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It's that time of year again. You know, when we make our annual trek to Louisville, KY for the New Attitude conference. I always look forward to the worship, teaching, and fellowship. So edifying.
This year The Boundless Show host Lisa Anderson will be with me. She'll help out with the booth and take the lead on the interviews we've scheduled with Josh Harris, Mark Dever and Albert Mohler. I'm sorry to report, though, that John Piper gave us the big dis (not really) when we requested an interview -- something about going on hiatus from interviews because of a book he's writing.
Oh, and we'll be debuting the Boundless Magazine. It's a prototype of what we hope will become a regular quarterly print publication with all exclusive content. Be one of the first to receive it by signing-up on our interest list. Much more on this later.
As for the prototype, it's got all exclusive content too and we're hoping to have our PDF version available soon. But if you want a hard copy, you'll just have to come to Louisville and drop by our booth at New Attitude.
So who's going?
Did you know that today is Patriot's Day? I didn't.
It's observed in only Massachusetts and Maine but every third Monday in April marks the 'shot heard round the world,' Patriots Day. Here's an excerpt from Jules Crittenden of the Boston Herald commemorating the event: Patriots Day may be the least known American holiday, and the day most deserving of our recognition. Observed in Massachusetts and Maine only. Don't know it? It marks the day, April 19, 1775, on which Americans took up arms against their king, and bled, at the crack of terrible dawn.
Crittenden posts written accounts from the eyewitnesses of the brief skirmish that started the Revolutionary War. Paul Revere's account of his famous midnight ride to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams is fascinating.
HT: Hugh Hewitt
At the request of MarkB, I've configured the blog so that each comment is numbered. That way you can easily reference an earlier comment: "In comment #109, BDB said...." Those of you who know HTML can link to those specific comments by pointing to the URL you get when you click on a comment number.
Here's the thing: I've included the comment number in two places: a small number to the left of your name in the gray bar above each comment and a large number to the right of each comment. If you don't see that large number, "refresh" this page. It'll then show up. If it still doesn't show up, go here and refresh that page until you see ".comment-number" at the bottom of that page.
Here's the question for you: Do you prefer the small number or the large number? Can you suggest a tweak that'd make your preference look even cooler? Is there anything else you'd like us to do to improve your experience on The Line? Am I trying to be too much of a people-pleaser? (Thanks, Carrie, for pointing out the typo 'd made in that previous sentence.)
All you Boundless aficionados may have noticed the change to the homepage this week. It's something we've been working on for a while to feature a new article each day and position the blog more prominently on the homepage. It's our way of giving you what you want, when you want it ... every day.
We also think it'll give our readers a chance to delve more deeply into the content, instead of having to choose between three on Thursday if your capacity is tight.
Ted is planning to make an official announcement this week in his e-newsletter. And next week, he'll be sending our subscribers a daily announcement to familiarize them with the new daily publishing schedule. (If you haven't already, please consider subscribing to the Boundless e-newsletter. Each week Ted gives you an interesting perspective on the articles and a touch of insider information you won't want to miss.)
And if you have a mind to, please give us your feedback here to let us know what you think of the new Boundless.
The Line is hosted by TypePad. For the most part we're very happy with their service.
They've recently reconfigured our comment spam filter, however, and it's wrongly stopping a lot of legitimate comments. Hmf.
I've submitted a help ticket with them, and am awaiting their reply. Thanks for being patient as we work our way through this problem. Please know that we don't consider you to be spammers.
A bit of coding ... and now we've got an RSS feed for comments, something a few of you have requested over the past few months.
Scroll down the left column -- you should see the RSS feeds below our search box.
Now, if we could only get RSS configured for our Web site, Boundless.org....
Enjoy!
9:37 a.m. (Mountain Time)
Al Mohler: "We are here [in Las Vegas] because we believe the Lord would hold us accountable for this new media opportunity.... We're in this place of deception to communicate the truth."
Dr. Mohler is encouraging us not to be like Calvin Coolidge, but to be engaged communicators. We have a responsibility to be stewards of the gospel.
9:40 a.m.
Genesis 3 explains why we have difficulty communicating with each other. "Propaganda is explained by Genesis 3. Slander is explained by Genesis 3."
"God forfeited His personal privacy" for the sake of His creatures.
9:45 a.m.
He Is There and He Is Not Silent -- the book by Francis Schaeffer that affected Dr. Mohler when he was 15 years old.
9:55 a.m.
Mohler is explaining that communicating has been part of the Christian tradition since its foundation. He referenced St. Francis of Assisi, who said, “Preach the gospel; sometimes use words." But the truth is that communicating through words -- books and such -- are a key aspect of communicating the gospel.
9:58 a.m.
The thought just went through my head that Tim Challies should be here. He's a vastly better blogger than I am. He'd do Dr. Mohler's talk justice. Hmf.
Hang in there -- I'm doing my best to help you feel like you're here. :-)
10:02 a.m.
Our friends over at Stand To Reason are keeping up with Mohler's talk as well. Check it out!
10:16 a.m.
Essentially Dr. Mohler is providing us a history of communication through to today, taking a few rabit trails along the way to show how Christendom has exploited media.
Looks like Amy from over at The A-Team Blog is liveblogging as well.
10:30 a.m.
"Anonymous blogs are a scandal," according to Dr. Mohler. Some advertisers, he points out, require a blog to have a physical address, to enforce accountability.
Dr. Mohler is encouraging us not to leave snarky posts and comments, but to write thoughtfully. To make a "serious argument." Rigorous intellectual thought.
10:34 a.m.
Break time!
...
As you've likely picked up, a contingent from Boundless and Focus on the Family is attending this year's Godblog Converence. Over the next day or two, you may hear from bloggers you're unfamiliar with: Lisa, Monica and Jeff (as well as Steve, Motte and myself).
We're happy to share our experiences with you in as "real time" as possible. I think that'll give you a heightened sense of the events on the ground, and help you feel part of this gathering of new media-aware Christians.
So ... enjoy!
(BTW, I'm typing this in a room of some 80 other Christian bloggers. I just finished chatting with my friend Joe Carter. On the stage in front of me are Al Mohler, John Mark Reynolds and conference coordinator Dustin Steeve. Beside me are bloggers from around the country, intent on honoring the Lord with their crafty communication.)
We're having some issues sending out this week's Boundless e-newsletter, so let me just go ahead and publish it here. Enjoy!
* * *
After weeks of rehearsals, my church's series of Easter services was finally upon us. I was looking forward to the second song in particular, when dozens of children would storm down the aisles and join in the singing.
It was months later that I realized that a new friend of mine, Glenn Packiam, had a hand in writing that stirring, lyrically-rich song, "My Savior Lives." Since then, I've seen his name at the top of other song sheets in the worship band's repertoire. This is a humble man with a heart for God, a heart for engaging Him and inviting others to do the same.
It was around that time that the Boundless team met with leaders of the young adults ministry at New Life Church here in Colorado Springs. That's how I met Glenn. Over the months we chatted about what young adults find relevant and challenging, and I asked him if he'd write a few articles for Boundless. I'm happy that he agreed to my request.
I have to say that this first article of his, "Change is Local," isn't actually something he wrote specifically for Boundless, but is an excerpt from his recently-published book, Butterfly in Brazil: How Your Life Can Make a World of Difference. In this article Glenn challenges us to question our big dreams, to consider rather the humble act of simple obedience and sharing with those around us what Christ has done in our lives. And if God wants to move us to a position of prominence, say as a nationally-recognized songwriter, He'll do that in His own good time.
Candice Watters wrote this week's second article, "Crash and Burn." It's about a long distance relationship that takes a turn for the worse ... and then the car they're in gets totaled. What's the "burn" in the title all about? Well, that's what happens to their affections for each other as a result. If you're in a long distance relationship, one where you mainly communicate online, you should check out this article.
Our final article is brought to us by Carolyn McCulley. "With Those Who Rejoice" challenges us to resist the urge to grumble and be discontent when good things happen to our friends, things that we've been praying would happen to us. If you've been single for a while, and have friends who have gotten engaged or married, you know what I'm talking about. The thing is, Scripture instructs us to "rejoice with those who rejoice." And though we may not feel like doing so, the rewards for doing so make the efforts for having done so worth it.
I just noticed the date.
Of course, you Europeans and military types would be saying "4-10, good buddy." Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
That is all.
A few weeks ago we received an email from Focus's Editorial Director of Youth Outreach, Tom Neven, expressing interest in guest blogging for The Line. We thought, Wow. Tom Neven, an author of two books who's written for The Washington Post, Time-Life and many other publications wants to blog for Boundless. That seriously upgrades our talent!
Needless to say we were thrilled with his proposal and would like to welcome him as our new guest blogger.
Here is Focus on the Family's press release regarding the passing of Dr. D. James Kennedy: Focus on the Family founder and Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., issued the following statement today upon learning of the death of Dr. D. James Kennedy:
"The Church has lost one of its truly significant figures, and American families have lost one of their most passionate, effective defenders. For decades, Dr. Kennedy has been a passionate defender of biblical truth in a culture that increasingly forgot it. He was a giant in the battle to restore traditional values in our nation."
"Most importantly, I believe, Dr. Kennedy would want to be remembered as a man whose greatest desire was to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Believers around the world are indebted to him for holding firm to that important calling."
Right around this time last year, I posted "The Boundless Backstory" and kicked off The Boundless Line.
Here's an excerpt: The articles we post each week never quite tell the whole story. Often it's in the email banter our articles kick off that things really get interesting. Other times it's in our weekly team meetings that our best stuff surfaces. Some days a hot issue dominates the news and we want to hit it from a Boundless perspective, but we know we won't be able to turn around a formal article while it's still fresh. We've always wanted to share more of this backstory with our readers and it's our hope that this can be the place for that. ...
Ultimately, we want this space to be more than just a hardcore fan area. We don't want to just add more words to the blogosphere. Instead, we hope to build with you a community of believers who care passionately about how faith in a boundless God intersects with this boundless season of our lives and that as a result our lives will bring Him glory.
Over this past year, we've realized that maintaining a blog can be a lot of work -- especially "feeding the beast" of regular content (we've now produced 855 posts) and going through the process of releasing lots of comments (14,666 and counting) -- especially the ones that take us to task. But we've also found that it's worth the headaches. We love the discipline of producing frequent posts, the vulnerability of submitting our thoughts up for your consideration and most importantly the relationships we feel growing deeper within the Boundless community.
To celebrate our one-year anniversary, we're going to dig up some of our favorite posts from the time before we hosted comments and give you a chance to join the conversation. Watch for those over the course of this week.
Thanks for a great first year.
The Boundless Line has been getting some recognition in the blogosphere recently. First, famed blogger Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost and Family Research Council Blog lists us as a top 100 Christian blog.
And now we've been nominated for Best Religion Blog by the Bloggers Choice Awards.
The Bloggers Choice Awards works like the Peoples Choice Awards or the All-Star Game, meaning it's up to the people! The rules are pretty simple. You sign-up, nominate and vote for any and as many blogs as you want. And nominees such as the Boundless Line are encouraged to solicit votes.
So this is me soliciting you to vote for us.
And thanks to all the Boundless Line contributors, readers and comment contributors. Recognition or no recognition, I think we've succeeded in building "a community of believers who care passionately about how faith in a boundless God intersects with this boundless season of our lives."
I was on vacation last week when it happened but I wanted to mark the passing of Dr. Harold O. J. Brown on Sunday, July 8, 2007. Dr. Brown was the founder of Care Net, a pro-life organization that supports a network of 1,090 pregnancy centers in North America.
Here's an excerpt from Care Net's press release: Considered one of the great theological and philosophical minds of our generation, Dr. Brown gave his life to impacting the culture with the hope and healing offered through Jesus Christ. After the Roe v. Wade decision, Dr. Brown was moved by the tragedy of abortion, both for the unborn child and the mother, and troubled by the apathy within the Protestant church. With the inspiration of philosopher Francis Schaeffer, and the guidance of Billy Graham and pro-life Catholic leaders, Dr. Brown founded the Christian Action Council in 1975. In 1980, one of the first pregnancy centers was opened in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1993, the organization changed its name to Care Net, with a new, laser-focused mission of mobilizing Christians to plant and support pregnancy resource centers.
In a 2003 interview with the Care Net Report, Dr. Brown spoke about the apathy within the Protestant church and of how Roe v. Wade caught evangelicals by surprise when the decision was handed down. It was Sunday night, the 21st of January and Arimond Nicolia (Professor at Harvard), including [myself] and others were gathered to discuss the impending decision. Dr. Lou Bird, then with the Christian Medical Society (later to teach at Grove City College, PA) said, "What are we to say regarding the extreme cases of abortion?" Most people thought only about the really "hard cases."
Then the next morning the Supreme Court dropped the bomb. But few Evangelicals really thought through the consequences of Roe v. Wade. The late A. W. Criswell (head of the Southern Baptist Convention) was critical of the early pro-life movement, saying essentially "we don't really know" what abortion is. Later, Criswell changed his mind and came out against it. The Evangelical response was weak. The mainline churches basically supported the decision as it was the "law of the land" and this was generally viewed as a good thing. The Baptists waffled, the Presbyterian Church USA, United Methodist Church and the Religious Coalition of Abortion Rights all supported abortion rights. Only the Presbyterian Church in America, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the various conservative Lutheran denominations opposed the decision.
It took the late apologist Francis Schaeffer to galvanize the Evangelical community against Roe v. Wade.
But as Kurt Entsminger, President of Care Net, said, it was Dr. Brown's rallying call that led hundreds of thousands of Christians to open pregnancy centers in their communities. And hundreds of thousands of children's lives have been spared from abortion as a result.
The Boundless Line blog is being featured this week on one of the top Christian blogs on the Web. Tim Challies of Challies.com highlights the Boundless Line in his King for a Week section along with RSS feeds from our latest posts.
Here's a portion of his write-up about Boundless:
King for a Week is an honor I bestow on blogs that I feel are making a valuable contribution to my faith and the faith of other believers ... or sometimes just because I really like them.... I met several of the brains behind Boundless while I was at the New Attitude Conference, even sharing a meal with them, and was blessed by getting to know them. They are a humble and godly crew who really do want to serve the church through this site.
Challies.com receives over 100,000 visits a month and has a top 2,000 Technorati.com ranking out of 71 million blogs. Tim is considered an acknowledged authority for book reviews and is one of the premier Christian "live bloggers" in North America. He has been invited to many of the major evangelical conferences this year, including John MacArthur's Resolved, Ligonier, New Attitude, and Together for the Gospel.
For our readers who aren't familiar with Challies, it's well worth a daily peek to get his take on what's going in the culture and the evangelical community.
If you're not a subscriber to our free e-newsletter, you really should be. Let me tell you why:
- You are notified of the week's freshest articles, sometimes before those articles even appear on the Boundless.org homepage.
- You get a bit of "backstory" to the articles.
- Sometimes I give our e-newsletter subscribers a heads-up on what we're working on for the coming week.
- We've offered product giveaways only available to e-newsletter subscribers.
- You express your appreciation for our work in a tangible way by signing up.
- We don't share your name or contact information outside out ministry. You won't be getting spammed. And if you decide you don't want to receive it any more, you're just a mouse click away from unsubscribing.
Here's an example of the e-newsletter I sent out two weeks ago, in which I spill the beans on forthcoming articles.
There are other reasons why you should sign up to receive our complimentary e-newsletter, but you'll have to find those out yourself by signing up now.
;-)
I came across a blog yesterday that got me thinking about adding "social bookmarking"-type links at the bottom of each post. Here are some examples:
- Digg This!
- Discuss on Newsvine
- Add to del.icio.us
- Reddit
- Share on Facebook
- Furl
Would any of you find these kinds of links on The Line useful, or are they just clutter? Are there other kinds of links you'd like to see at the bottom of our posts in addition to or instead of these?
We've received a couple of comments and e-mails recently accusing us of "censoring" reader comments.
The truth is that we publish the vast majority of comments, whether they agree with the original post or not, and whether the tone is cordial or not. We consider comments a wonderful way to allow our readers to provide their feedback (both positive and negative), to expand the discussion and to get to know each other.
Perhaps this is a good time to reiterate our comments-publishing policy, something I addressed head-on in January and something that's outlined on every blog page in the paragraph just above where you enter your comment.
At the outset, I need to correct the improper use of the term "censor." Censorship typically is something done by government officials in an effort to infringe on free speech; private individuals who make decisions about what to publish on their sites is not such an infringement. As a private organization, what we are doing is "moderating" -- choosing to publish those comments that facilitate conversation and further the discussion, and not publish comments that are vulgar, irrelevant, and otherwise detrimental to the conversation.
In the past several weeks, we've not published just a few comments: two were personal ads, one was a vicious attack against a blog moderator, one went over the top accusing us of "censoring" comments, one included too much intimate information, one used vulgarity, one misrepresented us, and one was from a man who talked about how he enjoys having sex with other men.
In none of these cases did we "censor" a comment because we disagreed with that comment. We're confident that our readers will be able to evaluate those comments we personally disagree with, and so we're not afraid to let them go through.
I also need to remind our readers that because each comment is not published until either Motte or I have a chance to read through it, sometimes it can take a day or two before your comment hits the site. We do take time between our other Boundless-related responsibilities to publish comments, and even review and publish them after work hours and on the weekends and holidays. That said, sometimes it may take more time than you'd like for your comment to be published.
As I did with my last post on this topic, I'd like to invite your comments about our policy as stated and as practiced. Please submit your comments below or e-mail them to us at editor@boundless.org.
We're having issues with our website's publishing system, so the three articles we have for this week haven't yet made it to the site. John's "Boundless Answers" column, which was to hit the site this past Monday, has also remained unpublished. I'm sorry about that.
In the meantime, here's a hint at what to expect.
Though there's nothing about dating, Purity Balls or global warming in any of these articles, I'm confident you'll still find them provocative.
The best way to know when these articles go live is to subscribe to our free e-newsletter. Let me encourage you to sign up if you haven't already done so.
In conjunction with the Mentor Series interview with Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort that we published yesterday, we're giving away a brand-new Way of the Master Basic Training Course to one of our e-newsletter subscribers. A $100 value, it includes the following:
- 8 lessons on 4 DVDs
- 4-CD Kit containing the audio portion of the teaching
- 120-page Study Guide (additional guides available)
- Quick Reference Card to help you remember what to say
- 300 "Icebreakers" (tracts) to get you started in witnessing conversations
- ... and more!
Are you interested in winning it, either for your own study or for use in a small group? First, make sure you're currently subscribed to our e-newsletter. Then, send us an e-mail letting us know why we should give it to you, and on Monday, March 5 we'll announce the winner in that day's e-newsletter. We apologize to our international readers, but we're unable to open this contest to those who live outside the United States.
If you're interested in knowing how to better share your faith with unbelievers, Way of the Master is for you. It's been commended by such Christian leaders as Ravi Zacharias, Joni Eareckson Tada, Josh McDowell, John MacArthur, and David Jeremiah. For more information, either read the article on Boundless, or visit their website.
Don't forget -- please submit your entry by midnight on March 4, as we're selecting the winner on March 5.
Every Thursday I write and send out an e-newsletter highlighting the week's articles and editorializing on whatever else strikes me as relevant at the time.
Upon re-re-reading today's e-newsletter, which I had just sent out to our 28,500 subscribers, I saw that two of the paragraphs began with "Finally." See what they saw here.
It's my understanding that in certain Asian countries, weavers intentionally insert a "flaw" into the rugs they make. Their explanation is that only God is perfect, and so out of a humble acknowledgement of their own imperfection they purposefully mess up a bit.
Whether my two Finally's are intentional or not, I'll leave up to my dear readers. Regardless, it serves as another reminder that God is perfect. And I am note.
We're having ongoing issues with our webservers. We are working on addressing these problems. I sincerely apologize that you have to endure them.
The articles scheduled to go live today in fact were published, but our homepage didn't update on schedule. While we're working on it, here's the list of fresh articles:
THE AMAZING WILBERFORCE by Drew Dyck
One man can make a difference. In 19th century England, that one man was William Wilberforce.
HOW NOT TO LOSE YOUR FAITH IN COLLEGE by Thabiti Anyabwile
If you don't want to lose your faith in college, you need a plan.
OPTIONAL ANXIETY by Roberto Rivera y Carlo
Wealth and fame are fine. But the fulfillment of high status is found somewhere a bit less glamorous.
Of course, if you are a subscriber to our e-newsletter, you already know this as I sent it out early this morning. Here's what it looks like. Not a subscriber yet? Click here to become one. It's free, and the editorials are pretty engaging. Sometimes.
This is a moderated blog. This means that all comments are approved by one of the Boundless staff before they go live.
The vast majority of comments -- whether they agree with the initial post or not -- are published. The disagreements serve to further the discussion. The agreements confirm and elaborate on the points made in our original posts. And it all makes for provocative and enjoyable reading.
But there are some comments that we choose not to publish. These posts fall into a variety of camps:
- They're spam (we received two of these just this morning).
- They're much too "personal," revealing too much detail about one's personal life to the point of causing readers to feel uncomfortable and potentially libeling someone mentioned in the comment.
- They're redundant, rehashing a point already made, sometimes merely with more fervor.
- They're unconstructively offensive (this includes vulgarities and over-the-top personal attacks).
- The commenter's e-mail address is not legitimate.
- They're merely contentious (we deleted, for example, some comments from an atheist pretending to be a Christian, who on his personal blog wrote about us: "I provoked a contributor at one of Focus on the Family's nutty blog sites into sounding like a [insert two vulgarities here]").
- I'm tempted not to publish comments from e e cummings wannabes, but I have yet to crack down on anyone who's spelling-challenged, grammar-challenged or capitalization-challenged.
Literally 99 percent of the 1,000+ comments we've received in the past couple of months have been published. If you're one of those select whose comment doesn't make it to the blog, please don't be offended. Instead, please try to practice grace and understanding toward those of us moderating this blog in the moments between our other responsibilities. If you do have a question about why your comment wasn't posted, feel free to either submit another comment with your inquiry or e-mail us directly at line@boundless.org.
What do you think of our policies about posting comments? Too harsh? Too permissive? Or in the words of Goldilocks, is it "just right"?
I'm taking a moment to mark comment number 1,000 on The Line. Another milestone: We recently had our 100,000th visitor. We truly appreciate all who read our blog and contribute to the conversation, conversation typically characterized by intelligence, relevance and civility.
As we move forward with our dialog, there will most certainly be disagreement. So let us remember the words of the late theologian Francis Schaeffer taken from his book The Mark of a Christian:
"The world must observe that when we must differ with each other as true Christians, we do it not because we love the smell of blood, the smell of the arena, the smell of the bullfight, but because we must for God's sake."
For a great exploration on how to practice such "for God's sake" dialog, check out the following Boundless articles, published four months ago when The Line made its debut: Blogging to Worship God and Blog Responsibly.
You may have noticed over the past day or so that the Boundless Line has a fresh new URL: www.BoundlessLine.org
Three things to note:
1) If you use a "news aggregator" such as Firefox, Bloglines, Safari, Windows RSS Platform or LiveJournal you may have to update your link to our site. Try simply using http://www.boundlessline.org/rss.xml
2) It's a whole lot simpler to remember "www.BoundlessLine.org" than the domain we previously used!
3) There's currently a glitch in Internet Explorer where you have to type in the "www" before the "BoundlessLine.org" -- for all other browsers, you can just use "BoundlessLine.org"
Enjoy!
Motte and Suzanne and I had a great time attending and presenting at the New Attitude singles conference six months ago. It's a conference that has it all: engaging speakers, great music, hip location and cool attendees (though I can think of a few exceptions among the presenters).
Here's a webpage where we discussed NA06 and link to some articles published on Boundless and written by Na speakers.
Anyway, I just got word that they'll be opening up early registration the week of Thanksgiving. Even though the conference isn't until the end of May, if you're thinking of going it may be a good idea to sign up early -- they're giving away five free registrations each day during the period Nov. 22-26.
Over the last six years, the one common theme in my career has been working to leverage media and marketing opportunities for ministry. It's something that has taken me to many conferences -- to peddle product, network or learn about the next big thing. Mostly, you just hope for some takeaway that proves worth the time and money of attendance.
God Blog Con 2006 provided that takeaway and more.
I was most impressed by two things: the humility and generosity of big name bloggers like Hugh Hewitt and Joe Carter, and the maturity and insight from twentysomething new media champions from Biola like Kevin Wang, Keith Buhler and Andrew Selby. There was no arrogance or self-promotion detected in the entire group, only the desire to leverage this new media for God's glory.
So in addition to peddling the Boundless Line through networking and gaining insight from expert bloggers and new media champions, I was encouraged and blessed by an overwhelming sense of our common bond in Christ and the single focus on His Glory. Isn't that the point of any Christian gathering?
And speaking of Christians, blogging and gathering, I would like to introduce a new guest blogger for the Boundless Line, Denise Morris. Denise is editor and writer for our sister website TrueU. We look forward to her insight and the unique voice she will bring to our discussion. Welcome Denise.
As I type this I'm sitting in a small auditorium near the Biola University library, surrounded by perhaps 100 other GodBlogCon attendees. To my left the event photographer crouches in the aisle, snapping a quick photo of me and my PowerBook — the quintessential blogger. On the stage, a few feet in front of me, sit Senatorial Candidate Allen McCulloch, La Shawn Barber, and John Mark Reynolds. Hugh Hewitt is sitting stage left and facing the three, acting as MC of this panel, titled "Godblogs and Culture."
Yes, we finally escaped the grip of beautiful snowy Colorado Springs and have made it to southern California. My luggage (with my business casual clothes and recording equipment and toothpaste) are in Columbus, Ohio (that's another God-is-sovereign-and-I-don't-understand-right-now story), but Motte and I have finally made it here.
Though we've arrived a day late, we have been making the most of it, pondering the responsibilities and opportunities of blogging and meeting other bloggers. We had a chance earlier this afternoon to hang out with Charmaine Yoest of the Family Research Council and Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost and the Family Research Council, for example, and found them both easy to talk with and very intelligent. Very exciting to meet two of my heroes of the blogosphere.
And despite not having my microphones and cables, we were able to borrow some stuff for our interview with Hugh Hewitt. What an engaging, gracious, keen-minded man. And what a great interview — we'll plan to have it online within a week.
Another highlight was being interviewed for the official GodBlogCon podcast. We're expecting it to hit their website within a couple of weeks. We'll be sure to let you know how you can listen to it.
Well, that's it for now. I'll post a wrap-up on Monday.
Well, Motte and I were indeed victims of what will surely become known as the Great Colorado Blizzard of '06.
Maybe "victims" isn't the right word.
It's true that our flight was cancelled, and that all flights out of Colorado Springs tomorrow are already filled, and that we're now having to drive to Denver at 5:45 a.m. to catch a plane to LAX. In that sense we're perhaps victims.
But the Lord, as I mentioned at the end of my previous post, is indeed sovereign. And He redeemed a day that had dozens of miles of our main freeway closed, that left three feet of snow in areas of my back yard, that made me walk through waist-deep snow to brush off the DirecTV dish.
It was mid-afternoon. After 12 hours of flurries, the snow had finally stopped falling. I heard a knock at the door. My neighbor asked if I wanted to help him shovel off my driveway. My driveway, which he was halfway through shoveling. I ran upstairs, put on my jeans and crunchycon wool shirt, pulled on my boots and crunchycon coat, and joined him in cleaning feet of snow from my driveway.
When we were nearly done, my wife noted the snow-covered driveway across the street, mentioning that she hadn't seen the family's husband/father for some time. I walked across the street, shovel in hand, and knocked on the door. Turns out he had deployed to Iraq a few days earlier, and wasn't scheduled to return for a year. A year.
I spent 45 minutes shoveling the neighbor's sidewalk and driveway, thinking all the time of the adventure the Lord might have in store for my wife and me and our neighbor. An adventure that has been rejuvenated because of a freak October snowstorm.
I confess that I also thought briefly of the conversation we've had recently regarding Halloween, and how some (I confess that I have tons and tons of respect for Tim Challies, though I don't entirely agree with this particular blog post) say it provides a unique opportunity to "prove" our Christian love for our neighbors.
But as I tossed the 150th shovelful of snow from my neighbor's driveway to her yard, I dismissed the thought. While I may be (very) disappointed that I'm not yet at GodBlogCon, rubbing shoulders with the movers and shakers of the blogosphere, the Lord did provide a wonderful opportunity to make another connection with a neighbor who I anticipate will become a friend over the coming months. A neighbor I otherwise might not have had the opportunity to serve in Christian love.
I'm typing this in my home office, snow beating against my window and collecting on the ground at an inch per hour. Looking out my window reminds me of the scene in Doctor Zhivago where his home is under mounds of snow. My UPS occasionally notifies me that power has been interrupted, making typing this post a bit of a challenge.
Yesterday was beautiful and warm. Today we're in the midst of a blizzard. The flight to LAX has so far not been cancelled, though I wouldn't be surprised if it is before too long.
I'm hoping we're able to make it to GodBlogCon, but at this point it looks like we'll be a bit late. Ah, the sovereignty of God....
"How best to bring the truth and power of Christ into a culture withering from lack of truth, goodness, and beauty?"
That's the question being addressed at the GodBlog conference that I wrote about earlier this month.
Motte and I are flying out a bit before noon tomorrow, likely in the midst of a Colorado blizzard, landing in sunny LAX a few hours later to begin rubbing iron-sharpening-iron shoulders with other Christian bloggers.
I'm personally looking forward to:
- pondering how we might improve The Line, as well as my personal blogging skills
- exploring with like-minded Christians how we might better honor the Lord through our online activities
- meeting other Christian bloggers (La Shawn Barber, Hugh Hewitt, Mark D. Roberts, Joe Carter, Patrick Hynes, Charmaine Yoest, James Kushiner, Andrew Jackson, Marvin Hutchens, Kevin Wang, Melinda Penner, Matthew Anderson, Fred Sanders, Paul Spears, Stacy Harp, John Schroder, Jan Lynn, Brenda McGill, Elizabeth Taylor, Alan McCann, Virginia Schroeder, John Schroeder, Dave Martina, Melinda Penner, Donald Sage, Robert Stevenson, Rob Asghar, John Mark Reynolds, Jen Wrobleski, Julia Kiewit, Natalie Joes, Dustin Steeve, Andrew Selby, Keith Buhler, Adam Groza, Pat Sikora, David Nilsen, Jennifer Hardy, and others)
- the interview we've scheduled with Hugh Hewitt
- eating a steak with Motte and hopefully a few of the folks listed above
- being pushed back in my seat as the 727 races down the runway
I'll plan to do some blogging about the conference while we're there -- check back tomorrow and Friday for the latest from the Boundless Line team's California adventure.
My kids came up with a little game a few weeks ago -- hide-and-seek with daddy's favorite new T-shirt. I got it from Boundless. They noticed that I wear it almost every day and thought it would be funny to have me look for it whenever I came home from work. It's fun because I'm really great at hide-and-seek.
The truth is, I do wear that T-shirt almost every day. Why? Because, well, it's the best T-shirt ever! It's soft and stretchy, and I love the color and design (by Boundless' very own Michael Heath). I'm usually not one to fuss over T-shirts (my others are from Target) but Mike introduced me to a whole new world of high quality T's that hold their form and don't shrink in the wash. So why not wear it every day?
Oh, and you can get one too by clicking here. By the way, I don't consider this a shameless plug because it's the truth.
Motte and I finally registered to attend the 3-day GodBlogCon in LA. GodBlog is an annual conference whose purpose is: how best to bring the truth and power of Christ into a culture withering from lack of truth, goodness, and beauty. New Media has already proven itself a potent cultural force, but the rules are changing and only the thoughtful will survive. GodBlogCon will exhort, equip, and encourage you and other Christians from all walks to engage the culture as thoughtful, articulate, and winsome witnesses of the redeeming work of Christ in every area of life!
Speakers include some of the blogosphere's greatest minds: La Shawn Barber, Hugh Hewitt, Mark D. Roberts, Joe Carter, Patrick Hynes, Charmaine Yoest, James Kushiner, Andrew Jackson, Marvin Hutchens, Kevin Wang, Melinda Penner, Matthew Anderson, Fred Sanders, Paul Spears, Stacy Harp, and John Schroder.
It's looking like attendance will be relatively small, which seems like a benefit to us, as we'll have more intensive one-on-one time with these New Media trailblazers. At this point, the couple dozen or so attendees include (in addition to the speakers above, of course): Jan Lynn, Brenda McGill, Elizabeth Taylor, Alan McCann, Virginia Schroeder, John Schroeder, Dave Martina, Melinda Penner, Donald Sage, Robert Stevenson, Rob Asghar, John Mark Reynolds, Jen Wrobleski, Julia Kiewit, Natalie Joes, Dustin Steeve, Andrew Selby, Keith Buhler, Adam Groza, Pat Sikora, David Nilsen, and Jennifer Hardy.
We're excited to be rubbing shoulders with these folks in a couple of weeks.
I'm just a bit disappointed that Bob Kauflin, Carolyn McCulley, Joshua Harris, Albert Mohler, Tim Challies, Dawn Eden, Justin Taylor and Alex and Brett Harris don't appear to have registered to attend....
As Ted mentioned, Christianity Today compiled a list of the "Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals," with our very own Dr. James Dobson making No. 29 with Dare to Discipline.
"In the permissive '70s," the article states, "Dobson did what he still does best -- calling us to focus on the family." Additionally, CT offers this disclaimer: These are books that have shaped evangelicalism as we see it today -- not an evangelicalism we wish and hope for. Books that have been published since World War II -- not every book in the history of Christianity. Books that over the last 50 years have altered the way American evangelicals pray, gather, talk, and reach out -- not books that merely entertained.We asked dozens of evangelical leaders for their suggestions, and they sent in their nominations. Then we vigorously debated as a staff as we ranked the 50 books. (We're still debating.)
"Of the making of books there is no end," a wise man once wrote. That leaves plenty to debate. But perhaps the best is still yet to come.
Thought about signing up for our free e-newsletter, but weren't sure what to expect?
First, what not to expect: You won't be getting spammed, as we have a strict policy at Boundless and Focus on the Family not to share your e-mail information (or any other information about you) with anyone outside our ministry.
You will, however, receive an e-newsletter when we update our site on Thursdays, and a brief reminder when we update our site on Mondays. Below is an excerpt of the e-newsletter I sent out yesterday.
There's a reason this e-newsletter is later getting to you than normal. My 10-month-old baby daughter, who's been sick with a fever for a couple of days (and nights), had a "febrile seizure" this afternoon. Pretty scary. And while at the hospital, without being provoked, a little girl punched my other daughter, a 2-year-old, in the face. Pretty infuriating.
Both are fine now, playing downstairs in the family room.
OK, let's see if I can tie this into our lead story. I think I can.
More and more married couples are choosing not to have children. In 1970, nearly 75 percent of women 25 to 29 were parents. Now it's under 50 percent. In the 70s, only 10 percent of women in their 40s were childless; that figure has doubled to 20 percent.
Does it matter? I think it does.
Those couples who choose not to have kids miss out on the surge of love and appreciation when they realize their baby girl's seizure isn't marking her transition to death. Couples who choose not to have kids miss out on the surge of parental protectiveness that welled up in my chest when I broke up the surreal fight in the hospital waiting room, and as I made sure the tiny pugilist didn't get too close to my girl.
It may be a cliché, but I've also found it to be true that having children has helped me to better understand the depth of the love and protectiveness the Lord has for me. Those who choose childlessness just can't grasp that vision the way those who've brought a life into being can.
This week Roberto further explores the issue of childlessness, as brought out in a recent report from The National Marriage Project at Rutgers University titled "The State of Our Unions 2006." We at Boundless have drawn a good deal from previous years' reports; this year is no different. (Don't miss Steve's blog entry on this report.)
Heather brings us our second article, an encouragement to godly-minded guys to give as much attention to their finances as to their character. Yes, it's an article that talks about money. Not always the most popular on Boundless. But let me encourage you men to read it — I found it very helpful and think you may as well.
Finally (what a long editorial this has become!), Suzanne is provoked by a movie she saw recently to come to the defense of married life, to try to diffuse the trendy lie that married life marks "the end" — of excitement, of creativity, of living. Today's roller coaster ride of anxiety and refreshed love testifies against that pernicious lie.
If you're interested in receiving a weekly reminder of new Boundless content, along with an engaging editorial written by the editor (hey, that's me!), just fill out the form beginning on this page.
Last week we invited those who subscribe to our free e-newsletter to give us their thoughts about Boundless via an online questionnaire. Now we've opened it up to non-subscribers.
We're eager to better understand those who read Boundless, to hear your opinions about how we're doing and how we could be doing better.
We do this only once every couple of years, so now's your chance to make your voice heard. Please consider taking a few minutes to complete the comprehensive (um, that means "kind of lengthy") questionnaire. We look forward to seeing what you tell us!
Seems that The Line isn't the only group ministry blog to debut in September. Also joining the blogosphere this month is The Point, a lively group blog sponsored by BreakPoint.
For those of you who can't get enough of Boundless author Roberto Rivera y Carlo, click over to The Point where he's one of five regular contributors.
Speaking of crafty writing, I had to laugh at Roberto's characterization of author Rod "I'm too crunchy for my shirt" Dreher....
Welcome to Boundless Line! We're thrilled that you've found your way here.
Beginning next Tuesday we'll be updating our blog several times per day, initiating discussions from our own research, exploring issues others are talking about, and posting your e-mails.
Not sure what to expect? Consider the following paragraphs from the press release we sent out yesterday: Featuring multiple daily posts from longtime Boundless editors and writers, The Line will reach out to Christian singles in a new and innovative way, providing relevant and thought-provoking commentary and insight for one of the most challenging periods of life. The goal is to establish an intelligent, meaningful, sustained, and faith-centered voice among blogs while giving single adults the content they want and need in the format they prefer.
Motte Brown, Focus on the Family's Family Formation Ministry Manager and one of the blog's creators, also insists The Line will be more than just chatter. "We have an alternative view from the prevailing cultural voices that suggest '30 is the new 20,'" he says. "A blog gives us an opportunity to speak daily with twentysomethings, to inject a sense of intentionality into the single years."
I couldn't have said it better myself. We look forward to engaging you in some great discussions.
It was around this time of year back in 1998 — an eon ago in Internet time — that we were desperately trying to come up with a name for a new Webzine. Focus on the Family had approved a new publication for a college and young adult audience and made the decision to publish it online. The mission and editorial concepts were coming together, but our name brainstorms hadn’t given us anything we liked. Veritas and The Edge were leading contenders, but didn’t quite feel right. At home, Candice and I started thumbing through books on our shelf to see if anything would jump out. In one of my old college literature books, I came across the closing lines of a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley called Ozymandias (entire poem and background at Wikipedia):
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains: round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.
The word “boundless” jumped out at me. It wasn’t so much the concept of a “boundless and bare” desert I thought of. It was the idea of the college and single years as this wide open, go anywhere, do anything season of life. And then I thought about how boundless God is — able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. What nailed it was when Candice and I made the connection that because we were going to be publishing online our content would be unbound or "bound-less."
[For a peek at what Boundless looked like in those early days, check out the snapshots captured by Archive.org]
Backstories like this have always been a part of Boundless. The articles we post each week never quite tell the whole story. Often it’s in the email banter our articles kick off that things really get interesting. Other times it’s in our weekly team meetings that our best stuff surfaces. Some days a hot issue dominates the news and we want to hit it from a Boundless perspective, but we know we won’t be able to turn around a formal article while it’s still fresh. We’ve always wanted to share more of this backstory with our readers and it’s our hope that this can be the place for that. Look for posts here from Candice Watters, the founding editor of Boundless and Suzanne Hadley, a popular regular contributor. You can also expect posts from the Boundless leadership team, including Ted Slater (Boundless editor), Motte Brown (Family Formation manager) and myself (Young Adults Director).
Ultimately, we want this space to be more than just a hardcore fan area. We don’t want to just add more words to the blogosphere. Instead, we hope to build with you a community of believers who care passionately about how faith in a boundless God intersects with this boundless season of our lives and that as a result our lives will bring Him glory.
Copyright 2008 Focus on the Family. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. The Line and Boundless Line are trademarks of Focus on the Family.
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