"I am headed out today to go to TheCall in San Diego. It starts at 10 am and goes to 10 pm. It will be a 12 hour day of prayer, fasting, and worship among thousands of Christians from all over California. I’ll blog on it later."

The post above is an example of what personal bloggers do everyday–blog about what they’re doing. It becomes a ministry when the writer gives their testimony of how God blesses and enriches their life.  See my post: about my personal experience at TheCall.            *Top

This is a comprehensive book on blogging. It starts at the beginning and defines what blogging is and introduces you to all the major terms that everyone uses and identifies the differences between blogs and regular websites.

Next there are chapters helping you to get started. Very good help in choosing a host and a blogging program. Then there is help in actually getting started with some of the most popular blogging hosts and programs like Blogger, LiveJournal, and TypePad. See my evaluation of the Blogger info. at my Blogger site.

The middle chapters deal with improving your blog design and evaluating different blogging tools that can be added to the blogging experience. Then the book finishes with more advanced topics of how to promote your blog, analyzing traffic, and possible legal issues.

This is a very fine book and helpful for those getting started but also for those who have been around a while. Even though I have been blogging for over a year I found the chapter on legal issues worth the price of the book.             *Top

Many of those sites are produced by the writers as a hobby, and then there are other sites which are obviously designed to be an internet ministry. Sometimes the lines are blurred, there are many hobby sites that really do minister to people.

I currently have 9 blogs. Only 6 of the sites are designed to be a ministry for sure. The other 3 are mixed. I have a Movies-TV Blog on which I review the movies that I see and some of the TV programs I watch. Even though I feature and evaluate religious content in the movies and on TV, it is more of a hobby site. I only look at stuff that interests me personally. I do have links to the Christianity Today and Focus on The Family sites which offer movie reviews on everything out there. So it is also a site which offers a service to Christians.

The same is essentially true of my Book Reviews blog. My home/blog was started as a ministry but sometimes I post on political issues and current news events from a Christian perspective.

The point is, what really makes a blog or website a ministry? I believe that it is a matter of intent and Divine annointing. If you really do want your blog or website to minister to people; then you bring the Lord on-board in the process and remember to ask him for wisdom and his Holy Spirit to help you, guide you, and bless the people who come to your site.              *Top