The Blogging Church Archive

Welcome to the Archive

Thanks for stopping by! This site is the archive of The Blogging Church blog, which launched in August 2005. Over the next year, we used this blog to share stories about writing the book, The Blogging Church.

The blog featured podcasts with many terrific blogging pastors, as well as updates on the book's progress and requests for feedback and ideas. Feel free to browse the full archive while you're here.

The book is now finished and available from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. If you'd like more information about the book, visit Leave It Behind, the blog by Brian Bailey, or TerryStorch.com.

Enjoy the blog, enjoy the book, and be sure to stay in touch!

A new site is coming

The book writing process is officially over and the final edits are complete! In fact, I won't see the book again until it's printed and shipped in January. Of course, I've already thought of a couple of things I wish were in there but aren't, but I'll be sharing those periodically as the release date nears.

In the meantime, I thought this would be a good time to do some work on BloggingChurch.com. The site has been a great help during the writing process, and hopefully you've enjoyed it as well. Terry recorded some terrific podcasts that were enlightening, entertaining, and provided some great content for the book. Your comments and feedback were also much appreciated.

Now, I'd like to continue that conversation on my blog, LeaveItBehind.com. I think it's best to pour your writing and ideas into a single blog if at all possible and Leave It Behind is my long-term home. I don't want to simply duplicate content in both locations, especially since many of you subscribe to both blogs already.

In the next couple of weeks, BloggingChurch.com will transition into a site dedicated to the release of the book. In addition to the required information about how to actually buy it, there will be links to the blog archive, Leave It Behind and Terry's site, and other resources. Two of these resources are already live - a page featuring many blogging pastors and church leaders and a page collecting comments, press, and eventually, reviews of the book.

With the next post, I will be transitioning the BloggingChurch.com RSS feed to pull from Leave It Behind, but I want to give everyone a chance to unsubscribe before then. If you want the latest news on the book and updates on blogging churches, just stay subscribed to this feed or grab the Leave It Behind feed.

Of course, the book news will now come with a price - you'll have to read about the latest Apple products, tales of fatherhood, endless references to 37Signals and Robert Scoble, numerous Top 10 Lists, and random thoughts about many other things. Hopefully it will still be worth it!

If you have always subscribed to both blogs, you officially have permission to unsubscribe from BloggingChurch.com guilt free!

Stay tuned over the next few days for some fun updates about the book. Thanks to everyone for helping to make it a reality!

Blogging Pastor's new book

Mark Batterson, a great blogging pastor and close friend, has been a big influence for The Blogging Church. In fact, Mark is one of the featured interviews with blogging pastors.

Well, Mark just released his new book, In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day. Wow, this book is amazing. Since I had the privilege to get my hands on this before it released I was working off a PDF. So I say, as I pressed the button to turn the page I could not wait to read what was next. This is the type of book that gets you thinking about everything. I know that it challenged me, and I am sure it will do the same for you.

Don't wait, visit Amazon.com today to pick up your copy.

Baby steps to a book

The long process of making a book a reality took a big step forward this week: I finished the first round of edits and returned the draft to the publisher!

About three weeks ago, I received the edited version of the manuscript. The publisher hired a professional copy editor who did a fantastic job. The changes weren't major, but the improvement was. The text is much tighter now, with fewer extraneous words and convoluted sentences. He also trimmed some of my overused phrases, such as "One of the many ways" and "Blogging allows you to". It was a true pleasure to see my words made so much better by a true professional.

When you receive the revised draft, your job is to go through all of the edits and approve each one, or modify them as you see fit. The editor also inserts questions throughout for you to respond to: usually requests for clarification or pointing out that some text introducing the next section is needed. In addition, he does some basic fact checking, makes things consistent throughout (Internet or internet) and even tests web addresses for accuracy.

At first, I was overwhelmed by the sight. On my screen was the digital equivalent of 225 pages with red pen marks on them. After working through the first chapter, though, I started to see how much better the text was after the changes and really appreciate the seasoned edits. It's not too often in our professional lives that someone else comes in after you with the sole purpose of improving your work, while you still get all the credit :) It's like book therapy or something.

This round of edits carried some additional pressure because it was the last chance to make significant changes or additions. I rewrote quite a bit of the Preface, but the rest of the book remained largely the same. Hopefully, I won't discover a brilliant missing chapter or anecdote in the next few months.

Next, the publisher incorporates all of the edits into page proofs. For the first time, I'll be able to see what the text will look like on the page, with the final styles and layout. I'll receive these pages in late September and have three weeks to read through them and make all last minute tweaks and corrections. After that, the book goes to print for release in January!

Right now, the endorsements, forward, and cover are being finalized. I'll share those as soon as possible!

Pre-order The Blogging Church from Amazon.com

The I's Have It!

Thanks for all of the great feedback on whether The Blogging Church should include an index. The comments were overwhelming in favor of an index and so when the book is published in January, you'll find an index right where you'd expect! Without your votes and persuasive arguments, I most likely would've turned down the index, so you guys really made a difference.

Of course, all of you who voted for an index are now contractually obligated to purchase the book since it will indeed have an index. Just submit your receipts for verification and I'll update your records :)

Thanks again for the help!

The index question

One of the questions about The Blogging Church that needs to be answered this week is whether it should have an index. Most of you are avid readers and more than a few have written books yourselves. Do you have an opinion on this one?

My instinct is to not have one. There is a small expense involved (it is usually created by a professional), but the main reasons are: I rarely use an index, the chapters are very specific and self-contained, and I've read a number of non-fiction books recently that didn't have one.

On the other hand, an index is still quite common and I assume many people rely on it.

Here's your chance to be heard! What do you think? Yes or no?

Another blogging pastor...

Rick Warren

Pre-order from Amazon

You can now pre-order your copy of The Blogging Church!

Early this morning, the book became available for pre-order from Amazon.com. Not only that, but it's priced to move! The official price of the paperback was set at $19.99 a month ago and Amazon is offering it at 35% off - just $12.97. That's quite a price-per-word ratio - each dollar buys you nearly 5,000 words :)

I had no idea the book would be available so soon, as the cover art, endorsements, and final edits are still to come. I remember reading when Naked Conversations first appeared on Amazon back in August. I had probably written about 200 words and I was trying to imagine what that would feel like.

I have to say, it feels really good :)

Thanks to all of you for your support and enthusiasm for this book. I hope it is a tool that truly helps make a difference in your church and your community.

Pre-order The Blogging Church

The One Thing, No. 5

I'm thrilled to announce the fifth contributor to the final chapter, The One Thing. He is a best-selling author, entrepreneur, start-up maestro, A-List blogger, and integral part of the original Macintosh team at Apple...

Guy Kawasaki

I have read many of Guy's books and have loved his work for years, so I was truly honored when Guy agreed to write a contribution for The Blogging Church. Who better to write about blog evangelism than one of the first corporate evangelists?

Other contributors:

Kem Meyer

Merlin Mann

Ben Arment

Jeremy Wright

TOC

Here is the 99.9% final table of contents for The Blogging Church. There is still room for improvement before we go to print, though, so if you have any feedback on the titles and how they could be improved, let us know!

Preface

1. The Story of Blogging
2. Why Blog

5 Questions with Mark Driscoll

3. Share News
4. Cast Vision

5 Questions with Perry Noble

5. Reach Out
6. Connect Your Staff

5 Questions with Craig Groeschel

7. Learn from Others
8. Spread the Word

5 Questions with Church Marketing Sucks

9. Get Started
10. Build a Better Blog

5 Questions with Tony Morgan

11. Build a Really Bad Blog
12. Feed Your Head: RSS

5 Questions with Greg Surratt

13. Podcasting
14. Warning Labels

5 Questions with Mark Batterson

15. Built to Last
16. The One Thing