Books on Blogging and Churches

May 22, 2007

Technically I’m not new to the world of blogging. I started my first in 1999. You can still see the remains of it, blogged painstakingly with good old HTML. Much has changed in the eight intervening years, with a whole culture growing up around blogs. Since then I’ve dabbled a bit and grown to love WordPress in particular, but haven’t been serious again until this blog.

For me, getting serious means reading up on something – buying the best books in particular. (I’m a still a book-buying librarian at heart.) So, I chose two books:

1. Dan Harper recommended Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them by Bob Walsh, so I bought it first.
2. Then I happened across The Blogging Church: Sharing the Story of Your Church Through Blogs by Brian Bailey, so I bought it too.

Now I wonder, which should I recommend? The simple answer is it depends, but if in doubt and curious, read both. Clear Blogging is a first-rate introduction with an abundance of helpful insights and practical hands-on advice. It even has a section for ministers (pages 114-118 in particular). Just flipping through its pages right now I want to read it again, which is a great sign.

The Blogging Church covers much of the same territory, with introductions for beginners and tips, but its strength is its focus. While it’s geared to Evangelical pastors, for those of us with somewhat different faiths and careers, it’s not difficult to translate.

My sense is that Evangelicals are at the forefront of using technology. Here in Nashville, the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay has always been in the web vanguard. I remember attending a Macromedia Users Group years ago where their staff demonstrated streaming video. However, blogs have remarkable potential for all faiths, not just the tech-savvy. Here are the kinds of points Bailey makes which are more universal:

• Churches have traditionally excelled at one-way communication, and this is thus our comfort zone. But there’s a new generation no long satisfied with this model. They expect to be able participate. They look for a church that will listen.
• Church blogs are different from church websites. A blog is an easy and cheap way to reach people. A website is more complex, and “lacks the personal voice that makes a blog so inviting.”
• “Blogging is simple, cheap, and powerful…. The impact-to-investment ratio is impossible to ignore.” (p.9)
• People yearn for authentic conversation – passion, personality, humor, tough questions.
• Blogs make it more possible for people to connect to the church beyond weekend services.
• A particular type of blog can help bridge gaps between staff and hard-working volunteers.

Blogs for Church Volunteers

Maybe it’s because I’m one of those volunteers, and not staff, but I particularly appreciated this last point. Bailey unpacks what a children’s religious education blog might have, with ideas along the lines of:

• Welcome new volunteers, with introductions and photos of them.
• Spotlight great volunteer service.
• Answer frequently asked questions.
• Post information from retreats.

Those are by no means all of his suggestions and ideas. For that, I’d encourage you to buy the book or look for it in your public library. Or if you just want to try out blogging, and already know your beat, then check out Clear Blogging.

Posted in: Church Websites