SrE

Im a Pastor's wife and mom of 7 great kids!!

[SrE @sre79]

@nut_history Salvador Perez

[SrE @sre79]

@BBGreatMoments Kauffman Stadium

[SrE @sre79]

We are still rooting for the @Royals today!! This repost totally made their day 11 years ago!

[Kansas City Royals @Royals]

#GordoNation goes on the road! https://t.co/Mhheb4fFH5

[Baseball Quotes @BaseballQuotes1]

Bobby Cox throwing a first pitch and getting ejected was perfect ❤️

[SrE @sre79]

@HawkEmDownChris 1985, 1995, 2015

[MLB @MLB]

Michael Wacha tosses 8 shutout innings and the @Royals make it back-to-back shutout wins against Chicago!

[SrE @sre79]

@forestfrank 💯

[SrE @sre79]

@SleeperHQ Mcutchen

[SrE @sre79]

Can’t wait!

[Royals.TV @kcroyalstv]

Your games.
Your moments.
Your team.

Welcome to https://t.co/xFGKJxEQaQ

[SrE @sre79]

@HawkEmDownChris Andruw Jones

[SrE @sre79]

@AlTheBoss03 Salvador Perez, Chipper Jones

[SrE @sre79]

@earthworm_don Cross Point Baptist Church, Caney, KS

[Don The Baptist @earthworm_don]

Just because the number 7 biblically represents completion and perfection doesn’t mean your wife will take it that way if you call her a “7”! #Marriage #LessonLearned #humor

[SrE @sre79]

@earthworm_don They sure don’t!

[SrE @sre79]

@HawkEmDownChris True 2 times #Royals

[Michael Clary @dmichaelclary]

I have a thought or two about Carl Trueman's piece on "big eva" vs. "gig eva."

First of all, I'm a nobody. I'm certainly not part of "Big Eva." I'm just an ordinary pastor who planted an inner city church in 2010. I worked in obscurity for over a decade before I had much online presence at all.

But in 2023, I wrote a book on biblical sexuality and wanted to get it published. So I sent pitches and manuscripts to a few "big eva" type publishers, but didn't get any responses.

No worries, I thought. It was a longshot anyway. After all, I didn't have much name recognition or social media presence, and I've been told bigger publishers won't consider you unless you've got a large social media following. Fair enough. So I started posting.

In the meantime, I found an indie publisher, Reformation Zion, hoping they'd give me a shot. Since RZ published Zach Garris's book Masculine Christianity, I thought surely they won't think my book is too spicy.

As it turns out, RZ was founded by Garris. He never said this himself, but I always suspected he founded his own publishing company because no Big Eva publisher would publish his book. He also published two books by Jon Harris, neither of which would have seen the light of day in Big Eva publishing houses.

Then, I needed endorsements. I asked some big name Christian leaders in the biblical sexuality space (names you'd recognize), but they turned me down. Again, I'm a nobody without much social media following, so I didn't mind. I ended up working a few connections and landed endorsements from CR Wiley, Megan Basham, and Michael Foster, among others.

Once the book came out, ordinary readers gave it great reviews (and not just from my mom!). I was hoping to get some well known publications to review it. American Reformer gave it a very good review, but CBMW's review was dampened by "sober caveats," in the words of the reviewer.

Of course, I didn't expect people to just hand me a big platform and marketing engine. I knew I'd have to promote it with hustle and grit. So I got to work on street marketing. I went on every podcast that would have me, mostly small podcasts, but a few bigger ones. I wrote about sexuality on X, FB, and substack to demonstrate a degree of subject matter expertise.

What's my point?

I became part of "Gig Eva" because "Big Eva" wouldn't give me a shot. The same could be said of so many other Gig Eva guys who were gate-kept out of the Big Eva mainstream and had no recourse but to build their own platforms to reach their audience.

I'm not bitter about this, this is the way things work. What I do find frustrating, however, is when Big Eva sneers condescendingly at men who hustled their way into the public discussion, driven by courage, a love for the church, and biblical conviction, only to have Big Eva guys treat them like children.

When I wasn't able to get a foot in Big Eva's publishing door, "Gig Eva" gave me incredible opportunities to find an audience. I've written for outlets like Center for Baptist Leadership, American Reformer, and Truth Script. Publications (and related podcasts) are not leading the discourse on the most pressing issues of the day without the institutional support of Big Eva, and often despite their opposition.

Time and time again, Gig Eva publishers have been ahead of the curve, oftentimes so far ahead of the curve that they seem crazy to Big Eva types, only to be vindicated in the long run. I'm thankful for them because they amplified my puny voice before anyone ever heard of me.

Yes, they're edgy and often unrefined. They don't have big budgets and editorial staff. But great movements are built on the strength of conviction. They aren't usually top down movements driven by institutional elites, but bottom up, grassroots movements. The gatekeepers know this and don't very much like being outgunned by the punk rockers of evangelicalism.

Thus, the "Gig Eva" moniker seems to be yet another gatekeeping attempt to prevent newer voices from finding an audience. I would have loved to publish my book with a big name publisher, but I always suspected that my book would be considered too conservative for them.

I don't know who exactly Trueman was criticizing because he didn't name names, but I suspect many of them are my friends, or even me. Regardless, I find the characterization insulting.

These men aren't losers with "time to spend living online" trying to "become a celebrity without having proved himself beforehand in any real service to the church." These men are pastors, entrepreneurs, and business leaders of all sorts.

Trueman says Gig Eva guys are "accountable to nobody," suggesting that these people "marginalize the actual church by making their own platforms and declarations the source of all wisdom." Come on. I know dozens of these guys and none of them are the unaccountable rogues Trueman described.

I've got no axe to grind with Trueman. In fact, I quoted him favorably several times in my book. But the condescension in his piece is too thick to ignore, especially when he seems to be indicting men who are not losers with an X account, but accomplished men who who are too conservative to ever get the time of day from Big Eva gatekeepers.

This is nothing new. This year's "Gig Eva" is last year's "Moscow Mood." I'm sure they'll roll out another cute slogan in 2026 to keep the wrong people from gaining too much influence.

In the meantime, the "Gig Eva" guys I know will keep plodding ahead. They will keep building new institutions because Big Eva gatekeepers deem them too controversial for theirs. They will keep pastoring their churches, reforming, writing, speaking, recording, posting and growing because they are confident they have a message worth hearing that will bless and strengthen the body of Christ.

And they're savvy enough to leverage new technology to get the word out.

[SrE @sre79]

@douglaswils She’s went down so many rabbit holes, she came out the mad hatter

[SrE @sre79]

@5solas 🙋‍♀️

[WWUTT? @WWUTTcom]

"I don't think we're ever going to see a healthy evangelical church until the evangelical church is reformed—solidly reformed—where it takes seriously biblical Christianity and its concept of a sovereign God."

R.C. Sproul

[Allie Beth Stuckey @conservmillen]

There was a big contrast between Erika’s forgiveness speech and Stephen Miller’s “destroy our enemies” speech. Exactly as it should be. It is our job to forgive, not the government’s. Christians give grace; the government wields the sword (Romans 13). We turn the other cheek; the government punishes evil.