Ryan and Katara (The Passion)

I wanted a practice interview before I got started.

If I’m doing a series of interviews, I like to save my “heavy hitters” for last so I have enough experience to ask the right questions, to challenge ideas and truly find the root of the story I’m telling.

Unfortunately, the busyness of life doesn’t always make that possible ... and sometimes that's exactly what needs to happen.

My first interview was Ryan and Katara, the pastors at God’s House Ministries in downtown Marion. I was excited but nervous, especially because God’s House is my home church and I respect both pastors and their vision for the Marion community. Exciting and intimidating, for sure!

I started out by telling them about my topic and asking them about altruism as a concept and as reality.

They gave me blank stares.

It turns out that altruism isn’t something people talk about. It’s not a term people use (everyday or not). Therefore, when I asked questions about it, all I got was a confused look.

I explained the concept a little more for them and suddenly, realized my topic needed to take a shift. I needed to re-word it. Perhaps abandon it all together?

Instead, this is what I came up with:

How does a lifestyle of compassion and selflessness have the potential to change a community?

Phrasing my question this way (instead of simply asking how altruism affected daily life etc.) opened up an entirely different direction for my project.

I expected our conversation to last around 20 minutes ... but we talked for an hour and a half. After my third question or so, the conversation became natural. It wasn’t an interview ... it was a dialogue. It was members of a community coming together to talk about potential and change, needs and hope.

Ryan and Katara became visibly excited when we started talking about change in Marion. They told me their history and described how as individuals, their life stories had become intertwined with Marion’s.

And I realized that’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking for stories of people who so care about their community that they live in a way meant to change it.

I have a feeling this project could be so much bigger than I expected ...