Blogging as a Means of Ministry

When I asked "What is your opinion of the concept of blogging as a means of ministry, as a way to reach out/minister to other Christians and/or non-Christians?", the opinions on this topic were greatly varied. A few were vehemently opposed to the idea of blogging being used as a form of ministry. Some were concerned that the medium is too impersonal. Some were concerned that it would be done without any tact. One respondent was opposed to the idea of any sort of computer-based ministry because it is not "God ordained." Some stated that blogging should not be used as a form of ministry because it does not create real-life flesh-and-blood relationships.

But, the majority of respondents thought that blogging as a form of ministry is a great idea, "if you can make it work." Many stated that blogging is a great way to come into contact with others whom you would never have any other way of being in contact with.

Many stated they believed the community aspect of weblogging is great for Christians to interact with and minister to other Christians.

Two blogs specifically mentioned by others included Real Live Preacher (named as "a good ministry model online"), and Catholic and Enjoying It. Several respondents identified blogging as a valuable medium for discussing apologetics and theology with other believers. A few respondents also stated that "the emerging church" has been using blogging as a valuable communication and discussion tool.

Many also stated they were unsure how well a ministry tool blogging would work when trying to reach non-Christians.

There were many comments on blogging being a good lifestyle ministry, but not a good evangelistic tool. Respondents commented on the fact that it would be hard to have a successful "preaching" weblog to non-Christians, however a well-written weblog about life as a Christian would be more apt to be well-received by non-Christian readers.

Some of the comments on blogging as a means of ministry include:

-"I think that it is a great way to reach a sector of the population who might not be affected by Christianity any other way. As for Christians it offers the chance for a broad community of believers and thinkers to exchange thoughts."
-"In the fact that bloggers tends to be a little more open and honest, I think it's a good way to set up lifestyle ministry. As a purely evangelistic tool, I think it's pretty lacking in scope. You have to be interesting enough to get people (Christian or non) to want to read your site, and you're not going to get much non-Christian readership by preaching."
-"I think there is potential. I know I often read something which speaks to me at the moment. While I do believe that there is a sense of community among many Christian bloggers, it is the personal face to face contact which would be missing. Nevertheless, I know God has used me many times to speak to other bloggers in need, although this is usually by email from a blog rather than an entry. I have also emailed other bloggers on the spur of the moment and found that my words were used as ministry. Again, these were people with whom I had a relationship, even if only email."
-"I think blogging can be and is a ministry. It encourages relationships and allows Christians to reach out to non-Christians in a medium which is friendly and accessible. One of my non-Christian friends reads my blog sometimes and I hope that through what I have written, she will see what God means to me and what He has done. It's a non-confrontation arena and it's an opportunity to invite people into your life this way."
-"I think for some it will go well but I believe that face to face contact is extremely important. I don't think it should be a stand alone ministry if possible."
-"It can help build bridges when you can't physically meet."
-"Real ministry happens in the context of relationships."
-"My concept is to just put myself, my thoughts and feelings, out there, unedited and authentic, and transparency begets transparency, so that people may see Christ in me, as well as other parts of me too."
-"If you include a commenting system… then you have a forum for discussion, which I guess could be used for ministry .... I think that if you tell people about your faith in an active attempt to spread the gospel, they should be allowed to react to that, ask questions and think it through - otherwise you are hitting them over their heads with the gospel…"
-"It could be a great way t o find hurting people."
-"Blogging as a ministry can be done, but I think in order to be successful you have to build a rapport with your readers. Just telling people what to do isn't usually enough, you have to gain their trust and guide them to discover the truth (make that The Truth) for themselves. You can't argue people into accepting Christ."
-"If you are able to do it great. Christ said to go our into the whole world and preach the Gospel. Blogging can be a means to this end."
-"The concept of blogging is much like journaling in public. We often keep our spiritual beliefs hidden and private, and a blog gives an opportunity to say openly those things we don't often say. It is also somewhat bi-directional and interactive, so a blog can create something like a discussion in a living room among a group of acquaintances. So I think it has a lot of potential. It's fairly anonymous, so people can feel safe about responding to what you have written. That said, the internet is so vast that it is difficult for people who might be inclined to join in such a discussion to find out about you, so I'm not sure just how effective blogs are in the long run. Time will tell."
-"Blogging, at its finest, is a form of communication. It's slower and both more and less precise than other forms, but if you are diligent, you can use your blog as both a tool of debate and an agent of change. That lets you do two things, speak and connect with people, and if you're lucky, provide help or solace. I try to approach blogging as a conduit of love, and of putting my care for humans into a more-or-less concrete form."
-"I see blogging as an extension of who I am and how I live. I 'reach' out to those around me (both Christians and non Christians) in real life when the opportunity arises - I take this same approach with blogging. Its not something I intentionally make a ministry but opportunities have arisen at times to play a part in what God is doing in others lives."
-"It is VERY MUCH useful to encourage those who feel isolated (like stay-at-home moms and particularly those who homeschool) because there just aren't too many of us out there and the likelihood that we live in each others' neighborhoods is remote. The internet makes the world so much smaller and makes it easier to find likeminded individuals so as to feel less isolated and alone, like you're the only one in the world doing what you're doing."
-"It is a great way to minister. I am able to share the things that God is doing in my life to encourage and build up others in their faith. It also helps introduce people who aren't believers to the reality of what Christianity is about. Community blogging allows us to keep in touch with the other people in our church and lets us encourage them when they are going through a tough time. Also a great way for teachers to be able to pass on the things that God is saying so that they can teach others. I could go on for ever on this topic, but it's tough to write in this little box. :)"
-"I think it's great, a new approach so to say. As more and more people engage in blogging, I think it's a whole new place for e-vangelism."
-"Blogging is God-sent. For some of us, elderly or disabled or living in very rural places, it is one of the only ways available to reach out, to serve. In urban areas among the able-bodied it may not be so much so, but for me, it still lets me teach even now."
-Any form of communication can be an avenue of ministry. But blogging for me is a particularly personal kind, more like 1-to-1 conversation.

Virtual Faith Project

I stumbled upon a post yesterday at Living Room about a guy named Nathan who is starting up something he calls My Virtual Faith Project. It was inspired by Living Room's Holy Huddle Blogging II post from a couple of weeks back.

Nathan says this:
"Through my journey of coming to know Christ and the Christian faith I used the Internet as my main source of research. This was mainly as I felt to intimidated to walk into a Church without knowing what I was 'getting into' or whether all this stuff was really 'believable'. I had to feel a bit more secure about these ideas before I could take that confronting 'step of faith'. I felt there was a real need on the Internet for a site or group of sites directed at seeking un-believers that both packaged the Gospel in a modern and relevant way for presentation on the Internet while making logical, encouraging and modern points about why Christianity is relevant & real and not all about 'religion' but about 'relationship' with God."

Nathan states he registered his domain "as I felt the Lord really wanted me to use my knowledge of and passion for the Internet & web site development to create a site to help bring more people who were searching the Internet for answers into the Kingdom of God." He ran a blog type site there and posted articles about different topics relating to Christianity... but did not feel satisfied. Reading Darren's article helped him to see that he had been focusing the site on Christians and not much on seeking un-believers.

As part of a class project, Nathan is working on myvirtualfaith.com and turning it into an educational site. "Just as a match ignites with a single spark, I believe the heart of an unbeliever can burn deeply for God with a single spark as well. The task is simply discovering this spark! The 'spark' that did it for me isn't going to be the same for everyone so to make this site as relevant & powerful as possible I wanted to seek input from people who are believers and see what they had to say and what their thoughts were on Christianity. That is the My Virtual Faith Project."

Nathan's looking for input, so head on over to The My Virtual Faith Project to find out more.

Part of the research I stumbled upon for my paper on blogging suggested that more than two-thirds of Americans indicated that they were likely to engage in specific types of religious experience via the internet as the current decade progresses (see Barna Research Group, More Americans are Seeking Net-Based Faith Experiences). In a 2003 study by the same group, 5% of Americans "said they would definitely use the Internet for personal faith experience and expression, and another 18% indicated they would probably do so" (see Americans Embrace Technologies that Bring Control to Their Lives).

Andrew Careaga, in "The Internet's Impact on Kids' Faith," in the September-October 2000 issue of Group Magazine, page 94 said that many teens are choosing to supplement their faith with online interactions that strengthen their offline faith.

Like Nathan stated in different words, the internet gives people a safe place to discuss matters of faith. In Careaga's research, he found that 62% of teens feel freer to discuss their faith over the Internet than in face-to-face conversations.

I am excited to see where the My Virtual Faith Project ends up going. I think that it could end up being a valuable piece of the puzzle for searching people.

But I'm also concerned. So much of the exploration on these topics is being done as part of school studies. My project was undertaken as an educational endeavour, but it was also something I am very passionate about. I still think blogging can be a valuable tool of incarnational and relational ministry. Maybe my concern shouldn't be though. I think God is using these school projects for good. In our busy world would the work get done any other way? May He use it to His glory.

Intentionality, Being Too Christian, and Natural Faith Expression

I asked participants in my Christian bloggers surveys about their inclusion of Christian topics in their writing. I was interested in whether or not bloggers intentionally include topics pertaining to Christianity (whether for evangelism purposes or otherwise), or if it was just something natural, an outpouring of their faith.

Some respondents stated that their inclusion of Christian topics was very intentional, such as this participant who stated: "Yes. I want to defend Christianity from objections. I want people to see Christian reflections on things Christians don't often enough reflect on. I want Christians themselves to be challenged in their thinking. Much of the reason is simply that I think about Christian topics because I'm a Christian, and I write about what I think about, since that's what I'm most likely to have something to say about."

A few respondents stated their caution on being "too Christian." One respondent answered as follows: "Yes, (my inclusion of Christian topics in my blogging) reflects my life. However, I don't want non-believers to feel very uncomfortable when reading my blog," and another stated simply "I mention my faith once in a while, but I don't make it a regular thing on the blog. It isn't something I talk about much."

Most respondents were very positive, saying their discussion of Christian issues and writing from a Christian perspective is a natural outpouring of their faith. "I do (write about Christian topics) because that is a part of my life, Christianity influences how I think and perceive the world, there would be no way for me not comment about those topics."

Another participant in the surveys gave this interesting perspective: "Christianity stands on its own merits; unless I'm debating a point of authority, or making a religious statement, I try to build my writing around an invisible structure. Something that has Christ in its bones, not on its shirt, if you know what I mean."

Links to Discussions Elsewhere

I am encouraged that this blog and my study have encouraged dialog around the blogosphere:


Living Room, Holy Huddle

jonnybakerblog, holy huddle blogging

Bloggedy Blog, Blogging about God, etc.

Benediction Blogs On, The religious blogging bubble

Rebecca Writes, Thinking Out Loud...Or What is a Proper Purpose for a Christian Blog?

Messy Christian, Expanding our horizons

Unquenchable Songs and Endless Praise, Christian Blogging

Another Think, Breaking the Bubble, and Breaking the Bubble II

The Fire Ant Gazette, Christian Blogging Survey Results Online

Mixolydian Mode, Interactive Bubbles

Christian Computing, Bloggers Survey

There are some interesting discussions going on, thank you to everyone who is thinking about such things.

Study Online

The full text of my Ministry Related Research Project is now accessible online here. Much of the research in this paper is taken from the Christian blogger surveys that I conducted in March 2004.

I do welcome your thoughts and comments, please feel free to email me at dialog[at]briercrest[dot]com, or leave them here.

*Update: Thanks to those who emailed with link corrections, I appreciate it! I have fixed the error.

Permalinks

The permalinks on this site have been fixed. I did have to change to a new layout though in order to fix them, please let me know if you have any trouble reading with these colours.

Personal Details

I asked those surveyed whether or not they have any fears about giving personal details on their weblog.

- 30% of respondents (34/115) said that no, they did not have any fears.
- 15/115 repondents stated they have emotional boundaries when writing in their blogs.
- 9 respondents stated they have "personal boundaries."
- 22% (25/115) said they are wary of giving their location or address.
- 6 respondent stated they were cautious of giving personal details due to internet stalking that had happened to them previously.
- 20 respondents did not use names of family members and family details.
- 2 respondents had been warned by their employers not to blog about work details.
- 7 respondents stated they keep work details private.
- 4 respondents stated that they were wary about blogging about church details.
- 1 respondent said they had been asked by family members not to post "private details" and "family squabbles."
- 1 respondent said information on their blog had led to a family disagreement.

Some interesting comments on the issue of personal details include:

-" I have tended to keep my blog as a place away from people I know personally to explore my thoughts and feelings without fear of judgment or of hurting anyone."
-"Once in a while when I get weird comments I worry that I have given too much information."
-"I don't give away real deep feelings in my life like how lonely I get being single. I try to keep it lighthearted because i don't want anyone seeing all that kind of stuff .it's too personal if my family is reading it."
-"There are two guys that read my blog that have repeatedly tried to stir up trouble for me. One even has a background of doing that sort of thing to other youth pastors."
-" When I began roughly four years ago, I was naive. That has changed via experience. I have through mistake, misapprehension, and misapplication nearly lost my job, damaged irreparably a relationship with a potential spouse's parents, and been brought before the elders of a church where I was teaching a college-age study. In only the first case was there any merit to the problem, but blogs are necessarily free from context and so readers often apply their own imagined context to the text - resulting in conclusions far from those intended."
-"As for personal life stuff, yes, I do often times battle with whether I should share it or not. But, it's not because of strangers, but rather, because of my close friends and family. I just sometimes feel like I don't want to reveal to them some of the deeper day-to-day struggles that I have. But, I'm slowly coming out of that fear and I do share more now than I used to. I think the thing that turned that around for me was the first time I decided to share that I was having a hard time with something and I got a response I was not expecting. That response was that my friends also have those feelings. Who knew?!"

Blogging is Booming

This link was emailed to me by Neely, saying "This is an article that highlights the characteristics of bloggers. There is a nifty little chart at the bottom that compares them to web surfers."

While it's mostly about advertising on blogs and the numbers of bloggers, Blogging is Booming also tells us this:

"The Quris research shows that blog readers skew somewhat younger than average Web surfers, are power-users of the Net and media junkies in general, spend more money online, and consume a disproportionate amount of literature, pop culture and electronics. No big surprises there for anyone who reads blogs, but the bottom line is that this segment sounds like an attractive demographic for advertisers."

This data is on blog readers, but we already saw earlier that the Perseus Websurvey stated most blog writers were also young. That survey found that only .7% of blogs were maintained by persons ages 51-69. The survey also found that 92.4% of blogs were created by persons aged 29 and younger.

In my surveys, 7% of respondents were aged 51-60. 53% were aged 30 and under. 37% were ages 31-50. Weblogging seems to be especially popular amongst Christians between the ages of 21-40, with 70% of all respondents falling in this category. Over half (52%) of all respondents in my surveys were between 21-30 years of age. (see "Age of Respondents" on my March 25th post here for the age statistics of those who participated).

There is interesting discussion going on over at The Revealer (see the comments on that post) about senior citizens and others being left out of the conversation of God blogs.

What does this mean for the conversation? Are we as Christian bloggers missing the input of the older generations in our conversations online? Is this important?

Welcome

Welcome to Dialog: Breaking the Bubble. This site's purpose is to release the survey statistics gleaned from 115 self identified "Christian bloggers" who took a general survey in March 2004, and 20 blogging Christian youth workers who took another survey; as well as promote dialog and discussion on the topic of Christians and blogging.

These surveys were part of the research conducted for my Ministry Related Research Project (similar to a thesis) at Briercrest Biblical Seminary for a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry with an emphasis in Youth and Family.

Please note that the release of my Christian Webloggers Survey information and statistics is ongoing as I have time. I continue to welcome your comments and thoughts. Thank you for all those who have continued the dialog elsewhere on their sites and the sites of others.

I hope to have the full text of my paper up within the next week. Thank you for you patience.

And I'm still working on the permalinks in this sitem if anyone has any help to offer I'd love to figure out what I am doing wrong...

Internet Stalking

8 % of respondents (9/115) said that they had had internet stalkers.

Some of the comments left on internet stalkers included:

-" I have had a few different people 'stalk' me after reading my blog. One time a guy told me that he knew I was the one he was going to marry just because he had been reading my blog and liked what I had written. He even went as far as to say he was going to move to where I lived."

-"A man emailed me all the time. I don't think he was dangerous, he was just really bossy."

-"A man got my telephone number because it was published and called a lot. It was… odd. And it made me feel weird about having so many of my intimate thoughts online."

Identity

- 59% (68/115) of respondents surveyed gave their first and last names.

- 22% (25/115) of respondents gave only their first name.

- 19% (22/115) blog under a pseudonym.

Inappropriate Comments

25% of respondents said that they had had inappropriate comments left on their blog, including foul language, personal attacks, sexually explicit commentary, and other random comments.

God Blogging, Spiritual Blogging, Religious Blogging

There is an interesting discussion over at The Revealer called Do You Believe in Blog? about "God blogging" and religious blogging, and they also linked to this site. The Revealer "is a publication of the New York University Department of Journalism and New York University's Center for Religion and Media, one of ten 'Centers of Excellence' financed by The Pew Charitable Trusts as part of an effort to stimulate innovative research and teaching in the interdisciplinary study of religion."

My research has been primarily to do with "Christian" bloggers and how they interact with each other and with those who would be considered "non-Christian." I am not sure I understand the intricacies of what exactly "God blogging," "god blogging," "religious blogging," "spiritual blogging" all are.

I dialoged with Tim Bednar of e-church (who has been doing research on blogging as well as seen here) via email a couple of times about my study, and this is what he had to say:

My research showed that so-called Christian blogs did not want to be labeled as such. I called them spiritual blogs for that reason. I found that spiritual bloggers to be highly engaged with the secular world.

I found that most spiritual bloggers reach out by blogging, not by preaching a certain message or even presenting the gospel. They sort of say here I am, I'm a Christian, here is my blog--see for yourself if Christianity is worth believing in. Few good spiritual bloggers have a pointed evangelistic mission.

I know that I personally would not call myself a "spiritual blogger" or say that I have a "spiritual blog." I think that would be another interesting research subject though... finding out what those I surveyed would call themselves. By participating in my surveys, they each identified themselves as a "Christian blogger," but if given the choice, what term would they chose?

I concur with Tim's second paragraph, what I found in my research backs up what he stated. The bloggers who participated in my surveys, for the most part, didn't set out to preach or present the gospel. Rather, instead, they were more incarnational in their approach, writing about their lives, how Christ makes a difference, and speaking about things that are important to them (often matters incorporating their faith).

Some more survey results:

Do you intentionally include Christian topics in your blogging?

* 15 % (17/115) of respondents said no.
* 85% (98/115) of respondents said they do intentionally include Christian topics in their blogging, however, the large majority of them stated that it just comes through naturally, it is not something they think about. They intentionally include Christian topics because Christ is whom their life is centered around.
* Three respondents said sharing Christ intentionally is the purpose of their blog.
* Only one respondent said no, they do not include any Christian topics in their blogging as that is not the intent (a linguistics/teaching blog).

Do you try to intentionally "reach out" (minister) through your blog?

* 43% of respondents stated they did not.
* 28.5% stated that they do not try to intentionally minister through their blog, it just happens that what they write ministers to others.
* 28.5% said they intentionally reach out through their blog.

It seemed from the comments given to this question that most respondents did not have trouble with being naturally expressive about their faith. Some comments that would reflect this are "I include Christian topics in my blogging because my life is centered around Christ, so that just comes through," and "Absolutely (I include Christian topics)...it's who I am and is a natural flow of my thinking," and "Yes (I include Christian topics) because it is part of my life - it IS my life."

Terms

Lately Bene at Benediction Blogs On and Darren at Living Room have linked to this site and have facilitated a little dialog and discussions on this study themselves, which is awesome. Thank you for your thoughts.

They mentioned the use of terms in my study like "Christian" and "non-Christian" being somewhat harsh, and also evangelical or religious in nature.

One of the limitations of my study was the following:

The term "Christian" as used in the survey titles is open to interpretation by the survey takers, and thus it was expected that participants would be from a wide variety of backgrounds, including but not limited to Evangelicals and Protestants.

You can see this evidenced in my March 25th post in the section titled "Denominational Affiliation or Church Currently Attending." Not everyone participating in the surveys were evangelical, not everyone were protestant.

There are more thoughts from some other bloggers here and here.

Sidenote: I think I have managed to fix the archives... but I'm still working on the permalinks. Can anyone out there figure out what I'm doing wrong? I tried to have the archives directly on this page rather than on an archive page, but I couldn't get them to work that way so have resorted to using the archive page. Any help is appreciated.

Perceptions of Quality

Only one respondent out of the 115 participating in this survey knew or had met everyone on their blogroll. And, another interesting find was that 22% (25/115) of respondents stated that they knew people on their blogroll "in real life" but had never actually met these people in person.

The two statistics speak highly of people's perceptions of the quality of internet relationships, with almost 100% of respondents linking to weblogs of people they have never actually met in person, and 22% of respondents considering the quality of their internet-based relationships high enough that they state they know people in real life whom they have never actually met in the flesh.

Is it possible that relational ministry could happen through blogging? What are your thoughts?

Non-Christian Readership

I asked survey respondents whether or not they were aware if they had any regular non-Christian readers of their weblog, and if so, what percent of their readership was. 17% (20/115) said no, they do not have any non-Christian readers. 28% (32/115) said they did not know or have no idea as to whether or not any of their regular readers are Christian. Three out of the 115 respondents said the majority of their regular readers are non-Christians. Six out of the 115 respondents said half of their regular readers are non-Christians.

Of the 55% of respondents who stated they have regular non-Christian readers, approximately 35% had only 1 or 2 non-Christian readers, and approximately 35% had less than one-quarter non-Christian readers.

One respondent commented, "I do have one friend that is not a Christian that is reading my blog regularly that I hadn't seen for years and through my blog we have reconnected and building a new friendship. He's not blogging, but reading. I have no idea how many others, I know that through the Blogger Idol that Darren Rowse has started I've had comments from people I've never met, some I don't think are Christian. So that's cool."

Readership Size

When asked how many hits or visitors per day their personal weblog received, here is how respondents answered:

Number of Hits or Visitors........Respondents*
20 or less.................................27%
21-40.......................................22%
41-60.......................................14%
61-80.......................................12%
81-100.....................................8%
101-200...................................11%
201+........................................6%

* It should be noted for this question that 5% of survey participants did not answer this question, and 17% of participants stated they did not know the number of visitors visiting their site, so percentages on this chart have been calculated using only 78% of total participants in the survey.


What the statistics tell us:

Most of the webloggers participating in the survey, like most bloggers, have small audiences. 49% of those who knew the answer to this question received 40 or less site visitors per day.

While my site received about 65 unique hits, or visitors, per day before the surveying began (it has since gone up), I can only say I have at most 15 dedicated readers who visit my site regularly (either every day or every few days), the large majority of my visitors are one timers. We can probably assume the same of most of the weblogs that were surveyed, one of the major conclusions of the Perseus Weblog Survey was that blogs have nanoaudiences, the large majority of them are only interesting to a handful of individuals.

Virtual Church Response

In response to my I-Church post below, Doug sent me the following:

I'm not so sure this is a crazy idea.

I work with professors in teaching their courses online. I'm an instructional designer - my focus is on teaching, not the technical aspects of putting courses on the web. I show professors how to create highly interactive courses.

The Internet has allowed us to redefine community, which until now has been defined by geography. We live in the So and So community. With the Internet, we can define community on the basis of common interest, not locale. In other words, we can express the idea of "my church" as a place where I find commonality with others in my beliefs, rather than "my church" as in a neighborhood or town.

Non-Internet users think the web is a soulless place that robs users of social skills. Jeffrey Cole wrote an interesting article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. As a researcher at UCLA, he found the opposite was true - regular Internet users may actually lead healthier face-to-face social lives than non-users.

At the present time, going to church now involves being at a certain place at a certain time. A virtual church allows worship at anytime and anyplace - a strong consideration when people's jobs may mean they cannot come to worship at 11 AM Sunday morning.

Its about choice. Worshipers may still come to a physical church and yet gain spiritual growth online. Many people do that already through the use of list servs, blogs, discussion boards, and other online platforms.

I recommend "Give Me That Online Religion" by Dr. Brenda Brasher as a good academic book on the topic.

What do you think of what Doug has to say? What are your experiences with "the church" or "church" online? Do you see the internet as a spiritual growth tool?

Update

I've been working on getting my paper ready for being housed online... it should be up sometime next week as I'll be in Montana for the weekend.

Reading Up

When asked "Do you regularly read the blogs of any non-Christians? If yes, approximately how many? Do you link to them?" this is how survey respondents answered:

* 17% (20/115) of participants exclusively read only weblogs written by other Christians.
* 29% (33/115) of participants regularly read the blogs of non-Christians but do not link to them.

A large majority of those who "regularly read the blogs of non-Christians" read only 1 or 2 of such blogs.

Most identified the "non-Christian blogs" that they read as ones pertaining to a specific interest of theirs, such as sports, computing, teaching, or cultural affairs.

What these statistics mean:

It would seem from the statistics from these answers that many Christian webloggers are wary to link to others who are not of the same faith. One respondent stated "There are two blogs I read on a regular basis who I am not sure of their religious convictions. I only link to one of them." Overall, Christian webloggers seem to not want to "promote" through their linking or recommend non-Christian blogs to anyone to read even when they have some kind of a relationship established with the blogger.

Personal Relationships

When asked, "Would you say you have a personal relationship with any non-Christian bloggers?" 29% (33/115) of those surveyed said yes, they do. About half of those (14% of all surveyed) stated that these were internet-based relationships, and 15% stated that these were bloggers whom they know outside of blogging.

One respondent, who was of the 71% who did not have a personal relationship with any non-Christian bloggers stated it bluntly that no, they did not have any such relationships because "I haven't been able to build a relationship with a non-Christian blogger but that's because I don't leave comments on non-Christian blogs nor do they on mine." Two respondents specifically stated they would love to build relationships with non-Christian bloggers.

Not many responded with the enthusiasm of this blogger: "Definitely. There are lots of non-Christian bloggers I talk to on a regular basis with and are friendly with."

Christian Blogging Circle?

Although there was some confusion about the question "Would you consider yourself to be a part of a Christian circle of blogging?" the results of the question were as follows:

* 23% (27/115) of respondents said no, they did not consider themselves to be part of a circle of Christian blogging.
* Many stated that yes, they did feel as though they were a part of a Christian circle of blogging for one or more of the following reasons:

- They only read the weblogs of other Christians
- Their readership is mostly, if not all, Christian
- They are linked to by only other Christian bloggers
- They are part of an explicit blogging community like “St Blogs” or “The Blogdom of God,” and a few mentioned being linked on blogs4God.com.
- They post primarily on Christian topics
- They include mostly Christian content on their site
- They are a Christian, so yes therefore are part of the Christian blogging community.

Christian Bloglisting

Less than half of respondents (48%, or 55 of the 115 participants) stated they were listed one or more Christian bloglisting services (like blogs4God.com).

Several stated they were unaware of such services, and a few stated that they were not interested in being associated by faith in a bloglisting service or weblog ring.

I-Church

My friend funkypancake sent me a link for this article, "Wanted: Virtual Vicar for Online Parish".

What do you think of this idea? Is it possible that the idea of an "i-church" could actually take of and prosper? Or is it somehow wrong to have a virtual church?

Numbers on Blogrolls

Question: How many blogs do you have on your blogroll?

0 blogs, 2% of respondents
1-9 blogs, 13% of respondents
10-19 blogs, 25% of respondents
20-30, 21% of respondents
31-40, 9% of respondents
41-50, 10% of respondents
51-60, 4% of respondents
61-70, 1% of respondents
71-80, 1% of respondents
81-90, 1%of respondents
91-100, 6% of respondents
>100, 3% of respondents

59% of respondents had between 1 and 30 blogs on their blogroll.

20% (23/115) of those surveyed stated that they do not know anyone on their blogroll "in real life."

On average, respondents knew four people included on their blogroll "in real life." Six respondents stated they knew between 20 and 40 people "in real life" who are included on their blogroll.

Only one respondent knew or had met everyone on their blogroll.

Church Community Interaction

23% of survey respondents stated that they interact with people from their church community through blogging.

Of those who interact with members of their church community via blogging, they averaged interaction with 5 church members, but 61% of those who interact with church members this way interacted with less than four members.

One youth director even stated that she had tried to get youth interested in weblogging, but that it had not caught on.

Eight other participants said members of their church community do not blog but read their blog.