Breaking the bubble II

One of the themes of Michelle Johnston’s new paper on Christian blogging is how best to create a relational electronic community that can provide a forum for an open discussion of faith. She has turned up some evidence that Christian blogging is inwardly focused and sometimes not particulary welcoming of non-Christians.

To the extent that it’s true that Christian bloggers are not doing a good job of reaching into the secular Internet, we are making exactly the same mistakes that the traditional Christian church makes when it focuses most of its energies on the care and feeding of the flock, with little interest in searching for lost sheep.

I’m glad the things I write are appreciated and enjoyed by my brothers and sisters in Christ, but I don’t write primarily for their benefit. It’s probably true that I haven’t yet figured out how to make this site seem welcoming and interesting to those who don’t share my faith perspective, but nevertheless, that’s a large part of my hope and intention.

I write because I like writing, and something about the way God made me causes me to have to express myself verbally, or else I feel like I might explode. But what I write about, the subject matter, primarily concerns the meeting place of faith and doubt, of ancient and future, of materialism and spirituality. I have been transformed by my faith in Jesus Christ, and out of gratitude and a sincere wish that others could know the relationship with God that I’ve discovered, I write about my journey of faith.

I only hope that this is a place of listening, too. Conversation is a good thing. I hope you’ll find that I’ve written some things that make sense, and I hope you’ll feel free to express yourself about your own faith perspectives and struggles.

Grace and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Comments

  1. Most of the non-Christian readers who come to my blog (which typically deals with Christian themes because I’m a Christian and it just leaks out sometimes…) are people I’ve met in the analog (real) world, and our relationship started there. They read, sometimes comment, but the initial contact was “out there”, not here in the Matrix. 🙂