I know we departed from the recent series on blogging, but I keep running into new posts out in the blogosphere that make some excellent points. Today’s is aimed at the CHURCH.

QUESTION: in your church/congregation/denomination, is the leadership engaging in any open dialogue (i.e., through a blog)? If not, the change and emerging shifts are going to pass them by. In the former culture, such challenges were discussed at leadership workshops, pastor conferences, denominational board meetings, etc…but we live in a different world today. To be a thought leader, one does not have to fly off to some hotel or conference center to sit around a table to debate the issues. The debate is happening. The discussion is taking place in social networking circles where blogs sit prominently. If you are in leadership, you need to be engaging the communication discussion. In churches, when we talk of marketing, essentially we are talking about communicating our message of hope to a world that needs to hear it. But marketing also involves the people proclaiming the message, the methods employed to do so and the environment in which such truth is proclaimed. Today’s church culture must bust out of the sanctuary walls and the leadership must be involved. Debate/discussion is like a virus – it’s spreading fast and if you want a voice, you better participate!

I read a post this morning from a group of Church of God ministers trying to influence the mission through a collective voice. The author of the post makes this observation:

Ignoring what is happening, boycotting it, or thinking that blogging is for another generation will only diminish one’s leadership ability. . . .We need to understand this culture’s communication means and participate, unless we continue to be dragged apart separated off into two totally different worlds.

I found particularly curious were the author’s suggestions under “Blogging Influence” and “Observations” !

Pastors, preachers, ministers and pastoral leadership, TAKE NOTE!

-Randy