Defensive Blogging: Protecting Your Ministry in the Blogosphere - Ministry & Business Marketing, Media and Strategy Blog

By now, your web guy has sent you a thousand emails praising blogging as a means of getting the word out on your ministry or business. Sure enough blogs are a great way to keep friends posted on your efforts, bring on new folks, and reach more people for Christ than you can through your website alone. But have you ever considered blogging in light of what's being said about you outside the cozy confines of your church, business, etc.?

Introducing defensive blogging.

Case in point, today I searched Google for blogs from a ministry almost all of you have heard of, which will remain unnamed to protect the techno-challenged. The result of my search: no weblogs from the ministry in question and a slew of well-ranked posts from a blog actually bashing the very ministry I was searching for. Your takeaway: somebody's going to be talking about you; make sure that you're at least a part of the conversation.

For those ministries intent on shrewd, biblical outreach, blogs, as with websites before them, are no longer optional. In fact, if you have already or plan to soon achieve any sort of profile, things will be said about you online. And the blogosphere, thanks to Google rankings and more, has a way of spreading the word about you--for better or for worse.

The good news is that offering your own online voice will at least give you a seat at the table and will go a long way toward diffusing unjust criticism and attack. (Notice I said unjust; the rest of you see James 4:7.)

So what's it going to be? Will you use defensive blogging to protect and further the work God's called you to? Or will you skip the blogosphere and allow Satan and even some well-meaning but misguided brothers and sisters in Christ to use their online voices to tear down God's work through you and yours?

Defensive blogging. It's not just for Steve Jobs anymore...