How to Begin Your Own Pastors Blog

Written by Ken Gosnell

Blogging is the internet's latest craze. People and businesses everywhere are using blogs to get in touch with people whom they are trying to relate and to tell their story to the world.

Technorati.com, a search site for blogs, reports that there about 75,000 new weblogs that are being tracked every day (as of April 2006). That translates into about one new weblog being created every second somewhere in the world. As of April 2006, Technorati is tracking 35.8 million weblogs. Further the total number of weblogs being tracked continues to double about every 6 months.

Breaking the Missional Code

The church and preachers would be wise to follow suit. Some preachers have already become apart of the blogging phenomenon, and if you want to have more interaction with your people and communicate your message in a new venue then you should start blogging too. Here are a few tips on creating a successful blog.

1. Pick a purpose
Bloggers blog for a variety of reasons. You can find a blog on almost any topic imaginable. However, in order to have a blog that people actually follow, pick your passion and know the point of why you blog. Passions of people tend to rise to the top of their blog rather quickly. Understand that bad writing or blogging will keep people away you’re your blog.

So write passionately, think deeply, and communicate clearly and you will attract others. Your purpose can be local (such as communicating information within your church) or it can be global (such as raising awareness for a particular cause) but whichever it is, you must know why you blog.

2. Pick your audience.
It is important to decide who you want your blog to reach. Ask yourself: will my blog be local or do I want a world-wide audience? Although the blog can be accessed by anyone surfing the world-wide web, you can limit access by not promoting your site outside of your circle of perspective.

3. Pick a blog site to host your blog.
One of the most wonderful aspects of blogs is that they are free or of very little cost. There are a number of good sites that can host your site. A few of the more popular ones are blogger.com and typepad.com. Once again these sites are free or cost little; all that you have to do is create an account by picking a user name and a password.

Also, if your church has the technology you might want host your blog on your own web-site. Movable Type is a popular blogging software piece that you can install & use (be sure to check their not-for-profit pricing).

4. Pick a date to start.
Once started, continue to blog often. The fact is, the more time that you can spend blogging, the more you can get and keep readers. Additionally the more you blog the more likely you will be to develop interaction with your readers.

5. Pick your approach.
Develop add-ons as soon as possible. Be creative. Add pictures to your blog. Link to other sites. I would suggest linking to anyone that links to you, link to your favorite sites, and link to other blogs. You can do this by including their sites in your post or by adding a links page on your site. Either way can be effective and help others to recognize your site. Also, change your style from time to time. Add a review, post lists, invent and reinvent yourself and your blog on a regular basis.

Blogging really is easier than you think. You can be creative and authentic in your blog. I think that is why so many people love and read them. I encourage you, if you ever thought about starting a blog that now is the time. The above tips will help you enter into the new gateway on the internet and likely change you and your church in the process.

Here are some sample blogs:

Church Forward (Sam Rainer's Blog)
edstetzer.com (Ed Stetzer's Blog, A LifeWay Research Blog)
Between Monday and Sunday (Craig Webb's Blog)
The Church 2.0 Blog (Ken Gosnell's Blog)

Ken Gosnell is the lead pastor for a new church work in the DC Metro area. You can contact Ken at Kenspeaks@gmail.com

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