How to Make Blogging Count in Your Ministry

[Joe Palmer]

How to Make Blogging Count in Your Ministry

By Joe Palmer

To read more go to www.joepalmer.wordpress.com

This article is found here: http://wp.me/pwTn4-8e

By Joe Palmer

I love ministry. I love writing. I am excited to have found a medium where I can multiply my efforts by having more people around the nation read and comment on my work. Blogging has helped me fill that void.

To the non-technical let’s define how simple blogging is.

1. First of all blogging is free. Check out WordPress.com Blogspot.com and Blogger.com for more information on how to start your own free blog.
2. Blogging is liking having a website that you don’t have to build, don’t have to pay for, and if you are already writing sermons and articles don’t even have to work that hard to develop content for. All these sites have templets that you can select and customize in a very short amount of time.
3. Blogging doesn’t have to be time-consuming. If you write sermons: post them. If you write articles for your bulletin: use them. You can even go back and add old sermons and articles to your blog when you are too busy to write a new post.

Blogging also has the added benefit in that it serves as a back up for your articles and sermons. It allows you to easily access them later in the event your hard drive crashes.

Blogging is also an effective way to expand your ministry.

1. It allows your congregation to access articles and sermons and even send them to friends. They can also go back and find them later for the purpose of Bible study or personal devotional.
2. It lets you get feedback from people in the community and around the world.
3. You can post announcements for events and send emails to your congregation encouraging them to go to your blog and then to send that link to a friend.
4. Blogs are also a place to introduce people in the community and potential members to your teaching style.

Promoting your blog. I will admit that I don’t think I have this one down yet.

1. You can tell people: in person, email, Facebook, Twitter, are all great ways to let people know about your blog and it’s content.
2. Content is the key. People read good blogs. They read blogs about topics that interest them. They read topics that offer something unique, or controversial. So first focus on content, then on promotion.
3. Join groups. Join the groups that would enjoy your blog and mention it from time to time. I have joined www.saintsmeet.com and various christian facebook groups.

A Secret Outlet for your blog.

I honestly started this post with just the intent of sharing this with my friends and expanded it. When I started blogging I discovered that our local paper has a blog forum. People post in a very crude format blog posts and comment on them. I starting writing and posting some of my blogs on the newspaper’s blog forum. I have found that people outside the church read and comment on my posts. I list my name, church, and contact information on my profile. I try to pick articles that are relevant, and some that have a news angle to them. For example: “Obama Takes on Abortion” or ”Pat Robertson: Open Mouth, Insert Foot, Embarrass Christians.” I am recently writing articles about marriage to promote a class that we have that is open to the public. I mention the class at the end of each article.

You can also post in the Notes section of Facebook, or the blog section of Saintsmeet.com and perhaps many more places. Again the same articles can be used and often links can be added to your main blog.

I hope this post helps you and I welcome your suggestion on how to better use blogs to promote the Lord’s work.

Joe Palmer is minister of the Niceville church of Christ in Niceville Florida. He is married to his wife, Leanna, together they have seven kids.

[James Nored]

Joe, thank you for sharing this. These are good, practical tips on using blogs for outreach. I especially like your idea of going to newspaper sites and posting. This is a "missional" approach--going where people already are.