Saturday Good Reads: The High Callling

For the last two years, I’ve been part of the editorial staff for The High Calling. If you’re familiar with the THC site, you know it publishes daily articles on work, books, faith, family and culture, and includes editorial posts, video posts, and extensions into Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

We are a far-flung group, mostly from all over the United States but with one member – our photography editor – living in Australia. We are all Christians, but we represent a variety of faiths – and that’s one of the things that makes the staff a strong one.

We have regular online meetings, interspersed with phone calls and emails. The amount of work that’s required to produce and maintain a site like The High Calling is large. All of us write for THC, but we also have specific assignments as well.

Marcus Goodyear, who blogs at Good Word Editing, is our senior editor who seems to know how to do everything, and a little bit more than everything. He’s a published poet, too, and if you haven’t read Barbies at Communion, you should.

Deidra Riggs, our managing editor, blogs at Jumping Tandem. She’s a minister’s wife, and a speaker, and a writer, and still manages to find time to check up on the staff, keep us on track, handle issues, and solve problems.

We have several content editors – the people who manage the posts for Work, Faith, Culture, Family, and Books.

Ann Kroeker, a writer blogging at Ann Kroeker. Writer., is the content editor for Family. She’s an author, too, having written Not So Fast: Slow-Down Solutions for Frenzied Families and The Contemplative Mom. Ann is one ferocious editor; I’ve experienced (and benefitted from) her work.

Charity Singleton, who blogs at Wide Open Spaces, is also a content editor for Family and related areas. (Her blog is one of my favorite reads.)

Laura Boggess is the Books editor. She blogs at The Wellspring, and is the author of two books, Brody’s Story and Derek’s Story.

Jim (J.B.) Wood is the content editor for Work, and the editor I’ve worked with the longest and most often (most of my posts involve the Work theme). He blogs at Shrinking the Camel and is the author of At Work as It Is in Heaven.

Sam Van Eman is the content editor for Culture, and blogs at New Breed of Advertisers. I was familiar with his blog (and Jim Wood’s) before I had heard of The High Calling, and both were part of the path that led me there. Sam is the author of On Earth as It Is in Advertising.

Dan King, our social media guru, rides herd on the Facebook editors and the rather strange person who’s the Twitter editor (me). Dan blogs at Bibledude, which is a site unto itself, with regular bloggers and features. For a long time, I didn’t know Dan’s name, because he always introduced himself as “#Fistbump, Dude!” Dan is the author of The Unlikely Missionary.

There are several daily Facebook editors who work with Dan and also write articles for THC. Cheryl Smith blogs at Oikos Living. Dena Dyer blogs at Mother Inferior and is the author of the recently released Grace for the Race: Meditations for Busy Moms and several other books. Jennifer Dukes-Lee blogs at Getting Down with Jesus and is under contract for a book to be published next year.

Sandra Sims is the Google+ editor and our search engine optimization (SEO) guru. She blogs at Guiding Vision.

Reid Echols is one of our newer staffers, and is responsible for the THC YouTube presence (I’m still surprised at the number of videos that THC produces). Tim’s THC profile is here.

Tim Miller, our intrepid Australian, is the THC photography editor and blogs at Spy Journal 3.0. He keeps reminding us that there are readings outside North American time zones. Working with Tim is Kelly Sauer, a contributing editor for photography who blogs at Kelly Sauer (and who takes wonderful photos).

David Rupert is the editor of the THC weekly newsletter and the guy who usually posts short summaries and links of THC Network members’ articles. He’s constantly trolling the network looking (and finding) good stuff. He blogs at Red-Letter Believers.

We have some specialty editors as well. Ann Voskamp, author of the still bestselling One Thousand Gifts, is a contributing editor for Faith and blogs at A Holy Experience. Christine Scheller, the THC Leadership editor, is one of the most prolific writers I’ve encountered, writing for numerous print and online publications. She blogs at Christine Scheller.

Tina Howard is the editor for the Laity Lodge Family Camp, one of the ministries connected to The High Calling (they all are a part of the H.E. butt Foundation). Tina blogs at Spaghetti Pie.

I’ve left Gordon Atkinson to the end. Gordon’s official title is “Senior SEO Editor and Drupal Advisor,” which makes him sound like a geeky type, but like all of the other editors, Gordon is about so much more. He’s one of the deepest thinkers I’ve met, and when I met with the THC staff at Laity Lodge two years ago, Gordon led our devotion times, and I have rarely been as profoundly moved as I was by his teaching. He writes as the Laity Lodge “Pilgrim” and blogs at Real Live Preacher.

That’s the staff I work with at THC. It’s a fine group, and I’m privileged to be part of the work they do.

Photograph: Laity Lodge, near Kerrville, Texas.