unfortunately, for those of us who blog ABOUT being in leadership at church, WE are automatically linking our church and our blog. so, i don’t think its unreasonable to be cautious and careful.

i think, for the sake of our ministry/church, we should take the initiative to implement our own blog policies. i haven’t mentioned the name/location of my current church for such reasons. also, i’ve censored some of the most “bloggable” topics because they would not have benefited my church…

ie: for the sake of my marriage, i don’t blog about a disagreement i might’ve had with my husband.

some things are better left unsaid.

now. fred. hear this – you’ve talked to me about these instances personally – and i don’t necessarily feel like you misrepresented the church or were outta line. that’s a whole ‘nuther question, not the one you’re asking.

Obviously issues won’t and shouldn’t always carry over when you’re talking about a church as opposed to, say, GE or Microsoft, but you’ll still find a lot of pertinent information.

This *IS* a great discussion. I think it’s important to clarify and add that nobody here at SSCC has “implemented a blog policy” … the leadership simply asked “is there such a thing, or what are other churches do” … and so we decided to post a blog and ask.

I wouldn’t expect the responses to be any less than they are – the thought of a “policy” turns my stomach a bit, too … and I’ve said I think the “policy” should be “be careful, pay attention to what you’re saying, etc”.

At some point, we’ll be discussing all the various discussions, and I’ll be posting the results of the conversations. In a way, it’s a bit of pioneering into new territory ..

Granted, a blog has a much wider audience than my personal life, but I think the philosophy remains the same. My public and private life actions are always being watched and judged by people around me, and are often seen in connection to my church. I have a responsibility to live circumspectly, and my church trusts me to act accordingly. I think this transfers to the blogosphere as well.

FYI, I’ll admit to a slight bit of “bitterness” about this kind of thing. Some of my previous ministries had “policies” like this in place, and I learned that it was real easer for the powers that be to just continue adding further policies once the first one was in place. Before long, you’re telling your staff what they can wear, whether they can have facial hair or not, whether they can host a Bible study in their home and what subjects are off limits, etc. etc.

Makes the cliche, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” take on a whole new meaning.

Great discussion, Fred.

First, Amen to Jeff Miller.

Second, I think there is reason for discussion on this topic for the same reason kids need someone to talk to them about MySpace accounts. For some reason we all think these things are private or something. Sometimes we need reminders that these are public and permanent. You may delete something, but it’s always out there in the cyberweb archives.

A reminder of that is a good thing.

However, there are some things that need to remain behind closed doors, and staff people with blogs should be aware that they are NOT free to disclose things of that nature.

In other words, if I said on my blog “I got a buzz from the rum cake”, it would be one thing … however, if I said this and linked it and tagged it to my church and church site, that’s a different idea.

In this case, that’s how it all came about – it wasn’t so much about what I said – it’s the fact that I said it from the church, in my church office, with other church staffers in the background, and tagged it with keywords for my church, thus making it show on as a top ranked hit for our church in search engines.

So, maybe it should be more about a “link policy” than a “blog policy” … then again, I guess it helps demonstrate one’s search engine optimization effectiveness!

1. Does the church in question have a policy in place, on paper, that defines acceptable public behavior by its employees and representatives? If non, then why implement a blog policy? If we trust our representatives to act appropriately in public, shouldn’t we expect the same in the blogosphere?

2. Does the church in question have a written policy about what can and cannot be said during sermons, Bible studies, and other similar situations? If not, then why place the same sort of limits on a blogger? If they are trusted enough to stand before the people and proclaim the good news, then why not on the blog?

3. Does the church in question have a written policy on what topics are off-limits whenever said representative has guests over to their home? If not, then again, why the lack of trust in the blog world?

Again, this is just my incomplete thoughts on the matter. I completely realize sometimes bloggers are going to make mistakes, offend someone, say something they shouldn’t have (I know I have at least once), but the church leadership needs to deal with those things on a case by case basis just like they would any other life situation.

That’s my 1 1/2¢!

Special thanks to Pete over at http://transitionpete.org/blog/?p=1535

He graciously gave up blog space to ask people to come here and comment … a huge, selfless act, thanks man .. so ya’ll go visit HIS SITE too!

I am hopeful that this information will prove vital to those involved in our discussion, and will also be fruitful in my upcoming Worship+Web2.0 workshop this summer at the National Worship Leader’s Conference in Austin, TX (oops, did I just let the cat out of the bag in a COMMENT?!)

Of course there is the occasional gaff. Sometimes we might say something in frustration or even in jest that is taken way out of context and blown into epic proportions.

I would also add that if one’s personal beliefs (doctrinally) are at opposite ends of the spectrum than your “church’s” then why the heck would you be on staff?

Not that that affects anyone specifically in the conversation, but in my opinion if a church has to put in place a policy that dictates a list of do’s and don’ts for PERSONAL blogging, that’s a wee bit overboard. Why not just suggest a general set of guidelines for representing the church.

Common sense dictates that this should include while blogging.

Maybe it could read something like this:

Don’t make a donkey out of yourself and those you serve and work with when you’re out in the public’s eye.

I’ve read all of the comments so far and love the discussion. I agree that a discussion about blogging is healthy for a church, but I’m almost positive I would have no part of any official policy on my personal blog. If I were staff I would probably consider resigning before I entered into a censorship agreement.

Blogs are simply a reflection of the person behind it. If we are “filtering” our blogs from the real person behind it, we are only faking it to the world. The world needs to know that Christians fail often but keep trying to get it right.

IMHO, neither is a seriously big-deal, but opens our eyes to see how others can perceive us, and encourages me to be more careful what I write or say … not to stifle my style, but I’d try to season my words with “salt” regardless of style, and thing wisdom says “choose carefully what you’d say” at any given time.

Although many of us naturally recoil at the mention of a policy, there can be a good side to it, as well — depends on the policy. As the saying goes, “Freedom is greatest when the boundaries are clearly defined.”

Louisville’s biggest alternative newspaper (The LEO Weekly) recently did a cover story on us (Sojourn) called “Smells Like Holy Spirit” that basically pointed out that while we “do good deeds” in the city, support the arts, help clean up neighborhoods, etc., we’re essentially, in their view “fundamentalists” with “regressive beliefs.”

Did I blog about it? Sure — and put up links. But as a deacon and an unpaid volunteer, I was careful not to offer commentary that would go beyond what our Elders would wish — and in fact, didn’t offer a response at all but merely linked to (and excerpted) our worship arts pastor’s (Mike Cosper) response, which had been agreed upon by all the pastor-elders.

Now, we don’t have a policy yet on that kind of thing — so basically I just made up my own: “let the elders come up with a response, and then print that.” But as the church grows and more and more people are blogging about more and more aspects of the church’s ministries, it might be a good idea to have a policy of some sort, simply to keep everyone on the same page.