My colleague Kerry Kind asked this question today:
“You read books and use the Internet. But, what about print magazines that offer ministry ideas/resources? What print magazines that relate to ministry do you use or recommend? If you don’t really prefer that medium, say so. Thanks for chiming in.”
You can answer Kerry’s question here if you’re interested.
I think this is a good question and it’s got me thinking. I find that I don’t have “one source” for ministry ideas and resources… there was a time in my life when Leadership Journal did the trick.
Then for short season I only read Relevant Magazine (I think I read it for the entire time it was really the “must have trendy resource”–which as I recall, was 11 weeks) but that got redundant feeling quick. It’s amazing how stuck in time being relevant can feel. For a while I was a regular reader of (and contributor to) online “e-zines” that were popular in the late 90s and early 00s. I’ve recently grown to appreciate the well done Naz publication “Grace and Peace” which is for pastors. Now I find that I skip all around to mostly digital media, and my source is Twitter & F-Book, oddly enough.
If a respected Christian leader I know and trust tweets out or shares that they really got something out of an article or someone’s blog post or an E-Zine link, then I check it out, and process it and learn. Sometimes this leads me to print material. But more often than not it doesn’t. Here are the ways my chance of “clicking and reading all the way through” increases:
If the tweet or share is from someone who has pointed me toward quality information in the past. 10% clickabiliy increase.- If the referral is from someone that doesn’t link to other content more than 3 times a day–if they do, then I know they are just pushing out everything they see. 5% clickabiliy increase.
- If the link is posted from someone I’ve ready before, and trust. 15% clickabiliy increase.
- If the material is from a writer who is also published in hard-copy old school publishing and wrote a book I have on my shelf already, or on my kindle. This is evidence to me that they don’t just have a blog their mother-in-law reads, but that they’ve run through the gauntlet that is professional publishing, which is worth something still. And I’m sorry but this doesn’t yet count for me if it’s a self-published e-book only. Sorry. 🙁 25% clickabiliy increase.
- If the materials seems “for me”, in it’s content. The Title of the piece matters here. 10% clickabiliy increase.
- If there is a quote from the content that is well written. Life is too short for me to read bad writing. I’ll read it if it’s written well even if it doesn’t help me. 25% clickabiliy increase.
I hate to admit this, because I really love all things printed, but I have let all paper-based subscriptions lapse except for the Sunday newspaper, which I get for the comics, crossword, and coupons. I have several enews subscriptions, but I get bored with them – 7 things pastors should avoid, 6 ways to spice up your sermon, etc. I just don’t have time to read other people’s anecdotal remedies for their particular situation. I think Grace & Peace is really good, especially because it’s quarterly. Ordained Naz ministers get it for “free” (paid for by USF). But you can read the articles online. As I enter into my dissertation this fall I have a feeling I won’t read anything but research for the next year, but even most of that will not be printed material.
I love http://www.graceandpeacemagazine.org (which you first recommended to me). One of the best minister’s magazines out there.
I do keep up my subscription to two secular magazines that are news and literary in focus, and a few trade/topic magazines–but I’m getting my ministry stuff online.
As with print-material, online I’m much-more apt to read-through if the site/blog/e-zine is ‘easy on the eyes’.
If I have to scroll left-and-right on a page that was designed for some ridiculous aspect ratio I’m out. If I have to wade through 6 pop-ups on an article, the tab gets closed. If I have to sign up to receive “the rest of the article” I’m out.
Yep… format online matters almost more than in print for me–as I’m just as likely to read a text-only article in a scholarly journal as a well laid out nice looking mag.
I stil have three print magazine subscriptions. I prefer to read longer, more thoughtful content on paper or Kindle, but turn to online sources for more timely and current events content.
Ironically, it’s the too frequent emails from Christianity Today and Charisma that pile up in a dedicated folder because they flow in more rapidly than I can give them attention. Often it seems their content is a bit repetitive and they end up getting deleted unread en masse when the number gets high enough that I know I can’t chop away at it.
I have some similar reading patterns to you, Jason. I find that I buy books way faster on kindle now than I did hard copy–and then I read them on the iPad sort of like I would a magazine, in between meetings, while someone else is driving… thus books have supplanted my magazine reading even more