I wonder what you particularly associate Faithroots with? Where do you think my time and attention goes. I’m focusing narrowly on the blog bit at the moment because that perhaps the most salient or visible.
I suspect that this will depend upon where you are looking from. If you were to look at what generates the most comments, primarily on Facebook and YouTube because I have comments switched off most of the time on the blog, then you might particularly associate it and by implication me with some of the hot, controversial topics of our day: Christian Nationalism, antisemitism, Donald Trump and so on. I find that from time to time I’ll write something and it generates a lot of comment.
You might assume from this a few things. First of all, you might assume that those are the most read articles. Secondly, you might think that these are the things I care the most about and thirdly you might from there conclude that these are the things that take up most of my time.
However, believe it or not, you’d be wrong. Wildly wrong on all three counts. First of all take a look at this blogpost that listed my top ten posts of 2025. Did you notice anything? There are a couple of articles that pick up on some topical current affairs type issues but the closure of a theological college doesn’t really sound like pulse racing stuff. The stuff though that is getting the traffic is bread and butter theological stuff. In fact it’s primarily good old fashioned expositional Bible teaching. The blog posts that are most read are not the same as the ones that are most discussed, make of that what you will.
Now for me that’s heart warming, good news. Why? Well because when it comes to what I’m excited about and where I give my time to, the answer is that it is on the stuff that gets read more than the stuff that gets debated. You see, I’m at hear a Bible teacher. I want to make disciples of Jesus Christ and to care for them pastorally. So, whether I’m seeking to share the Gospel with someone, lead a small group discussion, preach to a church or offer counselling them you’ll find me with Bible open. That’s what makes me tick. It’s the opportunity to do this that gets me up every morning. That’s true offline and that affects my priorities online.
As well as this being what I care about, it’s also where most of my time goes. The thing about those articles that get the most comment and generate the most noise and heat is that they probably haven’t taken long to write. It takes more time to dig into a Biblical text, synthesis commentary or tease out the implications of a doctrine than to give an opinion on a topic in the news.
A couple of reflections. First of all, we shouldn’t confuse noise with engagement or assume that because something is generating the most heat that this is what we should prioritise. Secondly, when observing and evaluating, we should remember that perspective matters.
Faithroots 