Blogging Ministry

I found this link @ Church Communications Pro. They have provided a number of free video tutorials for those starting out and/or using the WordPress blogging platform. They offer a ton of valuable and essential information:

1. The Basics in Using WordPress

2. How to install WordPress

3. How to customize a theme

4. 7 Steps to Optimizing WordPress

5. ….and much more…

They also offer a number WordPress themes, some are free, along with a number of impressive offerings at a minimal cost.          *Top

Mark Batterson considers his blog to be an important part of his ministry. He writes that:

"In quantitative terms, blogging is the most important thing I do. I view it as a form of digital discipleship. Not a substitute for one-on-one. But a great supplement. As NCC grows larger, I feel like it’s a way that our congregation can know what is going on in my head and my heart at any given moment."

Here’s a link to a valuable list of blogging guidelines from a veteran blogging pastor.

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"How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them"

By Bob Walsh (Berkeley, CA: Apress, 2007, 351 pages)

An excellent book on why one should blog and how to get started. Bob suggests that one starts by reading lots of blogs and become initially engaged in the blogoshere by leaving comments.

Next he gives suggestions about getting started publishing a blog with Blogger, Windows Live, and TypePad and evaluates which blogging platform might be best for you considering your goals and what type of blog you wish to publish.

<<Read the rest of this review on my BOOK Reviews blog>>

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I recently moved this blog to a new host and now it has a new location and a change of address. You used to be able to get to the front page by using charismatica.com/bloggingministry or bloggingministry.com ; now the only the official address is:

www.bloggingministry.com 

If you have linked to some of my articles or pages in the past and wish to maintain the links, drop ‘charismatica.com/bloggingministry’ from the permalink and insert ‘bloggingministry.com’ in its place and it should still work.

Blessings, Dr.D

Please bear with me while I rebuild this blog. We recently experienced a serious hacking/spam attack that saw more than 100 pages of spam links somehow added to our blog footer and made it necessary to flush our data base and start over in order to get control once more.

In the process I decided to move this blog to a new host. That has complicated matters and will somewhat delay everything being put back together.

If you are running on a WordPress program, I would strongly suggest that you upgrade to the 2.5.1 program as soon as possible. Supposedly they have closed all the gaps that hackers used to gain access to this blog and database.

Blessings Dr.D

Images are one way to dress up your blog and set it apart from millions of others that feature only text. They say that “a picture is worth a thousand words”, advertisers have proved that proverb a long time ago and have taken it to another level.

With pictures and images mixed into your posts, you can create greater interest in your viewers to actually read your posts. Images and pictures definitely improve a post and can also help you take your blog to the next level.

I have been experimenting with using images on my blogs for the last 2 months and it is increasingly getting much easier for me to provide pictures or images for the majority of my posts.

Over that time I have found a number of good sources for free ‘clipart’ and pictures on the web. Also, I have run across a number of issues and pitfalls that every blogger using images and pictures should fully understand.

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Thanks to Barry Simmons @ The Journeyman’s Files, I found a link to this recent article on why pastors should blog:

"6 Reasons Pastors Should Blog"  by Abraham Piper @ Desiring God (John Piper’s website)

Abraham starts off with his own reason behind the article:

"In this article I want to convince as many pastors as possible to sit down and start a blog today. If I can’t convince them, then I want to convince churchgoers to hound their pastor until he does."

Abraham then lists 6 important reasons that pastors should blog. The article develops and explains each of the six:

1. …to write.
2. …to teach.
3. …to recommend.
4. …to interact.
5. …to develop an eye for what is meaningful.
6. …to be known.

In conclusion, Piper writes:

"For most of you, anything you post online will only be a small piece in the grand scheme of your pastoral leadership. But if you can maintain a blog that is both compelling and personal, it can be an important small piece.

It will give you access to your people’s minds and hearts in a unique way by giving them a chance to know you as a well-rounded person. You will no longer be only a preacher and a teacher, but also a guy who had a hard time putting together a swing-set for his kids last weekend. People will open up for you as you open up like this for them. Letting people catch an honest glimpse of your life will add authenticity to your teaching and depth to your ministry."

It really is a well thought out article and well worth the few minutes it takes to read it all. The following are links to other articles and several wholes series on pastors and blogging which have previously been featured on this blog:

Getting Started: “Blogging for Pastors 101″

Why Blogging?: It’s “What People Need From Their Pastors”

Pastor Blogs His Sermon Series Notes

“Blogging & Pastoral Ministry: The Series”

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During a recent visit to one of my favorite blogs, I noticed this symbol  ShareThis at the end of each post. I had to click on it of coarse and found that it was a great little widget/device that makes it easy for visitors to share and bookmark your posts without all the clutter of placing each different/separate symbol of the social web on your blog.

I immediately put it on all of my WordPress blogs through an easy to load ‘plugin’. I am amazed and more than happy with the results!

I have only recently become aware of how important social bookmarking can be to building the daily traffic to your blog. Last month when I was checking out the stats on one of my blogs, I saw that the traffic had jumped up significantly at that site and on one day in particular there were over 200 unique visits to one particular post. When I checked out the ‘referrals’ I saw that most came from "StumbleUpon".

From then on, I have been looking for a way to make it easy for folks to share and bookmark my blog posts. Most of the widgets and plugins I reviewed were to complicated, messy, or didn’t work right on my blogs. ‘Share This’  is definitely the best I have found, If anyone out there has other suggestions please let me know.

‘Share this’ currently has plugins for WordPress, Blogger, and Typepad. They also have code available for other websites. In addition, they offer a toolbar add-on for browsers to make it easy to bookmark and share with your friends.            *Top

I recently posted a review on the Windows Live Writer -a new desktop editor for blogging. I found this link on DailyBlogTips -a list of all the best desktop editors for blogging–called "Desktop Blogging Clients".

It not only lists Windows Live Writer but many others that may be useful in publishing on a desktop rather than the on-line blogging site editor.            *Top

I started blogging two years ago on March 5, 2006.

The original idea was to start a blog as an actual ministry on the Internet. I figured that I would teach a Bible study, have a Bible Q & A site, and respond to current events from a Christian perspective.

Along the way the original blog has expanded to 8 sites and usually I am way over my head with all the technical stuff. Sometimes I have gotten off track and have forgotten the original vision. Sometimes it has been more like a hobby. Sometimes it has been a burden. But sometimes I remember to include the Lord in what I am doing and it is actually a blessing. It has definitely been an interesting ride so far. There have been ups and downs, but mostly ups and many blessings in the process.

This month also marks the first anniversary of this blog–Blogging Ministry. The original idea was to write about the ‘Hows and whys of using a blog for ministry’ with articles on helpful hints and info. on how to get started.

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