Good news. I totally got told on the internet!

When I started timhswanson.com, I was following in the steps of some other great writers. Or so I thought.

I saw these powerful leaders like Carlos Whittaker, Jon Acuff, Michael Hyatt, and Andy Stanley through whom God was doing incredible things. They were engaging huge internet audiences, and offering a ton of value to people's lives (mine included). So I started writing because I wanted to be like them.


I wrote because I thought I had a message to offer people. I wrote about worship, and church leadership for nearly a year before I had my first big 'ah ha' moment. One day I was reading one of Carlos Whittaker's posts on RagamuffinSoul.com and it hit me - A blog is less about having a message and more about creating conversation.

In the end that's what social media really is - a conversation. And that changed everything for me. Today I've changed my goals. They're less focused on telling everyone what I think they should do, and more about creating opportunities for conversations that help people discover more potential in their lives and leadership.

For that reason, I was stoked when I got told by a few worship leaders last week.

Occasionally, I'll write for a few other church and worship websites. Last week, WorshipLeader.com published an article I wrote reviewing 21 resources for worship leaders (Click here if you'd like to read it). The day it posted, I checked in to see if anyone had commented, and I found a few worship leaders who had included several resources that I overlooked. One even made an excellent argument for why his service production software, ProPresenter, was better than the software I reviewed, EasyWorship. He made a lot of great points that put my argument to shame. I was so compelled (and owned) by his comment that I emailed my Technical Director and asked him to look into ProPresenter. Needless to say, I may be switching soon.

I'm quickly coming to love the conversation. A lot of the time all those 'How to...' or 'Why You Should..." titles to blog posts seem really boring to me. They make me feel like people are going to talk at me, rather than to me. For that reason, it's my commitment to myself, and to you, to leave boring instruction in the dust. Instead, I'll use timhswanson.com to create opportunities for conversation that'll help you (and me) discover more potential.

Question: Which blog or website do you love to read and comment on the most?