Blogotional

GodBlogCon concludes this morning, but alas, the vagaries of life demand my presence elsewhere, and so it is time to reflect. First of all, it was a wonderful experience. The people were grand, it was just great to meet them. Last night as Mrs. Blogotional and I said our good-byes to some people there were hugs. Hugs with people I had known less that 36 hours -- Hugs because the presence of God is an overwhelming force in the binding together of people. That will forever be the greatest impression I have of the conference, just good people who worship a Great Lord.

I cannot say enough about and in thanks to this man. This is Matt Anderson, who blogs at Mere Orthodoxy. Matt did all the heavy lifting to put this conference together, worked like a dog - DID A FANTASTIC JOB. It is he that invited me to take the rather visible role that I did and I enjoyed it immensely. Thanks Matt, you'll never know.

Anyone who attended the conference owes Matt a huge thanks and God bloggers around the world, regardless of attendance also owe him thanks. I have a suspicion that someday, history will look back on this conference, maybe not as important, but certainly as a beginning of something wonderful and that beginning will be largely a result of the extraordinary efforts of this man.

Now Matt, rest well and enjoy being married!

I also owe a huge thanks and these three men -- left-to-right they are David Wayne - Jollyblogger; Joe Carter - Evangelical Outpost; Andy Jackson - SmartChristian. This was the plenary panel that it was my honor to moderate. These are great guys on the front edge of Christian blogging. They did a great job and it was really nice of them to treat me as they did.

When I talk about the good people I met -- these are the first that come to mind. They are great men of God and I enjoyed working with them on this.

And this picture? Well, this picture is the most FUN I had at the conference. This is your humble blogger appearing on the Hugh Hewitt radio program. Having gotten to know Hugh a bit during this summer's sojourns he is a lot of fun, and he kicks it up a notch when he broadcasts so it was just great to do a couple of segments with him.

Hugh broadcast the show live from the conference and it included the "Movie hour" that he always does on the last hour of the broadcast week with The Unblinking Eye. Always a favorite of mine when listening to the show, watching Hugh do it live was just a hoot. The best thing about Hugh's show is his ability to do very serious stuff, but not take himself too seriously, and to understand that even the serious stuff is not the deepest stuff of life. Thus he approaches the show with sense of mirth and lightness that makes it my favorite talk show on the radio dial.

The movie hour is the perfect cap to a week of broadcasting., It sets a mood not only for the show but for the listeners over the weekend. I just love it.

Finally, this picture is the "super-plenary" from Friday night. Also a panel discussion, this time moderated by Hugh whom you see standing in front there, the panel featured, left-to-right John Mark Reynolds - Mark Roberts - and, hidden behind Hugh's not-inconsiderably-sized head Tod Bolsinger. This was a great panel and they gave a great discussion. I asked a question of this panel that was perhaps was not as well formed as I would have liked it to be. I had also discussed it with my panel, and we simply did not have time to get to it. Because I was a moderator, my role was not to have an opinion, so I would like to finish this post by reflecting a little and repositing the question.

The essence of the Christian experience is transformation. God literally makes us new people. David Wayne, in our panel, quoted CS Lewis, "We do not need more Christian books, we need more Christians writing books." If there was a theme to this conference it is that Christians can blog about whatever they want to blog about -- if we are sincere and true in our faith, Christ will shine through that blogging, regardless of subject, because of our transformation.

In the session with Hugh's panel, I noted that all the examples of the real power of blogging that Hugh cites in his book Blog are critical or in some sense "destructive." In those examples, blogging is used to tear something down, perhaps appropos of the circumstances they were in, but nonetheless destructive -- in the example of Rathergate, Mapes lost her job and Rather, well....

Now in the context of Christian blogging, Christ was wrathful, but interestingly he held His wrath for those who worked and operated in the name of His Father. That is to say the Jewish officials and vendors in the Temple courtyard. The apostle Paul said this

1 Cor 5:12-13 - For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within {the church} But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.

So, it would seem scripturally, this critical, destructive role of blogging might be limited to within Christendom itself. Thus my essential question, which I did not put as precisely as I would like becasue I did not really have the opportunity to lay this groundwork is, "How should Christian blogging in say, politcal circumstances be demonstratively different from secular blogging?" How do we as Christians learn to build up with our blogs when we engage culture? - Culture that really needs criticism.

That is the question I carry from the conference as I continue on my journey to be transformed into the image of Christ.