Pictures matter.

I’ve felt for a long time here at BibleDude.net that the images we use are a very important part of the message we communicate. There’s something that a visual element brings to the experience of a blog post that words cannot accomplish. Images communicate so much.

Community matters.

Another important element of what we do around here is community content. We’ve done several group blogging projects to gather writers who share their perspectives and ideas on a subject, and I’m always amazed at the conversation that results. These community conversations are particularly special when we’re talking about books of the Bible.

So I’ve wondered… What would be cooler that tapping into the community for a project with images? And, I have a great opportunity coming up that would be a great fit for this kind of project!

On Monday, January 14th we’ll be starting a group blogging project on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. We have a spectacular team of bloggers who will be taking us passage-by-passage through the epistle. Each of these posts will need an image. Rather than going out to search for images, I’d like to get the community involved with supplying the images to go along with the writing. Then when the project is complete online, we’ll be converting it into an e-book that will be made available on Amazon.com.

I’d like to invite anyone with a camera (or smartphone) to submit photos to be used in this project.

Here’s how it will work…

There will be two ways you can submit a photo for consideration:

• Instagram – Take a picture, hashtag it with #ephesiansproject, and add the passage reference (from the list below)
• Flickr – Take a picture, and upload it to the #ephesiansproject group, and add the passage reference to the description field

You don’t have to submit photos to both places, just whichever works best for you.

I’ll select one photo for each passage to be featured in the post (and in the e-book). If your photo is selected to be used in the e-book, I’ll also give you a full bio/credit in the contributors section. Even if it’s not selected as the featured photo, then I’ll still try to include everything in some sort of gallery associated with the posts.

The inspiration for each photo should simply be the Bible text. Read the passage, and capture what it inspires in you. The passages we’ll be discussing are:

• 1:1-14 Greeting and Spiritual Blessings in Christ
• 1:15-23 Thanksgiving and Prayer
• 2:1-10 By Grace Through Faith
• 2:11-22 One in Christ
• 3:1-13 The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed
• 3:14-21 Prayer for Spiritual Strength
• 4:1-16 Unity in the Body of Christ
• 4:17-32 The New Life
• 5:1-20 Walk in Love
• 5:21-33 Wives and Husbands
• 6:1-4 Children and Parents
• 6:5-9 Bondservants and Masters
• 6:10-20 The Whole Armor of God
• 6:21-24 Final Greetings

I’m expecting that this will bring a cool perspective into this kind of Bible study project. Feel free to send as many photos as you’d like for consideration, and let me know if you have any questions.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine the story we can tell about the Bible with our cameras. (Click to tweet!)