Marking the first birthday of ChurchPOP, a site for shareable Christian fun and inspiration, founder and editor Brantly Millegan said he hopes to build on the first year of success as he moves forward. “Last summer, I got the idea. And the idea was just to do a website in a 'Buzzfeed' style, but for Christian culture,” Millegan told CNA, saying that he wanted to create the kind of web content that people would want to share. It didn't take long for Millegan's idea to become real. Within a few weeks of brainstorming and obtaining a web domain in July, ChurchPOP was officially launched on August 11, 2014. The website offers articles, quizzes, videos, memes, and lists for people who are looking to share fun facts, beautiful pictures, and collectively “make holy all the things!” — as the site’s tagline indicates. The goal is to share Buzzfeed-style content while learning more about the Christian faith. Although Millegan started ChurchPOP from ground zero, he experienced a warm welcome during the website's first few days from fun-loving web surfers looking for sharable content with a Christian twist. “Praise the Lord - it was very encouraging that in my first month, I did far better than what I was expecting, and that was a big encouragement,” he noted. But starting ChurchPOP wasn't all fun and games. Millegan said that launching his own website was a lot like a rollercoaster ride. “The last year there have been a lot of ups and downs, it hasn't always been smooth sailing the whole time,” he remembered. Looking back after the first year, Millegan reflected with gratitude on all of the highs and lows, hoping that ChurchPOP will continue to be a success. With headlines like “LOL! 18 Christian Memes Guaranteed to Lighten Your Day” and quizzes such as “Can You Name These Liturgical Vestments?” Millegan keeps ChurchPOP's content fresh and funny by staying in tune with what millennials like. “They are just the types of things that people want to share, which is exactly what I am going for,” he said. “It's kind of surprising what does well and what doesn't. I had an article that was just a diagram of how all the apostles died and where their bones are supposedly located - and that was huge,” Millegan stated, noting that another article on “27 Delightfully Terrible Christian Puns to Annoy the Heck Out of Your Friends With” was also a big hit. Although Millegan has been running the show on his own, he does collaborate with others who submit their work on the site, and he also asks for permission to reprint other writers. In addition, Millegan himself generates a lot of the content and is inspired by everything from Facebook to Flickr. “I want the types of things where people can easily digest it, enjoy it, and share it on Facebook,” he explained, saying that the purpose of ChurchPOP is to promote “Christian culture in general, which I think has the evangelizing effect.” After his first year in the Buzzfeed-for-Christians business, Millegan has a few projects in store for the future that could make a global splash. “Well, we would like to create a Spanish edition, I think that could be huge. I think just putting it in another language, starting with Spanish, could have a huge reach,” he explained, saying “just onwards and upwards - that's the plan, at least.” “Things can be very up and down - the highs are highs, and the lows are lows. But I feel very blessed that I have made it this far, and I'm very happy,” he continued.
