Andrew Hamilton (Hamo), perhaps the best known Aussie Emerging Church blogger, has stopped his blogging efforts after 4 fabulous years as the Backyard Missionary. Hamo and I were in the same youth group when we were teenagers and our journeys are somehow joined. I have been toying with the idea of stopping my blog, especially after seeing all the hype about it, but Hamo has beaten me to it. HT: Mark Edwards
Unforgettable Hamo blog moments:
1. Incarnational vs. Attractional Mission – read and linked all over the globe.
2. Chat with Don Carson when Hamo and Geoff are told they are not heretical enough to be considered “Emerging Church”. Start with my overview of the conversation
.Hamo – we SALUTE you! See you back in the blogosphere in a few years time?
Technorati Tags: emerging church
This brings up a question I have, not so much about Hamo, but in the nature of blogging in general. I have been looking around blogs for I guess about a year so my awareness of blogging is not all that great. Given that Hamo is done for at least two years, and you took off for a few months, is blogging coming to the point where it beginning to run its course or is this something we will see for the next decade or so. I am sure it almost a part time job keeping up the site and coming up material to post. Thanks
Thanks mate!
Its funny isn’t it. You wake up one morning and you just know its time to pull the pin for a while.
Its been great to re-connect and it will be even better to do it in person in ‘2007’ – couldn’t be any more definitive could you!!?
I’ve always enjoyed the stuff that “Hamo” writes and have kind of kept up on what he’s been saying over at Backyard Missionary from the beginning. As to whether blogging has run its course, I sincerely doubt it. It’s just that the pioneers and early adapters have run through a “cycle” and need to refresh and reboot for the next one. Andrew and Andrew, I hope you both will keep writing.
TSK,
Decisions to stop blogging are between you and Him, however putting up a post exploring the concept of stopping gives us readers a bit of license to say what we think. If not, well, we’re taking it anyway.
In more ways than you might know, you are still inspiring others, creating a model, leading an exploration, developing an art, representing a perspective, encouraging a dialog, pushing a vanguard and a few other things that I can’t think of right now.
Following your recent blog fast, I wondered if you might rejoin the fray posting either less or more frequently. I would find it hard to believe that a man of your mindset will have nothing to say over the course of a few weeks. As a reader, I would certainly be up for less frequent posts, giving you the luxury of quality over quantity so your pioneer passions could be directed elsewhere?
Believe I am not trying to encourage you to cease, anything but, I was just curious.
noooooooo you can’t stop blogging andrew! only if God specifically tells you too, okay? slowing down sounds good though. you do keep many of us in the loop on what is going on globally, or is that glocally?
i am sure Hamo and i will keep on writing and teaching no matter what the format.
i started journaling my spiritual walk and mission activities on a daily basis in the early 1980’s. I switched to blogging in the late 90’s but i am not committed to the form. only the discipline.
it bugs me that the form i have taken now defines me. i am no longer andrew the minister or andrew the missionary but suddenly i am andrew the blogger – which implies a journalist with a keyboard.
this is usually the point where i jump off
but no . .. i will not be stopping this blog in the near future unless God makes it clear. but the thought does pass through my mind a lot more than it used to.
As for Hamo, I am sure he is welcome to post thoughts and articles on other peoples websites and blogs and magazines. he can certainly do so on this blog.
but wait . . theres more
– my blog bores me. it looks boring and it needs a total revamp
– i miss the innocent days of blogging whatever i felt. i have not been able to get back to being that unguarded and flippant.
– i like testing out new technologies and i feel i cant go much further with this platform.
– the downside of my blogging is an ugly egocentrism and i am upset at myself for not being as eager to see other bloggers succeed as i am to keep my own readership.
– i was expecting to emerge from my one month blog-fast with a whole new look and feel and way of blogging but it appears i have just carried on in my ways.
i need a jumpstart, something drastic, something exciting, something different.
but this post is not about me whining on my own blog.
Sad to see Hamo close down – I have lurked occasionally (but I don’t hang around in public lavs!)
Andrew: I only came to your blog (and blogs in general) about a year ago, so maybe I missed your glory days! However, through your blog you have challenged, inspired, connected me with others and given me leadership – all unknowingly. There is a need for these things for people just embarking on a journey you have been on for ages. That might be a bit repetitive for you, but needed none-the-less.
Have you thought about starting again, completely anonymously? That would be pretty hard on any ego! Thanks for being so honest in the open.
Well, until such time as we can connect in the analog world, and I can actually and appreciate you as Andrew the minister, I’m GRATEFUL to know you as Andrew the Blogger. It may be “only” digital, but it’s certainly been enriching!
And Hamo’s presence will be missed but I’m sure his voice will not be silenced.