Please, I need you to respond to this blog entry! I have been asked to contribute to a workshop about “blogging” at our Every Nation World Conference coming up in Manila 18-22 July 07, and I need your help to make sure that my thoughts are’nt just some cyberspace illusion disconnected from reality.
Could you answer any one or more of the five questions by “reply” below (replies can be anonymous):
- How did you first hear about my “Wolfi’s View from London” blog?
- How often do you read this or other blogs? How often would you like a blog to be updated? (Daily, once, twice a week?)
- What is your connection to reading this blog? (Every Nation London church member, past member, other?)
- Which two previous blog entries on this site are an example of what you are most interested in reading regularly? Why?
- If you could add/change one thing about this blog, what would it be?
Any feedback will help…thanks…
Wolfi's View from London 
1. Pastor Wolfi mentioned a few times during the service, but I actually stumbled across it for the first time by doing a google word search on a visiting speaker that had preached at EN London.
2. Weekly or when something important happens that you want to comment about (paricularly on current affairs).
3. Every Nation London Church member.
4. Current affairs, EN London, sermon previews.
5. This blog seems fine; there is only so much you can change (we’re still waiting for better technology to do more creative stuff). However, can one subscribe to it (RSS feed) in order to get updates automatically?
1. It was mentioned in church, but I first heard of it from a friend who said it was mentioned on a leaders e-mail
2. Only when I think about it, generally once every two weeks-month
3. Church member
4. Actually I only read this blog, not sure why I haven’t looked at the others.
5. It needs more comments, but thats not really something you can change. the material is interresint and informative. The presentation is great. the blogs had 4700 hits so it must have something good. Would it be possible to get an e-mail or something like that to say the blog has been updated?
1. I found it through the link on the church website, http://www.everynation.co.uk. I also knew from other blogs I’d visited.
2. I probably check your blog quite sporadically – often it just comes to mind when I’m having a lunch break and have some time to read a few entries in one sitting. Or sometimes when you’ve mentioned something in a sermon I remind myself to check it out. So on average, I’d say weekly, sometimes a bit more if there’s special reason too!
As to how often I’d like a blog updated… it depends on the type of blog, but generally I think it’s the other way round – how often do you have something interesting you really want to commit to “paper” ? There are different kinds of blog – some for regular timed updated, others for more ‘fluid’ thoughts and feelings as they come. I think your blog started as the latter of those, but has migrated a bit to the former (see point 5!) Generally I don’t think I would expect a blog to be updated daily/weekly/any fixed time period – it’s for when you have the “flow” and just have to write it!!
3. My connection is as an Every Nation London member, and also someone who enjoys writing and reading thought-provoking blogs in general. (Mine is teapotblog.blogspot.com)
4. Errrrr… not really sure. I’m probably more excited to read the ones that seem from the title more ‘spontaneous’ like “Some leadership thoughts…” and the “naked men on London buses” kind of thing, than the more sort of ‘event’-oriented ones previewing sermons… with the spontaneous ones I feel like I get more insight into how you think, and what inspires you to write, than the ones that are planned for a specific moment. (Not that they’re bad either!)
5. To change… I’d probably think about what the purpose is for writing this blog – maybe separate it into two separate streams, one for things that relate specifically to what we’re doing as a church, (eg, sermon preview, the fasting notes, news about events, church-plants) – this one you might feel like updating regularly – weekly or so. And another one which is really purely “Wolfi’s View” – with all the thoughts and inspirations that you feel like writing about at any given moment – no schedule for how often you’d write this – just when you feel you have a view that is worth sharing. (eg, the men on buses! 10 years of Tony Blair… sometimes the immediate response to something that day in the news…)
This last one is what I think the blog is really for – it’s the “freedom of expression” part where everyone can present their unique viewpoint to the world that I think has made blogs take off so much over the last year or two.
1. Curiously, I think I first found it from finding the global ‘Every Nation Leaders’ blog and you’d posted a link on there, but it could have also been the link from the everynation.co.uk site.
2. I’ll tend to check blogs about once a week. But also use the RSS feed (Sergio/Steve) at https://wolfinlondon.wordpress.com/feed/ to keep up on any updates.
As for the updates themselves, once a week or once fortnight is entirely sufficient, otherwise it’s very easy for me to feel I have to stick “something on the blog” which is often nowhere near as readable as when I “have something to share”!
3. Every Nation Member
4. Pretty much all the “Wolfi’s View on…” ones are the posts which have perhaps offered the most fresh insight. I suppose that’s because they contain content which you wouldn’t really share in church, or at least, you wouldn’t have time to unpack in a church service environment…
The “sermon preview” ones I don’t really tend to read as much. Since, by the time I’ve got round to reading them the sermon has already been preached so there’s normally not much content that’s new. But generally, most posts have something that’s interesting 😉
5. Personally, I’ve started using Facebook as the main way in which people now access my blog content (as you can set Facebook up to ‘mirror’ this blog) as that’s probably a more ‘interactive’ environment in line with “where the people are”… this week anyway!
thanks for the helpful replies so far…keep them coming please…
1. Heard about it in church
2. Read it about once a week, over lunch.
3. Church member
4. Wolfi’s view on Zim (Apr19th), Scouting out the Land in Stockholm, Fasting Day thoughts.
5. I don’t know much about blogging but here are my main thoughts. As it stands its great, however, I’d like to see some more comments and thoughts put down and open to challenge. After all a blog is a boigraphical log, its the authors thoughts, values, hopes and dreams put down for the world to see. I’d like to see some more comments about current affairs, discussions about newsworthy articles from the Christian press, testimonies from around the UK etc. Yeah i know, its a big job and all that but i would find that interesting (and more importantly encouraging). I find encuragement from hearing about the struggles brothers are facing. It strengthens my resolve in a weird kind of way…..
1. Word of mouth
2. I read peoples’ blogs about once a week, any more than that is too much – too much insight/inspiration to chew on and it just gets lost in the rush.
3. EN London church member / staff
4. I loved the one about men on london buses and the ones about current affairs – they make me think.
5. I think putting promos for church stuff on here should be styled more along the lines of “this is WHY I (Wolfi) am excited about this (i.e. Wolfi’s View)” rather than speaking as the “voice of Every Nation London”.
1. Wolfi mentioning it at church but coming across it on the EN website reminded me about it.
2. Probably not more than once a week, though its definitely a more productive alternative to facebook!
3. EN church member.
4. ‘I found this great porn site’ got my attention! The ones that interest me the most are issues such as this that Christians otherwise tend to avoid talking about.
5. I didn’t understand why anyone would bother reading another person’s blog and admittedly i didn’t know what a blog was until quite recently but these are actually really good and my blog prejudices are beginning to crumble before my very eyes. I can’t think of any ways they can be improved other than maybe featuring ‘Wolfi’s view on…’ more regularly. I find these entries relevant and amusing to read and they definitely make me think!
Hey Wolfi. This is a great site. To be honest I’m a new visitor to your blog – hence i won’t respond to the questions. However, you might check out the following link. I saw it posted on Rick Warren’s “Ministry Toolbox”:
“Most linked to blogs in the blogosphere – Technorati lists the most referenced blogs in the blogosphere on its Web site. It may help you understand what people are blogging about these days.” (http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/)
Hi Wolfi, thanks for the heads up on the blog!
1 – I heard about this blog from you at church on Sunday
2 – This is the first time I have “tuned” in…I think a weekly blog is a great idea, and/or when there is something topical to tackle ie what’s happening in the world/London/controversial events – topics that will be talked about at work over the water cooler kind of thing!
3 – Every Nation Church member
4 – This is the first time I have read this blog.
5 – I would be keen to get a regular email update/reminder in my inbox that a new blog has been added
Great work so far! Good luck with Date Talk! I’d be keen to read all about it…also, any chance you could add pictures to your blog (as and when appropriate?).
Lau
1. Heard about it for a long time before you actually created it 😉
2. Depends how busy I am. Sometimes a couple of times a week, sometimes once, sometimes less than that. I think the author updates it when they have something to see, and the reader reads it when they have some time and are looking for some inspiration or connection. I actually like it if there’s a few posts to catch up on – although too many and they lose their impact.
3. Church friend who values your input.
4. Leadership thoughts – as great input, and the “Wolfi’s view”- as good comment on current affairs and helps get to know what’s inside. The Fasting series I also found really good while we were doing the prayer and fasting week,
5. It’s a fine line but it might be good to separate out the sermon previews and church life stuff to a separate ‘London Life’ blog for people interested in what’s going on and then this really does become a space for your personal views, not just what’s happening in church.
Hi Wolfi,
I’m not much of a ‘blogger’ but here is my feedback.
1) I heard about your blog in church. I was curious.
2) Like I said, I’m not much of a blogger but it would be helpful to get updates once a week. (more for me, would be info overload and would lose impact in the inbox.)
3) I am a memeber of Every Nation London.
4) I look at general stuff on the site. (like the home page).
5) I think this blog is a great tool to get some more good insight from you. I would defo check it out again and would also probably look at the titles of the blogs to see if I would want to read further. Keep them punchy and fresh.
Hi Wolfi
Never “blogged” in my life, this is clever!
1. Heard you mention something about it before the prayer and fasting began.
2. Just recently read a friend’s blog for the first time. I’ve only logged onto yours a few times but really enjoy reading when I do. Update it whenever you are inspired and have something good to say. It’s good even to sit and read for a while if it’s good stuff.
3. Church member
4. We’ve just had chicken pox in our house for a whole month, and so blogs just keeping us up to date and feeling like we’re still part of things are great! (ie. what’s coming up, how the last sermon went etc). The real life stuff that needs to be addressed is excellent too – I enjoyed your one about the naked guys on the back of buses and how much better the camel man was; also comments on the gvt and decisions they’ve made.
5. I think this is very up-to-date of you to be doing this – thanks! 🙂