A Pastors Guide to the Web: Part 3
// April 27th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Church Life
// The Pastor Blog
This is the 3rd installment of a series of posts I’m doing to help pastors get themselves and their churches online and plugged in.
I mentioned in my first post in this series that there is a new expectation in our church culture that wasn’t there just a decade ago. People want to know their pastor, and that’s perfectly right and good. I don’t think most people expect to know everything. They don’t want to stalk the pastor, they just want to know him. They want to have some sense (even if vague) of what his family life is like, what he laughs about (if he laughs), and what his dreams are for the church and his own life. This isn’t hero worship. It’s kind of the opposite, in my opinion. It’s taking the pastor off the ivory pedestal and making him human again. It think that’s a good thing.
If we pastors are honest, we will admit that our hesitancy to setup a personal blog has to do with a fear of being more vulnerable than we have been in the past. You need to get over it. If you don’t, you are going to find yourself more and more ineffective as a leader. This is a bigger issue than your website.
I started blogging before I became a pastor. It was just an unfocused creative outlet for me. Then I took the pastorate and the significance of my litte corner of the web totally changed. Immediately people in my new church started reading. I didn’t know it, but they were making connections with me through this medium. People that did not know me yet, felt like they were getting to know me before I was able to even introduce myself. I didn’t feel like a stranger to them anymore.
THAT’S POWERFUL!
Visitors to our church mention my blog when they meet me. They already know some of the funny stories about my kids. They know some inside jokes. They know my first name. Pastor, if you aren’t blogging you are not taking advantage of one of the most powerful leadership tools available to you.
General Tips
- I suggest that you do not use your church website as your blog. Most CMS-driven sites will allow you to blog. I don’t think this is ideal. It will help you and your readers to have your own space. It should look different and have it’s own web address. You should feel free to speak freely and make the site your own. And your readers will feel like it’s more authentic this way.
- Please. Please don’t turn your blog into an online devotional. In my opinion, this is perhaps the number one mistake I see on pastor blogs. Your blog, on the whole, should not be an extension of your pulpit ministry. Stop preaching, and talk. Talk like a human being. Sermonize on Sunday. Conversate on your blog. If you want to blog your sermons, I suggest you do that at your church website. Keep your blog personal.
- Practice using a personal tone in your writing. Address your readers by using the pronoun “you” a lot. When you write, imagine that you are talking directly to a person. This will inspire you to be personable. A blog is not a formal writing medium. It’s informal, personal, and conversational.
- Be yourself. Talk about books you are reading, thoughts you have, what you love about being a pastor and what’s hard. The temptation to build a false persona as a pastor is very strong. Resist it when blogging. A lack of authenticity is murder in the blogging world.
- Don’t be long winded all the time. One of the main reasons I hear pastors cite as to the reason they don’t blog is that they don’t think they have the time. That’s because they don’t understand blogging. It doesn’t need to be long. Just a paragraph or two. A few minutes of your time. Of course, there will be times when you want to really knuckle down and write some serious prose. Go for it when you want to. Mix it up. Just don’t feel like you need to write a book every time you post. Relax and have fun with it.
- Post with some regularity. This doesn’t mean you have to post every day (though that would be nice). I post about 2 times a week. However often you can do it, decide on a basic schedule and stick to it. People will get into a rhythm with your site and consistency will build stable traffic.
- Have an opinion and state it with passion and sincerity. Passionless writing is boring.
- Remember that what you publish, is out there forever. Never say anything about someone that you wouldn’t want them to hear. Never click “publish” when you are angry. Never use your blog to solve relationship problems. If you wouldn’t email it, don’t blog it.
- Remember that blogging should be a 2-way conversation. That’s what commenting is for. Encourage it by asking the reader to respond. Write in a way that inspires people to add to what you said. Leave something unexplored and ask for opinions. Commenting is what makes a blog fun for you and your readers. Encourage it.
- Make it easy to comment. I’m a big proponent of wide open commenting. No pre-moderation. I think anything more restricted sends the wrong message. However, at the very least, don’t make people register at your site before they can comment. Having to remember yet another username and password is a barrier many, many people will not get over in order to comment (myself included).
How to Get Started
It’s a whole heck of a lot easier than you think to get a blog up and running. I’ll give you two options, in order based on the best to the least desirable.
- Host your own blog with your own domain and use WordPress to do it. WordPress is the best blogging platform. There, I said it. And I believe it. This doesn’t require much expertise, but some. If you are new to blogging, you probably will not be able to do this on your own. Find someone to install WordPress for you. This gives you maximum control over the design and functionality of your site. It will be yours to tweak and make your own. Installing WordPress is easy and should not be expensive to hire someone to do the basic install for you. In fact, this is one of the things that a geek volunteer in your church could do with some research.
- Create a free WordPress blog, hosted by WordPress. It takes less than 5 minutes to create the free account, choose a theme, and start blogging. You have less control over your design and funtionality than if you hosted it yourself, but it’s the same engine running it. DON’T USE BLOGGER, or any of the other free blogging platforms out there. Just do what everyone else eventually comes around to and start with WordPress.com. If you decide later to host the site yourself with the WordPress software, moving it from the free hosted service to your own is a cinch.
Go on. Get started now. You can thank me later.