The weekly e-newsletter reviewed is from October 24, 2012.
I've never read anything from this site, let alone heard of it. This is a review of my experience with the newsletter - what I noticed, how I navigated through it, how I took in the 'sights and sounds' of it.
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The premise is attractive - firstly, this site is about everyday conversations, meaning it is accessible and approachable. Secondly, these conversations are about a mixture of work, life and God. The ordering makes me wonder if that's how we - how i go about my life. Work first, life second, and squeeze God in. Or at best, juggle the three into neat 33% packages. Perhaps I was simply in a contemplative mood and picked up on that.
The e-newsletter has three main sections:
- New audio
- New articles
- Related articles from the community
With an explosive amount of information and things to do on the internet, I've developed a specific taste for information. Not in the mood to listen to something or watch a video, I scrolled straight to the related articles. As a young adult who admittedly struggles with surrendering to God and wanting Him, I clicked into 'stop waiting for God to tell you what to do' heading.
This opened up in a new tab, with a concise introduction to the piece, and link to the full post. on the sides were the usual 'subscribe to this' option, 'most popular post', and below 'related posts' and 'comments'. They weren't too obtrusive. I just wanted to read the post I clicked, in full.
(so now I'm no longer on the High Calling site)
I immediately the face on the new page (storylineblog.com) . It's Donald Miller - from blue like jazz.
I liked the article. I felt it struck the right idea - we are paralyzed by options. So much so, we choose passivity. We blindly call it 'waiting for God to act' when we're not doing our part. We avoid eye contact with being proactive.
My number one draw point was that - you have to go and make survivable mistakes with God.
The article doesn't go deeper than I thought, and not a single bible verse was used. In a way I was comfortable with that - inserting bible verses sometimes feels forced and out of context. Yet at the same time, without bible verses it feels more like a feel-good productivity article. I'm still juggling this outlook.
After the article, there's no links to go back to the original newsletter or the higher calling website. So ultimately the newsletter felt like a curated list of possible things I would need for that moment of time. A quick stop-by. I didn't feel particularly inclined to subscribe to the newsletter, though I did think of subscribing to the storylineblog.com.
****DISCLAIMER****
Please note that I am not affiliated with The High Calling in any formal or personal ways. On the completion of this review (regardless of favourability), Handlebar Central reviews the blog review and may reward me a $10 Amazon Gift Card by email.
