Blogging and Social Media

I’ve written a short piece for The Institute of Evangelism in Toronto on how and why you should consider starting a blog. Here’s an excerpt:

One of the best ways to maintain an online presence is through a blog. Mohler says that we used to think that bloggers were all “twentysomethings in their pyjamas writing online rants.” But blogs are now “one of the most significant platforms for our cultural conversation.” It’s one of history’s “most cost-efficient way of communicating big ideas and solid content. If you are not writing a blog, you should be.”

I agree. Here are four reasons why you should blog…

Read the rest here.

Speaking of web stuff, I was interested to read about how astronaut Chris Hadfield made it onto Twitter:

He initially balked when his sons began preaching the merits of Twitter and Facebook more than three years ago…

During a family Christmas get-together in 2009 his son Evan, who now lives in Germany, and Kyle, who’s in China, pointed out that they relied on the Internet to find out what’s going on.

They got on his case again when his five-month mission was announced in early September 2010. It was then that they decided to set up his two social-media sites…

Upon his return to Earth this week, Hadfield was hovering around one million Twitter followers and more than 325,000 “Likes” on Facebook.

I’m sure glad his sons got on his case. I’m glad the same thing happened to Tim Keller (except, of course, the part about going into space or singing a David Bowie song). What I should say is that I’m glad his son pushed him onto Twitter.

I agree with Al Mohler.  If you’re not active online, you’re limited in your ministry to those who aren’t online. “That population is shrinking every moment. The clock is ticking.”