I am a husband, father, and pastor – in that order.  I married my wife Belinda in 1994 in Pennsylvania, moved to Utah in 1997, brought 5 children into the world (thanks to my wife) between 1999 and 2006, and became the Pastor of Berean Baptist Church in 2001.

You might call me a “reluctant blogger.”  I have a love-hate relationship with the activity.  It is not a favorite pastime of mine.  I once blogged at Jack Hammer – you can check out some of those scurvy posts.  I stopped about 6 years ago when I realized that my wife’s complaints about blogging were true.  I found that it consumed far too much of my time, that I enjoyed controversy too much – waging little blog wars all over the map – and that the comments section in particular became an obsession with me.

Having taken sufficient time off, I am reluctantly revisiting this particular medium for two reasons: first, because I need the discipline of writing; secondly, because blogging gives me a way to work on some book ideas.  If I were to throw in a third reason, it would be that in some small way, I would like to impact the world.  Blogging gives me a sort of hammer – though not always the pneumatic kind.  For more insight into my plans for blogging, please read this.  For a little background on the author, check this out.

With that in mind, I am resolved that the comments will be a low priority.  If you need me to gland-hand you in order to get you to come back, this blog probably isn’t for you.  All comments will be read, though not necessarily by me.  If I believe that I should reply directly in a comment, I will.  Otherwise, I will allow the comment to stand or answer it in a future post.

My rules for comments are as follows:

Anonymous comments, comments from a phony account, or comments from a pseudonym, will be deleted.

Likewise Agent Orange and scorched earth comments.

Thoughtful comments that advance the topic will be appreciated and honored.

Appreciation is welcome.  Flattery is not.

While we will not attempt to be tone police, we do expect commenters to follow the basic rules of civility.  If you are not acquainted with those, we can offer some helpful passages of Scripture.