Leave It Behind > Brian Bailey

10 years of the blogging revolution

Interesting post by Dan Farber on the first 10 years of blogging and the wonderful and equally frustrating impact it has had. In April, Dave Winer will celebrate 10 years of blogging, which was the impetus for the article. Dave was the first blogger I ever read and I actually launched Leave It Behind officially on April 1, 2004 because I thought my blog should share a birth date with the site that inspired me.

Blogging is a democratizing force on a large scale; the tools of production for personal expression are in the hands of the masses.

Farber estimates "about 70 million blogs have been created–tens of thousands per day sprout up." More and more, I'm coming across people who are starting blogs or moving their blog in a new direction after reading The Blogging Church. It's an honor to play a small part in new people joining the conversation. Doug Dale wrote:

Reading Brian Bailey’s book The Blogging Church was my inspiration. It helped me with some of the “how” of blogging, but more importantly it helped me with the “why”. If I can keep the “why” in mind, I think my blogging experience can be more of what I had hoped for.

Check out the book, particularly if you are involved in church leadership, and learn how blogging can be one more tool to communicate with people both inside and outside your church.

Stop by Doug's site and say hello. Here are a few other links to recent reviews and comments:

Evan Erwin - "The book covers pretty much every major blogging issue that there is to talk about." Evan also writes about something he felt wasn't emphasized enough in the book and what to do about it (disclaimer: Evan is in the book).

Thomas Duff - "This is an extremely well-written book, with far-reaching implications to your ministry.  For anyone who is serious about using every available means to extend your outreach, this is a must-read book."

Lori Boucher - Includes the three points she found most helpful.

Blogging for Jesus

Just thought I would pass along a link to my favorite blogging pastor of late, Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in North Carolina. I first learned of Steven from Tadd Grandstaff, and then Steven came to C3 this weekend. If I had come across him earlier, I definitely would have included Steven in the book.

Elevation is just a year old and already reaching over 1,200 people each weekend. If you read his blog, you'll get an idea of why. Steven is 100% sold-out to Christ and the vision he's been given for Elevation. He is over-the-top passionate, funny and unwilling to be distracted from the only thing that matters - reaching the lost. I can't imagine how someone could read his blog for a week and not want to check out the church. The energy, joy, and honesty is infectious. And more than anything, Steven promotes Jesus, not himself.

Here are some of my favorite posts...

My notes (on C3)
Sexy
He scared the hell out of 'em
Water down the Gospel
Gotta pick a track to run on

Enjoy!

Featured Blog on TypePad

Leave It Behind was chosen as today's featured blog on TypePad! Each day, the site highlights a blog to show the many creative uses of TypePad.

It's a true pleasure to be picked as I'm approaching my third year with TypePad. I've definitely developed a loyalty for the service, though there are good alternatives that are often cheaper. I don't always agree with their direction and there are periodic issues, but it is a polished, well-done and reliable blogging service. Besides being a great tool, the one thing that sets them apart from anyone else is their customer service. They have some seriously smart and kind people working for them. When I have a question or encounter a bug, I know I'll receive an intelligent, thorough, and friendly response. They are sincere in their desire to resolve any issue and really listen to their customers.

I've experimented with all the major options and at the end of the day, I always come back to TypePad. If you haven't started blogging or are looking for a more powerful option, give TypePad a try. You won't be disappointed.

Father/Son trips

One of my favorite family traditions is the father/son trip. Each year since Ben was four, he and I have ventured off to a nearby city and spent 2-3 days together. These will always be some of my favorite times with him. We have so much fun together and in such a different way when it's just the two of us. Plus, Lori loves having a couple of days to relax, make all of her favorite foods, and focus on herself.

Of course, this isn't terribly original. Fathers and sons have been always taken trips together, especially camping and hunting excursions. I'm afraid the Bailey boys are more of the baseball stadium and indoor pool sort, but it's the same concept.

I'm actually just passing on this tradition from my father. When I was growing up, he had a BMW motorcycle and we took some amazing trips together; trips I can't even fathom now that I'm a parent. We drove from Michigan to Florida, Washington D.C., Cooperstown NY, and a few places in the midwest. It's hard for me to imagine being 12 years old and sitting on the back of a motorcycle for hours at a time just thinking and watching - no talking, reading, or listening to music.

Lori bought me one of my favorite t-shirts a year ago that simply says, Always Thinking. I'm sure I learned it on the back of that motorcycle.

I absolutely loved those trips. There was a fun sense of adventure and freedom to do as we pleased on our own schedule. And I couldn't help but feel very special as we carved out our own set of memories and experiences.

My trips with Ben so far have been to Austin, Houston (twice), Oklahoma City, a local state park, an Oklahoma state park, and Little Rock. You'll notice a preference for cities within driving distance of the Dallas area. The other common thread of the trips has been baseball. All of the trips have included a trip to a major league or minor league baseball game (except the state parks, of course). Ben was a complete obsessed baseball fan for a number of years, but that has already started to fade.

My favorite trips have been the most recent ones. In 2005, Ben and I went to Little Rock. We stayed downtown right on the river and could walk to most places. We spent a day at the Clinton Presidential Library, which is incredible and well worth a trip, and visited the Old State House where Clinton announced his first campaign for president and celebrated his election and re-election. We also attended a minor league baseball game, enjoyed an audio book during the drive there and back, and just had fun.

Last year's trip was truly special. We drove to Robber's Cave State Park and spent a couple of night in a very cool lodge. We went for two great hikes, but when the weather turned cold and rainy, we spent an entire day in our room playing Risk, listening to music, snacking, and talking. It was just one of those things we never make time for at home when there's always something to do or one more distraction, usually email and blogs (no offense). If you ask Ben what his favorite part of the trip was, he'll say it was the day we spent inside. Me, too.

Whether you're a mother or father and have one child or five, I highly recommend making time to take one of these trips. It can be as simple as an overnight camping trip 20 miles away or a couple of days in a hotel. Just as with a date night with your spouse, the destination is not very important - your planning, time, and focused attention says it all. 

As spring approaches, we're starting to think about our next trip. Now that Ben is rapidly approaching 12, I have an idea for something entirely new, but I can't share it here because he reads my blog every so often. It's a great comfort knowing that no matter what we do or where we go, I'm going to get to spend a few days with my favorite boy in the world.

C3 2007

This year's Creative Church Conference starts tomorrow afternoon at Fellowship Church. It's going to be a fantastic three days packed with five incredible leaders, outstanding worship, and hands-on breakout sessions. This is my seventh C3 and each one has been more challenging and inspiring than the one before. I know one thing: this year is going to be unlike any other C3.

I'll be blogging the conference on the CreativePastors blog. Look for updates there starting tomorrow or just visit the site for the latest.

Book video now on YouTube and Google Video

The video is also on YouTube

Feel free to post, share, and otherwise pass it along.

Number Ten

Mike Goldsworthy posted his thoughts on the book yesterday:

This was a quick, easy book to read on blogging, that gave some basics and helped me to think through how to better use blogging. I’d highly recommend this to every pastor; and since I’ve read it, I’ve been encouraging several pastors I know to begin blogging and to get the book to figure out why and how. It’s an important tool for the church to use. This is a book I’ll reread when I’ve got some spare time, in order to really figure out how to be more effective with this. This book will be helpful if you’ve never blogged before, or if you’re a seasoned veteran.

Mike was kind enough to also post a review on Amazon, #10 in fact. If you had told me two months ago that there would be 10 5-star reviews on Amazon, I would never have believed it. God has truly blessed this whole process. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to post reviews and for your generous words!

I'm going to step back now and see where the book is going to go from here. I'll update the reviews page periodically and link to any big news, but spare you the daily box score and reports from the floor of the stock exchange. It's been a great launch, but I think we're all ready to talk about something else!

Relevant article

I'm finishing an article for the Relevant Leader this week that will be published in the spring issue. The Leader is part of the Relevant Network and is done by the same people who create Relevant Magazine. I was honored to be asked and it's been a fun project to work on.

The folks at Relevant were very flexible. The basic request was for a piece about how blogs can be used as a ministry communication tool. I was tempted to go the excerpt route and repackage a section of the book, but that felt a little like cheating. Besides, I thought I must have something new to say on the subject in the six months since I turned in the final draft.

So, I've approached the piece as an extension or addendum to the book, especially the chapters "Warning Labels" and "Built to Last". The general theme is that blogs are good, but they could be so much more. They are not a good thing in and of themselves. Like any tool, a blog can be harmful or misused, and can distract you from what God has called you to do. I know because I've faced these challenges myself. I'm writing about three areas that can cause problems and how to get past them.

I hope to be able to publish the article here soon. My working title is "Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile". You'll see why when you read it!

Human problem or software problem?

Here's an excellent post from 37signals: Control vs. Communication.

Whether you build software or use it, this is worth reading. In fact, it applies to organizations in general. The question is: When you face a problem, do you solve it through rules, policies or, in this case, software restrictions, or do you solve it through communication and individual responsibility?

More and more, there's a perspective that software must prevent every mistake a user could possibly make. In fact, if a user can mess something up through a maze of obscure steps, steps nearly intentional in their negative impact, it's a bug in the software, not the person :)

Simply communicating with people about your expectations of their behavior is often the simplest and most effective solution. It’s respectful, it’s kind, it’s fair. And if someone does something you didn’t want them to do just remind them politely that they weren’t supposed to do that. They’ll almost always get it the second time.

The fact is that someone who is attempting to route around authority will continue to seek out those avenues when they hit a manufactured roadblock. That's the core issue to address. Software can do a lot of things, and certainly must handle common mistakes as well as common hacks, but at some point the user has a personal responsibility as well.

Read the full post.

Second printing

I received word yesterday from Jossey-Bass that early next month, The Blogging Church will enter its second printing! Orders for the book have been very strong and the publisher has been impressed by the response so far.

Orders have been so good, in fact, that as of this morning, Amazon is officially out of stock. I know multiple distribution centers are expecting shipments soon, but you can order online from Barnes & Noble or Wal-Mart in the meantime. Both mainstream and Christian bookstores are beginning to stock the book as well, so you may find it in your own neighborhood.

Update: As of this evening, the book is back in stock on Amazon.

Church Relevance posted a kind review today. "It is the perfect book for church leaders who are wanting to learn how to use blogs to enhance their ministry but don’t know where to begin." Read the full review.