Maybe some of you have lost your way and need to reevaluate your purpose and motives for blogging, or 
maybe some of you have thought about blogging but you don't know how or what to blog about especially as 
a believer - I have just the right post for you. Something that will inspire you to greatness. 

If you’ve followed me for a while, you should know that I’m new to blogging in so many ways and I am still learning new things. For many months, I felt the loneliness in the blogger-sphere and wanted to give up. But I found inspiration, encouragement, friendship and got some gentle corrections and very good tips from many of you. I’m still not really good at writing, my funny accent causes me to spell thing the way I pronounce them, but I’m making progress. I actually wanted  to say that I make my living from talking (after all, 12 years as a radio host and 21 years as a pastor is a good excuse), but I realized that it was a poorer excuse. So, I guess the accent ‘thing’ did work en? 🙂

 

In any event, I really enjoy blogging. I enjoy meeting new people, reading, learning new things, and participating in uplifting discussions. But I still have lots of room for improvement. That’s why I am resurrecting this old post because it reminds me why I blog and how I can improve my work. But before that, I want to take the time to say thanks to all of you for coming along side of me on this journey.

May the Lord bless all of us in our endeavors to make Him famous!

I urge you to prayerfully consider these 15 blogging tips from John Newton. This is an article that Tony Reinke wrote many years ago and it is packed with valuable coaching tips on how to blog to edify your readers. There are 15 tips, but I will post 5 for the next 3 days. I strongly suggest going through at least five a day so that it is more profitable to you. If you want it all right away, you can find it here.

So, Here we go… the first five blogging tips from John Newton…

1. Bloggers should write to learn, to meditate, and to remember.

“I think you would likewise find advantage in using your pen more: write short notes upon the Scriptures you read, or transcribe the labors of others; make extracts from your favorite authors, especially those who, besides a fund of spiritual and evangelical matter, have a happy talent of expressing their thoughts in a clear and lively manner: you would find a continued exercise in this way would be greatly useful to form your own style, and help your delivery and memory” (2:76–77).

2. Bloggers should write to edify, therefore it is preferable to write simple truth than to spread eloquent trifles.

“Language and style, however, are but the dress. Trifles, however adorned, are trifles still. A person of spiritual discernment would rather be the author of one page written in the humble garb of Bunyan, upon a serious subject, than to be able to rival the sprightliness and elegance of Lady M. W. Montague, unless it could be with a view to edification” (2:16–17).

3. Bloggers should expect the well to run dry at times, and understand some of the personal factors that explain this barrenness.

“My silence has been sometimes owing to want of leisure; and sometimes when I could have found leisure, my harp has been out of tune, and I had no heart to write. Perhaps you are ready to infer, by my sitting down to write at last, that my harp is now well tuned, and I have something extraordinary to offer: beware of thinking so, lest you should be sadly disappointed” (2:206).

4. Women should be encouraged to blog for the benefit of the entire church, since they naturally write in a style more enjoyable, and less stilted, than men are normally capable of.

“I have often wished we had more female pens employed in the service of the sanctuary. . . . In the article of essay writing, I think many are qualified to succeed better than most men, having a peculiar easiness of style, which few of us can imitate” (2:16).

5. Magnify Christ in what you write.

“I trust my pen is chiefly devoted to the praise of Jesus your beloved, and so far as I succeed, I am sure what I write will be acceptable to you” (6:349).

15 Tips for blogging from John Newton – Part 2

15 Tips for blogging from John Newton – Part 3