{"id":8432,"date":"2012-04-05T06:11:54","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T11:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/?p=8432"},"modified":"2013-01-01T19:16:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T00:16:00","slug":"the-christian-bloggers-alchemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/the-christian-bloggers-alchemy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Christian Blogger\u2019s Alchemy"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Ray’s pastoral sensibilities and daily high-quality blog<\/a> content make him one of my favorites. I’m so glad that he’s our guest contributor today. Ray has some wise words for us, so pay attention. (And BTW Ray, I only use 3 names as my <\/em>pen name. There are at least two other Lisa DeLays out there, and I owe them\u00a0<\/em>the gift of not<\/strong> being associated with my shenanigans!)<\/em><\/p>\n

Hey, friends, don’t miss other upcoming contributors in this Series. Get the feed burner \u00a0email delivery, or the RSS linkup.<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Christian Blogger\u2019s Alchemy<\/em><\/strong>
\n-by Ray Hollenbach<\/p>\n

About two years ago a well-known Christian contemporary singer came out as a lesbian. In a moment of what I mistook for inspiration, I wrote 700 words and hit the POST<\/em> button on my blog. Overnight I received 20-times the page views I normally received. I woke up two days later with the blogger\u2019s equivalent of hangover and the guilt from a one-night stand. My blog is supposed to be about spiritual formation: what did my opinions about someone else\u2019s sexuality have to do with becoming a student of Jesus?<\/p>\n

I had discovered Christian blogger\u2019s alchemy: take a red-hot topic, add the name of a famous person (two famous people if you can), and add a sprinkle of holy Jesus words. Mix in Twitter and Facebook, then lean back and check Google Analytics hourly. It was a drunken, orgasmic blogger\u2019s rush. What I didn\u2019t know was that each page view clicked away a little bit of my soul. The new flood of traffic was the mess of pottage for which Esau sold his birthright.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy. In the past month you needed only write about Trayvon Martin, Mark Driscoll, Westboro Baptist Church, Obamacare in order to achieve mega-blogger status. Just check whatever is trending on Twitter or the Huffington Post, add a few borderline risqu\u00e9 words, a bit of righteous indignation, and heartfelt spirituality. \u201cHeartfelt\u201d is optional.<\/p>\n

Lisa Colon Delay, the girl with three names, has given us a gift by starting this series, Spiritual Guidance for Bloggers<\/em>. Sadly, Richard Foster and Dallas Willard were busy, so you\u2019re stuck with me today. Here is my guidance:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s really about you:<\/strong> When we think we are discussing one topic, we are actually discussing another–ourselves. Blogging caters to the powerful urge for self disclosure. That\u2019s why I throw away half of what I write. I\u2019m too ugly, too mean-spirited for general consumption. I need to filter me. If I\u2019m going to be honest, I should drive it home a little deeper: you need to filter you, too.<\/p>\n

We would rather examine anyone else\u2019s heart other than our own:<\/strong> Does it strike you odd that we can read one news item about a high-profile Christian celebrity and immediately have the ability to discern the intentions of their heart? This one is a bully, that one is a megalomaniac, and that other one must be called into account at all costs. I would give up my mighty blogging empire to read just one post where a blogger says, \u201cPastor Moneybags is a jerk, but why am I so upset about it?<\/em>\u201d Have you ever sent an email to the person you blogged about? How about sending a draft of your post to Pastor Moneybags and ask for his response? Would you be willing to wait for an answer? Deep down, we want others to understand our good intentions–why are we so quick to impugn the heart-intentions of others?<\/p>\n

Criticism is easy, praise is hard:<\/strong> Let\u2019s face it: there are plenty of easy targets out there. It says nothing about our marksmanship to shoot at something as big as barn ten feet in front of us. When we read \u201cLove covers a multitude of sins<\/em>,\u201d have we ever applied Peter\u2019s words to the other<\/em> guy? Especially the church. Talk about an easy target. The church is filled with hypocrites and idiots. The church is enough to drive God himself crazy. Yet Jesus is passionately in love with the church. Why do we have grace for pagan terrorists and godless child molesters but cannot tolerate the fact that the church is filled with people just like us?<\/p>\n

I could go on (I mean really, really go on), but here are a few mini-rants:<\/p>\n

Page views don\u2019t mean squat:<\/strong> At last count LMFAO\u2019s Sexy and I Know It<\/em> had 225 million page views.<\/p>\n

The passage you should tape on your computer:<\/em><\/strong> Proverbs 10:19<\/a><\/p>\n

Read Chapter Nine of C.S. Lewis\u2019 Reflection on the Psalms<\/em>:<\/strong> You can thank me later.<\/p>\n

The Hollenbach Twitter commandment:<\/strong> RT others five times more than you promote your own blog.<\/p>\n

Most Important:<\/strong> Read http:\/\/StudentsofJesus.com<\/a> every day.<\/p>\n

Bio:<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ray, a Chicagoan, writes about faith and culture. He currently lives in central Kentucky, which is filled with faith and culture. You can check out his work at\u00a0studentsofjesus.com<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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