Short Summary
As a group, American Christians have done major damage to our
ability to relay the Gospel to America. As James Emery White put it in his
book Rise of the Nones, "We've acted in ways, talked in ways
and lived in ways that have stolen from God's reputation."
Walls of unbelief are being built up
at rapid paces that we, as the church, currently aren't quite good at crossing.
Shattered Magazine's goal is to help break
down barriers to belief in God, barriers to good relationships with Christ and other people, and many more barriers through the power of story.
When we let down our white picket
fences and start sharing the real stories of where God met us and how He has
impacted our lives, then others can begin to relate to Him as well in powerful ways.
Our hope is that people who don't
believe, those who see the church and subsequently Jesus negatively, and those who might believe but are struggling in their faith will begin
to see Jesus as for them.
It's about time we get real with
each other. It's about time we start being Jesus to people and quit condemning
them in light of the forgiveness extended to us. It's about time we stop making
Christianity about how perfect we think we are or how perfect we think we
should be and make it about the perfect Savior we serve.
Our stories are one way we can do
this...
"And they have defeated him by
the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives
so much that they were afraid to die." (Rev. 12:11)
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To get started, first read this complimentary digital version of our magazine.
The Current Issue - Spring 2015: Click To View
Now, are you ready? We hope so!
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This is Rachael Jackson, founder of Shattered, speaking:
Two sayings that have greatly
impacted my life:
"People
don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
"Your
actions speak so loud, I can't hear what you're saying."
We need to let people know where
Jesus met us through our stories, and we need to let our actions match our words. That's the only way they will see Jesus as the real,
life-changing Savior that He is. That's the only way that they will see Jesus
as FOR THEM.
Our goal is to facilitate an
actual movement of authenticity through strategic storytelling, which will in turn motivate and mobilize
the body of Christ to get involved in ways that will allow others to see Christ relevant to
them.
We believe that our stories, our
authentic and transparent stories, are the hook into people's hearts and the
source of power behind the movement. Stories have the power to offer
perspective, hope and encouragement. Stories have the power to inspire and
motivate.
We tell stories in print and digital formats as well as in-person through events.
Join Us
If you're ready to see Christians
who are making Christianity about Christ again become more effective in their
message and mission, join us.
We are believing God has called us
to increase the influence of the Shattered platform to reach nationally.
While there are many ways to help
out and get connected down the road (i.e. share your story, connect your
ministry, etc.), the focus right now is (gasp) money.
The fact of life is that we need
money to do anything of this magnitude. And although everyone is so sick and
tired of being asked for money, we believe that God has big plans for Shattered
and that He is going to provide in ways we can't even explain or
comprehend.
What We Need & What You Get
Rebecca Sterner, a widely recognized magazine consultant, spoke with me over a year ago.
After I had told her that we raised $7,000 to print our first issue on Kickstarter, she proceeded to explain how it should be done to properly launch a magazine. I wonder if maybe she laughed quietly to herself at our naivety...
Her words still echo in my ears, "you will need 100,000 subscribers to make it nationally and you'll need 1.5 million dollars to make that happen."
WHAT?! Yikes.
Well, with a whole host of accomplishments behind us, including nationwide distribution in Barnes and Noble, Books a Million and other boutique stores; a subscriber growth rate of about 400%; and a growing interest in what we're doing from the church, we're thinking that God's pretty awesome to keep us around. :)
That being said, she is right about something. We need money to market our magazine.
We believe that if we can raise $300,000, we will be well on our way to reaching that 100,000 subscriber mark - at 1/5 the cost she said it would be.
Your money will allow us to reach a
sustainable level of operations and production by the end of this year because of the subscription revenue that can be generated through marketing.
Our Marketing Plan - Where Your Money Will Go
We plan on using a variety of methods to market including:
- key event promotions / partnerships
- religious and non-religious website advertisements for most highly trafficked websites.
- Google Ads, You Tube, Social Media Marketing
- relationships with non-profit ministries
- building on our website traffic (already at 145,000 / month) to convert to subscribers // telling more stories
- tv / radio ad spots in key regional growth cities (Birmingham, Nashville, Atlanta, Memphis, etc...)
The
Impact
Q: What is the number one
thing skeptics and the un-churched of the millennial generation said would make them highly more
likely to come to church?
A: It is if they knew that the church had older people who were
willing to share their stories and offer wisdom.
(Based on "Churchless: Understanding Today's Unchurched
and How to Connect with Them" by George Barna and David Kinnaman)
We want to be a tool for the church - something that can help get people in the doors and something that can be used to help us understand what it means to have a relationship with Christ and how that transforms our perspective on everything.
We could keep telling the stories of a few individuals to an audience of a few thousand. But we believe God is up to something bigger in the world. We believe there are thousands of stories of God's glory that go untold every year. And we believe there are millions of Christians (247 million in America alone) who need to hear those stories. Would you help us get there?
You can be a part of this movement, and that could be your reward alone! :) But we'd still like the chance to say thank you!! So, be sure to check out the "Perks" section for your partnership level and your reward!
Risks
& Challenges
With any BIG idea come risks and
challenges. So what stands in the way of Shattered fulfilling this mission to
break down the walls of unbelief through the power of story?
The great challenge is money. It
takes time and a team to share these stories across multiple platforms. Shattered
has a team who believes so strongly in this mission that they have given of
their time for lower than value or in many cases, free. This has been our
greatest limiting factor. What if these individuals were freed up to tell these
stories full-time? We could get to 100,000 subscribers faster.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you don't have any money to
spare, you have friends and family who might care about this campaign.
- Share on social media and tag @shatteredMag
#shatteringwalls
- Use the Indiegogo share tools as well.
- Send this link in an email to your friends.
- Take your loved ones out for coffee and tell them about
Shattered.
- Tell your church about this up-and-coming resource.
And that's all there is to it. Easy.
Right?