ChurchMag TBT: Jeremy Smith

[“ChurchMag TBT” is a ‘Throw Back Thursday’ on all things ChurchMag. Inspired by an upcoming ChurchMag podcast episode, we are looking back at personal — and public — throwbacks of ChurchMag.]

My very first article on ChurchMag is titled Facebook Timeline: How This Will Impact Ministry. Ah… looking at this article, I notice so many different things.

First off, I actually wrote the article nearly 7 years ago. If you look at all of my articles on ChuchMag, you will find older ones from when I wrote for a separate blog called seventy8Productions which was inspired by ChurchMag and then acquired by ChurchMag. The actual first article from that is titled FREE STUFF : Pattern Motion Backgrounds.

Man, the nostalgia train is heavy for me on this article.

So here is what I notice looking back on my very first blog article with ChurchMag.

• My screenshots were… unedited. I don’t know how best to say they look ugly. I clearly wasn’t cropping out the navigation or scrollbar.
• Even though the image quality is low, I did not blur out any names or embarrassing parts of the image. You can clearly see my mom posting on my Timeline she loves me.
• I’ve known I have a thing about writing in threes, in fact, this was pointed out by Phil in an eBook he edited for me. But even with my first blog article, I had to have three header images. Sheesh.
• I do not know if my writing has improved, but four blocks of paragraphed text is hard to digest.
• I was very analytical, even back then. I hope that’s become part of what you expect from me as a blogger, but I’m glad to see it was there from the start.
• I LOVED Facebook back then. I was all in. Then I got burnt out. I think maybe 50-70% of my first articles were about the platform or at least a strong focus. My how the times have changed.

I do feel more confident now, knowing I have over 1,500 articles to my name. Of course, my determination to constantly improve my craft makes me wonder if I haven’t improved enough yet. I know I can do it, for sure, so doubt is gone. But could I do it better? If so, how?

So what have you seen change in my blogging? Is it for the better or worse?

Leave a comment down below.

Jeremy Smith

I am a blogger, clinical counselor, gamer, and someone who loves to pushback so you can create the very best thing possible. I blog exclusively about church technology as a senior staff writer at ChurchMag as well as about life in general on my personal site JeremyGrantSmith.com. You can also find my eBooks on ChurchMag Press.