Archives for 8.12.06

I am preaching through Malachi this summer. My pace is a little too fast for me, I’d like to take side trips down word study lane, repeat myself by repeating the themes in a pericope several times from different angles, and milk at least six months to a year out of four chapters. As it is, I will end up with a total of twelve messages, covering the book in about two and a half months.

G. Campbell Morgan has a book of outlines out called The Twelve Minor Prophets. I have been hammering home his two word theme for the book: unconscious corruption. His point is that the people of Judah were self-satisfied and believed God to be the cause of their difficulties, not themselves. They are unconscious of how low they have sunk and of God’s true opinion of them.

As I think about this theme, I have also been thinking about the complaints of many against fundamentalism. Accusations fly fast and furious from the disgruntled know-it-all set, claiming all sorts of sins starting with ancient accusations of legalism and Pharisaism on to much more serious charges which I’ll not repeat here.

I have tended to be reactionary to these charges. While fundamentalists have been guilty of all kinds of sins, I doubt that their guilt (proportionately) is any worse than any other group of sinners, and perhaps better than most. The evangelical sinners, for example, are not immune to scandal and there are the notorious priests of recent fame as well.

But let’s pause in our reactionary mode. Truly, are we unconscious of our corruption? Who of us truly knows ourselves and if we do, how honest are we about ourselves to ourselves, much less to others?

Take this whole blogging phenomenon, for example. What is the point of the numerous blogs (which I will continue to read) and who do these bloggers think they are (and I plan to remain one of them)? What motivates blogging? Why must men publish their thoughts and invite the world to comment?

At the heart of a good deal of it, there must be ego. Are you conscious of ego in yourself? Do you realize how much it drives what you say and do? On a parallel track, how much of the ‘call to preach’ is simply ego? A good deal of it, in my opinion. Leadership involves ego. Very few leaders are in their positions because they are the humblest and godliest of men.

It is possible to be godly while driven by ego, but the challenge of any spiritual leadership is to find the right balance, subordinate and subdue the self, and harness the ego for godly pursuits. The challenge of the blog is the challenge of leadership. Blogging is a kind of leadership. Therefore, be conscious of your corrupt human nature as you blog. Be conscious that you are motivated largely by what you want to do. Be conscious of ego, and conquer it, subdue it, and control it in order to accomplish wider purposes than your own, the purposes of God.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

PS, to those whom I notified about the arrival of this blog, I especially want you to see the post “My second attempt at blogging” … just scroll down.

You may be wondering about the name of this blog (or not!). Regardless, I will tell you. As a practice blog, the name is a practice name. If I move on to my third attempt at blogging as mentioned earlier, I have two names in mind for two new blogs. In the meantime I am using ebaptist.ca.

This name came to me a few years ago when I made my first attempt at blogging. I had grand visions then. For many years I have been moderator of a private e-mail group for Canadian pastors. We have about 50 pastors from across Canada and a few Canadian missionaries from around the world sharing prayer requests, news, and occasionally discussing things related to the ministry or theology. My vision at the time was to create a web home for this group and provide news and information oriented to the ministry in Canada on a more regular basis.

Our e-mail group is called ibcanada (Independent Baptists Canada), but when I checked the availability of the domain, it was taken by some international business group. After much internal wrestling, I realized I would have to come up with a new name. Change comes hard, eh?

After a time, I settled on ebaptist (for electronic Baptist) and a .ca domain for Canada. This still isn’t registered, so it is still available for ‘stealing’, as far as I know. As I said, it was a vision… Like many a good vision, it has shriveled into a dim memory, but it does have the potential of revival someday.

In the meantime, it is the practice name for my practice blog. The names for the third attempt remain locked in my fevered brain.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

When I first heard of blogging, I experimented with blogger and attempted posting a few articles as you can see below. I have since been commenting on many fundamentalist blogs and have earned the dubious title ‘the ubiquitous Don Johnson’. I am not sure about ubiquitous, but I seem compelled to speak up, not always intelligently, on various sites. Since my fundamentalist friends inhabit those sites, they think I am everywhere.

As a commentator, I have neglected doing anything with my own blog. I keep hoping to get back to it someday, but have really spent too much time inhabiting the comments sections of others. I especially have spent too much time on Sharper Iron. Yesterday, I foreswore Sharper Iron for a while. I am on a Sharper Iron holiday. Self-imposed, for at least a month. I will check in with them on September 11. I might re-enter the fray, or I might not. I am sure Sharper Iron will do just fine without me.

In the back of my mind, I have wanted to re-create my own blog. I have been planning for at least two different blogs and hope to sign up with a web-hosting company and have my own URLs in order to publish them with as much autonomy as possible. I mainly lack cash to get it started, but that situation looks to being remedied in a month or so.

As I traverse the blogosphere, it seems to me that certain qualities draw a coterie of followers around certain blogs. Generally, the better read blogs are inhabited by provocative writers. By provocative, I mean the blogger (or bloggers) have an angle on their subject matter that makes them interesting. As writers, they are usually adept enough to draw the reader in. (My greatest fear in blogging is being ponderous … I have a not so unique ability to say in ten words what could be said in three or four. Perhaps I can make up for it by being provocative?)

These are the blogs I follow (using BlogLines). I look at everything they write, and read most of it. I include in [brackets] what I think makes them provocative:

• A Thinking Man’s Thoughts; Frank Sansone [sincerely fundamentalist]
• BaylyBlog: Out of our minds, too; David and Tim Bayly [bulldog evangelicals – and long time online friends]
• Big Orange Truck; ReglerJoe [recovering IFBx]
• Every Thought, Every Word; Mark Perry [often insightful commentary]
• God Change; Wayne and Josh Mack [counselors extraordinaire]
• Immoderate; Ryan Martin [intensely serious]
• irrelevant; Greg Linscott [often wickedly funny and a fundamentalist at heart]
• My Two Cents; Chris Anderson [precisely analytical]
• Nescio Latinitatem; Mike Riley [compelling writer (when he writes!)]
• paleoevangelical; Ben Wright [almost fundamentalist]
• Pensees; Bob Bixby [just provocative (what else? sometimes we might be friends)]
• Religious Affections; Scott Aniol [an expert in his craft]
• Unsearchable Riches; Andy Efting [theologian deacon]

I also follow about five Canadian politics blogs. They aren’t just provocative, they are infuriating, mostly. That would be par for the course for our nutty politics.

What do I hope to accomplish by blogging? At the moment, I’m just practicing. What I eventually want to do is attempt two things. The most important attempt is to try to engage the citizens of my city in a religious conversation with a view to winning some to Christ. The other attempt is to learn how to articulate my fundamentalist philosophy in writing. I want my sons and daughters to be fundamentalists. As I write, I will write with them in mind. I want them to adopt the fundamentalist philosophy because it is biblical Christianity, not because their dad is a fundamentalist.

That sums up my place in the blogging world at the moment. This is my second attempt at blogging. I plan to practice with this a bit and then have a third attempt. May the Lord grant some productive purpose to the third attempt.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3