About
The Maker's Project
The Maker’s Project is a unique fellowship of Christian writers and makers committed to cultivating holy character, deep-rooted community, and excellence of craft. Together we offer publications, workshops, and products ~ each one made to encourage, elevate, and empower you in cultivating lives made whole in Christ.
As a fellowship of makers we are committed to cultivating whole lives and helping others to do the same. Our focus is rooted in three key areas – Character (spiritual maturity), Community (core relationships), and Craft (creative excellence). We call these the Three C’s of Cultivating.
A forest of oaks
The heart of The Maker’s Project begins with the oaks of righteousness. The answer to who we are and what is being done in this work begins here in Isaiah 61.3-4. The Maker’s Project is in its essence The Lord God our Maker, making and remaking us as makers – a broken people made holy, set apart to restore, rebuild, and renew places of ruin and desolation.
Ultimately, The Maker’s Project is not focused so much on what we do as makers and cultivators, but on the great work He is doing in us. We are His project, His planting, His garden, His people. It is The Lord Who calls us, plants us, rescues us, redeems and tends us. It is The Lord Who sees and declares us as oaks ~ resilient, enduring, noble, beauty-crowned, and generous. It is The Lord Who plants us as a forest of oaks for His splendour, one acorn and oakling at a time. He gives beauty for ashes that we may become skilled witness- bearers declaring through the whole of our being that neither sorrow nor ruin has the last word. He does.
The name of this fellowship is to properly identify whose work is being done and to whom the credit is due for what we accomplish, and what we become in Him.
Navigating the Names
The Maker’s Project is the fellowship of cultivators committed to doing the work of the three C’s (Character, Community, and Craft) together and sharing the fruit of our work with others. The Maker’s Project is the soil out of which the oak tree of Cultivating grows.
Cultivating Oaks Press is the publishing house for Cultivating Magazine and a suite of publications bearing witness to the Triune God through what is enduringly Good, True, and Beautiful.
Cultivating Magazine is the seasonal publication released online and in print from Cultivating Oaks Press created by members of The Maker’s Project offering written and visual arts work for the encouragement of God’s people.
Cultivating A Writer’s Life is the distinctive branch of Cultivating dedicated to empowering word shepherds to practice living into their calling from a place of wholeness, not striving. Cultivating A Writer’s Life is published in a newsletter, Substack publication, and is a bi-annual conference. A YouTube channel, podcast, book and workbook are now in development.
Cultivating is the whole tree of who we are, roots, trunk, branches, and leaves. The name refers to more than our website. It is our whole brand in all our expressions, public and private. From this name we draw our name as Cultivators, those who practice Cultivating Whole Lives Rooted in Christ – Flourishing in the Fellowship of Makers.
Like our readers, our Fellowship members span the globe
One of our deepest distinctives as a publication is that the focus of our care is as much on those who contribute as on the content and publication.
As a fellowship of believers united in a long act of worship through our arts and our lives we serve each other in prayer and helping to encourage one another in love and good works, whether created independently or specifically for Cultivating. This commitment is made so each of us are less alone in our creative outreaches and our walks with Christ. In all our ways and efforts, we seek to glorify God and bear witness to His goodness.
Fellowship members join The maker's Project by invitation.
We have a limited number of fellowship members by design. Being smaller by number allows us to grow larger in depth of connection and attention.
Selections for invitation are based on several factors, but foremost in consideration are habitual character practices and open pursuit of an obedient walk with Christ. No one is invited based simply on quality craftsmanship, though that is acknowledged and appreciated.
Because we are a small fellowship of writers and makers, without full-time staff editors, we do not accept unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. Single submission pieces from Guest Contributors are received by request of our publisher.
We function as a “team-and-theme” based model for publication.
Unlike the operating structure for many multi-contributor publications whose focus is primarily on content, for Cultivating, the relationships and growth among the fellowship members are as important a part of what we are producing as the quality of craft and content of the publication. The growth and wholeness of our members is truly our primary work of art.
When we invite new members
We look for individuals who are committed to deepening their walk with Christ, abiding relationships in core relationships, practicing creative excellence, willing to share their gifts with others, and to enter a fellowship maintained over an extended time.
Qualities of The Maker's Project Fellowship Members
1. Rooted and grounded in Christ, stand in agreement with our statement of faith (the Nicene Creed), able to say wholeheartedly that Christ is Lord, are growing in obedience and in sound theology, and in a submitted relationship with the Triune God
2. Committed to living out the values of a Cultivating life - pursuing a life of long discipleship integrating character, community, and craft
3. Willing to join the project team for a 3-year period or longer and be an active part of The Maker's Project fellowship
4. Willing to submit quarterly within the designated seasonal timeframe and theme, and on occasion respond to specialty requests
5. Able to provide high quality work - written, visual, music, or tech - for Cultivating as a part of the extended mission of The Maker's Project for
encouraging and inspiring other believers engaged in the long work of restoration
6. Willing to pray for the other team members and offer encouragement / support; and willing also to receive it
7. Willing to promote Cultivating itself, along with our core shared values, and each other's work (sharing our respective strengths for each other’s good)
8. Have an on-going outlet for one’s own creative efforts outside of Cultivating (website, Etsy-store, other publications, etc.) that we can refer to - help promote (Note: this is preferable, but not mandatory – occasionally team members do not have a website or have an active presence in social media)
9. Be an active, subscribing member of Cultivating and familiar with the tone of the magazine, the community of contributors, and the intent of our outreach.
