When I started the original Tides and Turning blog years ago, it’s sole purpose was to document things I was reading and studying. Well, I’m still reading and studying. Actually, I’ve been on a reading tear lately that rivals anything I’ve ever done in my life. I think I’ve read something like fifteen books in the past two months.

But since changing the name of the site a year ago, I’ve hesitated to make as many random posts. Plus, so much of my attention has been on my work as a pastor and on our book project, I just haven’t made an effort to set aside a lot of time for the type of meticulous note-taking I used to do on a regular basis.

With that said, I’m going to start making some posts on some random books I’ve been reading over the past year. Each year, I try to dedicate myself to studying one particular subject with as much depth as I can. Last year, my focus was on learning about writing. I took a couple of courses on writing short stories and read a ton of books on craft. This year, I’ve been studying Neuro-Linguistic Programming and principles of influence related to communication and sales. I even took a certification course in NLP. So you’ll notice some posts popping up about all sorts of things. Hopefully you’ll find something helpful.

But regardless, the notes I’ve stored on the blog over the years have proved extremely valuable for me. There’s no telling how many times I’ve thought of a quote that would go well on a sermon and then was able to find it easily because I had stored it on he blog. Thanks for everyone who’s stuck with me (and now us, since I’m not the sole owner of this new site) over the years.

Since I (Heath) started the original Tides and Turning blog several years ago, I have been the only person to write on the site. I have written every single post there and here at Recognizing Christ. Well that changes tomorrow. My co-conspirator, and longtime friend, Jeremy Beck, has written a doozy.

In the article, he deals with taking false comfort, and justifying lack of Christian growth, because of connection to a large church. It’s well worth the read, so I hope you’ll check it out when it’s posted. And we plan to bring more content like this to the blog as time permits. We are both swamped these days but are committed to adding content when we can.

The title will be, “A Counterculture of Christian Commitment.”