Top Blogs - Shaper Iron

Top Tier . . .

Today’s “Top Tier” blog for review is called: Sharper Iron. Shaper Iron’s stated mission is, “to sharpen our fellow Christians through articles and forum discussions, providing news and ideas from a Christian, biblical, fundamentalist worldview. We desire to bring fundamentalist Christian brothers and sisters together for the cause of edification.” They articulate this with these three descriptors: SI is “an edifying place, a meeting place, and a fundamentalist place.” And indeed it is.

You might find it somewhat out of place with the previous blogs I have reviewed so far, and you would be correct. As a matter of fact, occasionally you’ll find them quite critical of some the people often featured in some of these other blogs. Nonetheless, I feature it here because I believe it is probably the leading voice for “fundamentalist” in the blogosphere.

There are several contributors to the SI site. One of the most prolific is the President of Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Kevin Bauder. [If you’ve never read Bauder’s article, A Fundamentalism Worth Saving, do it now! He does an outstanding job of articulating the major issues fundamentalist must deal with in this day and age.]

I do not necessarily agree with everything presented on SI (but that could be said about any of the sites I visit), but it is well worth keeping on your reading list because they do represent this realm of the evangelical world well (of course, many of them would probably vehemently oppose being labeled as part of the evangelical world, but they are).

In one sense, it is to the conservative fundamentalist churches what Between Two Worlds is to the reformed realm of the American church world.

Well, below is my detailed evaluation (based on my “subjective criteria” and 3 Star Rating system) of SI:

Content – They cover all three of my categories, ministry/cultural issues, theology, and spiritual formation—nothing to object to here. Rating: 3 Stars - Excellent, always good stuff.

Informative – For the most part it is very much so, especially in the conservative fundamentalist realm of the church. A very good place to stay informed of the big headline things. Rating: 3 Stars - Excellent, always good stuff.

Current – New posts every day, sometimes multiple. Rating: 3 Stars - Excellent, always good stuff.

Interesting – If you are not of this ilk, some of their things may seen unneeded, but I wouldn’t have it here if it wasn’t generally so. Rating: 2 Stars - Pretty Good, most of the time.

Creative – Usually pretty predictable, they are not necessarily trying to be so, but maybe a little more variety of perspective would help here. Rating: 2 Stars - Pretty Good, most of the time.

Relevant – Yes. Rating: 3 Stars - Excellent, always good stuff.

Appeal –This may be the most frustrating thing about it, it is not
that creative or appealing in appearance, and a bit hard to navigate sometimes. It just looks dull to me. Rating: 1 Star – Not so much!

Score; 17 out of 21. Overall, this is a very good blog and I think anyone concerned about the church should be reading it. One other positive feature is the SI provides a blogroll and list of links to all things “fundamentalist.” A perusal of these sites will give you with some very good, and sometimes, very interesting, reading.

In sum, I find I agree with almost everything presented, but not always with the tone of the presenter. So yes, I highly recommend Sharper Iron to you, it is informative and gives you a good look into the world of fundamentalism in our day.

Blessings
3 John 8
Bill H.