Three Blog Post Worth Reading

September 24, 2012

Here are three blog post I have read recently that I have found very helpful. These are by United Methodist and deal with current issues.

  1. On the possibility of Jesus having a wife by Adam Hamilton
  2. Reflections on the embassy attacks by Timothy Tennett
  3. About Church and the political season by Ben Gosden

This upcoming week is going to be fun, emotional, and crazy. It is moving week in the United Methodist Church. I was thinking what songs could describe this week?

Sunday

Most pastors (and a youth pastor) will celebrate their last Sunday at the church they work. My church is throwing me a reception at Sunday school. I seriously am planning on out associate pastor singing Adele’s Someone Like You.

Wednesday

On Wednesday literally dozens of pastors will move churches and parsonages. I wondering if any will listen to Gotye’s Somebody that I Used to Know. 

Sunday

After a roller coaster of emotions clam returns as reflection on your purpose stirs excitement. Your first Sunday you want to give it all you got With Everything (By Hillsong United).

What songs will you be listening to?

Last week I posted about tweeting and ministry. Here’s a response I got on facebook from my buddy Ben.

He got me thinking. What is the best way to leverage my blog for the ministry I will be in. Keep in mind I will be taking over two awesome, small, rural churches where the majority may not be blog readers. With that being said here are a few blogs that I know of and my thoughts towards them.

  1. Ben Gosden’s Friend – as Ben mentioned his friend will blog about the sermon he is planning for the week. I love the idea. I’m not sure if Wednesday would give me enough time to make adequate adjustments. I have seen Andrew Conard post his entire sermon on a public google document and ask for feedback. I love both ideas, but would probably tweak it a little bit.
  2. Ben Gosden’s BlogCovered in the Masters Dust is a great blog. Ben will be a bishop one day if that is what he desires (I called it). He is a really sharp guy. He blogs about the topics dealt with mostly in mainline Christianity, specifically United Methodism, theology, doctrine, and church polity. I love checking out his blog. I highly recommend it, especially for young clergy. I hope to have opinions and ideas on his level one day, but I am simply not there yet. See also John Stephens or Kevin DeYoung.
  3. J.R. Lee – J.R. does an awesome job with his blog. He is probably the closest to what I want to emulate. He does two things really well in my opinion. The first I love his midweek review. He gives a lot of bullet points of things going on in the life of the church. Second he teases the upcoming sermons. Usually it is just the logo and a brief description. He also will put in some random post about books, life, devotion, etc. I could see something similar being beneficial.
  4. Perry NoblePerry does a great job of providing devotional insights and bullet points of things going on in a church. It serves as a great way for the Sr. Pastor to adress all the people in an individual way, even though he could never spend the time with everyone due to the size of his congregation. He is very good at using his blog to challenge and motivate. It probably is not just my natural communication style, but extremely effective. See also Steven Furtick or Brandon Williams.

So all these include some academic, devotional, church development, and doctrine. I’m just trying to find the right mix. Did I describe these right? Did I leave any out? Which do you think will be most helpful?