Dec 18 2007
My Thoughts on Christian Blogs
It seems as though blogs are a dime a dozen these days. Look, I even have one. There are blogs on every topic imaginable. Some blogs have clever names, some are tributes to their families, and some are meant to be provoke debate. What has caught my attention as of late is the quantity of Christian blogs. Although from time to time I do discuss spiritual matters on my blog, it is definitely not the primary focus. As a matter of fact, my blog has no single primary focus. Just when you think it’s a Mike Huckabee blog, there is a post about the weather or Microsoft Zune. I have been intentional in both not making it a single focus blog and not making it primarily a spiritual blog. I will post something related to faith if it particularly strikes me as “blogworthy”, but those times are few.
Why have I chosen this route? I think that Christian blogs are an emerging form of parachurch ministry. Even if the blog is the by the leader of a related church or an organization that we respect, when the time we spend studying the blog surpasses the time we spend reviewing last Sunday’s message given at our local church, the function (even though the intention may be otherwise) of the blog becomes parachurch. It is functioning as supplemental to your local church. It is easy to get caught up in blogs that seem to have the right message, have great graphics, and even nice sounding buzz words. However, do I have more affection for those blogs than I do my own local church? Do I allow my children to spend time on certain blogs primarily because they are “safe” or seem to have decent doctrine?
I recently heard a prominent Christian leader may soon start his own blog. I thought, “No! Stop! Don’t do it!” What this leader may or may not expect is that like moths to a flame, Christians will pour onto his blog, and it won’t be in addition to the time they are investing in benefitting from the teaching of the their own local churches, it will be in lieu of that time.
In particular, I am concerned with Christian blogs that are single focus blogs. Think of all of the single focus blogs you visit regularly. Now think of all of the groups of people, situations, spiritual disciplines, or other biblical things that blog does not address. How does that affect your perspective? The Bible tells us that, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt 6:21). So, if my blog time is spent solely focusing on singles or women’s issues, my heart will incline towards those things. Those are not bad things to read about or areas to pursue growth. However, those blogs rarely represent balance. Sometimes I wonder if people spend so much time on a single subject because there is an ounce of doubt that Scripture has addressed an issue sufficiently. I think that blogs are even more dangerous in this area because once you read a book you are done. When you read a blog, it keeps coming and coming. The side effect of a lack of balance can be an interruption of church unity.
Christian blogs are not bad. We shouldn’t stop reading them. We should evaluate how we view them, though.
I forget who said it but someone had a good caution about the time spent on blogs - that if one didn’t take time to pray or read his bible, but spent an hour reading Christian blogs, he might feel that he has “done his time” and go on with life feeling like a “good Christian”, without any relationship with anyone (see your recent post on relevant comments), let alone a relationship with God.