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I’m not wired like everyone I have interacted with on this platform.
I’m not very thick skinned and don’t particularly enjoy controversy—especially among people I truly believe are my forever-family.
So, why do I hang around? Here’s my personal social media “philosophy.”
I’m not very thick skinned and don’t particularly enjoy controversy—especially among people I truly believe are my forever-family.
So, why do I hang around? Here’s my personal social media “philosophy.”
For one thing, I stay here because I really do like following and interacting with people—some who think like me, those who don’t, and those who I find interesting.
I especially want to encourage fellow believers, pastors, and students of the Word when and where I can.
I especially want to encourage fellow believers, pastors, and students of the Word when and where I can.
About me: I am a SBC pastor and school administrator who is, by training, a theologian. I went to school a really long time and wrote a lot of my words on a PhD dissertation, not because I wanted to be a company man, an elitist, or a know-it-all academic.
I pursued advanced theological training because I wanted to be a better preacher of God’s Word, and I really sensed God calling me to use the spiritual gifts he gave me to help ministry students where I can.
I presently serve as an administrator in a small, rural Christian university where a significant portion of our students (if not the majority) do not know Jesus.
I also get to teach theology, apologetics, preaching, and other cool stuff I like to study.
I also get to teach theology, apologetics, preaching, and other cool stuff I like to study.
I have been tasked with incorporating the Christian worldview into our curriculum at every level with the hope that the men and women who attend our school will be transformed by the good news and learn to think about the world from a biblical lens.
Pray for me when you think about it. It is a herculean task, but I have lots of incredible evangelistic and disciple-making opportunities every single day.
I get to tell kids who are caught plagiarizing that Jesus died to rescue them from cheating. That's always fun.
I get to tell kids who are caught plagiarizing that Jesus died to rescue them from cheating. That's always fun.
I am paid by church-supported denominational entities—the Arkansas Baptist State Convention and New Orleans Baptist Convention—but I care next to nothing about denominational politics or infighting. I want to prioritize the churches we serve.
On this website, I usually operate in good faith that the people who work for churches and my denomination have been well trained and have an orthodox confession of faith. Without access to the hearts and minds of others, I also only have their public profession to go by.
(FWIW, folks too frequently confuse incorrect or poorly stated theological ideas with “heresy” or “false doctrine,” and I have written about that a lot elsewhere.)
Though I will use this free website to talk about things I have written, I really have no interest in building a platform of influence with strangers who think well of me or who don't. May people forget about us and remember Jesus!
All the social media attention can be a flesh-feeding drug anyway. If we live for likes and retweets, we already have our reward in full when we receive them.
I also often struggle with impostor syndrome, feeling like I know far less than anyone else. (And often do.)
In my own battle with self-doubt and sin, I will need to preach the gospel to myself. Satan the accuser can puff me up or seek to depress me, but I am only what I am because of Jesus.
Jesus can take credit for all the good in my life. He has also had victory over all my failures and shortcomings.
Ironically, for someone like myself who struggles with the sin of people pleasing, the critiques and pushback can be soul crushing. I don’t like strangers or people I hardly know saying mean things about me. Who does?
We sometimes forget that even a platform like this is not a place where we exchange ideas in isolation of real people with real feelings.
I may get frustrated with some folks, as well as the constant nah-nah that goes on around here, but then I remember: I should love all of you because Jesus loves all of you.
Even if I don’t like what you say or do, I will choose to love you. (I don’t have to know you personally to love you either.)
I genuinely do desire to represent Jesus faithfully and compellingly here—to those who know him and those who don’t.
I genuinely do desire to represent Jesus faithfully and compellingly here—to those who know him and those who don’t.
I do long for a day when we who are professing believers would be full of grace AND truth. It is easy to overemphasize one over and against the other.
I much prefer us take the battle for truth to the lost and dying world and extend grace and mercy to fellow imperfect brothers and sisters.
One day, I am going to have give an account to God about how I have used this website. So, I am determined to use it well.
