Faith and Web

A few months ago I read The Blogging Church and was sold. I’m convinced that blogs can be an incredibly effective tool for congregational communication. But I’m just one of my church’s webmasters. It’s not enough for me to see this potential. For it to take off, this understanding has to spread.

To that end, yesterday I met with one of our committees that’s likely to take the blogging ball and run with it. It’s our Children’s Religious Education steering committee. The committee is functioning well and many on it are very comfortable with computers. They generously allocated 45 minutes of their annual retreat to discussing this possibility with me.

Because I’m such an enthusiast, I wish I could report that they instantly understood what a blog could do for them, and were poised and ready to run with it. But given the larger world’s understanding and use of blogs, that was unlikely in the extreme. Thus, while that wasn’t the outcome, we made good progress.

From my perspective, the main work that has to be done is bridging a gap. Judging by yesterday, most of the gap is a lack of understanding of what blogs really are. It makes perfect sense. From my perspective, even the definition of “blogs” is a rapidly moving target. I think back to 1999, when I first learned I was already doing a “weblog.” I’d been collecting web links of interest to others in my profession, and thought of my posts as “web news.” I’d been doing it for a while. I just didn’t know it was called a weblog (what later became shortened to blog).

Fast forward to today, when the definition is more meshed with a new breed of software that generates blogs, including another very powerful technology in its own right — RSS feeds. Of course, that’s a technical perspective. Add to this mix the perception of blogs, and you get to the crux of the gap we were trying to bridge yesterday.

The Big Barriers

It turns out there are three big barriers we face, and I wouldn’t be surprised if other churches face them too.

Blogs are perceived as online journaling. Of course, much of the blogosphere is just that. But for someone like me, that’s never been the primary appeal of blogs. The vast majority of blogs I subscribe to I still think of as “news.” This was an enormous eye-opener for the committee. When I mentioned my original news blog, one member said, “Well I’d be interested in a blog like that.”

Blogs are perceived as a “time-suck.” This certainly makes sense, and I think it’s probably the biggest barrier. Time is so precious these days, especially to committed church volunteers like them. Of course, they’re thinking of more traditional blogs, such as this very one that you are reading. Yes, this is a big time commitment for me. But another type of blog, such as one for Children’s Religious Education, should end up saving many people a lot of time, and wouldn’t be that big of a time investment for any one person. To that end, one person asked, “Can it replace the listserv we already have?” It’s a great question. And while I can’t be sure, my bet is the answer is yes. What I am certain of is that it can largely replace the listserv if they want it to — and clearly they do.

We don’t yet share a vision. This is the hardest barrier to cross. The members of this committee are, on average, tech-savvy. But tech-savvy does not equate with blog-savvy. Two people in the group clearly do see the potential. One of them (our Director of Religious Education) made it possible for me to be there yesterday. But we shouldn’t be doing a blog for the sake of indulging us enthusiasts. Even worse would be doing a blog for blogging’s sake. To do it right, this has to be a shared ministry.

Yesterday my church planted and watered more blogging seeds. While I don’t know how these particular seeds will bear fruit, it seems certain that in time they will. The barriers are much clearer now, and that means we’re more likely to get past them. It mostly takes patience and a willingness to communicate to become a blogging church.

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Blogger-extraordinaire Philocrites recently ran a workshop on Blogging for Beginners. He reports that, “During the Q&A period, many congregational webmasters asked about blogs as part of congregational websites.”

That’s great news. Webmasters thinking about congregational blogging are my kind of webmasters. So to answer their question, here are my top ten tips.

1. Start Your Own Blog

It doesn’t really matter what it’s about, though if you can find a topic you’re passionate about, that’s the best. The goal here is to learn blog basics, not to join one of the many crazy blog popularity contests or to make money. Just enjoy yourself. I’d recommend trying at least two types of blogs. Blogger is astonishingly easy, and even if you don’t end up using it yourself, it’s good to learn its strengths and weaknesses first-hand so you know when it’s the best tool for the job. WordPress and TypePad are my two top recommendations. And keep your eyes on Movable Type. It’s making a comeback.

2. Read The Blogging Church or Clear Blogging

These two books are my current favorites, but of course feel free to read whatever appeals to you. The point is to get a broad overview. If you do buy a book, a nice side benefit is that when you’re through with it, you can pass it on to someone else in your congregation who you think will make good use it. Then once you have the big picture, you would also do well to subscribe to a few of the many blogs on blogging, so you can stay on top of the latest.

3. Be an Unabashed Blog (or Tech) Evangelist

Enthusiasm is catching, and if you can build your own in the course of creating your blog, it’s going to rub off on the congregation. One way to do this is to comment regularly on other blogs you like. Do people in your congregation have personal blogs? Subscribe and comment on them. You’ll be amazed at the communities you’ll find, which in turn will give you a sense of ways to build your congregation’s blogs

4. Focus On the User

A congregational blog by definition isn’t a personal blog. It’s about what your congregation needs and will make good use of. In the end, this is always what it comes down to, and if you take just one thing away from this post, let it be this. Talk to people in the congregation. Look at site statistics. Find out what in particular they would like to have on the website. Some of it may be a match for a blog or two or three. Once you’ve started a blog, pay attention some more. Find out what’s working and what’s not, and adjust accordingly.

5. Find a Catalytic Voice to Seed the Blog

If you have the time and ability to contribute content to the blog, that’s great. But if, like most webmasters I know, it’s all you can do to keep up with the tech demands being placed on you, then the key is to find a person who will take charge of the blog once it’s in place. Likely suspects are the people who suggest that you start a congregational blog, plus tech-savvy staff members or leaders.

6. Prepare and Build Momentum

Once you have some good ideas, get buy-in from the leadership. Then have a meeting to flesh plans out. Of course, pay close attention to what they want.

7. Start Slowly

There’s rarely a need to hurry the start of a blog. Take time to plan, listen to potential users and experiment with various technologies. It’s an investment that will pay off.

8. Make Use of the Power of RSS

RSS feeds are built into all the major blog applications now. RSS is a phenomenally simple XML standard, and in its simplicity and standardization lie its power. It can be repurposed in all kinds of ways. If you have a geek-streak, go for it. Mix and match those RSS feeds, and make them earn their keep. You might even do an aggregator for your congregation like John Cooley’s UUpdates.

9. Have a Blogging Class for Your Church

You’ll have fun and so will those who come. Piggyback on Philocrites’ workshop. It’s a great way to continue building momentum and focusing on your users. If your church doesn’t have wireless, find some place like a coffee shop that does, and get those who can to bring their laptops.

10. Clarify Your Goals

It’s critical that you understand what the goals are for your blog. Don’t just have a blog for having a blog’s sake. That’s unlikely to work. Different types of congregational blogs have different needs. Ask yourself, “What do we plan to accomplish with this blog?” Once you can answer this, that in turn will answer any number of other questions, such as should it be password-protected, should commenting be turned off, and who is in charge of the content.

Here’s an assortment of possible goals. Hopefully some will be a good match for your congregation.

• An announcement board, with commenting turned off, and authorship privileges given to all church leaders. We have a blog like that at my church. You can see where we’ve pulled its RSS feed on our home page.
• A sermon blog, with an editor in charge of posting a podcast or text version of the sermon and commenting turned on. Needless to say, this requires the minister’s support.
• A Children’s Religious Education blog. That’s next on our plate, and I can’t wait. More to the point, our Director of Religious Education can’t wait either. She is building momentum even as I type this, talking it up and finding people who are eager to participate.
• A password-protected techies’ blog, where those who tend to the congregation’s hard and software can keep quick notes about licenses, platforms, wiring, manuals, cost estimates for major upgrades, and so on.
• A ministry blog, where senior staff can speak with an authentic voice and nurture the dialog so many of us hunger for. Many ministers aren’t ready to do this, but if you notice your minister is thinking along these lines, jump for joy and do what you can to support him or her.

In the end, the future of church blogging is in your hands. Grow blogs and I believe you will grow your congregation and yourself.

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Once upon a time, Six Apart’s Movable Type was the premiere blogging platform. That era ended when they changed their licensing. After that many people, including me, migrated to WordPress.

Now the word is out that Six Apart is about to release Movable Type 4 – and it will be open source. This is great news.

It’s funny, but just a few days ago I’d been pining for Movable Type, wondering if I should cough up whatever it cost to use it. The one thing it has that WordPress doesn’t is the ability to publish any number of blogs with one just installation. For my personal blog, i.e. this one, that’s not much of an issue. WordPress is fabulous.

However, for a church, it’s a different story. And now it’s in the air. My church is gearing up to do multiple official blogs for things like Children’s Religious Education. That’s why a few days ago I started pining for Movable Type.

Now that it’s returning as open-source, I will be able to put Movable Type within our already well-established domain, and then issue as many blogs as people in the church need.

If all goes according to plan, I will keep you apprised of how well our blogging church does, what works, what doesn’t, etc. Meanwhile, here are a couple of other posts with more detailed coverage of this news.

• Movable Type 4.0 Announced - Becomes Social Media Platform: Read/Write Web
• Movable Type 4.0 Beta Launches, Platform To Be Open Sourced: TechCrunch

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