Rick Richardson Reimagining Evangelism: Inviting Friends on a Spiritual Journey
The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel
Bill M. Sullivan New Perspectives on Breaking the 200 Barrier
« Link Love Friday | Home | PayPal Donations Ready »
Why Blogging is a New Spiritual Discipline
By admin | January 26, 2007
In a comment of a post which alluded to my thought that blogging has become a new spiritual discipline for me, Dusty expressed some doubt about the “spiritual” side if not the “discipline” side. But I do see that blogging has become a valid spiritual discipline in my life. So here goes…
Let me tell the short story. I began on blogger with the idea of keeping in touch with friends, interacting with students, etc. I didn’t have any real focus in my posts and in general they probably erred on the side of a meaningless attempt at erudition (by using words like erudition). I threw in a few frivolous posts here and there but never really hit the mark of what I truly wanted to see happen, although I discovered almost immediately the potential and value of blogging as a social networking tool and thereby the potential it possessed for ministry.
Then I made the move to vox because of my deep commitment to the values of connecting in pluralistic culture and church planting. I think the move coincided with a subtle shift in my blogging style. I began, as someone said, to find my voice in the blogosphere which really amounted to being myself. This was never a deliberate and intentional act but I chose to make my blog less a platform for wannabe theological writing and more of “welcome to my mind.” For me all of life is spiritual, at least I’m trying to deliberately learn that day by day, and so with the blog (as hopefully with me in the real world) “what you see (or in this case ‘read’ ) is what you get.” So if that means I’ve found my voice then viola, here it is - and to think I never realized it was missing all this time.
Aight, that said as I began blogging I found this a good medium to let the ideas in my head come out (which is a scary thing at times I know). For me this has meant processing what God is doing in my life via the blog. So in this regard the blog has served as a sort of journal for what God is doing in and around me. At one level this is a spiritual discipline, for me, in the same way believers through the centuries have viewed journaling as a spiritual discipline. (All the major books on spiritual disciplines will include journaling in there somewhere.)
As I began to discover this about blogging, for me, at some point I made a conscious decision to consistently post. This consistency wasn’t really found during the “blogger months” but that’s okay because I think everyone should begin with the idea of posting 1-3 times a week anyway. So I decided to methodically push out a post or two a day. But this continued to grow more and more intentional as I began planning out posts and whatnot.
And now it has even become the norm for me to have some crazy thought and I immediately log on to write a title and give a couple of thoughts in the post, saving it to return to it later (I want to come to the place where I see every thought that comes into my mind as something God wants to use to shape me). And that is how this post came about…I had a title from an idea that popped into my head. I listed 3 things out from my initial thoughts. Spent some time thinking about it. And now here I am posting.
Another piece of the spiritual discipline of blogging for me is quite personal. I am a verbal processor. I have ideas and thoughts and I have to verbally process those. I am such a verbal processor that I have full blown conversations in my head about ideas and thoughts. I’m sure this isn’t unique to me but I will sit and think and have two or three different “people” conversing over the ideas.
But I also need real people to process with. So I often will have thoughts and ideas and I can’t help but talk to someone about them. Get their input, give my input (which is one of my strengths), and so on. If I have an idea it is a near compulsion to “get it out.” And so the blog, along with paper journals, becomes a way for me to verbally process. And the blog in many ways is a better medium than the paper journal because there is the potential of real people interacting with the ideas, where that isn’t the case with the paper journal. And this is a spiritual exercise for me. This is a huge means that God has used to shape and mold me. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without this in my life. (And at the same time this is a very personal observation and may not be the way it works for you.)
Finally, it is a spiritual discipline for me because to write out thoughts takes a level of intentionality not called for by just thinking about them and having imaginary or real conversations. So writing in the blog and in paper journals is important for me because it causes me to thinking logically about my ideas. To be able to structure them and communicate them in a way that is cogent (whether or not I get there is another story but just think if I didn’t write them down, the end product would be far worse).
So I’m not saying that blogging is a spiritual discipline to everyone. But it is for me. And think of it like this, reading the scripture can be a spiritual discipline but it can also just be reading the scriptures. What I mean is, if I read the scriptures for spiritual nourishment and as an opportunity to connect with the very heart of the creator of the universe then it can be a spiritual discipline. But it can also just be a discipline devoid of spirit. For me at least, blogging truly is a spiritual discipline that helps me connect to God because I am processing what he is doing in and around me. It helps remind me that all of life is spiritual.
Well, what’s your take?
Topics: Ideas |
January 26th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
A well-reasoned argument for blogging as a spiritual discipline. There are many things in this post that I haven’t thought of before, but I think you are right about all the potential “goods” of blogging…extending even to the spiritual.
I guess the one inquiry I would have is how much does the “audience” factor into blog posts. I see a lot of blogs written by Christians that write for mass audiences, so I guess it makes me wonder if they would consider it a spiritual discipline (i.e. do they flesh out ideas or situations that may not have that mass appeal) Perhaps that’s a factor that makes it more so. Maybe the interaction on the blog contributes to the more spiritual side of it.
Then again, I guess we should get philosophical. What makes a blog a good blog? High readership? Good content? Transparent author? IS a blog good for what its post content or for the interaction? or both?
January 26th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
I think we should even get more philosophical, “How do I know the blog even exists and I’m not just a brain in a jar with electrodes producing impulses that make me think there is such a thing as ‘my blog.’” Hmm…makes you think doesn’t it..
I think on the first part of your comment is what I tried to get at with the ending of my post. The blog is a spiritual discipline for me because I view it in this way. Not that I somehow project and construct a reality (to philosophical again) but rather 2 people can read the Bible and one is merely reading the Bible and one is participating in a spiritual discipline.
The question of “good v bad” blogs is another question and issue all together in my mind. I’m not trying to give any positive evaluation of subverting mediocrity, only to say for me part of it’s value is the spiritual discipline in it for me.
So then, this influences my thoughts about “audience.” On the one hand it’s really a question of which came first the chicken or the egg? I write what I write, b/c I am who I am, and so that “attracts” a certain kind of audience. And this, in many ways, is just the audience I intend to attract.
Nice comments. Thanks for the moment of spiritual fulfillment via comment interaction!
January 26th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
I find this blog encouraging because this week I am making my first attempt to become a blogger! I have long thought about it but needed a space where there might be like or at least sympathetic minds-
I have been learning that being a disciple of Christ is often fun but needs to be taken God and hoping He would work a miracle. Now I know I have to play my part and take Spiritual Formation seriously.
It is tin he mornings that I am aware of the ideas forming and am aware that God gets through to me especially at these times but I put off writing things down and often lose the idea or put off action till too late–
I have several journals maintained haphazardly. You encourage me to try to blog regularly while the idea is still there, however ill-thought out, in case someone is waiting to repond, or pray-
I too recognise that I enjoy reading and study of scripture and other wrings. I spend more time reading about others prayers than praying myself! So thank you for this!
January 26th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Jean that is very cool to hear about.
I also have the experience that if I fail to write things down I lose them. This is true for me in every area. Just the other day I had an idea for a vid sketch. I didn’t write it down however and now it’s gone. No clue what it was! ugg.
I’ll definitely be checking in your blog to see what’s happening.
January 27th, 2007 at 12:55 am
more questions than comments:
what isn’t a spiritual discipline?
so now that you’ve written your thoughts down blog-style, how do you assemble and develop them further?
or is the writing (and resultant solidification in the mind or neuron/synapse path) the whole point?
does the blog discipline remain indefinitely or are you already searching for the next “level” of expression/interaction?
are these really questions or merely veiled comments?
January 27th, 2007 at 1:05 am
Exactly Mark. Exactly.