10 Tips For Daily Blogging

Mike Leake 2 Comments

I try to write something every day.  Some days this is impossible.  I have times where writing comes easy.  And sometimes writing is difficult.  Yesterday, I noted that you need to post something everyday but you also need to be able to do that without being a fool.  Here are 10 suggestions to help you post something every day even when you cannot necessarily write something every day. 

  1. Take advantage of good writing days.  When you have a day where your typewriter cannot seem to keep up with your massive brain and awesome writing powers don’t stop the flow.  Keep writing and save those posts for a later date.  Currently I have something in my queue for the next week. 
  2. Read and quote.  Read good books, find a few lengthy quotes, introduce the quote, publish.  Rinse and repeat. 
  3. Write a book review.  I tend to post my book reviews on Friday because those are lower traffic days for my writing genre.  But book reviews are those articles that always get traffic.  Once you finish book write a quick review.
  4. Link.  Aaron Armstrong and Trevin Wax are geniuses when it comes to using Twitter to get traffic to their blog.  They will post one article with 4-5 links and then throughout the day direct people back to their blog to check out those other articles.  I’m working on copying their wisdom here. 
  5. Have a schedule.  I try to write some sort of “Ministry Musing” on Monday.  Something interacting with John Newton on Tuesday.  A lengthy series like Proverbs for Christian Blogging on Thursday’s and Saturday’s.  People You Should Know on Wednesday’s, Book Reviews on Fridays.  Archives on Sunday.  And then I fill in the gaps with other things.  But these are anchors that I can work on whenever I have writer’s block and have several things queued up. 
  6. Break up posts.  Nobody likes to read lengthy articles anyways.  If you have an article that is longer than 800-1400 words why not break it up, try to lengthen it a little, and make a series out of it?   But don’t post them all the same day.  Keep your readers waiting a little.  I could have easily made this a 10 day series. (Part of me wants to give you the other 4 tomorrow but that would be just mean).
  7. Keep a journal of writing ideas.  I have a little blue book filled with quick reference ideas.  That way whenever I get stuck and I do not have much in the queue I can consult this and try to write through an idea I had in the past.
  8. Try to Write Everyday.  Sometimes you simply need to sit down at the computer and just start typing away.  If it stinks keep the draft, you may be able to make it salvageable some day.  Your queue will dry up quickly.  So write every day that you are able.  And even on most days when you are not able. 
  9. Archive.  If you have been blogging for awhile you pull things out of the archive.  You may want to update them a little to make them more relevant or to reflect your growing writing skills but you hopefully have a decent amount of quality stuff that your newer readers will have never read. 
  10. When in Doubt Make a List.  People like lists.  They are easy to read quickly and somewhat easy to write.  Get an idea and try to make a list.  If you are really strapped you could turn a list like this into 10 days worth of writing.  

Proverbs for Christian Blogging: How to Have Something to Say Without Being a Fool

Mike Leake

In my years of blogging I have read a fair amount of articles on how to create a successful blog that receives a steady flow of traffic.  One piece of advice that is always present on these “How to Be an Awesome Blogger” lists is that you need to write frequently.  If you want to become a better writer and a successful blogger you need to at least post something daily. 

Yet there is another piece of advice that in some form or another is always present on these lists; namely, you need to have something to say.  Any schmuck could post something on a blog daily.  Just as an schmuck can post to Twitter of Facebook 12 times in 15 minutes.  Unfortunately for schmucks nobody really wants to know updates on various bowel movements, your opinion on foreign cheeses, or your minute by minute opinion of the happenings on C-Span.  If you want an audience you need to give them something worthy of reading. 

There really is more at stake here than just being able to gain traffic.  Not only did Jesus say we would be judged by every idle word spoken, but we also have a helpful Proverb that encourages the restraint of the lips (and probably tips of your fingers tapping away at your mobile device). 

    When words are many, transgression is not lacking,
        but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.
    The tongue of the righteous is choice silver;
        the heart of the wicked is of little worth.
    The lips of the righteous feed many,
        but fools die for lack of sense.
(Proverbs 10:19-21 ESV)

The Faithful Blogger’s Conundrum

You have to write every day.  But you cannot just write anything.  It needs to be seasoned with grace.  It needs to be edifying.  If we want to avoid talking as fools then we will avoid being ranked among those that “talk for ever upon nothing” (Bridges, 102). 

Some 150 years before Al Gore invented the internet, Charles Bridges speaks well to the blogger’s task:

…it is surely our wisdom to refrain our lips…not indeed to silence, but in caution; to weigh our words before uttering them; never speaking, except when we have something to say; speaking only just enough; considering the time, circumstances, and person; what is solid suitable, and profitable.

In other words we probably should only write when we have something to say.  And when we do write we should say “only just enough” and not labor on and on.  Yet, there is still that pressing dictum POST SOMETHING EVERYDAY.  What is a faithful blogger to do?

The Blogger’s Resource

There are two things that will help you to have something to say without being a fool.  First, be a Christian.  That means that you have the “indwelling Word” and because of this “the mouth of the righteous man is a fountain of life” (Proverbs 10:11).  The Spirit of God works in the life of the believer to make his tongue “choice silver” and to help “feed many”.  If you are a believer in Jesus you have something to say, every day, because His mercies are new every morning. 

Second, keep a notebook.  Proverbs 10:5 says, “He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame”.  Also 10:14 says, “The wise lay up knowledge”.  Not every day will feel like summer.  Yes, you have the Spirit of God and yes, his mercies are new every morning.  But some days are wintery and blisteringly cold.  It’s hard to see and feel the sunshine on those days.  You need a notebook filled with July’s insights when life hands you December.  Work your tail off in July so that your December isn’t barren.

I want to give a few practical tips on that next time…

Is Your Church Old Testament?

Mike Leake

Watch this video:

It occurs to me that the difference between an “attractional” church and a “missional” church is the same as the difference between an Old Testament view of mission and a New Testament view of mission.  This is not to say that one is wrong and the other is correct.  It is simply to say that one is past and the other is present. 

Before Christ the place to find the presence of God was found almost exclusively in the temple.  If you desired an experience with God then you had to “come and see”.  The primary mission of Israel was to draw people to Zion.  Micah 4:2 is a great description of the attractional hope of Israel:

and many nations shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”

In the New Testament, however, the presence of God is no longer mostly confined to a temple.  The Spirit of God indwells believers.  The church–the community of blood-bought redeemed sinners–is now the dwelling place of God.  Therefore, the missional imperative has changed.  It is no longer “come and see” as much as it is “go and tell”.  People do not need a building to experience the presence of God, they need Spirit-indwelt believers proclaiming the Spirit-empowered message of the Kingdom. 

Questions change

This is not to say that those who have a more attractional model do not care about souls.  Most churches would be nervously and excitedly welcoming to “them” coming to church.  In fact that is what most churches are aiming for:   they want to reach “them”, whoever “them” is. 

And so the questions that you ask with an Old Testament mindset are centered around what we can do to attract them.  When the church begins to decline or not grow as desired you begin asking questions of your programs, building, preachers, etc. under the framework of whether or not they are attracting and keeping members and reaching them.  Success is measured by whether or not people are coming to church because that is the means that we use for them to see God at work and hopefully come to a knowledge of Christ.

These questions change in the New Testament.  As your read through Acts and consider Paul’s missionary journeys you will be hard pressed to find examples of the early disciples trying to figure out how to get people to come to them.  They were mostly concerned with how to get the message to them.  And this is the fundamental difference between an OT “church” and a NT church:

OT: How do we get them to come to us?
NT: How do we get us to go to them?
                        or
       How do we go to them?

Changing that question will change the way that your church thinks about missions and reaching people that do not know Christ.  And it also identifies whether or not you fundamentally think like an OT “church” or a NT church. 

Sometimes We Over-think Sin Problems

Mike Leake

I’m going through some articles that I have written in the past and trying to bring a few of them out of the vault.  This one was posted back in 2009. 

—-

Sometimes counseling teenagers can cause head-scratching and heartache. The same is true of counseling my own heart.  I have counseled numerous teenagers that were crying in my office because they could not conquer a particular sin. My wife and I have counseled girls that are struggling with “boy issues” (e.g., their immaturity, their jerkiness, and their selfishness). And I have counseled young men that are struggling with “boy issues” (lust, pornography, anger). One thing always astonishes me…and this astonishes me about my own heart as well; we wallow in sin and plead with God to stir our affections at the same time.

It seems to me that the wisest thing to do would be to flee from the sin. Usually when pressed young men can figure out the source of their lust. Unless your conscience is ridiculously seared (and that is possible) you know when you are “crossing the line”. That is why if you are in union with Christ such sin is ridiculous. Please do not misunderstand me; I have a tremendous amount of compassion and empathy with young men that struggle with these issues (as well as young women that “like” guys that they shouldn’t). However, there comes a time when we need to confront the ignorance behind such sin.

“I’m not sure why my girlfriend and I messed up. I mean I know we were both in our swimming suits. And I know that she probably should not have been sitting on my lap. And I guess it was silly for us to try to help out each other not get a sunburn. And yes I know the likelihood of getting a sunburn “there” is improbable. But I really prayed before we went swimming because I knew it might be tough. Do I need to read my Bible more, you think? Should I have prayed harder? I really tried not to fall into this sin, why did God not help me out more. Why did he not deliver me from evil?”

Well, you see he did. Jesus delivered you from evil when he disarmed the power of Satan on the Cross. He robbed sin of its power when he brought you out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred you into the kingdom of Jesus. The principle of death has died in your heart so you no longer have to be a slave to these passions; He has supplanted that principle of death by making you alive with Christ. He has conquered sin. The problem is you are going back to it. The problem is you run away from his kingdom and sit in the filth of the old one. And you wonder why you fall?

The prodigal son did not cry out from his pig slop “Father come save me”. He remembered the steadfast love of the Father, got out of the pig slop and ran back to where he belonged. So, here is the solution: stop letting your girlfriend sit on your lap, stop rubbing her down with sun tan lotion, and stop swimming half-naked. Sin is serious and it is deceptive. But it has been defeated. Live like it.

The problem is that we sometimes secretly want the fleeting pleasures of sin. This is why we need to pray that the Lord might “stir our affections” and root out of our hearts sin and unbelief. But that prayer does not mean that you stay in the pig slop. If you are a believer the death of Christ has conquered the heart that longs for pig slop; just get out of it. And if you ever find yourself wandering back remember the love of the Father, repent, and get out of the pig slop and go read 1 John 1:9.