Personally, I’d be much more likely to be interested in the book if Henry had simply said that he had read it and recommends it, giving his reasons. Otherwise, the video is just adding to the blog advertising, with all the negative baggage of that term, paid or not, church connected or not.

So I’ll be interested in what happens and will try to limit my cynicism just a bit!

Second, thank you for adding your thoughts to the post. You raise some questions I have been chewing on over the last day or so. The idea was raised out of a desire to demonstrate that institutionally, Methodism often could do a better job connecting with folks, that there is a critical mass out there that has the potential to raise awareness and get the word out. So, first I wanted to try to get a sense of whether there is any unity within that group and if so, how large is it. What kind of leverage does it have? But you nicely put your finger on some deeper questions: If there is a sufficient critical mass, is there sufficient unity of purpose to lead to anything meaningful happening? And I have also wondered how to communicate this to Discipleship Resources, if it yields noteworthy results… because you are right… the point is not to say to them “Hey, Methodist bloggers will plug your books for you if you just tell them to.”

Sorry to be long winded… I think this was a two step process for me. First, thinking it might be a good idea if a UM group goes to the trouble to make a promotion for something, to let people that would be interested in it know about it. Then, this led me to begin thinking about whether their are deeper things that Methodist bloggers can hope to accomplish through the momentum that seems to be building through our blogging.

Again, thanks for participating and raising important questions.

Peace, Kevin