Brian Bailey and Terry Storch have put together a book that’s near and dear to our hearts. It lays out the why and the how of church blogging. We’re big fans of blogging, in case you couldn’t tell (I’ve been at it personally since 1998). It’s a natural tool for a community-based organization like the church, and its tendency for open, honest communication makes it a valuable antidote to the misconception of churches as weird, unfriendly, judgmental, hypocritical, corrupt or whatever negative adjective you’ve heard.
If you’re looking for a new way to communicate about your church–whether you’re a pastor, staff member or lay person (OK, it doesn’t directly address lay people, but lay people like me can recommend it)–The Blogging Church is for you. It includes helpful interviews with pro bloggers like Robert Scoble (author of another book on blogging), Kathy Sierra and Guy Kawasaki, as well as church bloggers like Mark Batterson, Perry Noble, Craig Groeschel, Mark Driscoll and Tony Morgan–oh yeah, and us. We should probably say up front that we’re interviewed in the book (page 75, in case you’re wondering) and mentioned a few times as an example.
I think churches need to find ways to stop behaving like ancient organizations and start connecting with people. This isn’t the way you’ve always done it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work. This book answers a lot of the questions and can help you figure out if blogging might be for your church and then how to make it happen.
As much as I like the book and did recommend it to my pastor, it does have a few faults, like the fact that like any tech book it will become quickly dated. But I think its most notable fault is the readability. It reads somewhat awkwardly. It’s not obvious or horrible, but it was something I couldn’t put my finger on that nagged me throughout my reading.
But the overall message and advice is one pastors need to hear–you need to share the story of your church, and blogs can help.
Mean Dean
May 30, 2007
Kevin you’re killin me! I gotta travel to Kuala Lumpur this weekend and wish you had mentioned this earlier so I could have had some excellent reading material!
Either way, thanks for bringing it to my attention – definately a topic that needs to be discussed – like I need to tell you guys that !-)
But along those lines, I do have to wonder, how many of the readers of this book (or your blog) will be both doers and hearers (readers) of these words of wisdom?
Meaning, while I find pastors everywhere whom agree with such technologies and advice – I don’t find as many being adopters of it.
Don Gulley
May 30, 2007
I agree…this is a great book for pastors to read and understand how the church can be more effective in its communication. Our church has recenlty switched all of our online information sharing to blogs…so for each campus you go to you can get the information,etc through a blog. Although we are still working on getting the story out but we are getting better.
Terry Storch
May 30, 2007
Thanks Kevin for the props. We are excited about the book and really appreciate you guys helping churches not suck!!
Ron
May 31, 2007
I got a copy when it was first released, eager to see what they had to say. Though I agree the flow of the book lacks a bit, it is full of both good theory about communication and practical advice for those who venture into blogging. My suggestion: purchase one copy and share it with your church staff or a group of pastors. Since it may have a short shelf-life (because technology changes rapidly), there’s no need to keep this on a bookshelf. Share the blogging love with others!
Mike
June 3, 2007
A buddy of mine and I (we have extensive backgrounds in banking and credit union software) recently formed a company to start working on ‘fun’ projects. Turns out many of these projects will involve churches, since we are both Christians and active church members.
Our first project to actually be installed out there is a church weblog aggregator. By church weblog I mean the blogs of the people of the church (including a couple staff with more coming soon).
Even though it’s only been out there for a little while, it’s amazing how much connection you start to find when you follow the blogs of your church.
It’s still in what I’d call early alpha. We have tons of features to add, a few bugs to fix, and plenty of general clean up. But you can see our homechurch’s test page at:
http://www.churchweblogs.com/hunterstreet
I know this comment is kind of spammy, but I thought it was so close to the topic that I’d mention it. We’d love to add a couple more churches for testing purposes.
Michael
June 8, 2007
I’m totally new to the world of blogs. I just finished reading the book a couple of weeks ago and decided to take the plunge to become a blogging pastor and a blogging church. I’m the pastor of a small-town, traditional church, and so far, I’ve really enjoyed posting stories about church members, events, and various musings. Thank you, Brian Bailey and Terry Storch for publishing the book!
I’m learning a lot from church marketingsucks.com too! What a great name!