The rumors are true, I’m moving . . .

[photo: duvalguillaume]

Yep, I'm moving . . . not from one house or city to another, but blogs.  I know, I know, try control your squeals of excitement . . . if you can 😉

Just hear me out.

It seems like yesterday that I moved into my starter blog with blogger only to be lured over to typepad in March of 2006.  But alas, with this post  I am leaving www.reyes-chow and moving over the be a featured blogger at Patheos.com, a web portal on all things religions and spiritual.  As part of the Progressive Christians group, I will be joining a cast and crew of bloggers from an amazing breadth of faith traditions. I am excited about a new beginning, but I also would be lying if I didn't acknowledge that this exciting transition is flavored with a dash of anxiety and trepidation.

Okay, I admit it, only the dorkiness of bloggers would see moving blogs as momentous as moving homes or cities. But, I'll tell ya, as I go through this process of saying goodbye to a comforting space where I have lived and shared for the past five years, it really does feel like I'm getting ready to load the moving van and trek across the country to a new home.  I begin to set up my new blog space, as with any geographic or housing move, the same questions arise:

• Should get everything unpacked at set up before inviting anyone to visit?
• What do I want to leave behind and what shall I take with me?
• What do I want to try in the new space that I didn't in the old one?
• How am I going to let everyone know I moved?
• Will I keep in touch with people from my old neighborhood?
• And the most important question, is this move even a good idea?

The last question is a good one and one that I have struggled with as have talked with the folks at Patheos over the past few months about a possible move.  And after many emails threads, a great deal of stalling on my part and some honest negotiations about what this might look like, I am pretty sure that the next stage of my calling in life is to take some risk and venture into some new conversation circles.

But in case you are wondering, here are a few of the specific reasons I am moving to Patheos:

• They want me – I have heard somewhere that the number one reason for one person being attracted to another is that the other is attracted to them first. I have to admit that being wanted is pretty nice.  And after I had given them every excuse NOT to want me to join them, they still wanted me in all of my wandering, random unfocused progressive Christian glory!

• Administration sucks – While I do like having full control over all aspects of my blog, I also hate having full control over all aspects of my blog.  Yes, I am moving to the WordPress world, but I am sure that I'll catch on.  After it's set up, they can handle all of the technical issues that arise.

• The Gold Doubloons – One of the sticking points for me was whether I wanted to move to a platform where there are click incentives, basically do I want to get paid by getting people to visit the site? After coming to a mutually agreeable compensation schedule, giving up the ducats that my google ads have been generating, this was a no-brainer.  I am certainly not buying this any time soon, but just to be transparent, there is some compensation that comes with the move.

• Increased Buzz and Traffic – Shameless and unapologetically, I am trying to increase my visibility as I work on a book and look at some other projects post my church call. I will still cross-post on The Huffington Post and SFGate, but all of my blog content will now orginate from my Patheos blog.  Not only will this move expand the possibilities for interaction and engagement with a wider audience, but as an internet extrovert there is an expanded opportunity to get to know new folks, their stories, their opinions and their passions.

• What they are doing – The most important reason that I have decided to hook my wagon to Patheos is because I believe in what they are trying to do.  In an age of growing religious pluralism and a glaring absence of healthy spiritual exploration and interaction, Patheos is filling that void with a balanced and broad online faith presence.  Their attentiveness to the heart, mind and soul of humanity is shown in the ways they share content as well as by the range of bloggers and contributors who they have brought to the table. Most importantly, they are building faith bridges, not by watering down or finding some low common denominator between the traditions, but by asking people to express the fullness of each ones tradition: the intricacies, the struggles and joys. Very cool and worth being part of.

So there you have it, I'm leaving and this is pretty much my farewell post from reyes-chow.com.  From here on out I'll be over at my new address http://www.patheos.com/blogs/breyeschow/ where I hope you will SUBSCRIBE to RSS FEED and continue to hang out. My new home is not quite set up and I'm still thinking about what it will look like at the end of the day,but in the end, I'm excited about the move and I hope to welcome you to my new place soon.

Thanks for hanging out thus far, it has been a wonderful.  

Take a read of my "welcome" post and I look forward to seeing you over there.