Happy to be an echo…but not an echo chamber.

Some years ago, I was working with a ministry that was seeking to publish a magazine. In our initial discussion, there was much made of the fact that we wanted to make sure that we were a voice and not an echo. I understood this. We did not want to just regurgitate or repackage what everyone else was saying. We wanted to have something interesting to say, offer a distinct perspective. But there are problems with always trying to be original. After all, there is nothing new under the sun.

I have decided that I am happy to be an echo. I have found such rich resources, books and articles over the years, I want to pass on the insights I have received from them. The apostle Paul was right when he said there is nothing that we have that we did not first receive from someone else. So, if by an echo we mean passing on what we have received from others, it is inevitable anyway. And I am glad to do so. So this site will be a kind of resource hub through which I will share reviews, book summaries, articles and other resources that pass on what I have gratefully received from others. I do so with the aim of helping visitors to the site to follow the way of Jesus in today’s world.

At the same time, there is a curse of communication that has always been around but has now been made a thousand times worse in the age of social media and algorithms. The echo chamber. This now familiar phrase highlights the fact that we have a tribal tendency to listen to, read, learn from and repeat only what we like from our tribe, the people who we already agree with. And, if they are from our tribe, we assume almost anything that they say must be right, and anything that the other tribe has to say is probably wrong! This is what has stoked up the culture wars and made our politics so ugly in recent years.

So on this site, I am determined not to be an echo chamber. For this resource hub, I will very deliberately draw articles and resources from a wide range of people and organisations across the Christian theological spectrum. If I feel they have something insightful and helpful that encourages us to follow the way of Jesus, then I will share from conservatives and progressives. I will point you to material from The Gospel Coalition and from ReKnew, for example. I will refer you to Tim Keller and Andrew Wilson, but also to Greg Boyd and Brian Zahnd (if you don’t know who these writers are, keep revisiting this site and you will find out). You may not always agree with everything you read here and that is fine. My hope is that it will at least make you think. And that such a reflective faith is a stronger faith.