Hey blog readers... long time not so much see.
As you can probably tell, I'm back to trying to blog regularly. I appreciate very much those of you who have hung in there as readers over the last 1 1/2 or 2 years of "sparcity" here at the bob.blog. For a long time I blogged pretty fiendishly- and then I didn't. Call it a combination of getting my "expression" needs met by twitter/facebook and maybe a certain amount of taking a healthy step back and deep breath. I think in many ways I needed to sort out what it was my blog was meant to do for me, what I was asking it to do for me, and maybe break a little bit (or a lot) of the hold that stats, readership, ht's and trackbacks all had on my heart.
In other words, I think I got to a point where I needed to write in this and other venues for all the wrong reasons.
I can't guarantee I've got all that sorted out- but I do think it's time to re-engage. I feel myself stultifying a bit, and without the verbal process and discipline of writing regularly, I fear brain atrophy will just get worse and worse.
But even beyond having something to say (or maybe I should say wanting to have something to say), writing is a skill I want to re-engage and re-energize. Sharpening my thoughts and boiling them down to a readable prose has had a lot of crossover benefit both in my verbal communication, my preaching, and in my thinking in general.
Another reason I slowed down the blogging so substantially was that I had started up an Amazon book-selling business. Over the last few years, Amazon has provided a nice side income for me and my family and allowed me to indulge in what is really my only hobby- Apple products!
But as great as selling used books on Amazon was, it tended to take up all the time that used to go to creativity, writing and generally engaging with the outside world. For better or for worse I'm stepping away from the book selling thing and simultaneously hoping my writing output can ramp up again. I even want to start working seriously on a couple of book projects I've been kicking around for awhile.
Of course, no amazon business means a hit in income- so I'm also trying to do some things that dovetail better with ministry and won't prove to be as distracting/consuming for me as book-selling was.
To that end, over the last year I've been getting training in coaching church planters and beginning to develop a client list. In our 7th year of pastoring the church we planted here in Portland, I finally feel like I've reached a place where I have some good insight to share with newer church planters as well as the wisdom to know when to keep my mouth shut and allow the coaching process to do its thing. A nice combination AND a hard balance :)
I have a couple of spots left on my client list, so if you are interested in coaching, even if you are not a church planter, let me know- I think I would work best with those in ministry, but believe me- a good coach (which I aspire to become) can coach anyone because it's not a telling/content thing but rather a process of helping people to figure out some things and then giving them the encouragement and support to help them do it.
At any rate, my desire, if I can be candid, is to be able to earn enough through that and some other side venues that I can take a pay-cut from Evergreen. While I believe wholeheartedly that the worker is worthy of his or her wage, this community feels like my child in many ways- and the constant worry over meeting budget is something I want to try to do something about... I feel as though if I'm able to replace 1/4-1/2 of my salary, that will go a long way.
That's the update! See you in the blog-o-sphere.
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