Not a Camouflaged Soul

Category: Social Media

  • Blogifying Part 2: Why Do I Blog?

    In my last post, I wrote about some of my blogging missteps and what platform is working for me now. In this post, I’m going to delve into my reasons for blogifying.

    This post is inspired by posts I read by Seth Godin, Michael Hyatt, and Kyle Chowning. In their respective posts, they write about why they blog, and why they don’t. Basically, they all seem to say that they blog because they choose to, not for readership or popularity. I can relate to these sentiments.

    I, too, write to get my own thoughts written down, virtually. As Michael Hyatt says…

    In short, I blog for me. (But you are welcome to read along!)

    But as I said in my last post, I see this blog as a ministry. I am a vocational pastor that focuses on music and outreach, so my other devotional-type thoughts (as well as my occasional meanderings about culture, tech, social media, and other areas) do not have a regular forum. This blog provides me an outlet to talk about the Christian life and to address topics that present in my life when they occur.

    I believe God uses everything we do for His glory as long as we allow Him to work through the gifts and talents He gives us. I have always loved language and writing, and I feel that God periodically gives me a unique view of His Word and life in general.

    As the name of this blog implies, I am passionate about being an “obvious” Christian. I believe we who follow Christ have nothing to fear or of which to be ashamed. I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), and that fuels my writing at every level. Now, I may not always write about scripture or society’s woes, but as a follower of Christ, my life is a living testimony of the saving grace of Jesus. Thus, everything on this blog points to my Creator.

    We all have plenty to write about. There are 168 hours in every week. Every minute of our lives is full of one thing: LIVING. I just pay attention and write down what peaks my interest.

    Next… dealing with ideas.

  • Blogifying Part 1: Mistakes and WordPress

    I’ve decided to blog about blogifying for a couple of posts.

    Why blog about blogging?

    Let me make this point very clearly: I am NOT an expert. I have been doing this for a while, but I am just learning. However, I have decided to document these processes because…

    1. I consider this blog a type of online journal. I describe important events, outline milestones, and record thoughts and opinions that can be accessed for years to come. How all this came to be seemed, at least to some extent, noteworthy.

    2. There are some people I know that have indicated they would like to get started in blogging, but are unsure how to proceed. I have made some missteps along the way, but I believe I have found a pretty good system and intend to stick with it for the foreseeable future. Maybe I can help people add to the society of ideas while avoiding the mistakes I made.

    3. Another aspect of number 2. I truly consider this blog as a ministry, and would love to see others take advantage of blogging to further the distribution of the Gospel in particular and Christian living in general.

    Mistakes

    I have had Not a Camouflaged Soul on a couple different platforms before this one. I started out on Blogger. I was never pleased with the formatting of my text and the interface seemed clunky. Back then, I was without a reliable computer, so I was attempting to blog from my Samsung Blackjack. No matter what I tried, my posts never achieved a cohesive look.

    The biggest leap occurred when I accidently posted a blog from iWeb on my brand new iMac from work. I had a MobileMe account, and one day I put together a basic website in iWeb and hit publish to see what it would do. As it turned out, my MobileMe subscription came with web hosting (much of my techy-ness comes from happy mistakes). I thought, “Hey, that’s neat!” So I started messing with it and found a template I really liked. Then I contacted Church Media Hosting to acquire my domain, and voilà: NoCamo version 1.0.

    I got some really good traction out of that site, but I saw its limitations early on. The primary limitation was a big one: in order to update, I had to be physically at my iMac. I actually continued to use Blogger for a while as an instantly-updateable “iBlog.” I would run an RSS feed from Blogger to a page of the website for updates when I was on the road or when it wasn’t convenient to be at my Mac. Then, when I was able, I would update iWeb with my iBlog content to make it an “official” post.

    Platform

    Then, a few weeks ago, I got on WordPress just to look around. Apparently, I set up a profile some time ago and forgot about it. I got to looking around and realized it was what I was looking for.

    I am a newly minted WordPress junkie. I love the interface, the tools, the reliability. I am able to update from any computer I choose, from my iPhone, even instantly add audio from any phone. Things I only dreamed of doing before.

    Now, many of the über-bloggers I read, like John Saddington, Michael Hyatt, Carlos Whittaker, Scott Williams, and  Jonathan Acuff utilize a customizable, self-hosted version of WordPress that is tempting in many ways. But I feel that, at this time, I am content to live within the boundaries of the free version that requires virtually no upkeep. I just write the content and it looks great in spite of me!

    In the weeks to come, I will likely do some more tweaking. Specifically, I plan to move my domain from 1.0 to 2.0. I am also considering a couple other custom options, but time will tell.

    Next: why do I blog?

  • Flame On

    This is an updated version of a post from NoCamo 1.0 on October 20, 2009.

    There is an aspect of Twitter that is on my last nerve.

    I like to read tweets, not just from people I follow, but from people that ALSO follow people I follow. But I am finding more and more examples of Christians following people and commenting on things they say just to stir stuff up.

    Here’s how it breaks down…

    Someone tweets something that is meant to inspire or instruct. A meaningful thought regarding doctrine, commitment to Christ, leadership, and the like. Someone else reads the 140 characters or less, takes the thought out of context (what little context there is in a tweet), and either a)writes a blog post of a couple hundred words about the tweet’s author’s inaccuracy, or b)sends our a series of tweets in the same vein. The link to the post (see “a”) is tweeted by the dissenter, and others @mention the individual and the original tweeter, calling the latter out for their crimes. The ugliness spreads.

    How does this help the body of Christ?

    Let’s assume the criticizer is right. Does Twitter harassment help the “offender” see the error of their ways, or just give them cause to block their critics, only fueling the onslaught? My Bible says that God’s servant “must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness (2 Timothy 2:24-26).” Stirring up a virtual mob on the basis of a preference or a syntax choice is NOT in keeping with brotherly love and a united Church.

    NOTE: I am not saying that having a conversation of opposing views on Twitter is necessarily wrong. What I am saying is that the intention of virtually slaying a foe should be absent from the “twiscussion.”

    How we, as followers of Christ, deal with these situations is what matters. Do we FLAME ON? Or do we love them with the love of Jesus?

    PS – This applies to Facebook and all other social media, too.

    For more on this subject…

    Let the twiscussion begin…