Collide Magazine

Congrats! You have a great site, and a great magazine, you guys deserve it.

posted at 10:08 am on June 3rd, 2008 by Corey

Awards like this are ludicrous. Why do we in the church insist on following the world by picking One of a thing and calling it The Best? It’s like a father having a Child of the Month award or Jesus having a Disciple of the Year award. Let’s edify everyone as needed and not promote unnecessary competition.

Your magazine seems cool. Be extra cool and politely refuse this award until organizations like Prodigal Son stop falling for this American Idol approach and get creative with their ways of sharing the cool things God is doing.

posted at 11:15 am on June 3rd, 2008 by Chris Morris

Congrats! I’d love to hear your acceptance speech…it’d be way cool if you started crying like Halle Barry..!

posted at 2:09 pm on June 3rd, 2008 by Kevin Mattison

Chris,

Thanks for the comment. Unfortunately, I don’t share your perspective. For us, building a new website wasn’t about winning awards or “unnecessary competition.” We don’t exist for those reasons. Rather, we exist to inform and inspire church leaders, and our site is a tool toward that end.

It was nice of Prodigal Son to recognize our new site, but I don’t think they did so to the detriment of anyone else. It wouldn’t be good form for us to refuse the award, but it also wouldn’t be good form for us to strut around like peacocks because we won. Furthermore, if we never win again, we won’t be upset. As I mentioned earlier, that’s not why we do what we do. After all, Jesus taught us that those who do things to get noticed by others have received their reward in full.

posted at 3:24 pm on June 3rd, 2008 by Scott McClellan

Congratulations Collide staff!

We celebrate this accomplishment joyfully with you. Glad your hard work, diligence, attention to detail and generous spirit is being acknowledged.

We run races to win prizes. Your readers and those of us who’ve written articles for you like cheering you on as you strive for excellence in your race. Thanks for pushing for better instead of settling for ok. So glad we can give honor where honor is due.

posted at 4:56 pm on June 3rd, 2008 by Cynthia

Scott,

2nd prize was a set of steak knives, wasn’t it?

posted at 10:08 pm on June 3rd, 2008 by The Jay Kelly

I don’t believe y’all are seeking recognition of this sort, nor do I think accepting the award condemns you to that motive. I don’t think awards of this sort are necessarily an active detriment to those not getting an award, but I think the competitive element is at best superfluous. Just a change from “Best of X category” to “here’s some of our favorites - groups we think are doing some cool stuff and being effective for God” would shut me up.

Perhaps I’m oversensitive to the issue, but our culture is so caught up in competition squeezing out acceptance and inclusion, I personally wish the church would keep that element at arms length — do it differently. If there’s 17 magazines that are really doing great, in 17 different ways - let’s highlight them all, not just restrict it to 1 plus a couple of honorable mentions. If there’s none, then let’s say, “Y’know, we just don’t think anyone’s really cutting the mustard currently.”

Having a competitive award doesn’t mean it’s hurting anyone, but it provides an opportunity for exclusion, and the remaining benefits of such an award (e.g. edification, expressing thanks) are not helped by the competitive element. Many of these awards are dealing with subjective material anyway, making the “Best” moniker more senseless - “Best” for who? Besides, removing it just might encourage us to find new ways to love on each other.

posted at 11:18 pm on June 4th, 2008 by Chris Morris

Chris…this is Jason from Prodigal Son Magazine…I truly respect your opinion but wanted to give you some of my thoughts on the topic.
I believe talents and gifts can still be “recognized” in the Christian Realm. Just as art is beautiful, so is web design. In my opinion, God gave us those talents and I love to honor them, when I see beautiful things. Of course I could have prefaced the article with a caveat “In my opinion” but that kind of goes with out saying. The Webelujah awards are more to show how far Christian design has come, and less about putting up pedestals. Whether we like it or not, the social spectrum is moving to the internet and it is important for the church to interact well in this medium. I really do respect your opinion, but believe there is still a space for excellence and recognition. I suppose we could change the title to “Honoring great Web design”…but I think that either way, you are recognizing some and leaving some out…which I guess is just a side-effect of any awards. Thank you for your thoughts.

posted at 10:35 am on June 5th, 2008 by Jason Wenell

Thanks for your reply, Jason. “Honoring great Web design” I think is better. Some might be left out still, but I think you leave yourself more room for inclusion of other sites that also attain the level of quality you’re seeking to highlight and encourage.

posted at 9:06 pm on June 5th, 2008 by Chris Morris