communicating by blog

Here, live blogging from GodBlogCon. They’ve got the campus WiFi working today in the chapel, and I’m catching the 2nd half of the morning plenary. Sorry to have missed the morning devotional with Mark Roberts, but I was having a breakfast meetup with Eugene Kim, youth pastor who helped launch RYCE retreats. (the way I do conferences these days is to meetup with people here, at the conference and those people who are nearby, and then buy or listen to the sessions, or preserved performance, to borrow JMR‘s term)

So at this morning plenary, they’ve got David “Jollyblogger” Wayne, Joe “Evangelical Outpost” Carter, and Andy “SmartChristian” Jackson, fielding questions about blogosphere and community and Christian allegiance. I’m glad to hear their perspectives, b/c these are people who are very conversant about what’s happening in the blogosphere, and go beyond using it as a bully pulpit to preach their “message”, whatever that is, but they’re away of what’s happening in the lives of bloggers, Jordon Cooper and Wendy Cooper getting a mention, recognizing that growing numbers of people who are not finding Biblical community and relationships in their local church, but finding some form of it online via the blogosphere. Yeah, everyone wants to disclaim that you can replace real-life face-to-face community with the blogosphere. But, the blogosphere certainly does have its own form of community and legitimate in its own right and brings about a new value for spiritual formation.

Some thoughts I’ve had about what I love about blogging, and how I find myself enjoying reading (some) blog posts much more than reading traditional media writeups in news articles or magazine articles. Blogs make for better reader engagement; bloggers write more emotionally, and facilitates the author(s) getting closer to the reader, and in many ways more meaningful, especially if the author is vulnerable and transparent with his/her opinions and feelings; blogs show more passion, a personal voice, and often are more timely than a weekly or monthly magazine, a daily news broadcast, or an hourly radio update – blogs can be updated on the minute and spontaneously; blogs are also a great context for developing good writing skills.

And John Mark Reynolds at last night’s plenary made a case (and I happen to agree) that the form of blogging is very conducive for dialogue. Best live-blogging among the GodBlogCon bloggers I’ve found so far: Miss O’Leary at Running with Pastor Mark. [update: some have gone far beyond the call of duty of live blogging, and are providing transcripts!! -> Brant "Sarcasmagorical" DeBow, Jason "Sharper Iron" Janz -- crazy! ]

Was wandering around at Wal-Mart last night, looking for an SD card reader for my laptop’s USB port, b/c it was after 9pm when we finally finished last night, so Circuit City and Best Buy were already closed. Hope to get some photos up from GodBlogCon before the weekend is out; maybe some others will use flickr to post their pictures too – use the tag “godblogcon”, ok?