Many Latter-day Saints have accepted the challenge to share the gospel online. You may find that sharing uplifting messages is rewarding and easy.
Elder M. Russell Ballard said, “Most of you already know that if you have access to the Internet you can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to be true. You can download videos from Church and other appropriate sites…and send them to your friends” (“Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet,” Ensign, July 2008).
In the October 2010 general conference, Elder Russell M. Nelson shared the following success story about sharing the gospel online: “Now in this day of the Internet, there are new and exciting ways you can do missionary work. You can invite friends and neighbors to visit the new mormon.org website. If you have blogs and online social networks, you could link your sites to mormon.org. And there you can create your own personal profile. Each profile includes an expression of belief, an experience and a testimony. Because this is a new feature, most of these profiles are available in English. Profiles in other languages will follow.
“These profiles can have a profound influence for good. Two months ago a young man named Zac — a freshman in college — saw an ad for mormon.org on television in Baton Rouge, La. He connected with the website and was intrigued by the profiles of Church members. At our website he found the link that informed him where he could attend church. The next Sunday, dressed in a white shirt and tie, he attended church, was introduced to members of the ward, and enjoyed all three hours of meetings. He was invited to a member’s home for dinner, followed by his first missionary lesson. In less than two weeks, he was baptized and confirmed as a member of the Church. Welcome, Zac! (He is listening.)”
The following are excerpts from the article “How to create your own gospel-centered blog on the Internet:”
LDS blogger Brian Mickelson is a seminary teacher, husband, father and part-time photographer. He created his own blog to share his beliefs as a Latter-day Saint with friends and family online. “I would suggest that new bloggers set a reasonable schedule of writing; maybe once or twice a week. I also try to avoid controversy; there is enough of that online. I suggest that people write about what they know and are familiar with: their lives and how the gospel is blessing them.”
By running your own blog, you have a tremendous opportunity to share your beliefs. LDS.org suggests that bloggers should, “Talk about your day-to-day life. Remember that some who read your blog may not understand traditional ‘Mormon jargon’; be careful to be clear in your writing. Share what you learn when you go to Church. Share your family home evening experiences. Share how the Lord has blessed you. Bear your testimony where appropriate, and if you are prompted by the Spirit.”
Brother Mickelson felt inspired to write the posts of his own blog about the gospel after studying the words of Church leaders. He said, “I’ve always blogged about my life, family and items I find interesting, but when I began studying what the General Authorities of the Church were asking us to do to ‘hasten the work,’ I decided that I could share more gospel-oriented things on my blog since the gospel is such a central part of my life.
“I think I share all kinds of gospel-oriented items. I try to write about some basic gospel truths and aspects of the Church so that my friends of other faiths can become more familiar with the basics. I also find myself writing about items that can be a little confusing to Mormons. I share connections between the truths found in the scriptures and possible situations that most people find themselves in. Most of all, I try to help people see the hopeful, encouraging power of the gospel of Jesus Christ in their daily lives. I hope my blog is encouraging, above all.”
You may also want to consider a blog about a specific topic. My blog LDS365.com, for example, focuses on new LDS resources and how we can use them for good. Other people have blogs about specific gospel topics, such as missionary work, family history, teaching, or Church history.
It’s easy to start a blog. There are free websites that help people create blogs and publish them to the Internet, such as Blogger.com and WordPress.com. For more tips, read How to Create Your Own Gospel-Centered Blog.
Share your success stories in the comments below.
Related articles:
- Blogging bishops: 2 Mormon men talk about sharing the gospel online
- LDS Boston blogs used as a missionary tool
- Sharing via Blogs on LDS.org
- Better Blogging: Tips for Safety and Courtesy in the Ensign
Nice blog, Teresa at http://tjhirst.com
I’ve been blogging since the start of 2008 sharing meaningful life lessons, gospel insights, interviews with everyday people, parenting perspectives and real financial challenges that happened to our family during the recession–all from a gospel perspective. I like the ideas about setting a schedule and starting with once or twice a week. Slow and steady is better than sporadic. I also like the tips about not using just LDS lingo for thing. One piece I would add is to not worry so much about how many people are reading your blog — obsessing over stats. Certainly you will want to work to cultivate an audience, but do it genuinely and don’t get caught up in a fervor of being seen as popular. That could lead to discouragement and make your blog just a flash in the pan. Writing a blog can be very satisfying as a true expression of your faith applied to daily life.
I took the time to read the these articles and other suggestions about our lds-themed blogs. I do break a few of the guidelines here and there. Maybe I need to re-think some of the issues I tackle – but given the response and how many thank you’s I get when I do dive deep into today’s issues – like political, social, ward dynamics, general family life – I get plenty of thankful and positive feedback. For me, “being positive” includes acknowledging the pitfalls and difficulties mortal frailty imposes, but modeling the scriptures and gospel inspired ways to approach them and overcome them as well. I never leave it as a complaint without resolution nor do I mention specific persons – for that, I hope it’s considered positive. People need to know they’re not alone in what they see and face at church or elsewhere – but they also need to know when people at church are amazingly disappointing – the responsibility for remaining faithful and contributing whatever we can is still very real. Because our covenant is with Christ – not the others at church. If the suggestion is to keep it cheesy and never admit anything might be wrong – it doesn’t really help people with real life. It makes them feel exceptional and alone. People need to be validated and hear and discuss real life including frailness of humans. People go to church and face others with issues and baggage. If it is not addressed – people go inactive. My blog hit 500,000 a couple of months ago – I think people read it because it is down-to-earth and hopeful – but not afraid to tackle the harder aspects of life and human behavior. I think we need to be careful with focusing on a smooth public veneer and not addressing repeating problems. Our inactivity rate is 2/3. Having said that – I read this blog often and love all the current savvy info I find here. Very informative. I love the LDS Church – triumphs, inspirations, shortcomings and all.
I too was moved by Elder M Russel Ballard’s talk and President Deiter Utchdorf message in blogging about our belief and Elder David Bednar’s remarks kn the youth about how their hands are trained to tweet and text. My blog have random things but I make sure I publish one Gospel topic at least a month. The list on the link above is very helpful, I’ll try to follow them all.
Shawnie,
Thanks for your comment. I’m with you. Being postitive doesn’t mean being cheesy or fake. I think we need to be realistic and honest. I think you can do that and still be hopeful and positive.
Larry
Last year I created a blog with the intention of promoting our church’s family centered way of life without explicitly talking about the Gospel. My thinking was that a blog about family and happiness would be interesting to more people than a blog about doctrine. After several months of doing this I have only mentioned the church or church attendance a couple times. This post gave me some ideas for how to do so more often. Thank you!