Three Reasons Why I Blog

Elshaddai has tagged me in the “three reasons” meme. The rules are as follows:

Rule 1) List three reasons for your blogging.
Rule 2) List these rules.
Rule 3) Tag three others with the thread.

This blog has gone through a few variations in the last year or so, and it’s interesting that I was tagged for this meme because I’ve been taking the past few days to think about why I blog, what direction I should take my blog from here, or even whether I should just step down or not. To be quite honest, the last few days, the option of stepping down and not blogging has seemed the best. Maybe thinking of why it is I started blogging will help give me a new (or revitalize an old) perspective.

This blog started off as a joint-venture between myself and my friend Andy to discuss issues relating to reformed theology-hence the url.  This was somewhat short-lived as Andy moved away to do ministry with a church, and deal with all the responsibilities that come with ministry and well as raising his new-born son. At that point I decided to go solo on the blog, and expanded  the content to write about theology in general and hit on cultural issues that interested me.  So without further ado, here are my three reasons:

1) Connecting – This blog served as a way to keep connected to my friends from  college after I graduated.  Many of whom attended the same church as I did, or attended my bible studies, or attended Theology Thursdays, a weekly discussion group on theology and practical application that I led.  This was the original scope of my audience, and essentially still is, though my readership has grown beyond this, as has my circle of friends since moving.

2) Processing – I don’t know if this breaks the laws of psychoanalysis, but I am both a verbal and nonverbal processor.  I can either talk something out, or write it out. Seeing as how I don’t have someone to speak to in order to process things I’m thinking of, I spill it out on my blog (I’m a paper guy for class-notes, but I find it easier to write thoughts on a blog instead of in a journal).  More often than not, my blog posts are this sort of non-verbal processing. Even though many times I seem to assert a position, I’m really just using the post to order my thoughts on what I’m thinking about. This is why at times my posts start to ramble or might seem to be stream-of-consciousness typing.

3) Community – This last point is related to the first two.  In discussing theology and culture, and attempting to process said thoughts on theology and culture,  there’s a problem: I’m not always right. Now, I know that that is a dangerous thing for a seminary student to say, because apparently, we are supposed to know everything and always assert as much, but I don’t. I know what I believe is to be true, and discuss what I believe to be true, and believe what I believe is true. I also recognize that somethings I believe to be true now are not what I believed one, two, or three years ago.  Blogs give me the opportunity to hear others opinions, weigh them out, and either be convinced or not.  On the flip side of the community coin, hopefully, the things I write about can help others see truth in the Scriptures, or convince someone of a particular world-view, or encourage someone.  The first thing is the positive aspect of your involvement with my blog, the second is the positive aspect of my involvement in my blog.  For me, this is the most important reason for me to write in a public arena.  There are many other mediums I can use for either of the first two  reasons, such as email, or a journal, or writing letters, or keeping a word-document diary, etc.  It is blogging that brings community.

So, I guess the issue of what to do now with this blog rests on how “successful” reason number 3 is.  Where the definition of “successful” is what I need to figure out.

Again, I’m leaving this open to whoever wants to do it, but please either link back to my post, or simply leave a comment with the url to your post so I can read up on why you blog!