More About This Blog
I have more thoughts related to my earlier musings on what to do with this blog. As I am someone who intends to go to seminary in the not-too-distant future and hopes to be the main preaching elder at a church someday, it would seem obvious that this space would be a good place for me to develop my skills in biblical exposition and sermonizing. After all, that's what lots of pastors and aspiring pastors do with their blogs. Pick a text, and write on it. To some folks, it might seem odd that I would choose to write on they might consider lesser subjects than the Bible.
I don't think so. I'm very wary of doing that sort of thing to any great degree, for several closely related reasons. First is the simple fact that I feel deeply inadequate to such a task, and I think it would be pretty arrogant for me to act as though I had any standing from which to try to teach people from or about God's word. It may be that I have a gift for that; having my church help me figure that out is perhaps the primary thing I'm doing these days. But the church, not the Web, is the appropriate forum for that.
Which brings me to the second reason, which is that I think it's generally a mistake to try and have a preaching/teaching ministry outside the context of the local church. No disrespect to those men whom God has used through TV, radio, books, and blogs to bless and strengthen the faith of those to whom they never actually preach, but I think that the natural accountability structures of the church are intended by God to help guide and bound our handling of His holy Word. Many of the pastors, Christian authors, and theologians I respect most are those whose primary ministry is to a church they pastor, and their wider audience is in some sense secondary to their role as a teaching elder. I, therefore, have no interest in building a virtual ministry composed of people I'll never see, break bread with, serve, or look out on from a pulpit.
God's Word is sharper than a two-edged sword, and without the moderating and disciplining influence of the church, its teaching, and its leaders, we Bible-believing evangelicals run a dangerously high risk of profaning the Scriptures we claim to hold in high regard and dividing joints and marrow that we shouldn't. God has indeed given us the gift of the Holy Spirit's divine aid in reading and understanding the Scriptures, but it's important to note that gift is given to the church, to groups of people--not to every armchair theologian who assumes he's more infallible than the Pope.
Prime examples of how our use of Scripture can go wrong can be found on scores of vitriolic theological debates that go on all over the blogosphere and the Web regarding any remotely controversial topic--the New Perspective on Paul, worship, Calvinism, male headship, paedo- vs. credo-baptism, etc., etc. The comments sections on some blog posts I've read have been astonishingly full of ad hominem attacks, uses of Scripture that would make the Apostle Paul scratch his head in confusion, and pretentious posturing in the name of calling out heresy. I suspect many people act and talk behind the privacy of a comment-posting screen name in ways they would never dream of behaving in the "real world."
Now, this mustn't be carried too far. I'm not saying I won't ever study the Scriptures on my own, or talk theology with friends, or write on biblical or theological topics here on this blog, or comment on the writings of others who do. What I am saying is that the primary arena in which I intend to do most of my teaching of and learning from Scripture is the one that God has instituted: the church. Not a blog. So, while I may continue to post sermons I occasionally prepare for my own congregation, I won't start writing them just to be posted here. Publishing something in this space tacitly asserts that I think I have something true and worthwhile to say, and that you, my faceless reader behind pixels and transistors and miles of wires, should listen. While I can't help but think about and write about things related to God and His Word, I'm going to do all I can to keep from ever seeing myself as having a virtual ministry, and from providing you with an excuse to ignore or take less seriously the preaching and teaching of your own elders at your own church.
I don't think so. I'm very wary of doing that sort of thing to any great degree, for several closely related reasons. First is the simple fact that I feel deeply inadequate to such a task, and I think it would be pretty arrogant for me to act as though I had any standing from which to try to teach people from or about God's word. It may be that I have a gift for that; having my church help me figure that out is perhaps the primary thing I'm doing these days. But the church, not the Web, is the appropriate forum for that.
Which brings me to the second reason, which is that I think it's generally a mistake to try and have a preaching/teaching ministry outside the context of the local church. No disrespect to those men whom God has used through TV, radio, books, and blogs to bless and strengthen the faith of those to whom they never actually preach, but I think that the natural accountability structures of the church are intended by God to help guide and bound our handling of His holy Word. Many of the pastors, Christian authors, and theologians I respect most are those whose primary ministry is to a church they pastor, and their wider audience is in some sense secondary to their role as a teaching elder. I, therefore, have no interest in building a virtual ministry composed of people I'll never see, break bread with, serve, or look out on from a pulpit.
God's Word is sharper than a two-edged sword, and without the moderating and disciplining influence of the church, its teaching, and its leaders, we Bible-believing evangelicals run a dangerously high risk of profaning the Scriptures we claim to hold in high regard and dividing joints and marrow that we shouldn't. God has indeed given us the gift of the Holy Spirit's divine aid in reading and understanding the Scriptures, but it's important to note that gift is given to the church, to groups of people--not to every armchair theologian who assumes he's more infallible than the Pope.
Prime examples of how our use of Scripture can go wrong can be found on scores of vitriolic theological debates that go on all over the blogosphere and the Web regarding any remotely controversial topic--the New Perspective on Paul, worship, Calvinism, male headship, paedo- vs. credo-baptism, etc., etc. The comments sections on some blog posts I've read have been astonishingly full of ad hominem attacks, uses of Scripture that would make the Apostle Paul scratch his head in confusion, and pretentious posturing in the name of calling out heresy. I suspect many people act and talk behind the privacy of a comment-posting screen name in ways they would never dream of behaving in the "real world."
Now, this mustn't be carried too far. I'm not saying I won't ever study the Scriptures on my own, or talk theology with friends, or write on biblical or theological topics here on this blog, or comment on the writings of others who do. What I am saying is that the primary arena in which I intend to do most of my teaching of and learning from Scripture is the one that God has instituted: the church. Not a blog. So, while I may continue to post sermons I occasionally prepare for my own congregation, I won't start writing them just to be posted here. Publishing something in this space tacitly asserts that I think I have something true and worthwhile to say, and that you, my faceless reader behind pixels and transistors and miles of wires, should listen. While I can't help but think about and write about things related to God and His Word, I'm going to do all I can to keep from ever seeing myself as having a virtual ministry, and from providing you with an excuse to ignore or take less seriously the preaching and teaching of your own elders at your own church.
posted by Jeff at 8:32 PM
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