Rhys at Backburner: Why I don’t like your blog.
IMonk: 10 reasons I won’t read your blog
Hmmm.
My blog beefs are less about content and more about presentation.
1) When I go to a blog that has more ads on it than posts, I’m not likely to return.
Poor design, tech cute, and ads running amok smells of desperation and clutter, like the junk drawer six months after I promised myself I’d clean it out and didn’t.
2) Sentences. Sentences are our friends.
I get twitchy reading content that hasn’t seen the shift key. I can handle typos, occasional grammatical errors and perverse mishandling of punctuation.
I make more than my share of mistakes, mistakes can be looked past.
a sentence started without a capital irritates me. starting the next sentence the same way irritates me even more. by the third sentence, i’ve clicked away. i’ve not only clicked away, i’ve headed outside to stomp. no capital letters is as annoying as capital letter yelling.
I don’t expect bloggers to be the epitome of linguistic fussiness.
1) Over use of the vernacular of the peasantry.
A rare well placed swear word adds impact. Sprinkle swear words liberally and I’m left wondering if you are in junior high testing out new found freedom.
Swearing is so stuck.
Do you remember telling your first dirty joke? It was awesome because you really knew cognitively and emotionally you were telling a dirty joke. The wiring connected and you took a step toward adulthood that was fraught with possibility.
Most of us get past that moment. Grownups stuck there lose my attention.
2) Ministers who post their sermons.
I have no idea why this bugs me so much, it’s not like I haven’t seen hundreds in the years I’ve blogged.
Maybe that’s the problem. I’ve actually read a couple and don’t remember any of them.
Posts I remember, sermons I forget.
When a minister posts a sermon, I’m unconsciously struck by ego and/or insecurity, which I don’t really think is the point of posting a sermon now, is it?
That’s quite unfair, but there it is. Maybe this quirk is some unresolved childhood trauma I haven’t purged. Maybe not. There really aren’t many good preachers around, even though lots of people preach for a living.
Spoken word and written word have completely different delivery systems.
A bad sermon preached well is one thing, a bad sermon stuck on a blog as a post is just bad.
I am in awe of the work ministers and priests do, for a few the Sunday sermon is the play of the week, but not for most who are called to serve others. I respect anyone who finds divine presence in our everyday and awe dissolves when I click over to find last weeks sermon, or this weeks homily up on the blog getting a test drive.
I’m not going to read a preacher who sees Word Press or Blogspot as a pulpit, I’m not sitting in a pew.
It’s a blog.
So what’s your beef?
Published 10 months ago
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My beef is with bloggers who don’t number their outlined points correctly, i.e., like 1), 2), 1), 2) above.
Actually, although my blog is all over the board,it’s title suggests homiletics, so I kinda figure I have license to post a sermon. Gots nuthin’ to do with insecurity. If it’s along the lines of something I would’ve written in a post, I’m not sure why posting it would be out of line.
LOL, great post.
I hear you on the Shift Key! I won’t even try to read something that just looks like a big block of type with no relaxing spaces, whether it’s on a blog or in my own comments section.
As I learned in Advertising — “White Space Is Good”.
Hey Mike,
Just a personal quirk. I know I make lots of mistakes.
Your posts aren’t your sermons, a post containing sermon material isn’t the same thing. Those I don’t mind at all.
Just a plain sermon posted is like reading a concordance or footnotes.
Insecurity or ego is my projection, you’re off the hook.:^)
Mike, your comment was funny!
Do many ministers post their sermons? At least using a blog?
I only know of one.
Maybe there are more.
Excellent post. I agree completely. May I not be found asthetically offensive.
I’ve been thinking a little bit about your comments on the sermon blog, especially since I have one.
I don’t know if the criteria for a good post is memorability, since I don’t remember most posts of any type that I read.
But I think you’re on to something: sermons are local. I think it has less to do with the quality or polish of a sermon, or even if someone is a “good” preacher, as much as it does that it’s for a particular community in a particular place. I think preachers are good if they are genuinely connected with that community and able to open Scripture in a way that is meaningful for that particular group, even if it’s not good in a polished sense. I think you’re right that something is lost when a sermon is removed from that context.
It’s a good question as to why ministers do this. Maybe it’s that so much of our life goes into these. I know if I find a preacher I like, I like being able to read or listen to what they’re up to. Maybe it is pride or insecurity - none of us are above this. Worth thinking about - reminds me of a conversation we had sitting in a cottage a few years ago now! I think much of the same conversation took place.