How did Pixel & Pulpit do in 2025?
Reflecting on the Past Year
2025 brought about a lot of change and experimentation for me. I published dozens of articles—quite beyond the norm for this publication.
In an attempt to see if this could be a form of financial success, I tried monetizing and launching the Saturday Side Quest. This was a fun experiment, but ultimately revealed that I was shooting for the wrong star.
I pivoted around the mid-year mark with the most significant swing I’ve taken so far: launching the Digital Missional Network.
One of the key sources of stress in planting a digital church has been finding a network of peers at a similar level in terms of the demands of the job and the specificities of the mission field.
The network grew quickly at first (to over 15!), but has stagnated a bit over the past couple of months.
Since forming, we’ve found a sort of flow in the Discord server that the network calls home. There are frequent check-ins and celebrations, and even more frequent questions about what on earth we’re doing in this work.
It’s been an invaluable resource for me, and I am thankful for those willing to enter into the space with me. While I am facilitating the space, I also see it deeply as a part of my own need being met.
Starting already in the new year has been an attempt to do some co-working together, which I am setting time aside for weekly on Mondays. This is a new perk of joining!
We also took a fascinating survey of the landscape of nerd ministry. I am still checking the data here and applying it to the work I hope to offer.
I’ve tried to see this space as a sort of ‘one for me, one for you’ kind of environment. The articles I write tend to oscillate between more personal writing of my own experience and outward-facing writing meant to serve as resources for this community.
Ultimately, I think the grander pivot in this space has been moving away from the financial connotation of the articles towards the entire monetization element being connected to the Digital Missional Network. I think this is a beneficial step towards what I want to actually be offering in my work.
As I look towards the year ahead, I have some huge hills to climb.
Starting in January, I will lead with a substantial announcement; more on that next week. This will make for a sizable shift in the environment of this Substack, I expect. I admit it is one I am nervous for, but excited for as well. It’s been a long time coming, and I am eager to show you what I’ve been working on.
I also want to put more of my energy into the Digital Missional Network. One way I am striving to be more present in that space is by offering more synchronous interaction, such as body-doubling via coworking or something similar. More than just questions, I suppose.
Another primary goal is to really ask the question: What do we mean by missional? I want those gathered to pursue at least one mission-oriented goal in the coming year, and we can work together to discover exactly what that might mean.
That’s probably enough for this reflection. I hope you’ll let me know in the comments some of the highlights of your year in 2025, so I can celebrate all the hard work you put in.
See you next week for some big news!