I realize that we are getting a proliferation of new blogrolls and aggregators and I think that a day is coming when this will be overdone. But I do want to propose one more type of blogroll/aggregator that I think has a big potential to expand the influence of evangelical blogging. This would be denominational blogrolls and aggregators.
At this point all of our major blogrolls have done a great job of expanding the influence of bloggers within the blogosphere. We've created, and are continuing to create networks amongst God bloggers all over the place and I do think our voice is being heard more and more in the blogosphere.
However, as we all know, most of us are members of churches and denominations where most people don't know that a blog is. I believe I have already mentioned this, but I'll tell of my own experiences of talking to people in my church and denomination about blogging. Most folks are puzzled, and even when you talk about blogging, they don't really get it. I encouraged a group of fellow ministers to get blogs one time and they all looked at me like I was silly.
Now, with all the press that blogging is getting from Hugh's book and articles in Time and World and places like that we have an opportune moment to get the word out about blogging. However, my guess is that, in most of our churches and denominations, that most people think that blogging is something that other people do. It's something those tech-geeks and postmodern kids and people who like fads do. But it's not something that "our people" do.
So, I suggest that several of us start denominational or associational blogrolls. This way when we talk to people in our churches and others in our denominations and associations, we can refer them to a blogroll/aggregator like this. We can say - "see, there are lots of our people blogging and writing some good stuff." I see this as a way to penetrate our churches. Churches in your area may not feel comfortable adding a "Blogdom of God," or "Evangelical Blogroll" to their web page because they may be afraid of what some of those folks are writing. But they may be willing to link to a roll of bloggers from their own denomination.
I realize that blogs are broadening the scope of our interaction across
groups and denominations and don't mean for this idea to be a means of
hunkering back down into our own groups. I see this as a way of
opening the door to the blogosphere for our churches and denominations. Instead of creating new networks in the blogosphere, this will help us penetrate existing networks outside of the blogosphere.
Following the example of Hugh Hewitt, I have gone ahead and purchased the domain "www.pcabglogs.com" that I will use to host a blogroll/aggregator for my own denomination - the Presbyterian Church in America. I strongly encourage others of you to start blogrolls and get domains for your denominations. It woudl be great to have SBCblogs, PCUSAblogs, UMCblogs, CRCblogs, Vineyardblogs, etc.. Someone in the Willow Creek association could start a blogroll called WCAblogs. You get the idea!
So, allow me to get the ball rolling by inviting anyone who is a member of my denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, to send me a comment and tell me of your interest in being a part of a PCA blogroll/aggregator. And just so that I can exercise a modicum of quality control over this thing, please let me know the name and location of the PCA church you belong to and include a statement affirming that you are in accord with the doctrinal standards of the PCA as expressed in the Westminster Standards.
I won't tell anyone else how to set up their own blogroll/aggregator, but I would encourage anyone who does this to do what I just did and ask those who join your group to verify that they are actually a member of your denomination or association and are in agreement with what you believe. None of us has time to do a real screening process, but this way, when a pastor, member or official asks you about the people on your list you can tell them that you have made at least some attempt to verify that these folks are truly on your team.
I'm working on a new server that I think will be able to take ATOM feeds. If all goes well I'm going to switch the LORB Aggregator to that server eventually. In the meantime, if you are a PCA blogger who uses "Blogger", you can send me your ATOM feed and I'll try to make it work.
Update - Dory at Wittenberg Gate just left a good comment. If you don't want to reveal your location to the world, just send me a private e-mail confirming your church membership and all that, and that will be fine.
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