Thank you Patheos! (And Continuing the Conversation at Christianity Today)

Thank you Patheos! (And Continuing the Conversation at Christianity Today) February 13, 2014

It is with both excitement and gratitude that I want to announce a new host for this blog. As of today, Thin Places will no longer be hosted by Patheos. This conversation about faith, family, and disability will continue as I move to Christianity Today. I hope you will continue to check in with the excellent writers here at Patheos (more on that below), and I also hope you will join me at CT.

When Andy Crouch and Katelyn Beaty, editors for Christianity Today and now friends and colleagues of mine, approached me about the move, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. Honestly, my biggest concern was being labeled in such an overt way as an evangelical Christian. We get a bad rap, you know.

But I have been so grateful for the work CT has done throughout the past three years (and grateful for the opportunities to contribute to CT magazine and her.meneutics, the women’s blog) that I promised to give it some thought. I considered all the times I have tweeted and commented on articles and posts on their site. I considered the ways fellow writers for CT have challenged me, encouraged me, and strengthened my faith. I considered the good work done through the This is Our City project. And I realized I am very happy to be included in their roster of writers who, I hope, are helping to change the perception of evangelicalism.

So what should you expect on the new site?

Moving the blog required a discernment process for me. What do I do best as a blogger? What do I need to learn? What do readers respond to? What do I love to write? As I look back over the 913 posts I have written in the past few years, a few trends emerge. There are the timeless posts. These usually come in the form of personal essay, and they usually involve stories about our children. I will continue writing these posts–short reflections on faith and family–on a weekly basis for CT. And then there are the posts that are far more immediate in nature, the ones driven by current events and news. These posts are more analytical, my take on cultural trends from prenatal testing to abortion to marriage to education. I will also continue writing these types of posts.

So each week should contain a reflection on faith and family alongside some form of cultural analysis. I will continue to offer a weekly roundup of the books, articles, and blogposts I think are worth reading.

And then there are the dreams–of resurrecting the Perfectly Human series, of starting a weekly reflection on a book related to faith, family, and/or disability, of Lenten reflections, of topics that can only be covered by inviting guests with perspectives different than my own to contribute. I hope these ideas will become a part of the mix in due time.

I hope that I am not saying goodbye to any of you who are regular (or even sporadic) readers. If I am, however, please know I say goodbye with gratitude for the ways you have encouraged and challenged me over these years together.

And as I say goodbye not only to this url address but also to the team of thoughtful, kind people who work to make the Patheos site a successful space for multi faith conversation and perspectives, I would like to point you towards the three women whose Patheos blogs have meant the most to me:

Ellen Painter Dollar, who writes about parenthood, disability, ethics, and the crooked way of grace.

Micha Boyett, aka “Mama Monk” a fellow “hesitant evangelical” who reflects upon parenthood through the lens of Benedictine spirituality.

Dilshad Ali, Muslimah Next Door, who writes about “faith, family, and autism–not necessarily in that order.”

Finally, Patheos has graciously agreed to move everything I have written here over to CT, so the archives will be available in both places. I’d love for you to check out my first post at Christianity Today, a video chat with Katelyn Beaty about Thin Places.


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