About This Blog

Welcome to my blog (my web log, or on-line journal). 

I have spent ten years in suburban ministry, twenty-two years (total) in urban ministry, and seven years in country ministry. My involvements in ministry continue, now much reduced. At the same time, I am now a member of the faculty of the Cape Town Baptist Seminary, teaching Religions, God, and Preaching.

There are a few reasons for this blog: 

1. To help people form a picture of what ministry is about -- in particular urban ministry -- not least seminary students who may be destined for urban ministry. I have found that the image and the reality may be far apart. 

2. My experience in ministry may be (and, in fact, often has been) an encouragement to other ministers -- alternatively, a cautionary tale, as the case may be! Many notes of thanks have been recorded on this blog. 

3. Friends have simply told me how interesting my reports of ministry are. And

4. With my interests and involvements being many, this blog strays far beyond urban ministry. Some of my most popular posts are philosophical or technical ones (electronics). 

This is not a "parochial" blog. Only a fraction of my readers are local (in South Africa). Outside of my home country, this blog is read all over the world. At one point, according to Technorati, this was the most authoritative Religion blog in Southern Africa (I do not know how it ranks at present).

This blog is not a "church blog", but a "ministry blog". For the most part, I don't intend to share my views. The emphasis is the experience of ministry and the various events that surround it. A definition of “live” is “actually being performed at the time of viewing”. A definition of “unplugged” is “without amplification or modification”. However, see my Posting Policy.