Taking The Leap!
So I've been avoiding this. A lot. I'm finally sitting here at almost midnight with a sleeping dog on my lap while watching The Avengers for the billionth time writing this. And I hate it. I hate it a lot. But not because I don't want to do this, but because I'm freaked out! This is new stuff and it's big and different and that's terrifying! Here's what's up:
Lately I've been feeling that tug, the one you try to ignore, you know, that one. It's been bugging me every time I sit down to pursue this little entrepreneurial venture called Bonni Mace Design. I can barely focus on anything design and I've made almost 0 money this year and I definitely haven't pursued any new clients. I've been doing a lot of seeking and praying about this and here's what I've been avoiding, the big leap.
God is calling me to more than design, he's calling me to help the church become meaningful communicators again. It's always bugged me that the church has the greatest story in the world and we absolutely sucks at telling it. Somewhere along the way in history we became afraid of art, storytelling, science, innovation, and taking initiative. We've gone from being proactive to reactive, offensive to defensive. It's just ugly.
Over the last (almost) 2 years I've had the amazing opportunity to help The Church at Severn Run pursue new levels of creativity in telling the gospel story and I want to be able to keep doing that for Severn Run and beyond. So Bonni Mace Design is shifting into Bonni Mace Consulting (...? Or something more catchy in the future.) What does that mean? I want to take churches through the process of discovering their brand and then learning how to use that unique identity to tell the gospel story in their local communities in an effective way.
As I've said, right now I'm going to be documenting my experiences with Severn Run primarily. The stuff I'm learning now is crazy valuable, and I want to be able to use them to help others in the future. If a consulting opportunity rolls around, I'm excited to take it on and start tracking my experiences there too, but for now I will be reflecting mostly on what's in front of me.
What can you do to help?
- Pray. Specifically pray for direction and perseverance. My default is to disappear when I don't know what I'm doing.
- Let me know what you've learned from me. In my perspective, the things I know are just common knowledge. I tend to not realize when I know something of value that needs to be shared.
- Let me know what you want to read! If i know about it, I'll write, if I don't I'll either figure it out and then write, or write to let you know that I didn't figure it out.
- If you hear of a church or non-profit that is ready to do some growing, brand exploring, and marketing, let me know! I need a few more case studies.
Right now I'm planning to secretly roll this out and then when I get brave do a big social media push to let all of you know that I'm doing this. So if you happen to stumble over this before then tell me about it :)
Oh by the way, all the posts from before this one are from past ventures. I'm leaving them up for now, but I wanted you to know that they may not line up with what I'm doing moving forward.
Hey! Here's to new things! Thanks for joining me.