Grace Digest

When you visit Grace Digest you will see a list of blogs on the right side bar that I like and read. One of those is “Jay Guin“. If you move your mouse cursor over his name the caption will appear “A site that values truth over tradition“. I still believe that brief statement is an honest summation of Jay’s blog, OneinJesus.info.

Jay Guin is an elder at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He serves as an elder and is busy teaching and shepherding the flock. Jay is also an attorney so the bills get paid at home. He has been a speaker at some of the most popular and well-known Church of Christ lectureships and is an author. His book The Holy Spirit and Revolutionary Grace: God’s antidotes for division within the Churches of Christ and at least four others are favorites of many readers.

Jay Guin is best known for his blogging. Oneinjesus.info is a favorite daily stop for hundreds of anxious readers including yours truly. Jay’s blog I am sure gets more hits by far than any other Church of Christ blog. (Edward Fudge and Al Maxey get tons of traffic but they are not in blog format. Both are wonderful but not blogs.)

For lack of a better term to describe Jay’s teaching I’ll say he is “Progressive”. He fearlessly challenges traditional CoC teaching and tradition and expertly defends his positions clearly with Bible texts carefully selected and used in context. (sadly, a rather rare skill among bloggers). While I don’t agree 100% of the time with Jay, I respect and love him 100% of the time, even when he gently chides me for being off topic in my comments on one of his posts.

I lovingly titled this post and labeled my friend, “Change Agent”. Traditionalists in churches of Christ label anyone who challenges the traditional views as a “change agent” and it is not a flattering term. I used that unflattering term to describe this good man because he is indeed a “change agent” for good. In the last few days I read comments from at least two of his readers who stated they had begun to shake of the shackles of legalism and to know and experience the freedom the grace of God is. It is this kind of change I appreciate and applaud.

I first started to pay attention to Jay Guin when he and fellow grace-man Todd Deaver challenged traditionalists to an online dialog. Jay Guin and Todd Deaver on the “Progressive” side and Phil Sanders and Greg Tidwell on the “Conservative” side. (I think “Traditionalist” better describes that position than “Conservative”. It isn’t “conservative” to be wrong.)  Grace Conversation was very interesting reading, both the content and the readers comments.

As I anticipated, Phil Sanders and Greg Tidwell, (and later Todd Deaver’s father Mack Deaver) were unable to defend the main tenets of their positions using the Bible. The traditionalists finally threw in the towel but along the way many, many readers were taught truth by the writing of Jay and Todd and comments by scores.

Jay Guin is some sort of superman! I can’t comprehend how one man can do so much. He posts from 1 to 3 excellent posts every day, teaches up to three times a week at his church, works at a law firm, and has all of the domestic duties of any husband and father. I don’t know how he does it but I am sincerely grateful that he does. A big Christian salute to my friend and the king of CoC bloggers, Jay Guin.

Agape’

Royce