My Blog

I saw this on Pastors.com and thought it would be beneficial for anyone who reads my blog to see this...

Here are 10 ways I think pastors and their churches can use blogs to reach out, reach in, position themselves in the community, offer biblical resources, and more:

1. Blog your city – Talk about upcoming city-wide events, upcoming service projects of your church, share photos of the city, neighborhoods. Use your blog to love on your city and her people.

2. Blog the news, pop culture, issues – Weigh in on these things with a biblical perspective (and, a loving one).

3. Blog on money and personal finance – That's what this "anonymous" guy does on his blogs. He blogs on something dear to his heart – money – and his company – Moose Tracks Ice Cream – gets great publicity.

4. Blog on marriage, family, and parenting – Give tips, offer links to relevant news and reports, and, of course, your sermon series on those topics.

5. Blog devotional comments throughout week – Invariably you will come across golden nuggets of truth in your sermon preparation time that will not make it to the pulpit on Sunday. Use these chips of gold to take your people deeper into the Word.

6. Blog about people – Tell stories of life change, what God is doing in your church, link to people, talk well about people, show photos of people ... get the "people picture" here? These are the "human interest"-type stories that people love.

7. Blog your sermons – Retell your sermon illustrations, elaborate on some teaching or facet that you couldn't spend more time on in the pulpit, or offer a devotional guide to accompany your sermon series.

8. Blog on resources for the Christian walk – Give links to good resources, like Bible study sites, Bible reading plans, and even, gasp, other pastors' sermons. Also: Blog on great books you're reading and sweet music you're listening to.

9. Blog to inform – Not only for your community and the watching world, but also for the media ... and your congregation.

10. Blog the Gospel – Blog as a missionary would, retell the Gospel story in your own words, offer insights from your personal life.

Three quick tips for prospective blogging pastors

Be realistic – Set a doable posting schedule. Start by posting once a week (pick a day) and keep it short (100 words or less).

Write to a friend – Think of your posts as an e-mail to a close friend.

Use a free blogging service and keep it simple – Use Blogger.com or WordPress.com and turn "off" the commenting function. Keeping up with comments could keep you REALLY busy. Use one of their free templates, keep it simple, then if you catch the blogging fever, start adding more bells and whistles.