We’re beyond making a case for churches having a blog. Every church should blog. It is a critical tool for discipleship, leadership, and pastoral care, among other things. The question is no longer, “Should we have a blog?” but, “How do we sustain content creation?” Ideas for sustainable content creation for your church blog become critical.
Don’t feel bad about struggling to create content. The challenge of creating content has plagued bloggers since blogging first started. Just don’t allow failure, frustration have the last word. You will have times of great creativity and productivity. And, you will have to push the barrier of challenges, as I’ve already mentioned.
The question now is, “How can you keep creating relevant and fresh content?”
Why?
I’m a big fan of this question. ‘Why’ gives purpose to all effort and resource allocation. If you can’t answer this question before you start and as you go, possibility of wasting and abusing resources is high.
Answering ‘why’ is a matter of focus. Frustration is usually on the heels of ambiguity. Knowing your end goal equips you to create relevant content.
How Much?
This is a question that has haunted bloggers since blogging first begain. One of the things that creates pressure is unrealistic expectation of how much you can create at a time. Ah, that trick question, again: what is ‘realistic’? Even the so called pro-bloggers relent with a vague answer: publish regularly.
Part of the problem is: no one can give a satisfactory frame of reference for ‘regular’. May I be so bold to suggest that regular being once a week may not be a bad idea. Let’s assume you also post a podcast or sermon weekly, as well. Maybe do a bulletin.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Setting content creation goals you don’t have capacity for will frustrate you – @blessingmpofu” quote=”Setting content creation goals you don’t have capacity for will frustrate and discourage you.”]
We don’t want that, do we? I need to state: a lot depends a lot on your resources and capacity. I’m writing this with the assumption that you don’t have a lot of resources (people and capacity). Decide what you can manage. This sets expectation not only of yourself and anyone else involved. Some in your church would love the predictability; knowing when and how often to expect new content.
Contributors – Team
The next consideration for sustainable content creation for your church blog: who. This is about who should or can contribute. I think this is where the church may have a great advantage. There are many people and areas with content. You might not see it as that yet. Consider this:
Pastors / Teachers:
There is a lot of content here. This particular group of people create a ton of content every week. The important thing is breaking it down and appropriating it. There is more online content in your sermon series than you realize.
Some blog posts to draw from teachers / preachers could be about application from what has been taught. What do all the teachings look like when applied to everyday life? Answering questions from messages. For more on this see this post.
Others:
Besides the teaching team, there are others who have a lot to contribute. The children’s ministry team, for example, could contribute posts on discipling children at home. Many contributors make the work light. Many contributors make the work lighter. Build a team of contributors for sustainability.
Calendar
Create an editorial calendar. It will help you keep track of what you’re posting when. Editorial calendar can be cyclical. Types you could have on your calendar:
- Discipling children
- Devotional
- Answering question(s)
- Teaching / doctrinal post
- Story / testimony
- Living out your faith
So, you could have one post under these (or other headings) every six weeks. Can this make for sustainable content creation for your church blog? I think yes.
Leader
Making sure all this happens is function of leadership. The blog instance calls for an editor. Jeremy wrote a great post, “5 Things A Blog Editor Needs to Focus On” about the role of an editor. A must read for anyone managing content. Take special note of #5 on that post.
Recap / TL;DR
Creating and managing content on your church blog starts with goals. What do you hope to achieve? Set manageable goals on frequency; start by posting weekly. Build a team of contributors. They will help lighten the load. An editorial calendar helps you keep track of what you post when. And, all you need is a champion to bring these things together. (Remember to read 5 Things A Blog Editor Needs To Focus On)
I hope this goes some way in helping sustainable content creation for your church blog.
Do you think all this can help?
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