These best practices are to help equip City First Church staff team members who maintain personal blogs and/or post on other people’s blogs. These recommendations provide a roadmap for constructive, respectful, and productive dialogue between City First Church bloggers and their audience (whoever that may be). We consider these to be “best practices guidelines” that are in the spirit of our culture and in the best interest of the church, whether you blog or not. We encourage you to follow these guidelines:
Be Respectful
Be thoughtful and accurate in your posts, and be respectful of how other may be affected. Even if your site is published under your name, is entirely personal, and does not mention City First Church or your employment, readers will inevitably connect your personal life to your professional life. Be sure to include a disclaimer prominently on your home page that states:
The posts on this site are my own personal opinion. They are not read or approved by my employer before posting and may not necessarily represent the views or the opinions of the organization.
To avoid any surprises, please give your department director a heads up about your blog’s existence.
Private Feedback
Not everyone who is reading your blog will feel comfortable approaching you if they are concerned their feedback will become public. In order to maintain an open dialogue, everyone can comfortably engage in, welcome “off-blog” feedback from colleagues who would like to privately respond, make suggestions, or report errors without having their comments appear on your blog. Bloggers want to know what you think. If you have an opinion, correction, or criticism regarding a posting, reach out to the blogger directly. Whether privately or on their blog, let the blogger know your thoughts.
Legal Stuff
When you choose to go public with your opinions via a blog, you are legally responsible for your commentary. Individual bloggers can be held personally liable for any commentary deemed to be defamatory, obscene (not swear words, but rather the legal definition of “obscene”), proprietary, or libelous. In essence, blogging (or posting on other people’s blogs) is done at your own risk. Outside parties actually can pursue legal action against you for postings (probably not a high risk in our line of work, but thought you’d like to know).
Use Common Sense
Do not disclose any information that is confidential or proprietary to City First Church.
Press Inquiries
Blog postings may generate media coverage. If a member of the media contacts you about a City First Church- related blog posting, we’ve got trained backup available to you. Contact the Lead Pastor’s office.