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BY RICK VANCE
UMConnection Correspondent

While the term blogosphere may seem like an electronic no-man?s land to some, more than 50 million people, or 11 percent of Internet users, read blogs on a regular basis, reports the Pew Internet and American Life project.

The church ignores such an information tool at its own peril say three Baltimore-Washington Conference clergy, the Revs. Dean Sndyer, Bill Chaney and Cynthia Belt, who each write a blog of their own.

A blog, for the uninitiated, is an easy-to-use Web site on which one can quickly post thoughts and interact with people, at no cost, according to Blogging.com.

The word 'blog' is a shortened form of 'weblog.' It is a log or ongoing journal available for others to read and, in some cases, to give feedback. A blog is also a place to expose one?s faith online for the world to see and interact with.

Chaney of the West Baltimore UMC started blogging because it was a way to reach people. 'Originally it was a way to stay connected as a church pastor with prospects, if they had questions,' he said.

His blog (http//:makingdisciples.wordpress.com) was a way of dealing with the idea that 'the world is our parish.'

Chaney?s blog evolved from a question-and-answer format into a series of articles. As he continued to walk down the blogging trail, he slowly began to connect to the two main topics his blog addresses today: leadership and spiritual formation. As he became more focused, he realized that, 'You can?t reach everybody or write about everything.'

In spiritual formation, Chaney concentrated on how to be a disciple; how to live life as a disciple; the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and evangelizing. 'Jesus in a Starbucks culture,' he said.

As senior pastor of Foundry UMC in Washington, D.C., Snyder found a 21st-century way to communicate with people what was going on in the church. His blog began, he said, because he kept getting the same questions from different people. 'I thought that it would be a lot easier to refer them to a body of content already available.'

He put that content to work in the form of a blog found at www.foundryumc.org, Senior Pastor?s Blog.

Snyder?s primary focus was to inform people that Foundry is open to all people regardless of their sexual orientation. He went on to explore various topics and post them on the blog.

He discovered that, because of his blog, he received responses from people he normally would not have connected with before.

'The blog put me in communication with people throughout the country, people with different theologies,' he said.

If Snyder had it to do all over again, he said he might approach his blog differently. 'I might consider a project that involved people in the congregation in addition to me, a group instead of an individual blog.'

Strategizing would be the thing that Chaney would spend much more time on, if he were beginning again. He would hone in acutely on his focus and on what topics to write, he said.

A blog by United Methodist Shane Radnor (www.wesleyblog.com) contains a list of many United Methodist bloggers. On the right side of his Web site, under the heading 'Methodist Bloggers,' is a variety of blogs by both clergy and laity.

The blogs are as individual as the people doing them. Some have blogs recording prayers, political commentaries or book reviews. Others read more like a personal diary. In some blogs, faith seems more of an afterthought.

Some blogs offer a series of well known art works with commentaries relating them to faith. There are other sites where bloggers simply show a visual record of the artist?s works as they are completed. On blogger.com it?s possible to send cell phone photos or text messages to one?s blog.

The Rev. Cynthia Belt of Centennial Caroline Street UMC in Baltimore blogs for Rev magazine. Online at http://revunplugged-.blogs.com, she tells the story of the church?s ministry to an impoverished community and promises to share some of the exciting things the church has in store for youth and young adults.

This younger audience is important. According to recent studies, more than 90 percent of blogs are authored by people between the ages of 13 and 29.

Technology gurus predict that within the next five years, blogging will become as prevalent as e-mail.

MAKE THE CONNECTION

One of the simplest ways for United Methodists to launch a blog is to go to www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com, sites used by Snyder and Chaney. Both sites make it easy to set up and get a blog running quickly.