Why I Stopped Blogging
Posted by Doug Foltz on Jan 6, 2012 in Church Planting | 4 comments
I haven’t blogged since July. I haven’t heard a single complaint, which is probably good. More on that in a minute. Here are my good excuses:
- I broke the backend of WordPress. I had no clue what I had done. Big thanks to Aaron Box who recently gave me a few suggestions for troubleshooting. Turns out I had a bad plugin, WP TimeMachine. I removed the plugin and the site works fine.
- I got busy. I took on two new roles with Stadia mid-2011. I’m now serving as Director of Project Management, Director of Coaching and I’m overseeing our development systems. I’m on cruise control when it comes to project management, but coaching and development are new to me and I’ve had a lot of learning to do.
Now for my bad excuse and one I’m a little ashamed of.
- I was prideful. I started getting hooked on checking my site stats and felt great when I hat lots of hits for a day or when a post was getting lots of views.
So not only was my site broken, I was broken too. I’ve watched the emotions of church planters rise on fall on the number of people in attendance on Sunday. I’ve told them that God grows the church and if they take blame for when attendance is bad, they’ll take credit when it is good. I’ve told them that discipleship and life change is more important than attendance. And yet, I was caught in a similar trap. I repented of this sin and ignored the blog for a while. Stupid I know, but it now seems even more stupid that I would find self worth in page views rather than in my identity as God’s child.
So I fixed the backend of the site yesterday and I turned off the stats plugin. I’ll start blogging again. Maybe not at the same pace, I’ve still got the busy excuse. I miss writing though and I enjoy contributing if only in a small way to church planters. You are my heroes. And my calling is to serve you.
I’ve never read your blog before and I don’t even know who you are, but I really appreciate your demonstration of honesty and humility. I found you blog by clicking on an Exponential tweet. Thanks!
For the sake of the gospel,
Matthew
Hi Doug…
God bless you! And while we are in the mood for confessing… I will too. I confess that although I wouldn’t unsubscribe, I neglected reading the posts because of discouragement. Not from you… but from our circumstances.
At first I would read and read and was happy that there was someone out there who could identify with the trials of planting a church. But then, after awhile… I began to think, “there must be something wrong with us.”… and just stopped reading… not only your posts, but other books and ideas and encouragements, etc.
But when I saw your post in my inbox, I thought, “hey… it’s Doug, where has he been?” and before even reading… realized I missed the input, the ideas, the warnings, and yes… the encouragement.
It’s hard planting a church… and it’s hard being a pastor’s wife standing by and watching the look on your husband’s face when only 5 people show up… or trying to help him keep composed when 6 show up! It is hard to have so-called “Christians” lamb-baste you because you preach on sin and won’t ky-tye to their every “whim” of doctrine. It’s hard to be on the roller-coaster… sometimes we just want to be standing still… with solid footing.
But when you know that you know… it makes it easier to stand… and wait… and persevere.
So thank you for posting again!! Thank you for your heart for us!! Thank you for your honesty… and also for your faithfulness!!
I for one am glad you are back… and am excited, and waiting for your next post!
Much love in Christ!!
Debi
Matthew and Debi,
Thanks for your comments. Debi I’m glad the posts have been a source of encouragement for you. A planter’s spouse is maybe one of the most difficult jobs there is. At Stadia, we have a ministry called Bloom! that focuses just on the unique needs of the planter’s spouse. Planting can be hard on the marriage and family life of the pastor. I just spoke today with a planter and discussed the boundaries needed to protect his marriage. God calls us to be faithful fathers and husbands as well as church planters. It’s important to know that he wouldn’t call us to one to the neglect of the other. I’m always appreciative of the understanding and sacrificial spouses who give up so much and contribute so much to see a new church birthed. Thanks for what you do!
Thanks Doug! That means a lot!!
I am sure that you know that appreciation in this industry is few and far between! LOL!
Thanks again… and God bless!!!
Debi