Here is an article by Andrea Useem at Religion Writer. com: "Is your Church Ready to Blog?"
Andrea references "The Blogging Church", a book written by Brian Bailey. Then interviews Ben Arment, pastor of Reston Community Church in Reston Va., about his experiences of blogging as a pastor.
I found this link on Brian Bailey’s Blog. *Top
I found this linked on Sista Cala’s blog. A great series for Pastors and the rest of us posted on Pastor Steve Weaver’s Blog:
1. Blogging and Pastoral Ministry, Intro.
2. The Benefits of Blogging as a Pastor
3. How and What Should a Pastor Blog
4. The Dangers of Blogging as a Pastor
The series is written from the perspective of a pastor who has been blogging for more than two years. He not only presents the ‘whys’ and benefits of blogging for pastors, but also details the potential dangers. A well thought out and very balanced presentation. *Top
Here’s a link to a great series by Cory Miller: "Blogging for Pastors 101". He encourages Pastors to blog and has 27 posts on how to get started. Cory follows up the series with interviews of 50 Pastors/Believers involved in blogging. What a valuable and incredible series it is, I highly recommend it.
One warning however, if you start browsing his website: ChurchCommunicationsPro.com you can easily spend a couple of hours and just scratch the surface. It is full of good stuff for churches and for those involved in ministry on the internet. *Top
A year ago I started out using Yahoo as my web host for my first blog. I didn’t know anything at the time and they presented a near turn-key operation for beginners. I am still with them for all my major blogs simply because I found them to be very reliable and their customer service and technical backup has been excellent. (Note: have since moved to Blue Host)
They are a little pricey but I am glad to pay extra for dependability. There are hosts out there that are just as reliable and less expensive. It just takes a little research.
There are a lot of hosts out there and it can be confusing to a beginner and even to someone like me who has been around only a year or so. The following are web hosting evaluations and ratings on the following sites to help in the process:
Why Blogging? Because God and his son Jesus Christ need equal time in the blogosphere.
Pastors have so little real time to influence their people and blogging can extend and increase the opportunity to share the Gospel and the Christian world view not only with their own congregation, but also with anyone else who happens to come across the site. Best of all, blogging can literally be done at anytime, and the time investment is minimal compared with the possible results.
View this great video that I came across on the Revival Blog. It is less than three minutes long and more than worth the time:
"What People Need From Their Pastors" -John Piper (3min.)
This video is for you Pastor, but there is all sorts of great stuff like this that you can share with your people on a blog. Why should the ol’ adversary have all the great media?
Got this at Google Video, there is all sort of good Christian stuff there along with everything else under the sun. You just have to search for them. John Piper has over 500 listed! *Top
Terapad is a new blogging/website platform and host. There are no manuals and very few sources to consult for info. I started a new blog there in order to see how it works and evaluate the new program in the context of a tool for ministry.
Terapad is loaded with features and potential, however it lacks variety in the basic templates that are currently available. Read my evaluation which is posted on my new Terapad site and take a look. *Top
I signed up and started a TypePad blog today. See my evaluation posted on the new blog. It was actually very easy and the results were quite stunning. I used the same settings and template that I used with the MovableType program. The TypePad program was much easier to set up. *Top
Tim of Life in Student Ministry blog posted a review of the new Terapad.com a blogging platform. He evaluated Terapad from a Youth ministry perspective and looks at its possible uses as a youth group website. Great post. *Top
Wow! Another great post by Rob, three in a row. A comparison of Blogger and WordPress.com. I found this link embedded in the last teaching by Rob Williams. A lot better than I could have done. Also see my Blogger site and my WordPress.com blog for visual comparison. Then read my evaluations of each, posted as the first article on each blog. *Top
By Aliza Sherman Risdahl (Avon, MA: Adams Media/F+W Pub. Co., 2006, 305 pages)
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
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