What I have learned from starting a website – Cynthia Holder Rich

Read “Diversity as Central”
Read “Thoughts Toward the Future”

First, a little bit about the journey.

In the summer of 2010, I was in the midst of a job search and trying to think through who I was, options toward which I might be moving, and how to discern call.  At that moment, when for me very little seemed clear in terms of a road to the future, I came upon one plan – I would start a website.  In conversation with my high school age techie son on the mechanics, and feeling somewhat unnerved by the thought of having to come up with something to say myself on a regular basis, I came upon the idea that the site I was creating would be different than a blog that featured my voice in the main.  Under the umbrella topic of issues facing the church, I invited others to take part in the site.  My initial idea was to find two others per week who would join me in commenting on a chosen topic. I decided to try and put together a first season of weeks, and see what happened.

Thanks in great part to those who have taken part, the journey since then has been a great ride.

• To date, the site has hosted over 90 conversations.
• Over 200 conversation partners have written or offered video posts.
• Numbers of pageviews and site visitors have grown precipitously.
• My friendships and collegial relationships, many of which are with people I have never met, have greatly expanded.  This has offered me great joy and true grace.
• My awareness of and comfort with social media have increased immensely.
• I have come to have great respect for what can be accomplished in furthering dialogue on important subjects and in building community in an online forum.
• Conversations on the site have been referenced in a number of academic papers in a great number of fields.

And I have learned some things.

• Finding participants is time-consuming.
• Editing posts and other contributions is time-consuming.
• Communicating what the site is about and how to take part is not always easy, particularly when the conversation attempts to cross cultural or linguistic boundaries.
• Without family support, this endeavor would not be possible. (My son, a young teen at the time, designed and set up the site, accepting Sprite and pretzels as payment.  Those without tech-savvy children willing to volunteer their help may find this part of the work more difficult. My husband currently takes part both as a contributor and in setting up posts online.)
• Over time, people will offer to take part in a variety of ways.  Some of these will be truly great.  Discerning which will be wonderful and which might not work out is a skill that takes time to acquire.
• Some of the people who offer or agree to take part turn out to not be able to do so for a great variety of totally rational and good reasons, often resulting in holes in the schedule.

I have come to understand that for me, creating and directing a website is a gift and a grace from God.  Over the next few days, I will share a few things that I have learned, what I have had to relearn, and suggestions I would offer to others thinking about jumping into this kind of work.  I look forward to hearing your responses, and as always, I’m grateful for your interest and your time that you spend on the site.

Cynthia Holder Rich is the Director of ecclesio.com.  She currently serves as Executive Pastor of Village Presbyterian Church, Prairie Village, KS.