Holding Space for Authentic Connection by Jessy Paulson

In March of 2018, I sat in a room of strangers, sharing the vision God placed on my heart to create a publication to hold the stories of the fighters, the survivors, the dream chasers, and the determined warriors. Just six months prior, my family released a book, Faith Over Fear: Walking Angie Home, recounting my sister’s cancer battle and our experiences as we walked her home to Jesus. The book sparked deep meaningful conversations. Through those interactions, God ignited a desire within me to hold space for the stories of others.

The problem was, I had no idea where to start. Publishing wasn’t my background. I didn’t have funding. I didn’t even know who would share their stories within these pages. All I had was a deep-rooted desire to bring this dream to life, a dream I knew without a doubt was from God.

For six months, I spent every free moment I had working to bring my dream of Gritty Faith magazine to life. I called in favors. Through free resources, I taught myself how to write, edit, do layout design, and self-publish. I scraped together enough funding to hit print on 100 physical copies of the first edition in November of 2019.

By the grace of God, those 100 copies sold. Today, five years later, this edition of Gritty Faith—our 20th volume—will reach over 20,000 people. Over the years, I’ve learned it truly is not about the number of individuals reached; it’s about the depth of the connection these pages ignite. Gritty Faith is built on stories; however, it’s not just those written within these pages. It’s built upon the stories and conversations ignited by the bravery shared here. When one person is willing to share their story aloud, others feel safe to do the same. Their faith grows because they are able to borrow the evidence of God’s goodness through someone else’s testimony until they can see it on their own.

Years ago, when I began my creative journey to share my art and words with the world, I thought the only way to success was to gain a massive following in a very short period of time. God led me a different way. He slowed me w-a-y down, taking me on a windy, curvy path to find my biggest supporters one-by-one. Looking back, I am grateful for the scenic route. Over the years, I’ve developed deep connections with my customers. They’ve shared personal stories and intimate details about their lives with me and how my words and art have impacted them. I treasure these strong, loyal connections that were built upon a foundation of stories and I know today my business, Purpose + Grit, is stronger because of it.

In April of 2024, Purpose + Grit acquired Sparrows Grace, an online marketplace for Christian Creators. With this acquisition, Purpose + Grit grew by leaps and bounds overnight, and yet, because of the strong foundation which God slowly built over years within this company, I can see it is still not about the total number of people we serve; it’s about the depth in which we impact each individual person.

Over the last nine months, I’ve been transitioning Sparrows Grace into the new Purpose + Grit Marketplace, a home for Christian Creators in which we share direct links to their products and work, connect them with a community of supporters, and provide a platform for them to share their stories.

The Creators within the Purpose + Grit Marketplace are focused on building meaningful connections and serving our shoppers and supporters in impactful ways through their products and services. We can see this work matters. From the responses of how our daily prayer emails hit home, to the repeat loyal customers our Creators are gaining, to the spark ignited when storytelling, we know our worth here. God is moving in incredible ways within this community and we are honored to hold space for these interactions here.

Holding Space for Authentic Connection by Jessy Paulson was published in Gritty Faith: Rooted (c) 2024