Q: What exactly do you mean by a community of content creators?

A: Content creators are individuals and organizations that produce content that may benefit the church at large. The content produced may include Bible studies, sermon series, devotions or programs for children and youth. It may also include music or art. The desire to serve the larger church and advance the mission of God bonds the content creators into a community.

Q: Why would someone want to be part of the community?

A: The community and its online market provide an opportunity for each member to have a broader influence on the church at large. The community provides a safe place for content creators to discuss project ideas, receive feedback, encouragement, and support.

Q: You said that the online market will amplify the digital footprint of the content creator. How will that work?

A; Through the use of topic tags and search algorithms, we will be able to suggest additional resources related to a resource the user is considering. It will look something like this: a person is looking at a Lenten sermon series on the passion of Christ and the system could suggest, “Others searching on your topic also found the following helpful and it would suggest related music, blogs, Bible studies.”

Q: How much does it cost to be a part of this community?

A: There is no charge to be a part of the community. At this time there are no plans to charge for the use of the online resource platform.

Q: How much does it cost to open a shop in the online market?

A: At this time there are no plans to charge for the development and use of the online market portal. It is our intent to generate enough donations to cover our costs for the technology and its ongoing support so that we can help you deliver your content to ministries at the lowest rates possible. Many of the stores provide their content free of charge. Should you choose to sell your resources, you would need to pay the payment gateway fees and credit/debit card merchant fees from each sales transaction.

Q: What types of content can be distributed or purchased through the online market?

A: The market technology handles the sale and distribution via digital download of all digital content. The system is able to gather all the information that is needed for the shipment of purchases of physical goods, from devotional booklets to pottery. It is important to remember that the online market does not retain any physical goods. Each merchant is responsible for shipping all physical items to the buyer.

Q: What if I’m not sure I would know how to open a store in the online mall?

A: We provide training and assistance to help all the merchants get their store up and running. In fact, in the Fall of 2020, we will be hosting a community-building gathering which will provide encouragement and ongoing learning opportunities for content creators as well as, teach them how to use the mall system and how to build a customer base.

Q: Who are the people behind the project?

A: We are a group of Lutherans who believe that God uses ordinary people to accomplish the extraordinary challenges needed to advance the Gospel in today’s world. This project has involved laymen and laywomen, pastors, district leaders, and seminary faculty, both active and former. A list of our board officers can be found on our website.

Q: I have written a sermon series, or my church has produced a series, and we might be willing to share it for other congregations to use, but I don’t want to learn a new system, or I don’t want to face potential criticism from others. Is there a simple and anonymous way to share content?

A: While we value transparency, we know that some have had bad experiences with critics. We can help in two ways. First, if you just don’t want to take the time to learn the system, but want to give away resources, we can off them on our organization’s storefront as a free download. Second, if you don’t want others to know you identify, we can anonymize the content and post it with a pseudonym.

Q: When will the online market launch?

A: We are early in the development stage. Currently, we are gathering content creator partners. Once we have a critical mass of content creators, we will begin helping them populate the online market. We will use a soft launch in the late fall of 2020 to test our systems and increase our partnerships with content creators. Our desire is to have a hard launch around Best Practices for Ministry in 2021.

Q: How can I learn more?

A: Use the button below to sign-up to be on our distribution list.