OTHER BLOGS TO CHECK OUT

“Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.” (Proverbs 27:2)

A guy I know was frequently heard slamming people for what he called, “Shameless Self Promotion”.  I guess he had a point.  I began writing my blog in early February of 2006.  I’d read an article in “Leadership” a journal aimed at (mostly) theologically conservative pastors that strongly encouraged pastors to have blogs.  I read it, I thought about it, and ultimately I jumped in!  When you first have a blog it’s really discouraging because only four or five people read it, and they’re members of your immediate family.  But I’ve plugged along and plugged along promoting this, and I guess there are now a few dozen people who check out “The Blog of Bob Baril”.  (One of my best “promotions” has been listing the blog U.R.L. address in each Christmas card I’ve sent out over the past couple of years and encouraging people to check it out.  I’ve also contacted my entire address book a few times promoting the blog.)

Today, I thought I’d mention a few blogs that I read...some from time to time and some pretty regularly.  When it comes to reviews of restaurants, “happenings”, and pretty much everything you need to know about Framingham, nobody does it better than Michelle McElroy at

www.thisisframingham.com

Michelle has recently expanded her horizons and now has a similar blog about the twenty-five (or is it thirty?) other MetroWest communities which is found at

http://metrowest.thisisframingham.com/

I not only feel old around Michelle McElroy who is ALMOST young enough to be one of my kids, but I have the same experience with my young clergy colleague the Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell from First Baptist Church in Framingham.  Like my son Jon, Mindi is an OUTSTANDING writer.  I hope both Jon Baril and Mindi Welton-Mitchell have many books published someday because each deserves that.  Mindi is SUCH a good writer, that my blog seems quite amateurish in comparison.  Right now, she’s pregnant expecting her first child, and has a lot to say about pregnancy and pastoring but she examines other topics, too.  Her “Be the Buddha of the Road” posting of awhile ago hit the nail on the head when it comes to courteous driving.  Mindi's blog, entitled “rev-o-lution” can be found at

http://rev-o-lution.blogspot.com

(Incidentally, make sure you enter Mindi’s U.R.L. address exactly correct or you’ll end up at some French-language “Revolution” blog that you will not understand!)

Have you heard about Adam Engel, the kid who is trying to amass three million pennies?  Well, you should have because I wrote about him on this blog several weeks ago.  You can check on Adam’s progress at

http://threemillionpennies.blogspot.com

Another clergyperson who has a blog is Vinnie Capetta who is the Associate Pastor of Crossroads Community Church (formerly Village Bible Chapel) on Edgell Road, Framingham at the Sudbury town line.  Vinnie’s blog “Check your Compass” is at

www.checkyourcompass.blogspot.com

Finally, I want to challenge the (truly) famous Jennie Maroney who has written letters and columns to the MetroWest Daily News for many years to reactivate her blog “The Observer”.  It’s only got a couple of old entries and is found at

http://journals.aol.com/jmar980814/TheObserver/

Come on, Jennie, if I can build a (somewhat) successful blog, so can you!