In yesterday’s post, we mentioned five books that a pastor should read. There is another source of material that pastors should be plugged into: blogs. But before you trounce off to web surf your day long, a word of caution is in order. Reading blogs can be an colossal waste of time, especially since everyone and his second cousin keeps a blog. As in any area of life, you must budget your time and select only the best blogs to read. “What are the best?” you may ask. I’m so glad you asked.
These are simply Sharefaith’s pick. You may develop your own list of favorites, but here is a good place to get started. And, by way of disclaimer, Sharefaith doesn’t endorse everything that these bloggers do, say, or write.
Let’s just say it. Albert Mohler is one smart cat. As the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Al Mohler has been in lifelong position of fighting battles, defending truth, and training pastors. He has served as the leader of the sixteen-million-strong Southern Baptist Convention. Mohler blogs regularly on hot topics in Christianity–from subjects like birth control to environmentalism. His distinctly biblical view on these topics is a helpful resource for pastors who want to participate in an “intelligent Christian conversation.”
Justin Taylor wears quite a few hats–church leader, editor, VP at a major publishing house, and blogger. His head-turning blog has a huge following, with good cause. Justin Taylor’s insightful articles on a breadth of Christian topics is a good way to get your daily dosage of inspiration, exhortation, explanation, exegetical insights, or simply a snippet from a good book. The blog is so popular that it got a hat tip from Time Magazine last year in their discussion of “10 Ideas Changing the World.” Apparently, Taylor and the blog, “Between Two Worlds” is all part of that. Find out why.
Tim Challies has been blogging for 2,450 days. It’s not just that little OCD factoid that makes his blog a good read. It’s more. His blog always personal. Always heart-warming. Always down to earth. And it’s always helpful. Perhaps its also because he has been called “The World’s Most Famous Christian Blogger.” Whenever I’m looking for a book review, I head over to hear from Challies, because chances are, he’s probably read it as it was flying out of the printing press. He’s that good. (He also happens to write his own books.) Oh, and if you check out his blog on most Fridays, you’ll have a chance to win some of your own books–free. You can’t beat a blog that hands out free stuff every week.
Bob Kauflin writes music, leads worship in his church, pastors people, writes books, and blogs in the meantime. His blog is called “Worship Matters,” meaning that the focus of his blog is stuff like “What Does a Worship Leader Do?” and “Should We Use Secular Songs on Sundays?” But this is not merely a blog that caters to only the church worship leader. It’s a helpful read for any pastor who believers that worship matters, and wants to help his church discover the same.
Sometimes crazy, sometimes funny, sometimes inflamatory, but always interesting. It’s a blog from three people–Phil Johnson, Dan Phillips, Frank Turk and some something very odd called Pecadillo. Any visit to the blog will give you a strong dose of the Pyromaniac take on things–righting wrongs, clarifying issues, and placing a biblical worldview at the fore of any issue raging issue. If you really love the blog (or maybe you just love their crazy graphic design), you can even buy a t-shirt with the logo on it.
Ok, and now for a bonus blog.
Need your laughs today? Hop on over to Stuff Christians Like and get your dosage. He has a list–now over 800 entries long–of stuff that Christians like.
If you’re into blogging (and it’s not a bad idea at all), Sharefaith’s great media collection may be of help to you. Sign up to get started. In the near future, Sharefaith’s plan is to launch a way to help churches with their own websites. Stay tuned.