I Had Nothing to Do So I Joined Another Blog
Yeah…right.
For some time now I’ve been intrigued with the idea of the group blog. I’ve done this solo gig for over two years now. Though I’m far from tired of Sacred Journey, I can also see the advantage of a team approach. So I sat by the phone and waited. Gregg from Common Grounds Online never called. Not so much as a voice mail from the Internet Monk of Boar’s Head Tavern. And the Good Lord knows that someone who has John Franke in his list of “current reads” isn’t going to be getting any engraved invitations from the A-Team bloggers.
But now I can say to all those, “Sorry, boys, you missed your chance.” Todd Hiestand, pastor of The Well in Feasterville, PA, came up with the proper signing bonus and has snagged the Foolish Sage for his recently-launched group blog, MereMission. I was initially introduced to Todd by my friend Justin at the first Philly emergent cohort meeting I attended last fall. Yes, I have sat down in table fellowship with the emergents. Don’t let that get back to the apostles in Jerusalem, OK? No one forced me to sniff incense and I was not coerced into producing any “worship art.” Just great conversation with a very diverse group of folks who really love Jesus. Anyway, Todd and I have kept up an email correspondence since then, and now we shall blog together.
MereMission will not be yet another “I’m right and you’re so wrong!” debating blog. Instead we hope it will be a growing conversation among a diverse group who have one thing in common: a desire to explore what it means to live out the implications of the gospel in our communities. For me personally, I hope it will be stretching in good ways. For one thing, at least for now, I’m the lone Reformed seminarian there, and certainly the oldest member by far…so I help out the diversity curve. I won’t be posting there as frequently as I do here; this will remain my main soap box and the primary evidence of my utter foolishness. But MereMission will give me the opportunity to stretch my writing and thinking in some directions I might not have explored here. So here’s your invitation to check out MereMission. No cost, no obligation, and no twenty-something soul-patched pastor will call.
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March 24th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
I wonder what household chores you had to promise Karyn to get permission for this.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
You MereMission folks stole my couch idea. =)
Looks like a very cool blog. I’ll add it to my bloglines.
March 24th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Hey, we left you the big couch, OK?
March 25th, 2006 at 6:10 am
By “signing bonus” I hope you mean “beer”.
March 25th, 2006 at 6:28 am
Oh and in other news…
I’ll probably be fairly vocal over there. I like it a lot.
:sarahdoylesmile:
March 25th, 2006 at 6:49 am
Dang. Shoulda had beer in the contract. Where’s the number of my literary agent?
Hey, Mic, why don’t you join up? Tell Todd you know me…and he might still let you in anyway. It would be cool to have a Euro perspective on missional church.
March 25th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Congratulations, Mark! That sounds like a lot of fun.
“MereMissions will not be yet another ‘I’m right and you’re so wrong!’ debating blog.”
I hope you’re right Mark because the Internet doesn’t need yet another site like that! Since I’ve been blogging, I’ve realized just how insidious that type of behavior is and also, how off-putting it can be. I’ve started to avoid certain sites because of their tone. I repented of it and I wish others would do so as well. Christians need to read 1 Corinthians 13 and pray before they post. If they did that maybe they would be so quick to condemn.
March 25th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
I was planning on it, Mark! I was gonna make a few unassuming comments for a bit til I asked. But if Todd were to ask before that I’d happily join. I had a rousing conversation last night in which I stated that I disagreed that preaching was the most effective way of primary evangelism in today’s Western culture.
Yeah….I got pretty much jumped for that.
But I was thinking it’d make a nice little discussion on there.
March 25th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
michaela, sign up already! what are you waiting for! oh, and the price of admission is to buy me some beer… especially some good european beer. i am kinda a snob
March 25th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
Yes. You can always identify a true snob by the rarified language they use, such as “kinda a snob”
March 26th, 2006 at 9:17 am
I’m in Todd. I’m not “kinda a snob”, but more so a definite beer snob, so we can hang out.