Why should a pastor blog?  I’m a pastor, and for me this is a very serious question. It’s a serious question for a simple reason: I’m accountable for how I spend my time. I’m accountable to my elders and congregation; I’m accountable to my wife and children; and I’m ultimately accountable to Jesus Christ, to whom I shall one day give an account for not only “every careless word” (Matt. 13:36), but every wasted minute.

So it’s a serious question. But it’s also a complicated one, complicated because I have a limited amount of time and yet a seemingly unlimited number of demands on my time! (We all feel that way, don’t we?). Thus it’s a constant challenge to decide what to prioritize. And does blogging really rise to the top of the priority list?

As I reflected on this, I was grateful to read about the benefits of blogging from Michael Hyatt, President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers. In his post, “What I Have Learned in Four Years of Blogging,” he offered the following lessons (in brief):

1. Blogging helps me clarify my own thinking.
2. Blogging has given me first-hand experience with emerging technologies.
3. Blogging has provided me with a mechanism for instant feedback.
4. Blogging has given others a “peek behind the curtain.”
5. Blogging has given me a way to engage my employees.
6. Blogging has helped me bypass traditional media when necessary.
7. Blogging has made our company more visible.

Even more to the point are the comments of Abraham Piper, Web Content Editor at Desiring God, in his post, “6 Reasons Pastors Should Blog” (again, in brief):

1. To write.
2. To teach.
3. To recommend.
4. To interact.
5. To develop an eye for what is meaningful.
6. To be known.

Between these two lists, there’s plenty of helpful stuff to chew on. But I must say, I don’t find either list to provide an entirely compelling rationale for blogging for a pastor, for spending several hours a week (or more!) posting comments and managing a blog site. These benefits notwithstanding, doesn’t a pastor simply have to many other kingdom-expanding, time-consuming, people-oriented, soul-elevating activities to be about?

Reflecting on this question recently, a phrase of Scripture suddenly flashed into my mind: “as long as it is called ‘today’.” The phrase comes from Hebrews 3:

“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” (Heb. 3:12-14).

And at once it dawned on me: here in these verses I think we have a compelling rationale for a pastor to blog. Since the remarkable technology of blogging allows a pastor to fulfill this biblical imperative in a unique and even historically unprecedented way: Through regular blog posts, I can encourage others, as often as possible, wherever they are, whoever they are, to fight unbelief and hold fast to Jesus Christ till the end of their days and the end of days, as long as it is called ‘today.’ And that’s, I believe, a compelling rationale for a pastor to blog!