I can’t believe I have been blogging for over ten years!

Many times I’ve thought of packing it in and focussing on other writing projects, but just when I do someone will call with an invitation to a speaking engagement, “Father Longenecker, we read your blog and we’d love you to come and lead a parish mission or speak to our men’s conference.” So off I go and spread the good news best I can.

Then I’ll get there and someone will say, “Thanks for your blog father, It helped me come into the Catholic Church” or “My high school son reads your blog. Apart from Mass I think its the only Catholic input he gets.”

So I keep blogging, and I hope my mix of good humor, balance and common sense with a genuine love for the church and the gospel comes through.

I think blogging is still important even though it has become a bit dated now. Its still a comparatively new form of communication. Instant, in depth enough to keep readers, but not too weighty to lose them. It is global in its reach and interactive. You can share, comment, keep others informed and spread the news.

I’m adding podcasts to the blog and will launch my twenty part church history series,  Triumphs and Tragedies before long. This will be available free of charge for everyone along with all my new blog posts and a majority of my archived material through the Patheos archive.

These two weeks I am having a special drive to recruit more Donor Subscribers. Donor Subscribers help keep the blog free from all advertising, help pay for design, hosting, maintenance and promotion of the blog. They also receive access to more archived material, will have special exclusive podcasts and receive regular free offers, discounts on my materials and other great stuff.

I’ll be honest. The subscriptions also help the Longenecker family budget. I don’t mention this very often, but one of the promises I made to the diocese and my parish as a married man was that I would not receive from the parish more than the celibate priests are entitled to. However, we’ve got four kids. Two are now out of college, but still have some college debt. Two more are still at the college stage. The income from my writing and blogging helps with those expenses as well as the future for Mrs Longenecker. You might not have thought of this, but Catholic dioceses don’t have retirement plans or provisions for clergy widows. I’m not complaining about this, but it does mean we have to pull our own weight.

So, would you consider becoming a Donor Subscriber? New subscribers for these two weeks will receive a free copy of Carl Olson’s book Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead?  All you need to do after you subscribe is shoot me an email with your postal address asking for a copy. My email is dlongenecker1@gmail.com

The cost is $8.95 per month. That’s less than 30 cents a day to help keep on blogging.  Go here to learn about the benefits and how to subscribe.