The Pope once said: “Technology cannot replace God”. Here’s a great quote I found today responding to that idea from GMO blog:
"Technology can’t replace God. God is God. He always will be. We need Him. BUT technology can help us to tell others about Him.”
The OurChurch.com blog has an article on evangelism and social networking where they evaluate and link to a recent PBS article.
John Saddington of ChurchCrunch, was one of those interviewed in the PBS article and points out:
“One of the nice things about social media is that it establishes a two-way conversation… Instead of blaring our faith into people’s faces, we can use blogs and social media to dialogue.”
The social media really does make it possible to naturally share your life and faith with your friends and relatives. A genuine tool for evangelism.
Here is an article published in Charisma Leader Magazine: “Got Blog”, by John Brandon. It is a short article to help ministers get started blogging. The three main topics:
1. Why Blog?
The writer gives good reasons why someone in the ministry might consider blogging as an extension of their ministry.
Here's a good article on why Pastors should blog:
"6 Reasons Pastors Should Blog" by Abraham Piper @ Desiring God (John Piper’s website)
Abraham starts off with his own reason behind the article:
"In this article I want to convince as many pastors as possible to sit down and start a blog today. If I can’t convince them, then I want to convince churchgoers to hound their pastor until he does."
Abraham then lists 6 important reasons that pastors should blog.
"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." -Prov. 27:17
One of the more important reasons for Christians, especially pastors and ministers, to blog is what I call the "Iron Sharpens Iron" effect. As one posts articles and others stop by to comment, there is an ongoing sharing process that one cannot duplicate easily through other forums. Other Bible teachers and pastors will come aboard and drop a comment or two which actually in my experience helps to clarify and refine my own writing and teaching. The feedback can become a real blessing.
For years I have taught Bible studies at church and in small home groups, usually to groups of from 10-50. Last year I decided to put a Bible study on the internet utilizing a blogging program. It is not a very successful site and certainly not well known nor even that impressive, but it was read by over 75 different people last week, plus more (an undetermined number) accessed it through 43 feeds. In addition, they came to the site from 9 different countries. All in the last 7 days.
Now here is the best part. Nearly every lesson that I have posted so far is read by someone every week.
Research by The Barna
Group shows that there is a major divide between different
generations and how they approach the new media. This seems rather intuitive for anyone with grandchildren.
But it would be helpful for church leaders and outreach folks to get a hold of in order to plan a more effective ministry to different generational groups. Most churches are adequately reaching the Boomers and the Busters but the church technology is way behind in addressing the younger generations where they live:
There is an interesting article in the Washington Post about Worship on the Web. It starts out talking about how religion in general has become an important part of the web experience. Here is a short quote:
” “The first wave of religion online, in the 1990s, was mainly for nerds and young people and techies,” said Morten Hojsgaard, a Danish author who has written extensively about online religion. “But now it really is a mirror of society at large. This is providing a new forum for religious seekers.”
Why Blogging? Because God and his son Jesus Christ need equal time in the blogosphere.
Pastors have so little real time to influence their people and blogging can extend and increase the opportunity to share the Gospel and the Christian world view not only with their own congregation, but also with anyone else who happens to come across the site. Best of all, blogging can literally be done at anytime, and the time investment is minimal compared with the possible results.
Blogs can be set up to reach only a private audience like Youth ministries and church groups. WordPress.com in particular allows for private sites for free. Groups can have there own calendar, communication, message, and feedback site. Passwords to enter as a reader/subscriber can be given to members only; while leaders maintain control over the site and its content.
Millions of people are involved in blogging, look at blogs everyday, and search the internet. There are 10s of millions of blogs that post about religion and proudly wear the title of ‘Godblogs’ and probably even more websites that can be identified as religious.
Many of those sites are produced by the writers as a hobby, and then there are other sites which are obviously designed to be an internet ministry.
