The below quotes are from Eric’s comments on a post the other day about the “dangers” of expressing your thoughts on blogs. Eric captured the sense (as did another commenter, “provoked”)

Movable Theoblogical: Self-revelation of Bloggers

I blog in exact opposition to those who would want to keep stifling forms of institution in my face. I blog, while respecting academia, but also because I acknowledge its limitations.

I trust my friends enough to hold me accountable. It’s called community, and more particular, the Church.

The limitations I see are also somethign that the church could do well to take seriously, especially given its vast shortfall of attention to the neglect of serious discipleship structures, the expectation of “accountability” to one another, and the CERTAINTY that there is a close-knit, intimately concerned group of people who make it their business to keep abreast of what’s happening to us and IN us. In our blog world, that includes reading some of those “inner thoughts” that we’ve decided could be helpful to someone else, and that we don’t mind sharing, but also that which we actually feel would be helpful for the world to know about us. It’s like our “business card”, except it’s business that we feel represents a good sample of things which concern us, things which enrage us, and things which fill us with joy.

I always feel the need to append a quid pro quo to the end of posts where I extol the virtues and the advantages of blogging, to say that I DO NOT expect nor want for blogging to replace or supercede face-to-face church. I emphasize the “extension” quality or role of blogging; it is A resource and channel for enhancing and perhaps introducing us to snapshots of personality and passion which we woudl do well to address in our face to face meetings. Indeed, to encourage the increased building of new and addtional structures of sociality to enable the kind of close-knit society we need to nurture this faith journey that is not only very personal, but meant to be traveled in a group.