Blogging as Ministry

Andy Coticchio, a new friend of mine via Facebook and DTS, recently asked me a very good question in regards to blogging and ministry:

“Is anyone really interested in what I have to say?”

It’s a natural and very important question to ask… but perhaps there’s an even more important question that one should consider before asking this one:

“Is Blogging about me?”

In addition, blogging as a ministry tool, as I see it, is less about you and what you have to say (and what you feel you can contribute) and is more about God and what you believe God can use it for and through it.

First, this puts the focus in the right “spot.”  It’s about God.  It’s about Christ.  As one of my seminary professors once put it, “Let’s be challenged to have a more Christocentric theology than we are used to.” (Although he put a caveat that too much emphasis on Christ without the correct Trinitarian perspective leaves us off no better…)

I think he was right, especially in light of the humanistic tendencies of our post-modernity where “Man is the measure of all things.” Let your blog be theological: the study and nature of God, first, and you as his messenger second.

Second, it sets the tone of humility.  Blogging is simply another communication medium: Imperfect, fallen, and completed tainted with humanity.  You WILL make mistakes.  Trust me.  You WILL write things that are theologically incorrect, and if not directly so, you will most definitely touch inevitably upon some of the “eternal questions”, and controversial topics that will offend people.

To put it nicely, “get over it”.  (Although I completely understand the initial anxiety associated with engaging with a new medium, technology, etc…!)

But seriously.  With your “more flawed and lost than you ever dared believe yet more accepted and loved than you ever dared hope” perspective (have to love Redeemer and Tim Keller), you can blog with humility, knowing that if any good is to come of it, only God can received the Glory.

Thirdly, as a result of this most Godly-humble perspective, He can, by the Holy Spirit, then begin to use your blog and writing most effectively because you are unashamed.  You have been called to be a witness, not to change men’s hearts by eloquent speach, earthly wisdom, nor by brute force.  Tell others through your blog what God has done, testify to the power of the Gospel and the person and amazing completed work of Jesus and the Cross, and you’ll be fulfilling your calling.

Finally, you’ll begin to reach others in places that you would never had the opportunity to reach.  I believe this to be a powerful result of blogging.  I also believe that it should not be THE primary, foundational motivational element when answering the question of “Why should I blog?”  The answer to the question should be, by and large, exactly the same as the answer to “Why should I do the work of an evangelist?”

So my friendly advice to Andy was “Just do it!”

Even the stones will cry out to extol the Glory of His Name; why not the internet?

(Head to Andy’s new Blog, “The Narrow Path” and drop him an encouraging comment… there’s nothing better than getting comments… mmmmhmmm… comments…)