The Reader Speaks Up

I want to say thank you to the 44 who took time to respond to our survey. I don’t know if that number strikes you as large or small, and, honestly, I don’t know if I think of it in terms of size. What I know is that we received some really good feedback, and enough of it to see some consistent patterns in our readers and their thoughts on the Reforming the Feminine blog.

We’re stealing about 12% of the Vox Pop Network’s traffic (this is where I’d hope we be - I don’t want all the attention, but I am glad we are read!), and between July 11 and August 10th this summer, we got 5828 unique page views.

It’s totally humbling that so many of you took the time to fill in the survey boxes with your thoughts. I am humbled that you read our words and pay attention to what we have to say. Thank you for listening. It’s an honor.

So what did we learn from you?

1. 53% of you have no immediate connection to Mars Hill Church and live far away. WOW. Hello out there, ladies, and thanks for reading.

2. 20% of you are over the age of 41. Given that all but one of our writers are well younger than that, this is a huge honor. “I want to know what the young women of our day are thinking and believing,” wrote one woman from this category. 

3. My strongest hope has been that Jesus and the gospel would be evidenced in this blog, and that we would encourage women by pointing them to Him. 98% of you agree that we are all about Jesus, and 90% of you agree that we show that Jesus is a person not just some theological concept. Thank you, Jesus!

4. Your strongest overall impression is that this blog is an encouragement. We thank Jesus for enabling that. 

5. Was there room for improvement? Yes, certainly. 83% of you agreed that we were theologically accurate, and while very few of you thought we were inaccurate, enough of you were confused or unsure that we know we need to be stronger and clearer in our theology. Additionally, 75% of you agreed we avoided moralizing - but that means 25% of you can smell legalism on us. Whether it’s true in our hearts or not, we’d rather not emit this tone, and I’ll certainly be praying about how to strive towards more grace in my posts. Please know that ultimately each one of us are for grace and that we do want you to experience that - not condemnation. 

6. We need to write more posts and make them shorter! Thanks for being very clear and kind about this. We’re taking your suggestions and trying to be more consistent, regular, and brief.

What else popped up? 

Some interesting perceptions:

“It is not very representative of the women at MH but rather just a small circle of women (or so it seems)” writes one woman.

Another says, “vary the writers for age groups and seasons… (empty nesters, single parents…).”

One woman asked we get a stay-at-home mom to write, and another said they’d like to get profiles on the writers.

After our initial author introductions at the blog’s inception, we haven’t really taken time to introduce ourselves to any new writers. So it is not surprising that there are people wondering and some thinking we’re just a small circle of tight-knit buddies (funny related note: Candice and Shelly only met each other last month for the first time. We are very different women in very different circles but are very united in this blog despite the social distance).

Good news: we are going to update you to introduce ourselves, and we have some new regular writers on the blog including two stay-at-home moms. As far as empty-nesters and single parents, I am more than open to adding them to our list. If you are one, and you love Jesus, are a member at MH and would like to write, please leave a comment and I’ll follow up.

Other great suggestions won’t be blogged about here - but trust me, if you took the time to write it, all of us took the time to read it and consider you seriously. Thanks.

And if any of you haven’t taken the survey and would be willing to, we would really appreciate it still and will read what you have to say. Last of all, I’d like to encourage you to comment more frequently on the blog - this immediate feedback is very helpful to us and we do read what you have to say.

Thanks for joining us, ladies. And thanks for your voices back.

-Adriel