That might have been a bad word. I am looking at planting a church in an area of 20,000 and there is no purpose-driven contemporary church withing 15 miles. As I begin this journey, do you think there is a good way to effectively use my blog as a way to reach out to the community and give them insight to the new church plant?

Dan, I personally like blogs that do aim at a certain target. You asked if we made any mistakes… sure. One thing that helps is to bounce a post off someone else before writing it. Bobby has talked me out of saying some things I might regret. And I’ve deleted some of his posts before they’ve gone out. J

James, You asked about making these posts into a book. One of my favorite reads was Godin’s book, “Small is the New Big.” It was a compilation of his favorite blog posts. We might consider that one day.

Libby, Bobby will be answering your question later this week.

Jarrod, Yes, a blog can be used for discipleship. On this blog, I hope we are discipling each other as Christian leaders.

That’s my biggest problem :)

Thanks Anne..

If you feel that you should be writing about a specific topic, and I’ll assume here that it’s not something that is disrespectful or disunifying, I would encourage you to write about those things.

Sometimes the topics I write about are a little bit taboo, especially within the realm of believers. But sometimes those issues are the ones that need to be discussed.

Of course, you might have people disagree with you. Comments can go anywhere (I posted some political thoughts once and WOW did that go a million places) but I see that as just part of learning, as part of a discussion. And I have definitely learned from the comments others have made that I don’t necessarily agree with, but they opened my eyes to someone else’s point of view.

In this history of my blog (a couple years old), I’ve only deleted two comments that weren’t spam. Both were entirely inappapropriate and vulgar responses. But I’ve decided to let people go where they will knowing they will have to take responsibility for their words and actions (unless of course, it will affect the community that is there in an offensive way).

Hope this helps some.

Can you talk about the tension/balance of blogging “on the clock” - say, as a Worship Director on Staff at my church - I’ll often blog on worship, music, leadership, etc … you’ll sometimes hear a comment or remark, though, that seems some think it’s wasted, or cheated time …, and how can you fit this properly into your job descriptions, etc?

I’m excited because it will be less tense now - the Tech Dir and Senior Pastor launched their own blogs this month, haha!

Fred

We can’t talk about how we came up with swerve. It has and will remain a secret :)

Bryan,

What do you mean by optimize?

Umm… both sometimes…(sorry so vague, I am not wanting to ruffle any feathers…)

I have tried both… (multiple authors and by myself is the newest one)…

Some of the topics have been pretty heavy, (which usually attract the rabbit trails)…

I have always sought more of an “organic” format, with free input and what not… but it has been difficult to lay out a context, and a sense of “trust”.. without the rabbit trails, because of both multiple authors, and comments, but I am not wanting to stray from the topics put on my heart…I have learned lately to be myself, and throw in humor… it seems to be helping on the new one…

I sense something’s brewing Anne… you have some advice don’t you?

Anne, I was hoping you would like the “thump.” :)

What sites are the best to use when starting a blog as well as the subscription via email option?

What are some innovative ways to gain active readers?

Craig,
I will pretend I didn’t read the “thump” comment :/

:)

I would first like to say that I look forward to reading your blog everyday. I’ve made it a priority in my ministry day. My question is this, have you ever considered making your blog entries into a book…if you do I’d be one of the first ones to buy it!