My mate Thomas awarded me the Subversive Blogger Award yesterday.
The award was devised by his friend Jake Bouma from Des Moines. The idea behind the award is:
Subversive bloggers are unsatisfied with the status quo, whether in church, politics, economics or any other power-laden institution, and they are searching for (and blogging about) what is new (or a “return to”) – even though it may be labeled as sacrilege, dangerous, or subversive.
Thomas said of my site: I don’t get the politics posts (He is American) but I get his enthusiasm… big time… and love the whole “Orange Noise Radio” thing.
Along with Thomas, Jake awarded these other bloggers as well (whom I’ll have to get to know):
- Pomomusings by Adam Walker Cleaveland
- Mattopia by Matt Cleaver
- iamjoshbrown by Josh Brown
- soupablog by Paul Soupiset
Thomas also awarded me and these bloggers (also whom I’ll have to get to know – other than Johnny Laird):
- Pernell Goodyear > Truly inspirational bloke and Elton John fan.
- Johnny Laird > Another chap I am honoured to know… whose honesty is a daily encouragement.
- Matt Wilson > For keeping it real and getting his sleeves rolled up in Manchester and beyond.
- Royzoner > For truly off-the-wall visuals and being an all-round good egg.
So in the spirit of the award and to encourage folks to keep on doing what they’re doing, I would like to give my own Subversive Blogger Award to:
- Michael Robinson, who has so many thoughts he has to keep them on three different blogs. A man whom I admire for his insights, awareness and observations of the world around him – the good and the bad.
- Brian Treadaway, who continues to excite me and challenge my faith, not only on Sunday mornings but on a “semi-daily” basis on the encounter blog.
- Kevin Hendrix, and the folks at ChurchMarketingSucks, for frustrating, motivating and educating me on how to not suck at marketing and sharing my faith.
- Brandi Manes, who keeps me entertained with her thoughts on life, living with a boy, life in Nashville, TN and who has always been against the status quo since we started working together on the school newspaper at UMHB.
If he hadn’t already been awarded, Thomas would also be first on my list. His reflections on faith and life challenge me and I’m really enjoying his blog as I read his thoughts and watch his progression as a Christian-socialist. I also love his insight into community and anti-consumerism (from someone who loves design).
From Thomas’ blog:
We should be just as ready to read devout simple blogs as deep and learned ones. You must not take offence at the writer’s lack of learning and question his authority, but read the blog from love of simple truth. Do not ask who it was who wrote it, but what it was he wrote. Men pass away but the Lord remains faithful to his word for ever. God uses all kinds of ways to speak to us, and he makes no distinction between man and man.
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis
So that’s it. I probably should award a fifth blogger, but honestly I can’t think of another single blogger who motivates me or inspires me or challenges me like these others. So congratulations and thanks to the winners I’ve challenged. You really do make my day more enjoyable when I get a notice that you’ve added something to your blog.
The rules of participation are pretty straightforward:
1. If you are tagged, write a post with links to five subversive blogs
2. Link back to this post so people can easily find the origin of the meme
3. Optional: Proudly display the “Subversive Blogger Award” somewhere on your blog with a link to the post that you wrote (Please download the image and save it to your own server before posting it to your blog. That way everyone can save on their bandwidth. Jake has another image on his blog as well.)
That’s all there is to it. Keep in mind that this award is meant as an encouragement to bloggers to keep doing what they’re already doing – being subversive (however you interpret it). May we never forget that Jesus (and His message) was the original and ultimate subversive.
