It has been three years since I started blogging. Here is what I have learned.

1. Loneliness because of the “Blog Lobe”

This one is a joke with a bit of truth. My friends are sometimes scared to talk to me because they know that in the back of my mind there is a new “Blog Lobe” section of my brain. It is there . . . I promise. You can do an MRI and see it. I will upload pics later and blog on it. The blog lobe is that part of the brain that is unique to bloggers that is perpetually and involuntarily writing a blog out of every circumstance and conversation. I have a permanent disclaimer tattooed to my forehead that says, “Warning: this conversation has a good chance of turning into a blog. Proceed at your own risk.” My closest friends just don’t want to talk to me anymore. My pastor is always scared about what I am going to broadcast about his sermon. My wife…well…Ahem. Moving on.

2. Count the cost: It takes a lot of time. . . a lot of time.

A blog can eat your lunch. To get one started, you really need to post often. If you are an original content type of blog like this blog (not simply pointing people to others’ content) and you want the content to be meaningful and good (don’t we all?), it takes a big commitment of time that most people don’t have. Count the cost here.

3. Blogging provides some good accountability or “The Angel on Your Shoulder”

If you are a teacher, you know that it is pretty easy to pull the wool over people’s eyes. Those who are being taught normally give you the benefit of the doubt that you know what you are talking about. In a small audience of 10 or 20, you can scope out how smart others are and then adjust accordingly. If most are uneducated in the topic of discussion, you can get away with quite a bit. Believe me, I know. A blog—this blog—has really helped to keep me honest and careful in every venue. I know that there are people out there in the blog world that know what they are talking about. I can count on the fact that there will be some who read my posts who know more than I do about the subject. I know that they will publicly give me a whipping if I try to pull rank. You never know who is going to show up.

There are four solutions for this:

a) Don’t allow comments on your blog. I don’t ever suggest this since it is an immediate signal that reveals that you are not confident enough to be challenged.

b) Hope that you never gain much of an audience. That is pretty easy to pull off since there are millions of blogs out there and it is easy to never get noticed.

c) Write a traditional blog where it is merely your thoughts and opinions, not the proliferation of ideas. Then it does not really matter what you say.

d) Take your topic very seriously and be very careful. But then you must consider again #2.

This accountability is a good thing.

4. Be ready to pull out your hair (if you have any) or “The Devil on Your Shoulder”

Since I don’t suggest turning off your comments, you need to be ready for the troublemakers who are only there to challenge you in public. I have a lot of those. It is hard enough to find time to keep up with the blogging, but having to respond to every challenge is even harder. Here is what I do: I delete every comment that makes me look bad. I rely on my audience to be able to give an answer. If that doesn’t work, considering that only about 10 percent of blog readers even read the comments, I evaluate whether it is a serious and valuable challenge and whether a response will benefit the audience. Also, I have built a culture where most of my readers know that I rarely engage in posts that are more than two days old. It is hard enough to get me to comment on the post of the day!! (As a side note: I normally do read about 50% of the comments).

5. Blogs perpetuate their own kind (but this does not make you cool)

This can be a great curse as people who should not be teaching can, if done “right”, gain an audience who will listen. Let me repeat this: anyone can gain an audience if they know what they are doing. But just having an audience does not mean that you should be writing. Some of the biggest blogs, like some of the biggest churches, should not be allowed to exist. I have learned that the size of a blog audience does not necessarily mean that you are writing in a way that glorifies God. I could give some examples, but see #3. Continue Reading »

Yes, it is time again to remind our audience of the way we do things here at Parchment and Pen. We do have rules of engagement and there is a proper way for people to conduct themselves.

One thing that I want to make sure of is that the conversations here move in a meaningful way. It is very difficult to moderate the question “What is meaningful?” but I will take liberties to do so nonetheless.

What is Meaningful?

1. Not closed minded. If you already know everything, this is probably not the place for you. Hundreds of people together who already know everything yet differ about what they know can quickly detract from meaning. (My wife and I do this all the time.) In other words, if you have an agenda to use the blog comment area as a visible teaching venue to promote your teachings without intending to learn, this is not the place for you.

2. Not self-promoting. We don’t mind you letting others know about how smart you are, but do so sparingly. I will often allow links to other places so long as it does not look like you are stopping by just to tell others about your site or blog. And yes, I will be the judge as to whether this is taking place.

3. Not characterized by mass amounts of cut-and-paste proof-texting. We all love the Bible, but just posting Scriptures one after the other quickly becomes counter-productive and detractive. Use the Scriptures, but understand that even the cults can proof-text.

4. Irenic. Oh, there is that word. Just so there is no confusion, here is what we mean: To be irenic means that you are kind, gentle, respectful, and understanding, accurately representing opposing parties, even when you disagree. As hard as that seems, buffet your tongue (or keyboard) here.

5. Not slanderous. All slanderous content naturally violates #4. You will be quickly and eternally (relatively speaking) banned from the site for slander. Don’t slander the author or others who post here. Besides, slander just shows the weakness of your thinking and does nothing to promote the truth.

6. No Spamming. Spamming is starting multiple posts one after the other.  We limit the size of the comments so your comment is cut off when in violation. However, some people think themselves wise to just post another and another and another to make up for the limited space. If you do this, your posts will be deleted without warning.

Please note: You will not get banned for bad theology. Everyone is welcome to be wrong. Hopefully our community will be able to engage the bad theology meaningfully.

For a complete guide to perfect theology consult someone of the post-mortem variety. If none are available, please realize that you are limited in your understanding. If you don’t realize this, please start your own site.

Welcome and may God be glorified in how we conduct ourselves.

For more, see the blog post: “What if God Read Your Posts.”

When I first started teaching the Bible about fifteen years ago, I was given a Sunday School class at my church. It was a “college and career” class. I was inexperienced in teaching and was very nervous every Sunday, but I had such a strong desire to teach I was willing to endure the stress each week. I remember that I had red splotches all over my neck and my chest evidencing my green nervousness. (I still am nervous each time I teach, but just in a different way).

When teaching the class one Sunday (I don’t remember the subject), a certain gentleman raised his hand. I thought it was going to be a question concerning the subject we were on, but it was not. He began to complain to me and to everyone there how much he did not like the way I taught and how, exactly, he thought I should change. I was speechless, embarrassed, humiliated, angry, and hurt.

Looking back all these years I have been able to see his problems more objectively. In fact, I think he was right on in his criticism. Everything he said was true about my teaching style and it did need to change. However, he was also very wrong and he should not have said what he said. While nothing that he said was wrong, he lacked a great deal of wisdom in his tact and approach.

The point of this post is this: Saying the right thing without tact is wrong. This is true of Sunday school or any other venue. We are not only called to say the right things, but to say the right things at the right times in the right ways.

Here are a few things to remember when you are the learner.

You are not the teacher

No matter where you are when you are not the teacher, do not act as if you are. So many times I see people who are looking to spring board off other people’s platform. I have been in classrooms where I know who’s hand not to call on. Some people just take over and want to show the class how much they know. You may have the best intentions when you do this and what you say may be right, but, unless the venue expects this, you are not called by God to teach at that time. I am sorry. That is just the way it is.

If the teacher is wrong, and I mean dead wrong, you are still not called to teach. You are called to respect the teacher and listen. Even if the teacher asks you your opinion, you must be very careful not to dishonor the platform that this person has been given.

You don’t have the respect of the people

You must remember that people have gathered to listen to someone else, not you. No matter how smart you are, people don’t care that much about what you have to say. In fact, attempting to be the teacher will be counter-productive. No matter how learned you are in the subject, your arrogance will turn all the others against you and you will only serve to annoy the audience. Continue Reading »

1. Do not use the blog to promote yourself, as your surrogate blog, or as an advertisement. I am sure you are interesting and have some really nice things to say, but you can get your own blog.

2. Do not call authors out for debate. You must count the cost (Lk. 14:31). You don’t want to get whipped up on anyway.

3. Keep your comments short. Like when your comments are longer than the blog, that is too long. Try to keep them to 100 words.

4. In everything, be courteous and respectful. This does not mean that you agree, but take the extra time to write with tact, making the most of the opportunity.

5. Do not spam a post with comments one right after the other. Stay focused . . . one comment at a time is helpful.

6. Try not use this blog as a forum. While I don’t mind you engaging each other soon, there is a fine line between this and the post turning into a forum thread. You can use the forum at Theologica (http://theologica.ning.com) for these type of conversations.

7. Keep things on topic!!

If you need more information read this post:

“What if God Read Your Posts: A Reminder About Christian Conduct on the Internet”

If anyone violates these rules, the blog administrators will be forced to suspend your privileges. While this has no effect on your salvation, we will send you a t-shirt that says “I got suspended from Parchment and Pen . . . Oh yeah baby.”

In the last blog in this series, I talked about how to engage in theological conversation or controversy, especially on the internet. In this blog post I want to take this one step further in talking about our attitude. In my opinion, one cannot underestimate the importance of having the right attitude. Chuck Swindoll says that life is about one-percent what happens to you and ninety-nine percent how we respond.

I often talk about the importance of having an irenic approach to doing theology. It would seem that this term, “irenic” is suffering because of its overuse and misidentification with those who would choose to abuse it. To be irenic means that we are peaceful in our approach to issues. This does not involve compromise, but a willingness to engage issues fairly.

Here are some of the characteristics to being irenic in theological conversation and controversy:

• You accurately represent all theological positions, even when you strongly oppose them.
• Your tone of engagement comes from a humble respectful attitude.
• Your primary goal is not to win an argument, but to contribute to understanding.
• Your defense of your position recognizes that strengths of the opposing side.
• You are gentle.

Here are two important Scripture references concerning how we are to engage in theological discussion irenically: Continue Reading »

I thought that I would continue with the blogging fun. Here are the top ten signs that you are taking this blogging thing TOO far. 

10. You blog on blogs.
9. Your username on other blogs is one of the following: blogforhim, semperblogging, jediblogger, blogaphobia.
8. You send the XML of your own blogs to your PDA

Continue Reading »

Not really 101. My brief six months of blogging does not quite qualify me to teach this level of blogging education. Either way, I thought that I would give you some of my thoughts, colored with shades of green as they may be.

I like blogging. I don’t really know why yet, but it is fun. It is a chance to share, teach, fellowship, and have fun all in one venue. The blogsphere seems to be tolerant to my blogging so far, crazy as some of them may be. I have been pleasantly surprised by regular attendance of the blog. In fact, of all the ministries we offer at Reclaiming the Mind, the blog has the most “attendance.” Internet marketers call this “stickiness.” I guess one would expect such since it is updated so regularly. I am learning, and the learning curve is modest, yet full of interesting nuances. Anyway, thanks for your interest.

Here are some things that I have learned thus far (and this is NOT blogging Gospel): Continue Reading »