Anyone can have a blog (free blogging platforms plus free Internet access at your local library) but not everyone can have a great blog, or even a good blog.
Thomas Friedman’s, “The world is flat” notion isn’t all-encompassing because the creative world isn’t truly flat. Access is flat; talent, passion, and experience are not. Anyone can post pictures of their cat and rant about the insipidness of American Idol, but not everyone is a gifted blogger.
Not every blog makes me think (like Ben Arment’s blog does). Not every blog makes me examine my life and my culture (like Christ and Pop Culture and ThinkChristian often do). Not every blog makes me want to comment or link or respond (like Signal vs. Noise and Seth Godin often do).
Not every blog tells compelling stories (nor does every blogger live a compelling story, but that’s another issue). Not every blog asks the hard questions that need asking. Not every blog makes connections and offers predictions that others couldn’t see before.
Of course, it’s not just blogging. Flat access to video and audio recording and editing platforms gives us all the potential to be directors and DJs. And yet I doubt Martin Scorsese is worried about his livelihood being usurped by masses of amateurs. Talent, passion, and experience separate the craftsman from the hammer-swinging novice.
If you’re a novice at something, don’t let that stop you (that’s the only way to gain experience, after all). Just make sure that you’re also in search of the areas in which you have talent, passion, and experience. Those are the areas in which you have the opportunity to do what you’ve been uniquely created and gifted to do.
I say all this because often elevate the popular bloggers, the conference speakers, the megachurch pastors, and the widely-read authors. An inordinate amount of us aspire to join their ranks when, in fact, our combination of talent + passion + experience suggests we’re better suited to serve in other ways.
Wouldn’t it be great if we fostered a church culture in which everyone’s areas of giftedness were equally celebrated (and therefore equally embraced by the individual possessing them)? I think so. So what’s stopping us?
