The New Owner of SharperIron

The new owner is Aaron Blumer. No, that’s not the guy who has been editing the articles, running the advertising, and contacting authors. That is Adam Blumer. Aaron is his older brother.

Aaron grew up outside Flint, Michigan, and attended several Baptist churches while growing up. He accepted the Lord as Savior around the age of seven. He attended public school for a brief period and then three different Christian schools. After high school, he completed his B.A in Bible Education at Bob Jones University (Greenville, SC). In 1996, he completed his M.Div. at Central Baptist Theological Seminary (Plymouth, MN).

He taught school for three years in Georgia and worked for Unisys for a while, doing a variety of jobs. In April 2000, he became pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Boyceville, Wisconsin, where he currently serves.

Aaron sent me a proposal a while back, indicating an interest in SharperIron. I had slowly let the cat out of the bag that I wanted to step out. He laid out a clear vision, and we began to talk.

He is interested in SI because he has always been interested in the varied aspects of Fundamentalism. He felt SI was well positioned to bring many different fundamentalists together to challenge their thinking. He joined SI the month after it opened, so he has seen it through all the various stages of growth. Hopefully, he’ll get more credibility from the older group of fundamentalists since he is 42 and I was only 32 when I started. :)

He has found SI to be a welcome place for him to dialogue about ministry questions. He enjoys the “slow debate” of the Internet vs. the face-to-face debates that don’t allow as much processing.
He has been married to Marilyn since 1991, and they have two children: Joel (7) and Jenna (9). The family often enjoys horses at a nearby ranch. Aaron and Marilyn homeschool their children.

Aaron has a good grasp of Fundamentalism. He has been exposed to the various wings from the Jack Hyles movement to Bob Jones University to Jack Van Impe (back in his heyday) to his present pastorate of a GARBC church. When asked about his relationship to Fundamentalism, he says,

I think Fundamentalism has done much good, still matters today, and has an important future. I’ve seen much that encourages me. There have been a few times along the way when I’ve really wanted to walk away from Fundamentalism for good, but I can’t really do that because it really is in me. When you get down to the essence of why the movement began and what it is about, I buy it. But I’ve been in it enough to see plenty of problems, and I also get out enough to know that there are good, good people outside “the camp” who love the Bible and, as a result, have things to teach us.

So this is why I thought Aaron was a good pick for the site. To be honest, he also showed great energy in wanting to assume the burden of the site.

In our agreement, Aaron has concurred to the following:

1. To uphold the mission of SI, which is to edify Christian brothers and sisters by providing a place to publish and discuss news and ideas from a Christian, biblical, fundamentalist worldview.
2. To work on setting up an editorial board to provide more writing strength and direction.

I am glad that Aaron has stepped up for this job. I will pray that he will grow and learn as much as I have over the past several years through this channel.

Tomorrow Aaron will lay out his vision for the site.

Jason Janz, SharperIron site publisher, is planting Providence Bible Church in downtown Denver. Formerly, he served as an assistant pastor at Red Rocks Baptist Church (Morrison, CO). He has a bachelor’s degree in Bible and is currently finishing a master’s degree in theology. He has been married to Jennifer for 10 years, and they have four boys. His interests include pastoring, reading, and wrestling with his boys. He likes SI because of how it helps serve pastors and church leaders.

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