About This Blog

Mar. 2020 - Present.

20 Years, 40 Books: Reflecting on the Words that have Shaped Me. Click the link to read more.

Dec. 2014 - Mar. 2020

5+ years of silence after posting a reflection on silence. I wish I could say I planned that and disciplined myself to stick to it. Alas, as with so much in life, it just happened. I have to admit, though, that it worked out quite well.

Sept. 2014 - Nov. 2014


It has been a long time. I haven't posted in 5 months, and I haven’t posted regularly in far longer. However, this is about to change. 

Beginning this Sunday, Sept. 7th,  I am going to post three times a week. On Sunday I will post a ‘Pastor’s Word’, on Tuesday I will post a book review, and on Friday I will post something miscellaneous.

Pastor’s Word: Every week at my church, in our Sunday bulletin, one of the pastors writes what is called a ‘Pastor’s Word.’ There are almost no content guidelines, except that they need to be 350-400 words long. Personally, I have only done this four times, and I have written them as devotionals. I will continue that here, and post one every Sunday. Some of them will be the very same that I have written for our church bulletin.

Book Reviews: The format of my book reviews will remain unchanged. I will tell you what the book is about, tell you what I thought of it and why, and summarize my recommendation. What will change are the books I review. In the past I have largely reviewed books which I received in exchange for the promise of a review. Now I will be reviewing two kinds of books: books I want to recommend to you and books that placed in me a need to write or respond.

Miscellaneous: This ought to be fairly self-explanatory.  

A few caveats: 
Life happens; things may change. 
I reserve the right to post more often. 
No doubt I will change this schedule someday, perhaps soon. For now, I am committed to following this three post a week schedule until near Christmas of 2014. At that time I will likely take a Christmas break, re-evaluate, and see where to go from there.


As always, thanks for reading, and do let me know your thoughts, requests, and so on. 

P.S. Yes, Snook, if you end up reading this: I do plan on eventually getting to at least some of the books you have asked me to review.

Feb. 2013 - Sept. 2014
All that is below is currently not applicable. This blog used to be a combination of book reviews and personal reflection on various topics. Then, for personal reasons (which I briefly, in veiled and cryptic fashion, reflected on here) I stopped posting for several months. Since returning, I have posted nothing but poetry (my own and others). I have left my original "About this Blog" here. If you read anything posted before February of 2013, then it is an accurate description. In the meantime, answers to a few questions: Is this now a poetry blog? I don't know. Will I go back to posting reviews and personal reflections? I don't know, but probably. 

Prior to Feb 2013:

A cursory browse over recent posts will likely, depending on the date, show you that half or more of what I do here is review books. I enjoy reading, I do it a lot, and I think you should to. Not only that, but there are publishing companies out there who will give me free books if I review them. Mostly, this is win-win (except when the book is terrible!). If you want to know more about my book reviews, check out my Book Review Guide.

Now, you may wonder, what about the other half of this blog? Well, that half is reflections and thoughts on whatever I happen to be reflecting and thinking upon. I say it like that so that I have a wide open door to trip through whenever I feel like it. Realistically, most of what I post (other than book reviews) falls into 4 categories:

Personal - My life, my family, my church, and the lessons, trials, tragedies, and laughs therein.
Cultural - The world is a crazy place and sometimes I can't help myself; I have to leap into the fray and add my comments to the billions of others out there.
Spiritual - I am a husband and a father and a pastor. I have a vested interest in this topic and you will find it liberally mixed in with everything else I post.
Theological - Thoughts on theologians, theological ideas, debates, etc.

Right, so there is your brief intro to my blog. Now go read some of it :)

What? Where should you start? Well... hmmm... my most popular book review to date is this one. Here is an example of a culturally focused post which got a lot of hits. And, for a third recommendation, here is a more personal and spiritual post that people seemed to enjoy (complete with pictures of my children).

One other thing: I always appreciate input from my readers. If there is a topic you want me to blog about, a book you want me to review, questions, request, etc. please pass them on.

Popular posts from this blog

Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty

Forgiveness: A Hard Word From Luther

A Good Tree Bears Good Fruit....