Alden Ellis

Everyone on staff at NewSpring that has some sort of online presence (blog, Virb, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) met with Tony Morgan after our All-Staff Meeting with Perry. He gave us “10 Things to Remember When Blogging.” These things are all given to us to help protect us and the church as we all continue to reach out to others in the online community.

10 Things to Remember When Blogging:

1. Let your boss know.
   • Do you want your direct supervisor to be surprised?
2. Respect confidentiality.
   • Two questions to ask:
     • Is this news to people?
     • Has our Senior Pastor shared this with the congregation?
     • If the answer is no, then hold back.
3. Respect the church and the staff.
   • Have each other’s back.
4. Respect the law.
   • Make sure you have the facts correct, no copyrighted material, etc.
5. Respect your time.
   • Our first repsonsibility is to Jesus, family, and then to NewSpring Church.
6. Respect other ministries.
   • We shouldn’t say anything negative about another specific ministry or ministry leader, but should discuss strategies, etc. Remember, we are on the same team.
7. Let Communications Department know about media inquiries.
8. People will find what you write.
   • Google is a wonderful tool.
9. Once you publish it, it cannot be retrieved.
   • RSS Feed Readers are a joyous thing, but can be dangerous.
10. You never take your staff hat off.

It was a GREAT session, and these are all good things to be reminded of from time to time. Thanks Tony!

I would also say that we always need to remember why we are here on this earth: To Make Jesus Famous. Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men…” So, do you blog to cause a stir? Do you blog so your stats will rise through the roof? If you blog for any of those reasons or others that are not to Make Jesus Famous…then STOP right now! If Jesus is not the reason…then you have no reason! Just to add my thoughts to an already great list of things to remember.