It didn’t take long for my recent post, Wanted: Emerging/Missional Chick Bloggers to earn a spot amid the most-read posts I’ve done here, as well as the most-commented upon. I took a lump or two on it, but I’m very encouraged by the outcome. A list of Chick Bloggers started taking shape slowly at first, and it gained momentum to the point where it became apparent that anything remotely approaching an exhaustive list will not be possible. Scot McKnight suggested I compile a list from the suggestions made in the thread following the post, and the list follows below. Before the list is presented though, it’s critical to point out that it isn’t possible to compile an exhaustive list, and some important women bloggers will inevitably be missing from the list that follows. As I visited each of these blogs, I found that many of them tended to blogroll women bloggers more often than men did (whether “emerging/missional” or not), so by starting with the list here and with a minor amount of further digging, you can easily find a treasure trove of chickbloggers. What we’ve done here amounts to little more than a straw poll, but I think it became a pleasant surprise to most that although there are probably many fewer emerging/missional women bloggers than men, there is still no shortage. I won’t actively maintain the list, but any that I’ve missed can be added in the comments.
In the ensuing discussion, we also learned that emerging/missional blogs by women often take a very different tone than those by men…. wouldn’t you know it, there’s a gender difference. Lest I get myself in trouble, I’m careful to say that I’m generalizing, and perhaps too much so, but the blogs by women will often tend to talk about life in general with missional thoughts interwoven. Generally, the tone on blogs by men is more consistently topical, but again, this is probably more consistent with differences in how men and women process things. Inherent in this observation is the fact that the women participants in the conversation are highly important and may over time tend to slow down the pace to a manageable level and ensure that the conversation remains more practical than theoretical. Kim’s blog is titled “random thoughts from a housewife” and features a wall of washers and dryers in a laundromat as its backdrop. In many ways, this represents the perfect metaphor for this observation… not because housewives and laundromats completes a stereotype, but because in this context it reflects a sort of “keep it real, keep it relevant, keep it everyday” mentality. If your version of emergent/missional doesn’t work in a laundromat, you have a problem with your philosophy of ministry. (Maybe you should ditch it and hang around the laundromat with Kim for a while.)
Here, then, is a kind of “starter-list” of Emerging/Missional ChickBloggers, with links to their syndication feeds:
- Adele [feed]
- Aj Schwanz [feed]
- Ann Catherine Pittman [feed]
- Anna Aven [feed]
- Dan on Signposts (Group Blog) [feed]
- Emerging Grace [feed]
- Emerging Women Leaders [feed]
- Holly Rankin Zaher [feed]
- Ivy Beckwith [no feed]
- Karen Ward [feed]
- Kim [feed]
- Lisa Samson [feed]
- Maggi Dawn [feed]
- Megan & Tiffany (Group Blog) [feed]
- MumJones [feed]
- Rachelle Mee-Chapman [feed]
- Sarah Dylan Breuer [feed]
- Sliverzgirl [feed]
- Sushi [feed]
- Susie Albert Miller [feed]
- Wendy Cooper [feed]
Brother Maynard – it is great to see that “the conversation” actually does mean something to you, and I think that this post is a great example of how conversation can really help us to grow, transform and change for the better through solid interaction with others.
To give you a little background – silverzgirl is my wife, and while I tend to blog in a more topical fashion, she was actually the one who started blogging first, and I kind of copied her. I think she got the idea from Ron Cole at The Weary Pilgrim, who is a good friend of ours, but it is something that she really uses to bare her soul. Sometimes she isn’t always graceful about it, but she is honest (sometimes brutally so) and I see how she really meets God within the context of what is going on in her mind and heart on a day to day basis.
It is good to see her name on a list of Emergent Chick Blogers in any case, thanks for putting out this list!
I’m also a little surprised at the idea that women blog about their lives and add in posts about emerging stuff. That’s been my approach to my blog since very early on. It’s about “conversation”, right, and surely conversation includes a lot more than just the airing of philosophical and theological ideas?
In fact, let me encourage more bloggers to adopt a more conversational approach! The last three posts I did all generated the same amount of comments, and one of the three posts was “only” about moving into our new house and our adoption of a three-legged kitten.
Bro Maynard, I know you were only generalizing, but I couldn’t resist!
great list – i’d like to be included too if possible. thanks!
Interesting that you’d observe the “interwoven” nature of our posts on recipes, religion and everything in between. [Very] generally speaking, men are far more compartmentalized than we are. In fact, I had a conversation with another “chick” blogger a few months ago about creating a separate blog for matters of ecclesiology when I got the distinct impression that some of my male readers were having a hard time hanging in there when two or three posts in a row were about topics other than ecclesiology… glad I didn’t though. Those entries — now affectionately dubbed “the glass ceiling diaries,” thanks to you — remain inseparably intertwined on my site… just like they do in my life.
Vive la différence!
Thanks for the link! I like the label, Emergent Chick!
Can I be on the list, too? Can I? Can I?
YAY!!! Just what I was looking for. I’ve been complaining to the husband for several days that all the blogs just have more and more guys on it … and I can’t find any women anywhere. Thanks for doing this. I was losing faith in the emerging church … that it was just all about the guys all over again, just with a different gloss on it. Thanks for this list … I wouldn’t mind having my blog added too and yep, I mix up ecclesia with real life, how my kids are growing is mixed in with how the church is doing, because that’s my life … it’s all mixed in together everyday.
The best site, gretwork.
There is also a webring which I am part of called RevGalBlogPals which is a blog for women in ministry and those who suport them. My blog address is http://www.revem.blogspot.com and the revgal address is http://www.revgalblogpal.blogspot.com
Blessings Revem