"...blogs should not be seen as tools that can be used to connect with the world outside the church. Christians are always trying to 'connect' with people outside the church and generally doing a spectacularly bad job of it. Read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or Martin Buber. The answer is there. Do not treat people as objects. Whatever you treat as an object or as a means to another end will always lose its value or quality." (>>)

the problem here is that i naturally disregard anything that lifeway says. so i'm conflicted here knowing that blogging can be a good thing but also knowing that lifeway is the antichrist. :) now i simply don't know if i should continue blogging and just forget that lifeway says it's a good thing or stop blogging altogether resting comfortable in the fact that if lifeway is now suggesting it then blogging time as being meaningful and relevant has long since ended.

While you're right to disregard anything a "Christian" bookstore says- this is coming from an ex-bookstore manager (don't get me started)- my experience with my chuch's blog is mixed and the jury is still out.

On my church's website I have set up a situation where people can search the bible for topics and the website keeps track of the most popular topics requested. From there I write a brief blog elaborating in more depth on the topic. This helps me know what my people are wrestling with (in an anonymous way) and gives me the opportunity to help them out.

Because of the international nature of the web, I can't tell whether it's my people asking these questions or some stranger from Finland. Still this helps me start a dialog that I use to help me decide what to preach.

Again, this is a new experience, so there is no way to tell if it is actually working at this point.