Reflections on 10 years of Blogging: A New Beginning

I began blogging on December 7. 2004. For the next couple of weeks I am going to reflect on my blogging experience, and perhaps offer ideas about how my blog may evolve into the future.

Friar Tuck's Fleeting Thoughts was born after I had been at Colorado Springs for about 15 months. After serving at First Baptist Church of Colorado Springs. I was, for a number of reasons, feeling more and more isolated and lonely in my life and in my ministry. I felt trapped in my work. I felt stuck in my career. I was single. I did not have many hobbies, and I had always dreamed of being a writer.

I remember when I wrote my first post on my blog. It was intoxicating. It was like seeing my name in print. I had my own free website. I had the opportunity to form my own voice, to practice writing, and to share my thoughts with others. 

When I started blogging, my writing had several purposes:

Recording my thoughts and insights somewhere permanent, so that they would not get away from me.

I had this habit of reading something, and forgetting what I had read. I would think of things, but then forget what I was thinking about soon after I did so. The blog was a way of keeping track of those insights that came to mind, especially if I thought they would be helpful or useful later. So, the title became Friar Tuck's Fleeting Thoughts.

Strengthening my writing skill

I have wanted to be a writer since I was a child. And, if I was not a pastor I might have tried to be some sort of journalist. I still dream of writing books, being an academic, or something else that will allow me to read and write.

To develop a feedback loop for ministry thoughts and ideas
I was often thinking about theological and ministry matters, but had no way of having any sort of conversation about such things. Putting something down in writing and letting people respond gave me a forum to get the feedback I needed.

Developing a scrapbook of sorts of pictures and old writing I had done
I did not want to lose track of the writing I had done, and some of the sermons and articles I had written. This had happened in the past when computers crashed, so I began to assemble pictures and writing from the past on this blog as well.

Quote collection
I have always loved quotes. The blog would be a place to collect quotes and links to writing I appreciated.

And so I began to write and share, Many of the above goals were met. However, I had no idea how my blog was going to evolve and my experience with blogging was going to grow in the years to come