First off, thank you so much for the prayers. I know those of you who read this blog will take that to heart. You all mean a lot.

I don’t pray enough. Some weeks are good, and others not so good. I wonder how much prayer could happen if there was no internet or blogs, or TV, or X-Box, or pick your poison! Ha!

Secondly, I got to eat lunch with Glenn Hager today. He grew up in the city I currently live in, and he now lives near Chicago. He was back for a couple days, and invited me out to lunch. You should read his blog, because it is a good one. I would also point out that in person, he is a humble man of God. Good guy. Add him to your reader. Re-Dreaming the Dream

Last up. A strange observation that will probably make little, to no sense. I have been doing this blog pretty much full time since December. There is a big chunk of me that I leave out there for all to read, and I like that. A lot. It is a type of journaling. There are some things I type that I was oblivious to previously. It’s natural for me to be open, because as anyone who knows me will tell you, I do nothing anonymously, and I always speak my mind honestly, and in person. This blog format lends itself to that personality.

However, I just started a new blog a week and a half ago. It is a niche blog that is already getting about 300 hits per day (this blog gets 100-125 per day). This is actually not very much relative to blogs that get a ton of traffic, and I guess I could do a better job of SEO, networking, etc etc, but I noticed two very different paradigms emerge that I will now contrast.

My niche blog is about the news, stories, people, culture, and events for that particular topic. I am passionate about that blog, but there is none of me in that blog. If that makes sense? I have an audience, but I am almost completely impersonal with that audience. My opinions, personality, religious or political bias, etc. are unnecessary and carry zero weight there, versus my personal blog here.

I was thinking about how easy it is to be anonymous, and to give out information and try to be an expert “in the know,” but never be vulnerable. Never giving, or offering, a personal side of you, and only perhaps a tiny amount that is residual.

It struck me that as much as this is uncomfortable for me based on my personality, I am starting to like that distance. A feeling that caters towards the side of me that likes being in charge. Likes being in control.

Taking my niche blog a step further, I realized why so many leaders in certain churches take a similar approach to a large percentage of the people in their congregation.

- It is safe. And the distance makes a comfortable little hiding place…a “niche.”
- It is easier to maintain power, and less vulnerable to criticism, at least on a personal level.
- People always think someone is smarter or more spiritually mature until they actually get to know them.

I guess I can start to understand why certain leaders come across as aloof, but there is a fundamental flaw with this understanding.

I expect a history professor or an ABC journalist to be an impersonal expert that gives you the information you are looking for, however this is not the Biblical mandate or framework that is set out for pastors in the New Testament. There simply isn’t the possibility to have the right relationships, either personally or for discipling, from such a leadership position.

Perhaps this comes from the notion that pastoring is something you do while preaching, or that being a leader is done on a platform. And certainly that may be a tiny portion. Perhaps it is due to character flaws or personally weak areas that are ignored for the sake of strengths that are more developed. Who doesn’t do that? But there is a vast Biblical mandate for servant leadership beyond the church platform, and outside the four walls, that simply cannot be done properly within that controlled “niche” framework.

I don’t know how I possibly got my blog to apply to leadership, but it does.

Cheers.