Why Should a Pastor Blog?

I fought this blog wave for quite some time because I really did not see the use in it and thought it would just be a colossal waste of time. I finally "bit the bullet" and plunged into the blogosphere a few months ago. I am glad I did. When I go a week (or more sometimes) without blogging I find that there is so much that has happened or that God has shown me that I want to share and communicate to the one or two of you who read this.

I recently ran across a blog post from Abraham Piper on 6 Reasons Pastors Should Blog. I would encourage you to read the entire post, but the six reasons he gives are as follows. I include the entire excerpt from the sixth reason because it is probably the most important of the sixth at least to this pastor. Enjoy!

Pastors should blog...

1. ...to write.
2.... to teach.
3...to recommend.
4....to interact.
5....to develop an eye for what is meaningful.
6....to be known.

This is where I see the greatest advantage for blogging pastors.

Your people hear you teach a lot; it’s probably the main way that most of them know you. You preach on Sundays, teach on Wednesdays, give messages at weddings, funerals, youth events, retreats, etc.

This is good—it’s your job. But it’s not all you are. Not that you need to be told this, but you are far more than your ideas. Ideas are a crucial part of your identity, but still just a part.

You’re a husband and a father. You’re some people’s friend and other people’s enemy. Maybe you love the Nittany Lions (Red Sox). Maybe you hate fruity salad (chocolate). Maybe you struggle to pray. Maybe listening to the kids’ choir last weekend was—to your surprise—the most moving worship experience you’ve ever had.

These are the things that make you the man that leads your church. They’re the windows into your personality that perhaps stay shuttered when you’re teaching the Bible. Sometimes your people need to look in—not all the way in, and not into every room—but your people need some access to you as a person. A blog is one way to help them.

You can’t be everybody’s friend, and keeping a blog is not a way of pretending that you can. It’s simply a way for your people to know you as a human being, even if you can’t know them back. This is valuable, not because you’re so extraordinary, but because leadership is more than the words you say. If you practice the kind of holiness that your people expect of you, then your life itself opened before them is good leadership—even when you fail.