Christian Blog

A Christian Blog for Evangelism - Part 1

One of the things we hope to accomplish on Christian Blog is to encourage people to see the Internet as a potential ministry and help them set up blogs and websites to reach out to people all over the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This will include not only starting Christian blogs for believers but starting Christian blogs for unbelievers as evangelistic tools.

These blogs for unbelievers need to be designed to reach as many people as possible and then over time look for opportunities to use them to introduce and present the Gospel. To illustrate this idea we are starting a site called Current Events Online. On the Current Events site we will take two or three of the top stories in the news each week and write short articles about the topics. We hope to begin to catch some of the search engine traffic for people searching for current events.

To get the site started, we purchased a domain name from Good News Domains, we opted for the the free hosting plan (we will heave to deal with a banner on the site advertising Good News Domains), and we installed WordPress. By using the free hosting option we can run this site on $10 a year.

To put some quick content on the site we are using six RSS feeds from various news agencies and we are also adding video feeds of current events from all over the world. Here is what the site looks like today:

Our hope is that over time we can build up a readership that will check out the site on a regular basis and then we can develop ways to reach them for Christ. This Christian blog site will start to reach its potential after it begins to show up on the search engines.

Starting a Christian Blog - Part 2

While the free blog services we talked about in our last article will be enough for some Christian Blogs, there are many who will be better served by registering a domain name and getting a web host for their Christian Blog. This process would be the one that we recommend for many of you. Let’s start with a domain name. A domain name is the address that locates your site on the Internet. You can purchase and register a domain name for about $10/year. There are some things you need to know about domain names before you get one.

You need a domain name that is specific to your topic or ministry. Do not use abbreviations or nick names that no one knows. You want a domain name that has potential to create the most amount of traffic to your site. A well chosen domain name can have a big impact on the search engines. For example, let’s say we were starting a Christian Blog for the First Christian Church of Fairbanks.  Do not get a domain name like FCCF.com. You would be better off getting “FirstChristianChurchFairbanks” or “FairbanksChristianChurch”. Why? It seems that it would be easier for people to type in FCCF.com than FirstChristianChurchFairbanks.com. The issue is about how people who don’t know your domain name find your Christian blog or ministry site. With the right domain name, people could find you by searching for Fairbanks Churches or First Christian Church or Churches in Fairbanks. Since your domain name contains those words it has the potential of showing up on the search engines.

Once you have an idea about what domain name you would like, you have to see if its available. To do this, I like to use Good News Domains (www.goodnewsdomains.com).

I also use Good News Domains for web hosting which we will talk about in a future article in this series.  Once you are at the Good News Domain site look for the “Start a Domain Name search” box:

Now just type in the domain name you would like to have, like this:

If the domain name you want is avaialble, you will see the following screen:

It is very possible that the first few domain names you try aren’t available.  Good News Domains will provide you with some suggestions when that happens.  Stick with it and with a little imagination you will find the domain name that is right for you.  Once you have your domain name, follow the instructions on the Good News Domain site to get it registered.  Make a habit of making a note of any passwords that you might be asked to give during the process.  Once you have your domain name, you will need to get a web host.  We will talk about that in our next article in this series on Christian Blog.

Starting a Christian Blog

A Christian blog can provide you with a way to not only impact the world with the message of Christ, it is also a great way to develop community online.  If you have something to say, like to write, and have some time to devote to the process, then a Christian blog could become a fun and impactful ministry for you.  We would like to pass on some information to you that you might find helpful in the process.

You can start a blog for free.  There are a lot of ways to do this.  Our two favorite ways are Blogger (www.blogger.com):

and Wordpress.com (www.wordpress.com)

Both of these options are free, easy to use, and will provide most Christian bloggers with everything they will need for their Christian Blog ministry.  As you explore the ‘blogosphere’ you will find a lot of blogs that are done using one of these options.

For some people, however, it will be beneficial to spend a few dollars and register a domain name and pay for web hosting.  This process will cost about $60 - 100/year.  If you are thinking of ways to be able to perhaps generate a little revenue for your ministry then you might be better served by going in this direction.   This process takes a little longer in the beginning but does provide a lot of options for where your blogging might take you in the future.  We will begin to detail this process more in future articles in this series.

If you are not sure about what your direction is with your Christian blog, we would encourage you to start with one of the free blogging options.  Follow the directions they provide and you can have your own blog up and on the Internet in minutes.  It is also a good test to see if you can consistently write articles for your blog.  Realistically, if you are not able to write at least a couple of times a week, your blog will never get a lot of traffic.  Go ahead and start one of the free blogs, it won’t cost you anything financially, and you could find out that it is just the ministry you have been looking for.