Gone Fishing
I started this blog six months ago as something of an experiment to see if I (and by extension others) can discover how to write on matters of faith and daily life in a way that would be helpful and even (on a good day!) interesting to everyday Christians.
Five years earlier I had led the team that developed WorkingPreacher.org, a site devoted to preaching resources. Since it’s launch it’s been a huge success, garnering well over a quarter million hits a month. But as I always tell folks, Working Preacher is the “low hanging fruit.” Preachers have to preach sermons each and so they know they can use good resources that are readily available to them.
Lay people – or, as I prefer, “everyday Christians” – however, don’t necessarily sense a need for resources that help them take the faith they profess on Sundays to help them make sense of their lives Monday through Saturday. And if our Sunday-faith isn’t influencing, informing, and infecting our Monday-lives I don’t think church has much of a future.
And so I – and, obviously, many, many others in all kinds of different ways – have been thinking about how to teach and share the faith in a way that makes traditional Christian teaching and theology accessible, understandable, and above all else useful. I decided to do that in two ways – first offering a daily Bible devotional and second by writing a series of more general posts that would touch on just about everything from parenting to movies to money to more traditional church stuff, all in light of our Christian faith.
So “…in the Meantime” began as an experiment, but it’s grown into a surprise. In particular, I have to say that when I started this blog at the beginning of Lent I could never have imagined how much fun it would be. I’ve had, frankly, a complete ball looking for articles and posts that I thought might be interesting to others. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed offering some insights and commentary on our life of faith in the world, and I’ve had a blast discovering a cool video or great talk and sharing why and how I think it connects to our shared faith. And, more than anything, I have thoroughly enjoyed engaging with so many of you via the comments you’ve left on various posts. It’s all been so much more fun and rewarding than I could have imagined, and I deeply appreciate your engagement.
So the blog has been an experiment, and a ton of fun…but also, to be perfectly honest, just a tad exhausting at times. Energizing, to be sure, but also a bit tiring, particularly as I wake up each morning wondering what in the world to write about.
For this reason, I’ve decided to take a short break, a blog-sabbatical, if you will, for the month of August. Actually, I first decided to take a break simply because I will be traveling for much of August and for days at a time have no internet access. Most of that travel will be vacation with my family, and I kind of dreaded waking up early each morning to crank out a blog post or looking for internet cafes where I could post while the kids used the restrooms. 🙂 For a while (okay, about 48 hours), I thought that I could double up on my posting in July and have plenty of material for August, but that, at least for me, isn’t possible.
While I was at first a little bummed by realizing that I couldn’t continue the blog while traveling, a funning thing then happened: I felt this huge sense of relief at the idea of having a breather. And so that’s when I decided to take the full month off, hoping and planning to start writing again on September 1.
I’ll look forward, at that point, to continuing our journey through Mark, to introducing you to some great online Bible-study tools, to taking up questions about church marketing and advertising, to sharing some of what I learned at the Rethinking Stewardship conference, to returning to the topic of prayer, and to anticipating what we can learn from a new season of Mad Men, among other things. (So, as you can see, I’ve still got lots I’d like to write about!) But for now, I’m also ready for a rest. Thanks very much for reading thus far. I hope you have a wonderful August, and I hope to connect again with you in September.
In the meantime, may the peace of Christ keep watch over your hearts and minds.
Yours in Christ,
David
Enjoy your vacation and the blog free month. I look forward to your postings when you come back in Sept.
I enjoy your blogs and insights very much. I have actually been using TED talks as an big help for me – as a pastor -to connect the Bible/Church with the world. I think we need to seriously reinvent our theological education in both our seminaries and congregations along this line. Many thanks and enjoy a wonderful vacation you certainly need and well deserve!
David,
Thank-you for your blog! I especially appreciate your links to videos. For example, I am using Caine’s Arcade in worship this weekend as a parable of vocation alongside the Ephesians 4 text. I am glad you can take some time off for true Sabbath with your family. In the long run, rest will bear more fruit for your blog and for your work than continuous writing:)
Peace,
Siri
Huge thanks, David. I’ve really enjoyed your posts (thoughts and video links) and often send them on to friends. Enjoy your bolg-sabbatical!
Enjoy your vacation, but I will certainly miss starting my day with you. we’ll meet again in Sept..Blessings DeLee
I’d like to echo the previous two comments. Thank You for the endless hours you put into this blog. I always look forward to what your going to write about.
Have a wonderful Sabbath Month with your family!
Great move David! I can’t wait to hear about what God speaks to you in your rest from blogging. I’m sure we’ll all be blessed, just as we already have been. Thanks and enjoy!
I enjoy your posts, but can totally understand your need for a break.
BTW, can you use a larger font for these blogs? The small type is extremely difficult to read.
Easy fix for PCs-
Hold the control button and the + button and it will increase the size of the font. To shrink it back down, use Ctrl – and it’ll do the opposite 🙂
Thank you!
David, thank you for giving of your time in doing this blog. With your other commitments (teaching and family) it can be daunting, but you have done a superb job.
Now go get some rest and enjoy your blog sabbath
Enjoy your time away and with your family, David!
Your blog has become a regular source of encouragement in the faith, a ready way of passing it along to others, and an amazing link between us inside-church types and the wider world! You are a blessing and it is my sincere prayer that, come September, you will choose to move this from an experiment to a regular ministry!
Blessings from a seminary-trained lay person!
Hi, David – Thank you so much for “In the Meantime” – I look forward to reading your post every day – unfortunately, I got a little behind so I have been trying to catch up so now I can do that while you are on vacation – have a GREAT vacation!
Enjoy your vacation. I enjoy your blogs each morning. I never thought I woul learn so much about myself as I have while you shared the gospel of Mark with us. I am looking forward to your return.
Enjoy your break and your time with your family. Your blog was my Lenten devotional, and when you decided to continue, so did I. I love the look through Mark, and find myself looking up past devotionals when I’m doing sermon prep on that passage.
Thanks for all your work!
Good for you! Enjoy! Now I’ll have time to go back and catch up on the posts I wasn’t able to dig into.
Glad you will be taking some sabath rest… I too will be doing that during August and I too will leave the technology home. Happy restings.
Thank you, David, for your faithfulness and imagination. I’ve enjoyed it immensely and will eagerly await your return. Hope you have an amazing vacation.
Thank you so much for all you have given here. It is a joy to read your work. Have a wonderful vacation!
I am very glad you are taking the month off! After all I just preached a couple of weeks ago about the importance of rest…inspired by the importance of that message after reading your working preacher article that week!
Also…it comes as a bit of hope to me that while you are having fun with this blog it is also exhausting to me, because it looks like such a fun project I’ve wanted to try to pursue a similar blog for my congregation, but, I admit, it also looks very tiring! So I applaud your taking rest, and continue my own brainstorming about starting my own blog for the “everyday Christians” of Christ Lutheran Church where I serve!
Hello David,
Thanks for modelling sabbath to us!
May your sabbath time be a M.O.S.H.’ing time. . . not engaging in those things you “must, ought, should, have” to do.
May it be a time of CEASING, RESTING, EMBRACING GRACE & FEASTING. Borrowed those 4 sabbath themes from Marva Dawn.
Peace of Christ!
I also look forward to your return, David. I just received a mailing that you will be visiting our mountain in September for our Allegheny Synod Bishop’s Convocation. I am a “semi-retired” (if there is such a thing) pastor here in the Synod, and your “Working Preacher” site is the first thing I turn to in sermon study. Enjoy what is left of your month off!
David: I offer you some words of Howard Thurman: “The streets of our minds seeth with endless noise. There is something in us that longs to center down. When we enter into ourselves, the answers will come.” Thanks for letting go of your blog for awhile.
I was on vacation and missed reading your blog regarding your vacation. Since I returned on the 1st I have been patiently waiting for your blogs and today finally re subscribed, thinking I had been lost in cyberspace or way worse…..your blogs had ceased! I was happy neither one has happened and I will be so happy when your blogs are back…..altho I wonder how you find time to fill us with so much on a daily basis….but, please keep it up!