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Five years ago this week, I registered a new blog on WordPress and called it “Kingdom People.” From time to time, readers ask me about the circumstances that led to the beginning of this blog. The five-year mark is as good a time as any to tell the story of how the blog got going.

A Major Move

The decision to launch this blog in October 2006 was made during a particularly difficult time in our life and ministry. Fifteen months earlier, I was wrapping up my fifth and final year as a missionary and student in Romania. Corina and I had been married for just three years, we had a one-year-old son, and we had settled into a life of service in several village churches. As much as we loved life in Romania, my wife and I sensed God calling us back to the United States.

Moving back to the States as a family turned out to be much more difficult than leaving for Romania on my own when I was 19. The knowledge that our decisions affected multiple people – family members on both sides of the Atlantic, and especially our son – added weight to our thought processes. In the end, we obeyed. We endured the tough goodbyes, abandoned nearly all of our possessions in Romania, and then flew to the States with five suitcases between us. A week later, we moved to Louisville, KY, where I was to begin seminary. After we unloaded our few belongings, we wept together, sensing that the beautiful first chapters of our journey had officially come to a close.

Seminary and Ministry

During our time in seminary, ministry opportunities proved difficult to come by. I applied for positions at the seminary, sought opportunities in local churches, and added my name to any ministry-help list I could find. But ministry doors remained closed. I assumed that five years of cross-cultural missions experience would open doors for me to minister again in an American context. Unfortunately, it sometimes felt like my missionary experience was a liability, not an asset.

The eighteen months we lived in Louisville were lonely and trying for our family. Aside from a couple of country churches that asked me to do some pulpit supply, I went for more than a year without preaching or teaching. The frustration was compounded by the fact that I didn’t have an outlet to share with others the biblical insights I was gaining from my classes at Southern Seminary. Nevertheless, I am grateful that the Lord put us through this season. The Lord strengthened our resolve, focused my calling, and increased our empathy for others going through similar circumstances.

The Blog as an Outlet

In October of 2006, we were especially discouraged as a ministry position had opened up to us and then fallen through. I was bursting with passion for teaching and preaching, but since the doors had remained closed to that type of ministry, I decided to channel my passion into writing.

I’ve long felt compelled to write, even from childhood. There were thoughts in my head and stories in my heart that had to get out. Writing was the only way I knew how to think through and organize the thoughts that kept ping-ponging in my mind. The more I learned in seminary, the more I felt like these Scriptural truths were just too great to keep to myself. If I couldn’t preach, I could write. So why not blog?

I had dabbled in blogging since September 2004 on a different site, but my busy schedule had reduced the regularity and consistency of my writing. So I decided to switch to a WordPress blog, change the name to “Kingdom People” and begin with a new goal of blogging daily. I organized different types of posts for different days of the week.

Development of a Blog

Within a few months, the Lord opened a door for me to serve as an associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Shelbyville, TN. While we were in Shelbyville, the blog morphed into something more pastoral as my new ministry context served to shape me and my thought.

For the first two years, I saw “Kingdom People” as a hobby rather than a ministry tool. I thought of my local church as the place where true ministry took place. My blog was just something on the side. I was encouraged to hear from pastors and church leaders who found the content helpful, but I didn’t think of the blog as anything more than a hobby.

Then in late 2008, my pastor and another respected Christian leader challenged my view of the blog as a hobby. At different times and in different ways, these men advised me to rethink the purpose of my blog and start looking at it as an extension of my local church ministry. They challenged me to take seriously the increasing number of people who were reading the blog and to start looking at my blog in terms of service and stewardship. I’m thankful they pushed me to be a better steward of people’s time.

5 Years

So that’s the back story to the blog. Five years later, I’m grateful for God’s providence. Out of a time of personal struggle, God brought about something good. I’m glad He did… and still does.

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