Picture this: You’ve just been asked by your ministry/leaders/management to either take a blog post down or change it to correct something in the post that they deemed inappropriate or wrong or that doesn’t “jive” with them.
What do you do? Do you lash out without apology? Do you get all angry and huffed up thinking that they just don’t “get it”? Do you take it down? Edit it? What?
I had this situation happen yesterday with this post here. Apparently some people has misinterpreted the blog post, especially the image, and believed that the pin represented the exact location of the new campus and my management had started to receive inquiries about that location.
I was asked to either edit the image or make it explicit that this was not the case. I was asked to do something. Thankfully, this wasn’t as big of an issue so I quickly corrected the blog post and added a bolded FYI to it so as to be explicit that this was, in fact, not the location of the new campus.
Whew. But, it could have been worse.
Here’s what I’ve learned in the past year about handling things like this in ministry; I don’t say these things to prove at any stretch of the imagination that I’ve “figured it out” or am perfect here but as an encouragement to you to consider my thought process at the time:
- Respond quickly, at least to the initial inquiry. Tell management that you’d like to speak with them more about it, change it, or something, but respond quickly; let them know you got it.
- Stay humble. Your management has a reason for confronting you about the content you published. They are probably more experienced than you in terms of the ministry (and the impact on ministry) that your content could affect.
- Take responsibility. You’re the one that published it and they’re the ones having to deal with the aftermath. Take responsibility, own the issue, and move forward.
- Submit to your leadership. Unless there is some obviously wrong with your leadership, I’d suggest just submitting to their authority, wisdom, and discernment. It’s just a blog post.
- Act responsibly and close the situation quickly. The good and bad thing about social media is that it’s viral: Every single second counts. Once the decision has been made do it. Don’t wait.
- Thank them for the opportunity to be corrected and grateful that you have leadership that’s willing to pull you aside and correct you.
- Learn something from the situation that it doesn’t happen again.
Something I’ve learned is that living a life attempting to avoid making mistakes is pretty useless; I’m going to make them. But learning to handle the issues wisely and with civility and grace is an entirely different matter, and is definitely more important.
What are your thoughts?
[Image from HCKsyo]
Heidi Rafferty says
This EXACT SCENARIO happened to me this week, too!
After reading your blog post, I felt so encouraged, because I actually did all of the things you recommended! Yay! This has really lifted my day.
The blog post in question is entitled, “The Ride Home to Mercy” at http://christiansafehouse.blogspot.com.
This is the post I wrote AFTER I had a conversation with one of my pastors, who asked me to remove two blog posts. I did so and also followed his suggestions on ways to explain what I learned from the scenario that prompted them in the first place.
Thanks so much! You have no idea how much this helped my frame of mind today.
Heidi Rafferty
Harrodsburg, KY
human3rror says
Glad you stopped by! I think a lot of people have had a similar experience. I'll be honest, i haven't done it “right” all the time… but I'm working on it.
dewde says
This was an excellent post, John. It illustrates why I have respect for NPM and you.
peace | dewde
human3rror says
i appreciate you.
dewde says
OK this is getting awkward. Can we revert to our regularly scheduled programming where I exploit your ethnicity for cheap laughs and you call me lame-sauce?
LOOK HERE! HUMAN3RROR ROCKS THE BO STAFF AND HAWT HAT!
http://dewde.posterous.com/hey-he-started-it-huma…
Whew. I'm feeling better already.
peace | dewde
human3rror says
Lame!
—Sorry for the brevity and rampant spelling errors… This was obviously “Sent from my iPhone”.
perspectivas says
Just an fyi, in my rss feed, your post shows "Sponsored by Scientology"
human3rror says
whoa. can you send me a screenshot?
Conner Byrd says
Yup…been there done that twice but probably didn't handle it quite so well both times.
The first was pretty tame and easily handled.
The second was after I made the switch to Youth ministry and yet continued to blog Sunday Setlists. The transition I took to Youth and the church hiring a new Worship minister wasn't the smoothest but I didn't help by continuing to offer thoughts and discourse on the now new leadership of music. However, #7 is huge! Learn something! I did. Thank you Jesus 🙂
…and now I'm confused because I don't know if I should log in via intensedebate…facebook…twitter…openID…or toss my name in? All of the above? Crikey, here goes everything 🙂
matt macdonald says
Good Post. Good Wisdom.
I was asked by an Elder at our church to adjust my post HERE:
http://mattmacdonald.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/me-…
I said a few things initially that he felt were demeaning and specifically some of the comments from readers were a little…heated.
I acted instantly. I find that when an Elder asks you to do something…there are two speeds…
1) Instantly
2) Instantly
oh…so I guess just one speed then.
Thanks for the post!
Peter_P says
Great post, John.
human3rror says
thanks peter!
klreed189 says
Dude, great post. Funny that you mention this.
I knew this went on but I never realized that it has happened to so many different people.
I thought I was one of the few that has had to deal with this, but I guess not.
Actually I was fired for a blog post that I posted.
It was in reaction to a chapel service at the school that I taught at. One of the parents found it and was upset, complained to the school, then they came to me and started to question my biblical teaching and were concerned that I was a "liberal" and that I needed to take it down immediately. I looked through the post, took out the schools name and did some editing. But i did not take it down because I had over 25 comments on this one post. I didn't take it down because I had that many comments and didn't want to lose that, I left it up because there was great conversation going on and people were interested and working through stuff.
It was tough for me to swallow because this was my own personal blog and I was not promoting it to anyone out there at the school.
Later on, when they told me that I was great with the students but was not a great fit for the school they mentioned my blog and my thoughts on a christian nation and said that this was a big problem.
Like you said John, you learn from the experience and pass that along to others.
Great post
human3rror says
Wow Kyle…
would you be willing to guest post about that experience?
klreed189 says
I would love to guest post. What are you thinking? What would you want that to look like?
human3rror says
Kyle,
It's up to you honestly. Do you have an account here yet?
klreed189 says
Ya I do, klreed189
klreed189 says
Do you want me to email it to you or login with the account stuff you just sent me and do a post through that?
human3rror says
post through the account. it'll queue for me to review before publishing.
klreed189 says
Ok, will do that very soon. Maybe later today
JakeSchwein says
Thanks for modeling and leading towards above reproach character
human3rror says
thanks jake. i haven't been like that always… but i'm slowly being transformed.
@danscott77 says
Great post. You know… it's hard to have to be the person to confront the blogger as well (whether you're the person making the call or the person delivering the message). After all, in some ways we're trampling on someone's ideas and passions.
Blogs are a personal outpouring of our hearts, even when they are associated with what we do for our occupation. It is easy to take everything that is said or critiqued personally. However, we must find a new perspective. We need to look at the greater scope of the organization and be aware that they have a responsibility to the community at large. How we, as the church, are perceived is important for our credibility as an organization.
John, this was a great post with terrific insights and principles not only for social media but for critique in general.
human3rror says
thanks dan! i hope it was encouraging as it was useful.
Graham Brenna says
#1 – Great picture at the top of the post!
#2 – I've put a little blurb in the about section of my blog that reads "The views expressed on this site may not reflect the views of family, friends or those of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church."
I know that's not really a solution but it's something. I've got a blog post in my head that I'm a little worried about publishing. I think it will come down to how I word it. I'm going to leave out my church's name completely and stay pretty objective.
Michael Hyatt says
John, this demonstrates great maturity on your part. You have to keep a sense or proportion. You can't "die on every hill." Save it for when a big principle is really at stake.
human3rror says
Mike,
Thanks for your encouragement here. I have a long way to go and a lot still to learn. It's probably more dumb-luck I make most of the “right” decisions at this point in my life…!
thanks mike.
benjizimmerman says
Great post bro. Where was this 6 months ago when I posted something very inappropriate and wanted to lash out because they asked me to take it down? 🙂
Another content checker would be to have someone read the post before it goes live maybe someone in another department or executive team member. just a thought.
Jim says
people misinterpret all kinds of stuff…