By Stephen Trout

Your website blog can be a portal for traveling to some wonderful places in God’s world (including your own church, of course!), and a great way to help deepen discipleship in the body of Christ. 

But perhaps you’ve resisted starting a blog – either out of fear that it will sap your time, or that you simply won’t have the content to keep it going. This blog is for you!

Here are 5 ideas to encourage, and help make your blog section shine: 

1. Provide links to helpful resources –

You don’t always need a long article to do this. You can simply point out valuable content and link to it – such as these free online classes from Covenant. They offer seminary-level instruction for members of your congregation – and the price is right!

2. Engage your writers! 

A regular blog feature from someone on the pastoral staff or a talented writer in your congregation can foster imagination and creativity in the body. In so doing, you’ll also be encouraging writers to use their gifts! (A word of caution – avoid political platforms and hobby-horses – keep it about grace!) 

Blog topics can include:

• helpful links to Scripture study tools (many are now free and online, like BibleGateway.com)
• essays on gospel-centered social justice or relevant cultural issues
• stories of grace
• devotional material targeting various groups (men, women, youth)
• marriage & singleness topics
• highlighting new members, missionaries, or upcoming events
• longer form Q&A for skeptics & inquirers
• Etc.

3. Provide supplemental resources for your current sermon series. 

Include an outline, Scripture portions, links to additional reading (books, commentaries, online articles), and even a link back to the sermon itself. 

4. Provide reminders for prayer and service.

Always helpful.

5. Add a video blog section! 

Video is one of the most engaging ways to connect with others – often chosen by online content consumers over long-text articles. Not that we ever wish to disparage reading (God forbid!), but a short video can be a great way to introduce, for example, new ministry efforts. 

You might interview someone in the congregation who heads up a particular outreach effort, or a para-church ministry leader that your church supports. Video shorts are a great way to spur interest and deepen connections. Any aspiring filmmakers in the congregation?

These are just a few ideas to prime the pump and help get you started. Once you get going, you’ll be amazed at how the ideas can flow.

Don’t have a blog section on your site? TruePath offers a user-friendly website builder to make things easy for you. Talk to us about how we can help!

As always, we encourage you to pray about your efforts, that God would guide, give wisdom, and raise up members of the body to use their talents and gifts!

Truepath’s vision is to empower Christian organizations and businesses to take full advantage of their online presence by providing affordable and best-in-class applications and dedicated, live customer support. You can reach us at: (760) 480-8791.