Photo by Dan West Digital marketer Maxx Raths is spearheading the launch of THE/RISE Magazine, a collection of 10 stories about the daily lives of Christians.

MARSHALL — A new Christian publication is being launched right in the heart of Marshall.

Maxx Raths and his team have launched the first issue of THE/RISE Magazine to highlight faith in action in the daily lives of those who share their stories with the publication.

The idea came to Raths about two years ago when he was hanging out with Christian friends and was contemplating the lament of society that the Christian faith in action was on the decline.

“Being a Christian is life-altering and lifelong,” Raths said. “It’s overarching and all-encompassing, which means it’s also extraordinarily intimidating. However, our life doesn’t happen in extremes, we live our lives in the day-to-day ordinary. We wake up, go to the place that pays our bills, talk with the people around us, get involved in our church and fall asleep watching Netflix.

“Sometimes we wonder if this is being a Christian,” he said. “Is that not being a Christian? Is it that black or white? You know what it means to be a Christian when you read the Bible, but in the daily grind you may wonder, am I underachieving?”

People have the danger of losing their passion when they undervalue their lives inside God’s story. God promises that he puts us exactly where he wants us to be, he said.

“When we take the time to look around we realize that great stories are right next to us,” Raths said. “It’s vital that we see the vast landscape where God is using people in their everyday lives so that we can open our eyes to the important role(s) we play.”

That’s were THE/RISE comes in. The December/January edition has 10 stories from contributors that illustrate how their eyes were opened to God in their everyday lives. Their faith in action is on the rise, hence the slash in the name — to show the incline, Raths said.

Raths shares in the writing of stories and designing the magazine as well as the website, www.therisemagazine.com, while his team does a lot in their perspective fields. Raths is a digital marketer for Ralco. His team consists of Hannah Thooft, the 11th grade English teacher at Marshall High School who does the editing for THE/RISE, and Dan West of Minneapolis who works in media marketing for both his day job and THE/RISE.

They each bring their daily job experience to the table every time they meet to work on THE/RISE which can be over Skype, Google Hangout, at a coffee shop or over social media, Raths said.

THE/RISE Magazine is built on three core principles, Raths said. They are the Value of Faith, the Value of Pursuit and the Value of Excellence.

“Great stories command an audience,” Raths said. “People pursuing their faith passions do that. And we strive toward excellence in sharing those stories, right down to using quality paper, a matte finish on the cover and a great print service, Western Print Group.”

As a precursor to publishing the first issue of the magazine, THE/RISE Media team launched a Kickstarter program to measure interest and for funding for the project. The Kickstarter project had a goal of $5,000 which was surpassed when 53 backers pledged $5,245 for the fledgling publication. The Kickstarter program offered THE/RISE T-shirts and hoodies for higher levels of support and generated the interest needed to proceed with the first issue.

“Storytelling is an age-old form of communicating,” Raths said. “These stories are timeless. So, while there may be only three publications per year, the main idea is that everybody’s story is important. Even if they never submit it, we encourage them to write it down.

“We’re looking for bold perspective. People who find meaning in simple daily experiences,” Raths said. “People’s everyday lives are packed with conversations and encounters that crave meaning. Your experiences and perspectives can bestow that meaning, if you would only share them.”

Submitting a story is as easy as going to the Submit a Story page on their website to share the story, download the contributor guide to learn what THE/RISE is all about and have the best chance of being featured in the next issue.

THE/RISE also features The/Blog that delves into the topic “What Values have to do with Storytelling,” and The/Instagram that contains comments and insights as well.

“There is not requirement of having a catalog of mission trips and other grand stories, but serving in your local church and being active in your faith,” Raths said. “Those are the stories we want.”

The only guidelines are that the stories run 500-2,000 words long and that they encompass a specific event in a person’s life, with a beginning, middle and end, not open-ended.

Future issues of THE/RISE will tend to be close to the same length as the first, with 10 stories and only about three full-page ads that pertain to the content and are likely to be used by readers.