Often guys with blogs people actually read are getting attacked and it bothers me in a big way.
Kevin asked a relevant and honest question in his comment on my blog:
"I understand what you are saying about people looking at their own efforts, but one thing that happens on blogs is that people share their thoughts/critiques on good and bad stuff. Where do we draw the line? Some blogs are set up to turn everyone into a critic of sorts. They mention something a church did and then ask, "What do you think?". "
I agree, some blogs are set up that way. To me it's not appropriate and seems to be a garbage way to drum up traffic on a blog.
I honestly don't give much time to blogs that do that as a matter of practice. I enjoy reading and commenting on blogs that expose the author with a solid mix of professional and personal. I enjoy reading blogs where the author shares nuggets of truth that provide 'take away' to enhance my own leadership. When I see/read blogs that bash churches on the regular I get frustrated because it's like watching the local evening news. I live in an area where there are 1.6 million people but it never fails, the first 6 stories on the news are negative. They are about rape, murder, car accidents, etc. It's not until the end of the show for 30 seconds do we see that there are great people in our community.
I'm not saying that we should not be honest on blogs, I'm saying that we have to have a governor on our opinion tossing. I'm saying that we shouldn't pile on and bash guys who are attempting to make a difference. When a church is about rescuing souls, I'm supportive. When a church is inward focused and lazy... I'm not.
There are a lot of guys out there trying a lot of things and through their blogs they are sharing them. The rest of us need to be considerate and "eat the meat and toss the bones". But if all we do in this still relatively small network of blogs is bash each other, we'll prohibit a lot of guys from sharing their risks and failures with the rest of us.
The blog world (and church world for that matter) would be so much better if people put the energy into their ministries that they waste on creating a clever attack.
5 comments:
Thank you for bringing up the question. I think a while back I posted on something I saw happening, not just in church culture, but culture overall. There was a new crop of tv shows a few years back that popped up that have sparked a million more. I don't know where it started. Shows like "I love the 80's" and "Best Week Ever" on VH1 come to mind. They had various celebs/comedians basically bash things that were going on or had happened in the past. Now you find tv shows that discuss other tv shows. I'm sure this has been around for ever and it's not just tv, but perhaps these shows and blogs have pushed things to a more extreme level. It helps make a culture where everyone is a critic. Now that technology has allowed most everyone to have a voice, we see the bad that can come from that. There are many positives from all of this happening too and I love it! I love blogging, reading blogs. We often forget there is more than one way to do things and we tend to think that the way we do things worked so why would anyone else try another way. It has been so cool to me this past year to get connected, through blogging, to your church as well as many others to see how you are doing things in a way that is new to me. None of your churches look the same and yet God is working through them and doing amazing things. It is a reminder that I need to shut my mouth sometimes and look at things from God's perspective. After writing my comment about the whole giving away gas vouchers thing (and I don't think I was as harsh as some on other blogs) I could see how God could use that.
I think that's a great post Tally. I am fairly new to the blogosphere and I love 98% of it. The other 2% seems to think that they know the only correct way to do church.
Thank you for inspiring me to apologize on my blog for some negative posts I had last week toward another ministry. Your post made me evaluate why I blog. Keep inspiring!
Finally, a voice of reality, reason & truth! May we all share in each other regardless of those who choose to hate. May we NEVER choose to become unsalty or unwilling to light the way that leads to Christ whether in person or in blog.
Good thoughts...
I like them a lot...
give me a few moments and I'll think of a clever way to attack them...
Post a Comment