Thou shalt update thy blog sites

Herbert Cooper finds a comfortable spot at a local Starbucks, where he types out his daily blog missive amid the sights and sounds of the busy coffee bar.

His laptop is as much a fixture at the table as the prerequisite mocha Frappucino or vanilla latte.

Tim Richardson and Rick Thompson often blog at least once a week from their church offices, while Barry Cohen blogs every other week in his office at the temple.

By blogging, the three pastors and a rabbi keep up a steady stream of conversation that goes well beyond their pulpits and temple bimah.

"I feel like I'm making an impact on people's lives besides getting up on the weekend and preaching and teaching,” said Cooper, who is senior pastor of People's Church, 800 E Britton Road.

Cohen, rabbi at Temple Bnai Israel, said he started his blog for similar reasons, hoping to interact with his congregants and others on a broader level.

"With my blog, I really hope for a greater exchange of ideas, and maybe we can create a virtual dialogue,” he said.

Cory Miller is a Southern Baptist communications director who helps churches incorporate technology into their ministry activities. He said blogs take church Web sites to another level.

These Web journals by clergy and staff members often provide meaningful online conversations and give people a greater glimpse of the leaders' personalities.

"A typical Web site is one-way. Blogging is two-way. A lot of blogs are like online communities,” said Miller, who operates www.churchcommunicationspro.com.

He said blogs by religious leaders have "exploded” due to the relative ease and affordability of the Web logs.

"I tell them if you can operate Microsoft Word, you can write and maintain a blog. You can start publishing your views to the world. It's that easy.”

Cooper said he started his blog in January at the encouragement of a friend, Clark Mitchell, pastor of Journey Church in Norman. He said he thought the blog would help members of his growing church get to know him better.

"As the church gets larger, it gets hard to get to know everybody,” said Cooper, 32.

He has found that people in and outside the church read the blog, which he updates each weekday. He said he tries to be consistent by always blogging in the morning.

"It doesn't take long just to sit down and write. You don't want to do a novel, just a paragraph,” he said, laughing.

Cooper said he enjoys hearing from other pastors, who often e-mail him after reading his blog.

Church members also comment on his blog topics that include his thoughts about family, leadership, the church's recent five-year anniversary and tidbits about himself.

"I wrote about taking my wife out for a date night, and a lady came up to me after church this week and said, ‘I told my husband that he needed to take me out on a date just like you took your wife,” Cooper said. "That was great.”

The one thing he wants to do is promote positive message — nothing negative.

"I've read a lot of pastors' blogs. A lot of bloggers go negative, and some of them are venting about church problems,” he said.

"I don't use it as a way to vent or to correct church people. I don't use it to air dirty laundry. I use it to encourage people, to let them know about my thinking, my leadership. It's not my style to be negative. I make mine very positive.”

Cohen, 38, said he also began blogging in January, for several reasons.

As a journalist with the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix at one time, Cohen wrote op-ed pieces on a regular basis. He said his blog enables him to again write timely commentary on a variety of issues.

"In the past, I was bound to writing a column in our (Temple B'nai, 4901 N Pennsylvania) bulletin every other month. This is a way for me to comment quickly on issues.”

Cohen said his blog also allows him to talk about topics that he would not address in a sermon, such as reactions made to a statement by President Bush or political issues.

"I don't want to abuse my bimah (a raised platform in the sanctuary),” he said.

The blog, however, is great way to share opinions on such topics.

"There's an official disclaimer that this is my opinion. It's