My friend Soup mentioned on Facebook that Real Live Preacher (aka Gordon) is hanging up his blog. I've been blogging for about 6 years and back in those heady days of blogging, his blog was one of the big ones every Christian blogger seemed to know about.
His writings were always frank and honest, sometimes brutally so, and quite deep. He was not afraid to talk about his very real doubts and reservations swirling in his mind. When he started, he was a preacher, but resigned from that position some time ago.
I wasn't a regular reader, but when I did stop by I was drawn into his writings, especially the fiction. In fact, his fictional re-tellings of Biblical stories inspired me to write one of my own, though it pales compared to his.. Here's a taste, hopefully it will inspire you to go and have a read:
Jesus had stopped for a moment and was conferring with his disciples when he suddenly and purposefully made his way toward us. It was as if he was deliberately walking in our direction, almost as if he needed something from us. I would have sworn he briefly looked me right in the eye. As he grew nearer, I could hear him talking with his guys, they were discussing dinner plans, actually, about feeding the whole crowd. They were quite near and had stopped just a stone's throw away. It seems Jesus expected his men to feed the crowd and they had nothing. Silly fools, caught unprepared. Of course with a crowd this size, as one of them pointed out, it would take a lot of food.It was then that I noticed Joshua, my oldest at 11. He had our basket in his hand, looking up at me. He had heard the teacher talking. "Daddy," he said to me, "we could share our lunch."
Thinking of RLP reminds me of those early blogging days, before the expedients of Facebook and Twitter, when a blog was the easiest way to share your thoughts with the world. I miss those days. The end of RLP is one more reminder that they are gone. But, as he points out in his closing post, everything has a season. The season of 'blogs' seems to be passed, but that's OK.
I don't think the season of the blog has passed. It is just a different genre and requires a little more time and thought. I like to hope that at a different time in life you'll have time again - your deep thoughts are worth reading.
Thanks Jenny. I hope to return to it more regularly at some point.
What I was referring to, however, was not my personal season of blogging, but to the larger trend on the internet. When I started back in 2004 (!), blogging was in it's heyday. There were lots of bloggers and most posted several times a week, many daily. The community was close knit in many ways and I met and got 'know' several folks that way, including Soup mentioned above.
Many of those blogs are gone and those that remain are updated less often. So, the wider 'season' for blogging has passed and we are now in the 'season' of Twitter & Facebook. Perhaps that 'season' will pass too and blogs will have somewhat of a renaissance. Or maybe something new will hit the internet and Twitter & Facebook will see their seasons pass as well.
I see your point - and maybe I'm just behind the times - but I still read several blogs and appreciate the venue that allows deeper thoughts expressed more eloquently than the short venues of Facebook and Twitter. I see it as the difference between chatting on the phone for a few minutes and sitting down over dinner, dessert, and coffee for a great time of conversation and fellowship.
Thanks for the kind word. I think I agree about the golden age of blogging having passed. In the early days, blogs were where a lot of wonderful conversations took place. But now facebook seems to be that place. However, blogs have a purpose. I'm still sorting out what role they will be playing.
I used to read the RLP blog too Doug. It was a different time back then. Most of the folks that followed my bloggings back then don't blog much anymore. I miss those days but still blog because it is fun. When it stops being fun I will stop.
I do agree that micro-blogging, ala FB and twitter, seems to be the in thing these days. I do like FB and regularly dialog with folks there about all sorts of hot topics.
I don't think blogging is gone nor will be. It's not the craze but maybe that's the way it should be. Your voice has more of a voice with fewer of them out there.
I don't do Facebook and Twitter. I don't really have anything against them or know much about them but I have enough trouble keeping up with whats going on in my wife and kids lives. And, it promises only to get harder.
That may be why I don't blog. Sometimes I think man I've done a lot of research finding this cool product maybe someone would like to see it. Or I've got a conviction on that I'd like to share. I'm not sure if I got the discipline for it though and not sure I want to pay for it to be out there either. I appreciate you doing it though.
Gordon - Thanks for stopping by.
I agree with you and BEG that blogs still have a purpose, it's just that it's changed. It's the way things evolve and change.
And I too am trying to sort out the place that blogging belongs in my life now. Not ready to give up on it, but not as involved in or enthused about it as I once was.