Packing Up the Boxes Again

I remember sitting in my college dorm room, circa 2005 trying to figure out Xanga. Xanga! That’s when I first started blogging.

I didn’t stay at Xanga long. It was like a drafty apartment. I quickly moved on to Blogspot. A nice townhouse. But then I realized the people in the WordPress neighborhood were better off.

I was keeping up with the blogging Joneses. I moved in.

It’s been the perfect home for the past 13 years. So perfect that, by mid-2018 (11 years of publishing on that platform), I had posted at least one blog in every month except seven. Seven. In eleven years. And most of those months off were taken off by design because of various seasons of life or travel.

It’s been a good run. But the time has come to pack up the boxes and move again.

Over the next few months, my website here at jamespruch.com will be repurposed into something new. I’m excited about it, so watch out for changes this fall.

In the meantime, that means no more new writing here. All my posts will continue to live at jamespruch.wordpress.com, however.

Think of that space like the National Archives. Except way less cool, way less old, and way less precious.

But still awesome. And I hope those 13 years of posts are helpful to you.

So, what’s next?

Enter Substack.

Substack is like a blog, but more like a newsletter. Once you subscribe (just like here on WordPress) you’ll get new posts in your inbox. Are you subscribed to my blog here? I’d appreciate you subscribing at Substack.

I’ll continue to write about the things that have always intrigued me: theology, the life of faith, and culture. But I’ll include other topics I’ve grown to love over the years, especially recently, like leadership, strategic thinking, finances, and more. (I have a lot of interests, okay?)

It’ll be a junk drawer newsletter. Weird, I know. But life’s kinda like a junk drawer, isn’t it? And we all know that the best treasures are found in the junk drawer.

Head on over to Substack and subscribe. It’s completely free. What do you have to lose? (Hint: probably nothing.)

As always, thanks for reading.

My Top 5 Posts from 2014

Happy New Year! Here are my top five posts from 2014 based on how many reads they had. Thanks for reading and here’s to another great blogging year!

1. Bo Pelini, Self-Deception, and the Gospel 
2. Heaven is for Real and I Don’t Need a 4-year Old to Tell Me
3. A Prayer for Christians in Iraq
4. Why Your Church Should Consider Observing Ash Wednesday and Lent
5. How Can We Best Change Culture?

Pastoral Ministry, Not Blogging, and a Devotional Guide

It’s been over a month since I’ve blogged and I have some ambivalence with this. I don’t like it because I like to write and, it seems, God has been gracious to use this blog to help people. A lot of news has happened in the last month that begs for pastoral commentary (e.g. Mark Driscoll, Harvest Chapel, Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, Robin Williams). I certainly have thoughts and may share them at some point. However, I’ve felt a strange comfort and freedom over the last 1-2 months to not write blogs. Why? My voice is small and I don’t need always need to say something. I’ve been concerned mostly with my family moving into a house and getting settled and my local church ministry in our own congregational as we had our “fall launch” like many other American evangelical churches who notice a slow period during the summer (that’s another blog post!).

But while I have not written blogs, it doesn’t mean I haven’t ben writing. I wanted to share a little eBook I put together called Make the Most of Your Devotions: A Guide to Enhance Your Bible Reading, Meditation, and Prayer. This is nothing revolutionary. It’s simply a compiling of insights I’ve gathered over the years. I would have written this if no one else reads it! But if it helps you or someone you know, too, praise God! Feel free to download and share as much as you’d like:

Make the Most of Your Devotions eBook

State of the Blog

This month I hit my six year mark in this blogging experiment. I do not have thousands of readers hanging on my every word (scary thought there), and my posts are not featured on world class ministry websites. I publish my stuff here, but I would write even if no one ever read one word.

For six years, it has been a joy and privilege to write about theology in general, the gospel in particular, muddy cultural issues, and other things that pop into my mind. Thankfully, people all over the world find this little blog helpful. Moving forward, a new ministry opportunity brings new motivation for writing, so I hope to breath some new life into the blog.

Here are a few things I want to see materialize on my blog:

• I want to write 1-2 substantive posts per week. These posts might literally be about anything that comes to mind. This will be a hard task, but as I’ve learned from others, one good post is better than three or four average posts. Also, I really want to do my best to make my posts theologically rich and intellectually accessible to the average Christian. So a sub-goal here is to be strategic in my posts; I want to write about what will be most helpful to the Church.
• I plan to write more posts that relate to pastoral ministry in particular. I have so much to learn when it comes to ministering in the church, but I also have a passion for leading other men who are pastors or want to be pastors. I want to share what I learn as I learn it.
• I will write the occasional post that might be considered an “in-house” conversation. That is, this kind of posts would be more directly relevant to our church family. This might be something like a post about Sunday’s sermon, a missional initiative, an upcoming class, an issue in our community, etc. I hope (and expect) you will still benefit from these posts.
• I will continue to review books (and other media) on occasion. I do not review every book out there, but I do write reviews for three great marketing companies and many publishers. This is a way to better digest what I read and serve you so you can be a discerning reader.
• Finally, I will include random posts with short thoughts that are too long for Twitter, extended quotes from books I’m reading, something about our lives in Clifton Park, or a maybe a video link.

All in all, not too much is changing, but it helps for me to get these simple goals written down. My little role in the kingdom is just that: little. The same goes for this blog. Still, I would be delighted if what I write here helped the larger Church in any way. To God alone be the glory!

Thanks for reading!

Back Into the Blogging Swing

After a month and a half hiatus from blogging, I plan on getting back into the thick of things starting next week. Hopefully, I’ll have some posts from a few things I’ve reflected on in the past month or so. July was terribly busy for us and, lo and behold, August is half gone now already! I didn’t always do a great job of writing ideas down (always write things down!), but I trust that a few of the important things will spring to mind.

Again, thank you for reading—it is very humbling that you find this small corner in the blogosphere edifying.