The Church of No People

Wow, it seems I just keep stepping in it these days.

Lately, I’ve touched a few topics that have been near and dear to my heart.  And quite by accident, I’ve really set some people off.  There have been wild debates sparked over the last few weeks when I tried to explain how I put my wife’s interests ahead of my own, how I don’t believe women should be subject to the minutia of rules set up to maintain modesty, and over my expanded definition of spiritual abuse.

I am not going to rehash those topics any time soon.  I’ve said my piece, and plenty of people have said their’s.

Instead, I’d like to give just a couple of thoughts on what it means to disagree with other Christians in the online space.

And, for the first time ever, I am setting out, very purposefully, to not spark disagreement.  No, instead, in a gesture of goodwill and universal unity, I am going to give my very first list of one-hundred things that everyone - no matter their race, gender, nationality, religion or orientation – can agree on.

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One of the most important things I think bloggers can do is celebrate other bloggers.

It’s tough, because you’ll read something great, and then immediately think why didn’t I write that.

Then you think how can I copy that, but in a way that no one catches on?

My blog reader is full of posts I’ve clicked the star icon on…and resisted the urge to plagiarize.  If you’ve been in need of some really quality blogs (or your ego is a bit too big, like you’re the best blogger ever), then you need to check out these excerpts from blogging nirvana.  (Yeah, I’m “easing” back into blogging by blatantly copying other peoples’ blogs.  Get off my case.)

The best of the starred items in my reader from the last couple of weeks.

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Sometimes, you have to clean house.  Other times, you have to stock up.

Over the last three years, my blog reader has had a lot of changes made to it.  I’ve cleaned out lots of dormant blogs.  And every once in a while, I go blog shopping.

I recently noticed that my reader was a little…unbalanced.

It seemed my reading slanted quite heavily toward the more testosterone oriented.  There were actually very few women that I was subscribed to.

I didn’t make this conscious choice.  I just have had a hard time finding women that are writing things that I’m interested in.

But on my latest blog shopping spree, I decided to correct this.  I could forgive an occasional post about crafts or baking if the rest of the blog was really melting faces and punching kidneys.

So, here they are.  The ladies who are rocking my blog reader these days.

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What’s up, everyone?

So, it’s MLK day, which means a lot of you might be home with a little extra time on your hands.

And I’ve got just the thing.

See, every few months, I have to clean out my blog reader.  It gets dusty.  And it gets encrusted with blogs that go dormant.  It’s sad, sweeping out the blog reader.  I feel like I’m giving up some old friends…friends who hadn’t called me in six months anyway.

But every few months, I go on a hunting trip.  I hunt down fresh subscriptions for my blog reader.  I always love discovering new blogs to dive into.  On my blog hunting trips, I’m reminded of one constant fact: most of the stuff on the internet is pure, unadulterated crap.  And the Christian stuff is no exception.  But that only makes the discovery of something actually worthwhile all the sweeter.

Here are my latest and greatest discoveries from the obscure corners of the internet, the new, and new-to-me blogs that are keeping me glued to my blog reader.

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Are you ready for a new year of blogging?

I know I am.  I spent the last week doing a lot of thinking, and I’ve got lots of ideas for the coming months for making this blog better, broadening the content and including new perspectives.  Good stuff.

Before we get to all that though, we’ve got to lay down some ground rules for the new year.  Yeah, I know.  Monday, I said that your only necessary resolution was to think.  Well I’ve done some of the thinking for you already.  Follow my advice, and you’ll be off to a great start.

See, blogging and social media is maturing as a platform for ideas.  What was just some emo kids with Xanga pages a few years ago is now a democratized exchange of ideas and information.  But there are just some annoying habits that are still hanging on, some things bloggers need to let go of in the new year.

So, here are my blogging resolutions for this year.  I hope you and the rest of blog-dom can embrace them too to make blogging better and less annoying for everyone.

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