I was driving home on Interstate 84 just outside of Wendell, Idaho, where I was serving as a director of youth ministries. I was talking with a friend on my cell phone and he told me I needed to get a blog. “A what?” I asked. “A blog — you know, a Weblog?” Although I was very computer-savvy at the time, I hadn’t gotten involved in blogging. My friend eventually convinced me that I needed to get one, and so I went home and started my first blog and called it Pomomusings (“Pomo,” at the time, was the trendy version of “postmodern,” so it was going to be my musings about issues of church, culture, and postmodernism).
A blog, or Weblog, is basically a Web site that has constantly changing content. The Oxford American Dictionary defines a blog as “a Web site on which an individual or group of users produce on ongoing narrative.” Instead of the more traditional, static Web sites we are used to (where the content remains the same), people constantly add new posts to their blogs and often update them daily — producing an ongoing story or narrative of their lives or thoughts. On most blogs, not only can you go and read the posts, but you can also leave comments and get involved in conversations on the blog.
At first, I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to blog about. What was the point of a blog? Should it be strictly an online personal diary? Should I tell people what I did on a daily basis? But who would really be interested in that? Or should I keep it more related to the ministry and work I was doing at the time? Eventually, it became a fairly good mixture of both random musings from my life and thoughts about ministry, theology, and the church. A blog can be whatever you make it.
A common misconception some have is that one has to be a “computer geek” to be able to have a blog. While some knowledge of HTML (a coding language) may have been needed or beneficial when people first began blogging, it is not necessary at all anymore. If you want to start up a blog, you can do it in about 5 minutes. Some of the most popular, easy to use and free blogging Web sites are WordPress, Blogger and Typepad. You just need to choose your username and blog name, and then you can be up and running in just about five minutes.
As someone who is a bit of a blog-evangelist, many of my friends have said, “Yah, but I don’t really have anything to say. My blog would be boring.” Now, sure, there are some boring blogs out there and some that I wouldn’t want to read because I’m not interested in the content. But, in a way, that’s the beautiful thing about the medium of blogging — everyone does have something to say. Blogging gives a voice to those who never would have had a voice before, and you are immediately given an audience of millions of people who are able to read your thoughts and give you comments back. In my experience, those people who have resisted the idea of blogging because they were afraid they wouldn’t have anything to say generally find something to say and they are able to add their unique voice to the blogosphere.
A question I often get is, “Why do you blog? What is the point of it? Do you really like putting all of that information about yourself onto the web?” When I was in ministry in Idaho, my blog provided me with the ability to network, dialogue, and communicate with a much wider group of people than I would have been able to otherwise. As I was going through some changes in my own thoughts on theology and ministry, I wasn’t finding many people in Idaho who wanted to have the same discussions I did. It was through blog discussions and connections I made through my blog, that I was able to meet some really wonderful people who remain close “online” friends and others who I’ve met with “offline” and have continued to deepen those friendships.
There can be many reasons to start and maintain a blog. It can help you become more mindful of random things in your life; random events or certain conversations can turn into potential blog posts to help you continue those conversations or reflections with others. For people who process better by thinking and writing, a blog can be a great place to give yourself the space and time to do just that, and share it with others. Blogging can also help connect you with others in ministry; doing ministry in southern Idaho could, at times, be somewhat isolating, and my blog helped me “reach out” and connect with others.
Blogging may not be for everyone. But if you are at all interested, I’d suggest you just go for it. Go to one of the sites listed above, set up a blog, and give yourself a month. Make a goal to try to post at least something each day and see if blogging is for you.
Adam Walker Cleaveland is an M.Div. and M.A. (Youth Ministry) student at Princeton Theological Seminary (’08). He is a Candidate pursuing Ordination, one of the co-founders of Presbymergent (presbymergent.org) and on the Emergent Village Coordinating Group. He has been blogging at pomomusings.com since August 2003.
