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Blogging as a form of Ministry
Yesterday I had the delightful opportunity of having lunch with folks at the University of Chicago Divinity School where I spoke a bit about my blog and my life as a nun. I enjoyed their warm hospitality and good dialogue.
I wanted to talk a bit about the topic of blogging as a form of ministry, something which I hadn’t considered when I first started blogging. It was through my friend Bill and his blog Dying Man’s Daily Journal that I really began to see my presence in the blogosphere and my blog as a form of ministry. Early in my blogging endeavors, Bill found me and asked me to come to his blog and comment on a question regarding God. Thus began a little conversion for me from seeing a blog as a hobby to seeing it as a ministry. There were two reasons for this: 1) Bill’s invitation itself called me to ministry and 2) Bill’s style of writing, his honesty, his wonderful love of life, and his natural ability to make people feel at home on his blog helped me to see how a blog can truly be a place of hospitality. I want to thank Bill publically and to say that I think about you and pray with you every single day. Do visit Bill at his blog.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on this blogging as a form of ministry and am grateful yet again to the University of Chicago Divinity School for inviting me to be on a panel at their ministry conference: “Through a Glass Darkly: The Church and Popular Culture in the Media Age“. I’m delighted to be part of this conference and have the opportunity to develop my thoughts along this line and engage in dialogue with others. If you are in the Chicago area, check out this conference.
I’m interested to know your reflections on blogging (or podcasting or other Internet ways of communicating) as a form of ministry. Do you see yourself as ministering online? what are the benefits? what are the pitfalls?
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Oh wow. That conference looks really interesting.
Hm…I didn’t start out to blog for any one group of people. It was more a way to sort out the experience of going through grad school and how it related to my monastic tendencies. (That is, to explore what it is to be an academic and Benedictine oblate–if not currently affiliated with anyone–in formation, if that process ever ends.) I’m not sure I have enough readers to qualify as a ministry.
It’s not the number of people you reach in any ministry it’s making those you do reach think. To me, that’s the important part.
Blogging creates the ability to reach people who would never have talked to you before. I am a perfect example. I would have never walked into a Catholic Church to chat with someone. However, I come to this site almost daily. Your platform of acceptance allows me to participate at a level I am comfortable with without feeling like I am being ‘preached at’. My spiritual philosophies are not the same as yours but yet I feel like I can still have a conversation with your community. As I remember, Jesus was not interested in ‘preaching to the choir’, he was interested in those disenfranchised from the system and telling them that the Divine was interested in them too.
So… if spreading care, concern, love and acceptance is your ministry (which I believe it is) you are doing a fine job.
On the purely practical side, I can visit here anytime of day or night without disturbing you. This makes it a good vehicle for those who are curious and are not on a ‘normal’ schedule.
My blog did not start as a ministry, but it has evolved into one. I think I first realized that when I received my first off-line e-mails from folks – mostly women discerning a vocation, but also a few non-Catholics struggling with the whole God question.
Many of founders of religious communities were writers – books, magazines, pamphlets. Blogging makes it even easier to reach your audience. You don’t have to find them – they find you.
Dear Sister Julie
I am so flattered, honored and humbled by your kind words. I can’t help but feel we have the roles reversed here. It is I that should be honoring and thanking you. Those months ago when I first came across your blog, I was in awe of both you and your writing, so inspirational. I have gained so much from your writings as I know many many have. I sincerely thank you both for myself and the readers of my blog also that have been touched by you.
Your ministry stretches beyond the reaches of just you own blog. By the very nature of my blog, Dying Man’s Daily Journal as you know I have on occasion been contact by others in terrible emotional pain and suffering. These times I have always felts so inadequate so helpless in trying to finding the words to even try and ease their pain or suffering. I feel so comforted knowing you are always there for me in these times. You have always responded to my every request for help, coming to my assistance and to that of the writers of those messages and the many others that will be reading your comment.
Sister, I have never had the pleasure of meeting you in person. But, I know you are a blessing to all those around you. You are a blessing to all through your ministry, your blog and to the many many others you touch through this vast blogging world.
I give thanks to God for giving you to the world
Bill
Yeah, the whole topic of blogging as a form of ministry is becoming ever more important for me. It’s curious how things migrate. I began my blog to speak to fellow Christians who were looking for discipleship that takes our Lord’s message of peace and social justice seriously. As a Christian pacifist and clergyperson, this ministry is still important to me. But in the last few weeks I’ve found myself trying to get theists and atheists to quit yelling at one another long enough to begin talking to one another (an especially difficult task, in these days of Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins). How to be loyal to these ministries in the blogosphere? How to honor the need to engage people without smothering them? Listen to them mindfully? Not only endure but actually minister to trolls? It’s an exciting medium, and I’d really like to hear from others. Thanks so much for raising the issue here!
I am not a particularly religeous person but do have a very great spiritual belief system and faith in a God too. The blog as a form of ministry is ideally suited and works so well to me. I have gained strength from writings in this format which I would`nt have seen before, they are very important to me….
Sister Julie,
I appreciate the compassion in your writing and the intelligence behing your words. Thank you.
I don’t have a blog of my own but I’ve been somewhat active on a few religous-oriented message boards for a few years now. At first, I just thought of it as a fun way to spend some free time. I’ve also asked some questions myself and got some good information that way. After a while, though, I found myself being an informal sort of catechist/apologist. That’s fine since I am an RCIA catechist anyway. Long story short, I do feel that the 4-5 hours a week or so I often spend on these boards are a ministry. I’m considering eventually starting my own blog at some point. Why? Mainly because I’m a revert (went to a Protestant church for a few years) and a writer (mostly promotional and medical writing for large companies). I feel I could reach alienated and lapsed Catholics by sharing some of my experiences and insights.
donna
Ministry is where you find it………….whether it be online, in a soup kitchen, or just being there for a friend in need. It’s said that God moves in mysterious ways; I’m sure that the Apostles never envisioned this form of ministry, yet weren’t they enjoined by Jesus to go out into the world and spread the Word? It seems to me that this is just one more way in which many can be touched by God that might not be otherwise reached. You are in my prayers, and I hope that I will be in yours as you seek to reach out to the world.
Peace,
Lynne
Yes, I think blogging can be a form of ministry. Some blogs are started with that in mind and the bloggers use them for teaching of various kinds, and people read them for that purpose. One that immediately comes to mind is Fr Stephen’s blog. I am sure there are a lot of others of that kind.
There are others that are more of a witness, where people express a Christian viewpoint on questions of the day, and can prompt others to ask question.
Another is one that i have found myself involved in — reading other people’s blogs, and seeing misundersatandings about the Christian faith, where I and sometimes others have been able to post corrections. I suppose this is a kind of apologetic ministry.
I’m sure there are many others.
I appreciate your site because you minister with love, compassion and humor. You dare to use daily life in ministering without preaching.
I started to blog because my daughter-in-law has a blog in which she not only shares her life of raising 4 sons but also uses it to witness to her readers about her Bible-based Christianity but I found it difficult to rspond or to my daughter-in-law’s remarks adequately or share my perspective in repy on her blog…so I started my “Bit of the Blarney”(http://bit-of-blarney/blogspot.com)as a means of journeling and thus share my journey in life with my family, friends, et.al.
I,too, have had the privilege of being involved with the RCIA process as another reader has said. I have been able to share who I am as a Catholic Christian with those people and so the blog becomes a means of journeling and a way to share my faith journey. I want it to be a source of love, faith, and witness as a wife, mother, grandmother and most of all a Catholic Christian woman, trusting that the Spirit will guide me in that direction. I can only hope and pray that he uses me as a loving tool whereby I have truly witnessed to the LOVE of God in my life.
Thank you for your witness. and for giving me the courage to start my blog. Cathy Keller
Wonderful reflections. What a great group of folks you are. I admire the work you are doing and would encourage those of you without a blog to keep on having a presence here and at other blogs and to consider starting a blog of your own.
Cathy, I was impressed with your story and articulation of how you came to blog. I’ll definitely be stopping by!
And Bill, it is always a joy to connect with you.
Susan Rose, I love what you wrote: “Many of founders of religious communities were writers – books, magazines, pamphlets. Blogging makes it even easier to reach your audience. You don’t have to find them – they find you.” Excellent point.
Lynne, Yes, let us keep one another in prayer! Ministry is indeed wherever we find ourselves. Often in places we least expect. That’s why it is so good to develop the habit of always being on the lookout for God in all things.
Yes, Kerry. You are right on with your questions. It’s always easier to minister with those who are pleasant or share our world view. It is so much more difficult when folks are not pleasant or who are antagonistic, wanting only to slap down their point of view. The thing is, as you note, we are called to minister to them as well, to trust that they are coming out of a place of goodness and to minister to tender spirit within them as well.
Donna, I am so glad you found this blog because I always enjoy hearing from you (I could tell there was a writer in you!!)
Hi Julie,
Great question! And thanks for the link to the conference at University of Chicago. I’ve only been blogging for a couple of months, but I was reading blogs for a while before that. I like the fact that wherever I go online, I can take my blog with me, and if people are interested they can come over and have a look and read what I’m writing. Just this weekend I found out that someone I share a couple of hobbies with also has an interest in theology, and I may never have known that if she hadn’t found my blog. So yes, I think it can be a ministry. It’s certainly a place where a great deal of the Catholic conversation is taking place these days, and in very thoughtful and insightful ways. The message is timeless while the media used to communicate that message are always evolving, and I think blogs have become a big part of that.
I would say that it is a ministry…At first I thought it would be a blog simply for theological dialogue, but time has proven me shortsighted. I now receive e-mails and other requests for pastoral advice, prayers and even a wedding or two. It’s quite surprising.
I’ll be present at the conference at the U of C.
-Tripp
Dear Sister Julie,
Howdy! My aunt, Sister Lucienne LeBlanc, sent me a copy of a newspaper article about your blog. Sister Lucienne is at the motherhouse in Monroe.
We live in Yorkville, Illinois which is west of Chicago. Our children attend Saint Mary Catholic School in Plano.
We were delighted to read your blog. If you intend to visit our area, please let us know. Saint Patrick Parish has grown dramatically as suburban sprawl has engulfed Kendall County.
My wife, Laura, and I sing with the Saint Patrick Parish Choir. She leads the Elizabeth Ministry and I am President of the Parish Mens Club.
My wife attended Aquinas College in Grand Rapids.
Best Wishes,
Bob Allen
How nice to meet you! I am touched that Sister Lucienne sent you the article. My nuns have been so supportive. I’ve not been out your way (I’ll have to see where you are on a map … still getting to know my way around Illinois). If I am, I will definitely let you know. Many thanks for writing.
Hi Julie,
I read an article in the ‘Daily Breeze’ on Sunday about your Dominican Sisters of Mary which was very encouraging. I was once in a novitiate in Arizona with a group of contemplative nuns who were Cistercian, otherwise known as Trappistines, which I loved. So much so, I wrote a book about it, sign language, snakes and all! The story, all true, turned out to quite adventurous.
If you’re interested, please see ‘Thorns, the Inner Journey of a Novice Nun’ by Anne Westcott.
Hope you like it!
Anne
Thanks, Anne. Sounds very interesting. I’ll have to look it up. Blessings! Sister Julie
Sr. Julie, I have a friend and brother in Christ, Fr. Humberto Palamino, who posts a daily podcast. Check it out it is friendsofstjohn@podomatic.com. It is a great ministry to all ages and all walks of life, and it is very timely. I am very blessed to know Fr. H and to have him as my spiritual director. Just don’t tell him I said so, he is a very humble servant of God. God bless, Anne
I read an article about you way back in March.
Quite surprised to hear a nun say she visits a bar. I wonder if Jesus approves of nuns visiting bars?
I don’t mean to sound too harsh or negative but nuns are too worldly today, living by them selves, wear no habits. A nun is much more respected when everyone knows who she is by her wearing a habit. Too bad that this had been lost, and of course, since many wear no habits, they no longer get any vocations.
God Bless you, ER
Thanks for the comment, ER. It gave me pause for reflection. My response to your comment is in the post I just wrote (click here). I look forward to hearing from you. Sister Julie
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