Vision And Plans For This Blog

Welcome back to the blog!

Last week, I introduced the blog and its goal - to discuss teaching, exhorting, and defending the Christian faith through the arts. How will I accomplish this?

First, I will be sharing my own blogs. Some will be about writing, and some will be about an issue on living out the Christian faith. 

Second, I'm going to invite some of my friends to share their thoughts on the subject. Some of those friends will be novelists, songwriters, and visual artists. Others will be pastors, missionaries, and apologists. And some will fit both categories.

Allow me to state that I believe every Christian is a full-time minister, a teacher, a preacher, an evangelist, a worship leader, and an apologist. You don't want those jobs? Sorry. It comes with the territory.  

Let me quickly state what I mean on each of the above.

1. You're a full time minister. Do I mean 40 hours a week? Only if you sleep the remaining 128. When you're awake, you're in the ministry. You don't need a degree, because you have the indwelling Holy Spirit and the gifts He gave you.
2. You're a teacher. Those around you are learning by what you say, how you interact with others, how diligent you are in what you're doing.
3. You're a preacher. You are sharing a message by what your priorities are. And people are listening to it.
4. You're an evangelist. Some have the gift, all have the responsibility. When Jesus gave the Great Comission (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8), He gave it to ALL His followers. We're to share that message to the lost.
5. You're a worship leader. You should be leading people to worship God in your actions.
6. You're an apologist, a defender of the faith. When your belief is questioned, your job is to give an answer (1 Pet. 3:15). When your faith is challenged, your responsibility is to contend for that faith (Jude 3).

So how are you doing at ministry? Are you drawing people to the Answer? Or are you giving them more questions?

Welcome to Faith, Facts, And Fiction

Welcome to my new blog, Faith, Facts, and Fiction. 

You can call this a purpose statement for this blog. But let me tell you why i'm starting it.

I'm going to be part of a writer's conference this coming weekend. One of the things on the registration is asking if I have a blog page. Well, until now, the answer was a big "Negatory." 

As you guessed, I'm a writer. You may further surmise that I'm a novelist because the word "fiction" is in the title. Currently I'm trying to get the first installment of what will be a three part series published.

I did debate calling this "The Art Of Apologetics" or something like that. The above mentioned novel is titled "An Apologetic For Murder" and is a mystery that takes place at a Christian apologetics conference. So this blog will look at both fiction/writing and at Christian theology/apologetics. I may have some blogs that don't fit either category.

One major focus is where the two subjects go together. Namely, how can Christian artists - fiction writers, songwriters, visual arts - be used to teach, exhort, and defend the Christian faith. True, many artists focus on the art, and there's a place for that. But I want to encourage artists to use their art for God's glory.

So I will be writing blogs, at least one a week. I also will be interviewing or giving guest blogs to other friends, whether they be ministers and apologists or novelists and songwriters. I might have some of non-fiction books reviewed as well.

Hope you are blessed by this new blog.