Most people we now think of as ‘real writers’ got there simply by deciding to be writers and then sticking at it ... You need to back yourself, seek out feedback and support, fight the imposter syndrome, and just keep going.
Writing has connected me with whole communities of non-Christians who need to hear the gospel but who do not necessarily know other Christians. God has been kind in gifting me with opportunities to share my faith, but that sort of pre-evangelism and evangelism is hard and lonely work.
I write in religion studies and adjacent fields. I hope that in what I have written this year I have shared my faith, and inspired others to think carefully, delight in worldly phenomena and celebrate human dignity.
God has equipped me to serve his church at this cultural moment. I’ve said to my secular sexual health colleagues: they know how sex operates; I know that too, and the God who designed it that way.
I sometimes say to my wife that writing is my ‘shed’—the place I go to to tinker with objects, to make things. In ministry, nothing is ever complete ... For some pastors, going into a shed to turn a piece of wood into a bookshelf or coffee table is a way of seeing something actually get completed. For me, writing is like that.
