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5 things we loved about Nashville

Aaron Armstrong —  May 20, 2013 — 1 Comment

We just wrapped up a fantastic week enjoying the sites and visiting friends in Nashville. Here are a few things we loved about our visit:

1. Sunday at Immaneul.

Our first morning in town, we visited Immanuel Church, where Ray Ortlund serves as the pastor. We loved spending the morning there and meeting a whole bunch of folks (it was funny how most people assumed we were moving to town rather than visiting). What I most loved about the morning was the way Ortlund employed William Bridge’s Exodus 34 liturgy to engage the congregation and remind us of the truth of God’s character and our confidence in Christ.

2. The downtown library.

We’ve been to story times at libraries before, but we were shocked to see the production at the Nashville Public Library. They put on an amazing show for the kids, the type you’d normally expect to pay for. Library Pete and Mary Mary clearly have a lot of fun.

Beyond the story times, the downtown library itself is gorgeous. It was terrific to roam around there.

3. Chick-Fil-A.

Emily’d never tried the fabled Chick-Fil-A before our visit on Monday. She’d long heard me going on about how delightful it is and she kept thinking, “Really? It’s a chicken sandwich.” She had something like a McDonald’s chicken sandwich in mind—and when she took the first bite, her response was telling:

“This – is - good.”

Turns out I didn’t oversell it.

3. Hanging out with Trevin Wax, Micah Fries, Jonathan Howe, Matt Capps and Michael Kelley.

Wednesday we spent time a lot of time at LifeWay and with the great folks who work there. Really enjoyed meeting Michael Kelley in person for the first time (shame we didn’t have longer). Having lunch with Trevin, Micah, Jonathan and Matt was a real treat and they were incredibly hospitable (especially since we had our three kids with us). We also got to spend time with Matt and his lovely family before we left town. Our girls were happy to make a Nashville friend. :)

Side note: While we were away, I read Trevin’s soon-to-be-released fiction book, Clear Winter Nights. I’ll tell you more about it later.

4. Really old Bibles.

One of the coolest things at LifeWay is found in their library—they’ve got a display cabinet showcasing a number of extremely old Bibles, including a reproduction of the Gutenberg Bible and the Gun Wad Bible, the first Bible printed in America on American made paper. As the story goes, the reason it’s called the Gun Wad Bible is because it was used as cartridge paper during the American Revolution.

5. People love kids.

One of the things that amazed us most during our stay was how we didn’t get the sense we were burdening society by being outdoors with our three kids. People smiled and talked to them and generally made us feel welcome wherever we were with them. This was a really nice change because, although it doesn’t always happen, we sometimes get the sense our presence is offensive to others here in London (usually at a store).

Those are just a few of the things we loved about our vacation. I could probably list a ton more, like my daughter discovering she likes comic books, our trip to the Frist Center for the Arts, visiting the Parthenon in Centennial Park, Hudson getting his land legs…

In fact, aside from some issues with our hotel and our car having a bit of surprise repair work (and if you’re in the area, go to Antioch Auto Center!), it was a practically perfect vacation.

We’re glad to be home and looking forward to getting back into the normal routine, but we’re already looking forward to when we get to go back. Nashville, consider yourself warned.

In General
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I’m Looking for A Few Good (Guest) Bloggers

Aaron Armstrong —  May 10, 2013 — 2 Comments

i_want_you_poster

For the last couple of years, I’ve taken some time off during the summer It was terrific to unplug, unwind and read some really great content from a number of different voices. In fact, it was such a great experience, I’m doing it again!

If you’ve got something you think needs to be shared with the world I’d like to provide a platform for some other bloggers with 10-15 posts in August. If you’d like to submit something, here are a few details you need to know:

  1. You should have an active blog (although if you don’t, it’s not the end of the world)
  2. You need to be familiar with the flavor of Blogging Theologically and be willing to write material that will be in line thematically
  3. Your content needs to be encouraging to God’s people and glorifying to God
  4. Your guest posts must be submitted to me by June 30th, 2013.

Think you’re up for it? Send me an email, tell me what you want to write about and we’ll talk.

Looking forward to your responses!

 

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My awkward relationship with grief

Aaron Armstrong —  March 26, 2013 — 3 Comments

Photo by Matthias Wuertemberger

Yesterday I received a call from my sister. My grandmother had died.

We talked for a bit before she had to continue on with making phone calls. We hung up. I went back to work.

Monday kind of played out the way it always does.

When I told a couple of colleagues of mine the news and listened as they expressed their sorrow over it, I didn’t quite know how to respond.

This isn’t something new to me.

In the last year, both of my grandmothers have died. My maternal grandfather died around ten years ago (there was no memorial service). My paternal grandfather died about 14 years ago.

Every time my reaction has been pretty much… okay.

No tears, no five stages of grieving… just “okay.” And life continues to go on.

What’s been awkward for me has always been trying to navigate the (unintentional) external pressure that exists to feel bad whenever a family member dies. And it’s not that I don’t have feelings (my wife can attest to this), but I’ve never really felt like I’ve needed to do that when any grandparent has died.

It might be because we weren’t terribly close. The last time I saw my maternal grandmother was five years ago. The time before that was (I think) sometime when I was either in high school or just before I started college (so we’re talking 15 plus years).

It’s how my family always has been. I’m not saying it’s the best thing, just what is.

But here’s the thing I am grieved by—as far as I know, all of my grandparents have died apart from Christ. To the best of my (admittedly limited) knowledge, there wasn’t a consistent Christian influence within their lives.

And I’m not too sure what to do with that. 

Witnessing to my family isn’t easy—not just the ones I’ve not seen in over a decade, but the ones I actually do have relationship with.

My mother, father, sister and niece (not to mention my in-laws and sister-in-law).

But whenever there’s a death in the family, it makes it harder. Primarily in the sense that there’s just not a good time to bring up the conversation—”So grandma dying made me really start thinking about what going to happen when you die” isn’t likely to open doors to a healthy conversation, y’know?

But Scripture reminding us to mourn with those who mourn (Rom. 12:15 NIV); we can be with those who are grieving, we can grieve with them (whether or not that includes shedding a single tear)… we can be “there,” present and available.

And maybe that’s all I really need to worry about for the moment.

In Personal
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The triumph of perseverance

Aaron Armstrong —  March 16, 2013 — Leave a comment

Yep:

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(via Go Comics)

In General
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Guilt by association?

Aaron Armstrong —  March 12, 2013 — 2 Comments

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Maybe it’s me, but it seems like the Christian side of the Internet getting a bit… crankier.

This Internet is a wonderful tool for Christian ministry—it allows us to share further the spread of the gospel, connects us with fellow believers around the world, and lets us equip and encourage believers who desperately need it.

It also provides a terrible opportunity for sin to gain a foothold in our lives. 

Recently, I’ve seen more than a few websites attacking a Christian publisher as well as a well-respected blogger—simply because of their association with another Christian leader (and in the blogger’s case, the connections are extremely loose).

What’s increasingly disturbing to me is how easily we succumb to guilt by association.

We see it too often:

  • Pastors who are public figures take shots at bloggers as being single guys living in their moms’ basements who don’t have lives, jobs or girlfriends.
  • Bloggers who are confused on the relationship between discernment and divisiveness.
  • Professing Christians whose long-harbored bitterness toward a particular church or leader who set up websites featuring months and years of saved personal correspondence and detailed analyses of every minute detail of a leader’s public ministry.

…and if you’re a friend of the “enemy,” heaven help you.

How we deal with this continues to be one of the most difficult issues we face, both within our local churches and as part of the global body of Christ.

And it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier.

Honestly, it’s easy to look at the watchblogger/”survivor” type websites out there and write them off entirely. But I’m not always sure that’s the best thing to do—not in a “their arguments have merit” sense, but from a perspective of desiring to help others.

When dealing with “survivor” blogs…

While it’s tempting to do so, we have to be careful to not heap condemnation upon them. Though we must recognize that all-too-often their methods are both ill-advised and and entirely sinful, many of these kinds of bloggers are people who are badly wounded by real or perceived slights and sins.

Whether the facts line up with the feelings, the feelings are real and need to be considered in making a judgment of their behavior—not as an excuse, but as a reminder:

Bitterness is poison to the soul. When we leave hurts too long, they spread like cancer. It’s no wonder Paul commands us to be done with our anger quickly (cf. Eph. 4:26-27).

When addressing controversy…

Tim Keller’s advice on gospel polemics is very helpful, so much so that I can only reiterate what he’s said so very well:

  1. You don’t have to follow Matthew 18 before publishing polemics. This doesn’t mean you don’t go to person X to confirm their views prior to publishing, but that the rules for church discipline don’t apply.
  2. You must take full responsibility for even unwitting misrepresentation of someone’s views.
  3. Never attribute an opinion to your opponent that he himself does not own.

Number three is probably the greatest challenge bloggers face in addressing controversy. As much as possible, make sure you can demonstrate what someone actually believes before you say anything publicly. But more than that, try to address controversy in a spirit of love for a potentially misguided brother or sister.

Protect and defend sound doctrine, without question. But be mindful that your methodology doesn’t do as much damage as some destructive heresy.

When dealing with accusation…

I remember one pastor who, when his book was being lambasted by critics (including those who were otherwise friendly to him), went on the attack. Rather than hearing the legitimate criticism about his book, he declared that critics were revealing their own issues and hang-ups more than anything his book said.

This hurt, not simply because I was indirectly implicated by the statement, but because it called into question a stated desire of this particular individual: to turn critics into coaches.

This is my plea for the prominent public pastor, and indeed for all of us who occasionally face accusation: please remember not to think too highly of yourself than you ought (Rom. 12:3).

 

While not every critic is worth listening to, some most definitely are. When someone criticizes us, it hurts, especially when it’s about something we’re passionate about. However, we need to remember that in the end, the Lord will vindicate us if we’re truly in the right (cf. Psa. 135:14)—but thoughtful, carefully worded criticism may God’s grace at work in our lives.

In Bloggers, Christian Living
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What God’s teaching me through epilepsy

Emily Armstrong —  February 12, 2013 — 4 Comments
brain scan

Photo by Miranda Knox

It’s been about two months since I wrote about being diagnosed with epilepsy. And so I’ve had two months to grieve, accept, do some research, grieve some more, then accept, then do more research, then start to kind of hate the Internet for proving me with so much information to drive myself crazy with. Then I do some more research.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned, both about epilepsy and about myself:

Doctors who study epilepsy find seizures and brain surgery very interesting, and have full confidence in their own abilities. One of the websites I visited gave a description of temporal lobe surgery, and ended it with “but don’t worry, your hair will grow back.”

Yeah, because I was super worried about my hair.

There are some things to be thankful for. The type of epilepsy I have is a kind that doesn’t cause me to lose consciousness (or my bladder). Others are not so fortunate. So I’m able to care for my kids, and I don’t have to worry about peeing myself in public. I call this a win.

A positive side effect of my medication (yes, a positive side effect! How often does that happen?) has been an improved mood. The medication I have been prescribed is also used to treat bi-polar disorder; anxiety and depression had been an issue for me in the past, and I have perceived a real improvement in my ability to talk myself through negative feelings. Spending less time on the big comfy couch of sadness located in my mind is a good thing.

But what have I learned about myself? I have had the opportunity to see how prideful and self conscious I can be. For the first few weeks I really didn’t want to leave the house at all. Not because I could have a seizure; because people would see me have a seizure, and that was way worse.

When I have a very large seizure I wretch like a cat with a hair ball, which sounds exactly as pleasant as the sound you are imagining in your head right now. It feels like the auditory equivalent of soiling myself, especially when I’m able to get up and I look around and see that people are doing their best to “act natural”. But life must go on. My daughter still needs to go to school and I still need to run errands, and maybe even go on dates with my husband. So out into the world I will continue to go, and God will have to soften me from the inside out on this point.

Another thing I’ve discovered about myself now that I have an identified illness is I want to play the “epilepsy card” when both Aaron and I have had a bad day:

“Oh, something crummy happened at work today? Well, I have epilepsy. I win.”

Clearly this would be an unhelpful strategy in my marriage, but the temptation is there. I assume I’m not the first person with an illness or a disability to want to make much of myself when things aren’t going my way (at least, I hope not!).

Lastly, I have seen how small my faith can be. Due to a mistake in the pharmacy, I ran out of my medication 5 weeks early. As soon as I realized that I did not have enough pills, I was sick with worry. What if I call the pharmacy and they don’t believe me? What if they think I’m irresponsible? What if they think I’m lying? What if I can’t get the pills in time and my brain starts sizzling left and right and I end up in a coma because I didn’t count out how many pills I had a few days ago? What if I die for this ridiculously mundane reason?!?

I don’t think a person in a spaceship with only one portion of freeze-dried space food would be more worried.

Of course, it worked out alright. The pharmacist understood the error and Aaron picked up the rest of my medication. All is well, and I need not have worried.

But this is a process. I’m still learning to do all those things that seem so easy when you don’t have to do them:

  • Be humble.
  • Value others more highly than yourself.
  • Believe that God has everything in control.

I am grateful knowing that He will gradually cause my character to become more Christlike. I would already be in a sorry state indeed if I was doing this on my own.

In Personal
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Help us make a documentary on the life and legacy of Spurgeon

Aaron Armstrong —  February 9, 2013 — 3 Comments

Recently a new friend, Stephen McCaskell, contacted me about being part of a documentary about the life and legacy of Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon has long been one of my heroes in the faith, so the opportunity to be a part of a project like this intrigued me from the get go. Together with Adrian Warnock, we set about plans to make a crowd-sourced film, Through the Eyes of Spurgeon. Soon a fourth party joined our merry band, Matt Pennings of Red Rubber Studio, and we’ve just recently launched a support page on Indiegogo.com.

Yep, we’re crowd-funding a movie. :)

Here’s a short video featuring Adrian with the details:

“This child will one day preach the gospel, and he will preach it to great multitudes…”

Did Richard Knill have any idea how God would bring these words to life when he spoke them over a young Charles Haddon Spurgeon?

During his lifetime, Spurgeon did indeed preach to great multitudes. He faithfully made known the great truths of the gospel to millions of men and women in his ministry—and he continues to do so today, more than a century after his death.

Spurgeon has much to teach us through his great successes—and also through the hardships of his life. No stranger to physical illness and crushing depression, Spurgeon’s handling of great suffering has been an encouragement to many. Pastor John Piper once said during a difficult time in his own ministry, “I have turned to Charles Spurgeon in these days, and I have been helped.”

This is the legacy we want to share with you in our documentary, Through the Eyes of C.H. Spurgeon.

Together with video production company Red Rubber Studios, we’re telling the story of how one man’s faithful ministry continues to bless believers the world over to this very day—a story of lives changed by the gospel and a legacy of faith that all of us involved in this film want to see emulated in the lives of every Christian.

We’re asking you to help support the making of this film because we believe Spurgeon’s life and legacy have much to say to believers in our day. With your with your financial support and your prayers, you can help make this film a reality.

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Why writers need to diversify

Aaron Armstrong —  January 21, 2013 — Leave a comment

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One of the best—albeit more peculiarly expressed—pieces of advice Douglas Wilson gives to writers in Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life is diversify:

Stretch before your routines. If you want to write Italian sonnets, try to write some short stories. If you want to write a few essays, write a novel, or maybe a novella if you are pressed for time. If you want to write haiku, then limber up with opinion pieces for The Washington Post.

(Read more of Wilson’s advice to writers here.)

Wilson’s point is well-taken. If you want to keep sharp, it’s wise to write something different. We writer types can become complacent and lazy—we can pretty easily get into a nice routine (or rut, depending on your point of view), shift into autopilot and write basically the same thing, over and over again.

Recently, I’ve seen some of very fine folks trying to stretch themselves, and it’s a wonderful thing, indeed. My friend Trevin Wax is writing a fiction book (which I’m pretty excited to read when it’s out). And then there’s my online pal Stephen Altrogge, who is cranking out really fun material like crazy these days!

If you’ve read his blog or his major release books, you probably know he’s really funny. Not that “I’m trying to be funny” kind of funny that’s not really funny at all; he’s got a very natural sense of humor and timing that shines through in his work. (For this, I am jealous.)

But in seeing the material he’s been self-publishing of late—The Last Superhero, and serial meta-spy-adventure novel Escaping My Story (parts one and two are now available and are really good!)—you can see he’s really trying to take this call to diversify seriously.

He wants to get better at his craft. This is something more of us need to take seriously, especially me.

A while back I made reference to writing a couple of kid’s books for my wife to illustrate. So far they’re coming along really well.

I have to be honest, though: it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be. Trying to tell a complete story in 1500 words or less with compelling characters is a really challenge. It’s given me a new appreciation for the books we read to our girls on a daily basis. There’s so much work that goes into keeping the story tight alone that I didn’t even consider when I first started working on it.

Although it’s a bit tangential, at work, I’ve got another challenge: adopting a new style guide to keep all our writers consistent. For those of us who’ve been there longer than our new staff, it’s a real challenge at times because we’ve gotten into certain habits or are just used to going on gut and preference.

But formalizing these things is another good challenge. It’s been forcing me consider word use, punctuation, grammatical issues so much more that I’ve been really lax on. This is a good kind of challenge as well—one that’s getting me thinking about the mechanics of what I’m writing, not just the content.

The point is this: Writers, whether we’re writers of books or blogs, we need to diversify. We need to be willing to try different things, regardless of whether or not they see the light of day and regardless of whether we succeed or fail. In the end, our writing will get better and we might even have some fun in the process.

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Introducing the new book reviews page

Aaron Armstrong —  January 3, 2013 — 4 Comments

book-reviews

Readers of this blog know I read a lot and consequently write a lot of book reviews (around 48 per year). Figuring out how to archive and present them all has been an ongoing challenge.

A couple years ago, I created a new page for reviews that brought a lot of order to the site… but it quickly became a bit clunky and time-consuming to update. Everything—and I do mean everything—had to be added to a table manually and after a while, I just couldn’t keep up. I needed something that could be more or less left alone (beyond some initial category updating) but keep everything up-to-date.

After much searching, I finally found a plugin for WordPress that lets me do what I want, and voila!

review-page

A screen shot of the new book reviews page

The new page features nine titles per screen of clickable (and mobile friendly!) images showing you every book review on the site, starting with the most recent. Simply click the image and you’re set!

The new version of the reviews page is still a work in progress, but I’d love your feedback. What works? What doesn’t? Is there anything you’d like to see done differently?

In the meantime, head on over to the new book review page and start reading!

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My favorite articles of 2012

Aaron Armstrong —  December 26, 2012 — Leave a comment

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Tis the season for bloggers to write their annual “best of” lists. Recently I shared my favorite reads of 2012; today I want to share a few of my favorite articles of the year. These don’t necessarily represent this blog’s most read articles (although some of them are). Instead, these represent some of the work I’m most happy with from this blog over the past year. I hope you’ll check them out:

Why I quit following (most) “celebrity” pastors on Twitter, and maybe you should too

…lately I’ve found myself continually disheartened by much of what I’m reading from a few “celebrity” pastors on Twitter, Facebook and their blogs, to say nothing of the fuss that ensues. And frankly, it’s all a little bit tiring. So, I did the most helpful thing I could: I stopped following them. Here’s why I did, and why you might want to consider doing the same.

Four functions of sound doctrine

Recently, I wrote that one of the key functions of doctrine is that it divides. Because Jesus himself is the most divisive person ever to live, all doctrine that aligns with him will necessarily cause division. But that’s not all that doctrine does.

Broken, yet intricately woven

My wife’s example here is a standout example of faithfully exploring the

I was diagnosed with epilepsy on Friday. My first thought was, “This is very inconvenient.” I asked the doctor how it happened, but there is no apparent cause. It just is.

In defense of neatniks

Now to be sure, there are some folks who are definitely a bit too… intense about their preciseness and forget that misspeaking is different than being a heretic. Likewise, one can be so focused on the trees that they miss the forest (which a frustration I’ve got with a book I’m reading with my men’s group right now). But I wonder if sometimes we label some folks theological neatniks as a cover for our own sloppiness? That rather than own up to a mistake or do the hard work of making sure that what we’re saying is actually right in the first place, we allow our pride to take over and brush it off by saying, “Stop being such a nitpick!”

Three lessons from shutting down our home business

Ten years ago, I purchased my first domain name and web hosting package. Emily and I were fresh out of school and ready to take on the world as graphic designers for hire. Earlier this year, we shuttered it for good.

Between running this blog, writing books, raising a family with three very young children, serving in our church, facilitating a small group, creating stock art, and—oh yeah!—my day job, it was pretty clear something had to give. And the thing that lost was the business. Here are three things we learned in the process.

Life after home ownership

This week Emily and I are celebrating the one year anniversary of officially no longer being home owners. (Emily celebrated by making brownies.) As long-time readers may recall, we spent eleven months between August 2010 and July 2011 deciding and preparing to sell our home, trying to sell it on our own, having two deals fall through and finally getting it sold when we went with an agent.

Now, a year later, are there any regrets?

Nope.

Three lies we tell ourselves about marriage: my spouse is the problem

I remember some of the first fights that Emily and I had as a married couple. Most were over pretty silly things… but not always. One evening, I came home after another frustrating and unfulfilling men’s ministry play date (there was no real “ministry” happening; it was just a bunch of dudes whose wives signed them up to get together). Emily could see that I was annoyed (I don’t like using my time in unproductive ways) and she wisely told me the truth:

“You need to quit.”

Rejoice! We serve a precise God

This is great news for us; because God is precise, we get to live in confident expectation that the promises He offers will come to pass. That when we place our trust in Christ and in His finished work on the cross, we will most assuredly stand with Him in glory at the end of the age.

Backpedaling and public Christianity

We need to take great care in not being too quick to give an off-the-cuff response to anything. As much as we are able, we need to think carefully about what we are going to say in any and every situation. I realize that mistakes happen; sometimes we let something slip against our better judgment, me especially. Only the Lord is fully aware of how much folly has come from my mouth. But when we see ongoing patterns of foolish talk coming from our mouths, should we not consider seeking assistance and accountability?

Disciples, deal with difficult texts

A number of years ago, I went on my first missions trip. At the time I was excited, but really wrestling with questions of what I was supposed to be doing with my life, frustrated and a little bitter when I saw others around me—some friends and some not-so-much—finding great success. Rather than rejoice at the good fortune of friends who the Lord had blessed, I found myself grumbling over the fact that others who I was working harder than those finding good fortune.

“Didn’t I deserve better?” I thought.”Why was I being treated so unfairly…”

“Where was God in all this?”

In General, Links
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