Time for this week’s instalment in my series of weekly interviews with some of my favorite bloggers.

On my journey to rediscover the Church, I’m finding that it is huge and God gives so many of its members great things to say in their blogs. He has also given many of you out there an incredible ability to write clearly and in such a way that it is easy to read and understand what God is asking you to say.

These interviews are to hopefully help you find great new blogs to read and to give you a chance to learn a little more about the people behind those blogs.

Last week’s interview was with Joe Stallard, read it here.

This week’s interview is with a man whose blog I love reading and who taught me a lot and probably has a lot more to teach me about church and living for Christ.

This week’s interviewee is: Matt Appling writer of  The Church Of No People

To start off, who are you? 

My name is Matt. I live in a suburb of Kansas City, MO with my wife Cheri and our two dogs. I’ve lived in KC most of my life. I went to college to be a graphic designer, but answered the call to the ministry about halfway through. After college, I went to Midwestern Baptist Seminary, where I’ll be graduating from in May. Today, I pastor a wonderful house church called Levi’s House (levishousechurch.com), do freelance graphic design work, and am working to build a career in high school or college education. So yeah, I’m a bi-vocational preacher.

What is your blog about?

It’s about half Christian commentary and half time wasting humor. I like to bring a message, but not get bogged down by getting too serious. So one day you’ll read some reflections on a sermon I preached last Sunday, the next day you’ll read about the places in which eggnog would be a terrible choice as a beverage. 

Why did you get into blogging?

It’s a creative outlet for me. The logic behind the name is that I have to being my ‘A’ game on Sundays when I preach. But in a ‘church’ (blog) where no one is listening, I can say and do anything I want without consequence. I guess people actually do like watching a pastor write as if no one is reading, so I’m just going to keep on doing that. I’ve never been good at journaling, but this is very addictive to me.

How often do you write new posts? 

I post 2-3 times a week. I have a notebook where I take notes on things I observe that inspire or amuse me to write. That’s a lot how I prepare for Sundays too – just observing my world.

What is the best thing about blogging for you?

The people I’ve met – they’re incredible. I still can’t figure out how people find it in them to listen to me on Sundays. Then there are people out there who actually read what I have to say during the week. And a lot of them have interesting, inspiring blogs too! I really consider the blog world my second church now. Which is ironic, because my ‘second church’ has become bigger than my primary church! I really try to go down the list of people who comment on my blog each week and visit their blogs to see what’s going on in their worlds. No one is more addicted to my blog than me – I love coming back and seeing what people say, then going to their blogs to visit.

Apart from your blog, which other blogs would you recommend we read ? 

Stuff Christians Like – Jon Acuff is the real deal.
And the blogs of my readers – they are colorful, insightful people. Some are homemakers, some college students, some have written books called Crummy Church Signs. It makes for great variety in reading.

Thank you Matt for agreeing to be interviewed and for sharing with us a little about yourself. I hope that others are blessed and encouraged by your blog.

One quick note to our readers: blogging is a fairly thankless task. We do it because we love it and many of us feel called to do it but a little encouragement helps a lot every now and then. While you are out there on the net reading blogs, please try to leave comments on posts you read even if it’s just to say you’ve been there. A short comment from you will go a long way to encouraging the blogger to keep writing!