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Gordon Atkinson is the pastor of Covenant Baptist Church, a liturgical Baptist community in San Antonio, Texas. He is also the no-longer-anonymous writer of Real Live Preacher, the "Mr. Rogers of the blogging neighborhood," he says. His honesty and fresh perspective attracted thousands of readers. Real Live Preacher has received more than 800,000 visits in the two years of its existence, and is almost always among the top ten most-popular blogs hosted by Salon.com. A real, live preacher with an M. Div., Atkinson is also a web designer, and author of RealLivePreacher.com, published by Eerdmans. Being nearly as internet savvy as Atkinson, we "spoke" with him over instant messenging software about blogging, corresponding with readers, and lessons learned in the "virtual" world.

How did you get started blogging?

In the fall of 2002, I discovered weblogs and was very excited about the idea that I could write without worrying about how people would receive my words. I think considering the full impact of everything you write and say is very tiring for pastors. I launched Real Live Preacher with only a month or two of experience in reading blogs. I started Real Live Preacher not as a ministry or an attempt to do anything other than write, and write as honestly as I could.

Does blogging have any spiritual aspects for you?

Everything is spiritual for me. I wasn't expecting to find that I could have such love for people who stand outside the church. If I had to guess what Real Live Preacher means to the people who read my writing, I would say that many of them long for a spiritual connection, perhaps with the church, but are so outside the Christian subculture that they cannot get connected. For them, I am such a connection. For me, the spiritual connection came with the joy of reaching outside of my intimate Christian community and finding soft and seeking hearts all over the world.

What's it like being a well-known name in the blogging community?

I was very frightened and disoriented when Real Live Preacher started getting significant hits and a lot of attention. I probably get an average of ten e-mails a day. I don't know how it happened. I wrote only for my own gratification and all of these people started coming to read. And then a couple of publishers contacted me. I was disoriented and unsure of how to react.

How did you react?

My first reaction was to get a little obsessive with my writing. I began on December 6, 2002. Eerdmans contacted me at the end of the month. From that time forward, I was aware that an editor was reading everything I wrote. Real Live Preacher became as important as pastoring for a time. I also reacted with the full range of emotions that often comes with big life changes. Suddenly I had all this e-mail and all these wonderful compliments. I reacted by taking everything very seriously. Too seriously. I felt I had to answer every challenge. I gushed inside at every compliment. I wrote my guts out. I loved it.

I've settled down a bit now. Criticism doesn't bother me, and I don't mind not engaging people if I don't want to. Compliments about my writing are nice, but I don't take them as seriously. I absolutely do take the people who write a compliment seriously though. I feel strongly for them, but don't have as much feeling for the compliment.

What kind of response have you received from surfers outside Christian circles? How has that helped you spiritually?

I get a lot of e-mail from pagans and agnostics who feel that I am a safe person to talk to. For example, an atheist father wrote me. His wife became a Christian and was taking their daughter to church, where she was being taught that he was going to hell. He was grieving the loss of Sunday fun and noticing her growing distance from him. I guess I was the only Christian he felt he could talk to.

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October (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48