Writing Through Your Blog 'Wall'

Writer's Block Is Simply Waning Interest?

I wanted to insert this sidebar in my how-to journey because all writers hit the proverbial 'wall' when it comes to writing--either professionally or for avocation.

First, a 'wall' is defined here (and in sports and so on) as going along until you find a seemingly unpassable place. When I ran the mile and 2-mile in high school (seems a hundred years ago), I hit my (running) wall on the third lap (on quarter-mile tracks) in a mile race and between the sixth and seventh on a 2-miler.

Coming to my postulation above: writer's block is a waning of interest (whever one puts the apostrophe) on the part of the writer. Now I know this can get me into trouble because many of the folks (used to be me) who write for a living do not want to face this fact.

Sure it may be a temporary lack of interest, or it may be a sign of something much more troublesome. I've been there. I remember a client that I was writing for back in the 1980s who loved my work, paid me well, but I couldn't stand facing my (in those days) typewriter when it came time to churn out something. I even forget what the subject was now--I think it was some aspect of hardware.

No, Writer's Block is Not a Sin

The point is that we will all face these blocks no matter how excited we are about our ministry. It faces even the best of our type. I've come up with a plan you might use. The next time you face your writing 'wall' try this or a variation of the theme...

1. Pray about it. I like one of the Life Principles of Dr. Charles Stanley that says, "Fight your battles on your knees and you'll win every time." (Of course, this has a prerequisite that you know God personally through Jesus Christ and have accepted Him as your Savior.) If one doesn't know Christ as personal Savior, this devolves into a metaphysical exercise.

2. Look for Bible passages in your subject or that are congruent with the current attitude of your heart. Psalms, Proverbs, John are all good starting points. If you have a Gideon Bible around (I thoroughly enjoyed my years as a Gideon), look in the index in the front to see if there is a subject or an attitude that matches your right now.

3. Write. Just start writing about whatever comes into your mind--all the machines have a delete key. It really doesn't have to be on topic or even make sense. I've had instances where I tried to force myself to write jokes (and I'm one of those who cannot remember a joke 10 minutes after I laughed my head off about it). I do not do jokes. Hence, I am forcing myself to write about a topic that isn't 'me' or is of no interest. And then all of a sudden I'm itching to get back to writing about my topic.

4. Take a physical break. Go for a walk or run. Depending on your deadline, go to the park and take your daily journal with you. Go to or watch a decent movie--one that uplifts--from your collection of DVDs.

5. Remember why you chose your passion ministry in the first place. Sit back and ponder how the Lord has used the ministry that you are writing about--in your church, in your community to its impact in the world. (If that doesn't get you excited all over again, you had better take your pulse--both physically and spiritually!)

I count this as a little diversion from our main course. Yet it is an important one. When we face a wall (and only a cursory reading of the Bible will tell you virtually every one of God's people faced 'walls' in their lives), is the best way to the proverbial other side to go through it, under it or around it? What is the Lord telling you?

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Finding Your Blog 'Voice'

"Look, I've really run out of things to talk about, what now?"

In my 'old' days (say the 1980s), I was on the review list of virtually all the big book and directory publishers (McGraw-Hill, Prentice-Hall, Dow Jones-Irwin, John Wiley & Sons, and so on). Every few weeks UPS or the USPS would deliver 10-20 pounds worth of great business books (in the spring and fall, the deliveries would be every week).

My 'job' would be to read and make a nice comment on the work so that the publishers could use it on the dust jackets (man, am I getting old--anyone remember dust jackets?) as they would appear in the bookstores. Of course I wasn't paid, nor could the publishers 'force' anyone to make a comment--or even read the work--but many of the authors of the books I knew personally and did comment. Yet here was an interesting fact...

We All Must Find and Write In Our Own Individual Voice

No one matches you in uniqueness--no matter what the subject. As blog writers, we often consider ourselves 'authors' of our content--much like authors of books and magazine articles. We fear someone writing about the 'same stuff we are writing about.' In my book shipments, for example, every year I received at least two books with the title such as "THE Definitive Guide To Selling" or variation thereof.

Of course it became dicey to write about any two 'definitive' work on a subject when I knew both authors. This was true in many, many business subjects--real estate, training, consulting, selling, marketing and so forth. The authors would call and complain that they heard 'someone else' was writing on their subject with their own book coming out at the same time and they worried themselves silly. Christian authors do not escape this feeling by the way. It's simply a human trait.

Frankly, the first year I did reviews I was concerned,too, but when both titles ('definitive' or otherwise) proved to be marketplace successes, my fear level went down and my confidence level went up.

Then I started to experience it myself with my own reports. At one time, as I mentioned before, we had five authors writing on marketing professional services, including myself, and I was personal friends with three of them in the Washington, DC area. But the fact is that we all had good businesses. We found out that many of our customers also bought each other's work. It was an amazing feat.

What Does This Have to Do With Finding My Blog Voice?

Very much indeed. If you look at writing as a daily habit--even if you only spend a half an hour a day or so on it--you will find your own voice and things such as 'writers block' will be very much lessened.

This is why we need to be passionate about the ministries we choose to write on. It takes about two months or so for the search engines to absorb our keywords, so we need to be vigilant (passionate) about our subject. Once comments come in, that only encourages us. Plus, NO ONE can write about your passion ministry like you can! Period. End of story.

Once you have a list of followers (my choice would be that you buy a good piece of autoresponder software (more on this coming when we launch our resources box) in which to keep your own list), you may feel pressured to write more. And that pressure is what usually produces writer's block for you.

It is just like having a passionate goal--a goal 'pulls' use while clients and other pressure pushes us. A big difference. Writing every day gets you in shape and greatly lessens any pressure that you would feel.

No one writes like you. No one speaks exactly like you. No one cares exactly like you. Look at Moses--when he felt God's Big Assignment, he wimped out with Aaron (not unlike we all have done at times)--"he's a good talker, Lord."

As I've already mentioned, we know whether we are at our best writing or speaking. A blog allows us that platform . And you are reflecting any glory you receive back to God, yes?

If You Write It They Will Come--Or Not

Your 'voice' is your brand. The brand is what people 'buy'. People 'buy' you. I thought I was a pretty hotshot writer back in the 1980s and early 90s on business subjects because early on I would hear from my customers that had purchased previous reports of mine,

"Hey, Steve, why don't you keep my credit card on file and hit it when your next report

comes out. I really like your stuff and don't want to miss anything you write."

Pretty heady stuff. I really tried not to get a big head over it. But then I was at an 'exclusive' conference of other small publishers and to a person they told me pretty close to verbatim of what some of my folks told me! Bubble popped. But I trust my 'voice' point it made.

You are unique. God made us each that way. If He put an 'itch' in you for a ministry, rest assured that you can reach people that no one else can, OK?

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Don't Want to Write Your Blog? Use Your Audio Options!

Some of Us Can Speak Better Than We Can Write

I've known some business trainers over the years who can, at the drop of a hat, teach on just about anything once they have an outline. And some don't need that!

There are two kinds of audio options available to you--audio only or video and audio. Here's the difference--with caveats.

1. Audio Only Options

There you are with your pic and ministry passion--maybe on the field in New Guinea or at your local Crisis Pregnancy Center--and you are describing your latest Go Team trip with your church and the exciting things you have found.

A. Audio with Background

As with the above, you are basically telling your readers about the pictures they are viewing. Some can get away with a nice pic of themselves and audio only. I would avoid this as you have to take into consideration the attention span of your average reader.

Power Point with audio background is a great way to go. It allows you to get out of the way and your ministry focus take center stage.

Teaching Whiteboard--This is almost akin to one of the online meeting sites where you have your whiteboard and a Camtasia program. I really think this format should be saved for actual teaching. Sure, it can be used in your regular blog or on UTube to gain more readers; no question about it. But believe it or not people read your blog because of you (within reason of course!).

There used to be a program called Audio Postcard. I don't know if the program is still available, but I am sure there are plenty of other options. This is out of the 'blog sphere' realm, but the deal was that your readers would receive an email telling them of your greeting. They would click it open and hear your audio message. Kinda cute.

B. Video

Video blogging or vblogging is big right now. Again, your passion must show through in your video as today's videos reveal all the warts you have. Oftentimes passion overcomes a face that, like mine, may not be so easy to look at!

One huge caveat about video blogging is that there are SO MANY vendors out there. You must think in terms of your video loading EASILY on their machines. You will need to trial and error this part if you think you want to use a video option. Think through the slowest machine you think in your audience. Don't go overboard trying to accommodate the dial-up or slow computers because that can have an effect on your other recipients. Some of my most frustrating times has been when I've been told of this wonderful video, given tons of benefits, and then tried to open the huge file and had to wait...wait...wait for it to load.

Again, we will be getting into these and other options as we go which can range from free to a moderate price or, because they serve folks who love to video blog, may only have their services available on a monthly basis (a la Meeting On Demand, etc).

A final thing here is my personal bias. People read blogs because they are readers. Most of them feel that if they want to be entertained, they will go to the movies. So really give some think-time to what audience you are looking to reach in your passion ministry. Will they be more visually oriented, young impatient types or just love to read about what you (and your church) are doing with your ministry focus? Remember, it is not about us, but it is the Lord Jesus Christ we are to make look good in our lives and ministry.

Note on you who are wondering "What do I write about?" Are you starting to see how we are treating blogging here? There is all this and much more you can write about--daily, or at least weekly--for your ministry focus.

Why Almost All in Your Church Should Blog a Ministry

Developing the 'Why' Is a Matter of Passion

Many believers want to please their pastor and help grow their church horizontally with growing themselves vertically. I believe that blogging will help do both.

1. Blogging Is Good From a Technical Standpoint.

The great digital freeway (what many call the Internet) is loaded down with people going here and there. Hundreds of millions of people in fact. That fact struck the business community (and many in the church community) in the late 1990s when the rage was "You've GOT to put up a website in order to attract all those digital travelers to your business (or church)!"

So you saw people learning to put up website or pay folks to put them up. (I remember for my National Association of Business Coaches, people advising me told about one firm who would do a site for NABC 'for only $15,000!'--and they thought it was a drop-dead bargain price.)

But the interesting thing (and this is old hat info to many of you so bear with me, ok?) was that websites were NOT the 'if you build it they will come' blessed solution that was promised. There was a little thing called traffic. Ya gotta get the people TO your site. That means you have to devise ways to interest folks off that digital highway and onto your site. We won't go into SEO (Search Engine Optimization, PPC (Pay Per Click) Twitter and Facebook campaigns. You can find out that stuff on your own. We are concentrating on your Blog (blog= short for Web Log).

However, the neat thing that we all found out was that blogging on a narrow subject (whether in business or in evangelical circles) could bring people to your site via a thing called a backlink that you would regularly post in your blog. A backlink is simply a link back to your church's main site. The formula looks something like:

Blog on a Ministry + Link Back to Church's Site = Traffic and ultimately people in the door.

You have to make your blog interesting. No one wants to read the equivalent of dead fish rotting in the sun. That is where your passion must come in. Your passion shows through in your writing. Your writing through your passion is what attracts folks. And what you are excited about manifests itself in your reader's excitement. And if you are excited about the church you attend and this particular ministry within your church, guess where their interest goes?!

We will be covering 'what to write about' and other stuff more in future blogs. There are both free blog templates (such as Blogger you are now reading) and other templates that may give you a better platform for your blog if you are looking for donations or to sell something. Again we will be covering these a bit later. For now I just want you to see that blogging gets people to your church's site. Get excited, OK?

2. Blogging is Good For Both Your Vertical and Horizontal Growth

If you have read any of my blogs up until now, you have seen some of my examples. If I still had a business (whether membership organization, selling widgets, etc) or a church, I would encourage members to blog. When you write something down it tends to 'stick' in your brain. You tend to think of other aspects of your subject you had not thought of before. If you get a comment criticizing your post, you immediately growth--whether it is to defend your position or see the commentors point of view.

When you blog on a specific ministry of your church, you learn more about that ministry that you ever though existed. We have a lady at my church who does the Christmas Shoe Box ministry with her husband. When we spoke at a mutual friend's house she commented that she was so excited to learn more of the inner workings of the ministry. She got to go to a regional 'shoebox' gathering point and even to meet a girl from the Ukraine who was the recipient of a shoebox gift package two years ago.

She also made more friends of that ministry from other local churches. She told about prayer groups that had sprung up around the ministry that, until this year, she knew little or nothing about. Are your starting to see that, once you start a blog on your ministry passion, you will not lack for 'things to write about?'

Unless you get way out in the proverbial left field and bring a bad word about your church (how could that even occur), your Pastor and Elder Board will really appreciate some chatter about a church ministry and a link back to the website.

And what if you have 20% of your church body writing about THEIR favorite ministry? Are you starting to see your potential? Good.

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Pastors: Your #1 Hurdle to Getting Members to Use Our Easy Church-Growth System

A 'Private' Letter to Pastors

Over the last few decades in working with business owners (or would-be business owners), one of the great quotes we used was "Find a passion that fits your gifts and you will never work a day in your life." The meaning of course is, find something that fulfills you (and glorifies God) and in your work will never seem like work.

Having people find (and do) God's will in their lives is something that is a constant theme you've had for quite a while. Matching both talents and spiritual gifts with something that brings in money IS easier said than done. Yet on the business side, that was the most exciting part of our working with people back in the 1970s-1990s--seeing that proverbial 'light switch' flip to 'on' in their head was indeed fulfilling.

[NOTE: I don't want to be theologically incorrect here, and I certainly do NOT mean it is on par with salvation, but I have commented to co-workers when a person finds his love in business that matches his gifts and talents, we often saw the same kind of 'turning about' in people that accompanies the new birth experience.]

My wife and I had two young couples from our young couples Life Group we had for five years (we handed over the leadership reins two years ago--a very fulfilling experience) in for dinner and fellowship last night.

The Problem Rears Its Ugly Head...

At dinner I explained my blogging concept. And the fact that I believe virtually ALL the capable people in a church with a love for the Lord and a certain ministry within their church should be blogging about their passion ministry within the church (seniors, teens, crisis pregnancy, etc) and linking their blog back to the church's website. (One of the husbands at the table did not type, so he could be excluded from my little passion. Yet I would allow him to wire my house in a second--he is an extremely good electrician!)

The three that were left immediately grasped the concept I was driving at and were interested. And they each had different ministries that they wanted to see grown in their respective churches. But then came the question...

"But what should we write about?"

Pastor, you will have willing hearts and hands, but then someone will have to explain how to divide and conquer their passion ministry in blogging. Hopefully, that is what this blog will be used for. I will commend this blog--and any and all comments--to you for your church growth.

Again, if this doesn't make sense to you, please contact me at my gmail or ExecutiveProductivity e-mail account. Fair enough?

Warmest regards in His grace,

Steve

Finding Your Personal Ministry's Niche of Niches

Restating an important point--Think Niche of a Niche

In working with business owners, especially if they have had their business a number of years, is to get them to think in terms of a single department or even a single product. After all the owner has been going on a 'wholistic' strategy of marketing the business as an entire entity, so why start to 'break it up'?

The answer for your church blog is the same as the answer for the business owner. In this digital age we all must learn to think in terms of divide and conquer. A single retail buisness could have as many as 4-5 blogs (or more) extolling the different aspects of the business. A church with as little as 100 members may have at least two or three blogs--at a minimum.

What Do I Write About? How Do I Present It?

One of the fascinating things about those who consider themselves writers and those who declare themselves to be non-writers is that both groups occasionally get stuck. If your preferred ministry within your church is, say, the nursery, you have a plethora of subjects at hand. There can be the approach of working with nursery volunteers, recruiting volunteers, separate private sections for nursing moms, safety issues, how sanitary your nursery is, working with new families and so on.

There are some questions and tasks you need to think of as you prepare for (or jump into) blogging.

1. Have I done some research on my niche or niches on Google, Bing and the other search engines.

2. Is my niche TOO narrow so as to not generate enough interest? Remember, your niche has to be broad enough to pique the interests of others.

3. What is my approach going to be? Am I going to write from personal experience or through the eyes of another. (One creative way that seems to generate interest is writing from the 'eyes' of a key part of the ministry, say from the thoughts of a Christmas Shoebox, a nursery room, a guitar or piano belonging to the Praise Team, a crock pot in the church's kitchen and on and on.) There is no 'right' or 'wrong' approach per se.

4 Write in your own style. Again, God threw away the mold when he made you. You are the world's foremost authority of what you think, feel and how you act. Blogging has made a wonderful outlet (and outright living from monetizing their blog--more on that coming up) for literally thousands of bloggers. People want to know what you think. You need a fairly thick skin because once you get your opinions in black and white, there are always folks who will be disagreeing with you.

5. Interview others with a similar interest/responsibility in other churches. As Proverbs tells us, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another' (that refers to ladies as well!). Only when we submit ourselves to allowing the Lord guide us and even correct us through His Word, through others and through circumstances is when we can grow. Seek to grow in your speciality as you blog! Even a true authority 'guru' in a particular field is going to constantly be prepared to let the sunshine of new thought in on their expertise (at least if they want to stick around!).

We will be getting into some blog templates (outside of Blogger) that you may wan to consider. This will allow you, if you wish, to more easily monetize your blog(s).

Feel free to run things by me if you wish. I always love to hear from folks who once thought that they could not impact the growth of their church from now--and now their light has been turned on to blogging of their interest! My personal contact is Steve (at) ExecutiveProductivity (dot) com if you care to write.

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Church Growth Through Blogging

The Strategy of Digital Church Growth Resulting in More Members

I want to see more bloggers from more churches representing more and more ministries within each blogger's local church.

Action Steps

1. Choose Your Passion carefully.

You are going to be involved with it quite a while in order for the strategy to be at the maximum effectiveness for the Lord. Many of us have various interests within our church. I am no different--involved for many years on our Missions Committee, Mens Group activities, Seniors and so on. My wife and I, for several years, led a Life Group from our church made up of young couples that we really enjoyed. Although it has been two years since we turned over the leadership, we are still very much involved in their lives--kind of a duplicate grandfather/grandma role.

But my passion is starting and watching things grow. I spent 37 years helping to start and grow businesses, associations, federations, institutes and publishing companies. Hence, I see blogging as a way to grow the local church by increasing local traffic to its website and looking to see that materialize into traffic through the church door(s).

A friend of ours is very passionate about Franklin Graham's Christmas Shoebox ministry. Another Crisis Pregnancy. Never wanted to stop stretching and learning, I found I loved to drive after I helped a friend move from the Washington, DC area to Florida. A passion is something that not only you live with, but lives with you.

2. Analyze Your Subject Carefully.

You think you know EVERYTHING there is to know about your interest area? Why don't you Google your interest and read some of the other blogs on it and then get back to me.
NOTE: DO NOT become discouraged if you see many 'fancy' blogs on your passion subject. If the Lord put that desire within you to tell others, you should tell others. The real 'secret' of blogging is that you are unique. God really DID throw out the mold when He created you. Hence, no one else can bring your perspective to your subject.



Personal Story on Your Personality Being Equal with the 'Stars'


Back in the late 1970s I really enjoyed helping professional service marketers (consultants, attorneys, accountants, physicians, etc) market their services. I found out there were SEVERAL others who did what I did. I guess being a little wet behind the ears allowed me to oftentimes help my competition's business more than my own with some oftentimes boneheaded decisions. Eventrually there were four of us, all independent and all known as national personalities, that I put together under my business model. Not by careful strategic planning mind you. But by heeding a saying a friend had: "I have no competitors--only friends in the same business."

3. Decide To Focus On Only One or Two Aspects of Your Passion Subject.

Remember that you are writing both for the search engines as well as people. And they both like sharpened subjects. What I mean by that is that in Step #2 sharpen your interest area within your interest area. I am amused by all the people who list themselves as 'marketers' or 'marketing professionals' (type in 'marketing professional' in Google and see what you get!), but the ones who succeed the most are the ones with the most sharpened or defined special interest area...eg marketing goats-hair gloves, marketing auto clocks on E-Bay and so on.

For your area, say you like the Christmas Shoebox ministry of Franklin Granham. You head up or work with the leadership of that ministry in your church. You tell everyone about it. Now simply writing about your church's involvement with the Christmas Shoebox ministry may or may not bring new adherents to your cause with links back to your local church.

However, let's say you are really blessed by the stories of those children in other countries who received the shoebox gifts. What about focusing your blogging in that direction? If you need more refinement (aka sharpening), maybe you could focus on children who received the shoebox gifts who are now living in the USA or your state. Maybe even interview them. When people see the impact of a ministry on individual lives, their interest is piqued. Do you think that will have more people click on your church's link? You betcha!

Do you see how sharpening your subject is now playing out? If you own a retail business with a website, do you see how this strategy can help you?