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02/07/2004 Entry: ""

Wesley Would (We)Blog*

Everyone knows that John Wesley was a prolific writer. Sermons, Bible notes, books, pamphlets and, of course, the Journal which chronicles his life and thought. When I began my training as a Local Preacher I was encouraged by my tutor to follow Wesley’s example and keep a journal myself. Writing daily, I was told, would be helpful in honing my skills as a communicator as well as providing a record of my development.

If Wesley had been living in our internet age, I am sure that he would be making as much use of today’s technologies as he did of the Eighteenth Century equivalents. So it is entirely possible that his Journal would have been written as a ‘blog’ and not a book.

A blog is a journal that is available on the web, so that unlike a paper diary it can be read by anyone with access to the internet. The activity of adding to a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Entries on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently. Most blogs have some system to enable readers to comment on what has been written, making blogging a genuinely social activity.

Blogging is a very recent development on the internet, and yet there are already estimated to be some 4-5 million blogs. They cover many different subjects and are written in every conceivable style. Many Christians have taken to writing blogs as a way of sharing and discussing their faith, commenting on current affairs at home and abroad. Inevitably, the vast majority of these are based the USA, but there are a growing band of bloggers in Britain and the rest of the world. Blogs have enabled conversations to cross boundaries of nation, theology and culture, contributing to mutual understanding that it is hard to imagine happening any other way.

Anyone looking for a Christian blog to read could do worse than visiting blogs4God (http://blogs4god.com) which lists some 900 so-called "God blogs" and regularly reviews them in order to flag up interesting new content. There you’ll find representatives of all the major Christian traditions from many different parts of the world. Worth mentioning especially are Australian Darren Rowse (http://www.livingroom.org.au/blog/), Canadian Bene Diction (http://benedictionblogson.com) and the American "Real Life Preacher" (http://blogs.salon.com/0001772/) but there are many others and you’ll soon find your own favourites if you start looking.
British Methodists seem sadly under-represented. I only know of my own blog (http://theconnexion.net/blog/) and that of Greg Wiley (http://wileysworld.org/journal/) but there are bound to be others. If there are any other Methodists out there, I’d love to compile a list on my site so that we can encourage one another.

The readership of individual blogs tends to be small, but not insignificant. My own blog (http://theconnexion.net/blog/) typically receives 2-300 readers a day but for a long time it was much smaller than this. In any case, there is more to a successful blog than the size of its audience. If conversations and ideas are being shared, friendships made and assumptions challenged, I think we can call that success whether there are a dozen or a legion of people involved. That is exactly what blogs and blogging can do.

And much of what I write for my blog I’m able to "re-cycle" in a variety of ways, so it turns out that my old tutor was right after all.

*They changed my headline, but I still like mine better

Posted by Bene Diction @ 02/07/2004 07:42 PM GMT

What is this from, Richard?

Posted by Theologian Guy @ 02/08/2004 01:08 AM GMT

Try to keep up, TG!
This is the introduction to blogs and blogging that I wrote for the Methodist Recorder, the newspaper of British Methodism.

Posted by Richard @ 02/08/2004 07:05 AM GMT

Hi Richard, great article, thanks for mentioning my site in the article (came as a bit of a shock this morning!) I guess I'll have to write something interesting now!

Posted by Greg @ 02/09/2004 12:02 PM GMT

It was good to read your article in the Methodist Recorder, especially following the front page article on Andy Frost's unconventional evangelism to attract more young people! Blogging is a great means of spreading the Word - not to mention making new friends. The Methodist Recorder is actually coming into the 21st Century too!

Posted by Olive Morgan @ 02/09/2004 04:39 PM GMT

Now let's not be hasty, Olive!

Posted by Richard @ 02/09/2004 07:52 PM GMT