The Importance of Community as a Creator

I was eating dinner the other day with a friend, and he was telling me how important community is to him. That conversation got me thinking about how important community is to us as creators.

My goal is to be a full-time author and podcaster. That will happen, by faith. But I also know there are things that come with that journey that I haven’t fully prepared myself for. Things that make community so vital.

I was born in 1985, which means I grew up during what I’d call the boom of contemporary Christian music. I listened to Audio Adrenaline, DC Talk, Geoff Moore & The Distance, Steven Curtis Chapman—the list goes on and on. As someone who grew up listening to these artists, I’ve noticed (myself included) that we often put them on a pedestal. Not that we idolized them, but we listened when they spoke about God and the Bible, and we rarely questioned who they were offstage. We only saw what they showed us. We didn’t ask, “Who are they behind the scenes?” “Who is their community?”

As I grow as an author and podcaster, I want to make sure I don’t lose myself. I was devastated when I heard about Michael Tait. I’m not going to rehash what he did or what he was accused of, because that’s not what my platform is about. What I do want to ask, though, is: Did he have a true community around him? Yes, he had bandmates, crew, production staff, managers, a record label—but were they his community? Did they know what was happening? Did they try to hold him accountable?

What we need as creators is a community around us that can be honest with us. People who will speak truth when success begins to cloud our vision. People who will say, “Hey, you’re changing—and not for the better.” We need voices that will tell us if we’re sacrificing our morals or our beliefs just to get ahead.

This may sound extreme, but as a Christian content creator, I’ve asked myself: Should I stop labeling my books and short stories as Christian? Should I stop centering my stories around God or the Bible, and just write good, clean fiction that appeals to everyone? Now, some creators do that, and I’m not judging them—it works for them. But for me, I would feel like I was sacrificing a part of my soul.

That’s why I need people around me who will be honest. Who will tell me if I’m being arrogant, or if I’m starting to forget where I came from. I want a community that will pray with me and help me grow—as a person, as a Christian, and as a content creator.

So I ask you: As you follow your dreams or your calling from God—who is your community? I’ve heard it said, “Even pastors need a pastor.” They need someone who will call them out when they’re wrong, who will say, “This doesn’t feel right.”

Too often, we see people at the top of their field “fall from grace”—sometimes simply because they didn’t have a true community. They didn’t have people they could be vulnerable with. We all need people in our lives who, even if the world puts us on a pedestal for something we’ve accomplished, we can still go to and say, “I’m struggling. I need help. I need prayer.”

I say all of this to ask you one simple question:

Who is in your community?

Who can you rely on to hold you accountable?

Who can you trust to help keep you on the straight and narrow?