Using a Blog in Ministry

Jim, most of what I post at www.ShepherdThoughts.com is a result of something I am already doing as pastor in the other categories you mentions (e.g., study, preach, correspond). My posts usually consist of modified sermon manuscripts, Bible study / institute note sheets, Q & A with members, requests from members for resources (such as this book list for children). In this way it is not an additional task, but is an outcome of the pastoral tasks I am already doing. Also, our church does not meet at the church as frequently as some churches (SS, Sunday AM, Sunday institute, Sunday evening, Monday outreach, Wednesday training, Wednesday prayer service, Saturday classes or outreach, etc.). We focus on Sunday AM/afternoon, and offer a Wednesday PM prayer service. Other gatherings are not usually church-wide, but focus on sub-groups and are not every week. With this in mind, I have fewer sermons / lessons to prepare every week. As a result, I work hard to make the sermons / lessons I prepare as significant as possible, while making personal and home visits and providing material online.

I’ve been blogging since 2005, not as a pastor but just as a person who likes to write down thoughts, and a big part of the issue is what one’s purpose is, and how one makes sure one keeps that purpose in mind.

Obviously I am accusing everyone of misusing their blogs! :^) (j/k) Seriously, I’ve seen a lot of grandstanding and drama queen/king behavior trying to say “look at me”, and it’s my hope and prayer I don’t succumb to that.

[Bert Perry]

A big part of the issue is what one’s purpose is, and how one makes sure one keeps that purpose in mind … I’ve seen a lot of grandstanding and drama queen/king behavior trying to say “look at me!”

Your purpose is important. Blogs without a purpose or blogs that veer from their purpose have given blogging a bad reputation for sure.

….blogging is really simply an automated, electronic, version of the “culture of letters” that got going in the late Middle Ages among the academic elites. No? While I can’t pretend to being academically elite, it is fun to take part in a tradition that is over half a millenium old.

And to use it for discipleship? Double bonus.

[Bert Perry]

….blogging is really simply an automated, electronic, version of the “culture of letters” that got going in the late Middle Ages among the academic elites. No? While I can’t pretend to being academically elite, it is fun to take part in a tradition that is over half a millenium old.

And to use it for discipleship? Double bonus.

Yes!

I kind of became a blogger by default. In my first pastorate, I approached the small town newspaper about writing a column. Often small town papers need filler material. They agreed to a column every 2 weeks. I then decided to put that column into a blog, since I was writing it anyway.

Fast forward to our current church planting ministry. We are church planting and am in a new location, but I had met the local newspaper editor about a decade before we moved here (when he lived in a different location as well). The power of God has allowed us to have a newspaper article here as well. Instead of having a blog site, we simply have a blog section on the church website where we put this same column.

We also recently added a church facebook page. I started out putting a link to the blog part of our website on the facebook page with little to no response. One day I decided to just copy and paste the whole blog (5-700 words) onto the facebook post and then to add a photo to go with it. I started to get some response, so now we spend a little every couple of weeks and boost these posts on facebook within a 16 mile radius. We look at this as a way to reach outside the walls of the church and to minister to our local community. It also lets people know that our church even exists.

I started blogging at our church website because I found that there were things I wanted to share with the congregation that just didn’t fit into our regular teaching and preaching schedule. It cost nothing to add it to our existing site, and it gives prospective guests a bit more info about what kind of teaching to expect when they visit. Blogging may not be for everyone, but it is a great tool for all the reasons mentioned in the OP.

[pvawter]

There were things I wanted to share with the congregation that just didn’t fit into our regular teaching and preaching schedule.

Nice, Paul. I agree. That is one excellent reason to blog as a pastor.