When I go to a church for the first time, I usually ask them what denomination they’re a part of. If I don’t recognize it, I ask them the next logical question that comes to mind. “What’s new and special about your group that required you to form a whole new denomination?” Of course I don’t word it that way. There’s polite church-speak for that phrase, usually something like, “so what are the distinctives of mynewdenominationalism?” You’d be surprised what you learn if you just ask the right questions.

Some groups split for theological reasons. Others split due to politics. Slavery was the cause of at least one denominational split in the United States. In almost all cases, people don’t split just because they feel like doing something different; they split because they feel that by splitting they are doing something of value. Either they’re preserving something that needs to be preserved, changing something that needs to be changed, or otherwise making some useful contribution to the situation.

So why am I bringing this up?

The same question, oddly enough, applies to this website. With the thousands (possibly tens or hundreds of thousands!) of Christian blogs and web sites out there, do we really need another one?  What useful contribution is this site going to make that justifies it’s existence? I believe that the following items are the distinctives of this site.

The focus of this site…..

…..is going to be practical. There are many sites out there where you can go to learn theology, but many of them are not practical in nature. This could be due to the fact that, while they may be well-meaning, many of their comments would seem to indicate that they do not live in the real world. This site is going to attempt to relate the study of God and His word to real life.

…..is relevance, without compromising truth. The desire to be “relevant” to the culture has led many to chuck the parts of Christianity that don’t exactly sit well with our modern times. Unfortunately, Christianity is not an “a la carte” faith. You can’t take the potatoes and steak and not eat the lima beans; that’s just not how it works. This site is going to seek to deliver the whole truth. And who knows? You might find out that you like lima beans!

…..is liberation, not dependence. I can’t produce a statistic on this, but I can tell you from personal experience that the amount of long-time Christians that couldn’t answer the simplest of questions regarding their faith is positively staggering. These people frequently view subjects like apologetics as something they pay their pastor to handle, rather than an essential component of their spiritual journey. They are blown this way and that by every new idea that crosses their path, and their view of the Bible at any given time is most likely identical to that of the last “professional” Christian teacher they heard. This is, quite honestly, unacceptable. This site is going to seek to, in some small way, liberate God’s people, and free them to learn on their own.

…..is on fighting a war, not building a castle. Many sites have phenomenal Christian material, but at costs high enough that many people can’t afford it. Others have free material, of poor enough quality that it’s unusable to many people. The material on this site is going to seek to be high-quality, yet be freely available to its visitors. Bottom line, this site is going to seek to put as much information in the hands of as many people as possible.

This site is not…..

…..a “news” site. I may choose to comment on local/regional/national/world news from time to time, as developing a proper worldview is an essential component of Christian life. By all means, if you see a news item that you’d like to bring to my attention, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line via the Contact link!  That being said, however, I do not intend to comment on every trend, idea, or random internet post. There just isn’t enough time in the day to read, digest, and intelligently respond to everything that’s out there.

So in summary…..

…..I hope that this site provides you with good, solid, useful information. I would welcome any and all comments regarding how I could make the site better, topics you would like to see addressed, or questions that you would like answered. The purpose of this site, ultimately, is to minister to God’s people. So let me know what you think!

Soli Deo Gloria!