Life + Faith

Tag: Writing

  • Published: Grace In Relationships – The Youth Minister And The Volunteer

    A few days ago I had a post published at Rooted Ministry. This is part of a series about ‘Grace In Relationships’. I focussed on what it means to extend grace as a Youth Pastor to those who are committed volunteer leaders in your church.

    “Often, relationships can be made complicated in unhealthy ways. However, when grace is the marker in a relationship – youth ministry volunteer or otherwise – that which seems complicated becomes easier. Truth is eventually able to be spoken, forgiveness is able to be given and received, and love and kindness shines through. If you’re sceptical, look no further than the grace given to us through Christ Jesus. I encourage you to seek to make grace the centre of your relationship with your volunteers, as I believe it will not only transform the culture of your youth ministry to another level, but also transform your own heart.”

    You can read the whole post here.

  • Published: The Whole Duty Of The Whole

    I’ve had my third piece published at Rooted Ministry. This time I seek to conclude a week long series about how Ecclesiastes speaks to today’s teenager. You can read it here.

    “As we have found over the course of our series, Ecclesiastes speaks powerfully to the postmodern teenager. May we help our teens to scratch through the heavy layers of their circumstances, performance, jobs, relationships, and perhaps even through their selfies to find the real answer to that hard question: why am I here?”

  • When You’ve Been Writing For 8 Years And Your Blog Still Sucks

    I’ve been writing on this blog, on and off, for about eight years.

    And yep, my blog still sucks.

    There are probably a number of reasons the blog sucks. The writing. The topics. The lack of consistency in publishing posts. The poor promotion, even though it is the age of social media.

    I don’t like to think about these reasons. It’ll send me into a spiral.

    But, yeah, the blog sucks.

    When You've Been Writing For 8 Years And Your Blog Still Sucks

    Any person with basic mathematical skills will work this out when they read my stats. A blog’s stats are like Microsoft Excel to an accountant, they measure and tell the story of the site. They help the owner of a blog calculate how well they’re doing.

    Well, my stats tell me that my blog sucks.

    I’m not even sure if I should tell you my stats. I don’t see this as a done thing in the blogosphere. Everyone is so secret about it.

    Here goes.

    • So far this year I’ve had 2000 post or page views. The most views in a year was 2016, at just over 2500.
    • The most views are directly to my homepage. In terms of the most viewed post, the winner is an obscure post about Christian persecution in the Middle East from 2014.
    • I have 97 people who follow this blog through WordPress or via email.

    So as I was saying, my blog sucks.

    There are days I want to blow it up. To detonate it and send it into internet oblivion. To see it gone from the history of the web forever. I then wonder whether anyone else would like to see this happen too.

    But then there are days where I just want to keep plugging away. To keep trying to publish regularly. To write things and let the world have them. To create and put out into the world thoughts, reflections, and understandings that might have an impact on someone.

    And so I don’t and won’t blow it up right now. I won’t hit the switch. I won’t delete my words from the interwebs.

    I’ll keep going.

    I’ll keep posting.

    I’ll keep writing.

    Because at the end of the day I have seen improvement. I enjoy the writing process and putting things out there for others to consider. I am pleased with some of what I have written. It’s not about the stats but my own growth in my writing.

    But, yeah, my blog still sucks.

    This post is a free writing exercise in response to The Daily Post topic ‘Detonate‘.

  • Published: The Encounter At The Well

    Having been on staff for Global Interaction here in Victoria I’ve been able to write a few things for them in the past. I ended up helping out in writing some of their May Mission Month bible study material for young adults this year.

    You can find it here.

  • Published: Ecclesiastes For The Student Minister

    I’ve had a piece published at Rooted Ministry today.

    “Oh how comforting the Teacher of Ecclesiastes is when he reminds us that in a few years, no one will remember us! All that work and toil we’ve undertaken in our ministries will be long forgotten. The weeks and months and years of investing in people, seeking to help them know Jesus and grow in Jesus, becomes a distant memory.

    It’s like the Teacher is trolling each of us.”

    You can read the whole thing here.

    Other published writing can be found here.