Prodigal Magazine

Whether you’re a professional writer, novice blogger or just a regular guy or gal with a story to share, we want to hear from you. If you are interested in writing for Prodigal Magazine we want to hear from you.

Here’s the catch.

We aren’t looking for five paragraph essays, ten point articles, three ways to become a better fill-in-the-blank, five ways to have a better whatever.

What we are looking for are stories, your stories, real stories of places you’ve been, people you’ve met, things that have happened to you that have changed your life, changed you.

If you had to tell one story, to a stranger, that you knew they would use to define you – what would it be?
If someone you knew was going to tell one story about you to a crowd of dimly-garbed, hushed-voiced loved ones at your funeral, what story would you hope that would be?
Have you walked through something that has really taught you, encouraged you, frustrated you, or altered you in some important way? Maybe the event itself was mundane, but the impact was significant.

Those are the stories we want to hear.

We want stories that you would tell at parties to enlighten or entertain. We want stories that you’ve been afraid to tell, because of shame or a wound that cuts so deep you can’t help but resist the urge to write. You’re not sure anyone will understand anyway.

It doesn’t need to be heavy, but it can be. It doesn’t need to be dramatic, although it might be. All we require is honesty.

Honesty is the one prerequisite to storytelling.

Maybe you have a story to tell but you’re not sure how to tell it. That’s okay. You don’t have to be a good writer to have a good story. We want to help you. In fact, that’s what we do.

We want to help all kinds of people tell their stories.

We believe that the world will be changed by storytelling. It starts with words that you commit to paper, slowly at first, but with a growing sense of purpose and order as you establish some direction, making sense of that place you went, that person you met, or that thing that happened to you.

It continues with someone reading it – connecting, understanding, nodding in agreement, walking away, heads shaking, with those poignant words ringing in their head all day.

We want to read stories about your FAITH.

We believe that faith impacts everything about the way you live your life, and we want to hear about it. Please, would you give us windows into the following areas of your faith?

Church: What are your feelings about church? How are those feelings connected to experience? Do you go to church? If so, do you prefer big church or little church? How did you choose the church you attend? What are your thoughts about submitting to church leadership? What have been your experiences with that?

Un-church: What questions (and doubts) do you face about your Christian walk outside the doors of a church? Have you had an encounter with God? What was that like? Have you ever felt like God abandoned you in a time of need? What did you learn in that? How do you determine what God’s will is for your life?

Justice: How do you see justice or injustice at work in the world? In what ways are you, as a believer, working to administer justice to a hurting world? How have you been impacted by your experiences? How have you seen others be changed? Feel free to make a plug for your ministry or organization.

Please be sure to include how Prodigal readers can get involved.

We want to read stories about your LIFE

Life is complicated. Even though we want to live lives of integrity, sometimes we have a hard time figuring out what that means. We want to read stories about the following areas of your life:

Relationships: What are the questions you face everyday about love, friendship, parenthood, marriage, dating and even sex? Have you tried online dating? What has been your experience? Have you struggled with pornography? How did you break your addiction? What is your strategy for disciplining your children? Have you walked through a difficult conflict with someone you love? How have you resolved it?

Work: Your relationship with God influences how you work and the way you spend your hard earned money. Have you ever overcome a conflict in the workplace? How did you handle it? What it your approach to debt? What are the specific challenges you face in supporting a family? Have you ever “shared your faith” in the workplace? What did that look like?

Passion: How does your passion influence the way that you live your life? How has God used what you’re passionate about to teach you? Do you experience God through hiking, biking, eating healthy, painting, styling or pottery? What does that look like? Would you encourage others to try your favorite hobby or recipe? Why? We want to read a story about it.

We want to read stories about how you experience CULTURE

As Christians, we have an important role to play in culture, not by creating our own subculture, but by really engaging in, wrestling with and working to impact culture. We want to read stories about what that looks like for you.

Media: How has a particular book, movie or piece of music inspired your walk with God? Have you been to a concert that changed your life? Listened to a song with lyrics that made you think? Have you ever read a book that inspired you to do something? Ever seen a movie that altered your perspective on life?

Current events: we want to hear your experience with news, politics and current events. What is your political perspective and how did you come by it? Where were you or what were you doing during a significant political moment? What did you learn from it? We want to hear your stories.

Tell us your prodigal story in 1000 words or less. We’ll be publishing our favorites.

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Compensation: We do not compensate our writers financially; but we do feature your photo and bio with a valuable link back to you or your organization’s website.

We look forward to working with you.