Scott Freeman

A Blog Reevaluation

Next months this blog will see it’s 3rd anniversary. Except for times I have been on vacation I have been fairly consistent about blogging 4-5 times per week.
About a year and a half ago I did a series entitled “How Did I Get Here” a 10 part look at my move away from fundamentalism to just plain mental. That series seemed to introduce me to a number of people and since then I have been able to build friendships that I never would have been able to create otherwise.
About a year ago I began a series on non-violence that, although far from producing consensus, was a fruitful discussion from people of differing perspectives.
About 6 months ago many of you walked with me through a low time for our family with Cassie’s diagnosis, my depression and a bad job situation.

And now, I face a new year and the beginning of a fourth year of blogging having asked myself the question repeatedly over the last few weeks: Do I need to continue to blog?

I look back over the last few months and see less substance than I had just a year ago. Part of that has been where I was at at the time and an unwillingness to delve too deep during a period of transition. Part of it has been an inability to place into words that are conducive and productive exactly where I am on my journey.
Another factor has been a weariness with having to defend myself when others are unwilling to ask new questions.

To say that I am a different person than I was when I began this 3 years ago is a vast understatement. And that may make things more difficult for me to properly express at times.

I’m pretty sure I want to keep doing this. It’s been way too important a forum for me to work through issues and develop relationships with people who were on the same journey.

However, I want more substance to what I blog about. And so here is my direction in the coming year: I will engage more in where I am at in my study and reading. I am not an intellectual or a theologian but I am continually trying to delve into that world and gain understanding. As a result I will be talking more about difficult and troublesome topics such as atonement, intelligent design, biblical criticism, the nature of sin, the environment and the emerging church. These are the issues that have my attention and so I will share where I am at.

I will write these things not as someone who has answers but someone who finds himself in a rather heterodox position striving to put into words how this Jesus is relevant and real to our lives today.

I hope that you will join me in this discussion. As always I hope that it can be done with the utmost civility and respect. There are issues a-plenty that face the church in this post-modern society. It is up to us to face them head-on with intellectual and theological honesty. I hope this blog can be one small part of the larger conversation.

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