Thursday 15 December 2011

Why blog?

This much discussed subject came up at dinner with friends last night when I was asked the same question.

The underlying concern was that it appeals to our vanity and sense of worth trying to gain following.

This was not an accusation against me, but rather a general comment.

And the more I think about it, the more I kind of agree.

When I started this blog I wanted it to be me making an honest assessment of my own journey in Church leadership.

In it I have tried to be real about some of the more personal elements of my life, while also celebrating the great things God is doing in and through our Church.

I don't want to use this as a medium to throw stones at others, as some bloggers sadly do.

Nor do I want it to be a one sided propaganda tool for either my own ministry, my Church or my movement of Churches.

"Hey, everything is amazing and we are brilliant" is never the whole story.

I want it to be real.

And then for times I don't write much, because I don't really have anything to say.

Then at other times I may have a specific subject or situation I am working through.

The more I read other people the more I think people are either just trying to provoke a reaction or gain traffic. I don't want to fall into that trap.

We had 389 bums on seats across our two services on Sunday. I don't know them all. Not properly. I could give you the names of every one of our 275 adult members, but not necessarily all their children. Nor do they know me.

My friends know me. The people I work closely with know me. My midweek group know me. But as the Church grows and new people join I find my blog is actually a useful way to allow people to get inside my head and see the kinds of things I think about and stand for. New people regularly view it as they research our Church, and it does not seem to put them off, in fact they feel they know me better because they have found out more about my life and personality than they could do in normal circumstances.

So all in all, I am confident in what I am doing writing this, and ever more confident in why I don't write more.