Why the blog?

I will admit, I’ve been quite reluctant to build my own blog for some time now for a number of reasons. First, I don’t think what I have to say hasn’t already been said better by some other person. I’m not that special. I’m not exceptionally brilliant. And I don’t suppose my thoughts on this have changed. Even as I write this, I know there are far better and smarter people that can write (or maybe already have?) the things I want to say. But I don’t think that’s a good enough reason for me not to write. The Lord, in His providence, has given me a particular group of people–a flock–to shepherd. And by the Lord’s grace I’ve grown to know them, which may give me an upper hand over the author writing to a more general audience.

Second, I’ve wondered if I would have enough time to keep it up. Life is busy! I have a wife and three kids, a wonderful Church to shepherd as I myself am shepherded by the Lord, and more hobbies than I have time for. However, there have been more than a few times over the past few months that I have had poignant thoughts that needed to be refined, and for me, putting them on paper (or onto a screen) helps sharpen and develop these thoughts towards usefulness–how those thoughts fit into the lives of the saints at Grace Community Pres. All that said, there will probably be weeks when I can’t keep this up. And that’s okay.

These reluctancies aside, what pushed me over the edge–what made me do it–was a series of topics that I deeply want to write about for my people (which I’ll address more below). Facebook nor Twitter offered a proper place for those topics to be addressed. I needed some type of platform, a place where I could write more than a one-liner. That was the need–a place to write–but the thrust behind pressing the buttons and actually committing was encouragement from my dear wife, who has always pushed me farther and harder than I could push myself.

Do I expect to break the internet with this blog? Absolutely not, and neither is that my goal. Do I hope my writing will sharpen and develop my own thoughts? Yes. Do I hope it will encourage and equip the people I have taken vows to care for and shepherd? I do. Indeed, those ones, Grace Community Presbyterian Church, are the primary audience for these posts.

Now, about those topics I’d like to write about… Over the course of the next 12-15 weeks, I plan to write several (hopefully) short blogs about relationships within the church. More narrowly, I plan to write readable segments on what usually causes relationships within the Church (or contexts such as marriages, friendships, etc.) to break. My main objective is to answer the question: How do we respond when someone offends us, or sins against us? I plan to cover topics beginning with “offenses” and how to address them, all the way through “forgiveness” ending with questions related to “reconciliation”–all rooted in Scripture and modeled after the Glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ and the grace and benefits that are ours In Him.