Patreon

Click here to become a Cerebral Faith Patron --> https://www.patreon.com/cerebralfaith 

Cerebral Faith is a Christian Apologetics ministry run by me, Evan Minton. Running a ministry by yourself can be tough. Cerebral Faith is just me, Evan Minton. I don't have a team like FreeThinking Ministries or Cross Examined does. I have to do everything myself from writing the blog posts, writing the books, proofreading the books, formatting the paperback and Kindle editions of the books, record the podcasts, editing the podcasts, and so on.

It takes a lot of effort to run Cerebral Faith, but it can take money as well. If my computer goes bad, it'll be difficult to put out good quality content for both the blog and content, and computers are expensive. The one I'm typing on now is getting on in years. If I see good books I want to buy to fuel my research (so I can, in turn, pass on what I've learned to you in the form of blog posts and podcast episodes), I have to spend money on that. The most academic books can be really expensive. Additionally, I have never been able to afford to get Logos Bible Software. Research is a crucial part of my ministry as the more I learn, the more accurate and informed content I am able to produce. Additionally, if I made some decent money from Patreon, I could afford to make even better covers for future books as I could hire professional cover designers to make them for me. For The Cerebral Faith podcast, I can get recording equipment should it be damaged or if I come across something even better or more convenient to use. 

Running ads on my blog is not a favorable option for me. Even though I can control to some extent what ads appear on my blog, I can only do so by category. I ran AdSense for a short amount of time, and allowed mainly religious ads, but some of the ads were for heretical organizations, and I didn't want my readers to think I endorsed that content. The only way to block particular ads from a particular company or organization is to go to the URL and put that into the AdSense app. But Google won't allow me to click on ads that appear on my own site. Therefore, I had no idea how to retrieve those URLs without violating Google's rule not to click on my own ads. 

I can ask for donations, but statistics show that only 1% of your audience is likely to donate. 

That's why I opened up a Patreon account. With Patreon, content consumers are more likely to give money. Why? Because, unlike what I previously thought, Patreon is not simply a donation service. Patreon users can give exclusive content to their patrons in exchange for their money.

I've already explained how patrons can benefit me. Now, here's how YOU can benefit if you become a Cerebral Faith patron.

1. Early access to content (Podcasts only).
2. A signed copy of my latest books.
3. "Shout outs" on the podcast.
4. Personal updates (vlog or newsletter style) to keep people in the loop about my personal life.
5. Patrons supporters to ask you apologetics (or similar) related questions and have it published on the main site (CerebralFaith.blogspot.com). I understand that I already do this, but if you're a patron, you'll be given priority over non-patrons.
6. Do a monthly Skype/Zoom/Google Hangouts meeting. It can either be super casual and just chatting, or I could even teach on some topic and then have live Q&A over what I discussed.
7. Personal "coaching" calls where I help walk someone through something one on one for about an hour.

Also, the way I've seen it done, you can give different levels of perks and bonuses to people who give a different amount. So, I'll do it like this

1. If you give $3 or more a month, you get early access.
2. If you give $20 or more a month, you get early access, a signed copy of my latest book, shoutouts on the podcast, and personal updates.
3. If you give $50 or more a month, you get all of the above, plus you'll be given priority questions for the e-mail correspondent Q&A and you can join the Skype meetings.
4. If you give $100 or more a month, you get all of the above, plus a one-hour phone call every month to walk through certain topics.