About the Cerulean Sanctum 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 blind spots, myself included, but I pray that my experiences watching the Church in America for nearly a half century 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. God has called me to be a Barnabas to raise up future Pauls, and that’s what I try to accomplish here in my meager way. Many loyal readers have called this place home and newcomers drop in as they like. I’m encouraged that the discourse has been nothing less than outstanding since the start of this blog in September 2003. 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, Dan Edelen
Now concerning the enigma of the writer of this blog:
- Born-again Christian since 1976
- Strategic Planner, Writer, Editor, Marketer, Instructional Designer
- Married 25+ years with an adult son
- Live in the countryside far east of Cincinnati, Ohio
- Own a 13.2-acre farm complete with cherry, apple, and pear orchard
- 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 / board games / pine forests / geocaching / chocolate / playing drums / brooks / wood-oven-baked pizza / the heavens at night / 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 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 Protestant Reformation. I lean toward the theology of Martin Luther. Luther was more willing to promote 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.” I adhere to the doctrinal statements of the traditional Creeds: Apostles, Nicene, Athanasian.
As you may have guessed from a lot of my writing here, I also believe in the full continuance of the gifts of the Spirit, the charismata, and their practice among believers. That puts me outside the ranks of traditional Reformation-adjacent denominations, but not out of Protestantism altogether. The indwelling Holy Spirit is what distinguishes the Church from all other religious and man-made institutions, and we cannot live as if He’s little more than a seal for salvation.
Big churches and I have no longer see eye-to-eye, so I limit my fellowship to small groups of believers that meet outside the typical institutional church framework. Too many strobe lights and too much hearing damage otherwise. I’m older, so tranquility appeals to me more than ginned-up frenzy.
I’ve stopped promoting “national stage” Christianity, which is constantly fighting for influence and the spotlight. I fully support Christians who want to keep their focus local, bringing their energies and gifts to bear on their local area and its people, leaving the national stage to the starry-eyed and the power-hungry who don’t mind getting ground to pieces by all the insanity the national stage brings.
Now what else would you like to know?
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