Evaluating and Shifting

Taking in Liturgical Threads a month in, and making some small changes

Starting this week, I’m trying something new here at Liturgical Threads. I’m three weeks in to this project, and evaluating it a bit, to try to figure out what’s working and what isn’t, and most importantly, to determine what is and isn’t sustainable for me. I’ve never been good at regular deadline writing; this project was always going to be pushing against the procilivity I have towards bursts of creative energy, and subsequent lulls. So, posting three times a week regularly is a big challenge, although one that in this case I’m trying to frame as a devotional practice for me.

All that is my way of introducing a few shifts here. First, instead of the format of posts I’ve been trying out - Scripture Notes on Mondays, Sermon Starters on Wednesdays, and Liturgical Materials on Fridays - I want to shift to three posts a week that are standalones for each lectionary verse for the week. That means you’ll still get three posts a week - one with the Hebrew Bible reading, one with the Epistle, and one with the Gospel. In these, I’ll still do a combination of the Scripture Notes, and the Sermon Starters, and on occasion, the Liturgical Materials. Theological writing is my forte, its what I was first excited about here, and it’s what I’m going to focus on going forward. I can’t guarantee these will come on the Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule every week, but I will endeavor to make that happen.

The second big change here is removal of the paywall. I would love to have a small amount of income from this project, but I don’t think - at this early point - that it is realistic. More importantly, I’ve been really bothered by the idea that I’m writing a load of stuff that is sitting behind a paywall and being read by nobody. I want this stuff to get out there, more than I want to have any money come in from it. So, there will still be a paid option, but it will be just that - an option. All materials will be free, for now. That includes past materials, which will be opened up for everyone.

Finally, I will no longer be “working ahead.” So far, I’ve been posting a month ahead, with the hope that this stuff will be there in time for those planning ahead. But, I think in reality that it has simply served to make the material irrelevant at the time of reading. So, from here on, the materials will be for the current calendar week. That includes in the coming weeks of Lent, when I will repost some of the materials that have come before, albeit with perhaps some small changes.

I don’t know what I consider “success” here, and I probably need to get out of the idea that I need to quantify or define that. As I stated at the outset, this project was borne out of a love for writing, for theology, and as a devotional practice. I think I need to push it back closer to that idea, to make it something I can sustain going forward. Crucially, I know I need to stop worrying about page views or opens. Those stats aren’t helpful for my goals. So, fingers crossed.

Expect to get the first “new” post tomorrow: notes one the Hebrew Scripture for the first week of Lent, Year C: Deuteronomy 26:1-11.

Grace and peace,

Justin