I’m not talking about evangelistic sermons on blogs, but that churches need bloggers to tell their story; to tell their story is hopefully also to tell the story of their church. And this enables the blogosphere readers to find churches that are talking about and doing things which proclaim “good news”; that here is a place and a people who are inviting them to join them in participating in what God is doing.

If church members are in churches that constitute the center of their lives; that what they are constantly involved in and doing and thinking and conversing around revolves around the work of the church; then this is evangelism. This is saying that there is good news happening amongst us, here’s what we’re talking about, and here’s what motivates us. A church that is about God’s business and preparing and forming God’s people has a story to tell.

The books of Elizabeth O’Connor were the formative factor that brought me to this conclusion. I began readig them in 1976 at the age of 20, and they (particularly 4 of them) tell the story of the Church of the Saviour from its beginnings with striking narrative. They tell of the conversations they had about what kind of church they expected to be, and tell of the structures they implemented to “codify” this process of becoming authentic church. Call To Commitment, Journey Inward, Journey Outward, The New Community, and Servant Leaders, Servant Structures tell the story from the beginnings in 1947 to today (I would love to see something about the last 10-15 years. Elizabeth O’Connor died 7 or 8 years ago, so someone should take up the mantle and continue the narrative. What shoes to fill, though. Elizabeth was a gifted writer.)

These books showed me how a church could chronicle their journey. The church now has at its beck and call a way to harness the story telling gifts amongst a people. A church with several bloggers, and perhaps some “aggregating” bloggers who weave together several stories into the one tapestry that tells an integrated story can be a great gift to the church at large, and to that church’s legacy and evangelism.

But we MUST go beyond schedules, maps, and worship times (although these are obviously important bits of information; BASIC, assumed bits.) Beyond INFORMATION there is the story, and the content that constitutes the theology and call of that church.