As I speak around the country and conduct ministry workshops, the #1 question I encounter is “What Is a Blog”?  Blogs have totally transformed the internet.  In fact, if you poll the young adults within your ministry and ask them which would option they would prefer to view…a website or a blog…you would likely find that nearly 100% would respond that they prefer blogs.  You would also likely find that many of your young adults already have their own blog.  So what makes a blog so special that I would suggest that every pastor ought to have one?

You Are Reading a Blog

To better understand what a blog is and how it functions, take a moment and look at this newsletter…for if you are reading this article, you are visiting a blog.  Unlike a website, a blog is an excellent platform for writing articles, devotions, and Bible studies.  Blogs can also be highly personal, reflecting the thoughts and heart of the blog author.  For pastors and staff who seek to inform, educate and inspire their people, a blog is the perfect communication platform…especially if you desire to attract and communicate with young adults who are the very future of Christ’s Church within this world.

The Perfect Communication Platform

So what are the traits of a blog that make it so perfect for pastors?

• Blogs are easy to update.  In fact, you should try to post a new article at least once a week…it only takes a few minutes.
• Blogs are interactive.  People can post comments to your articles by selecting the “Comments” link that displays at the end of your article posting.  While websites are a monologue, blogs permit a basic dialogue to exist.  Postmodern ministry is all about interactive relationships, and a blog is one way to have a more interactive communication process.
• Blogs can be broadcast.  It is crucial to understand that unlike a typical website, a blog has the capacity to be broadcast to people’s personal computers.  On a typical blog you will find a small icon that will state RSS or XML.  These icons communicate that the blog has the capacity to be syndicated and broadcast…an analogy you might relate to would be the Associated Press (AP)…it is syndicated and broadcast to all other news agencies.  In the same way, through the use of a “News Reader” loaded on one’s computer (many News Readers are free), people can have a customized newspaper on their desktop.  They simply point their News Reader to the blogs they prefer, and whenever a new post is made to their preferred blogs, the posting immediately displays on their desktop.  To download a free News Reader, click here.  In a similar fashion, more advanced blogs and News Readers can broadcast MP3 audio files…you may have heard this form of broadcast called “Podcasting”…named so because of the ability of the IPOD MP3 player to be able to instantly download audio files from a multimedia blog. 
• Blogs can be linked.  Through the use of standard links, permalinks and referrals, other blog and websites can link to your blog generally, or to specific articles within your blog.  Blogs archive all article entries, so links to specific articles are never lost.

By encouraging your people to download a free News Reader, and pointing that reader to your pastoral blog, you will find that you can have direct interactive communication with your ministry base.  In particular, you will have a communication platform that the young adults your ministry so desperately needs to reach, will value and respect.  Alternatively, you may also create an email newsletter jump-page that will direct the people within your database to specific articles within your ministry blog. 

Where to Get a Blog?

Text-only blogs are often available on the internet for free.  One popular example is www.blogger.com .  But for a blog that can support MP3 audio broadcast, video broadcast (also called “Vlogging”) and Flash multimedia, you will likely have to pay a very small monthly fee or put up with annoying advertisements.  E-Church Essentials provides full multimedia blogs for only $7.99/month.