FredMcKinnon.Com

My buddy, Joel Klampert … well, he started this conversation.  It’s one that I’ve been having “in my head” for a while.

Let’s face it.

Twitter and Facebook.  They have really changed the way we experience “community” online.

For a season, you learned what you know about me, and about what I know (which isn’t necessarily all that much) through this blog.  Now, if you follow me on Twitter (which also connects via Facebook) you get a LOT more information.

According to Google Site Analytics and Feedburner Stats …. there are more of you subscribed to and visiting this blog than ever before.  Thousands.  Can I say thanks?  Thanks.

Yet … there is less commenting and community …
I have to confess, I rarely have time to visit many of your blogs these days, but I see your tweets.  Sometimes, I click on them and read your blogs.

So … is this horse dead?  Why keep riding it?  Why keep blogging?

That’s the question I’ve asked.  Soul-searching.  Pondering.

But, I’m still doing this thing called “blogging”.  Why?

Because …

* I can’t tell you some of the stories of my kids in 140 characters or less.
* I can’t ask the questions I have about Scripture in 140 characters or less.
* I can’t share vision and invite you to be a part of in 14o characters or less.

For those who know me personally, I can’t answer the simplest question in 140 WORDS or less, much less 140 characters.  My childhood nicknames were:
Motor Mouth
Mouth of the South

So, there you have it.  292 words to explain why I can’t condense my community to 140 characters or less.

Will you help me make this blog a better community, where we can go a little deeper with one another than 140 characters allows?

Jump in.

Hey Everybody,

So it’s almost New Years … tomorrow will be New Year’s Eve … and in 48 hours, we’ll be celebrating the New Year … 2009.  I’ll be enjoying my family, and hoping the DAWGS can pull out a victory.

I’ve been pondering and thinking about next year – how God would use me, how I’ll invest my time and energy.  Over the years, I’ve invested myself into way more activities than I could ever do great.

One thing is certain – I’m excited about continuing to pour myself into the ministry of my family and my local church position at SSCC.  I believe God will continue showing up and showing Himself strong at our church in 2009, and I pray that I’ll become a better, more sensitive, and more anointed leader for that incredible ministry.

What about blogging?  Has it run its course for me?  I have to confess, I’ve tried to keep the discipline of posting routinely here, but it was increasingly more difficult towards the end of the year.  Another key component to blogging is being sure I keep up with YOU – with your blogs, your lives, and what YOU have to say.  I have gone weeks without having the time to visit the Google Reader, so if you’ve missed me on your blog, I apologize.  Then again, I’ve missed so many of YOU as well.  (and the reality is, if I’ve missed you, you probably won’t be here to read this!)

That being said, I’m praying for a God-given vision and clear strategy for how I should use this space in 2009.  A huge part of my doing this is for my own discipline – to journal, to have something to reflect upon, to have an outlet for me to express myself to clear my mind.  But connecting with you, networking, and hopefully – encouraging you in worship, family, and leadership is also a major objective.

To do that properly, I need to ask you … the faithful readers … what would you like to see in 2009?  How would YOU like to see this space used?  If you continue to subscribe (and thanks to the hundreds who do!), how can I be an encouragement to you?

Sunday Setlists:  this has been a huge success, and each week, I read in the comments about how people love it, and have learned so much by observing what other churches are doing.  I say we keep this for a while.

FreePlay Friday:  this has been my random outlet.  Not the most-visited day, by any means – but a chance for me to break off any specific topic and just be “me”.

New ideas?
I’ve considered doing “Tech Tuesday” – and devoting Tuesdays to postings that are more tech-specific – ie. loops, sound, recording, etc.

What do YOU think?  What about the old podcasts I used to do … I still get asked frequently “why don’t you ever release new podcasts”, etc.

Eager to hear from YOU.

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Hey Everyone,

For those of you who are on staff with a church, or even for those in business who may “blog” about your business … does your organization have an “official” or “unofficial” blog policy?

We’ve been discussing this at my church lately. As an active web2.0 dude, I blog about church all the time, and some of the worship confessional videos find their way onto the top results of Google because they’ve been “tagged” to reflect our church.

In retrospect, we’ve discovered some things from time to time that come up as top results in search engines for our church that maybe don’t necessarily reflect who we are in a way that we’d prefer. For example, maybe we’ll make a joke about something in a video, but later realize it could be taken out of context and could cast a negative impression of who we are. (let’s just suffice it to say we’ve put our foot in our mouth more than once!)

So, there’s been some discussion on what parameters need to be established for church staff on what they blog, how they link to the church, etc. It’s not an effort to censure or prohibit creativity; rather, a genuine look at how we can make sure that we give a unified, correct vision for what we’re doing.

How about it – do you have a blog policy, formal, or informal? Let’s hear about it.

Fred