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Question:
I am a Christian blogger and I want to know how I can measure my success and the positive impact that I have on others. How can I find these things out?
I believe that a successful Christian blogger should meet the following requirements:
1. Active presence in the virtual world
Maintaining a blog requires lots of discipline both in the quantity of what you write as well as in the quality. You will always seek to meet the needs of your audience. You will seek to get to know them as best you can so that you can offer the highest quality spiritual material to them via your blog. Unfortunately, there have been many Christian bloggers who started a blog, were active for a period of time, and then just gradually stopped writing anything. They became inactive Christian bloggers. A good Christian blogger will never lose his passion, his zeal for spreading the message of the Gospel through the wonderfully efficient tool of blogging. A good Christian blogger will continually follow what other good Christian bloggers are writing, commenting on their blogs, adding to the discussion, and learning all that he or she can. It is important to be relevant in what you write, seeking to answer questions in view of societal problems, always using the Word of God as the source of all solutions.
2. You are criticized
Anytime the Word of God has ever been proclaimed there was opposition. The same is true today and even in the virtual world. If you are faithful to the Word of God and share It as is (taught by Jesus, Himself) then be sure that you will attacked and criticized, especially by the enemies of the Gospel. The criticism will come in the form of comments on your articles or comments to comments that you made on some other blog. There are others who will read your articles and then write articles criticizing your articles. This can be a great sign of being a successful Christian blogger. Just make sure that you are being criticized strictly for preaching the Gospel and not for doing something wrong. The Bible teaches us this very principle:
12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. 13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. 16 Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. (I Peter 2)
These words are very relevant for us today, especially since we live in an age where some people using “democracy” and “free speech” as a cover to make personal attacks on others in the virtual world as well as mock leaders and others in places of authority. This should not be. It is one thing to practice constructive criticism but mocking is entirely different, which many people seem to use the internet for, especially for attacking leaders and authority figures. A good Christian blogger will never do that.
3. You are cited by others
If you are a good Christian blogger then others will notice your articles and value your opinion. They will pass your articles on to others by making reference to them in their own blogs or using their preferred social networks. For example, if you find this article helpful, I would really appreciate it if you would pass this article on to other Christian bloggers who could benefit from it having their passion for writing renewed, motivating them to be disciplined in their blogging.
4. The press takes notice of you
Here lately, the press has been taking notice of good blogs with well written articles because they are using that information in their news presentations. If you are cited in the media that means that you are writing quality information that journalists feel is newsworthy. Just do not forget that journalists (especially those who do not have values and are enemies of the Gospel) will not miss an opportunity to mock you or the Gospel that you promote if you give them a chance. Therefore, when writing, please keep the words of the Apostle Peter in mind:
15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence ; 16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. (I Peter 3)
5. You bring about change in people’s lives
A good Christian blogger will measure his success first and foremost by the number of lives transformed by his writing (using the Gospel). People live by what they think (believe) and if they have a correct opinion about the Word of God then that will been seen through their transformed lifestyles. I had great joy when I received information from people who read the article that I had written one what the Bible says about suicide. They revealed to me that they were considering suicide and the article changed their minds on the subject. They decided to draw nearer to God instead of walking down the path that suicide offered. I also enjoy receiving comments from people who were on the brink of divorce yet after reading my articles on divorce, they decided to stay together and are happy now. There were some ladies who were being pressured to have an abortion, threatened to be kicked out of the house unless they had an abortion, yet after reading the articles on the Bible and abortion, they decided to honor God by honoring life and God has blessed them greatly. Upon receiving messages such as these that I have presented, God greatly encourages me to continue writing and I believe that every successful Christian blogger could say the same.
6. You lead people to the Lord
People’s salvation should be the major goal of a good Christian blogger’s writing and he should focus all of his efforts on this goal. That is the same way the Apostle Paul and the other apostles measured their success in the Gospel. That is why it is a good idea to evaluate your success at the beginning of every year, to see how many people you have lead to Christ using your blog. By doing this, you will see the things that need to change in order to be even more successful.
7. You contribute to the growth of your local church and promote its ministries
The Church is the body of Christ and each Christian is a member of that body. All of us in the body, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, have spiritual gifts from the Lord which we are to use in building up the body by serving others. A successful Christian blogger will use his spiritual gift to cause his local church to grow and he will be able to demonstrate that growth through tangible evidence. How have you used your blog to serve your local church, to contribute to its growth numerically and spiritually?
I would like to close with the words of the Apostle Paul addressed to the Philippian Church. These words are applicable to us today.
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing ; 15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. (Philippians 2)
What is your opinion about this article? Do you know any successful Christian bloggers? What makes them successful? Please feel free to share your thoughts via comments.
Translation by: Erik Brewer