In hopes of impacting culture from their laptops, pastors, church leaders, culturally concerned Christians, beginning and advanced bloggers are gathering today at this year’s annual GodBlogCon 2007 in Las Vegas, Nev.
“New media is such an effective medium for engaging the broader culture,” said blogger and one of the original GodBlogCon founders Matt Anderson, “and this conference reinforces the idea that Christians should use media to reach out to the broader culture.”
The Biola-sponsored GodBlogCon, known as the only Christian blogging conference in the nation, converged yesterday and today and seeks to equip Christians to engage today’s culture through new media. What began as a proposal just three years ago by nationally known author, radio talk show host, and blogger Hugh Hewitt turned into a yearly conference. In 2005, 100 bloggers came; now, it’s taken a position of national acclaim.
In Hewitt realizing that “blogging would soon become the next printing press,” GodBlogCon became one of the first groups to do any conference regarding blogging. Though it was hosted on campus for the past two years, GodBlog packed up for Las Vegas this year. That’s because the CEO of BlogWorld Expo called Dustin Steeve, GodBlog’s 2007 coordinator and Biola junior, and offered an opportunity that was too great to miss.
BlogWorld Expo, one of the premier blogging conventions in the nation, gave GodBlog a small island booth located at the front of the Las Vegas Convention Center, free of charge. According to Steeve, this action was in part due to the fact that GodBlogCon has the recognition for being one of the first conferences regarding the world of blogging.
“I feel Las Vegas and its glitz and glam represents what many Christians see as new media today,” Steeve said, “– very trend related and full of empty promises.” GodBlogCon, however, believes there is something to blogging, something more than just “empty promises.”
“We have come because we have a purpose, and because we bring a purpose,” said Steeve. GodBlogCon works in this belief to bring forward the message of Christianity. According to Steeve, “It becomes about bringing the truest, most beautiful story ever told. To bring the meaning that is so desperately longed for.”
Biola University faculty members John Mark Reynolds and Paul Spears are both speakers at this year’s conference. Reynolds will be speaking on tips for the maintenance of a meaningful blog and Spears will be speaking on the effort and dedication needed to maintain the significance of one’s blog site.
Reynolds and Spears have long practiced what they preach. They, along with other members of the Torrey Honors Institute faculty, maintain a robust blog site at scriptoriumdaily.com. The site features posts on everything from the politics of torture to medieval theologians, and is read by thousands of people daily. According to Steeve, Scriptorium has reached over 112,000 readers total.
“Blogging gives the scholar direct access to the audience,” said Dr. Fred Sanders, one of Scriptorium’s bloggers. With a growing religious illiteracy amongst the general public, it is becoming even more important that highly trained Christian thinkers can put information out very rapidly, said Sanders.
Blogging, or as bloggers refer to it, new media, has been increasingly rapidly across the nation in the past three years. According to blogworldexpo.com, over 12 million American adults blog on a regular basis, with over 120,000 being created daily.
“We believe new media represents a catalyst of change in tradition media,” said Steeve.
The outreach of GodBlogCon has been calculated to be more than 100,000 people who read the blogs of both speakers and attendees, according to Steeve.
“Blogging definitely has the possibility to reach millions for the cause of Christ who could not be reached any other way,” he said.
