Over the last three years we've built the World Race into a phenomenon - a fast growing ministry that is waking up a generation and challenging them to radical living. Blogging has been a huge part of our mobilization strategy. Mike Price and Jeff Goins have been wonderful partners for me as we've sought to build a culture of transparency that blogs facilitate.

Blogs do two things that are invaluable:

First, they are an online journal that help those who know and love them follow them as they go on adventures and are challenged in a thousand ways. They help those of us who sign up to be coaches pray for and encourage them.

And second, they cast a vision for others to follow in their footsteps. Most of our new Racers come to us through the word-of-mouth that past Race blogs initiated.

One of the things that we've wrestled with is answering the question, "How do we do a better job of blogging?" I challenged Jeff to help us come up with "Ten Commandments of Blogging" that all our Racers should learn. Here they are. Any suggestions before we throw them out there as requirements for our Racers and eventually other AIM missionaries?

1. Blog every week. No exceptions. Blogging twice or more is even better. No internet access? Write an extra blog & post later or save to thumb drive & have someone download for you.
2. Use paragraph breaks. No more than four to five sentences per paragraph.
3. Tell stories. Introduce characters, events, and places. Share dialog. Tell why it matters at the end. Don't just talk about yourself.
4. Verbal processors dictate to someone & have them post it.
5. Post pictures - at least one per blog.
6.  Keep it short - don't drag on. A good blog is 4-5 paragraphs or roughly 300 words.
7. Work on & improve your blogging skills. Go thru these blogging lessons before leaving.
8. Shoot short videos - they should average 90 secs & have a point. People have short attention spans – don't waste time on videos they won't watch.
9. Call out your audience. Use your experiences to activate others for ministry. Encourage and challenge them to seek out their own life's adventure.
10. Build your blog audience. Invite people to subscribe to your update alerts. Use Facebook to automatically import your blogs as notes.  Include your blog address in emails and newsletters.