8 Blogs You May Not Be Following But Should

Mike Leake 15 Comments

In order to put together my Read This! feature on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, I follow a couple hundred blogs. I usually read blogs through Feedly. Since Google Reader died a couple years ago this has been my go-to aggregator. Every morning I go through the new articles which have posted and star some for future reading or linking purposes. Here are some of my favorite authors that are a bit lesser-known.

I’m not sure if it’s an honor or an insult to make this list. I’m defining lesser known based on either number of Feedly subscribers, Twitter followers, or Alexa Rank. “Lesser known” is an arbitrary number, I realize. In the grand scheme of things even someone like Tim Challies is “lesser known” to the wider world. But in the world of blogs he’s the king. So I’ve just picked a few numbers, using my own numbers (since I’m a “lesser known”) as a basic benchmark. I’d say in a year or so none of these will qualify as lesser known.

These I’ve also tried to only include blogs which update at least relatively frequently. There are many great writers who have either been swallowed up by the TGC monster or they’ve simply stopped writing with frequency. I haven’t included them.

1. Nick Batzig at Feeding on Christ. I’m not sure Nick belongs on this list. Not because he isn’t a good writer, but because he’s moving on from the category of “lesser known”. He is a terrific and thought-provoking writer. I’m always challenged by his work.

2. Aaron Earls at The Wardrobe Door. There is lots of CS Lewis stuff here. This, I believe, also greatly influences Aaron’s take on cultural events. He always has a fresh perspective that I appreciate.

3. Melissa Edgington at Your Mom Has a Blog. How can you not love a blog with this title? A couple years ago I made a conscious effort to add more ladies to my blogroll. Melissa was one of these, and I’m glad I did.

4. Samuel James at Inklingations. Samuel is one of the better writers out there. He blogs now with Mere Orthodoxy, so technically a group blog, but he is worth breaking my rule. More people need to be reading and interacting with Samuel James.

5. Courtney Reissig. Courtney has written a couple of excellent books. She blogs somewhat regularly and is always though-provoking. She will at times go a month or so without blogging, but when she does write it’s always worth reading.

6. Aaron Armstrong at Blogging Theologically. Aaron has been doing this blogging thing for awhile (like me). I’m not sure if he belongs on this list, but I’d hate for anyone not to have him on their blog rolls. Aaron does a roundup of links (like our Read This! feature) and he also has a growing podcast.

7. Jen Oshman. Jen and her husband are church-planting missionaries. I’m relatively new to her writing but I’m liking what I’m reading so far. She is another one that I bet will be widely known soon.

8. Knowable Word. I know I wasn’t supposed to do group blogs, but I just discovered this one. I love the tagline “Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible”. That’s their goal. And they do a good job of meeting it. Maybe I’m late to the party and every one else already knows about this blog. But I didn’t…so there you have it.

If you’ve got a lesser known blog leave me a comment. I’d love to add it to my feedly. There are so many good blogs and writers out there. I wish blogs were as active as they were a few years ago. It seems like Twitter/Facebook and group blogs have really changed the game. But I still love a good blog. And you’d do well to add these eight to your subscriptions.

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How Easter Giveaways and ‘Dynamic Speakers’ Can Be Counter-Productive

Mike Leake

I’ve written in the past why I’m not a big of Easter giveaways, or really much that comes out of an attractional model of doing church. Simply put, I don’t believe it produces what it wants to. You aren’t going to get self-denying followers of Jesus when the “bait” you used to hook them was an appeal to selfishness.

Here is another reason why I believe things like Easter giveaways and promoting dynamic speakers or worship leaders or anything of the sort is counter-productive to the gospel. I’ll illustrate this with an imaginary experiment.

Imagine with me that I’m going to do an experiment with a couple of plants. I want to prove my theory that plants which listen to country music die at a much faster rate than those that listen to classic rock. So I set the plants…plant A the country music plant and plant B the classic rock one. I set them up in a different window to make sure they get plenty of light. Plant A I put in a window which gets about 30 minutes of light per day, and plant B gets about 6 hours of good sunlight. I also put some soil in there. For plant A I put it in a nice little soil that I created with a few rocks and also a couple different seeds from various plants. Plant B I get some fertilizer and good potting soil from True Value. I also make sure to do my watering every morning—I don’t want to be unfair. So every morning I give plant A it’s drink of some Round-up plant killer. And plant B I give a healthy dose of water. And now for the finishing touches, I turn on the radio for plant A and have it only listen to country music. For plant B I set up a play list of classic rock.

At the end of 3 weeks my theory is confirmed and the plant listening to only country music is already dead while the one listening to classic rock is doing well and thriving. Thus proving my theory that classic rock is better for plants—and for your soul—than country music.

You aren’t convinced by my experiment are you? And that is because I have way too many variables. A good science experiment requires me to have only one variable—in this case, the music. If you have too many variables you cannot prove that what really caused the plant death or growth was the music.

It’s the same way with the gospel. If you have a faithful but relatively dull speaker who has zero converts compared to a dynamic speaker who gets 300 decisions, can you really say it was the gospel which did the work?

This is what Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. Corinth was a culture which was prone to chase after teachers of rhetoric. Remember that story in Scripture when pagans wanted to worship him as a god because of his fine speaking skills? Paul could bring it. But Paul didn’t want a host of variables when he came to Corinth. This is why he came not with a bunch of things but he came only preaching the gospel—the offensive, Christ and Him crucified gospel.

Why does Paul do this? Because he didn’t want anyone to be able to say, “Dude, let’s be honest, people responded because you put together such a riveting talk. That’s why they were excited.”

The more we move away from simple gospel proclamation and simple gospel methodology the more variables we are putting into the equation. And the more we do this the more we are robbing God of His glory and the display of His power. If it takes giving away a car to get people in your church then you can’t credit this with the power of God. Even if once they get in there “God really works” and people make decisions. How can a skeptic not treat this as just someone responding to the gifts you’ve given them? Slipping the gospel in the backdoor isn’t just dishonest, it’s detracting.

Why not love people and preach a simple gospel. Wouldn’t it be better for folks to be scratching their heads wondering how “you did it”? If you can put bottle it, put it in a book and sell it, then I’m really not sure how we can credit the power of God and not human ingenuity.

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Read This! 03.15.18

Mike Leake

17 Statements Credobaptist and Paedobaptist Can Affirm

This is why this isn’t a first tier issue.

Porn Is Not the Worst Thing on Music.ly

I wasn’t aware of this app. Good to know. (Also note there might be some unfavorable images on this article).

Did the Laodicean Church Write a Letter?

Interesting nerd grammar stuff.

Why Controversy Is Sometimes Necessary

There is a time to fight…it’s just knowing when that is that is difficult.

The Poison We Pick

It’s an epidemic here in Southwest MO.

How Can Parents Encourage Kids to Own Their Faith as They Grow Up?

These shouldn’t be surprising insights, but they are.

The Strange and Surprising History of Daylight Saving Time

I abhor losing an hour of sleep…but I love quirky articles like this one.

The Day I Discovered an African American Theologian

It would do us well to discover these obscured voices.

Can a Christian be demon possessed?

What That Missing Letter to the Laodiceans Can Teach Us About Platform

Mike Leake 1 Comment

Writing and preaching have at least one thing in common. Unpredictability. I’ve prepared sermons thinking that it’ll be one that might generate a decent amount of response. Then I preach it….crickets. Same thing happens with articles I write. I’ll put tons of effort into an article…crickets. I’ll just throw something up and the next thing I know it’s getting tons of traffic and shares.

I suppose another thing preaching and writing has in common is that neither are ultimately about response. The Christian preacher and the Christian writers chief aim is faithfulness. We want to be helpful to as many people as the Lord allows—but we also shouldn’t pursue a bigger platform than what the Lord has equipped us for.

I say that, but I’ll confess it can be discouraging at times to labor and labor with little response. There are Monday’s when I question everything. In some of the darker times I question whether I’m called to preach or called to write. I think about shutting it all down. And I’m also realistic enough to know that I could shut down my preaching and my writing ministry and within not much time at all it’d be a non-event. I say that not depressively but truthfully. The kingdom doesn’t need me.

But I still write. And I still preach. I do this because it’s what I’m supposed to be doing today. I’m a slave of Christ. I’m not a slave to public opinion, to performance polls, or to how much traffic is generated.

My model in this is Paul. He knew what it was like to be at the lowest points and the highest points. He knew what it was like to abound and what it was like to be in need. I’d say if he was a writer he’d say he knows what it’s like to be heard and to be ignored. In fact, Paul actually did have a few letters that we know didn’t make the cut.

Colossians 4:16 mentions a letter that Paul wrote to the church at Laodicea. It’s gone. The same with a couple of his letters to the Corinthians. Gone. Never to be read again. They might have made an impact in the moment, they might even have ripple effects into our day, but they are lost. They’ll never get that credit. When the Spirit compiled the New Testament, those letters which Paul labored over didn’t get the same play as his letter to the Colossians. They didn’t make the cut.

And I bet he is okay with that.

I doubt Paul is frowning in the presence of Jesus. I doubt he is sweating his discarded letter to the Laodiceans. Can you see Paul pouting because his platform could have been just a little bigger? Or if Paul did write Hebrews (which is doubtful) can you imagine him angered that some people, like Luke or Apollos, have gotten credit which belonged to him?

Paul was a slave. Slaves don’t care much about platform. They’ll stand on whatever sized soapbox the King gives them. No matter if that platform is a few rotting boards used as steps to the gallows or if it’s the largest stage in the biggest auditorium.

I’m not praying that the Lord will increase my borders. I’m just praying that He will find me a faithful slave.

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