Right now you can find one article after another talking about 2012 and "what really matters" when it comes to blogging or social networking. Most of the articles that I have read are on the importance of SEO and commenting in building traffic for ones site in the coming year. Not a few spend some time exploring how to get traffic and attention to some of your older posts. All good ideas since traffic and visibility is important.

However, if your purpose and goals for being on the Internet revolve around bearing your testimony about Jesus and/or doing some kind of Christian ministry, then the presence of God and His Holy Spirit in all that you do and say is of primary importance. The following short video (4:22) message by Francis Chan is a good one to remind us about “what really matters” after all is said and done: 

Catalyst Atlanta 2011 | Francis Chan from Catalyst on Vimeo.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. –John 15:5
ESV

*Hat Tip: GMO Blog               *Top

Related Posts?:

1. -Happy New Year 2012
2. Movie and Book Reviews as an Outreach

Today is the 5th anniversary of my humble start in the blogosphere. In that time I have observed many different trends and changes. I have also seen many good blogs and bloggers come and go.

Many started blogging in 2005 and 2006 because their friends did and it became the popular thing to do. It was a golden time when 1000’s of new blogs came into existence every hour of everyday. Some of my favorites and even some of the best blogs of that era no longer exist.

Now cultural popularity has shifted towards social networking and micro-blogging like Facebook and Twitter. Regular blogging is still growing but not at the exponential rate that it once did. Fact is that Facebook and Twitter are much easier to do and require far less consistency and commitment and can be respectfully maintained on a casual basis.

After 5 years of blogging here is what I have learned about it and how to keep on keeping on:

1. Purpose: Number 1 you must have a real reason to be blogging in the first place and a vision for what you are doing and want to accomplish.

2. Goals: It is a good idea to sit down at least at the beginning of the year and define and set some goals for blogging.

3. Strategies: With goals in mind, define how you plan on meeting and surpassing or even measuring your progress.

4. Action: When it comes to blogging, action involves consistent writing but also constantly adapting, changing, and maintaining your blog.

5. Evaluation: It is a good idea to stand back once in a while, maybe every 3 months or so and evaluate your performance and check out whether you are meeting the goals that you set for yourself. Also are you being true to your original purpose and vision?

6. Correction: In response to the evaluations many times corrections are in order. Can’t tell you how many times in 5 years that I have made major changes and corrections to what I was doing on a particular blog or blogs. particularly how I was spending my time.

6. Time out: If you are in this for the long run it means that you will need to take some time off from blogging. I usually take Sundays off every week. Then there are vacations and times to go fishing. Once in a while there are long weekends that need to be taken to keep peace in the family.

Here is a valuable tip: If you can’t seem to write, have a block, or blogging begins to seem like work rather than fun –take a day off or two. It has worked for me and I still love to blog after 5 years.

May the Lord bless you and continue to inspire your blogging and mine also.            *Top

The last 3 years I have used the aftermath of the conference as a time to evaluate exactly what I am currently doing and how it measures up with my original vision. Or better yet, is the original vision that got me started blogging in the first place still valid or does it need to be adjusted or changed in any way?

One of the most effective ways to judge what you’re really doing is to take a hard look at how you’re really spending your time.

Secondly, it is always good to take a look at all your websites and blogs in a fresh way. If you were a new visitor to your blog or site what would you actually see? Does it really reflect what you are trying to do?

Even more effective is to actually ask God for insight, inspiration, and vision—particularly if you are trying to do something in the way of ministry on the web or share your Christian witness with others.

After a week of prayer and evaluation, here are a few conclusions I have already come to:

1. After a ‘time’ evaluation I now realize that I have once more digressed into the bad habit of spending way too much time checking out and analyzing stats and getting caught up in all sorts of unnecessary tech issues and changes.

2. I now realize that I need to drop a political blog that I have been publishing under a nom de plume. It’s got great traffic, it’s been fun, and I’ve learned a lot. However, there is so much going on politically in this country right now that I have been spending more time on it than all my other blogs combined. Plus it was never part of the original vision that I believe the Lord gave me for ministry on the web.

3. I need to spend more time on this blog (Blogging Ministry) and on my two Bible study blogs. Also, my main blog -Answers For The Faith needs a slight change of direction.

I have found that it is always good to take some time out every once in a while to evaluate what you are doing and to make any necessary adjustments. I usually try to do that every three months or so. Also, I have found that following a Christian Web Conference is a particularly good time to do a major tune-up and a recommitment to a God given vision.

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(Image by Kristina B via Flickr)

Here’s an article that got me started thinking about this issue: “Don’t Build Your Platform, Build Your Message” by Anne Jackson.

In bouncing off several of the points in that article I began to evaluate where I was spending most of my time in blogging—was it really in posting and communicating a desired message or in the usual blogging chores of updating, responding to comments, flushing spam, checking stats, reading and commenting on other blogs, and etc.

This is a problem that all of us involved in blogging face and need to look at from time to time. Especially those of us-which include most- who have only a couple of hours or less to spend per day on our blogging ministry. Here’s a few things to look at:

1. What are our goals and what is the message we really want to convey to others through our blogging?

2. What takes up most of our time—blog maintenance and improvement or posting?

3. Is our time really going towards fulfilling our goals?

4. What should we put most of our time and efforts into?

5. Where should we increase our investment and on what should we decrease?

There really are not easy answers to these questions. For some, more effort might be needed to improve the looks of their blog and make it more inviting to others.

I once got a email from a reader pointing out that the colors on my site clashed terribly (some still do) and that I should ask my wife for help in that area. The comment was entirely correct but I had been putting off making the necessary changes because I knew it would take several hours to solve. Since the colors were obviously bothering some readers I immediately made some changes—actually there is still more to do on this blog that I’ve been putting off.

For others caught up in the ‘art of blogging’, a huge amount of time can be consumed on keeping up with everyone else and making sure your blog has all the best apps and plugins available. Then there’s the inevitable ‘make-over’/theme change from time to time that really does take a weekend or so. Not to mention the horror of horror—moving to a new host. Sometimes the message and posting really does take a back seat in some of our efforts.

The point is there is a balance to spending time on maintaining an up-to-date good looking site and writing those important posts that motivated you in the first place to enter the world of blogging. Sometimes it’s good just to stand back and pray for wisdom and help. Then take a look at what you have been doing lately, and ask for insight on what you should be doing, and how you should go about prioritizing and spending your precious time.         *Top 

Related Posts?:

1. Response: Time to Tune-up and Recommit
2. -January: A Good Time for A Tune-up?

Here’s some of their conclusions:

Even though young people are sometimes called the “Net Generation,” every age segment is becoming dependent on the Internet. In fact, because Boomers and Busters represent about two-thirds of the adult population, they are far more numerous users of technology than are adults under the age of 25. For instance, the majority of online purchases are made by those between the age of 30 and 55. And many of the bloggers, music downloaders and users of social networking websites are from the Boomer and Buster cohorts.

Still, despite the preponderance of middle-age technology users, the nation’s youngest adults (Mosaics) are light-years ahead in their personal integration of these technologies, even blazing beyond the comfort of Busters. While Busters differ dramatically from their predecessors, Mosaics are even further down the path of integrating technologies into their lifestyles. On effect of this is that younger adults do not think of themselves as consumers of content; for better and for worse, they consider themselves to be content creators.

All Americans are increasingly dependent on new digital technologies to acquire entertainment, products, content, information and stimulation. However, older adults tend to use technology for information and convenience. Younger adults rely on technology to facilitate their search for meaning and connection. These technologies have begun to rewire the ways in which people – especially the young – meet, express themselves, use content and stay connected.

For church leaders, it is notable that a minority of churchgoing Mosaics and Busters are accessing their congregation’s podcasts and website. While technology keeps progressing and penetrating every aspect of life, churches have to work hard to keep pace with the way people access and use content, while also instructing churchgoers on the potency of electronic tools and techniques.

Since technology is pervasive, many of the age-old questions about human development and human flourishing are taking on new dimension. How does technology help or hinder communication, or for that matter, relationships between the generations? Are social skills better or worse? Are reading and writing skills improving or not? And what does adequate preparation for tomorrow’s workforce look like? Educators, parents, youthworkers and other leaders must continually fine-tune their responses to these issues.

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The ‘money’ quote from the article:

“So why do Youth Ministers need to be online?

The answer is simple – because that’s where your students spend a lot of their time.  The Internet is a mission field in and of itself.  You have an opportunity to connect with students in a whole new way.”

There is also a great video:

(-Play time 2:42)            *Top

“The images are fully licensed, come from the most prestigious content partners such as Getty Images, Splash News, Corbis and alike, these are full size images that come tagged so they improve your SEO and indexing to drive more traffic to your site (beyond the obvious value of enriching your blog and enhancing readership:)”

Once the plugin is installed, the PicApp appears beneath your WP editor while writing a new post. All you have to do is search for an appropriate image to go with your article and then point and click. Way too easy and the program gives you placement options to boot.

Below is a picture of  Tim Tebow I chose just for a fun demonstration:

I typed in ‘tim tebow’ in the PicApp search beneath the editor and chose this picture from 24 different ones offered.

Click on the picture and it lets you chose where to put it–I chose to put the picture on the right.

Click on ‘embed picture’ and there it is.

The only thing that I don’t particularly care for is the blue and white PicApp ad under the picture. PicApp needs to work up a less intrusive ad link that blends better with the picture.

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Here is an article published on Ministry Today Magazine: “Got Blog”,  by John Brandon. It is a short article to help ministers get started blogging. The three main topics:

1. Why Blog?

The writer gives good reasons why someone in the ministry might consider blogging as an extension of their ministry.

2. Choose Your Weapon

John Brandon presents the three most popular blogging platforms and the best for beginners: TypePad, Blogger, and WordPress.com. Brandon likes TypePad, which is a great program, but personally I think WordPress is the best. This is of course a rather subjective evaluation–everyone has their favorite. I do have one TypePad blog and one Blogger, but the other 9 are WordPress.

3. The Dos and Don’ts of Blogging

The writer ends up with suggestions about what to do with a blog once you get it. Brandon lists one major rule:

There’s one simple blogging rule for beginners: Blog often

There is also a good quote from Dr. Mark D. Roberts who started blogging as a pastor and became a successful and influential ministry blogger:

“A blog will attract readers if it offers something of substance to the blogosphere. For this to happen, the bloggers need to write on subjects about which they have some actual knowledge and expertise. Lots of new blogs include several bloggers, which allows a blog to have plenty of content without killing off the solo writer.”

The article ends up with suggestions on how blogging is like any other ministry activity and requires planning, a budget,  and involvement to be successful. The good part— it has the potential to become a real ministry that impacts many people for God—some who could not be reached any other way.            *Top

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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"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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