This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
CHAPTER 4
CONCLUSION
The Christian Weblogging Bubble
The following major factors lead me to believe that Christian webloggers are indeed creating a type of Christian weblogging bubble: 69% of those surveyed stated that between 90-100% of the bloggers on their blogrolls are other Christians; only 54% of those surveyed link to non-Christian bloggers; 29% of participants regularly read the blogs of non-Christians but do not link to them, the large majority of those who "regularly read the blogs of non-Christians" stated they read only 1 or 2 of such blogs, and 45% of respondents said they either do not have any regular non-Christian readers or are unaware that they have any.
Christian webloggers appear to be creating a unique weblogging ring where they only link to others of like kind creating an enclosed circular community of linking. They are wary of linking to non-Christian bloggers and "promoting" their blogs.
But linking in the weblogging world usually also implies relationship. By not linking to non-Christians, especially those whose weblogs they regularly read, they are creating or perhaps encouraging somewhat of a rifted relationship. Reciprocal linking (linking back to someone who has linked you) is considered courteous by many. With popular blogs, reciprocal linking is almost impossible, because a long blogroll is not seen as of value to many, but the majority of bloggers participating in this survey,[1] and in general,[2] do not have that large of an audience.
Comments on my survey like " I was really surprised to find that a Muslim lady that I read regularly linked to me. I do not link to her" and "two Mormon ladies read my blog regularly but I do not link to them" saddened me because instead of encouraging relationship, the Christian blogger seems to be somewhat unsupportive of it. You do not invite your non-Christian friend to the potluck and then seat them in the corner away from the Christians, instead you invite them in and seat them in the midst of your church family. Why then, is this happening with the Christian weblogging community?
Communication and Relationships
I liked what one survey respondent said: "I have a friend who's agnostic. It's interesting to read what he has to say sometimes. I link to him because he's my friend. It's weird but sometimes I think some of my greatest witnesses to him have come through my blog. I know it sounds weird but not out of place among computer science people." It does not sound weird to me, but then I believe the medium of the internet promotes dialog and relationships that would not occur anywhere else. I have seen it personally, the best faith discussions I have ever had with family members have been over the internet, discussions they would have never been open to face-to-face. Other participants in this surveyed concurred with my personal experience and shared that they had had similar experiences.
One
survey respondent said this "I've
seen (my blogging ministering to non-Christians) in my oldest brother. My
relationship with him has become so much more open and I've even seen him
showing signs of a budding belief, faith, and trust in God… I also used to
write with the hope that my Dad, who has never been a regular part of my life,
might be reading it. I think and hope that he at least saw it a few times after
I e-mailed him and told him about it. My dad passed away last year and I took
comfort in the fact that maybe he knew a bit about me and about God from my
blog."
Promoting Relational and Incarnational Ministry Through Weblogging
I did not reveal the topic of my surveys intentionally, partly so answers would be untainted by presuppositions, and secondly, so that participants would think about the questions and the answers introspectively. I was encouraged by many who stated they had never thought about weblogging as a ministry, or how they had never noticed everyone on their blogroll were Christians. My favourite response of all was from one respondent, who after responding that his entire blogroll contained blogs of Christian bloggers, suddenly "Is this like CCM? Because I don't know if I can be associated with that."
I received encouraging emails from survey participants who were excited to find out what answers the survey generated. A few bloggers contacted me directing me to other research done on "God-Blogging" and weblogging in general. Many expressed interest in reading a copy of my paper once I had completed it. This of course, was part of my intention.
Going
back to Baugh and Hurst's book and
their principles of relational ministry, it is important to help people
discover their calling.[3] Part of my intention with my surveys was to
facilitate Christian bloggers thinking about blogging being ministry, about the
potential for incarnational and relational ministry in this medium.
I also understand that people naturally
support that which they have helped create.
As stated earlier, involving people in the process of setting up a
ministry makes them more likely to continue participating in that ministry.[4] The fact that people were not only
interested in but were also excited about the survey results told me that
people were thinking. I could even
tell, a few of the bloggers I regularly read were thinking about how they
portrayed their faith and their life with Christ in their blogging.
Through the surveys, thank you links that I
posted for those who participated and gave their okay to be linked, and emails
that were exchanged, I hope that I encouraged the participants on to thinking
about relational and incarnational ministry in their blogging.
Final
Encouragement
The final part of my project was the creation
of a new weblog. Dialog: Breaking
the Bubble[5]
was revealed on March 26, 2004. I
emailed all survey participants thanking them once again for their
participation in the surveys and their interest in the project. I included a link to my new weblog and
encouraged them to visit.
Dialog contains some background on my project, and I am currently releasing statistics
gleaned from the surveys I conducted. I
encourage comments and discussion on the weblog to keep people interactive and
thinking about weblogging and ministry and how they fit together. I have also included links to other
weblogging surveys and studies and information elsewhere on the internet. I let survey participants know as well that
later in April I plan to post a link to where the whole text of this paper is
available online.
I hope to continue posting on this new weblog
and facilitating conversation about weblogging ministry. I pray that weblogging Christians as a whole
will begin to more seriously think about being relational and incarnational in
their blogging. I hope somehow the
bubble of Christian weblogging becomes more welcoming to those from the
outside.
As the blogosphere continues to grow, I pray
that youth workers and Christians in general will seize the opportunity to get
involved in the lives of adolescents online.
I hope to stumble across the blogs of youth workers linking to youth and
being in obvious dialog with them about their faith.
That is my dream. I pray that somehow this project encourages it to become reality.