The Pietist Schoolman

My own 40th birthday felt momentous at the time, but today this blog turns 5 — and that’s the more shocking occasion of the two. When I convinced myself to give blogging a try in June 2011, it was intended as an experiment for summer break. I certainly didn’t expect to be doing it five years later, let alone that keeping this blog would so significantly reshape my career: changing my scholarly priorities, fostering new friendships, and opening doors to other opportunities.

I’d like to think that I would have kept blogging for a half-decade even if I knew that there were only a handful of loyal readers paying attention. But the fact that there are more and more of you each year is deeply gratifying and humbling. I do appreciate the time you take to read and respond to these posts.

To the extent that anything I write has value, I’m quite content simply to give it away. All I’d ask in return (if I might steal yet another trick from John Fea) is that you help to spread the word about The Pietist Schoolman. Recommend this blog to friends and colleagues, link to it from your own blog, and if you’re on social media, please share posts that you feel are especially important.

(Likes/hearts are certainly nice to see, but shares do vastly more to bring posts to the attention of people who aren’t yet reading.)

For example, you might consider sharing your favorite post from our fifth year. (And I do mean “our” — guest posts are always among the most popular.) Here are the 25 that received the most page views in the past year:

1. 

   On Friendship (For Stacey)

2. Standing with the CCCU
3. “No One Is Safe”: Larycia Hawkins Responds to Wheaton
4. Another Mennonite School Leaves the CCCU Over Sexuality
5. The Shadow of Death: A Response to Jerry Falwell, Jr.
6. Mennonites, Evangelicals, and the Sexuality Debate in Christian Higher Ed (Devin Manzullo-Thomas)
7. This is Not Leadership: A Response to Everett Piper’s “Day Care” Post
8. John Piper’s Argument Against Concealed Weapons
9. In Dubiis Libertas: Opening Up the Sexuality Conversation at Christian Universities (Mark Bruce)
10. Goshen and Eastern Mennonite Leave the CCCU
11. A Prophetic Impulse: Myron Augsburger and the Mennonite History of the CCCU (Devin Manzullo-Thomas)
12. How Peacemaking Helps Frame the Context of Anabaptism, Sexuality, and Higher Education (Jared Burkholder)
13. If There’s a Crisis of the Humanities in Christian Colleges, What Does It Tell Us about Evangelicalism?
14. Quick Thoughts on Union University Withdrawing from the CCCU
15. Wheaton, Islam, and the Christ-Centered University
16. Is It Time for an Evangelical “Divorce”?
17. From One Christian College President in Virginia to Another…
18. Quantifying the Crisis in Humanities at Christian Colleges
19. A Hopeful Vision for Christian Higher Education
20. Children of the Heavenly Father
21. “Tell It Like It Is”: How the Church Should Respond to Trump
22. How to Survive Being a Vikings Fan
23. Why I Hope Goshen and Eastern Mennonite Stay in the CCCU
24. Evangelical Islamophobia
25. Done with “Evangelical”? Maybe You Should Try “Pietist”

Or give a second look to five posts that weren’t quite as popular (perhaps because their titles didn’t include the words “crisis.” “sexuality,” or “Mennonite”?), but meant a great deal to me:

• For My Children, On Their First Day of Kindergarten
• Seeing the Election through My Daughter’s Eyes
• “I Was a Stranger” (For GW)
• The Body of Christ
• Why I’m Glad I’m at Bethel