Is my face red! I let the second anniversary of Generous Matters slip by unheralded. Okay, so two years is but a blip in the blogosphere. For me, however, it’s a big deal. When I first put fingers to keyboard on March 3, 2011, I didn’t know where this blogging thing would take me. Three hundred plus posts later, I’m still here. Even more amazing, so are you. Hooray for us!
From the outset, I described Generous Matters as a place where I can reflect out loud about issues that dominate my thinking. And so it has been, as the tags field illustrates. Growing givers’ hearts tops the list, followed by fundraising, generosity, fundraising as ministry, nonprofit organizations, abundance, and board governance, plus a bunch of less mentioned topics.
In anticipation of my two-year milestone as a blogger, I (or should say, my tech guru Rick Dent*) moved Generous Matters to self-hosting. There have been a few bumps in the process – specifically, trouble with the automatic connect to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter – but I don’t think readers have noticed. (Have you?)
My early dreams of a readership in the thousands have been tempered by reality. Two years in, I’ve come to judge my success as a blogger more by in-person feedback from clients and colleagues than the daily page count. I’d love to see the numbers grow and hopefully that will happen in this coming year. But for now, I’m happy with the quality, loyal readers who follow Generous Matters.
You keep me blogging, and that, my friends, is big. A three-posts-a-week schedule is a grind. I’d be lying if I claimed otherwise. At two hours or more per entry, churning out Generous Matters articles accounts for the equivalent of an extra day’s work a week. If I didn’t know you were reading, I’m not sure I’d keep up the pace.
ME TIME, TOO
That said, I get as much or more from blogging as I give. It’s an intellectually stimulating discipline. Blogging pushes me to read, learn, and write more than I have in years. I’m becoming what Tim Sanders, author of Love is the Killer App, describes as “a theory-slinging, expert-quoting, knowledge-throwing lovecat,” and that feels great.
When I whine (more often than I should) that there’s no money in blogging (at least at my level), my husband kindly suggests that this is my ministry, and I think he’s onto something. Borrowing from David Lose, one of my blogging heroes:
I blog, in part, simply because I can, because I’ve been afforded this wonderful life, position, and opportunities and because I want to share what I’m learning with folks who might not otherwise get the chance to encounter some of these ideas. So when I go searching for things that delight, inspire, and teach me about how to be a Christian in the world today, I feel – and I hope this doesn’t sound presumptuous – like I’m going in part on behalf of others.
From my side of screen, it’s been a great two years, and I hope you agree. Thank you for believing with me that generous matters.
Talk back: As I launch into Year 3 for Generous Matters, what topic(s) would you like to see me tackle? Jot your suggestion(s) in the comment box below and then watch for your good idea(s) to pop up in a future post.
*If you’re in search of tech assistance, let me recommend Rick Dent. He provides first-rate expertise at a bargain price. From website upgrades to a full-scale IT audit, he can do it all.