Quick Thoughts on Kent Shaffer’s Top 200 Church Blogs

Kent Shaffer always provides an interesting list of influential blogs. You can find the list at his ChurchRelevance.com site.

Here are some quick observations from the list:

1. Calvinists rule the blogosphere. Seven of the top ten are decidedly Calvinistic, most aggressively so, (Interestingly, Michael Hyatt is Eastern Orthodox (Antiochian See) which is fascinating. Scot McKnight is hard to categorize, but not Reformed. I do not know Father Z at all.

On a personal note: I am glad to be a contributor to The Resurgence and congratulate them on their #10 placement. (Like many of the bigger blogs, they are more of an aggregator than a personal blog– same as the Gospel Coalition, where I also occasionally contribute.) I noticed that the other places that run my blogs, ChurchLeaders.com and Pastors.com, were also on the list. Thanks for using my content.

2. The Emergent Church has mostly left the building if blogs are any indication. I have a blog series about that coming soon, but it was not that long ago when emerging church blogs dominated the blogosphere and publishing.

3. Where are the women? The first woman you see is at #16 Rachel Held Evans, though there are occasional women contrutors to some of the blogs listed. The list really lacks female voices, perhaps because of the nature of the focus of the list. For example, I would think Beth Moore’s blog would be dominant.

For what it is worth, I plunder this list each time it is out and add new names to my Google Reader. I hope you will do the same. Blogging is where I hear some of the best ideas these days.

What are your thoughts on my observations? What did you find most interesting about the list?