I think you’ve nailed it, and I think you just may have opened a large vat of worms.

Very true my friend. Also, it is worth pointing out that there is the mentality that, just because you are linked by other people or have a substantial readership, that you are somehow famous. I remember when Steve McCoy shut down Missional Baptist Blog and made the call that our churches should be louder than our blogs. If one could equivocate celebrity with greatness, we as Christian bloggers must realize that in God’s eyes what matters will never be determined by a stat page or blog-applause, but who we are because of the grace of God alone.

I pray that God would keep me from the bondage of the applause of man and never allow me to succumb to the temptation to think that (1) I am doing good works if someone links or reads my stuff, and (2) that I am not doing a good work if no one reads anything I write.

Thanks for picking this up and carrying on the conversation.

The unapologetic sectarianism that plagues much of evangelicalism today is disheartening and can produce a fecklessness in lay people within the church if not corrected. We have sadly produced stars, but not servants; and sadly, profitability has become the primary consideration as being a prerequisite for ministry.

Thank you for your timely article and for Timmy Brister’s as well. When any of us a Christian bloggers can speak the truth in love and hold to the same standard of biblical accountability the ones we admire most as we would to the those who have drifted from orthodox Christianity - then our words and articles will have genuine credibility.

Until then, it will be politics as usual.
I remain, yours for the Master’s use,
Campi
2 Cor. 4:5-7

Great post, man. (Pat, pat) I’m going to link to it.

If I can add a further concern…and please folks take this the right way….I am even slightly concerned that there is a celebrity bible version! I of course am referring to the ESV. I personally like it, but I am simply amazed at how it has taken off so quickly, not particularly in churches (not in the UK anyway) but on blogs!….And no I don’t want this to turn into a discussion on the relative merits of the ESV etc…it’s a good translation but I can’t help thinking that it’s quick reception is as much (not more) to do with who is advocating it as it is to do with the quality of the translation.

I’m totally with you on the lessor known blogs, even these last few weeks we have discussed very important issues on your blog that no one else touchs. It has been truly thought provoking, and edifying. (I hope you don’t mind me classifying yours as a lessor know blog, take it as a compliment)

As for lessor known pastors…..the men whose names we don’t know are the bedrock of the Christian church. The best sermons I have heard in my life are not from any of the big-hitters, but men who are hardly known more than 30 miles from their home. We must never forget that the Great Commission was given to the Church, not the Conference, it is there above all places that discipleship must take place.

It hardly needs to be said that the blogosphere is a revolution in publishing on the order of the printing press way back when. I think we instinctively get that. It’s turned the information world bottom-side up.

Sometimes that’s bad, as those who previously existed as unknown bottom-feeders suddenly find themselves bouyed to the top on a wave they didn’t create.

But I think that what we will inevitably see is a settling of the dust, if not a levelling.

Personally, in my exploration of the Reformed blogosphere, I’m sure I’ve visited dozens and dozens of blogs. But right now, there are only about ten that I check on regularly. My time of exploration is just about over. I may stumble across a jewel now and then, but I basically am where I am. I like what I like.

I think this is going to happen on a macro level eventually. Some of it will happen for bad reasons. A blog will be popular because of the “celebrity” reasons you’ve mentioned. But another when will thrive and flourish because God has actually gifted the writer with unusual talents in communicating and/or in Biblical insight. Both these sorts of “cream” will rise to the surface after all the “churning” settles a bit.

Some of the good small blogs you speak of really deserve to have a few thousand readers a day, as men pour themselves into the teaching and writing task that God has set before them.

Some big blogs get by on bluster, and others on name recognition, when, truth be told, their content ain’t all that.

But, if we all sat down and were brave enough to name names, I think we’d be able fairly easily to compile a list of those latter types of popular blogs: they’re not fooling us.

Bottom line: some people who don’t deserve notoriety will have it heaped upon them, and others who really ought to be popular will labor faithfully in near-total obscurity. Hmmm, kinda like the rest of life. Nothing to get all worked-up about.

The American Idol “I should be a celebrity myself” mindset is also prevalent in the comment sections of a lot of popular blogs. This is usually indicated by long, drawn-out comments. It’s like saying, “I want my thoughts published for all of Tim Challies’ readers to see.” In my own experience, I find myself reading more and commenting less on the popular blogs just b/c I don’t know if people are really putting forth their ideas to interact or just to be seen. And if you don’t get there before the thread gets 30 or so comments deep, forget it. No one will pick it up.

In the end, great article. I might just link to it and claim it as my own idea;)

-d

Thank you for a great post.

That’s really sad on two scores, that he wasn’t going to try, and that he thought his job was exclusively to teach. I know this isn’t what the post is about, but this also highlights the need for a plurality of pastors in a church, and a sufficient number for the size of the church. In addition to Nathan’s good point you quoted I would say it is almost impossible to pastor a church with a good consicience and in a way that reflects the weight and responsibility of the office without knowing your people pretty well and interacting with them intimately and frequently….at one end of the spectrum it will tend towards a “lording over them” mentality on the other end it tends towards a downright abandonment of God-given duty.

JP

I had a few thoughts I’d like to add to this thread in case people are still reading.
I certainly am not saying that there is anything of direct concern with:

-Blogs that are popular because of a well-known author.
-Blogs that are popular because a lot of people suddenly decide to link to it due to a hot topic, controversial post, etc. This is to be expected.
-Blogs that are popular because of the writer’s way with words.

What I am concerned about:

(As Steve Camp said): ‘unapologetic sectarianism’, ‘stars, not servants; profitability’. Sadly, this is right on the money, and it covers in summary the concerns I had when I wrote this post. There is a reformed blogsphere clique that has a sour odor to it sometimes as they continually link up to one another and exult others posts more for their formatting, traffic, or ‘politically correct’ tone than for their doctrinal and edifying content. Once some of these guys ‘make it’, it seems like many of them purposely back down from controversial doctrinal issues probably due to the fact that it will lead to a drop in readership.

There are many excellent blogs that don’t get any traffic, aren’t written very well, might have a few misspellings and formatting issues, but are still twice in doctrinal content as the celebrity blogs.

Amen, brother. Very well said. We must remember that we write for the glory of One.

Steve said: …profitability has become the primary consideration as being a prerequisite for ministry.

Steve, this is an extremely troubling statement…because it is so true. I shudder to think of how many would nominate someone for pastoral leadership based upon their blog-writing alone (and of course, popularity). I say this because I know many who have and who would, and they are certainly not as far off the doctrinal table as we might suspect. They’re all around us.

JP: I think you make an interesting point about the ESV. I personally love it, but now that you mention it, I do believe that it has taken off so much in reformed circles because of who is promoting it. That’s not a terrible thing altogether, but it does show a little about how deep of a celebrity mindset we have fallen into.

Gordan said: Bottom line: some people who don’t deserve notoriety will have it heaped upon them, and others who really ought to be popular will labor faithfully in near-total obscurity. Hmmm, kinda like the rest of life. Nothing to get all worked-up about.

Very true and very well said. But, that doesn’t mean that this is right, right? Hopefully my previous comment helped clarify my concerns on this topic.

Drew said: I am aware of times when I would selfishly hope that some big-named blogger would link to my blog for one reason or another so I could watch my pathetic little hit counter spike.

Ouch. That one hurt. I’ve been blogging for two years now, and I can definitely say that this was a fault of mine when I first started out. Our selfishness and pride often run so deep. We certainly must be killing sin or it will be killing us.

Also, when you begin to break into that middle-upper tier, you can actually feel trapped by it. You have a unrelenting pressure to perform. Leaving the blog alone for more than a few days becomes uncomfortable. It’s crazy, but sometimes I wonder if there isn’t a 12-step program for people addicted to blogging.

But at least posts like this have step #1 down. First we need to admit that there’s a problem.

“For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.”

Yes, I have actually tried and have gotten no response from the “celebrity” blogger. I suppose when you get 100+ comments no matter what you blog about, there’s no way you can keep up. I found myself not bothering to go back to that particular blog.

http://judahslion.blogspot.com/2006/12/exalted-christ-h-e-is-start-journey-and.html

I just have time for a small comment. I know you guys are referring to me here and my huge blog following(ahaha fat chance!). I totally agree with this post. Steve’s blog, in my opinion, is one of the bigger ones that I really get to have interaction in when I visited it. Now, it is very hard to keep up with many blogs at all. I am grateful to God for the friendships acquired through this medium. For me, that has been a tremendous encouragement and means of exhortation and correction. May God continue to bless your efforts here.