4 Biblical Strategies to Grow Your Christian Blog

God does not intend us to fumble around in our calling to online ministry. Try these four Biblical strategies to grow your Christian blog.

God does not intend us to fumble around in our calling to Christian ministry. Try these four Biblical strategies to grow your Christian blog.Did you see the S-word in my post title?  Did the word “strategy” make your stomach churn?  For some reason, many people, especially Christian women,  believe “Biblical”, “strategy” and “blog” cannot co-exist in the same sentence. If you want to grow your Christian blog, you may need a strategy attitude adjustment.

I’m not sure why this attitude exists.  Maybe because we think “strategy” equals “manipulation”. Or perhaps “self-promotion.”

The dictionary definition is

a plan or method for obtaining specific goal or result

So what is your specific goal to grow your Christian blog or ministry?  Is it to spread the gospel message of peace and hope?  To encourage others in their relationship with Christ?  To help them be more effective in reaching their own goals and dreams?

You might not think of those as “goals” or “results”.  They sound more like the dream God planted in your heart when you answered the call to jump into the world of online ministry.  If it’s your dream, is it not worth a specific plan and method to reach it?

I can’t imagine that God would entrust us with a big  assignment and then expect us to just fumble around, trying this and that until something sticks. Or until nothing sticks and we give up.

No, He wouldn’t do that to us, and He didn’t do it to the heroes of faith who literally accomplished dreams of Biblical proportions.  Here are four Biblical strategies you can use today to grow your Christian blog, ministry or business.

Provide solutions for personal needs

In Genesis 6, God tells Noah

I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them … So make yourself an ark … Everything on earth will perish.  But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you … Noah did everything just as God commanded him.  (NIV)

God did not make any promises to Noah about replenishing the earth or creating a new civilization.  He knew Noah as a man and father and met the need He knew would be first on Noah’s mind.  God provided a way to save Noah’s family.  Everything else … the animals, the birds, the food … came behind caring for Noah’s family.

And Noah’s response?  He did everything just as God commanded him.

Yea, I’m pretty sure if God told me He was destroying the earth and gave me a way to save my family, I would do everything He commanded, too!

To meet personal needs in our ministry, we need to know our audience as people, not just as readers.  When we know their struggles, we can write what they need to hear, not what we need to say.

Start small, then take steps to grow

Jesus left his disciples with a big mission … Go and make disciples.  But then in the first chapter of Acts, He gave them specific steps to accomplish the mission.

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised … you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. (NIV)

Stay where you are until I give you what you need.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (NIV)

Jerusalem = where you are now

Judea = your neighbors like you

Samaria = your neighbors not like you

The Ends of the Earth = everybody else

Does that sound like a plan we can follow now?  Get equipped, but don’t stay where we are comfortable.  Move out into the messy places and reach people not like us.  Take advantage of opportunities that make our eyes pop.

Engage people who can fill your gaps

Moses quite famously argued with God about his inability to speak eloquently, so God gave him a partner in Aaron to speak for him.  But Aaron was not the only one to help fill the gaps for Moses.  He had a mentor in his father-in-law, Jethro.  An apprentice in Joshua.  And an unsung hero in Hur, the behind-the-scenes guy who was always there in a pinch.

So who are the people we need to fill our gaps?  That starts with understanding our gaps, being real with ourselves about what we can and can’t do.  If we neglect to involve others in our ministry, trying to handle everything ourselves, we will only grow to our own capacity to handle it.  If Moses had tried to do it all himself, those Israelites might STILL be wandering around in the wilderness!

Put People before Projects

Oh this one is hardest for me!  In fact, I failed at it just today.  But Nehemiah was keenly aware of the needs of the people he was leading.  As they were rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, the people felt exposed and were threatened by their enemies while they were working.  Nehemiah had a solution:

From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah  who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. (NIV)

Imagine that.  Only half the people were actually working on the wall. And the ones who were working were carrying their weapons with them, some only working with one hand.  The productivity had to be horrible … it’s enough to make a project manager cry!

Nehemiah knew what I so often forget. Taking care of people is more important than getting things done.  When we put people over projects, the people notice. They are much more likely to follow a kind, compassionate leader than one who only cares about getting to the finish line.   It’s not that I don’t care about people.  It’s more like I get so consumed with the steps of the project that I fail to notice people who are hurting, frightened or just needing a loving touch.  I’m working on it.  I hope you are, too.

These examples show that being strategic does not need to be manipulative.  Strategy to grow your Christian blog is about understanding how you act impacts the way people respond.  It’s not self-promotional. Biblical strategy is focused on serving others first, so we have can influence people towards Christ.

MTAB squareAre you strategically pursuing your God-sized dream?

Or still fumbling around, trying to figure out your next right step?

Join me for the next session of the

More Than A Blog Ministry Master Plan course.

You’ll learn how to apply these and other Biblical strategies to our modern day ministries, and gain clarity, focus and confidence in your next steps.

Linking up with Holley Gerth at #CoffeeForYourHeart,  Jaime Weibel at #SittingAmongFriends,  Susan Mead at #DanceWithJesus, Dawn Klinge at #GraceandTruth and Holly Barrett at #TestimonyTuesday

15 thoughts on “4 Biblical Strategies to Grow Your Christian Blog”

    • And you do it well, Vickie!! Thanks for all you do for your readers, AND other writers. It’s nice to have you back after your break!

      Reply
  1. Hi, Christa!
    I’ve only been blogging for a little over a year. I knew nothing about blogging before I started, and I was not even very computer savvy. So, I’ve been learning a lot and “grow”ing along the way.
    These tips are very helpful. Thank you for being the unsung Hur-o for people like myself who need these little nudges in the right direction. 🙂

    Reply
    • Oh me too, Sarah! I am the worst at it. I rarely recognize it in the moment, but later, I truly mourn the opportunities I miss to connect and love on people. Let’s keep working on it!

      Reply
  2. Such good advice, thank you! I have heard lots of different strategies for blogging from lots of different sources, but I love that yours come straight from God’s Word. I’m working on that first one right now, although I hadn’t thought about it that way, and am starting small where God is calling me and trying to step out in faith when He leads me to ways He might want to grow my ministry. Thank you for encouraging me in that!

    Reply
    • I’m glad this gave you something to think about! We are good at seeking advice from God’s Word for our personal life and relationships, but don’t always think of how those same lessons apply to our ministry or business.

      Reply
  3. I especially love the recommendation to put people before projects. That’s hard to do, but oh, is it ever so important! Thank you for offering us Biblical strategies for our blogging pursuits.

    Reply
  4. Loved the start small portion. All of it was right on target. The part about putting people first not the projects made my heart sunk as soon as I read it because I truly believe it this. I truly work very hard to respond quickly to everyone and everything as much as I can but it still gets hard and some days I feel so bad when I took two days to respond to a email instead of one because I was concentrating on writing content but truth is I wouldn’t have content to write without readers.
    Great post! Love all the insight and all the verses!

    Reply
  5. Such a great post with great strategies! Especially liked the start small and take steps to grow. I think especially for me it’s so easy to wish you had more than appreciate what you have right now.

    Reply
  6. Hello Christa…I know this post is over a year old but I just found it rolling through my Pinterest page. I really enjoyed it and these same ideas have been on my mind too. I am a planner and a very new blogger, still getting my feet wet, so to speak. But, I always thought God wanted us to plan and to me that means strategy goes hand in hand with that. Thank you for writing this!

    Reply
  7. Christa!!! Thank you so much for this post!!! I’m currently taking some time to truly reevaluate my blog. Everything you said at the beginning of this post described me to a tee. I often feel so conflicted with all the ideas of creating a platform and the ideas of ministry. I want to make sure I am keeping the focus on the One who called me and not in myself! This post helped me so much!!!! Thank you!

    Reply
    • So glad this was helpful to you, Emily! It can feel conflicting and we all have to find the balance that feels right to us. It can be different for you than it is for me and that’s ok!

      Reply

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