As I’ve done for 2005, 2006 and 2007, it’s time to review my posts for 2008 and see just what I’ve been posting about — and what’s worthy of mentioning in a year-end summary. In my mind I’ve not been posting anything particularly good for a while now, but a few other people mentioned me in their year-end bloggers-worth-mentioning summaries (David Fitch and Bill Kinnon, your cheques are in the mail), so dang, I must have said something worthy of note. Let’s see.

January
The year started off with a discussion of Measuring Converts in Simple / House / Missional Churches (twice). I moved on to The Lucifer Effect: Why Good People do Evil and allegorical interpretation of the Bible.

February
The first half of the month was largely taken up with Pagan Week, which got held over as I reviewed Frank Viola’s book Pagan Christianity in five parts, followed by an extensive three-part interview with Frank. In the second part of the month, I did an overview of The Shepherding Movement in response to a question. Discussion on that post still trickles along, with Stephen Simpson (son of Charles Simpson) joining in.

March
In March, I offered the shortest possible definition of missional, and after Easter I did an impromptu series on the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus before the death of Dith Pran prompted Genocide You will Always Have With You?

April
The first post of the month featured a tag-team April Fool’s prank that was a lot of fun. Untitled Post on Spiritual Abuse Recovery was a good post with a bad title. Missional Is & Missional Ain’t recounts my work from the prior year on the definition of missional.

May
Oi-Oi-Oi-Oi-Oi. And Harrrumph. was my first comment on the whole Lakeland thing, and on the “Tokin’ the Ghost” shenanigans, which was followed by SynchroBlog: But is it Revival?, my contribution to an impromptu (almost accidental) synchroblog. Before East Bound and Down, the post that kicked off our extensive road trip to Florida and back, I posted what will be one of the most important posts for me, explaining in a very personal update how I Get By With A Little Help…

June
Posting “in abstentia” during the first part of June, I attempted to name 20 Classic Christian Rock Albums and give a view of my blogging habitat prior to a post from the road on what we called “The Great Turtle Rescue of 2008.” The 23^rd was the day of the synchroblog in which more than 50 of us participated in an attempt to define “missional.” My contribution was Missional Soup (’What is Missional’ SynchroBlog). After that, I began summarizing the synchroblog entries.

July
My summary of the missional synchroblog entries eventually ran eight posts, with a final summary post offering a synthesis of the whole exercise. Mid-month, I did a a biographical profile and a theological profile of Lesslie Newbigin.

August
The Todd Bently fit hit the shan in August, and I suggested we Call it Apostolic Fallout. Not everybody got the joke in Righteous Airwaves, and I returned to the previous subject, asking, “Is Bently Taking the ICA Down With Him?” followed by Cutting the Crap: A Call for Charismatic Reform. Further discussion of the movement ensued in two parts. Taking a break from that one, I thought about Neighbourliness & the Increase of Social Capital. Then apparently unable to leave it alone, it was time for Reinterpreting the Lakeland Fallout, which saw some more discussion in the comments.

September
I had fun with Ten Movies to Make You Think just before the news hit that some were officially going to stop using the term “emergent,” which made me ask if we had Emerge-ed? Not finished with the post-Lakeland fallout, I noted Stacey Campbell Apologizes, but Doesn’t Own Up.

October
Still thinking about the church formerly known as emerging, I observed that Emergent Terminology: It’s Not About Fracturing. Next I pondered the charismatic penchant for big-name conference-chasing and made what I think is a key observation on Discipleship Shortcuts. Charity & Justice for Refugees (Blog Action Day) was my post for the poverty-themed Blog Action Day.

November
The Liturgical Bob Dylan got some traffic, and Take This Bread: A Guest Review is worth a look too. Four Years of Blogging, and I Have a New God marked not only a blogiversary post but a significant realization.

December
To close the year out where we started, Missional Misgivings, or Missional Misunderstandings? resumes the question of measuring the effectiveness of missional churches, and for the sake of clarification was followed by The Missional/Attractional Divide: Dan Kimball Unpolarized. Finally, a recurring theme for the year gets revisited in Dunn & Crowder: Charismatics Reaping What’s Been Sown?.

Having recounted the whole thing now, it appears that charismatic excess was a continuing topic this year, as was the dichotomy between missional and attractional church and how the two measure success. Amid that noise, I joined the blogosphere’s pause to consider whether or not to keep using the term “emergent” and to help try and define the term “missional.” And there you have it — the Subversive 2008 in review. I guess I had a couple of posts in there that I’d take the time to go and reread.