Fred Peatross challenged me more than he’ll know last November 14, when he observed on his blog entry titled Jesus:
Something I’ve noticed amiss in the many good emergent church blogs, including this one. They don’t talk much about Jesus. Spend some time looking and let me know if I’m correct.
I took it to heart. I tried to do better. But I get carried away with a tide of current interest and events just like everyone else. And, pretty much like everyone else, I fail to relate those items to a question like “What would Jesus think?”
The sad news is, it’s not just the blogs. I did a quick search (control + F in Windows; command + F on a Mac) of the home pages of some publications to see how often the name Jesus or Christ (when not part of the word “Christian” or the name of a church/denomination) appeared on them:
- Christianity Today – Jesus: 1 time … Christ: 0 times
- Christian Century – Jesus: 0 times … Christ: 0 times
- Christian Chronicle – Jesus: 0 times … Christ: 0 times
- Gospel Advocate Magazine – Jesus: 0 times … Christ: 0 times; last updated June 2002
- New Wineskins – Jesus: 3 times; 2 were in the titles of books for sale … Christ: 3 times
- Zondervan.Com – Jesus: 0 times … Christ: 3 times
- Heartlight – Jesus: 3 times … Christ: 0 times
In spite of how crowded with good stories and articles these pages are, I only found 13 instances of “Jesus” or “Christ” appearing in them.
Go ahead. See for yourself. Check other publications. Check blogs. Check Web sites of ministries. Link to them in the comments below.
See if Fred wasn’t right on an even bigger scale than he might have imagined.
Blog In My Own Eye 
Sad but true…Fortunately I have a bumper sticker on my blog:Jesus is my co-author!
Keith, I really appreciate this thought and the post just preceding it. If the focus is where is should be, we 1)won’t have the time, and 2)won’t feel the need to navel-gaze about our preferences, rules and regs we invent and use to cordon off others who don’t like our rules and regs. “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath”.Stay focused.
Keith, one thing I feel indebted to Jim Woodroof about is his constant insistence that we stay focused on Jesus. Remember his comment, “I’ll put my anchor in Jesus and let him take me where ever he wants to go, even if it means taking me to hell….if He’s there, that is where I want to be too”. At least that is my paraphrased version. Having Jim as a mentor, Mike also constantly called us back to Jesus. Thanks for the reminder, and the challenge! DU