Random ministry insight of the day: If God blogged, we would be the entries. Period.

Not static pages (like the “About” page), not the theme: we would be the blog and the blog would be us. We are not only God’s hands and feet, but God’s very image and self in creation, and his mission through that self is to bless all of creation.

Wow! The only question is, how do you read?



A little background on how this insight came and its implications for the ministries I am currently engaged in:

I was thinking on my bike on the way home (bikes are an awesome way to think) about how I was going to manage the practical details of the Barter System I’m working on for my congregation; how to create a system of people finding each other and credit exchanges and all that in an efficient way that is both secure enough and accessible enough that people would use it.

Then I realized there’s already a tool that is ubiquitous on the internet to catalog just the kind of things people would need to know to find people in a barter system – basic summaries of skills/attributes. It’s the tag system already used by websites and blogs to help search engines find their posts.

Then I realized that’s perfect anyway, because if God were a blogger, we his beloved people would be his entries – what he’s doing and how he sees and impacts the world.

And that’s basically it. We can create a modified kind of blog where each person is an entry and their simple forms for the barter system are entered as a short (1-2 sentence) description of who they are and a collection of tags for skills they have, things they have to offer, and potentially even other identified ministries and gifts. That would at the same time emphasize the amazingness of God’s calling all of us in what we do, enable the system to work, and even help us broaden our vision of how different people can engage in the ministries of the Beloved community.

There are still challenges of connecting people with each other without having to publish everyone’s information on the web, as well as how to track the credits, but I think those can be worked out with a little time.

So for a final bonus and conversation starter, here’s how I might look in God’s blog as I envision our little version:

Nate Porter

I am filled with ideas and visions to help equip others, and love to get my hands dirty with work and play.

Tags: Computer Repair, Preaching, Japanese, Grant-Writing, Bible Study, Lectio Divina, Visioning, Dependable Strengths, Piano, Singing, Drums, Writing, Teaching, Workshops, Statistics, Tutoring, Cleaning, Cooking, Catering, Yard Care, Childcare, Sushi

Could more be written? Of course, every person’s story could fill books and books.

The point is that even with that little information, we could begin to amass an amazing testimony of God at work in Edmonds, Washington. It would be great to flesh some of that out over time with entries highlighting different people, but even with just 50-100 friends of Church of the Beloved (my congregation), that would mean hundreds of tags in a cloud like the “Themes” section at the right side of this blog for people to see God at work and potentially find someone to help with a project they need.