone for ninety minutes. A year later, I polished those questions brighter and wrote them into a blog post. I hoped the questions would help others launch blogs that would glorify God. I feared, however, only five people would read the post. After I submitted the article to two different online publications and received rejections from each, I suspected editors also thought only five people would read the posts. But then I submitted it to For The Church, who published the article in the spring of 2018.

Tim Challies shared a link to that post on his blog, and from there, Bill Feltner, the host of the show His People on Pilgrim Radio, saw the link and asked me for an interview to discuss Christian blogging. The interview made me wonder if there could be more to this topic than a few blog posts and an interview could cover. Eventually I circled back to John with the idea for this book.

I’m thankful for John running this race with me. John, when we began the project I never expected the book would become such an expansive resource for bloggers. Thank you for being a friend, encourager, and someone to swap stories with of blogging lows and blogging highs. I could not have written this book without you, and I wouldn’t have wanted to.

Alexandra Richter has poured over each word in each book I’ve written, and most of my published articles. Alexandra, I confess, I never know when to write who or whom, so I avoid writing sentences that feel ambiguous. But I know that if I did write a sentence that needed a who or perhaps a whom, you’d know when I needed which. And thank you for caring as much, if not more, about the theology as the grammar. Speaking of grammar, thank you Russ Meek and Cassie Watson for also helping us catch the little mistakes that make a big difference.

I’ve never had an acknowledgment section in my books; I think I feared the cliché of it all. Expected or not, I want to say thank you to my wife, Brooke. There would be no books or blogs without your blessing.

Below is the table of contents and full book cover. John and I would be overjoyed if you bought a copy of our book (Amazon). Thanks for all the encouragement along the way.

Our Church Was Maliciously Hacked and You Won’t Believe What Happened Next

We are two weeks away from the release of our book Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World. As you might expect, our book comes down pretty heavily against clickbait posts.

We define clickbait as “the pejorative term for content, especially titles and images, designed to get visitors to click. The term is loosely drawn from fishing where shiny bait attracts the attention of a fish but conceals the hook. To some degree, what constitutes clickbait is in the eye of the beholder; however, standard tropes are readily identifiable” (from the Glossary, p. 153).

Yet for how hard we critique clickbait, my coauthor also writes in the book, “Don’t be afraid to smile when you write. . . . Feel free to include fun, even clickbait-y, posts from time to time” (John Beeson, Blogging for God’s Glory, p. 27–28).

And I agree, which is why I wrote the title to this post the way I did. It’s probably only my second deliberately clickbait title in six years of blogging. The other was from a few years ago and called, “I Read Every Jared Wilson Book This Year; You Won’t Believe What Happened Next.” But even both of these titles consciously spoof a stock clickbait trope.

Regardless, our church was, in fact, maliciously hacked. However, you can probably guess what happened next: I sent an email to our church. That’s it. Well, it took a little more work than that, but basically, that was it—just an email.

I wrestled with whether to send the email to our church at all, just as I’ve wrestled with whether to draw even more attention to the event here on my blog. When someone takes off his or her clothes and runs across the field of a professional football game, the cameras look away. Television networks do this because they don’t want to show nudity during the game but also because giving the streaker more attention scratches the itch he or she wanted scratched. I sort of feel the same talking about the hacking. But I’m sharing the letter I wrote to our church with you because of the paragraph I wrote near the end, which I put in bold. That paragraph sums up not only how our church will get through this event, but how all Christians can honor God when evil punches us in the gut.

*     *     *

Dear Church,

Since yesterday afternoon, I’ve written about seven different versions of this email in my head. But this is the one I’m actually writing and sending.

Many of you noticed that the registration system for church filled up before Friday afternoon. It’s possible that if everyone—or even most—of our church wanted to come back to church on the same Sunday, we would not fit in the building. However, I don’t think that’s what happened. I’ll explain.

It appears someone has maliciously hacked our registration system, either filling out legit names and emails or slight variations of those names and emails. Again, it’s too early to be sure why this is happening, but it is clear that something is happening. The registration system is broken.

Here’s what I propose. Please just come to whichever service best fits your needs and your schedule, whether you registered for that service or not. (We’ve been publishing COVID updates here, which explains the details about each service.) Seriously, please do NOT stay away just because our registration system was hacked.

Our goal was to have up to 75 people in the first service at 8:30 am. We want this service to be the most COVID-cautious; the building is still being professionally cleaned and sanitized before each Sunday. The other services at 9:45 am and 11 am can have up to 100 people in each of these. In truth, we can have up to 120 people in each service and still remain socially distanced and under the 50% capacity goals.

Also, we now have overflow options in the church basement fellowship hall. We’ll stream the worship service in real-time on our large TVs and through the new sound system. The newly renovated fellowship hall can hold an extra 50–60 people in the first and third services. (Overflow seating is not an option during second service because our membership class is using that room.) If either the first or third services get too full in the sanctuary, please consider moving downstairs.

Here’s my final plea: please come with a big smile and a heart that is happy do whatever is best for the whole church. I believe that the way we will honor God, defeat evil, and preserve through suffering is not by outrage but by cultivating joyful Christian unity when it feels like everything is stacked against us.

Our church has been thriving through all the craziness of 2020, and I intend to do everything I can to help it stay this way. The other day I joked that twenty years from now you can tell future generations that this was the summer and fall “you had to walk ten miles to attend church – uphill, both ways, in the snow.”

Yep. But it’s also the summer and fall that Jesus was still Lord, and he reigns even now from heaven and is building his church. Come, worship the risen Lord with us tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Benjamin Vrbicek, lead pastor

* Photo by Simon Abrams on Unsplash

Is Blogging Dead?: A Few Dozen Christian Bloggers Say No

In a series of quick, mindless thumb swipes to the top of my Twitter feed, my eyes notice a tweet of someone I respect—someone who thinks deeply about blogging and journalism and reaching people for Christ via the internet.

His tweet declares that blogs have been killed.

I take a deep breath and sit zombie-like on my couch.

I stare out the window for a bit, contemplating why the book about blogging I’ve spent the last two years working on wouldn’t also die as collateral damage. Who needs a book about blogging if blogging is dead? Though the first draft of the book is already written, it sure would save my coauthor and me a lot of time and money to cut our losses.

Collin Hansen is the editorial director of The Gospel Coalition, and for several years he co-led the now-disbanded group called “Band of Bloggers.” In other words, he knows more than a little about the topic of blogging.

Hansen’s tweet identified what, in his opinion, killed blogging: “Social media killed blogs,” he writes. “Can’t find them any longer, since folks don’t browse sites any longer.” His comment sat in a thread discussing the current fad of writers using e-newsletters rather than true blogs.

As much as I respect Hansen, I’d suggest we not order the autopsy report yet. To tweak the words often ascribed to Mark Twain, the reports of the death of blogs have been greatly exaggerated. I agree that today’s blogger cannot ascend to the levels of influence reached almost exclusively by those who got into the game ten years ago, if not twenty. But I think we’d be wrong to say social media has killed blogs, just as we’d be wrong to say the car killed the bicycle. For exercise and for pleasure and for social interaction, people still ride—just as people will blog. Think how many Twitter handles still have a link to the person’s blog? Lots, I tell you, lots. Admittedly, when I click those links I’m often disappointed by the result: the last post dates from more than a year ago and the post before that is often even further back—hence why we wrote this book. Tim Challies highlights a potential incentive to commit or recommit to blogging as others bail. “With so many people opting out,” he writes, “there is lots of room for aspiring writers to work their way in.”

Samuel James is more pessimistic. He writes,

Blogging is dead, right? At least among the folks in a position to say so, this seems to be the consensus. Many of blogging’s most important early practitioners have either abandoned it . . . or else transformed their writing spaces into storefronts that offer “promoted” content in exchange for patronage. The thinking goes like this: Before Mark Zuckerberg and Tweet threads, blogging was a viable way of sharing ideas online. Now, though, social media has streamlined and mobilized both content and community. Reading a blog when you could be reading what your friends are Tweeting about is like attending a lecture completely alone. It’s boring and lonely for you, and a waste of time for the lecturer.

The full post by James suggests more optimism than that quote belies. For example, after noting many strengths of blogging in our cultural moment, his concluding paragraph states, “Blogging still matters, because it’s still the medium that most ably combines the best aspects of online writing.”

Twitter doesn’t do nuance well, so as I think back over Collin Hansen’s statement about the death of blogging, perhaps he only meant that blogs don’t have the popularity they used to have or that many obstacles are stacked against their success, as James points out and all of us would likely concede.

Regardless, John Beeson and I are still blogging regularly. And so are hundreds of thousands of others. If you’re reading this ebook, we want you to keep blogging or consider starting a blog of your own if you don’t have one yet. Bloggers writing for the glory of God have not saturated the market, not even close. Author Tony Reinke spoke about this in an interview on the Home Row podcast.

Don’t be intimidated by all the books. Everybody is publishing it seems. [But] we have this promise from the Lord in Habakkuk. It says, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (2:14). Just think about that. Think about that overwhelming tsunami of the knowledge of God. We are far from that saturation point. . . . There is so much work to be done.[1]

I agree with Reinke. We have work to do, books and blog posts to write, and the glory of God to spread.

But don’t just take our word for it. We asked a few dozen other bloggers to give us their hot take on the future of blogging, because offering hot takes is all we bloggers do. Right? We hope you’ll be encouraged. Blogging may have changed, but it’s certainly not dead.

Is Blogging Dead?

It seems unlikely that blogging will ever be as popular as it was in the late 1990s, but people continue to want to read blog-like content. The form it takes may be different (people, for example, seem to want to turn platforms that were not designed for blogging, such as Instagram, into blogs), but the blog-like intention behind the content persists.
Abby Farson Pratt, abbyfp.com

Although it’s easy to think that blogging has already had its heyday, the demand for long-form content, while tempered by market forces, will always be a factor. Search engines like Google assign more weight to long-form content. While those less serious about writing turn to social media to express themselves, more opportunity now exists in the blogging arena for those committed to persevering in their craft and doing the hard work of building an audience over time.
Alex Kocman, alexkocman.com

Bloggers are in a unique position to inform people that they wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise, and they have the benefit of being able to speak on any topic. If blogs are being used correctly, to build people up in their faith and inform believers for God’s glory, then I believe they will always have a place.
Alistair Chalmers, achalmersblog.com

In my opinion, blogging is not dead. Although the word “blogging” might sound outdated, just call it an “article,” or a “writing,” or even an “essay,” and voila! You’re back to blogging.
Alisa Childers, alisachilders.com

I think that blogging has shifted. Where we used to sign up to follow blogs, we now follow accounts—Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. With the inundation of information, I wonder if we’ve become lazy—wanting our social media to vet our posts for us and to make it easier and quicker to decide what we will spend time reading. I don’t think blogging has disappeared. There are new blogs every day. I think the way that people view and interact with blogs has shifted. I think it affects the reader and the writer at the same time, and it’s a phenomenon that new writers and blog owners will have to deal with. In order to get followings, you will feel the push to promote, promote, promote. That being said, I do wonder as Facebook, Twitter, and others all come under fire for their filtering, if more and more people will start to take control over what content they want to see. To be honest, and perhaps this is more cynical, but I see the majority of people complaining but then continuing on with what is easiest.
Brianna Lambert, lookingtotheharvest.com

Not at all! Social media has its place, and I know microblogging is on the rise on those platforms, but I think they serve different purposes. First, there’s the issue of space—you simply cannot flesh out a nuanced idea in the narrow confines of social media in the same way as a longer blog post. Second, your reach on social media has become so dependent upon algorithms. We see what the platforms want us to see, and we don’t have control over that. Blogging allows us to curate our own sources and see every post by visiting specific sites or using an RSS reader. Blogging occupies a crucial space between social media and books, and we’d be poorer without it.
Cassie Watson, casswatson.com

I think a website is still essential, and including a blog is a helpful way of demonstrating commitment and credibility. But a blog no longer seems to be enough. Podcasts and YouTube are becoming more important platforms because they possess greater attention.
Chase Replogle, chasereplogle.com

Blogging is still an incredibly important means of communication, especially in the Christian space. Its day is not over, even if it looks a bit different.
Chris Martin, chrismartin.blog

Blogging has a future, though like many mediums in this age, it may need to find new iterations. Even in the short time blogging has already experienced, we’ve seen a transformation of style and presentation—some that have been helpful and others less so.
Chris Thomas, ploughmansrest.com

Blogging is dead in terms of the early blogs that primarily curate info available elsewhere on the internet. Blogs that did that well are still alive and well but they own the market. Those who own that lane do enough research and reflection to also give a lot of insights into any number of topics. Blogging isn’t dead in terms of writers who are able to give thoughtful insights and perspectives on important issues. The newer brand of blogging isn’t for people who merely want to air their opinions but for those who possess the time, skill, and energy to produce something unique and helpful. There’s always a space for committed authors who want to help others. But like most things, it takes hard work and anyone wanting a fastlane to “success” will likely drop out long before they get enough traction to make a lasting contribution.
Dan DeWitt, theolatte.com

Yes and no. Yes in the sense that the newness and buzz of blogging probably will never be what it once was. I also say no because I don’t think blogging will die anytime soon. As others have pointed out, the name “blogging” might change. But the format of writing words in article form to post on the internet to promote edification isn’t going away soon, so I think blogging has a bright future.
David Qaoud, gospelrelevance.com

Blogging as a thing “everybody does” is gone, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Writers who want to test a message, have unedited freedom in voice and style, hone their craft, and develop a body of work will keep plodding. Although not always the most efficient way of getting a piece to the masses, those who stick around will hopefully make blogging about the value of truthful words and vibrant stories.
Emily Jensen & Laura Wifler, risenmotherhood.com

Our world increasingly seems to value forms of communication that are instantaneous, combative, and designed to trigger emotions. Against this trend, many are recognizing just how important long-form mediums are for creating light, not just heat. Blogging is a kind of hybrid medium—faster than books, longer than Twitter. My hope is that Christians will continue to engage the world of blogging as we try to carve out spaces for reflection and reasoned dialogue.
Gavin Ortlund, gavinortlund.com

I work with young writers every week, and I firmly believe blogging is not dead. How blogs are curated and shared has shifted and evolved over the years, but blogs’ power and purpose have not. Blogging is still a medium that changes lives and contributes to the kingdom, one post at a time.
Jaquelle Ferris, jaquellecrowe.com

I’m late to the game and can’t say for sure. It does seem like things like YouTube are taking over. But, I still read others’ blogs, and other people still read mine, so I think there’s still a small space for it in the world and in ministry.
Jen Oshman, jenoshman.com

The original kind of blogging is done and gone. Few remain. More collective groups are writing better content with editors, and that is far superior in my opinion.
Jeremy Writebol, jwritebol.net

Yes and no. Blogging has certainly peaked because, as many people discovered, it’s easy to start a blog but hard to maintain interest in writing for one on a regular basis. But blogging is still essential because the low barrier to entry allows undiscovered talent to flourish.
Joe Carter, thegospelcoalition.org/profile/joe-carter

Blogging is definitely dead!!! (Actually, it is a pet peeve of mine to see the headline formula, “Is ___________ dead?” The subject in question never actually dies; it just changes. Unless you’re talking about VHS or Laserdisc players, then they’re dead alright.) Blogging isn’t dead, but it has changed due to podcasts, YouTube, and Twitter. A certain type of blogging has had its day. But there is still room for thoughtful and well-written blogging. 
Kevin Halloran, kevinhalloran.net

I don’t believe so. These days, Twitter and Facebook have reduced our attention spans to only be capable of digesting small, bite-sized pieces of information before moving on to the next thing, many times without critically reflecting upon the tweet or post we’ve just read. Blogging provides a great platform for more rigorously interacting with and explaining ideas in a way that is still open to community and peer feedback without as much distraction. I hope that our society, as time goes on, will become disenchanted with shallow information grazing, and come to appreciate this medium more and more. This will be more likely if the blogosphere is already filled with quality, Christ-centered content once the rest of the world comes back here.
Kris Sinclair, krissinclair.com

Nah. Especially since social media is stupid and people are becoming more suspicious of its integrity. I think more people will transition from social media to blogs and email communication.
Kristen Wetherell, kristenwetherell.com

I think the world of blogging has certainly changed. But, I don’t think that the medium is going anywhere. I do think that it looks different, and maybe the day of the mega-blog is passing us by. Bloggers are going to have to be satisfied with smaller audiences, with more of a niche following, because there is so much out there that distinguishing yourself as a big blog that everyone checks constantly is getting more and more impossible. This is especially true of Christian blogs because, let’s face it, the Christian message is getting less and less appealing as our culture steps further away from Jesus. I write things that people tell me they agree with but are afraid to share because of the inevitable backlash from their friends and family. In that way, Christian bloggers are certainly operating in the land of Jesus’s words about what the gospel does: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matt 10:34–36).
Melissa Edgington, yourmomhasablog.com

Blogging is not done yet. It has a few and new competitors along the way. As long as the passion is there, we don’t have to throw in the towel yet. We just need to find new and exciting ways to be heard.
Nitoy Gonzales, delightinggrace.wordpress.com

No, because it will continue to play a role in supporting the mission of the local church. It may begin to look different, e.g., smaller circles of influence, more local writing, etc. But if we see the role of blogging as falling in line with furthering the mission of the church and building up the saints for the work of ministry, then it will continue to have purpose because it falls in line with God’s mission.
Ryan Williams, amicalled.com

Blogging isn’t going to go away, but the influence and reach of individual bloggers will probably never be what it was ten years ago. There’s so much content out there right now, and ways to curate that content through algorithms, that only people with specific kinds of day jobs can afford to “build” a blogging profile.
Samuel James, letterandliturgy.com

Blogging is not dead because Jesus is not dead. Christians have always looked for ways to share the gospel and to share what they are learning about how the gospel shapes our lives. As long as we have the internet and the opportunity to post on the internet, Christian bloggers will write about this best of news. It is why I have blogged for over nine years, and why I plan to be blogging nine years from now.
Tim Counts, hemustbecomegreater.com

No. It’s just transformed for some into the micro-blogging of Twitter and Facebook. It’s still a kind of blog, just smaller and easier to digest. Long-form blogging isn’t dead. When TV was invented, people thought movie theaters would die out. They didn’t.
Tom Terry, tomthinking.com

No. It’s true that the season of early blogging, in which upstart bloggers could build a platform by quality writing on a large variety of subjects, has come to an end. For a new blog to gain traction today, one needs either an already-established platform or excellent insights that focus on a narrower sliver of topics. But blogging itself—which is really just one form of writing articles, similar to newspaper columns from a hundred years ago from good writers—is still and will remain a relevant form of communication. Social media has grown in importance for blogging, as most readers interact with writers by following social media accounts and not blogs. But this doesn’t mean that blogging has died, only that the entry point to these articles has shifted.
Trevin Wax, thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax

* Photo by Goran Ivos on Unsplash

** Is Blogging Dead? is an excerpt from an appendix in the book Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World by Benjamin Vrbicek and John Beeson.

Book Giveaway 4 of 5: Enduring Grace

I’ve written a blog post nearly every week for the last six years. During that same time, I’ve also written dozens of guest posts for various websites and even a few books. And I love this. It’s not a chore. Most of the time, writing feels like eating ice cream and running downhill.

But after six years, I’m getting tired. I need a small break.

You can watch the short video below for a better introduction, but as a way to get some rest while at the same time show appreciation to my blog readers, I’m giving away physical copies of all the books I’ve written. (If you watched the last video, the first 2:22 is the same; just skip ahead to hear about this week’s book.) For five weeks this summer and fall, I’m giving away five paperback copies of each of the five books that I’ve written. Each week I’ll giveaway a different book.

The only thing you need to do to get a paperback book is sign up for my blog (here) and reply to the welcome email to send me your address. If you are already subscribed to my blog, please share this post with a friend who might like to subscribe and get a paperback book.

This week I’m giving away copies of Enduring Grace: 21 Days with the Apostle Peter.

There were only a handful of people who got a front row view of Jesus’s 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?

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.

Today I’m giving away paperback copies of Enduring Grace: 21 Days with the Apostle Peter. If you’d like a copy or know someone who would, please share this post with them.

 Fine Print:

1. You must subscribe to my email list (here).

2. You must be a new subscriber.

3. You must reply to the “welcome” email with your address.

4. You must have an address in the United States (sorry of you live elsewhere!)

What Should Engaged Christian Couples Know about Sex?: 11 Myths about Marital Intimacy

I’ve not been one to complain that seminary didn’t teach me how to do this or that. My seminary experience was fantastic. Also, I didn’t expect to learn in seminary everything I’d ever need to know about the Bible and pastoral ministry. I expected my 106 graduate-level credits to give me the tools and character formation I needed to begin a lifetime of fruitful and faithful ministry in a local church. I certainly got that—and a whole lot more.

But one exception exits. When it comes to premarital counseling, I got diddly squat. At least as I remember it, we never charted what premarital counseling should look like for an engaged couple. I had to make that up from scratch the first time I walked a couple through the process. It’s a process I’ve continued to tweak for the last decade.

My wife and I typically do all the premarital counseling at our house in the evenings. Most years that’s four to seven couples, which means at least a few times a month (especially during the spring) we have an engaged couple over for dessert and counseling.

Across the engagement, our strategy has been to surface a half dozen or so topics of conversation. We try to pick areas of marriage, as we often repeat to the couple, that God wants to be awesome but are often difficult. We talk about roles and responsibilities, children, money, and a few others. During the final session, we talk about marital intimacy. It’s not my favorite topic because it stretches me so much, but the reasons why this is so would require another post.

Below are the talking points for the conversation about intimacy. I’ve cast them in the form of “myths,” which is to say that everything listed below is not true. We give the list to each couple, and for thirty to forty minutes my wife and I discuss why each statement is false, often adding a few reasons why God might have something better for married couples than the myth promises. Perhaps someday I’ll take the time to write what we talk about in more detail. For now, I’ll just share the outline.

 11 Myths about Marital Intimacy

1. The honeymoon is the zenith of ecstasy in a marriage; it’s all downhill after that.

2. Sexual desire and sexual arousal function in the same way for both men and women.

3. In the culture and in the church, sexual stereotypes for men and women are always accurate.

4. Your sex life is the most important aspect of your marriage.

5. Your sex life is unimportant in your marriage.

6. Good sex just sort of happens, even without communication.

7. Sex is equally good in all seasons of marriage.

8. Intimacy is unrelated to other aspects of marriage (trust, respect, bitterness, disappointment, stress, health, etc.)

9. Orgasm for the husband and wife will normally happen at the same time.

10. Orgasm, especially for the wife, will happen every time you have sex.

11. You will be the most fulfilled sexually when you primarily aim to please yourself.

* Photo by Morgan Lane on Unsplash

Please Join Our Book-Launch Team: Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World

Bloggers around the world publish millions of posts each day, many written by faithful Christians who want to honor God with their words but struggle to know how. Christian bloggers need guides to lead them through the basics of setting up a blog—everything from affiliates and algorithms to widgets and WordPress. They need a mentor to help them become a godly landlord of their internet real estate.

My friend John Beeson and I wrote the book Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World to help bloggers do these very things. In the book, we explain where the spiritual stamina will come from to serve a small readership faithfully and how to steward attention in a way that honors God in a world that seems to only celebrate chasing profit and pageviews.

Tim Challies, the godfather of evangelical blogging—or the blog-father as he is sometimes called—is writing the foreword to the book. The book is available for pre-order on Amazon.

For the last week or so, we’ve been asking friends who had heard about the book if they’d consider joining the launch team. So far nearly fifty people have joined. John and I are super happy. But we’d still like your help too.

Starting today, we’re inviting others to join the launch team (here). [update: link removed]

Just to be clear: you do NOT have to be a blogger to join the launch team. Maybe you like to share interesting ideas on Facebook, or maybe you work in marketing or graphic design. We think you’d enjoy our book, and we’d love to have you on the launch team. But perhaps none of that is true of you. Perhaps you just happen to like the work I do on this blog or John does on his blog, and you’d like to support us. That’s great too. We’d love to have you on the team.

For those willing to serve on the launch team, we will send you a digital version of the book in early October to give you time to read it before its November 3 launch.

If you join, here is what we hope you’d commit to do:

1. Once the book launches, post an honest review on Amazon (and Goodreads, if you have an account) within the first week of the launch;

2. Help us catch any small errors in the book (i.e., not a full-edit of the book);

3. The day before the book launches we’d ask you to purchase the Kindle version of the book on Amazon at the reduced price of $0.99. Buying the book gives a “Verified purchase” tag affixed to your Amazon review. This helps to protect your review from being removed as fraudulent. Any review helps, but Verified Reviews boost the book in the Amazon store.

4. When the book launches share the book on your social media accounts.

That’s it. Pretty simple.

If you would like to join, please fill out this quick Google questionnaire (link). [update: link removed]

Thank you,
Benjamin

Better Together: Sojourn Network’s Digital Conference on Church Thriving

This last year has been a doozy. For me, the difficulties began long before the pandemic and lockdown.

A key staff member transitioned from our church last summer. Then dozens of new people started attending our church—which was a great encouragement—but lots of them wanted to join small groups we didn’t have, and we had to scramble. Then our church formed a pastoral search team to look for a new pastor, which took time away from regular ministry I didn’t have, time to attend meetings and time to read resumes and packets from candidates. Additionally, I officiated five weddings over a few months and went through the ordination process in my denomination, which culminated in a forty-page theological paper and a four-hour oral exam. And on top of all this, I had a massive surgery on my right shoulder, which had me in a sling for six weeks and sleeping in a recliner for months. This all took place from July to November. As I said, this last year was a doozy, even before the pandemic hit.

But I’m not writing to talk about the challenges. I’m writing to mention one of the highlights of the last year. In the middle of October, another pastor at our church and I drove from Harrisburg on a road trip to Louisville. We went to the annual Sojourn Network conference for church leaders.

Everything about the trip felt inconvenient. I had just undergone my shoulder surgery and was still on heavy drugs, not to mention the fact that I couldn’t reach down to tie my shoes! My friend and fellow pastor had to tie my shoes for me, which was super humbling. By mid-October our church was also in the thick of the hiring process. I have a big family, and being away from them always presents challenges and causes me to miss some sporting event or another. And when we got ready to drive to the conference, my friend and I realized that we’d goofed on the timing. It takes over nine hours to drive to Louisville from central Pennsylvania, not seven hours like we had thought.

Yet even with all these obstacles stacked against having a wonderful time at the conference, it was the highlight of the year. I’ve been to many pastors’ conferences, and you always feel a little out of place, like the people in attendance are not going through all the trials you are, not to mention they often don’t share the same theological vision for ministry. But at last year’s Sojourn Network conference I felt more at home than at any conference I’ve ever attended.

James K.A. Smith taught on Augustine and true friendships, which made for a great backdrop to meet in person several friends I had only previously met online. Kevin Twitt led us in corporate worship. We sang gospel-saturated hymns I had never heard before, but it was like my heart knew them already. There was a panel discussion on mental health and ministry—so refreshing. I sat in the back of the auditorium, in a not so healthy mental headspace myself, and I drank down ninety minutes of encouragement that I didn’t know I needed as badly as I did.

This year, the conference is online, which means you don’t even have to road trip nine hours to attend. The event takes place October 13–14. You can read more about it here. The conference has a great lineup of speakers including Chuck Degroat, Justin Giboney, Karen Swallow-Prior, Scotty Smith, Stephen Um, and a dozen other leaders covering topics like wholehearted leadership, friendship, diversity, conviction and imagination, and renewal-driven mission.

If you’d like to attend, Sojourn Network generously gave me a code to get a 20% discount off the price of registration. I can’t publish the code on my website, but just subscribe to my blog or email me, and I’ll be happy to share it with you.

If this blog post feels like a big commercial, just know this is precisely the same thing I’d tell you if you and I were sitting socially distanced at a Starbucks talking about what might pour much-needed encouragement into your weary heart.

Book Giveaway 3 of 5: Struggle Against Porn

I’ve written a blog post nearly every week for the last six years. During that same time, I’ve also written dozens of guest posts for various websites and even a few books. And I love this. It’s not a chore. Most of the time, writing feels like eating ice cream and running downhill.

But after six years, I’m getting tired. I need a small break.

You can watch the short video below for a better introduction, but as a way to get some rest while at the same time show appreciation to my blog readers, I’m giving away physical copies of all the books I’ve written. (If you watched the last video, the first 2:22 is the same; just skip ahead to hear about this week’s book.) For five weeks this summer, I’m giving away five paperback copies of each of the five books that I’ve written. Each week I’ll giveaway a different book.

The only thing you need to do to get a paperback book is sign up for my blog (here) and reply to the welcome email to send me your address. If you are already subscribed to my blog, please share this post with a friend who might like to subscribe and get a paperback book.

This week I’m giving away copies of Struggle Against Porn: 29 Diagnostic Tests for Your Head and Heart. When I began studying the topic of how Christian men overcome sexual sin, I never intended to write a book. The idea was just to create a booklet, something I could hand out during counseling and discipleship meetings. Yet the booklet kept growing and growing. During the writing process 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.”

The main reason I wrote the book, though, was not because I was frustrated with the men in my church. I was frustrated with myself as a pastor. I knew many struggled with pornography, yet in discipleship and counseling meetings I didn’t think I had much to offer. That’s what set me on the journey.

When I had an editor look over the material, he told me I should try to get it published. Eventually it was, and Tim Challies, author and popular blogger, wrote this endorsement:

When I first began writing about pornography, many Christians were shocked to learn about not just the scope of the problem, but that the problem existed at all. Today, a decade later, the situation has changed radically and Christians may be so accustomed to hearing about pornography that we’ve almost come to accept it as normal. Yet pornography remains as dangerous and devastating as ever. For that reason I’m thankful for resources like this one that continue to combat this terrible plague.

Today I’m giving away paperback copies of the book. If you’d like a copy or know someone who would, please share this post with them.

Fine Print:

1. You must subscribe to my email list (here).

2. You must be a new subscriber.

3. You must reply to the “welcome” email with your address.

4. You must have an address in the United States (sorry of you live elsewhere!)

Diesel Fuel for Writers and Preachers

If you pour even a small amount of gasoline on a bonfire, it flames up quickly and dangerously. That’s why every warning label on gasoline canisters will tell you never to do that. Diesel fuel, as opposed to straight gasoline, burns much slower. You still shouldn’t dump a gallon jug of diesel on a bonfire, but in small amounts, the resulting combustion from diesel can be controlled and used for building and sustaining a fire with poor kindling in a way that gasoline never can. It’s just too flammable.

For the last few years, I’ve considered Chase Replogle’s podcast The Pastor Writer like diesel fuel for writers and preachers. Replogle is a pastor and writer in Springfield, Missouri, and he’s released a new podcast episode most weeks for the last two years.

I suppose there’s a place for gasoline-fueled binge-writing sessions, times when fingers pound keyboards like pistons in a V8 engine. But that type of writing can’t be sustained over the long haul or often even manufactured in a moment. You typically can’t script productive, frenetic writing.

What I need, and what most writers need, is the slow-burn of diesel fuel to help grow in the craft over a lifetime. Most writers, if they are anything like me, shoehorn writing into an already full life. And to do that well—to fit quality writing in and around pastoring a church and being a dad and husband in a big family—I need more than adrenaline and Monster-Energy-Drink type writing, the type of writing that soars for an hour or two but then crashes for weeks; writing that flames up quickly also flames out quickly. I need, instead, fuel for the long obedience in the same direction required to excel as something worthwhile. The Pastor Writer podcast has been this type of fuel for me.

As Replogle neared the hundredth episode of The Pastor Writer, he asked for feedback from listeners about ways his podcast had helped listeners, and I was able to share some of these thoughts with him, which he kindly included at the beginning of episode 98. But shortly after I sent him that feedback, the pandemic we’ve all been living with hit and work at our church became all-consuming. I quickly fell off the podcast wagon. Only just recently, while on vacation the other week, did I begin to catch up on all the episodes I missed and heard my own remarks.

Episode 98 is not an interview but one of the occasional monologues where Replogle reflects on some aspect of the craft. In this episode he talked about how a writer can find his preaching or writing voice. We often begin with imitation, where we try—intentionally or unintentionally—to imitate our heroes. A decade ago, when God first stirred passions in me to write, my wife and I were reading together Jon Acuff’s witty, sarcastic book Stuff Christians Like, and everything I wrote that summer sounded like an Acuff knock-off. I was a little kid trying to walk around the house in his father’s shoes, which is cute when you’re three-years-old but awkward when you’re thirty.

The next stage for many writers of finding your voice, says Replogle, involves following the crowd. You discern what the masses like and try to produce that. The final stage of this progression comes when you make uniqueness the goal, where you seek to write or preach as no one has before. Replogle points out, however, that while each of these stages may be necessary in the development of a writer, they are neither the way we develop best nor how we find our voice.

So how does a writer or preacher find his voice? “Eventually,” Replogle says, “you come to realize that a voice is not something you can construct but something which must be uncovered.” He goes on to say you can’t find your writing voice, as with so many aspects in life, by looking for it directly. You can’t find your voice by trying to find your voice. You only find your particular way of writing and preaching, he argues, as a byproduct of pursuing something else.

His point reminds me of that old parable about the phrase “you can’t get there from here.” The origins of the phrase aren’t so clear, but the phrase tends to get used when someone is lost and looking for directions, typically in a rural setting. A guy pulls his car over to ask a local resident for directions to get somewhere specific. The local stares back at the driver, takes a condescending look at the direction the car was headed, then looks back at the driver. “You can’t get there from here,” the local says. The meaning is something like if you keep heading the way you’re going, you’ll never get there; you have to back up to the next town over, as it were, to get to where you want to go.

In the podcast episode, Replogle rebukes the idolatry often involved in the pursuit of perfect prose and perfect preaching. When you go after either of those directly, you end up exhausted and disillusioned. No sermon lives up to your expectations and no article ever achieves all you hoped it would. But, Replogle argues, if we instead have something we love more than the craft, we just might also get good at the craft too. Good writing and good preaching are not to be served but employed in the service of something greater. If you have as your highest aim to love and live for the beauty of Christ, then you just might stumble toward compelling prose and preaching. We can’t get there from here, but we can get there.

I’m sure it takes an enormous effort for Chase to recruit the guests for his podcast, read books by the authors beforehand, craft compelling interview questions or write the monologues, process the podcast through post-production, and then publish and promote each episode. That’s a lot of work. But I’m so thankful for it. Each episode fills my writing tank with diesel fuel, sometimes when I’ve been writing and preaching on fumes.

* Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash

** I was a guest on The Pastor Writer, episode 40, “Reflections on the Pursuit of Writing”

Book Giveaway 2 of 5: Don’t Just Send a Resume

I’ve written a blog post nearly every week for the last six years. During that same time, I’ve also written dozens of guest posts for various websites and even a few books. And I love this. It’s not a chore. Most of the time, writing feels like eating ice cream and running downhill.

But after six years, I’m getting tired. I need a small break.

You can watch the short video below for a better introduction, but as a way to get some rest while at the same time show appreciation to my blog readers, I’m giving away physical copies of all the books I’ve written. (If you watched the last video, the first 2:22 is the same; just skip ahead to hear about this week’s book.) For five weeks this summer, I’m giving away five paperback copies of each of the five books that I’ve written. Each week I’ll giveaway a different book.

The only thing you need to do to get a paperback book is sign up for my blog (here) and reply to the welcome email to send me your address. If you are already subscribed to my blog, please share this post with a friend who might like to subscribe and get a paperback book.

This week I’m giving away copies of Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church. In the last 15 years, many books have been written to help a church navigate the job-search process. But only one book—this book—has been written to help pastors. I’m thankful that in the last few weeks the book has been featured by 9Marks, The Gospel Coalition, and Tim Challies (Kindle Deals, Aug. 17).

Don’t Just Send a Resume features short contributions by 12 published authors and ministry leaders, including: Chris Brauns, Cara Croft, Dave Harvey, David Mathis, J. A. Medders, Sam Rainer, Chase Replogle, William Vanderbloemen, Kristen Wetherell, Jared C. Wilson, and Jeremy Writebol.

Fine Print:

1. You must subscribe to my email list (here).

2. You must be a new subscriber.

3. You must reply to the “welcome” email with your address.

4. You must have an address in the United States (sorry of you live elsewhere!)

Marriage as a Bumper Sticker for the Gospel: A Wedding Reflection

Stories typically have a beginning, a middle, and an end. And it’s often not until we know the ending of a story that we realize all that was happening in the beginning, and for that matter, in the middle. When we think about the story of God’s love for the world—what Christians call the gospel—and we reflect upon what that good news story has to do with marriage, we learn something precious about God.

Bumper Stickers

Before we get there, I’ll tell you a story. My first pastorate was in Tucson, Arizona. In Tucson there was one particular, prominent church that gave its attendees bumper stickers with the church’s name and logo on it. I guess I should say that I presume that they gave out the bumper stickers and asked people to put it on their cars, as opposed to simply sending out covert volunteers during the service to slap the stickers on cars in the parking lot. I assume they did not do that. I do think if we had that “ministry” at our church, there would be people who would want to join the team, which is one of several reasons why we don’t.

I would see these bumper stickers all over Tucson. Nearly every time I saw one, I would wish I was privy to a conversation that I was not privy to; I wish I had been in the staff meeting when a leader presented the idea for the bumper stickers.

I imagine it going like this: “So, I have an idea I want to run by you,” says the summer intern. “I’m thinking that the Christians who call our church home, have lives so wonderfully transformed by Jesus, that Jesus is actually influencing the way they drive. In fact, our people drive so courteously, thoughtfully, safely, and law-abidingly, that we should capitalize on their good Christian driving. I think more people will come to our church based on how our people drive if we put our logo on their cars. Let’s have their driving advertise how wonderful it is to come to our church.”

I would have liked to have been in that staff meeting to hear the response. Evidently, they bought the sales pitch.

I’m poking fun at that idea and all of our poor driving, which, whether we are Christians or not, is often not done so courteously and law-abidingly.

But in a real way, God has set up the story of redemption to be a story about marriage. God has chosen—as strange as it might seem to us—to advertise his goodness through the vehicle of marriage. Marriages are to display not merely the couple’s love for each other but God’s love for his bride.

The Beginning

In the beginning of the story of God’s love for his people, God creates a man and a woman in his image. He creates two co-rulers of creation, a King and a Queen if you will, to multiply and have dominion over the earth.

Sometimes when we hear the language in Genesis of having dominion and subduing, we think of carbon footprints and corporations polluting the oceans and so on. In other words, we think of the bad kind of subduing. But in the context, the King called Adam and the Queen called Eve, are to rule the way God was ruling: In each subsequent day of creation, God took raw, unformed material and made it better; he made an environment more and more cultivated and suited to life and beauty. And as Adam and Eve ruled, they were to do the same. God’s intention for their ruling was not just for their benefit but for others too.

Consider the familiar phrase, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). In the story, there’s no mother and no father yet, so what is that about? God is setting up a pattern that he intends to continue after the garden of Eden. It’s a good pattern. God has a grand purpose for marriage, not only for the individual couple but the work of advertising that he’ll do through marriage, if you allow me to use that word advertising.

What we see in the biblical story, however, is that shortly thereafter, Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and everything about everything got hard and ugly. When they fell into sin, Adam’s sin plunged all of us into ten thousand problems, including those in marriage (cf. Romans 5:12–21).

The Middle

And yet, despite all our issues of sin and struggle, in the middle of God’s story, we see that God still chose to liken the joy of marriage and the joy of a bride and groom, to the joy of knowing him. One example of that is from the prophet Isaiah where God likens the joy of being clothed in the garments of salvation to the joy of being decked out on your wedding day.

. . . for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10b)

In the New Testament, which is that part of the Bible written ]after Jesus came to earth, an author says something similar in a letter to a church in a city called Ephesus. But this time the wording is more specific. After quoting the passage from Genesis about a man leaving his father and mother to become one flesh with his wife, the apostle Paul writes, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32). Paul sees in marriage an advertising scheme, a way to display to the world how much God loves the world.

Marriage: Not a Job Interview but a Covenant Relationship

For us to make sense of that, we have to understand marriage, not how most people understand it today, but how God intends it to be. Here’s what I mean. It’s common for people to think that marriage is simply a more serious version of dating and living together. But that’s not actually true. Yes, marriage is more serious than dating, but marriage is not just the next level of dating or living together; marriage is a new, special type of relationship. When couples date and, sadly, live together before marriage, that positions the relationship like a job interview that doesn’t end.

However, God considers marriage a covenant relationship, not a consumer relationship or an extended job interview. In marriage, you already have the job. Thus, a covenant relationship is not focused on whether the other person delivers the goods. A covenant relationship is one based on a solemn vow to uphold your end of the agreement regardless of whether the other person does.

And this is why covenant relationships are so beautiful. In a covenant relationship you can be truly known—known in all of your glory, but also known in all of your depravity and shame and failures and insecurities—and not only known but still loved. This is the meaning of unconditional love: truly known and dearly loved.

It’s God’s intention that marriage would be this type of relationship—one not based on what the other person does, but rather, through “better and worse, sickness and health, richer and poorer,” the marriage holds.

God has designed marriage to work this way to display to the world the way he loves people in what Christians call the gospel; the gospel is the heart of Christianity. God doesn’t love us because we always look the way a couple looks on their wedding day, a handsome groom and a beautiful bride. The gospel is the good news that, in Jesus, God has undertaken a rescue mission for his enemies or, we might say, for a faithless bride. It’s good news that God is not interviewing me for the job of being a Christian, as though if I just perform well enough for long enough, well, then he’ll love me. If this is how you experience God, you don’t know him as he desires to be known.

Let me be more specific. The Bible teaches that Jesus lived a perfect life; he was utterly faithful to God his Father and loved him supremely. Then out of love for his Father and us, Jesus went to a cross and died, suffering the ultimate punishment for our sin, not his. Then he rose again, indicating that all punishment for anyone who trusts in Jesus is gone. The posture of God toward his children is now only that of strong, warm covenant love.

This is the mystery that Paul wrote about, the mystery that is no longer a mystery. A pastor once wrote a poem that has a few lines that speak to this. The lines go like this:

. . . marriage, from / the first embrace, is but the small / and faulty echo of a thrall / and union high above . . . (John Piper, “Joseph: Part 4,” Desiring God, December 21, 1997)

Marriages are but a faulty echo of the greater union, the author says, the union of God with his people, the union of Christ the groom with the church, his bride. I think that’s true.

You might ask the question if this is only true of good marriages. It’s not. Even our imperfect marriages testify that there is something greater, something better out there. I’ll explain. When a couple has a rotten season of marriage, or when a person wants to be married but is not married, it’s not usually that they think marriage itself is terrible. They feel disappointment because they hope for better from marriage. To use a metaphor, if I were eating cardboard, I wouldn’t be surprised that it tasted awful; it’s cardboard—of course it tastes bad. But if we were feasting, and the food was rotten and made us sick, we would be frustrated because we know feasting should lead to joy.

And so, the hurt of a sad marriage is compounded because we know, in our heart of hearts, that it was not supposed to be this way. In other words, even our sadness over broken marriages testifies, sometimes as a whisper and sometimes as a shout, that marriages are supposed to be good and that there is more to marriage than a marriage.

The End

Look what God says about marriage in the last book of the Bible, the end of the story.

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
    the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
    with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:6–9)

As I wrote above, stories typically have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It’s often not until we know the ending of a story that we realize all that was happening in the beginning, and for that matter, in the middle.

Throughout the biblical story, we get hints of the greater purpose of marriage, which becomes explicit in the book of Revelation. All the joy, all the feasting, all the celebration, all the love, all the “for better’s and for worse’s,” point to the great day of feasting and joy and celebration at what the Bible calls the “marriage supper of the Lamb,” a phrase used twice in this passage to refer to the great feast of the redeemed at the end of time. The Lamb is a way to refer to Jesus, the one who paid for the wedding. Weddings are expensive. I know those who sit on the front row of a wedding know this well. Jesus paid for the great wedding feast with his life. And one day all the forgiven will feast together.

On Christ’s behalf, as a preacher of the gospel, I invite you to that feast. You only need to give God your empty hands and your hungry belly. And he promises to feed you rich food (cf. Isaiah 55:1–3; John 6:35).

Marriages display this gospel, which is why marriage is a high and honorable calling. May God, in his grace, enable the good news of the covenant love of God to be the centerpiece of our marriages. And may our marriages become beautiful bumper stickers pointing people to the fierce and forever love of God.

* Photo from Marc A. Sporys by Unsplash

Book Giveaway 1 of 5: More People to Love

I’ve written a blog post nearly every week for the last six years. During that same time, I’ve also written dozens of guest posts for various websites and even a few books. And I love this. It’s not a chore. Most of the time, writing feels like eating ice cream and running downhill.

But after six years, I’m getting tired. I need a small break.

You can watch the short video below for a better introduction, but as a way to get some rest while at the same time show appreciation to my blog readers, I’m giving away physical copies of all the books I’ve written. For five weeks this summer, I’m giving away five paperback copies of each of the five books that I’ve written. Each week I’ll giveaway a different book.

The only thing you need to do to get a paperback book is sign up for my blog (here) and reply to the welcome email to send me your address. If you are already subscribed to my blog, please share this post with a friend who might like to subscribe and get a paperback book.

This week I’m giving away copies of More People to Love: How the Bible Starts in a Garden and Ends in a City and What That Means for You. It’s a book about The Big Story of the Bible, that is, God’s plan from Genesis to Revelation to make his name great among the nations (Malachi 1:11). It’s also a book about why God’s plan for the world means good news for you. Brant Hansen wrote the foreword. He’s a nationally syndicated Christian radio host and author of Unoffendable, Blessed are the Misfits, and The Truth about Us.

Fine Print:

1. You must subscribe to my email list (here).

2. You must be a new subscriber.

3. You must reply to the “welcome” email with your address.

4. You must have an address in the United States (sorry of you live elsewhere!)