What's in a blog?

“Chalice Chick” over at Coffee Hour is asking about the differences and similarities between writing blogs and sermons.

Sermons are crafted in a certain way and to do certain things. There are things that have to happen in a sermon. Questions should be explored and tentative answers shared. Hope should never be abandoned, even when looking suffering full in the face. A sermon should evoke feelings, memories, and ideas. It should remind people that their values need to be lived out in their day-to-day lives.

And sermons are written, not to be read, but to be heard. The language is different. The rhythms are different. Stories are important. And when I write a sermon, I know that I shouldn’t try too hard to wrap up every loose end. I try to leave some “fringes” on the sermon so that people can find something to hold on to and make the sermon their own. I’m trying to write something that is not mine alone, but a shared experience between the preacher and the congregation.

Blogging, to me, is less personal. I’m not sure who (or even if anyone) will read these words. I can’t even begin to imagine what they need to hear. I can imagine that the people who have found this blog may also be members of my congregation, but they may also be visitors from other congregations or people who are curious about Unitarian Universalism, but have never ventured into one of our churches. And some readers may just be people who are curious about what a minister’s blog has to offer. They may have no interest in church or Unitarian Universalism or religion at all.

So blogging has a different quality, something less personal and more abstract. (Which is probably why I don’t like it quite as well and struggle to post more than sermons regularly.) But that’s my problem, not a problem with the readers. In fact, I think there are some real advantages to blogging. I just have to figure out how to write for a different kind of “congregation.” I have to find a way to build a relationship with a reader whom I do not know.

But I see great possibilities for this blog. For those who are thinking of coming to South Valley, it may serve as a way to get to know the minister and a bit about congregational life. For those who are already a part of the congregation, it will be a chance to find out what’s on their minister’s mind between newsletter articles. And it will give me a place to point out things that are going on or issues that are “up” for me or the congregation.

I’m hoping that the blog will be a way to make ministry a bit more transparent and a little less mysterious. Ministers are just people who have made a commitment to being religious leaders. There are plenty of stories and thoughts and comments and even complaints that I think will be appropriate to share here that would never make it into a sermon. And so this blog is something different. There will be sermons here, but they will be different too. They will be more like essays, lacking that personal relationship that is so precious between preacher and hearer.

It’s all a wild experiment and we will see how it turns out together.