The Blogging Church (Book Review)

I love to use this blog to review books that I read. It may help you some, but it will help me more. It helps me to reinforce my highlights and document what I read and learned for later when I need it.

While in Guyana, I read "The Blogging Church" by Brian Bailey. Guys, it was such an incredibly helpful tool/manual to help me become a better, healthier and more effective blogger. GREAT BOOK! If you are a blogger or are thinking about starting one, this book is a must, must read. Here are some random bullets of my favorite ideas in the book:

• Blogging is a revolution in communication, community and conversation...a revolution that churches cannot afford to miss.
  
• The Blogosphere is a new online home for the curious and creative.
• Before blogs, if you wanted to publish something online, you needed a website, money and a whole lot of knowledge about online code to do it. Now, it is free, type and publish!
• At the start of 2001, most Americans did not know what a blog was. By the end of 2004, Webster declared blog the word of the year!
  
• Blogging is simply online hospitality.
• Blogs help make a big church small.
• One of the biggest decisions every blogger needs to make is whether is a tool or a toy!
• Blogging gives a phenomenal return on ministry.
• People love blogs because they love real time updates.
• Blogs do what church bulletins and newsletters cannot because they are from me to you (personal). Not from we to you all (impersonal)! Oh, and did I mention that blogs are free? No printing cost.
• People are asking questions and blogs are a place to answer them. Why not answer for hundreds all at once, instead of one person one time.
• When laptops, wireless networks and coffee shops converged, we gained the ability to work anywhere and anytime.
• Blogs are one of the few ways that Pastors can disciple people while they are asleep.
• Blog writers are huge blog readers! It is where we get our inspiration. What a tool. Free, fresh and current thinking everyday!
  
• Blogging has radically and permanently changed ministry! No longer do we need to travel to learn. Who needs to go to as many conferences when there is top notch free info in the blogosphere?
  
• Picasso said "Good artists copy. Great artists steal."
• Don't be driven by statistics. You will never be a successful blogger if your only motivation for blogging is more traffic.
• People are looking to blogs for something that they cannot get anywhere else. That something is you!
• People are tired of perfection and hungry for authenticity. A blog that is free of emotion and controversy and written like a company annual report will not be a successful one.
• Churches are often 100% relevant on Sundays and 0% relevant the rest of the week. Blogs help prevent this trap!
• One whole chapter dealt with commenting. Some bloggers allow them. Others do not. You can get some pretty inappropriate comments sometimes, but not allowing them turns your blog into another sermon instead of a conversation.
• As with all that we do, in blogging we have to determine whether we are doing what we do for His glory or for ours. Are we focused on serving our church, our readers or ourselves?
• The book helpfully warned of traffic traps, blogging burnout and blogging addictions. (Yes, I was listening!)
  
• Be controversial once in a while. Stimulate healthy debate!
• Blogs represent the evolving expression of our most passionately held ideas.
• Blog your whole experience, not just your polished thoughts.

I am stopping now. I could keep going. This is enough, though.

-Noah