With about 60 million adults reading blogs these days, it’s becoming increasingly important – or at least more common – for pastors to start writing blogs. Church leaders such as Dave Ferguson are finding that these online journals called Web logs, or blogs, facilitate exactly the type of interaction they’re seeking.

“As a leader, I am always looking for ways to leverage my influence to encourage churches to be reproducing churches,” says the lead pastor of Community Christian Church (CCC) in Naperville, Ill., and “spiritual entrepreneur” with NewThing, a church-planting network. “I know that, with a single post, I can influence hundreds or thousands of people while still going about my job the rest of the day. I have found blogging to be a great way to get the message out to the people at Community and the NewThing Network, but also the entire world.”

Ferguson has been blogging regularly since October 2005. “Since I’m a die-hard Chicago White Sox fan, one of my first posts was about the White Sox World Series Championships,” he shares. It was a challenge to work it into his routine, like anything new, he says. But he’s had no problem finding things to say – in fact, just the opposite.

“I enjoy it so much that I often end up putting it too high on my priority list,” he admits. “One of the challenges is making sure that I don’t communicate something via my blog that needs to be first communicated to others face-to-face.”

But for the information that is conveyed just fine – or better – via the written word, blogging is the way to do it, says Mark Driscoll, the preaching pastor and founder of Mars Hill Church in Washington state. He says he’s amazed at the amount of influence bloggers can have.

“I like the ability to speak to the world without the typical time lag and filters – the nature of communication via the Net has changed the world,” he shares. “What I love about blogging is that it allows what I have to say to be instant, constant, global and permanent. And what I dislike about blogging is that my critics have the same ability to misconstrue the truth of what I believe, take the shots and malign me.”

Having a blog does give readers the ability to respond to your thoughts, challenging your opinions publicly – though, as the author, you can control the comments your posts receive. And this interactive communication can bring about good, Ferguson believes. He says it’s very important that pastors are “leading the conversation” about your church.