I love reading blogs and enjoy interacting on this blog and reading people’s comments. I just read that my blog made the list of Top 60 Church Blogs which was interesting, as I rarely check the stats of this blog. So reading how they determined the top 60 blogs by traffic, links etc. was quite interesting and I am glad it is read or linked to by people if it encourages them. The list of the 60 blogs had some wonderful blogs that I didn’t know existed and ended up scanning and reading several of them. I ended up spending 30 minutes of time doing so. Which brings me to the question I’ve been asking recently…

Could blogging, twittering, Facebook etc. be addictive – and if so, can it actually get in the way of mission? The answer may be obvious, but when we spend time doing something, it takes away from time we could be spending doing something else. So do the hours we can spend on blogs, twitter, Facebook and even reading about missional things on blogs take away too much from the time that we could actually be on mission and spending with people in real life?

I am not planning on stopping my reading of blogs, as they help me in mission. I love being encouraged and learn so much from other blogs. I love connecting with people on Facebook as well. But can it become such a part of our lives and even addictive to where the time spent reading about mission grows proportionally out of balance with the time we actually spend on mission? 30 minutes here. And hour there. it adds up. Am I spending proportional time on mission with people and not just reading about it? I think I have been guilty of this at times.

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My top StrengthsFinder strength is “Learner” – which means I get energized by taking in information. In StrengthsFinder the top five all build on each other.  So what I like as a “Learner” is not just random information as it needs to serve a purpose and tie into my other strengths. But what this means as a “Learner” is that I easily can get absorbed into reading blogs, twitter etc. primarily about mission, leadership and what other church leaders are learning and doing. I have found that I can easily sit and spend 30 minutes browsing and reading blogs.

Last week I was about to head home after a meeting, and I was looking forward to reading the comments of the thread going on Scot McKnight’s blog. However, I got a text message from a friend who told me that another friend’s band was playing in town that night. I initially was thinking I wouldn’t go, as I was looking forward to being home and catching up on blogs and this comment thread. But then I thought, “What the heck? I need to be out on mission, not just reading about mission or blogging about it.” So I went to the show and spent a couple of hours in great conversations.

Then I started thinking… over the course of a week when I spend hour… or two…. or four being on-line reading blogs or Facebook. I could have used part of that time – even an hour of it, to be having lunch or hang out with someone outside the church world.

As I am processing this I wonder:

- Do others struggle or think about this?

- How much time/hours per week would you estimate you spend on blogs, Facebook?

- How much time/hours per week spent with people outside church in comparison?

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