Hope for your financial life and beyond

Audience Alert: An Evolution Occurring at Luke1428

Six months ago, I shared about going back to work to take on an administrative pastor role at my church. I was already the youth pastor there (still am), so I didn’t know how the time commitment for the new role would impact other areas of my life. I wasn’t sure I’d have the time or desire to keep writing for this blog.

evolutionI emailed quite a few bloggers to share the news and ask for their advice on what to do. Should I keep writing at my current frequency, scale back or consider selling the site? I really was at a loss as to what to do.

Amidst the great responses I received came a noteworthy piece of advice from a very experienced and successful blogger. He said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Think about whether you want to hold on to the blog as a means of expression and connection. Even if you have to scale back it may be worth it to keep it.”

The meaning I took from his statement was this, “Hey, you never know where a blog can lead or how it may evolve.”

Since then I’ve thought a lot about that statement in relation to my writing, my career and my goals in life. What I’ve discovered is going to cause a minor evolution at Luke1428.

A Thematic Pivot

For basketball players, the pivot is an essential skill. It allows you to move in a different direction to avoid a defender or execute an offensive move. If you can’t pivot you’re stuck in one spot and a player stuck in one spot really isn’t much of a player.

The tagline I’ve had on my site since early on has read “Hope for your financial life and beyond.” I’ve dedicated this blog to writing about personal finance topics (“…your financial life…”) all the while sprinkling in my views about faith (“…and beyond”) as it relates to money in the Bible. I’ve loved sharing my ideas and helping my readers.

I believe properly managing your personal finances is one of the top two or three things you can do to have success in life. That’s why I chose to dedicate this blog to that topic. It’s why I’ll continue to write about it.

But what I’ve come to realize in the last few months is that there is more to the “…and beyond” for me as a writer.

In short, my passions are evolving. They are moving beyond a singular focus on personal finance. I can feel them wanting to push themselves out in my writing. To ignore that would hold me back and lead me to lose my love of blogging altogether.

What are these passions? Well, as someone working in the church they center around issues of faith, the Bible and church life. As a husband and father they relate to marriage, child rearing, teens and relationships. And as a leader they relate to concepts of leadership – leading oneself and leading others.

That may seem like a giant writing pivot into new and scattered topics. However, those who have been reading for some time know I’ve sprinkled these concepts into my writing before. The only difference now is that I’ll write about these topics with greater frequency. There will be less money talk and more “…and beyond” talk. And I’ll be reaching out to new audiences who might be looking for such material.

So in the coming months you’ll see these new themes in my posts. Thanks to all my readers who follow this blog. I hope you’ll chose to continue reading as Luke1428 pivots and begins to evolve.

Questions: How have you seen your life evolve? What caused the change? How do you manage through the pivots of life that come your way? For bloggers out there, has your blog ever developed into something new that you didn’t expect?

Image by Cheon Fong Liew at Flickr Creative Commons

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Comments

  1. Jayson @ Monster Piggy Bank says

    Oh Brian, I know you made the right choice. I think this change is for the better. Good luck!

  2. Blogs definitely change over time and if they don’t change with us then they probably aren’t going to last.

    • That’s kind of how I feel Cat. As I’ve looked back over the work I’ve done here so far, the blog has been more than just about finances. There has always been an undercurrent of other themes…I’m just going to explore them more openly now.

  3. PrivateWealthBuilder says

    glad to hear you will be focusing more on the “and beyond” type issues. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? SDG

  4. Jean-Paul Gauthier says

    Congrats on the “pivot” – I believe it’s a great move! Keeps the passion alive and it lets us continue to enjoy your writing – which is great by the way! Praying for God’s guidance in your words!

    • “Keeps the passion alive…” I believe a huge part of blogging boils down for your passion for it. The day it’s not there and I can find nothing to passionately write about will be the day I go stop.

  5. Thank you for letting us know! 🙂 I had a similar experience when I landed my “dream job”. I thought I wouldn’t blog anymore. Turns out that the job was awful and I was so grateful to have kept my blog. I went down to 1 post / week and never looked back (even after landing a new, better job). I’m looking forward to seeing where you go with this!! Best of luck!

    • Right now one post a week is working out great for me as well. I really haven’t lost any traffic from cutting back and I feel my posts are of better quality.

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