I’ve been blogging/writing publicly since 2006. My first website was called www.pomotheo.com. Post-modern theology. LOL. I probably have old posts somewhere saved on a hard drive. Swirling thoughts from my time in seminary. It was around that time I also launched my first church plant (2009) and a podcast (also 2009). I had plans, man, so many plans….
But as plans go, and as I found out early in my planting career (can we call it a career?) plans never work. Like, NEVER.
I have been in vocational ministry since 2009 in a very part-time capacity and always on the outside of denominational affiliation. I was simultaneously trying to build community spaces for people like me, but also present myself in the ‘market place of church ideas’. Before the pandemic started I was actually building more prominence in the missional church realm. But things have a way of ebbing and flowing. Plans sometimes don’t pan out the way you intend.
Many of you have been following me for a long time. You might have jumped on board through my initial musings on church decline, multi-ethnic ministry, church planting, missional church, basically all of the ways churches can stop sucking so bad at connecting with folks who don’t look like it….
Thanks for being here. Things are going to change around here….
I’ve come to the slow realization that it’s hard to gain traction within the ecosystem of racist algorithms, a name that doesn’t read like ‘Blake Whiteman’, no denominational support, and being Canadian, add up as tiring obstacles. Eventually it takes its toll.
Pomotheo didn’t last long. I opted to put everything here on the website (but I’m now deleting a bunch). I also resisted the urge to jump into Substack early wishing to hold my own content close to home. I then relaunched a podcast back in 2017 (maybe 2016?) that now has ten seasons (Faith in a Fresh Vibe ya’ll). But lately I’ve sensed this season is coming to an end.
A lot of free work, writing, podcasting, and not enough connection to make it worthwhile. That’s my conclusion, and if I’m being honest, I tend to hang on to things a bit too long.
I’ve run out of ideas to talk about on a podcast devoted to re-imagining faith in new ways. I’ll probably return to podcasting when new ideas percolate, but it’s been two years since I started recording the final? season ‘Farewell Evangelicalism’. The topics I, along with a myriad of guests, talked about remain so pertinent today, naming malformed elements of a broke-ass church, but frankly the listenership isn’t there. It’s not worth the time. Maybe it never really was.
I wrote (and deleted recently) a post way back in 2016 about the ‘obscurity of ministry’. Obscurity is a guarantee, a curse maybe, for ministers/leaders who choose to operate outside of the bounds of traditional ministry. You walk this road you will be forever stuck in the wilderness. That’s always been my place. And maybe it’s not insomuch being ‘stuck’. With growing age I’ve come to like the wilderness. Maybe I belong here?
I have always been reticent to adopt the postures of ‘content generation’. It’s to fake to me. I am a web marketing consultant by trade (that’s been my business since 2002!) and simply despise the lack of authenticity. I have no qualms with those churning out content, but I’m not good at it (and my name is not Blake Whiteman). I’m less interested in stoking rage, social media dunks, jumping on the latest flash trends, and building resources for folks trying to figure out themselves. Yet within all of that commercial nonsense are reflections of what really matters.
So many of us are stuck in a feedback loop of rage and slogans, not enough of us are curious about wisdom.
Wisdom…. You could say I’m after wisdom these days. Maybe you are sensing the same. We (my partner and I) are after a particular way of life and are willing to bring folks along with us who are committed to a deep ethic of justice, liberation, and freedom for all.
We realize that’s actually a very small group of people.
I’m used to small of course. I don’t think any of my four church plants have ever tipped over 100 people apart from that one Sunday back in 2016. Mostly, we’ve meandered together with twelve or so. Which is apt if you’re Jesus and the disciples, but not particularly compelling when you’re seeking critical mass to do stuff together.
So it’s time to shift. Time to move on. Time to stop posturing my content to the abyss. What that means pragmatically is a change in what you read here.
My aim is to pivot away from the old church themes. You will rarely again read a note on church planting, missional anything, church growth, discipleship, preaching, worship, even deconstruction. (Plus, I put immortalized a lot of thoughts in my book Thrive and When We Belong.) It’s over. Of course, I’ll chime in once in a while, and I have a book coming in May. But if I’m being real, and usually I am, if the rising calls for justice over the past decade hasn’t compelled Christians to any substantive change, why bother sticking throwing them bones?
Not that I was ‘in’ the fold to begin with. I’m not actually ‘leaving’ anything because I was never really a part of ‘it’.
I’m not ending any ministry, walking away from my faith, denouncing any previous works. I simply think I got it wrong believing Christians in general have an innate interest in being better. Some obviously do, but I’d rather be with and write to folks who I don’t have to convince what justice looks like in public. In other words, I can’t keep naming problematic voices in, say, deconstructing Christianity, only for them to becoming best sellers cause nobody is really listening….
Taking cues along the way, what folks are reading, what folks are commenting on, it’s not church related any more at all. So what is it?
Some of you know I launched a literary agency in 2025 to compliment my publishing house. It’s one of many adjustments I’m making. I’m digging deeper to activate a writing career that will focus attention on the CanLit (Canadian literature) sphere and justice/liberation. It’s my hope my next next non-fiction creation will be published in Canada…but I digress.
My focus remains deeply committed to subjects of culture, identity, justice, liberation, freedom, democracy, and faith. I believe these elements intertwine and offer us clarity on how to show up well in these mean streets.
Going forward in a ‘good way’ is something we’re utterly lacking as a society (I’ll just speak to North America for now). I even have a book (my next one coming in May) that will meander around embodied practices towards a ‘good way’. How to show up in the world that isn’t destructive but is rooted in the ethic of love and value for land and neighbour…sign me up! Whole and Human is coming soon, and I hope it does really well. If it does, maybe I’ll even write another one.
But….
I also know that speaking directly to matters of faith from ‘inside the house’ is not my jam anymore. There’s no more room in the inn. BUT, there is a desperate need for voices to lead IN the wilderness. To discover life worth living outside of the hustle and the outrage. This is where we land.
I mentioned earlier, this is where we’re taking people who want to come alongside. We’ve always been folks who have sought community that has specific values of ‘showing up’. We realize that there are very few people who know what that means, we understand now that maybe what we’re looking for is what we have to model for others?
That doesn’t eliminate the obscurity of it all, the realities that justice minded folks are always at the fringes. But how else are we to be in this age of relentless chaos and designed exploitation?
So thank you, again, dear reader, for reading. Thanks to those who have been here a long time. Some of you have been signed up for newsletters for nearly a decade! I’m still here, but the tone and the subject is shifting towards wider pathways on how to live well for you and those around you.
-Rohadi