200,000 Visitors & Counting: Faith in Action Reaches Another Milestone

Somewhere between last Friday night and early Saturday morning; my blog – Faith in Action (www.faithinactiononline.com) reached 200,000 unique visitors. It never crossed my mind nearly 5 years ago when I started writing that I would one day still be writing with so many people having visited my site. It really didn’t even start out as “my site.” This blog started out as an accessory to a radio program that I hosted on WEAA 88.9FM called Faith in Action. It was a religious public affairs program that aired every Sunday morning at about 7AM – right around the time that many in the Baltimore Metro area were heading to church. Myisha Cherry and I hosted the program and I thoroughly enjoyed not only the content of our show, but I loved our on-air chemistry as well. We were kindred spirits who wished to push the envelop for the Black Christian community in particular in Baltimore.

I still remember the day that Myisha came to me and suggested that we start a blog. I said, “What’s a blog?” Myisha thought that we needed to find a way to make deeper connections with our listeners being that we were only on the air one day of the week. She schooled me to what a blog was and even after we started it on Blogger, I was still unsure about how to work the thing. Of course we named the blog after the radio show. On a weekly basis, we would do our radio program and then would log on and write about the show’s topics.

I remember early on that I was a bit befuddled by the low number of responses on the blog site. I wondered if anyone was even reading my writing – a question that I’m sure runs through the minds of many bloggers at some point or another. I wasn’t as up on tracking technology at that time so I had no idea. I got to the point where I said, well, if very few people are reading my stuff, I might as well let it all out! And let it out I did! LOL.

The radio show ended in 2005 and Myisha moved on to other important projects so I was stuck with the blog and thankfully so because it became my creative outlet. After doing radio for 5 years (I did a gospel music program on the station as well); I developed an appetite for engagement, critical thinking, and the art of communication. If I didn’t have this blog to pour that part of myself into; I just might have imploded. With more energy and focus on the blog (the backend stuff and the content), my writing took on a more biting character.

In the early days I would pretty much just write what was on my mind exactly how I felt it. I was in seminary at the same time so I was being stretched in unimaginable ways and on a weekly basis was engaging in deeply critical thinking and conversation. As a preacher’s kid as well, the blog became my place to air my frustrations, pose my questions, and challenge the church. It really was a flammable mix that met me at an incredibly transitory time in my life and Faith in Action was the avenue for release. Of course this meant that sometimes I “put my foot in my mouth” in a big way. But other times I think I raised valid questions and productive discussion were born on and offline.

Since then this blog and my writing have evolved. I have evolved. Sometimes it still comes just as provocative as the early days even if not as raw. Other times it reads more priestly as I have now assumed the role of religious servant-leader. At points it reads like a personal journal – at other times like a speech at a political rally. One of the highest compliments that I receive from time to time comes when people who have read my writing, see me in person and say something along the lines of, “Heber, I don’t agree with all of your views, but I appreciate your perspective.” That’s just great. I’ve never written to cull forth uniformity. My goal is critical thinking and action-inducing conversation. And for 200,000 visitors I’ve tried to be faithful to that.

This is starting to read like Oprah’s farewell address and I ain’t goin’ no where (smile) so let me just say thanks to everyone who has supported this blog via your comments, suggestions, partnership, and/or friendship. I’ve met some of the most amazing people, heard the best stories, and pushed important legislation through this portal. Where this blog goes from here? Your guess is as good as mine, but I will say get ready for something to change. Around this time of year, I tend to get antsy to do something different with Faith in Action. It might be time to bring some additional voices to the platform, write a book based on some of my articles, or maybe add video or audio components. Who knows. I’ll keep you posted on that.

In the meantime, I’ve got some writing to do….

God bless.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 10:40 am and is filed under My Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.