Why I stopped blogging...and why I'm going to start again.

The last blog I posted was in November 2007. Before then I loved to ferociously pelt the Blogosphere with my random thoughts on life, church, theology, music and culture. But for almost three years now I've put down the keyboard. Why? Simply...because God called me to plant a church. What?...wait. Most of us think the two are basically essential for the other to exist, a church planter without a blog? I'd like to take this opportunity to share a few things that I learned in my journey to follow God's call as a church planter that may challenge or encourage you if you are in a similar season.

3 Reasons I stopped blogging

1. I didn't have the time.

Blogging takes time. Good blogging takes much more. I never wanted to be the guy who used text-speak and misspelled any word that had any sort of theological overtones. So as I began to follow the path that God was laying out for me to plant a church, I realized I didn't have the time to sit down for hours at a time and talk about the latest books I was reading or conferences I was attending. I knew a few things had to happen if I was going to be a successful church planter. I had to give attention to my mind, my mouth, and my marriage. For the past 3 years I have had my nose in books earning an M.Div. Blogging wasn't going to teach me theology. For the past 3 years I've been honing my skills as a teacher and preacher. Blogging wasn't going to prepare me to open up Scripture week after week and faithfully deliver truth to my congregation. And for the past three years I've been taking steps to improve my marriage. Blogging wasn't going to make me a better husband or father and it wasn't going to prepare my wife for the hard road of church planting.

2. No one cared about what I had to say.

A good blog is all about content. I never wanted to be the guy who just posted links to my favorite You-tube video or articles from the Resurgence. To be honest, I realized that my blogging was a waste of time. Not only did I have more important things to do, but no one was reading what I had to say. Why? Because no one cared about what I had to say. Why? Because I didn't really have much to say. I was a young dude with little theological training, little ministry experience and way too much pride in my own opinions. It was an epiphany when I realized that being like some of the guys whose blogs I read didn't mean using all the same social media, reading the same Bible translation, and shopping at the same shoe store. Instead, it meant walking the same path; surrendering to the call of God to put in the hard work, sacrificing comfort, to planting a gospel-centered church. Before I had the right to offer up my thoughts and experiences as valuable, I had to value the path the would create them. In short, I had to stop talking and start walking.

3. I needed to just sit and learn for a season.

I found out pretty quickly into my church planting journey that I knew even less than I had originally thought. I had become prideful about my stances on theology, methods, and cultural engagement (to name a few). I had hand-picked a few people in the "missional church" world that I thought had it all together (though they had no idea who I was) and ignored everyone and everything else. I had convinced myself that I had the ability to do whatever I set my mind to. But God eventually took me to the woodshed and taught me something I will never forget. "Before you can lead, you have to learn to follow. Before you can teach, you have to become a student." So I decided to become a student of God's Word and God's men...even if they wore pleated khakis. I listened to sermons, I talked to pastors, I sat under my father-in-law who is a pastor, I did an internship at another church plant, I attended local association meetings, and I asked lots of questions.

So here I am, writing my first blog in almost three years. Are these things no longer true? Well, to some extent they still very much apply. But my perspective has changed. I no longer have a desire to share what I know, but what Jesus is teaching me. I no longer want to share it to be popular or well-liked, but because I know that I learned a lot from guys who had gone before me and that maybe it could challenge or encourage someone else. And I no longer want to type just to read my own stuff, but to pour into my congregation in specific and to encourage the church in general.