Baptist bloggers banquet?

The Catholic Church is holding a special meeting between bloggers and the Pontifical Councils for Culture and Social Communications in Rome on 2^nd May. It appears the Catholic Church is anxious to engage with new media practitioners, to listen to the experiences of those involved and gain a greater understanding of the blogging community.

A Baptist event would be very different. Having a plurality of voices is essentially Baptist so we don’t have the same sense of separation between bloggers and ‘the powers that be’; indeed who are the powers that be? Nevertheless, there are two reasons why we should consider something similar:

1. Blogging will become more important for Baptist life; the wilting of the dead tree press may lead to the demise of the Baptist Times and the Union will need new ways of communicating with churches. My sense so far is that most Baptist Blogs have little traction with members of local Baptist Churches but it is in the interests of BUGB to change this.

2. Blogs provide ideal platforms for a creative mix of ideas, discussion and opinion but so far most Baptist Blogs carry little news or information; except perhaps for larger Baptist gatherings where some of us blog our reflections. Again, it is in the interests of BUGB to change this.

So how about a Baptist gathering? An evening event including cheese, wine, single Islay Malt and the like would seem appropriate.