Some Blogs I Read Regularly (and Why)
I’m not only a blog writer, but also an avid consumer. Repeatedly, we’ve been told that blogging is nearly dead, but I don’t see it. The novelty has worn off for many people, but its usefulness certainly hasn’t. Blogs will continue to be around for some years to come.
As for the logistics of reading blogs, I use Feedly to help manage all the ones that I read — I highly recommend it as an intuitive way to keep track of the blogosphere.
I subscribe to a variety of blogs. Some deal with aviation, others help me in learning Portuguese, most are theologically oriented. Some are written by theologians, pastors, professors, and others by seminary students, aspiring sem students, or just regular everyday Christians. Some blogs are updated regularly; others haven’t seen any action in a while and in due time, I’ll just delete the feed. Some blogs I read because there’s encouragement and edification, others because I’m obligated to know what the wolves are using to bait the sheep.
Let me share some blogs that I’m reading these days that are worth highlighting. Before proceeding, in case it’s not obvious, this is not a blanket endorsement of everything that appears on these blogs. I expect readers will try to use discernment. Here are the blogs:
HeadHeartHand — this is the blog of Dr. David Murray, a professor at Puritan Theological Seminary. This is updated almost every day. He shares links and writes articles that are helpful for pastors and everybody else. Definitely one of my favourites!
Sixteen Seasons — this is from Jeremy De Haan, a seminary student at the CanRC Theological Seminary, and also a parishioner at Providence. I love this blog, not only for the rich content, but also for the sheer beauty of the writing. Jeremy has an amazing gift!
Bylogos — Dr. John Byl writes here and shares his insights especially into matters relating to science and the Bible. I especially appreciate Dr. Byl’s bold stand against the dangerous false teaching of theistic evolution. More than ever, we need his voice to be heard.
Institute for Nouthetic Studies — This is where you’ll still find the venerable old Dr. Jay Adams blogging on a regular basis. These days I especially appreciate his weekly posts about preaching. Lots of food for thought, even if you don’t always agree with everything he says.
Learning My Lines — Walt Mueller offers lots of helpful material about youth culture from a Christian perspective. A must-read for pastors and teachers.
Challies Dot Com — I have been reading this one for years. Tim might not remember, but he and I were in a book club together when I was a seminary student. I started following his blog not long after it started. It’s just gotten better and better and for good reason it’s one of the top Christian blogs in the world.
One Christian Dad — here’s an up and coming blogger, a man with a gift for writing, courage to express himself, and a faithful commitment to follow the Word. I always enjoy reading whatever Ryan Smith writes. Keep an eye on this one.
Really Good Reads — if you’re looking for good reading material, my good friend Jon Dykstra and his brothers Jeff and James have got great reviews!
Albert Mohler — president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and probably North America’s foremost Christian cultural critic.
Reformation 21 — I read this regularly mostly just for everyone’s favourite anti-celebrity, Carl Trueman.
Many more could be added, but if I had to choose only 10, those would be them. Now which would you choose? For this post only, I’m going to open the comments so you can share your favourites with me and everyone else.
You’re right! I don’t remember. What book club? What was the book?
I believe it was Justification and Variegated Nomism or something like that. Chris Powell was there too, along with a couple of others. Maybe I’ll see you in Louisville. I’m planning to attend the True North Luncheon.
I don’t think it was that one! I’d remember reading something with that title. I’ll ask Chris (whom I see at least once a month). 🙂
At any rate, covenant nomism came up in the discussion — it was the first time that I’d heard the term. It was also when I discovered (from Chris) that I was a Reformed-Baptist-In-Training.
Sixteen Seasons, One Christian Dad, Challies Dot Com are my favourites, but I will read anything that others I trust send my way.
(Reformed-Baptist-In-Training?? Should we be concerned?)
I’m with you on blogging. In my opinion, it’s still going as strong as ever, especially with the advent of smartphones/tablets, blogs are the perfect thing to read on short commutes and things like that.
Pretty sure you got all the main theology blogs I follow already.
I also like the Gospel Coalition blog (http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/)
I don’t always agree on everything they post, but it’s a good round-up of what’s happening in the wider evangelical world.
I use logos, so keep an eye on their blog (blog.logos.com) as it has helpful tips, and updates on sales and such.
My main interest (outside theology/pastoring) is Tech, so I subscribe to a number of tech blogs.
Daring Fireball (www.daringfireball.net) is the best (Apple-centric) tech blog around
The Verge (www.theverge.com) is a good general technology site
Macworld (www.macworld.com) if you want specific information on Mac products. If you like satire, the weekly Saturday post by the Macalope is hilarious as it pokes fun at silly anti-apple bloggers. It always gives me a good laugh.
Matter (https://medium.com/matter) started out as a long form general news site, posting long and very high quality articles on news, history, medicine, and more. They’ve since been bought out by Medium, and as a result are now producing even more articles, still at very high quality. So far they’ve covered interesting topics as “How Radioactive Poison Became the Spy’s Weapon of Choice for Assassinations”, “Tutankhamun’s Blood” and why everybody is desperate to find it, Whether scientists can grow back human digits, and the effects of a parent’s childhood abuse on their children and even future generations. Very interesting stuff.
For that matter, Medium is fast overtaking WordPress as the blogging platform of choice, and so I follow them on twitter as they link to their favourite articles of the day. That gives a very varied and often interesting look at random topics.
Other than that, I have no need to subscribe to too many blogs myself, as Challies.com does an excellent job at presenting the most interesting links for the day in A La Carte 🙂
Thanks a lot for the link and the kind words!
I enjoy reading Green Baggins and the Aquila Report. Green Baggins is run by Lane Kiester, a PCA pastor who writes insightfully on many of the controversies facing the church today. http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com
The Aquila Report isn’t a blog, but it links to some of the top Christian posts of the day from around the web. http://theaquilareport.com
Also, Mark Steyn, the political commentator, a master of wit and the English language. He writes at http://www.steynonline.com from a politically conservative perspective.
Jeremy
Pastor Wes, Thanks for the kind words ( and for keeping me in line when I venture out too far) 🙂
We read many of the same of same blogs. In fact I have all the blogs you mention in my feedly as well. http://www.Challies.com is the blog that really influenced me the most as I started out as an aspiring blogger. When I found out he went to the CanRC as a youth I was shocked, because I had sort of modelled myself after him. Tim has also been humble enough to respond to my emails on occasion 🙂
Here are a few bogs I enjoy that were not on your list:
The Gospel Coalition
http://www.ligonier.org/blog/
http://christopherjgordon.blogspot.ca/ (not updated regularly but still good.)
http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/
http://heidelblog.net/bio/
There are lots more but that will do for now.
Oh and I confess to envying Jeremy’s Dehaan’s writing style…he has a wonderful gift. I cannot wait to hear one of his sermons …
Obvious this blog features among my favourites, with the other blog (not mentioned already) being The Reformed Reader featuring great book reviews, stimulating book quotes, and just great material to reflect upon – written by two ministers – one from the URCNA and the other OPC.
http://reformedreader.wordpress.com/
Worth checking out…!