The role spiritual faith plays in today’s world is complex and far-reaching. It touches every facet of life, bringing healing and peace at the same time causing division and misunderstanding. Becoming aware of different faiths and how they motivate adherents broadens our perspective and ability to pray intelligently.

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Bible Gateway interviewed Corrie Mitchell (@corriemitchell), editor-in-chief of OnFaith (@onfaith).

How did you come to OnFaith and what are your duties?

Corrie Mitchell: I started at OnFaith in January 2014 as an editorial intern. At the time, I was a graduate student at NYU’s journalism school finishing up my thesis on indigenous church planting in New York City. The editor at the time, Patton Dodd, allowed me to dive right in and start editing and writing pieces of my own. It was quite the opportunity for me to get hands on experience doing just what I had envisioned when I moved to New York—I was able to combine my passion for storytelling with my heart for my local church community. Then after I graduated, I started as the assistant editor, and at the beginning of 2015, transitioned into my current position as editor-in-chief.

My role now is essentially to run the daily production of OnFaith. Everything that’s published on our site has had my eyes—and often my fingerprints—on it. So, much of my days are spent editing pieces by our contributors and also reaching out to new potential writers. That’s probably the coolest thing about this gig. I get to work with such an array of writers—including those who share my faith and those who don’t; those I agree with and those I disagree with; those who challenge my perspective and those who express exactly what I’m thinking.

In all my editing, my goal is to make sure a writer’s thoughts are expressed in the clearest way possible—and in a format readers want to consume. So, yes, we publish a lot of listicles. But I strive for those to be as substantive and thoughtful as any essay we’d publish. It’s just formatted a bit differently to match how people engage with content online today.

I also write pretty regularly for OnFaith. It’s funny, at NYU I was in the literary reportage program, which trained me to research, report, and write longform narrative nonfiction, so the shorter, shareable style of writing for the Web was totally new to me when I started as an intern at OnFaith.

On top of that, we’re constantly thinking up new projects we can try out at OnFaith. For instance, we started OnFaith Voices as a platform for faith leaders to share their perspectives with a wider audience than they’re afforded on, say, Sunday morning. It’s been exciting to work with a handful of pastors who have important and innovative insights, but might not have a “huge” name or online presence, and provide space for hundreds and thousands of people to hear their voices.

Describe OnFaith, FaithStreet, and the connection between the two.

Corrie Mitchell: I would start by saying that there are three components that make up FaithStreet, one of which is OnFaith, a publication of FaithStreet. The other two aspects that make up FaithStreet are the online church directory and the online giving platform. Currently, FaithStreet has some 17,300 US churches in its directory, the purpose of which is to help people find and connect with local faith communities—for services, classes, events, and anything else a church does. We’ve started to find success with sharing OnFaith’s content with these leaders, and I think it’s really resonating.

FaithStreet started when our co-founders realized how difficult it was to find a church in New York. They wanted to make it easier for people who were new to a city (or a faith) to find a faith community near them. The giving component came later, in 2014, as a way for congregations to easily give online to their local church.

Our goal is to bring those three components together into an integrated experience: a place where users can read OnFaith, keep up with their local congregation, and give.

But we’re really one (fairly young) team, the FaithStreet and OnFaith crew. There are only eight of us right now, so we all work really closely together. I even convince some of the FaithStreet team (and their spouses) to write for OnFaith from time to time.

Did OnFaith begin as a section of The Washington Post?

Corrie Mitchell: It did, indeed. Sally Quinn started OnFaith as the religion blog of The Washington Post website nine years ago when she went to the Post’s owner and said something to the effect of, “We’re not covering religion, but so much of what is going on in the world is about religion. We need to cover this.” And he suggested she start a website—and so OnFaith was born. We’ll always be indebted to Sally for giving OnFaith life, and she remains a close adviser, investor, and member of the team today.

Since then, it’s gone through quite the transition. At the Post, OnFaith very much covered the religion news of the day. That started to change a bit when FaithStreet acquired OnFaith at the end of 2013, and our vision for the site has continued to evolve since then. As it stands, we mostly publish essays and opinion pieces from various faith leaders and other people interested in exploring the intersection of their faith and daily life. We’re more interested in meaning-making ideas than politics, authentic voices than celebrities, and conversations that last than squabbles that are trending.

In a few words, I’d describe what we publish now as thoughtful, millennial-focused, personal, and voice-driven pieces. We’re all about giving leaders a platform to be passionate about their faith.

How broad is the religion spectrum of articles at OnFaith and what topics are covered?

Corrie Mitchell: I would say there is no topic or faith that is off limits at OnFaith. While most of our articles are written from a Christian perspective—to include everyone from the most liberal to most conservative of Christians—we publish writers of all faiths and no faith.

As long as it’s something that appeals to our readership, it’s fair game. We have a really successful series that we started called “10 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About…” That’s been a really cool way to explore a wide range of faiths and the theologies within those faiths. So far in that series, we’ve covered topics like yoga, Reformed theology, hell, Ramadan, Mormonism, Sikhism, the Bible, atheism, the Great Commission, prayer…the list goes on—and I hope will only continue to.

In the category of The Bible, what subtopics do OnFaith articles explore?

Corrie Mitchell: First I’d say that if I had to pick one topic that does the best at OnFaith, it’d be the Bible. More specifically, though, we’ve published pieces on everything from how prosperity preachers misuse the Bible to how it addresses homosexuality, trauma, and climate change to how you should read the Bible and which five verses sum up the entire New Testament story. The plan is to continue writing about the Bible as much as possible. The Word of God is something that all Christians are inherently interested in—and from what we’ve seen, people of other faiths (and even no faith) are also curious about it.

Who are your readers?

Corrie Mitchell: It’s somewhat tricky to identify who our readers are exactly, but I can say who our target audience is—us. It’s people like my coworkers at FaithStreet and myself: young, faithful believers who are heavily engaging with and thinking about their own faith and the faiths of those around them. Often, likely because we all live in the city, that also translates to an emphasis on urban believers, but our audience is certainly not limited to that.

When I’m trying to determine whether or not to publish a piece or how we want to address a certain topic, my first thought is, Do I find this interesting? followed by, Would my church community find this interesting? It makes my job a bit easier that I genuinely embody our target reader as a 25-year-old member of a local church who lives in New York City and has an ongoing curiosity about my own faith and that of my neighbors.

What do you hope readers of OnFaith will glean from it?

Corrie Mitchell: I want OnFaith to be that publication people of faith can go to in order to be spiritually fed in a way that spurns them on to deeper study and reflection and engagement. I hope that readers experience their faith in a new way, in a deeper way, because of the perspectives we publish. I hope they read authors they wouldn’t normally be drawn to—and they take from our writers what they deem worthwhile and leave behind what they don’t agree with, but only after careful consideration.

Why should church leaders regularly visit OnFaith?

Corrie Mitchell: Man, I just feel like every piece we publish at OnFaith is going to be useful to some church leader out there. A lot of our content comes from fellow faith leaders, so it’s a way for them to glean what their colleagues are thinking, how they’re preaching, what they’re struggling with, how they’re speaking to their congregations. So I think that part of it is a great tool of both challenge and encouragement. And I also think it’s important because a lot of our writers are the people sitting in their churches—or people who might one day be sitting in their churches. It gives leaders an insight into what their congregations are concerned about, struggling with, and seeking.

I even think the content that doesn’t exactly line up with a given church leader’s beliefs is particularly important for them to check out. I was at a meeting of church planters in New York City one day where Tim Keller was speaking about the very real need for pastors to read widely. He mentioned that when you read or listen to just one theologian, you become a clone, and it’s not until you read hundreds of writers that you will develop your own voice.

That really hit me. As an editor, I could only publish pieces I agree with and think would cause people to believe exactly as I do. Or I could publish a range of pieces that would educate readers and cause them to examine and consequently own their beliefs. The latter is what I hope OnFaith can do—and why I think it’s a particularly great resource for church leaders to consider.

What are your thoughts about Bible Gateway?

Corrie Mitchell: Personally, I’ve been using Bible Gateway since I started reading the Bible and became a Christian. I will say, I’m still super attached to my physical Bible, but Bible Gateway is my go-to for easily searching the Bible for keywords, different translations, and anytime I think, “Wait, where did Jesus say that?” I probably use it everyday at work. And I’m not just saying that because of this interview. Really, Bible Gateway serves a great purpose in making the Bible searchable, available, accessible—and in an aesthetically pleasing way no less.

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Corrie Mitchell: I’m sorry for being so long-winded. That’s the longform writer in me coming out. But in all honesty, thank you guys for the opportunity to explain away what I believe is my life’s calling—and why I’m so passionate about OnFaith as a big part of that.

Bio: Corrie Mitchell is editor-in-chief of OnFaith and a graduate of the literary reportage master’s program at New York University. She is a member of Restoration Community Church in the South Bronx.