Where is This Site Going?
Where is Wayward Wretch going? A good question, and one I’ve been mulling over a lot lately. Permit me to take you to my answer in round about fashion.
Today, I ran across a blog entry on A Christian Blog that, in effect, asked that very question to all Christian blogs in general. My first reaction was to post a comment there. I started to, but it soon became evident I had much more to say than merely a comment.
I have to agree that many Christian blogs are mostly preaching. Somewhere in the middle are the blogs documenting the how people work through the issues of their Christian faith, where they’ve fallen, and how God got them back on their feet. At the opposite end are the blogs where there are so few entries about anything Christian that you’d be hard-pressed to put them in the Christian category. For the purpose of discussion, I’ll ignore the last group here.
So, where does Wayward Wretch fit into this range of preaching to documentary? Some of my less-than earth-shattering thoughts…
First, a Christian blog site is a ministry to its author. This may sound a bit self-centered at first glance, especially since I list it, uh, first. I start here only because the source of a blog site is its author.
But ministry to oneself? Why not? Consider that sharing the Gospel message with others is one obvious example of ministry. But, can you not also remind yourself of the message? Of course you can! I minister to myself every time I thoughtfully read the Bible or other Christian writings. All Christians minister to themselves that way.
By extension, a Christian blog site is a record of Christian writings. When the author goes back to read previous postings, self-ministry takes place.
Second, a Christian blog site is a ministry to its visitors. As we know, the author isn’t only one reading (usually). Like I said above, less-than earth-shattering news. And I probably don’t need to belabor the point further.
Back to preaching vs. documentary of a life, some argue we’ve got enough preaching, and we need more personal testimony about how God is working in real lives. Personally, I don’t think it’s possible for a Christian blog to omit one or the other. What varies is how much of the Christian’s walk the visiting public is allowed to see talked.
More important is the ultimate focus of the site. It is the author or God? The message delivered is one indicator, but how the message is delivered may reveal the true focus as much or more. That said, we need to realize not everyone may be a skilled wordsmith.
Finally, let’s go all the way back to the first question: where is Wayward Wretch going? What do I see when I look at Wayward Wretch today? Plenty of regurgitation (of event notes), but not a lot of documentary. I have to admit, I am actually a bit disappointed. After all, Wayward Wretch is supposed to be “The Rambling Record of a Modern-day Pilgrim’s Progress.”
Maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on myself. I have more event notes to dump, for the benefit of friends who were unable to attend. As much as I enjoy the events, I’m relieved to have a break. Also, I don’t always find the words free-flowing in the documentary posts. I suppose those will get easier in time.
(Oh, oh, who was the ultimate focus of this article? Right now the site in general seems a little too much me, but that wasn’t my intent. [Sigh.])
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