Third annual Band of Bloggers
Owen Strachan hosted the discussion in the absence of Timmy Brister, who did not attend due to illnesses in his family.
* Jason Kovacs
He works for a ministry that helps Christians adopt children. He mentioned the upcoming Together for Adoption conference Oct. 2-3. abbafund.org. togetherforadoption.org.
Servants and Stewards is the theme for Band of Bloggers 2009. The theme verse is1 Corinthians 4:1: this is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of mysteries of God.
Brister’s address (read by Strachan): We should want to be faithful to Christ and fruitful in His work. Servants function in the priestly role of service. Stewards function in a prophet role. We should humbly approach our blogging with the aim that Jesus would be supreme in our efforts.
Justin Taylor: How can we blog to the glory of God?
We are Christ proclaimers and servants of Him for the sake of others (2 Cor 4:5). We don’t want to just think about the glory of God as a general thing, but the glory of God in the face of Christ.
1. Ask the question.
Simply considering how we can blog to the glory of God in the face of Christ is half the battle. It is easy to not be thinking in this way as we blog.
2. Know yourself.
Know what your strengths are and play to your strengths. Understand your weaknesses and avoid them.
3. Pray without ceasing.
We need to be praying in all that we do, which includes blogging.
4. Follow the Bible’s teaching on words.
What the Bible teaches on words applies to everything we blog.
5. Love.
Jesus summed up the Old Testament with the command to love God and others. You should be motivated by love.
6. Watch your heart
What comes out of your mouth or from your fingertips comes out of your heart. And what is in your heart is what you are truly treasuring.
7. Seek accountability and critique.
Invite other people to give you feedback on what you are writing. There is wisdom in a multitude of counselors.
Mike Anderson: Introduction to social media
Things move quickly in the world of social media. When new social media comes out, get your name registered immediately.
There is lots of noise in social media. What should you do with social media?
1. Serve through social media.
You want to cause people to think about how they are living their life.
2. Don’t be a hater.
Some people’s social media sites, including blogs, are based on criticism of others. People will give you respect and attention when you deserve it.
Other important things:
* Frequency: Keep your frequency steady, whether you blog once a month or three times a day.
* Consistency: Keep your blogs similar to one another in consistency.
* Quality: Make sure you are saying something of value.
Tim Challies: How can use your blog to the edification of the church?
1. Focus on the critical.
As bloggers, we need to make sure that we don’t take trivial matters and make them critical. We should not assume that other people need to hear about the things we are discussing w/ people if they are not that important.
2. Let what is disputable remain disputable.
The blogosphere is built on niches. Never before have we been able to gather groups of people together around small niche items, whether that is a sports team or a particular hobby.
Disputable theology can become law. You can strengthen the blog by making the main thing the main thing. Don’t make disputable things into the Gospel itself.
3. Focus your blog on what is true, pure, kind and holy.
Don’t turn something that is good into something that is evil. When you don’t have to look a person in the eye you may be tempted to say things that you would never to see them in person. We value anoynomity as bloggers, but anonomity is often used to tear down, instead of build up. If you want lots of hits, you can say something that tears someone down. Don’t do this.
You should ask people in your local church if you are the same person online as you are off line. Finally, make sure that your focus is on the local church, not the universal church. Our gifts are most needed in the local church.
Eric Johnson: How can make your blog more accessible and visible?
It does serve your users to use data by studying what people care about and blogging about it.
* Inaccessibility can hurt your site.
We don’t want to make our content inaccessible. People not being able to find things on your blog can be a big problem. You want things to be easily accessible on your blog.
The best advice for being visible on Internet search sites is to be good.
* Use Google Analytics.
Your users will tell you what they want to see. Johnson uses the statistics from Google Analytics to help determine what readers want to see on Desiring God’s blog and what they don’t want to see.
* Establish a Twitter feed.
Every blogger should have a Twitter account and set up a Twitter feed from their blog to their Twitter account. This increases the number of conversations you can have about your blog.
* Use Google hot trends and twitter.search.com
Use these tools to see what people are talking about and see if you can weigh in from a Christian perspective.
* Fully syndicate your blog.
Don’t try to make money with your blog by not syndicating it. Make it available.
Tullian Tchividjian: Why should pastors blog?
Tchividjian guest blogged for Justin Taylor for a time. He discovered that blogging afforded him the opportunity to connect with people he would not otherwise be able to meet. He decided to start a blog on his church website.
Tchividjian recognized that he could extend his shepherding ministry to the people in his church as well. As a people person, blogging is a way that Tchividjian can connect with people and share ideas with them.
If you are a preacher, you always wake up Monday morning thinking about what you could have said differently or could have been clearer on in the sermon Sunday. A blog is a good way to say some of those things and to lead in to what you will preach on the next Sunday.
During the merger of New City and Coral Ridge Presbyterian, Tchividjian was able to use his blog as a platform for the members of New City to see him struggling through the decision of whether or not to merge. They were wrestling with it and the blog helped them see that he was as well: they could a sneak peak into his heart and mind.
Tchividjian also uses his blog to recommend resources. He has found that he can shepherd his people, connect with them and love them through his blog.
Steve McCoy: What is the place for art and culture in Christian blogging?
McCoy said his blog is not meant for his people. It is a personal blog that he uses to network with other Christian pastors and leaders.
Like God Himself, we have the possibility to create something beautiful and delight in it.
* Delight
Faithandworks.org/greenhouse. There is a quiz there on how to be a patron of the arts. McCoy walked through several of the items on the quiz, testing how cultured you are in the area of arts.
(I zoned out a bit here after McCoy referenced Tim Keller’s new book, “Unfashionable.” He said the book is three pages long, followed by a long epilogue by Tullian Tchividjian, the actual author of the book [Keller wrote the forward] This brought down the house).
McCoy read a quote about the power of a camera, of a picture. Thus, on his blog, he does Friday is for photos.
Tony Ranke: How can bloggers steward the teaching of the young, old and dead
There are several resources that Ranke spotlights on his blog:
* Puritan literature.
He highlights Puritan literature on his blog through reviews, pictures, etc.
* Herman Bavinck’s writings.
Ranke appreciates Bavinck’s theology work. Ranke started the website hermanbavinck.org to serve the church.
* Covenant Life church resources.
Ranke shares messages by Joshua Harris on his blog.
* Pictures of books.
Ranke opened a Flickr account where he posted the pictures of the books.
* C.J. Mahaney
Ranke said Mahaney does not like to write, but he does like to answer questions. Ranke has helped Mahaney with his blog, sometimes with transcription, for the last 16 months.