The Pastor’s Guide to Blogging

Pastors, do you have a blog? If not, have you ever thought about blogging? Maybe you should.

A blog is an excellent way to build a platform that will allow you to share articles, and audio or video content from your sermons with your congregation and people around the world.

When I started ProPreacher.com less than 5 months ago I wanted to write about preaching for me. I am passionate about preaching. I have been on a personal 9 year journey to be the best preacher I can be. So ProPreacher.com was a way to help me process my own thoughts and ideas about the theology, methodology and technology of preaching better.

I thought, “Hey, if a couple of people find it and read along then that’s cool too.” I had no idea that within a few months I would already have thousands of readers from around the world and articles on popular websites!

In February, for example, I had over 19,250 page views. I wasn’t even doing much to promote it. I wrote stuff, and people found it searching on Google and Twitter.

The best part is that blogging isn’t rocket science. It’s actually much easier than you may think.

3 Benefits of a Pastor Blogging

1) Availability. Your blog will make your teaching accessible to church members at any time. If they want help with their marriage or a specific temptation they don’t have to wait until they can get ahold of you. They can access your thoughts on your blog night or day. Blog posts work while you sleep!

2) Longer Sermon Life. Along with the purpose of this series of posts, a blog allows you to post transcripts from your messages, video clips of your sermons from YouTube, church-wide announcements, or articles that expand on ideas you didn’t have time to get to in your message. The sky is the limit here.

3) Outreach. People in your community and around the world will be able to stumble upon your blog searching on Google or from a friend sharing a link on Facebook or Twitter. The impact of your church will multiply.

How to Get Started Blogging

If you don’t have a blog set up yet, here are the basics of getting started.

Choose a blogging platform

The absolute best choice is Word Press. There are other options available such as Blogger and Type Pad. However, in my opinion, none of them come close to the power and functionality of a Word Press blog. Word Press is the professional standard for blogging. It’s what I use to power ProPreacher.com.

Decide on self-hosted or free?

There is a big difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

WordPress.com will host a blog for you absolutely free. However, there are many limitations in what you can do with the site and how much you can customize it. You cannot use any of the amazing plug-ins that are available on a self-hosted blog. If you are just getting started and don’t care much about customization then this is a good place to experiment. You can always upgrade later.

If you are serious about blogging, however, a self-hosted blog on WordPress.org is the absolute best way to go. The Word Press platform is still free, you will just have to pay a little for hosting. If you already have a web hosting company for your church’s website you could use that.

But I recommend using Blue Host. I personally use this service for ProPreacher.com. Their hosting is inexpensive only $4.95 a month. It is reliable and it is easily allows you to install a Word Press blog with one click.

Blue Host has great tutorials and customer service in case you need help. They have been incredibly helpful to me as I’m learning as I go.

One of my favorite things about Blue Host is that their service is clean. Unlike other web hosts, Blue Host doesn’t allow trashy websites. Morally, I don’t want my blog on the same server as a porn site.

If you need a domain name for your new blog (ie. PastorJoe.com), BlueHost also gives you a FREE domain. You can find and register new domain names directly within their site.

Pick a theme

Once you have your blog set up, you will need to choose a theme. There are a number of free themes available. If you use wordpress.com, there are also a few premium themes to also consider.

If you are using wordpress.org, you can choose a free theme. However, I have found that my site traffic increased simply by switching to a better premium theme. I currently use Standard Theme. I have tried a few different themes but Standard Theme has always been the best. Standard Theme is simple, powerful, inexpensive, and it looks great.

Write great, consistent content

Now that your site is up and running, here comes the most important part – writing and producing great content.

This is where the work you have already put into your sermon pays off!

Post sermon videos. Post transcripts from your message. Take an illustration or a point you made in a sermon and expand on it a little.

Announce it to your congregation. Link to it on your church website. Share it on social media. Let your people know how you plan to use your new blog to benefit them.

Now that you are officially a blogger, the key is to be consistent. If you stop writing, people will stop showing up and Google will forget about you.

Set a schedule that works for you. Will you post 1, 3, or 5 times a week? Set it and stick to it.

The most important thing you can do to grow your blog is be consistent with great content over a long period of time. Most bloggers quit within 3 months. The ones who persist are the ones who succeed.

Guest posting

Do you not want to deal with the hassle of running your own blog? That’s ok. There are hundreds of great blogs out there that accept guest posts. Repurpose your sermon content and turn it into a guest post for a popular blog.

Guest posting is also a great way to get exposure and build traffic on your blog.

Bloggers are always on the lookout for new content. If you write a quality article, it is a lot easier to get a post accepted than you might think. Search their site for guest post guidelines. Do exactly what they ask.

Submit your article. Wait a while. If you don’t hear anything back, send a courtesy follow-up email. If you are rejected or don’t hear anything back, kindly take your guest post elsewhere. Don’t give up.

Speaking of Guest Blogging, if you want to submit a guest post about preaching for ProPreacher.com contact me.

Need More Help?

If you want to know more about blogging, you absolutely must read the book Platform by Michael Hyatt. This is the book that inspired me to get started. It is by far the best blogging resource I have come across.

Michael shares all of the tips and lessons he learned from building a blog that now gets over 350,000 monthly readers. It is a must read for anyone who is interested in blogging.

QUESTION: What questions do you have about blogging? (ask in the comments below and I will do my best to answer)

Other posts in the Increase Your Sermon’s Lifespan series:

• Increase Your Sermon’s Lifespan 01: Too Young to Die
• Increase Your Sermon’s Lifespan 02: How to Record Your Sermons
• Increase Your Sermon’s Lifespan 03: Writing, Transcribing, and Archiving Your Sermons
• Increase Your Sermon’s Lifespan 04: How to Broadcast Your Sermon
• Increase Your Sermon’s Lifespan 05: The Pastor’s Guide to Blogging
• Increase Your Sermon’s Lifespan 06: 13 Ways to Extend Sermon Life With Social Media
• Increase Your Sermon’s Lifespan 07: How to Send Your Sermon Out on Mission