The Web Church Manual:Pastor Blog

It has been a long and grueling month but somehow you have gotten pulled into the blog fad. Was it the peer pressure as you watched all your friends jump off the reality cliff or were you actually fooled by my "ideas for your website post“ into believing a blog might be a good resource? Whichever the reason, you have decided to make that jump into “well everyone else is doing it”. The truth is that there are more blogs being born every second then there are human beings. At least as a pastor you have something meaningful, important, and transforming to put out there in the blogosphere. The real dilemma is figuring out how to start one and make it look good without acting like a complete moron.
Getting Started
As a pastor or individual who is starting a blog for the first time he or she should stick with blogger or some other free blog provider. Blogger walks with the individual and muscles all the hard work in the creation of it. Even the most Internet ignorant pastor can have a good-looking blog on blogger. It is as simple as filling in your information, picking an overall design, and writing a post. In the information phase make sure that the username/password is memorable, the display name is the same as the name used by friends, and that the address is short and catchy. There is nothing harder to remember than having a blog address such as http://biblerockchurchseniorpastorphd.blogspot.com/. If the space is geared for the congregation anyways, they already know where they attend church. When it is time to pick the design, it might become a little overwhelming. There are a lot to choose from and so many different varieties. A simple rule is that the posts are the most important, so any design too visually distracting should be eliminated.
The Post
The most important part of a good pastor’s blog is the content/posts. Three simple things that need to be remembered are regularity, length, and tone. Whether the purpose is for a daily devotional or an invite into the daily life of the pastor, the readers do not to be preached at. It is extremely important to not have an extremely harsh or sarcastic tone in all posts to congregants. The point of the endeavor is to remain connected and grow together, not alienate the few people that still listen. Another good tip on keeping connections is the length of posts. The idea is for quick notes not manifestos. A good post will have no less than two paragraphs and no more than 5. If there is a lot of information that needs to be mentioned, split it up and give it out in a daily post throughout the week. It will make it easier to keep regular post updates on the blog. Regularly and routinely submitting new posts is probably the most important thing to remember when having a blog. If the members of the faith community are expected to surf to the blog, then the pastor must do it too. It doesn’t have to be 15 entries a day, only as long as the church and the pastor are on the same page about when it is updated.