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Readers submitted more than 50 possible names for this column in response to my invitation last week. The one you see above, "Focus on Faith," is a composite created from your ideas to capture the goals of this community journalism effort.

Because there wasn't a single winner in the competition to pick the name, our modest prize of being treated for lunch at the reader's favorite restaurant goes to the person who offered the most candidates -- an inspired dozen in all: Jamie Waldrop, a member of Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke. My favorite from her was "Spitballs from the Balcony," a reference to my first column that recalled such personal mischief as a youth.

I hope the "Focus on Faith" name will address concerns expressed by some readers that the content of this space will be narrowly focused on a few large churches, or even solely on Christianity.

Such fears were expressed in an e-mail from Karen D. Wright of Buchanan, who wrote, "I'd like to see you stay away from the words 'church' and 'religion,' as they sound limiting and filled with rules, dogma and the like."

Wright's point is well taken and had already been discussed in The Roanoke Times' newsroom. Instead, the column -- really more of a reporter's notebook -- will touch on people, events and trends related to spirituality in as many forms as we can find it in Southwest Virginia.

Come one, come all: Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Bah'ai and others. Another of the e-mails I received after the first column was one from an agnostic who requested that even subjects involving skepticism be given attention. That's the plan, based on the presumption that the absence of faith is also a spiritual matter.

After all, how could a column about conviction-related issues not acknowledge that our beliefs are vulnerable in this modern world? The struggle to hold on to faith can be real-life drama, as painfully described in a new book by Bart Erhman, chairman of the department of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, "God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question -- Why We Suffer."

In discussing his book on National Public Radio in March, Erhman recounted the gradual loss of his belief in God, explaining that he could no longer accept the concept of a loving supreme being who can permit so much pain in the world. He nevertheless continues to teach religious studies and allows that his faith could well return someday.

But as our first column promised, you won't find sermonizing here. Rather, we'll report on people in the area who may be dealing with doubt, but are trying to act on certain principles in a lifelong quest. How they seek solace in the fellowship of one another will be a recurring theme.

In keeping up with news about faith-related community activities, we recognize that the soul can be soothed by everything from a covered-dish church supper to church-sponsored martial arts instruction and secular meditation. One reader's e-mail alerted us to what he described as a Quaker-led group that meets periodically in complete silence -- without liturgy or so much as conversation. He wanted to know more.

"Everybody's looking for answers," said Ulysses Everett McGill, played by George Clooney, in the movie, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou." We won't ignore anything that hints of help in finding them.

So, from a ministry held in a skateboard park to a look at whether cushions on church pews encourage sleeping through sermons, the print version of Focus on Faith and a roanoke.com blog by the same name starting Monday will cover the spiritual panorama with curiosity and without judgment.

If you know about something you think should be shared here, please let me know.