Some people do not like blogging. It has been mocked and derided by many. And even by a good number of those that are influential in the “real world”. I share some of their concerns, believing that there is a dark side to Christian blogging. But I also believe there can be tremendous value in blogging.
That is why I appreciated this analogy by Jim Pemberton*.
Christian blogging is like knocking on the walls of the Church to find the weak spots. It can be an annoying practice to different types of people.
Jim then goes on to list the five types of people that get annoyed with the “knocking on walls” of blogging.
- Those who are trying to get away with nominal faith and still be active in church.
- The ones who put that particular wall there and don’t want to believe that it wasn’t constructed very well.
- Those who love the Lord, but don’t think it matters if the proverbial walls are weak or not.
- Those doing the work of strengthening the Church in other areas who think someone wants them to drop what they are doing and go work on some other part of the Church for a while.
- Those who think the church will be just fine if people would only stop banging on the walls.
If I were to extend this analogy a little I would say that watch blogging is like checking on these walls with sledgehammers. They are like a crazy and unsatisfied man that keeps knocking walls out of his house just hoping that somehow it will finally be perfect.
Faithful bloggers keep their eyes open in the real world and the blog world. At times they simply go about the business of strengthening the church. At other times something catches their eye and they set about tapping on the walls trying to find the weak spot so they can concentrate their energies there.
Sledgehammer blogging is annoying. But let’s not pretend that there is all there is and that there isn’t great value in having humble servants knocking on the walls and doing their best to edify the kingdom.
