Church Blog: What and Why
As part of Covenant Church’s revamp of our website we’ve begun a blog. A few of you have already signed up to be able to comment on it, for which we thank you!
What is a Blog?
A blog is “a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.”
While not an exhaustive definition, that’s a good jumping off point.
Why should we have a Blog?
Several reasons, blogs are:
Easily searchable
Excellent ways to increase our online reach
Engage more church members in conversation on various topics
Easily shareable to friends, family and unchurched humans
Excellent ways to curate online resources
Long term repositories for articles and relevant church information
Blogs help search engines identify our church as relevant and active
A blog allows us (Covenant) to post articles and content to our website that is relevant to our church and culture.
There are two basic types of content you’ll find on Covenant’s blog: Evergreen and Instant.
Evergreen posts include content that will remain relevant for years to come. I post each of pastor Richard’s sermons to the blog so they’re easy to find and easy to share. Other posts can include bible study tools, meditations on scripture, resource articles for small groups and ministries, etc.
Instant posts include content that is relevant to our church or culture right now, but may not be in the future. These include things like Leadership Notes, annual meeting articles, etc.
As of right now, every sermon and leadership note is going on the blog every week. Beyond that we have articles from the annual meeting, the worship arts dept., and more coming.
Soon we would like to be able to phase out the Newsletter and give all the contributors “writer” privileges so information can be shared in a more timely manner and come straight from the source.
Example: Janet Jerusalem has an event coming up for her “We Plant Tulips for Jesus” gardening ministry that she would like to make everyone aware of. She can share the general info for her event with Michelle to include in the announcements email, but she can also write a blog post with more detailed information, photos, links to online resources and videos, etc. Michelle can then send not only the brief announcement, but also the link to Janet’s blog post for anyone who is interested.
Who Blogs?
At the moment each staff member has writing privileges. A few other church members have been invited to be writers because they are actively involved in various church ministries. If you are interested in being a write we would love to include you. Just send a request to Michelle or myself (Ben) via the website: tecumsehcove.org
Michelle and I (Ben) will curate the content to ensure posts remain faithful to Covenant’s Mission and Vision. Blog comments can be curated by the authors of those posts.
Is that gatekeeping?
No, it’s good stewardship. Consider the following scenarios:
Ideal - Isaac Israel shares an insightful post that explores the concept of the Trinity complete with relevant pictures, external links and searchable hashtags.
Awesome - Debbie Deuteronomy writes an article about her small group’s new initiative to furnish fish shaped lawn ornaments to any Christian living in Tecumseh.
Unacceptable - Greg Goiter extols the virtues of kicking Christians in the shins.
Can anyone read the blog?
Yes. It is public and shareable.
Can anyone comment?
Mostly. You must sign up (a one time thing easily done on the website) to be able to comment.
Members and friends of Covenant are automatically greenlit. However, Dave from Kuala Lumpur will likely be contacted first to verify he actually is a human before being added.
Why do we have to sign up to comment?
Glad you asked. Two reasons:
To prevent spamming and trolling
To ensure a safe online space for Covenant members and friends to be able to engage
This article - as well as all the other newsletter articles this month and next - will be included on the blog. I encourage you to visit Tecumsehcove.org/blog and comment on this or other posts.
Ben
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