One Year On Substack!

(Clap For Me)

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

First, Some “Thank Yous”

A year ago, I moved my blog over to Substack for three reasons.

1. There was an intentional writing community that I felt would help keep me accountable to regular writing.

2. The ability to not only post my writing online, but also send it simultaneously as a newsletter.

3. *Cough* Squarespace was raising prices *Cough*

Ok, all three of those are really legitimate reasons, but if the third one hadn’t happened, I don’t know if I would have switched. But I’m so glad I did.

After one year of regular writing, I have 127 subscribers (as of the time of writing)!

I’ve learned that a regular open and read rate above 50% is a challenge - but you all read my posts at a rate of somewhere between 50%-60%!

Many of you have sent me personal messages or shared when we’ve bumped into each other in person that you’ve found my writing helpful and meaningful. This is why I do this!

I’m thankful for the high level of engagement and honored that you take the time to read, like, comment, and share.

Thank you!

Second, A Year In Review

For those of you who haven’t been here since the beginning, you may have missed some favorites here at Under the Eyes of God.

So I thought I’d share a little of the “best of” this year. What was the most read, the most liked, the most commented on, and then one or two I’m most proud of…

Most Read

At 586 views and 60% open rate, this is by far my most read piece, in which I illustrate how to disrupt ideology like Jesus through a funny story about the Global Football (soccer) star Cristiano Ronaldo.

Most Liked

A repost from my old blog, but still an important topic on knowing who we are and where our identity comes from. And Fred Rogers…That’s all I need to say.

Most Commented

Like many who grew up in predominantly White Evangelical spaces, I received a very mixed, if not negative at times, version of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy. I write a little about that and compare that version to the distinctly Christian-rootedness of the Civil Rights movement he led. I was encouraged by your comments and personal messages from this one.

Most Proud Of

I’ll highlight two…

This is one of the early pieces I published last fall. Through the teaching of

Beth Felker Jones

and her Christian Doctrine class at Northern Seminary, I began to think about theology very differently. I wrote this to help me think through it more.

It was only this summer that I realized the influence George Lindbeck’s The Nature of Doctrine had on her approach to theology, and now mine too! I didn’t have Lindbeck’s language of “cultural-linguistics” yet, but this piece sort of gets at that idea before I knew it was a thing.

One of the tools I’m picking up in my seminary education is how to discern how ideology works, how it is at work in churches and communities, and how to address it.

Here, I reflect on the work of Terry Eagleton in his book Ideology: An Introduction. What I’m most proud of in this post is the diagram I created to describe Eagleton’s multi-layered definition of ideology; when it is just differing opinions, and when it becomes coercive. I found the framework helpful for sorting through micro and macro-level conflicts, and I hope you do too.

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Thank you for being a part of a great first year here on Substack! If you’ve found my writing helpful, would you be willing to help spread the word and share Under the Eyes of God with someone who would benefit from my writing?

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This fall, our church is spending time exploring what it means to share life in Christian community through a new series called “Together”.

I’ll probably be riffing on that topic here on Substack a bit through the fall, along with the usual mix of other things I’m led to consider “under the eyes of God.”

Stick around!