Blogging for Jesus

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 18-20

When God presents us with the great commission, he is sending us into the mission field. He is challenging us to grow as a community by going out into the world to bring others to His side. I don’t know about you, but when I think about going out into the mission field, I think about building huts and digging wells in third world countries.

But the truth is that when we think about bringing God to those who don’t know Him, we can think a little closer to home. We can think about the families living in suburban America, who can drink Starbucks, drive SUV’s, and watch American Idol. We can think about those families who don’t have a church to call home on Sunday mornings. Only 18.7% of Americans regularly attend church and that percentage decreased significantly from 1990 to 2000*. If the present trend continues, the percentage of the population that attends church in 2050 will be almost half of what it is today. Among the top three reasons why people say they do not go to a place of worship is that they feel Christianity is boring and irrelevant. If we are going to bring more people to Christ, we need to acknowledge this feeling and consider changing our traditional ways of thinking. We need to tune into our culture and meet people where they are.

So where are these people? Where they are is where we are. In 2005, Newsweek reported that 75 percent of Americans use the Internet and spend an average of three hours a day online. 27 percent of the adult Internet users are blog readers. If we are going to go and tell the good news and we are going to be relevant and engaging, we need to utilize the tools that God has given us in the 21st century. Each of us has one of those tools at our finger tips…our blogs.

By reading Faith Lifts you are already using the blogging community to know God more intimately by delving deeper into His Word. Perhaps you also communicate with other believing bloggers and are growing in spiritual friendships online. As members of the blogging community, you have shown yourselves to be real, authentic, accepting and honest. It is this open, gentle and respectful spirit that draws others back to read your blogs more than once. As you share your lives through your words, you are sharing the beautiful moments with which God has blessed you. Your posts are testimonies of faith. If you share your faith in Christ, you are explaining to your blog readers the reason for the hope in your lives. You are providing examples of God’s love that meet nonbelievers where they are in an environment in which they are comfortable. If they return to your blogs and become regular readers they will learn by being witnesses to the power that God has in your lives. They will see the joy that is God’s love and through His grace, you, in your twenty-first century way, will be a teacher, teaching the Good News as Jesus commanded you.

Over time the way that people have witnessed has changed but the timeless truth always remains the same and that truth is the most important blog post there could be. As you blog this week, think about the people who will be coming to your bloggity home to visit. Company is coming, have you baked a cake? What can you do to make your blog home more inviting? How can you turn your blog from good to great for His glory? In short, have you thought about how you could use your blog to share the Good News of Jesus?

*Statistics are from Dave Olson, director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church. To read more surprising facts about the Christian church in the United States, you can view his findings in an eye-opening slide-show entitled Twelve Surprising Facts about the US Church.