I had run my own blog for nearly eight years before I decided to hang up my hat last year and sign on fully with ChurchMag. But it was not something that I just wanted to do, it was a transition that happened out of necessity. Blogging has become something that is nearly therapeutic for me. I have ideas bouncing around in my brain that need an outlet which I have put towards blog articles. But what I noticed with ChurchMag is that the ability to collaborate instilled a sense of community and support beyond “just getting ideas out.” I find myself with the other ChurchMag Staff Writers in a community beyond mere aligned interests.
If you haven’t heard, ChurchMag is the 23rd largest Christian website on the whole Internet. As Eric constantly states, it isn’t him who pushed it to that point, but I beg to differ.
Collaboration Is Powerful
To use the overly used illustration of horsepower, one horse gives one horsepower but two horses give three. Collaboration is not simple addition, but a powerful way to put forth your message. I can always write whatever I want to on a blog. But when I get comments from other ChurchMag writers, I feel encouraged and inspired. When I see our ChurchMag audience sharing posts because of the platform Eric has built, I’m empowered to keep pushing the quality and impact of my content.
Collaboration Is Healing
I truly believe that Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:20 apply even to a digital community. As we engage on our Slack backchannel or ChurchMag podcast, I really believe that the Holy Spirit is present and blessing the conversations. Those times are healing when I have prayer requests or want to simply laugh. And they are redeeming when a commenter gets mean or I feel stuck.
Collaboration Is Networking
I would never have crossed paths with the people I have if it wasn’t for ChurchMag. This platform is an amazing experience that I plan to invest in the rest of my life. It has given me traction to connect with so many other likeminded people in a host of unique circumstances. In so doing, I feel like my influence and set of relationships has grown.
He Didn’t Write The Words, But…
So I have to disagree with Eric. He did make all of this possible. I love writing for ChurchMag and hope in 20 years to still be writing here. I’d even encourage you to write an article or two and see if it can help you. He didn’t make it about growing into something that has over 6 million pageviews, but he has bore fruit for God in his dedicated service.
And to other church technology people out there that would like to have any of these things, let’s collaborate. Shoot me an email at [email protected] to see what else we can do for God’s Kingdom!
Eric Dye says
I hope you’re still writing here in 20 years, too!!! 😀
Jeremy Smith says
🙂
Chris Wilson says
I really agree Jeremy. I also love that we are all working on something bigger than we could do on our own. Maybe we’re giving up a bit of the fame or personal recognition that we might get from going solo but I THINK we are greater than the sum of our parts. I love that I have the freedom to work on longer, more in depth articles because I know other people will still be churning out posts as well. OR I can make quick short articles. I’m certainly inspired by all the rest of the team too. [group hug].
I’m sure some people on other collaborative sites feel the same. Though, I wouldn’t say every group site is a collaborative site 😉
Jeremy Smith says
Agreed. This one definitely is collaborative at its core. If only people really knew the secret sauce.