Pure Church

As of today, Pure Church has moved over to The Gospel Coalition as one of the blogs now hosted there.

Here's the new address: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabitianyabwile/

UPDATE: Your feeds should automatically be updated thanks to the tech gurus at The Gospel Coalition. Your feed should update automatically with posts, etc.

If you've been so kind as to follow the blog in through blogger or another means, would you please take a moment to check whether that's working? Also, would you take moment to update your blogroll if you've had PureChurch listed? I'd love to continue to stay in touch.

If you haven't included PureChurch in your reader or blogroll, I'm not bitter. Really, I'm not. This would be a great time to add it if it's at all beneficial to your soul.

I'm excited about this move for a number of reasons:

1. I believe in the work The Gospel Coalition is attempting in bringing together brothers of like precious faith around a robust confession of the gospel. I have the privilege of being a member of the council, and I'm hopeful the Lord will surprise us all with many good things to His glory through the cooperation. We can do more together than we can apart.

Here's a little something on why I think the Coalition is helpful:



2. I get to link virtual arms with other bloggers at the Coalition who have benefited my soul for a while now. I'm fans of Justin Taylor, Ray Ortlund, Tim Challies' Ten Million Words, and Kevin DeYoung. They are now guilty by association with me, but I'm the richer for it.

3. I'm no technophobe, but I'm also no tech whiz. The design and tech team at The Coalition have been outstanding and I think that'll make the blog more useful, or at least more pleasing aesthetically. Matthew Taylor and Joshua Sowin have been wonderful to work with. Check it out and let me know what you think.

4. In time, there may be a few sponsors who appear on the right in the sidebar. I'm happy for the opportunity to commend worthy causes and resources. And I'm happy that this is a small way I may be able to generate a little revenue for both the Coalition and the local church I love most: First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman.

Well, I should end by wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas as you ponder and treasure the Savior's birth. May the Lord bless you richly as you look to Him!

Thabiti

Some snippets from a post by Eric Barker:

An examination of the Technorati rankings for recent years reveals that turnover among the top 50 blogs has become increasingly rare. Even as the total number of blogs has swelled to 133 million from 27 million in 2006, the top 50 have remained relatively static. On March 15, 2006, 30 blogs out of the top 50 were new to the list, never having appeared at the top in any previous year; last month, that number was down to 18.

Of the top 50 blogs, 21 are owned by such familiar names as CNN, the New York Times, ABC, and AOL.

An immense proportion of the online readership—roughly 42% of all blog traffic—flows to the top 50 blogs.

What do you think? Is the "democratic" nature of the blogosphere being bought up by titans?

Well, what do you know? This marks the 1000th post here at PureChurch!

When I started this blog, it was at my wife's suggestion. As always and with everything, she has been my biggest supporter and deepest partner in life. Even as she opens the blinds in the house this morning, I'm feeling deeply grateful to God for her and profoundly privileged to be her husband. The Lord is treating me better, far better, than I deserve.

And when I started this blog, I didn't think anyone would ever visit or comment. But many of you have, and I am grateful for you, for your thoughts and ideas, for the ways you either affirm or challenge my thinking, and for your being one means by which the Lord continues His work of sanctification in my life. Over these 1,000 posts, I've come to know many of you as friends and co-laborers in gospel fields. I've benefited from your prayers, and many of you have received mine as well. The blogging community has been a wonderful community to join. Thank you for making this a far, far more interesting blog than it would have been otherwise.

I didn't think I had much to say by post 100. Now that I'm at post 1,000 I think I have even less to say. We'll see how things progress, what the Lord gives us to discuss, and how He uses it all for His glory and our joy.

Grace and peace to you on this Lord's Day! May you be excited by the presence and power of Christ as you praise Him!

Thabiti

His Peace Upon Us (HT: DG) links to an interesting and massive study of the Arabic blogosphere conducted by Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. A pdf of the report is available here.

A few interesting findings:
1. The Arabic blogosphere is organized around countries, including: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Syria.

2. Most bloggers blog about personal life and local issues.

3. Discussing the United States, war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and terrorism get little airplay in Arabic blogging. The study's authors write: "Across the map however, when discussing terrorism, Arab bloggers are overwhelmingly critical of violent extremists. We consider this a positive finding, although qualified because the issue of attitudes toward terrorism hinge on the term’s interpretation across the Arab world. Whatever its presence in other, less ‘public’ online venues, overt support for violent global confrontation with the West appears to be exceedingly rare in blogs."

4. Religion: "Religion is a very popular topic in the blogosphere, and appears to be discussed more in terms of personal religious thoughts and experiences than in its political or theological aspects. Criticism of other faiths is minimal, though can be strident. The exception is a cluster of bloggers within the Islam-focus area, from various countries, who write about Islam from a conservative perspective and frequently criticize other faiths."

5. Lots of YouTube linking.

Upcoming Conference

It's the land of really nice people, a quarter of my congregation, and Tim Horton's!

Today, I have the privilege of heading off to Toronto, Canada to participate in the Sola Scriptura Ministries conference "Christianity--Islam: Two Faiths! Two Worldviews! One God?" It should be a great time of fellowship and study. I'm looking forward to hearing both Dr. Michael Haykin and Dr. James White open the word and guid us through the history of Islam and some apologetics. I have the privilege of sharing on the popular Islamic worldview, jihad, and basics of evangelism. If you can't join us, pray for us as we gather and reflect on this important topic.

What Seminaries Need
Speaking of Dr. Haykin, you mght enjoy this post (The Top Ten Needs of a Theological School) over at his blog. Haykin is well-equipped to offer these reflections. He led Toronto Baptist Seminar for some time and is a gifted educator.

Debating the Crucifixion

If you're in the Seattle, WA area on Friday, Oct. 19th, you might check out a debate on the crucifixion of Christ between James White and Muslim apologist Shabir Ally.



New Attitude Blog

The brothers at New Attitude are opening their blogging doors to a number of characters who themselves need new attitudes! Justin Taylor (Between Two Worlds), Justin Buzzard (Buzzard Blog), Josh Harris (JoshHarris.com), Eric Simmons, Doug Hayes (Covenant Mercies), Issac Hydoski (ONE), Joe Stigora, and Ricky Alcantar, and the chief of sinners needing an atttitude adjustment, me, join to reflect on humble orthodoxy and the call to follow Jesus. I'm looking forward to a fun time of blogging with a cast of characters who are humble, funny, insightful, and passionate about the truth.

I never get tired of reading that moniker!! There is something about powerful, Spurgeonesque, sound preaching in Africa that is just plain exciting! Nice 3-piece suit, too! The Unashamed Workman reviews a sermon from Conrad Mbwewe on 1 John 5:13-15.

And Lance is stealing Tony's titles and asking some really good questions like:

As we enter the 21st century I’d like to pose some questions for those of us who came from, love and long to see reform in the black church. The first and perhaps most surprising is this: Should we begin to think in terms of a post-black church era? Is this the time to start thinking of re-defining the church apart from dominant ethnic labels? Granted, some of our other brothers and sisters may not be thinking this way, but why not take the lead? While thinking through your answers (and I’d welcome your responses and input) consider this: if we’re to continue having a black church who gets to define ‘blackness’?

Carolyn McCulley shares this quote from G.K. Chesterton passed on to her by a reader named Lindsay : "People talk of the pathos and failure of plain women; but it is a more terrible thing that a beautiful woman may succeed in everything but womanhood." Wow! Now I'm asking myself... with all the beautiful women around me (my wife, daughters, sisters at the church), am I doing everything I can to help them succeed in womanhood? Have I thought carefully, creatively and long enough about that part of my responsibility as a brother in Christ and a pastor to many women? I'm not beating myself up; just noting that this deserves more thought and action.

GospelDrivenLife is taking a blogging sabbatical... I think. He's on post #2 of reflections before going on his 1-week sabbatical. In the first post, he discusses how men around him hold him accountable for his blogging. I found this particularly humble, humbling, exposing and helpful:

What they have most helped with is to point out where my 25 years in ministry have tempted me to have “pet peeves” – or, to use biblical language, self-righteous anger. What do I mean by that? I mean that ministry involves conflicting with sin and error in my own heart and the hearts of people I serve. If a particular issue recurs, I am tempted to 1. self-righteousness (to think I am not guilty of such a thing), 2 impatience (as though I change quickly and they do not), 3. anger (I am tired of this issue and want to press for anger or shame motivated change). All of that is about pride and ambition and being angry that people did cooperate with my plans.