Monday, November 30, 2009

Why This Blog?

Here we go again ... This isn't the first time I've started a blog. I've blogged and used to be on MySpace, but now I'm mainly on Facebook and Twitter.

I like to use Facebook to stay connected to a wide variety of people - friends from high school, extended family, church friends, etc. Right now I have 361 friends on Facebook. The only thing they have in common is they are all my friends on Facebook. They don't share the same religious or political ideas. They can be passionate about things that are opposed. For that reason I choose to not use my Facebook as a pulpit. I want to know what's going on in their lives, and they want to know what's going on in mine. For me it's not the place to draw lines and pick sides.

I rarely update my Facebook status directly. I let Twitter do that. My tweets usually fall into one of four categories:

1) Something funny - usually said by one of my kids

2) Something irritating - It's a nice release sometimes to "vent" to the cyber-world.

3) My exercise log - Some people like this and say it encourages them. I'm sure others have stopped following me or hidden me from their feed because it gets annoying. The reason I do it is for the cyber-accountability. So far, it's worked.

4) A life update - The last time I took one of my kids to the hospital, I tweeted updates throughout the experience. Family and friends could easily stay updated and could send me encouragements. Twitter and Facebook were great for that.

So, why blog?

I get excited about blogging at first, but then I get bored with it. I also get annoyed when I read others' "deep thoughts" that feel forced. Still, I sometimes have insights or encouragements that I think could benefit others. As a worship leader/minister/teacher I want to use my experiences and my gifts to build people.

Am I afraid to take the risk of putting something out there that I think is meaningful? Probably. Do I know there are other critical people like me out there who will judge what I say? Yes. But, I've decided I need to take the risk anyway.

Another reason I'm starting this blog is for one of the staple posts I plan to do. My friend Fred McKinnon posts a Sunday Setlist on his blog weekly. He and others put their worship sets from Sunday on the blog. I'm going to post mine on this blog and link to and from Fred's. People often ask me about a particular song I did on Sunday, and I'll make that information available to people here.

If any readers have questions about worship, worship leading, or songwriting, let me know. I'll do my best to answer.

God Bless!

2 comments:

  1. How cool is this!
    Hopefully you'll share some of your personal work with us too. I want to hear about the music you've been creating. Introducing us to some of the new worship music that's out right now would be a great add too. That way I can finally break away from my 80's praise tapes (even though I know Shawn enjoys them soooo much)

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  2. Hey Shipra! Good to hear from you.

    Unfortunately, I haven't been creating a lot of new music lately. But I will post about the stuff I've been using and tell you where you can get it.

    Cheers!

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