About

As your host at Cerulean Sanctum, I’d like to give you a warm welcome! My name’s Dan Edelen. (I’ll give you the lowdown on me later.)

About the Blog

Cerulean Sanctum exists for those Christians longing to see the Bride of Christ live up to Her potential. It’s a place where we discuss bringing the 1st century Church reality into 21st century America. It’s not an apologetics site per se, but more of a spot to get people thinking beyond their own personal experiences in the Church.

We all have our blindspots, myself included, but I pray that my experiences watching the Church in America for 30+ years can assist those who have a vision from God for a more radically holistic faith in Jesus Christ than what many of us have grown up knowing.

For this reason, Cerulean Sanctum exists as a challenge to prevailing wisdom in an age when too many of us have crawled onto a ledge to await the Lord’s return. I believe we can know more of the reality of Book-of-Acts-style ministry, know more of the heights of life in Christ, and experience God in the here-and-now in a way that too few people ever understand—Christians included.

Some have called this site unique on the Web for the kinds of posts and discussions they find here. Because I feel that God has called me to be a Barnabas to raise up future Pauls, that means a great deal to me. Many loyal readers have called this place home and newcomers drop in as they like. I’m encouraged that since the start of this blog in September 2003 the discourse here has perpetually been outstanding. I have you readers to thank for that. Thank you for challenging me, too.

The name of this blog has confounded many. For the origins of the name, check here (pops):

The Enigma of the Blog Title Explained in Living Color!

About the Author

Now concerning the enigma of the writer of this blog, let me enlighten you:

Age: 47

Born-again Christian since 1976

Home-based, freelance, commercial copywriter and copyeditor since 2003

Married 13 years with one son (9)

Live in the countryside far east of Cincinnati, Ohio

Own a 13.2-acre farm complete with cherry, apple, and pear orchard—wine grapes soon to come

A strong proponent of agrarian living and a return to local economies and culture

Worked in high-tech for several years, including stints at Apple Computer, NASA, and the prerequisite failed Internet startup company

Though I don’t ascribe to Myers-Briggs personality type indicators any longer, everyone wants to know mine: ENFP

Beyond freelance writing, I also write novels and short works of speculative fiction. That genre spans science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the inexplicably odd work no one can label. Truthfully, I specialize in the latter.

Favorite Christian authors include A.W. Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, C.S. Lewis, Elisabeth Elliot, Andrew Murray, Watchman Nee, Francis Schaeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John White, R.C. Sproul, Juan Carlos Ortiz, Annie Dillard, and Dallas Willard

Favorite secular novelists and writers include Kazuo Ishiguro, Franz Kafka, Douglas Adams, Lewis Carroll, Jasper Fforde, Douglas Coupland, Harlan Ellison, Thornton Wilder, Kurt Vonnegut, Martin Caidin, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Frederik Pohl, Clifford Simak, Rod Serling, Michael Moorcock, Fredric Brown, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, C.M. Kornbluth, and David Gerrold

Other favorites: birding / pine forests / geocaching / chocolate / playing drums / brooks / wood-oven-baked pizza / the heavens at night / Apple Macintosh computers / French food / bicycling / discovering a new wine / Thai food / a night out with good friends / campfires / a well-crafted phrase / learning something new / marksmanship / wonder / hiking / writing books and music / mountains / cinematography and photography / Christmas / trying out new restaurants / reminiscing

Life Verse: Job 23:10 – “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.”

About My Work

I work as a contracted freelance commercial writer. What I do involves writing for businesses, the technical term being “copywriting” (not to be confused with the word “copyrighting,” the securing of rights to created works). Examples of what I write include technical manuals, Web site copy, marketing brochures, radio and TV spots, speeches, training materials, and more. In addition, I also copyedit, primarily for individuals looking to clean up their manuscripts and papers. My roster of well-known companies and organizations for which I’ve written includes NASA, Apple Computer, Procter & Gamble, and Cintas. In addition, I’ve provided the written voice for numerous small business who contract my skills. No matter the size of the job, I can help. If the Glendale Ladies Bridge Club needs another hand or two, I’ll write the recruitment flyer.

What sets my work apart from other commercial writers can be summed up in one sentence: I capture a client’s intangibles in print. While many freelance commercial writers are masterful wordsmiths, I go one better by unlocking a company’s thoughts, vision, and professional expertise, crafting a company-specific voice that translates into a successful message. Clients have said, “You read our minds,” or “We were never able to tell others what we were thinking, but you made that possible.” That’s my value-added skill and I thank God for it.

My freelance commercial writing site: Ethereal Pen Productions

About My Theology

If you’d like to know my church affiliations over the years, read “Seventeen Churches“.

I’m “Reformational,” meaning I completely affirm what came out of the Reformation. Labels are difficult and I tend to eschew them, so I’m not “Totally Reformed” in the strict five-point Calvinist manner that many Godbloggers are, but I lean more toward the theology of Martin Luther. Luther was more willing to ascribe to a sense of mystery in many of the doctrines of the Faith. In other words, it’s okay to say, “We can discuss truth objectively and still say that some things are beyond us.” That may seem like a paradox to some, but that’s okay. The Lord understands paradoxes. He was both fully man and fully God, was He not?

That I am a member of a Pentecostal church sounds like a further paradox, but not to me. As A.W. Tozer so brilliantly noted in one of his sermons:

We are told that when John Wesley was dying, he tried to sing, but his voice was nearly gone. He was almost ninety. He had traveled hundreds of thousands of miles on horseback, preaching three or four times daily in founding a great church. He was plainly Arminian in his theology, but as his Christian family and friends gathered around his bed, he was trying to sing the words of an old Calvinist hymn:

I will praise my Maker while I’ve breath, And when my soul is lost in death, Praise shall employ my nobler powers.

That is why I cannot get all heated up about contending for one theological side or another on that issue. If Isaac Watts, a Calvinist, could write such praise to God and John Wesley, an Arminian, could sing it with yearning and they both can meet and hug one another in glory, why should I allow anyone to force me to confess, “I don’t know which I am! Why should anyone bother me with an issue like that?

I was created to worship and praise God. I was redeemed that I should worship Him and enjoy Him forever.

That is the primary issue, my brother or sister. That is why we earnestly invite men and women to become converted, taking Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.

If that makes me impossible to label, then that’s okay by me.

Now what else would you like to know?

If you would like to encourage my writings here at Cerulean Sanctum, please visit my support page.