I am having a conversation with some people about blogs as a Church Communications resource. Obviously, I believe deeply that there are few things which serve as great a stimulus for encouraging voice. I experienced it when I first learned HTML and began writing about Churches and the Web and Online Community back in 1994. That was “pre-blog”, but the ability to immediately publish my thoughts to the world enabled me to find numerous people who shared my sense of journey, as well as infuriate others who thought I was dabbling in “dangerous theology”.

When Blogs came to my attention in 2002, I was also full of frustration in the lack of interest at my then place of employment in the idea of Online Community. When I look there of late, there still is apparently zero interest. That has changed in my present job. While I am going to avoid identifying where that is, I will say that the emergence of conversation here lately about blogs and RSS is an invigorating sign for me. I saw it coming when I first got here. A couple of the people in my area had heard of my passion for Church and the Web, and Blogs in particular. We started talking about RSS, and looking at ways to syndicate our content.

I am in a more technically-oriented position, but I am also known as a resource/consultant for this effort (and also as a technical support for helping to build this blog infrastructure as a community extension to our Websites).

The main concern is for the shape that “voice” will take in our instance. I , of course, woudl err to the side of freedom in that respect. It is what makes blogs blogs. It is what keeps them from being Brochures. It is wahat keeps them from “sounding” like hype or marketing. Churches and its related organizations have their won “marketing hype” that seeks to identify the people as being one big community. There’s obviously some truth to that in the sense of the Church being a representative of Christ; the Body of Christ, but there is also a need for the expression of unique persons, and the multitude of gifts. The “story” should be prevalent.

That’s the way I “shop” for Churches. Not so much in what they “express” as a corporate mission statement, but how specific people live that out. What is the “flavor” of that community? I want to be someplace where I can make friends, and find people who are sympathetic (even passionate) about the things for which I have passion. I cannot find this out from most “mission statements”.