Marty+McClain+Article+Page

=Digital Discipleship Boot Camp= =Capstone Project Article=

=Creating A Parish Blog= By Marty McClain The evidence is clear. Catholic families are not as connected to their faith communities as they once were. Mass attendance is down; enrollment in Catholic schools is shrinking; classrooms in parish based religious education programs are not as full as in the past. Sports, band, cheerleading and dance are just a few of the activities that are consuming the time that families once committed to parish life.
 * Why another Blog?**

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati began an initiative last fall called **//Christ at the Center.//** One of the components of this initiative is **//Strong Catholic Families.//** As a parish staff serving the faith community of St. Francis of Assisi, we have taken this initiative to heart and have been working hard to develop and enhance our programing to include an emphasis on nurturing strong Catholic families. We recognize that the parents of our parish need support being the first teachers in the faith of their children. We also recognize that the parents of our parish lead very busy lives. Often times these parents do not have the time to find the resources that will help their families grow in its Catholic faith; often times they do not know where to look. By creating and maintaining a blog for the parents at St. Francis, we hope to provide another avenue for them to stay connected to the parish and the larger Church, and to engage their entire family in deeper ways. We see on an opportunity to evangelize these parents while at the same time sharing pertinent and timely parenting issues as well as providing some Catholic catechesis.

One of our biggest hopes as a parish staff is that the faith community of St. Francis will enter into a dialogue with each other through this blog. By sharing their individual faith stories together with their successes as parents, we envision a parish that is reinvigorated and more engaged. This blog can be one of the places that we as a parish can celebrate families.

Just how exactly does one go about starting a blog? The first step would be to pick a blogging format. There are many options with the most popular being WordPress ([]) and Blogger ([|www.blogger.com/]). Both are free with the option to upgrade, and both are fairly user friendly. That being said, many blogging formats offer different aspects and features that may be more suited to your needs; so you should do some research. I found YouTube to be an excellent source for videos offering tips to creating and maintaining blogs.
 * Creating and Maintaining**

Once you have decided on a platform, it will be time to dig in. You will need to sign up for an account and then the fun can begin. The first step once you are inside will be to choose a template for your blog. Both WordPress and Blogger offer a wide array of templates. You will want to choose a template that fits the style and personality you want your blog to convey. Part of the fun with choosing a template is the ease with which you can change them. Keep trying them out until you find the one that will work best for you and keep your intended audience engaged.

Now it’s time to compose your first post. At St. Francis, we felt it necessary to introduce our blog by telling readers what we intended to do with it and what our expectations of them as an audience were. From there we worked on an approach to publish posts that our readers could read and digest quickly, and at the same time get them engaged in the dialogue.

With your blog up and running, your next step will be to generate exposure so your target audience can find your blog. The first place to advertise your blog will be on your parish’s website. Provide the link to your blog on the webpage and create a brief write-up that will entice parishioners to check it out. If your parish has a Facebook page, you will want to provide a link there too. Make sure to promote your blog in the parish bulletin as well as the parish newsletter and be sure to provide the web address. The fastest way to inform the parish of your new blog will be to email them introducing them to the blog. Again, be sure to include the link. While promoting your new blog, be sure to encourage your audience to “follow” your blog. This way they will be notified each time you publish a new post to your blog.
 * Reaching Others**

Since the cyber world is such a large place, why limit your audience to just your parish? You can extend your reach by promoting your blog on the internet. One way to do that is through the use of tag words. Tag words are words that are used in your blog or words that are related to your blog that will be tagged by a search engine such as Google or Bing. You will have the opportunity to create tag words within your blog. Another way to get exposure for your blog is to get it included in a blog directory. One such directory is called Catholic Blog Directory ([]).

Led by Pope Francis, the Catholic Church has established a worldwide presence on the web. In this digital age, many are taking advantage of it as an effective and far reaching evangelical tool. In addition to social media, the Church can be found all over the blogging realm. Such well known Catholic leaders such as Cardinal Timothy Dolan ([]) and Fr. Robert Baron ([]) maintain blogs to name only two. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati hosts a blog called Being Catholic, which has contributors from all over the archdiocese ([]). Catholic Blogs are everywhere.

The staff at St. Francis is excited about the possibilities that exist for connecting with and strengthening Catholic families using Web 2.0. Our parenting blog is just one piece in our efforts to use the internet as more than a way to pass along information. Our efforts are moving toward evangelization and catechesis. Speaking of evangelization and parenting…and blogging, here is a blog you might enjoy: [].
 * Moving Forward**