some thoughts on blogging as a Christian

7/22/2006 · 4 comments

in meditations, quick take

Adrian Warnock lists some markers of blogging success (hits, visitors, etc.) but ends the list with something I’ve been pondering myself lately:

How much of an impact positively or negatively you have on your readers.

It is that last point that I feel we should most focus on as Christians. You see, we need to be loving towards our readers and leave them with a positive impression… Do we blog in such a way that we follow Lloyd-Jones’ guidelines to “blog the truth in love?”

He goes on to say, “We are blogging ultimately for an audience of One, who reads everything we say and will hold us accountable for every idle word.” And then, “For the Christian, one of the challenges of blogging is how to make sure that our motives are right.”

I’ve wrestled some with motives–successfully, so far (I hope). I’ll hear something at church or read something in a blog and think, “that’s wrong; I should blog about that and show why that’s totally stupid!” But then I think “what would that accomplish?” and “is that life-giving?” That causes me to stop and either figure out an appropriate (loving and life-giving) way to blog about the topic or choose a new topic.

Thanks, Adrian, for a gentle reminder of the true marker of our success.

Tagged as: blogging, christianity, motives

of related interest

4 comments
  • http://aimeemilburn.typepad.com/ Aimee Milburn

    This is good, Dan. As a new blogger I’m struggling to learn how to express myself in way that anybody who comes across my site can appreciate. But I stumble — two days ago, for example, I wrote a post about the need for Christian unity that at the time I thought sounded really good. Yesterday I re-read it, and realized that it sounded harsh. I wrote a kind of apology; but then this morning decided to just take the offending part out entirely.

    We’re not going to be perfect all the time — but we do need to be open to the Holy Spirit’s correction.

    Thanks for sharing this. I’ll keep it in mind.

  • http://aimeemilburn.typepad.com/ Aimee Milburn

    This is good, Dan. As a new blogger I’m struggling to learn how to express myself in way that anybody who comes across my site can appreciate. But I stumble — two days ago, for example, I wrote a post about the need for Christian unity that at the time I thought sounded really good. Yesterday I re-read it, and realized that it sounded harsh. I wrote a kind of apology; but then this morning decided to just take the offending part out entirely.

    We’re not going to be perfect all the time — but we do need to be open to the Holy Spirit’s correction.

    Thanks for sharing this. I’ll keep it in mind.

  • http://danbutcher.com Dan

    I’m glad it was helpful, Aimee. I appreciate your willingness to revise and delete as the Spirit leads—which is ultimately the best that any of us can do.

  • http://danbutcher.com Dan

    I’m glad it was helpful, Aimee. I appreciate your willingness to revise and delete as the Spirit leads—which is ultimately the best that any of us can do.

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