Blogging Ministry

"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>>

*Top

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”

*Top

A couple of weeks ago I posted a link to Total leadership blog where Pastor Tad Thompson asked this question and received a number of great comments, all worth reading.

Rich Tatum at his blog continues the conversation in a big way! He points out the importance of ‘why’. He suggests that Pastors and leaders might want to read around the blogosphere for a while and get some idea of ‘why’ they might want to join in. Then he proceeds to post a number of good reasons why a leader might want to consider blogging. Here are a couple of poignant quotes from his article:

I like to think of Paul the Apostle as the original proto-blogger. His missives dealt with current events, addressed failings in the Church, provided solutions, commented on trends and dangerous ideas. He “blogged” from prison, he blogged on the road, he blogged with the help of a peripheral writing device: an amanuensis.

Blogging, in some ways, is like an interest-bearing savings account. As long as your ideas are only spoken, they’re being spent as soon as you generate them — just like spending your entire paycheck the very week you get it. But if you can “bank” some of those thoughts, they’ll go to work for you on your behalf, influencing more than just the handful within earshot. And like money in the bank, your blog-published ideas compound their influence week after week after week.

Wow Rich, that last one was nearly poetic! A great post with some good comments.

There are also two excellent trackbacks that continue the conversation:

Sista Cala responded to Rich’s post and there are some great comments over there too!

Peter Smythe @The Real Faith blog expands on Rich’s post and provides a bunch of very good reasons ‘why’ those in ministry might want to consider blogging. Thanks Peter.            *Top

I just stumbled across this great series on blogging written by Brian Bailey, (on staff @ Fellowship Church, Dallas, Texas) author of The Blogging Church. I recently posted a review of his book and also linked to a review by MinistryToday Mag.

The articles are posted on his blog: Leave It Behind

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

I found this question on the Total Leadership blog. There are some great comments following.

**Update: Conversation continues in later post.             *Top

Here’s a great article with reasons why blogs work well as a Youth ministry website. Shows how easy blogs are to set up and maintain. The post written by Cory Miller even includes a sample Youth Ministry blog to check out. Found on ChurchCommunicationsPro.com.  Actually, a lot of what Cory writes would also apply to many other church ministries.              *Top

An article from pastors.com: “Blogging: A great tool for ministry“, by Terry Wilhite.

Terry has some great insights about why blogging can be a good tool for ministry.              *Top

A fine article: “Christian blog evangelism: Strategy for outreach to the blogging world”, about using blogging as a tool for outreach and evangelism.  Full of tips and info. about how to get started.  Also lists the pluses and the key problems faced by blogging ministries.            *Top

Book review in MinistryToday Magazine: “The Blogging Church” by Brian Bailey with Terry Storch. A great review. even better than mine.              *Top