The Church and Blogging?

Megan Greenwell writes in the July 9th Edition of the Washington Post: PostCyber-Savvy Pastors Blog When the Spirit Moves Them

"About 75,000 new blogs are created every day by people from all walks of life, so it should come as no surprise that some bloggers are ministers. But many religious leaders say the idea of a pastor willing to share so much about his daily life reflects a shift in the relationship people expect to have with their religious leaders."

"Increasingly, people want to have a personal connection with their church and their pastor," said Brian Bailey, who co-wrote an upcoming book, "The Blogging Church," about how churches can use the medium to reach out to members. Blogs provide a unique opportunity for people to feel more invested in their church, even if the pastor doesn't have time for a face-to-face meeting, he said.

"It's no longer enough for a lot of people to get the church's mailing, read the Web site, and sit in the pew for an hour on Sunday," he said. "They might know there was a mission trip last week, but with a blog, they can read about the day-to-day details, see pictures and feel like they're part of something."



Brian Bailey nails it - parishioners give to mission work and feedback is always helpful! I wish more missionaries would abandon the resource consuming and old methods of mailing letters, postcards - and for long term missionaries - heavy dependence on speaking engagments while in the States on furlough. One of the keys to raising support is a term called "friend raising", a methodology of garnering not only financial underwriting but prayer and emotional support. Funding tech savvy missionaries with technology such as laptops, Skype, Flickr, digital cameras, etc. is a good use of designated funds to undergird "friend raising".

I was at the Apple store recently and happened upon a conversation between a Apple store employee and customer both describing using their respective Apple laptops while on a short term missions trip.

clayton james cubitt's Operation Eden: "A personal chronicle of what hurricane Katrina has done to my poor proud people" is the best template I know of for missional application. clayton mixes commentary, incredible photography and his personal pain and heart tugs in processing Katrina.

Using technology for God's glory. I'm loving it.