Hi, my name is Steve Dueck. I am partnered with The Navigators and started Community Life as a social media service to serve non-profits, namely, local churches and parachurch ministries. As members of the Pray! Network, think of me as your social networking coach. As the one who created this social network in cooperation with NavPress leadership, I am committed to helping you use this new venue as a tool for building up the Pray! community in ways that grow relationships, 24x7.
When Rick Warren wrote "It's not about you," those first four words of one of the most longstanding NY Times bestsellers ever, "The Purpose Driven Life," he was writing a book. I suppose if he were writing a member coaching blog about social networking, he would find as I do these same words uniquely appropriate for kicking things off.
When thinking about what it means to be a part of a social network, this one and all the other ones that characterize your online and offline life, "it's not about you" is probably the healthiest way to start thinking about things. Whether it's your marriage, your family, your neighborhood, your school, your sports team or your place of work and so on...doing things for the benefit of others is one of the most important shared values of these communities.
Now that the Pray! Network has grown to 1,595 members and continues to grow, you might be wondering what this community is all about and what NavPress leadership is hoping to achieve here. Let me be so bold in answering this question that being a member of the Pray! Network will be more about building into the lives of others than anything else. It will be more about others than about our own ambitions.
With that in mind, I would like to ask that each of us adopt a new mindset whenever coming to the Pray! Network for a visit. Beyond just checking in and seeing what new content has been posted from week to week, ask yourself the question whenever you visit, "What's one thing I can do here and leave behind of my own accord so as to love on other members and help build up this important community?"
Want some fresh ideas on what that one thing could be? Visit the Take the Tour page on the Pray! Network and learn all that you can do here. Short on time...just leave a comment below and tell others what you think. Remember. Before you leave the network, do one thing.
Your Pray! Network coach,
Steve Dueck
