This article is for those of you who don’t really like Christian blog posts, or for those who think Christian bloggers are dumb and that their material is a big waste of your time. I get that, and I recognize that I have likely wasted your time at one point too!  My hope is that this short blog post will be a worthwhile read, and an honest overview of the current state of much of Christian blogging today.  With that said, here are 5 dumb things that Christian bloggers do.

1) We overstep our ministry boundaries by writing “Open Letters” to celebrity figures who aren’t even going to read our content just so we can be relevant. We try to pastor the world, when the good Lord has put actual people into our daily lives to minister to.  Christian bloggers need to stop trying to be popular, and instead put out content that actually helps our readers.  It’s pure arrogance to think that we are called to be the pastor for the entire internet, especially when people in our daily lives need our attention!

2) We publish content that doesn’t connect with our readers. Bloggers often put out superficial, spiritually-childish content that doesn’t encourage a Christian to grow in their walk with God. If it’s cute and sounds nice, folks who like cute stuff that sounds nice will “like” it and come back for more.  Sure, that gets the numbers up, but it doesn’t really do anything positive for the world.  On the other end of the spectrum, bloggers put out content that reads like a doctoral dissertation.  We try to look smart by using fancy language, and by doing it we end up confusing our readers leaving them frustrated.  There is a happy medium between these two extremes, and this medium is where good bloggers “should” be.

3) We write on shocking topics and use clever attention getting titles to get our numbers up.  I’ve never known a blogger who doesn’t care about his or her stats.  We track the amount of visitors, what country they are in, how many times each article has been viewed, and spend time considering how we can get those numbers up.  I’ll let you in on a little blogging secret.  If you write articles on topics that are shocking, and give the blog a silly, but shocking title, you are pretty much guaranteed to receive a stats increase.  I’ve done this before, and countless Christian bloggers are just like me.  There is a certain pride present in the heart of a Christian blogger who is addicted to his numbers.  As Christians, we try to make ourselves look humble, especially if we are teaching others, but man, there are a lot of Christian bloggers who could use more humility (myself included).

4) We constantly tell people what they “should do” and what they “shouldn’t do”.  We are obsessed with the words should and shouldn’t.  We love to find ways to incorporate these words into our articles because we love to tell people how they should live their lives, or how they shouldn’t live their lives.  Consider these blog titles “5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Date Before Marriage” and “5 Reasons Why You Should Stop Sinning”.  We love telling people what to do when we “should” be telling people about what Jesus has done!

5) We are a jealous bunch who don’t get along and don’t like to share, and often claim to have cornered the market on an idea.  In reality, pretty much everything covered in modern Christian blogs has been discussed over and over again for over 1,000 years.  Slapping a neat title on it doesn’t make it your “original idea”.  In fact, if you were to perform a Google search, you would likely find that another Christian blogger has already published your cheesy blog post with a slightly different title!

Christian bloggers need to be more intentional in how we go about things.  We need to stop trying to be so hip, stop trying to be so shocking, stop bickering with one another, and start promoting our common savior.

Blessings