The future and purpose of Christian blogging

Now that the honeymoon is over, some who attended the GodBlogCon’05 are examining blogging in a more critical light, which is naturally a good thing. The main theme of the conference (which originated with the Godfather I mean Godblogger Hugh Hewitt himself) was that Christian blogging represents a new reformation in the church insofar as it is a means of getting information/reform/the gospel out in a quicker, more comprehensive way than ever before. This phenomenon was examined during panel discussion at the conference, as was the nature and proper use of that relatively new means of communication called blogging.

The Jollyblogger David Wayne writes, in Some cures for a GodBlogCon hangover,

blogging is just one piece of a much larger pie involving new technologies.

blogging is one ingredient in this interactive and personalized pie of the new media and we should expect it to lose some of the pre-eminence it now holds.

At the same time I don't think this necessarily means that blogging will go away. People didn't quit reading newspapers when the radio and tv were invented.
And just as there is still a place for newspapers and books in the age of the television, I think there will still be a place for blogs. It won't be the same place of pre-eminence it enjoys now, but it will still have a place and an important one at that.

Pastor Jolly, I mean Wayne, links to Pastor Mark (the one with the hangover). View from the Pew tracks back to Pastor Wayne and Warren Kelly says,

We need to make sure that we don't use blogging simply as a way to validate ourselves and our opinions -- we need to interact and engage.
I've read a lot of blogs that have tried to change peoples' minds about a lot of things, and none have been very effective. I've read evangelistic blogs, and I've heard nothing good from any nonChristian who went to one. They aren't effective in and of themselves, and that is what I see happening quite often. If blogs are properly used to build relationships, then I can see them being an evangelistic tool. But that seems to be a very big if.

Josh Claybourn tracks back as well, since David Wayne mentioned his post, Technology and the March of Mankind (Can you feel the link-love?). Josh makes the point that advancements in information technology are a double-edged sword.

The printing press may have improved the spread of knowledge more than any prior invention in history, and I think we'll soon find that the internet has come closest to offering a similar advance.

Of course just as the printing press brought the common man a Bible, Plato, and Ayn Rand, it would also soon bring Playboy and Hustler.

Yet, reflecting what both Joe Carter and Pastor Wayne say about controlling the uses and effects of these technologies, commenter David states that

Personal responsibilty can never be hacked.

I say “amen” to that. And I agree that the main potential for advancing the gospel, or the Truth, lies in the relational aspect of blogging way ahead of the informational, or the technological.