Hello to those of you I’ve commissioned (for free!) to comment on the possibility of having a discipleship blog at Grace Point. I was challenged at a recent Willow Creek small groups conference to make better use of technology. My thought is that such a blog could several purposes:
- Share information on upcoming discipleship events at Grace Point such as Life Group “drafts”, classes starting, new Life Groups being birthed, etc.
- Share thoughts as they relate to recent sermon series.
- Share resources such as D-Group materials, Life Group leader training material, Bible study resources, tips, etc.
- Provide a forum for Life Group leaders to share ideas, frustrations, successes with each other. Would this work on a pubic blog?
- Provide a forum for Men’s Band of Brothers particpants to share ideas, frustrations, successes with each other. Would this work on a pubic blog?
- Share relavant issues from my personal journey in the race. These might serve to challenge or encourage I suppose.
What are your thoughts on the usefullness of such a blog, as well as the format of this one in particular.
- Is the concept one that is useful at all?
- Should the purpose be more specific?
- Other thoughts?
I’d love your feedback on the concept!
11 comments
Linda says:
November 3, 2008 at 11:12 am (UTC -4 )
I’ve subscribed to the feed as well. I’m typically not inclined to spend the time commenting on blogs, but have seen some good reference materials that I can use!
Deb says:
October 31, 2008 at 10:04 pm (UTC -4 )
I’ve subscribed to the feed. I’m not a big fan of blogs used as a 1-1 communication tool. However, I very much like having a centralized location to store information, reference materials, and good ideas. I’ve already found some materials I could use and have printed them out.
Renee says:
October 31, 2008 at 8:37 am (UTC -4 )
I like the idea and think it will be fun to give it a try. I think it could be very useful if used as it’s intended.
John says:
October 30, 2008 at 7:18 pm (UTC -4 )
I have signed up for the email feed. That is the only way I would know if there was something to read. I would never think about coming here to see if there was anything new.
Tom Houser says:
October 29, 2008 at 9:52 pm (UTC -4 )
So…useful, not useful, or not sure until we try? Can I convince you to subscribe to the “feed”?
Rich Ball says:
October 29, 2008 at 9:49 pm (UTC -4 )
I’m a talker. Not a writer. So while I may read a number of blogs, I rarely, if ever, comment. For me, blogs are usually just a one way flow of the poster to me.
Tom Houser says:
October 29, 2008 at 9:32 pm (UTC -4 )
I’m new to it as well, and share some of your concerns with respect to the potential pitfalls. One thing that MIGHT help is that I have the blog set-up to require comments to be “approved” before they get posted, so at least I would have the option to contact the person if the post seemed problematic.
As for having to come to the blog to see what is new, you actually can register your email address so that all new posts (not sure about comments) would automatically get sent to your email account. The link to register is on the upper-right-hand corner of the site.
Thanks for your thoughts! We’ll see if this experiment works or not…
Larry says:
October 29, 2008 at 9:26 pm (UTC -4 )
I’m new to the blog thing. My brief experiences in the past have been mixed to partially negative. One concern I’ve noted is that people will type things that they would never say to someone’s face. An added concern is printed words can’t express the non-verbals that accompany them, so it’s tough to get a clear message across at times. So, for informational purposes, blogging may be helpful…but even then, people have to choose to go to the blogsite to get the info. For expressing frustrations, I’m a bit wary of its positive usefulness.
Tom Houser says:
October 29, 2008 at 10:32 am (UTC -4 )
Do you think the men need a different forum or would this generic one work?
Thom says:
October 28, 2008 at 9:00 pm (UTC -4 )
I like the idea also. It will give those guys who teach or can’t be a the men’s d-group an outlet for discipleship. Also it will provide a valuable tool for life group leaders to share information, ideas and possible subjects for teachings.
Ryan says:
October 28, 2008 at 4:59 pm (UTC -4 )
Love this. I think this will be an added element to the development of disciples. Since I don’t share an office space with you I can now see inside that brain of your’s here.