The Class of 2003: An Interview with Tim Challies, Justin Taylor, and Jared Wilson

In 2003, I was reading a small book by Hugh Hewitt, In, But Not Of: A Guide to Christian Ambition and the Desire to Influence the World, when I stumbled across a sentence that would change the course of my life: “Start and maintain your own Web log (blog).” That night, I took his advice and started my own blog, Evangelical Outpost.

While blogging had begun in the late 1990s, there were still relatively few Christian bloggers in the early years of the new millennium. In his book, Hewitt even lamented, “At present no great blogger has emerged with a distinctly evangelical worldview.” That began to change in 2003.

Of the hundreds of bloggers who began in 2003, three stand out: Tim Challies, Jared Wilson, and Justin Taylor. Over the years, these faithful men became my friends and mentors.

In 2013, I interviewed each of them to see what they’d learned during their first 10 years of blogging (see the interviews with Tim, Jared, and Justin). Now that they’ve completed their second decade, I wanted to follow up to see what else they’ve learned.

Let’s start with you, Tim. Like the other two guys, you’re a prolific writer (Tim has published eight books since 2007). But you’re the only one who has published something online every day for 20 years. How do you maintain such consistency, and what has that practice taught you?

Tim: Some would say “consistent.” Some would say “obsessive.” The fact of the matter is that I challenged myself almost 20 years ago to post something new every day for a year, under the agreement that if I failed I would just quit blogging altogether. I enjoyed the challenge of it so just kept it going.

I believe I just passed the 19th anniversary of doing so. The way I maintain that consistency is simply to make blogging my main vocation and the task that takes up the better part of every day.

While Tim has consistently/obsessively posted online every day, Jared, you’ve consistently/obsessively written a book every year. When I first started reading your work in 2003, you were an unpublished author. Since then, you’ve written 24 books—including two novels—and contributed to 10 more. That’s in addition to the blog posts and articles you’ve published in the past 20 years. What’s your secret to being so productive? And how do you stay motivated when most people would be content to stop after having produced so much output?

Jared: The question of motivation is an interesting one to me because I don’t see writing books—or writing in general—as an “extra” to ministry or just “something to do.” Writing really is a crucial aspect of my sense of vocation. This doesn’t mean it’s easy, of course, or that I don’t struggle with writer’s block. But it’s a calling from the Lord, I believe, and I believe this is how God has uniquely wired me. To borrow from Eric Liddell, when I write, I feel God’s pleasure.

Now that part of my role at Midwestern Seminary is to serve as Author in Residence, I have a privileged position for which writing books is expected as well. And while writing books isn’t the same, of course, as woodworking or painting, I sort of look at questions about output as similar to asking carpenters when they’ll be done making tables and chairs or painters when they’ll be done painting. Or, to make the ministry connection clearer, it would be sort of like asking a preacher why he plans to keep preaching.

I was writing books for years before I was ever published, and if I were to find myself at some point unpublishable, I would still write books (although I’d probably produce more fiction).

Our next overachiever is Justin. When he first started blogging, he was working for John Piper at Desiring God. Soon after, he went to work for Crossway as the project manager for the ESV Study Bible—a project that included editing 1.2 million words by 95 scholars as well as preparing 240 full-color maps and illustrations.

Along with his day job, he also found time to contribute to a dozen books and complete a PhD. And if that wasn’t enough, during this time he was writing 3–4 posts a day for one of the most popular Christian blogs (for about 5 years, Justin’s blog was the most popular section on The Gospel Coalition’s website).

You epitomize a trait, Justin, that’s shared by Tim and Jared: the ability to quickly read, process, and utilize massive amounts of information. Part of that ability is probably due to natural talent. But I suspect you’ve also developed the skill during the past 20 years. How did you hone that ability, and what can other people do to become better at that skill?

Justin: Man, that guy sounds productive! In the reality of day-to-day life, I often feel like I’m spinning my wheels, trying to fight laziness and distraction.

Insofar as you’re right that this is a skill or ability of mine, I think some of it comes through sheer repetition. My day job and my personal interests happen to intersect with a lot of reading, processing, and communicating. To pick up on Jared’s comparison to carpentry, if I had to cut wood and measure wood all day, every day, I’d probably get better at it over time.

For those who want to grow in this, I think you want to develop an instinct to spot the thesis—the main claim—of a piece. Consciously ask questions as you read or listen. Ask yourself whether the key terms are clear or unclear. Are the propositions within the piece true or are they false? Does the conclusion logically follow from the premises?

Quality of analysis, not rapidity, should be your main goal. The more you practice the art of reading well, the better your quick-twitch mental muscles will become.

Many of the functions of blogs (disseminating new ideas, pointing people to interesting content, etc.) have been taken over by social media. What has been gained or lost by the change in medium, and do blogs still have a future?

Tim: If I had a dime for every time someone has asked me whether there is a future for blogs and blogging, I could probably buy Twitter. (I hear its new owner isn’t entirely thrilled with his purchase.)

Since blogs began, people have been wondering how long blogs will last. By way of response, I wouldn’t be shocked if a day comes when the word “blog” falls out of favor, but I would be shocked if a day comes when individuals give up their right to have a voice that is unmediated by gatekeepers. And really, that’s all blogs are—a way for people to express themselves through words without having to be screened by editors of books, magazines, or periodicals.

And while there are now many new forms of social media (e.g., Twitter, TikTok) and new forms that share some of the properties and benefits of social media (e.g., podcasting, YouTube), there is none that specializes in the printed word—at least, in substantial amounts of the printed word.

Justin: If I had a dime for every time Tim has been asked that question . . .

I’m old enough to remember when the medium of blogging was mocked because they dumbed things down with their short-form content. To which the world eventually responded, “You think blogs are bad? Watch this!”

Probably the best way to think of old-school blogging (“Back in my day!”) was that it was a mash-up of short-form original essays, theological Instagrammy pull quotes, and Twitter-like hot takes or links to “check out this [book, sermon, YouTube clip].” Blogs probably waned in part because people preferred to have their communication streamlined rather than amalgamated. If you want to watch people dance, go to TikTok; if you want to see how your high school friends have gained weight and aged, go to Facebook; if you want to raise your blood pressure, go to Twitter.

The loss, I suppose, is that we lost some influential voices giving us largely unedited immediate reactions. We still get that through Twitter, but the medium compresses the argument and raises the temperature, neither of which is conducive to productive conversation. But I think there was a certain interesting art form of “Let’s hear 800 to 1,000 words or so from X on this story Y that just happened.”

I’m tempted to say the gain is that we finally got rid of other influential nefarious voices giving us largely unedited immediate reactions. Editors exist for a reason: our hot takes are usually not the best takes.

Blogs have a future, insofar as people want to read something more than a tweet and less than a long-form essay. I can think of specific examples of blog posts by Jared and by Tim over the last couple of years that affected me and that have stuck with me. It may be that in the near future, no one has a “blog” (blessed are the Substack newsletter writers), but I think there will always be a demand for the type of writing it represents.

Jared: I honestly just listen to Tim on this subject, as he’s always been ahead of the curve on it. I do hope there is a future for blogging, though I wonder if it’s possible, given the persistence of social media succinctness and the rise of the short-form email newsletter.

There seemed to be a flash of interest a year or so ago in long-form writing online, but that really was a flash—the interest seemed to disappear as quickly as it arrived. I wonder if the way people communicate online today actually stifles any collective momentum toward a blogging resurgence. I rarely watch videos online—hardly ever—but I know this is now the normative means of self-expression for most very online people.

And I wonder how tweets and Facebook posts and the like have altered our ability to think in terms of the arrangement of paragraphs. It certainly seems to have altered interest in writing and reading them. But people are still reading books, so who knows?

I will confess I have had a hard time finding the motivation to blog over the last couple of years. My writing energy is channeled in so many other directions these days. This is the main reason I pulled my blog from TGC—I just felt guilty it was sitting there dormant for weeks at a time. I also informally agreed to write a weekly post at the For the Church site, but I am terrible at keeping up. I started a personal blog on my own website two years ago. I’ve published exactly four posts there.

Is there a future for blogging? Blogging as it used to be? I don’t know. I hope so. But there are likely some cultural/generational changes that will have to take place to get us back into the medium as normative.

Last question: What have you learned about God and the Christian life since 2003?

Justin: Oh my. What a question. Twenty years is a long timeframe to contemplate.

I’ll answer with the first thought that comes to mind: growing in grace is real, and it is often slow, and it usually comes through pain, and it is always worth it.

Twenty years ago, I believed those first and last elements: it’s real and it’s worth it. But God has continued to teach me about those middle two items: there is really no end-run around his timing and his providences, which are often painful. It’s the nature of growing up. Physical growth is often imperceptible as it is happening, but we really are changing. And at the end of the day, we can only make it by grace.

Twenty years from now, the four of us will be in the traditional time of retirement. I pray God would find each of us faithful as we round our way into the final chapters of life and ministry.

And if I may be permitted a personal word in a public form: I love you guys. I admire you. I am thankful to God for your faithfulness to him, to your ministries, to your families, to your readers. May he help you to keep on making much of Christ.

Tim: I would echo all that Justin says, including his words of love to the other guys (including you, Joe).

As time goes on, I am more and more encouraged by ordinary faithfulness. Each of us has seen people give up and turn back. We have seen people destroy their lives, families, and ministries. We have seen people we once considered peers turn their back on the Christian faith altogether.

And in the midst of all that, I am so encouraged by those who stay true to the Lord, true to the faith, true to their convictions, and true to their calling. I would imagine I speak for all of us when I say that our great ambition is to simply be found faithful and to get over the finish line still honoring the Lord and eager to hear his “well done.”

Thanks, brothers. I’ll talk to you again in 2033.