Top 300 Christian Blogs for Ministry

1. Over 700 blogs were reviewed in a preliminary screening to determine if they meet the criteria of Alexa rank, posting frequency, and topical scope.
2. 449 blogs qualified.
3. Data was collected for each blog from all 4 measured criteria (i.e., Alexa Rank, Open Site Explorer Homepage Authority, Open Site Explorer Homepage Root Domain Links, and Open Site Explorer Social Metrics).
4. For Open Site Explorer Homepage Authority, Open Site Explorer Homepage Root Domain Links, and Open Site Explorer Social Metrics, the blogs were sorted best to worst for each metric and ranked 1-439. Blogs with the same metric value tied in rank with subsequent blogs taking their true rank (e.g., rank = 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9).
5. For Alexa Rank, the blogs were sorted best to worst for each metric and ranked. Blogs with the same metric value tied in rank with subsequent blogs taking the next sequential rank value (e.g., rank = 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). This approach is used due to the increasing number of blogs being hosted on sites like Patheos and The Gospel Coalition, which Alexa measures as the value for the entire site rather than the blog’s url. While this approach doesn’t prevent blogs hosted on larger sites from having favorably skewed results, it does dramatically reduce these blogs from unfavorably skewing the results of other blogs (i.e., Patheos occupies only 1 rank value rather than 27 rank values).
6. A composite rank for each blog is determined by averaging each blogs ranking from the 4 measured criteria.
7. The top 300 blogs were published.

FAQ :: Are these metrics reliable?

Once a blog meets the topical criteria, it is objectively measured by 4 website metrics that are relatively difficult to cheat and consistent across all blogs. The metrics aren’t perfect, but it is the best formula we’ve found thus far. Check out SEOmoz’s analysis on the reliability of Alexa traffic analytics. While imperfect, there isn’t a better alternative outside of the time consuming process of getting several hundred bloggers to all use the same analytics software and participate in reporting data (impossible!).

FAQ :: Why did the name change?

When the list first began in 2009, it was called church blogs. It focused almost exclusively on the blogs of prominent church leaders and those covering ministry methodology. It featured just 60 church blogs.

But this labeling didn’t scale well. What about bibliobloggers (Biblical studies), female faith bloggers, or Christian news blogs? These are just a few of the niches that certainly offer value for ministers but didn’t fit into the original scope of ministry best practices. As the blog list grew, it created tension around who was included and who wasn’t. It nurtured symbolic annihilation by platforming Reformed and Evangelical voices while excluding female, Catholic, and Orthodox writers, who were less likely to write about ministry methodology.

Our topical criteria excluded valuable thought leaders, and it also failed to curate the consistent quality intended. It still featured some blogs with mediocre content while snubbing some gems that could bring far more value.