Readership Up - Time Down - Forecast of Readership Decline

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'd like to thank you for making this what I consider a well-read blog. In the past few months I've been noticing a growing international audience (I reside in the United States) including readers on five continents that I've noticed (Africa and Antarctica, where are you?). Readership has blossomed as I have posted summaries of books and chapters in books, leading me to think that there is more interest in that academic side of my work than in the purely pastoral, biblical commentary side of my work. For this I'm grateful. If I can be of help and service to anyone, I stand humbled and thankful to God.

I do know that biblical commentary resources abound and that the posts I make pertaining to the Bible Reading Challenge or lectionary readings or whatnot are not significantly different from anything which could be found anywhere. Yet I want to continue making those posts since I have some readers within my local congregation. I'm their shepherd and wish to encourage them in their Bible reading, giving them easy access to the same kind of biblical teaching that I try to provide week in and week out locally. So though those posts are not as popular as my others, I fully intend to keep them going.

Time and energy are short, though. As I write this I have about three more weeks of working double-time, both as a parish pastor and as a junior high and high school teacher. The past months have had some impact on my health and, I'm sure, on the patience of my family. Therefore, I'm planning on putting aside the posts other than the Bible reading challenge until the week of May 28, when I will be down to one job again. I reserve the right to violate that and write up a post or so, but it seems pretty unlikely at the moment.

When I begin posting more book review posts I plan to start with quotes and comments from two different books, both of which I've been studying but which I haven't had time to relate in writing. The first is by Gene Edward Veith, The Spirituality of the Cross, 2nd edition, ISBN 0758613032. The second is a weighty tome, by Frank C. Senn, Christian Luturgy: Catholic and Evangelical. That ISBN is 0800627261. The two books look at the vitality of historic worship, but from opposite directions. Veith considers the living and devotional nature of the liturgical life while Senn considers it from an historical standpoint, tracing where different practices emerged.

So, do you hear that sound? It's the noise my blog makes when readership plummets. Hopefully when I'm more active about posting in about three weeks I'll find a sustainable pace and it can be a blessing, especially to some of my international readers who may not have as ready access to some of these materials as I do. So come back in a while, bring your friends, and join me as I rejoice in the Lord who does all things decently, in order, and according to his own timetable!