Blogs make me feel warm and fuzzy inside

I love blogs. I love reading them; I love commenting on them; and, mostly, I love the connection that they bring. For instance, I am associated with a group of Church IT bloggers, called the Church IT Roundtable. Even though I have never met most of these guys and never attended an in-person roundtable, they still consider me part of the group.  This group has been my life-line and has bailed me out of a number of problems.  I don’t have to know all the answers; I just need to know how to find them.

I have been training our staff recently on how to use Google Reader to subscribe to blogs. Yesterday, I trained them how to set up a blog on Wordpress.com and gave some of the simple rules of blogging. Why am I pushing this so hard? Below are a few of the examples of why I love blogs:

  • When we needed new solutions for printing check-in labels, Jason Powell gave me the name of a good vendor. That began a profitable relationship with deep discounts.
  • When I posted about iSCSI frustrations on Twitter, Ed Buford immediately offered to help me out.
  • When I posted about our backup strategy, Stuart weighed in on the discussion and gave me some very timely insights.
  • The blogs of various Church IT guys have formed a network that provides strength to each church represented. We’re not alone.
  • At the ACS Convention last week, Linda from Northwoods asked me how I know Jason Lee. She was a bit surprised that the only connection we have is from blogs. Now he and I can unite to pick on Dean.

This only scratches the surface of the power of blogs and the community that can be created by them. I’m curious if you are a part of a group similar to CITRT, perhaps for Children’s Ministers or Church Business Administrators. Let me know if you are, our staff would love to join the conversation.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 11:37 am and is filed under Communication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “Blogs make me feel warm and fuzzy inside”

  1. Jeff Says:
    May 21st, 2008 at 2:56 pm

    Do you think you’re going to be able to get the church staff to write blogs?

  2. Jonathan Says:
    May 21st, 2008 at 3:16 pm

    If you use the shared items feature in Google Reader, consider contributing your shared items here: http://christianreaders.info

  3. Jason Lee » Shame on me… Says:
    May 21st, 2008 at 10:42 pm

    [...] Matthew Irving noted in his recent post that his and my only connection is via CITRT blogs… I agree with him that there is huge value in the CITRT community, but it makes me think shame on me for not making a ‘traditional’ connection with Matthew.  For several months Matthew and I have said we should connect… but haven’t, so Matthew lets find a date and time next week after the holiday to connect.  No more excuses I agree we have to partner in our ACS Partnership persistence… [...]

  4. Kevin Says:
    May 22nd, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    Matthew,

    You are so right! I love my church, and I consider it a stewardship issue to be connected to others in my field who do what I do. There are a lot of personal benefits as well, but I simple won’t be the best database administrator, It manager, finance director, or administrative pastor that I can be without “the network”. I have been a listening part of ChurchAdmin Yahoo Group and IT Discuss and Church IT Roundtable. I’m a contributor through ShelbyUsers Yahoo Group and my blog.

  5. back and armed « keepin on track Says:
    May 23rd, 2008 at 6:04 pm

    [...] I was reading matthew irvines blog. It occurred to me that through blogging you can build up an enormous network, that benefits both the other side and me. so lets get to [...]

  6. Matthew Says:
    June 8th, 2008 at 10:03 pm

    @Kevin, you are certainly connected to “the network,” and I’m glad you are. I know when we were Shelby customers, you provided a LOT of help getting through some stuff and working around some other stuff. Now, I’m REALLY enjoying reading your blog - you’ve got a whole lot of great content.

    For those who haven’t checked out Kevin’s blog, you should, he’s at: http://kevmccord.typepad.com

  7. Matthew Says:
    June 8th, 2008 at 10:06 pm

    @Jeff, I’m just getting started commenting back on my commenters. I never did before because I figured since I didn’t offer a subscribe to replies by e-mail feature that no one would see my reply. I guess it still benefits those who come into the conversation later.

    Anyway, I think some of our staff will do it. Tracy is starting and Will is going strong. My sights are on Charlie because he has so much to share with the world. We’ll see.

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