A Ministry of Writing

What is it about writing? Since I have done a bit of it over the years, I must reflect on a basic question. Why do people write, especially in these days of the cell phone and television?

Is it because they want to see their names in print?

Yes, of course.

What a rush we feel when we open a journal or magazine and see our names below an imaginative title. If the magazine is well known and pays, the thrill is doubled. If someone tells us that they read the article, the thrill is tripled. If they liked it, the rush equals that given by some of the finest stuff on the “street.” If another magazine requests permission to use our material, the need for a cold towel overcomes all other desires! For a time.

The late Carlyle Marney once reflected on the ministry of writing when I proudly showed him an article I had published in a well-known journal that pays. “Posey” he said, ” your fame will last but for a short time. Go look in my office and you will see stacks of the same magazine with my articles featured on the cover. They are all forgotten.”

Not quite. Papers and magazines have a way of clinging to shelves, and now and then I have picked up a rag and been attracted to writings that have changed some part of my life or thinking. The printed word has an enduring quality. Think of those who have lifted a Bible off the motel table and have been confronted, comforted, challenged or converted by some word from The Book.

Our culture, our faith, our intellectual deposit, all are influenced by what others have written and that which we read. A trip to the library will still all pundits who declare the death of the book. The full magazine racks, and the limp dailies hanging on their poles proclaim the importance of the printed word. In the library I use, the new books shelf is crowded.

Behind all those nouns and verbs that run across the justified page, there is some person who has found him or her self in the role of editor, which a dictionary defines as one who “collects and arranges materials for publication.” Editors also write editorials, which one can turn to in order to understand a magazine’s position on this or that issue. Editors also send notes to writers that while the magazine “genuinely appreciates your significant submission, it cannot use your fine material at the present time.” If the editor is particularly friendly, a postscript may encourage one to submit something else. Rarely does one ever say, “I hate your style; never send me anything again!”

For those of us in the writing rooms, and most especially those of us who write for church papers, we need to honor our editors, since there are so few of them these days. With the exception of some well-known pubs, religious papers have diminished in numbers. Sensational ones survive, or those which operate in the “attack mode” all the time.

The Outlook has survived. In my view this is because it has had fine editors, and because its wearers of the green eyeshade and sleeve garters have seen the work of their ink-stained fingers as a ministry. While they may have been thrilled when an issue has sparkled, they have known that if they are not offering a ministry to the church, and (I will say it) to the glory of God, brilliance or skill will amount to nothing. Paul of Tarsus, a consummate writer, expressed it well in his first letter to the Corinthians, when he offered inspired words about loveless words, whether of humans or angels (1 Corinthians 13:1-2).

Now, to Robert Bullock I turn. Robert (never, ever “Bob”) has an earnest and true love for the church. His love extends to those who may or may not share his particular version of a strongly evangelical faith. While those whose deathless prose fills the pages of The Outlook are all devoted to Christ and the church, they may reflect a different slant on that Faith. They may even be “liberal” or perhaps “conservative.” They may pick at the edges of faith by way of poetry, or confront a polity issue headlong. I have always felt that Robert loved us, and wanted to allow our voice to be heard. At the base of a ministry of writing is love. Not doctrine. Not ideology. Not piety. Not faith. It is love. Love for God. Love of church. Love of readers. Love of writers!

Robert’s passions are apparent. His long series on the theological basis of the church may please many or rankle some. He may have seemed very inclusive at one point (remember the paid advertisement for a group promoting Sophia?), or somewhat exclusive at another (he is a Christian, you know). I am sure that he has a rich inner life, which allows him to deal creatively with irritated readers who wonder how he allowed so-and-so to utter such drivel, and with fawning writers who know that they have the perfect answer to the church’s problems. It takes love.

Not too long ago, Robert and his advisors modernized the look of The Outlook. I was one of those who wondered why any change was needed. Dull, greyish paper with its ancient-appearing banner was good enough for me. If it was good enough for Aubrey and George, why was it not good enough for Robert? I repent in dust and ashes. Now the puritan blue of the new banner pops out at me when I retrieve a stack of mail. Ah, The Outlook is here. All the arduous work I am involved in is dropped, and I peruse the pages for news, opinion, a scandal or two, and the obituaries, which I scan much more carefully than I used to. Now, I like the modern look, even though Robert is hardly a modernist.

It is my hope that Robert will find another bully pulpit. Perhaps he will return to a pastorate and write pieces for a church newsletter. I hope that he will harness his computer and his love for God and the church and produce thoughtful essays for such journals as the Christian Century, now edited by Presbyterian minister John Buchanan. There may be a book or two in Robert. He could grace the Internet with a personal newsletter that people might even pay to receive.