Tag Archives: writing

Why write a book?

churchinoutChurch Inside Out is a book designed to help churches get outside of their own four walls in order to help others find their way in. Why write something like this?

  • I’ve been blessed to be able to visit many churches in many different places. Big churches. Little churches. Churches in areas with lots of Christians. Churches in areas with few Christians. I’ve been able to observe, and much of what I’ve written comes from things I’ve observed.
  • I’ve grown in understanding about some things. Doesn’t mean that I know more than others, but I definitely know more than I used to. And I’m sure I know more than many Christians about some things, just as others know more than I do about certain topics.
  • I’m blessed to be able to read and study widely. My life situation, my field of study in college, the jobs I’ve had over the years, the availability of materials on the Internet… all has worked together to allow me to glean ideas from Christians I’ll probably never meet. In this book, I try to share some of those ideas.
  • I firmly believe that God wants to work through his church to bless this world. I firmly believe the church can do great things through the power of God. No church is doomed to be what it has been; every church has the potential to do great things with God’s help.

Those are some of the reasons I decided to write this book. I remember a quote from a Keith Green album jacket:

If I’m worthy, let me be heard. If I’m heard, let me be worthy.

That’s not exactly how I feel. Mine would be:

Lord, please use me, what I say, and what I write, to allow others to hear you. Not me, but you.

Overprotective?

padlockWhy do people write things and put them on the Internet, then make it hard for others to read them? Or hard to share? Or hard to comment on?

OK, I understand a bit the large print publications that are trying to find a way to stay alive and stay profitable. But I’m talking about some of the average people who find it necessary to put pop-up displays, or have designs that make it difficult to read a single article, or have RSS feeds that only display a few words of the article. (Yeah, I know… I’m getting technical)

It’s not easy for us 20th-century types to grasp the new paradigms of the digital age. I guess that’s a big part of it. We’re worried that others will steal our ideas, misuse our words, or write abusive things on our sites. They will. But that’s part of getting your thoughts out there. When you make it hard for others to share your words with others, you limit your audience. When you make your site difficult to access, people will go elsewhere where they can find similar thoughts more easily. When you make it hard to participate, you lose those who would contribute to your site.

There will be intellectual thieves. There will be Internet trolls. There will be malicious individuals.

And there will be those that will read your ideas and grow from them. There will be those that will interact with you and help you to sharpen your thinking.

And that’s what it’s all about.

Photo courtesy of MorgueFile.com