Rebooting the UTM Blog

January 18, 2019 /  Joel Shaffer  /  2 Comments  /  Blog, Uncategorized

Five years ago, I frantically struggled to keep up the blog on the UTM website. Having spent six years composing articles about urban ministry, the gospel, social justice, racism, and cultural issues with erratic inconsistency, writing eventually became a needless pressure-point and heavy burden on me.   So I stopped. And I felt good because producing blog articles had not only burned me out but also morphed my writing into the tyranny of the urgent rather than something really important that I enjoyed. While I took an extended official writing hiatus from the UTM blog, I kept writing throughout the world of social media, whether it was commenting on someone’s facebook post or writing a critical response on topics such as social justice within Sharper Iron (a blogging forum of conservative pastors and church leaders).

But then I turned fifty.

Turning fifty made me face up to the fact that I’m not getting any younger. I began meditating on what it meant to “redeem the time” (Ephesians 5:16) and how easy it was to either hurry up time as I furiously worked through my “to do” lists or slow down time as I dwelt on the past, when I should be focusing on enjoying and living in the present.  Therefore, I needed to be better at planning my time balancing life and ministry so that I can enjoy my relationships with Jesus, my wife, my family, my church and my neighbors. But this also included redeeming the time so that I can consistently write, especially with all the pertinent issues related to urban ministry that have emerged to the forefront of today’s culture over the past few years.    

As I began getting the itch to blog-write again, I prayed.  And then I planned out two years of articles (over one-hundred) that I believe are significant to the ministry of UTM and the church-at-large.  About half of my future articles were inspired through conversations I penned on Facebook and group blogging forums so I won’t be stuck with writer’s block nor will I succumb to burnout (at least not for the next two years).  

Look for a new article from me every Friday.  I encourage you to join me on my rebooted blogging journey as I bring almost thirty years of street-level urban ministry to the blogosphere, which grants me a fresh, seasoned perspective on hot-button social topics that the church wrestles with.