Hi and welcome to OurChurch.Com’s new “Christian Web Trends” blog. What’s a “blog” you may wonder? I’ll get to that in a minute. We’ll be using this format to talk about news and trends in communications technology and how that impacts Christian individuals and organizations. Our goal is to help Christian individuals and organizations make better use of communications technology in their churches, schools, ministries, businesses, and personal lives.
Being a website design, hosting, and marketing company, our staff gets pretty amped up about cutting-edge Internet and tech stuff as it is. We’re constantly reading news, articles, and other blogs to stay ahead of the curve in creating and improving web services. So, blogging on the subject is just a natural next step, and one we’re really excited about.
What is a blog?
If you’re a blog veteran you may think answering that question is silly, but a Pew Research study from last year showed that 63% of Internet users don’t know what a blog is. There are bound to be people for whom this is the first blog they’ve ever read. That’s cool. I’m glad to be the one to introduce you.
A blog, or web log, is simply an online journal. Generally, one or more bloggers will post articles to the blog, and then readers have the opportunity to post comments. Blogs can focus on a particular subject, or be about whatever interests the blogger. Some blogs are read by millions of people, others are just read by a few friends and family members.
Why blog?
About a quarter of Internet users read blogs on a regular basis right now, and that number is growing exponentially. Blogs are quickly becoming a regular source of information for many people.
Part of their appeal is the truly democratic nature of blogs. There are no editors. There is no censorship. It used to be that if the TV networks and your local paper decided not to report a story, you probably wouldn’t ever hear about it. Now, news often breaks through the blogosphere (the collective term used to describe all blogs) even before the cable news channels. News, analysis, and perspectives that were not considered important enough to see the light of day in the old media, are published in blogs.
Blogs are democratic in their readership as well. If a blog is boring, full of errors, or simply regurgitates information people can get from other, better sources, it will have little readership and little impact. But if you write an interesting, insightful blog with a unique perspective, word will spread and you could have thousands of people reading your posts.
Christian Web Trends Blog
So what qualifies us to start a “Christian Web Trends Blog?” Well, the good thing is you don’t have to be qualified to start a blog. 😉 Seriously though, I genuinely believe God has blessed the staff at OCC with a unique perspective in the area of Christian communication that ought to be shared. I think the breadth of services and experience we have will translate into a broad array of topics. I’m hoping that the one-on-one contact we have with thousands of Christian webmasters who are also pastors, teachers, entrepreneurs, missionaries, and musicians will give our writing a personal feel. I think our staff’s own service as elders, Christian school board members, worship leaders, small group leaders, and Sunday school teachers will translate into practical advice you can use.
Right now our plan is to post a new article each week, but we may tweak the schedule as we go. We’ll also comment on news and other articles we read. Speaking of which…
If you have a website, magazine, or blog that’s related to Christians’ use of communication technology, please post a comment with a link to it. If you’d like to suggest a topic for a future article, you can post that too. And of course, we’d love to read your general comments and feedback.
Be sure to subscribe to receive updates. Subscribe form in in the right sidebar (desktop) or below (mobile).
In His Service,
Paul Steinbrueck
OurChurch.Com
25 Comments
But it is interesting that if I gained about 10 hits to the site 'Australian Churches' site in 24 hours, I would be 'over the moon'. Now that site receives thousands of hits a month.
I do trust that it steers people to a place or places where they can hear the good news, believe – become Christians – and spread it themselves!
Kevin Keep
Australian Churches – http://www.australianchurches.net
I am using a “free” web site and could use any information in outlining this
site with the few tools I am Given.
bob
Pingback: Strategic Digital Outreach
Welcome to the “Christian web strategy blogosphere!” I blogged about you today here: http://www.strategicdigitaloutreach.com.
It looks to me like your comments counter is not working (says “No comments” even though there were two comments before this one, and I couldn’t seem to get the trackback feature to work. Thought you might like to know.
I have never used a blog, I find it fascinating. I am thankful that it is offered free to us as the free webspac for our website is. I am hoping our church website will be visited by people who would like to learn more about our parish. I am not sure what value using this blog will have…but it is worth a try…
Good afternoon and happiness to You!
Many people to help to destroy the SOVIET UNION,who will help this family
today! …If you are able to provide Maria and her parents ANY assistance at all,
please do not hesitate to do so.
[editted by OurChurch.Com staff]
Thanks for the comments so far. Keep ’em coming.
Frank, thanks for mentioning the Christian Web Trends blog in your blog. I’ve subscribed to the RSS feed so I can keep up with what you write in the future. The comments tally seems to be working for me. Maybe you need to just refresh the page??? I’ll have to check on TrackBack feature.
Evgeniy and Stepan, thanks for posting a comment, but this is not the place for aid solicitations. You can post a message in our forums at https://forums.ourchurch.com if you like. If you do, please also place information about how people who may want to help can verify the validity of the request through a reputable missions agency. We want people to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves in their giving.
I still do not understand what is a blog. I am familiar with web sites and messeage forms but what is the difference. I still don’t undrstand.
Richard, that’s a great question. I would say the biggest difference between a blog and a message board is that in a blog the authoring of new topics is restricted to the blog owner. That allows the blogger to keep the content focused and reputable.
Here’s an article that does a great job of describing the similarities and differences between a blog and a message board or forum:
http://www.commoncraft.com/archives/000768.html
Hi,
I have discovered the power of blogging recently, in the past two weeks actually. I was guided to use it by http://www.sitesell.com to popularise my website. Sure enough by the grace of the Lord Jesus my site started appearing quite promptly on MSN search. At that time my website (www.experiential-learning-games.com) was just a fortnight and eight pages old.
I subscribed to this blog to be able to share with my Christian brethren about the wonderful opportunity you can have of building an e-commerce website that works. Check it out at this URL http://proof.sitesell.com/empower-people.html
As many of us as are called, need to use this opportunity to use the power of the web and earn very well so that we can support the spread of the gospel to the world at the earliest.
Warmly,
Leena Kapoor