In 2009, I began writing this blog with the goal of communicating God’s Word. Little did I know how much regular reading and writing would impact my own spiritual growth. At the time, I didn’t know much about blogging (and still don’t), let alone how to get traffic to one’s site, even how to customize a website. In fact, I didn’t even know what to name a blog. The title I chose was primarily because I was listening to the radio while thinking about how everything should be set up on the blog and Casting Crowns’ song “Voice of Truth” came on. I liked it and the message it conveyed, so the name stuck. I knew less then, than the little I know now, but I simply knew I was supposed to write about the things I was reading and wrestling with in Scripture. Little by very little, I received some feedback, interacted with others, left comments on some blogs, and soon had an initial audience.
Early on, due to the nature and influx of the Emergent Church into Evangelicalism, I some how engaged in writing polemical blogs, encouraging genuine believers to exercise discernment when it came to this movement. As such, I was somewhat labeled as a discernment ministry, and in turn followed several of the more prominent discernment ministries of the day. While these hardly exist within mainstream blogging these days, at the time they were dominating the internet.
In addition to discernment, much of the early writings were shorter, devotional types written to encourage believers to pray and examine the scriptures themselves. Over time, this blog became a platform for working out and wrestling through my own theological formations, which of course meant longer blogs and drawn out series. All of which are fine and dandy, but it was a departure from the earlier devotional blogs and left me with somewhat of an audience quandary. Those who had initially commented and interacted were now forced to read, if they chose, longer more complicated concepts and series.
During this evolution of sorts, I also began writing out expositions of books of the Bible that I was teaching through. These expositional devotions really formed the backbone for the content of the blog over the last few years, but again, tended to be longer and built upon the previous passage that was discussed. In this way, in order to follow along with the train of thought, one really had to go back and read each post consecutively. Again creating an audience problem.
More recently, one particular aspect of theology that I have been exploring more in-depth has been ecclesiology, or the study of the church. Now, in addition to expositions there were on-going posts and series on the meaning, form, and function of church. So in this eclectic mix, it would be really difficult to keep and maintain a noticeable, interactive, reader base. Meaning those who looked forward to posts because of their challenging, encouraging, and at times devotional nature, who appreciated the ability to leave comments or share posts to other outlets, were cut off while those reaching the site from a Google search were coming in good numbers but rarely commenting.
Given all this, I’ve reached a bit of a blogging dilemma; shut down this site completely and migrate its contents to a new site, or create another site that is primarily devoted to some of these longer expositions and theological series. As I write this, it’s become apparent that in addition to this latter option, this site Voice of Truth, should remain open, but be primarily dedicated to devotional, shorter posts. It would be unwise, practically, to abandon a website that has 10 years worth of posts, especially when the primary means of readership is not the daily followers, but those who through Google searches have found this site looking for answers on a particular subject or passage, not too mention the broad international audience for which I praise God.
So with that, this post is the introduction of a new blog: Theology By The Book, which will provide an outlet for some of these longer posts or consecutive series. It’s likely that I’ll link posts from that site on this one, but include just an excerpt rather than the whole post. In this way, I hope to not only write more, but to become more content-focused.
In addition to this news, I’m strongly considering creating a weekly podcast, which would be home on the new site as well, but perhaps more to come on that front. One final note, by God’s grace, I have finally finished a book How to Study the Book of Job: A Concise Guide, which I hope to release in .pdf format for free and then eventually on Amazon in ebook and possibly paperback format. This book is the fruit of an extended, in-depth study and subsequent teaching series I did through Job. It has, in my opinion, broken down the complexities that so many have struggled with in the book and has the goal of helping people work through Job on their own or in a small group. Commentaries are good and have their place, but they do the fishing for you. We need more good books that teach people how to fish, which is what I hope this book will do.
It is shaping up to be an exciting 2019, and if by God’s grace these plans should come to fruition, then may He be glorified and His people be edified.
Soli Deo Gloria!
P.S., one final note, if you or someone you know would be interested in writing and contributing to either site, please let me know in the comments section!
