About the time I finished school, a new bred of job placement companies had begun to spring up all over the place. The idea was for you to fill out a bunch of forms about your interests, education, and previous work experience (I had none), then talk to a local career placement person who would match you up as closely as possible with jobs in the area that needed to be filled. If that potential employer hired you, the placement company then received one-fourth to one-half of one month’s income as payment for their service.
Today government services have something similar for free, and so do Internet services. This sounds great, but the one-on-one rapport and local-to-local support is just not there. However, all the news about the jobless rate had given me no cause to pause to consider this until my now-grown children told me, “I don’t know how to get a job!” It occurred to me then that might be true for you or your now-grown children too.
Lord knows, Christians are worthy of their hire! In fact, the Lord says that clearly in Luke 10:7. The first step, however, is to know what God wants you to do. Perhaps that might be to go into journalism or host a Christian talk show or work on a medical team that will help you prepare for a mission trip someday. Or maybe you need a job to pay the bills but not drain your creativity as you focus on your writing ministry.
Remember, too, that Christian poets and writers have the joy of knowing that any job or career will give you something to write about, so nothing is ever wasted! And, in Christ, we especially need to remember – again and again in the Christian life – that all things will and do come together for good for those who love God (Romans 8:28.)
With those pivotal thoughts in mind, consider these suggestions:
Pray.
Listen.
Be honest with yourself about yourself.
Forget about money for a minute. (Yes, I know you need it. So do I, but this cannot be the guiding force in life, and you know why! To refresh: “No one can serve two rulers for you will hate the one, and love the other; or you will hold to the one and disdain the other. You cannot serve God and money,” Matthew 6:24. You can, of course, serve God and get money, but you cannot get God and serve money. That's just how it is.)
List a key word for anything you suspect you’re “good at” or feel drawn at all to do.
List your natural talents and God-given gifts, whether they seem marketable or not.
Also list any experience God has given you or education provided in your areas of interest.
Pray for God to bring all of the above together and to bring to mind job possibilities for what makes you uniquely you.
Look for work in that area, even if it's only a starter position.
If asked to apply online, follow the guidelines. Then arrange to follow up with a one-on-one, local-to-local meeting, so the potential employer can see you face to face and see that glow of God in your eyes. (If you care about God, you have it. I promise!)
Also, very important at any in-person interview, relax! Take that proverbially calming deep breath, and be yourself - your best self, of course :)
Most importantly, trust God your Heavenly Father to love you enough to know what you need, to close doors that aren’t quite right for you, and to give you a gentle nudge in the right direction – right because it’s right for you.
~~
©2012, Mary Harwell Sayler.
May God bless you and the work to which you have been called.
~~
August 31, 2012
August 23, 2012
Writing power outages
Poets and writers encounter down times in their writing for a variety of reasons, ranging from power outages to phone interruptions to feeling uninspired. Every time you get a new computer or upgrade software, you probably experience down times, too, as it takes time to save time working in and through electronic equipment that may be new to you.
Regardless of the reasons for the power outages in your writing life, those downtimes can bring uptimes for placing your fiction, nonfiction, children’s stories, devotionals, Bible studies, church curriculum, and poetry with journals, e-zines, book publishers, or your church’s denominational publishing headquarters. To do this:
Study book catalogs and back issues of periodicals and magazines you subscribed to, got at church, or bought from a newsstand.
Notice the topics, tone, style, and length of the manuscripts published in your genre.
In a word processing file, list every publisher who publishes work similar to yours. Add info about their editorial requirements and contact information. Or make a 3x5 file card filed alphabetically for each publishing company you like.
If your power loss does not include an electrical outage or lost hard drive, research literary journals, book publishers, church publishing headquarters, and e-zines on the Internet.
How?
Study publishing companies as you browse through titles in online bookstores such as Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, and the shopping pages offered by the publishers themselves.
Check out literary journals and e-zines readily found on the Internet.
You’ll find new publishing possibilities through social networks too.
When inspiration returns you to writing again, you’ll be ready to plug in your powerful words to the publishing markets you found during downtimes that cause upturns in your publishing credits or book sales.
~~
© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved.
~~
Regardless of the reasons for the power outages in your writing life, those downtimes can bring uptimes for placing your fiction, nonfiction, children’s stories, devotionals, Bible studies, church curriculum, and poetry with journals, e-zines, book publishers, or your church’s denominational publishing headquarters. To do this:
Study book catalogs and back issues of periodicals and magazines you subscribed to, got at church, or bought from a newsstand.
Notice the topics, tone, style, and length of the manuscripts published in your genre.
In a word processing file, list every publisher who publishes work similar to yours. Add info about their editorial requirements and contact information. Or make a 3x5 file card filed alphabetically for each publishing company you like.
If your power loss does not include an electrical outage or lost hard drive, research literary journals, book publishers, church publishing headquarters, and e-zines on the Internet.
How?
Study publishing companies as you browse through titles in online bookstores such as Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, and the shopping pages offered by the publishers themselves.
Check out literary journals and e-zines readily found on the Internet.
You’ll find new publishing possibilities through social networks too.
When inspiration returns you to writing again, you’ll be ready to plug in your powerful words to the publishing markets you found during downtimes that cause upturns in your publishing credits or book sales.
~~
© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved.
~~
August 8, 2012
Looking for good when bad things happen
I admit it: Pollyanna stories shaped my thinking, and Psalms of trust and thanksgiving took it from there. Sounds nice, but this tendency to look for the good in bad situations can be a big, big problem – for me and you and other people too! How? Timing.
Looking instantaneously for good can squelch emotions and cover up unattended injuries before they're drained, cleansed, and treated, so wounds get septic instead of healing well.
Looking for good right away when other people go through hard times can make them feel frustrated and alone with no one to understand their anguish – sort of like Job felt in the company of his “friends.”
If we happen to give advice or write manuscripts meant to help, help, help people during difficult times, the above problems can make our words come across as unrealistic and syrupy or judgmental and holier-than-thou.
Back to that thing called Timing.
Immediately looking for good – first thing – before responding with sympathy, empathy, or some kind of kind acknowledgement seems, well, insensitive. That’s true for ourselves, too, as we face our own problems and concerns. For instance, telling ourselves, “It’s okay,” denies the facts and feelings at hand, making them seem in-valid.
The truth is: It’s not okay! But, thank God, it will be. Won’t it? That depends.
A good thing about bad things is having them remind us to reassess our priorities.
A good thing about bad things is having them to shake us up enough to look and pray for more options to broaden our search, get creative, and expand our views or borders.
A good thing about bad things is the opportunity to remember the goodness of God and how our Perfectly Loving Heavenly Father wants only the best and blessed for us.
Bible verses such as Romans 8:28, the Lord’s Prayer or Our Father, and many Psalms of lament that end in trust and thanksgiving also help us to remember what we believe.
Life can get really hard! Situations and worries can overwhelm. And again and again, we have to ask– and answer for ourselves – the most important question in our lives:
Do I trust in God or not?
Oh, I pray you do! And I pray I do, too, as I look for God to bring good from worries about family, interruptions at work, outcomes on medical tests, and recompense for a direct lightning strike last week that fried all of our electronics then struck our checkbook!
May God encourage us this day, give us the prayers to pray, and help us to see the good that only our Good God can bring.
~~
© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler. Thanks for sharing these blog articles with your church or writing group and letting people know where you found them. For brief articles on a variety of Bible topics, see Blogs by Mary – and pass them on!
July 14, 2012
What is Truth?
In an Internet discussion room for poets and writers, someone recently asked, “What is poetic truth?” Since members come from various countries and backgrounds, the answers varied too, reminding me that what's true in your or my personal experiences might not speak for every reader. For example, my Christian writing life in rural FL does not offer the same day-to-day “reality” that people deal with, say, in New York City or Alaska or China.
Despite the potentially countless variations, the truth is, we all have the same basic need for water, food, shelter, and love.
We all bleed. We all have the same basic body parts – and so does the Body of Christ.
As I considered the question of truth, poetic or otherwise, what especially came to mind was Pontius Pilate's timeless question: "What is truth?" According to chapter 18 of the Gospel of John, Jesus told Pilate, “You rightly say I Am King, and for this cause I was born. For this cause I came into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth will hear My voice.”
At that point Pilate asked his infamous question, “What is truth?” But then as soon as he had posed what he apparently considered to be an unanswerable or rhetorical question, he immediately went back to the religious leaders and said, “I find no fault in Him (Jesus.)"
Do we?
If we find fault with other Christians in our own church or other denominations, does that not also find fault with the Body of Christ?
And what about my personal preferences or individual needs? Does my reality as a toe or fingernail of Jesus show the same perspective as seen from someone else’s muscle-bound shoulders or perked ears or eyes that don’t need my glasses to correct myopia?
What is reality?
What is truth?
At some point, each of us will answer Pilate's question in a way that satisfies us. And – from that central truth we accept for ourselves – our lives, actions, choices, ways of processing information, ways of living, and ways of writing – will extend out as spokes (pun intended.) The words we speak and write and act upon will, like spokes in a wheel, connect us back to Jesus Christ as our center hub – the Central Truth in our lives.
~~
© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler. God bless your sharing these words with people in your church or on your blog, and thank you for letting people know where you found them. For brief blog articles on a variety of Bible topics, see Blogs by Mary – and pass them on!
~~
And may the loving heart of the loving Christ – Who resides at the heart of our God and Father of Love – become the center point of all truths that extend out from us in our poems, prayers, writings, and every word spoken in Jesus’ Name.
~~
Despite the potentially countless variations, the truth is, we all have the same basic need for water, food, shelter, and love.
We all bleed. We all have the same basic body parts – and so does the Body of Christ.
As I considered the question of truth, poetic or otherwise, what especially came to mind was Pontius Pilate's timeless question: "What is truth?" According to chapter 18 of the Gospel of John, Jesus told Pilate, “You rightly say I Am King, and for this cause I was born. For this cause I came into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth will hear My voice.”
At that point Pilate asked his infamous question, “What is truth?” But then as soon as he had posed what he apparently considered to be an unanswerable or rhetorical question, he immediately went back to the religious leaders and said, “I find no fault in Him (Jesus.)"
Do we?
If we find fault with other Christians in our own church or other denominations, does that not also find fault with the Body of Christ?
And what about my personal preferences or individual needs? Does my reality as a toe or fingernail of Jesus show the same perspective as seen from someone else’s muscle-bound shoulders or perked ears or eyes that don’t need my glasses to correct myopia?
What is reality?
What is truth?
At some point, each of us will answer Pilate's question in a way that satisfies us. And – from that central truth we accept for ourselves – our lives, actions, choices, ways of processing information, ways of living, and ways of writing – will extend out as spokes (pun intended.) The words we speak and write and act upon will, like spokes in a wheel, connect us back to Jesus Christ as our center hub – the Central Truth in our lives.
~~
© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler. God bless your sharing these words with people in your church or on your blog, and thank you for letting people know where you found them. For brief blog articles on a variety of Bible topics, see Blogs by Mary – and pass them on!
~~
And may the loving heart of the loving Christ – Who resides at the heart of our God and Father of Love – become the center point of all truths that extend out from us in our poems, prayers, writings, and every word spoken in Jesus’ Name.
~~
July 5, 2012
Brand, platform, and digital writing: an interview with Krissy Brady
Krissy Brady, a freelance writer and the owner of Krissy Media Ink, is working on her first novel, poetry collection, and screenplay but has already authored The Freelancer's Guide to Starting Right and Staying Strong and other titles available on her website and also Amazon. Dedicated to keeping the passion for writing alive, Krissy fluently speaks the digital language poets and writers need to keep their careers up to Internet speed, so I’ve been eager to interview her in hopes she’ll help those of us living In a Christian Writer’s Life to be informed about the Digital Age.
Mary Harwell Sayler: Krissy, Christian writers often begin their writing life with a sense of ministry or a calling to write about a particular topic. To get our writing ready for the digital age, however, we keep hearing about the need to “build a platform” or a “brand.” Can you briefly define those terms for us?
Krissy Brady: Absolutely! A platform is essentially the representation of your writing career as a whole – articles you write, books you publish, blog posts you write, classes you teach, etc. – all of which connect back to your platform.
It's a common misconception that your blog is your platform, when in fact your blog is one piece of a much bigger puzzle, though often your blog becomes the visual representation of your platform. That's why there's so much emphasis now on "defining your target audience" and "defining your niche," because your blog becomes the central location for all that you're doing to become an expert in your field. You want to use your blog to connect with your target audience, the people you're writing for who will eventually purchase your writing and products.
Defining these things gives you the opportunity to build a brand around your platform –the "look" of your platform and products – and build a successful writing career based on what you're most passionate about. Your platform, and the brand you design around your platform, all become pieces of your writing career as a whole.
Mary: What steps do you suggest to start this building process?
Krissy: The best place to start when deciding on what your platform is going to be is to ask yourself: What am I most passionate about? What do I want to be known for?
Create a manifesto that describes your ultimate goal for your writing career. Your manifesto will help you to determine what your niche is going to be and the target audience you're going to reach. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. It just needs to be a description of the core of why you have to write; why writing is so engrained in you, and what you want to do with it. We all have a need to write; it's the why that will set you apart.
Mary: Good point!
Krissy: It's important to remember, too, that your platform is about your audience, not about you. In what ways do you relate to your audience? What emotional void are you going to fill for them? Then create a profile of who your ideal audience member is. It really makes the difference!
Mary: Yes! And obviously you have chosen other writers for your audience, but in the present economy, how can any of us hope to earn an income for our work?
Krissy: Multiple income streams can include such things as selling freelance articles to publications, offering copywriting services, blogging for other blogs in your industry, and creating and selling eBooks, as well as creating and selling eCourses.
Many writers become overwhelmed by this, but if you leave yourself completely open during the learning process, you'll find that it will inspire you, and motivate you to write more than you ever have before. If it weren’t for my platform, I wouldn't be a full-time writer today.
Mary: Those of us who have been writing a while have built our publishing credits – sometimes extensively – only to discover that print books don’t stay in print very long. And most of us also want to make our books more accessible to readers, which makes e-books sound like a good option. Since you have already endured that learning process, would you tell us how to go about this? The fewer and simpler the steps, the better!
Krissy: The two best pieces of advice I can offer in terms of eBook publishing is to thoroughly educate yourself, and make sure you don't rush the process.
Here are steps I recommend:
1. Write down a list of eBooks you'd like to write for your target audience. That way, during the education process, you can take notes specific to your goals.
2. Educate yourself about the entire process. The education process is essentially set up in three sections: learn how to set up a Kindle eBook, how to effectively set up sale pages for each of your eBooks on Amazon, and how to market them through your platform.
3. Plan ahead of time how your eBook production line will go (each step you'll complete in what order), and you'll be well on your way to establishing yourself.
Mary: What else do you advise for those of us considering e-books?
Krissy: I would recommend creating a Word document that's essentially going to be your blank template, and type your eBook directly within the template. This is a huge timesaver as opposed to writing out your book and then trying to format it afterward.
Mary: Let me interrupt a sec to inject a hotlink to Microsoft on creating Word templates and to reassure those who think they have not done this before – you probably have! Basically, creating a template just means setting up your page format with the page size, margins, and font you want.
Besides that important suggestion, Krissy, what other time-savers do you suggest?
Krissy: I know what it's like to be a writer on a tight budget, but I highly recommend you have your eBook professionally edited, and a professional cover designed. A cover can literally make or break your sales. In order to be taken seriously as an indie author, you have to go about it seriously.
I would also recommend learning how to set up a blog tour, so that when your book is on the verge of launching, you can set up a blog tour with top bloggers in your niche. It's recommended you start planning the blog tour up to 2 months before your eBook launches in order to create a tour that will impact your sales in a positive way.
I find that the further ahead I begin to plan any writing or marketing, the better things turn out. It leaves room to take care of potential snags along the way and vastly improves your learning curve since you're not in a rush. Make sure every eBook you put out is the best it can be, and this can become a solid income stream for your writing career.
Mary: Thanks, Krissy, for all of your good help – and for reminding me to research the correct spelling for e-books. After searching the Internet, I discovered there isn’t one!
I noticed you use eBook, which is the current terminology among digital publishers and writers, whereas I use e-book, which is what usually appears in the print dictionaries I favor. If our readers do not like either of those choices, ebook provides another option, but even spell-check in Word won’t take our word for that.
~~
© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved.
~~
July 2, 2012
How to handle the heat
With heat waving a red flag across the country this 4th of July week, I thought you might welcome timely tips from an almost native Floridian who hopes to help you find your cool.
Dress for the heat. Wear loose-fitting cotton, gauze, linen, and other natural fabrics. Or, wear synthetic clothes designed to absorb moisture and let air flow.
Scan and then back up your important family documents and photos. Make backup copies of your manuscripts and other computer files too. Having backups is important any time, but if the heat brings storms, flooding, or fires, a flash drive or DVD enables you to keep all of your essential files with you.
Keep curtains closed during the day, and blinds drawn or tilted upward.
Instead of turning the air conditioner down to a super low temp, make it higher than normal, so your sunglasses don’t fog as you go out and your electric bill doesn’t punch through the roof. A few degrees might make a difference, too, in helping your community to avoid brownouts or blackouts as electrical usage soars.
When going out, apply UV protection or sunscreen to every exposed inch of bare skin, including the tops of your feet if wearing sandals and top of your head if lacking hat or hair.
Drink more water than usual, and have plenty of drinking water stored at home.
Always, always take drinking water with you in the car.
Never leave kids, pets, or people of any age closed up in a vehicle for even “just a sec.”
Keep cash in small bills on hand in case the electricity goes out, which means that stores cannot process your credit card.
Keep your car filled with gas in case electricity goes out, shutting down electrically-powered gas pumps. If things heat up too much, you might also welcome a drive to an air-conditioned church, mall, or movie theater.
To cool down without a/c, sponge icy water over pulse points in the forehead, temples, inner wrists, ankles, and back of the knees. (This helps to break a fever too.) If the water just doesn’t seem cold enough, don’t apply ice directly to the skin, but do add a cap of rubbing alcohol to the water.
If you’re outside long enough to feel drenched, you might need more salt than usual or an electrolyte-balancing drink. I also make my own energizer drink with one spoon of honey melted in a tad of warm water before adding one spoon of natural apple-cider vinegar then filling the glass with cool water, stirred and iced.
Plan light meals for hot weather – for instance, an all-veggie dinner or a fresh salad with all-natural, preservative-free dressing and cubes of canned tuna or slices of stir-fried chicken or salmon on top.
Buy bags of charcoal for outdoor grilling instead of heating up the kitchen.
Stock your kitchen with fresh, watery fruits or melons and foods that do not have to be refrigerated.
Vow not to sweat the small stuff nor stuff your mind with thoughts of anything hot.
Pray to keep your cool.
~~
© 2012, Mary Sayler
~~
Dress for the heat. Wear loose-fitting cotton, gauze, linen, and other natural fabrics. Or, wear synthetic clothes designed to absorb moisture and let air flow.
Scan and then back up your important family documents and photos. Make backup copies of your manuscripts and other computer files too. Having backups is important any time, but if the heat brings storms, flooding, or fires, a flash drive or DVD enables you to keep all of your essential files with you.
Keep curtains closed during the day, and blinds drawn or tilted upward.
Instead of turning the air conditioner down to a super low temp, make it higher than normal, so your sunglasses don’t fog as you go out and your electric bill doesn’t punch through the roof. A few degrees might make a difference, too, in helping your community to avoid brownouts or blackouts as electrical usage soars.
When going out, apply UV protection or sunscreen to every exposed inch of bare skin, including the tops of your feet if wearing sandals and top of your head if lacking hat or hair.
Drink more water than usual, and have plenty of drinking water stored at home.
Always, always take drinking water with you in the car.
Never leave kids, pets, or people of any age closed up in a vehicle for even “just a sec.”
Keep cash in small bills on hand in case the electricity goes out, which means that stores cannot process your credit card.
Keep your car filled with gas in case electricity goes out, shutting down electrically-powered gas pumps. If things heat up too much, you might also welcome a drive to an air-conditioned church, mall, or movie theater.
To cool down without a/c, sponge icy water over pulse points in the forehead, temples, inner wrists, ankles, and back of the knees. (This helps to break a fever too.) If the water just doesn’t seem cold enough, don’t apply ice directly to the skin, but do add a cap of rubbing alcohol to the water.
If you’re outside long enough to feel drenched, you might need more salt than usual or an electrolyte-balancing drink. I also make my own energizer drink with one spoon of honey melted in a tad of warm water before adding one spoon of natural apple-cider vinegar then filling the glass with cool water, stirred and iced.
Plan light meals for hot weather – for instance, an all-veggie dinner or a fresh salad with all-natural, preservative-free dressing and cubes of canned tuna or slices of stir-fried chicken or salmon on top.
Buy bags of charcoal for outdoor grilling instead of heating up the kitchen.
Stock your kitchen with fresh, watery fruits or melons and foods that do not have to be refrigerated.
Vow not to sweat the small stuff nor stuff your mind with thoughts of anything hot.
Pray to keep your cool.
~~
© 2012, Mary Sayler
~~
June 21, 2012
What to do if your work weighs you down
One of the biggest problems I’ve had over the years as a Christian writer is getting overloaded with “good work.” Demands and deadlines appear, while time disappears too quickly—a problem Jesus also encountered in His work.
So if your work-schedule has become too burdensome or sent you scurrying around at warp speed, the best response to the title is “nothing.” Just sit down a while. Rest up. Pray. Read a Psalm. Read this poem:
Laborious
by Mary Harwell Sayler
The spider owns the air
on which the web is woven,
the bird that patch of sky.
Why does my work weigh me down?
In the beginning, the Creator made work
an invitation,
not the chore that later came
when the garden got
left behind.
Rampant ideas
tangle untended.
Money mars motivation.
Time demands priorities.
Deadlines jangle,
words juggle
to fit a perfect page.
Enough!
May this day be woven
of sky and air and Holy
Spirit.
Let God be
the center
of the air, the work, the
weave.
~~
© 2012, Mary Sayler, all rights reserved. The poem "Laborious" appears in Mary's poetry book Living in the Nature Poem published by Hiraeth Press © 2012.
May the peace and quiet of the Lord be with you always.
~~
May 28, 2012
Writing on Memorial Day and beyond
Yesterday for Pentecost we celebrated the Jewish memorial to the coming of the Torah and the Christian memorial to the coming of the Holy Spirit. Today we celebrate and remember the men and women who serve this country and protect our freedoms.
What a privilege to live in the United States of America! What a wonderful gift to have freedom to worship God! What an amazing gift to live as Holy Spirit-filled citizens in the Kingdom of God!
As Christian poets, writers, and editors we also have the gift and privilege to research, write, edit, publish, and review Bible-based books, articles, devotionals, poems, stories, letters, post-a-notes, email, text messages, and other genres that help us to “memorialize” our faith as we honor God, remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and celebrate the Holy Spirit in our lives.
~~
© 2012, Mary Sayler, all rights reserved. For short articles and devotionals on a variety of Bible topics, follow Blogs by Mary. And may God remind us of all we have been given to write with enthusiasm and love in Jesus’ Name.
~~
What a privilege to live in the United States of America! What a wonderful gift to have freedom to worship God! What an amazing gift to live as Holy Spirit-filled citizens in the Kingdom of God!
As Christian poets, writers, and editors we also have the gift and privilege to research, write, edit, publish, and review Bible-based books, articles, devotionals, poems, stories, letters, post-a-notes, email, text messages, and other genres that help us to “memorialize” our faith as we honor God, remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and celebrate the Holy Spirit in our lives.
~~
© 2012, Mary Sayler, all rights reserved. For short articles and devotionals on a variety of Bible topics, follow Blogs by Mary. And may God remind us of all we have been given to write with enthusiasm and love in Jesus’ Name.
~~
May 15, 2012
April 30, 2012
Are Christian publishers afraid of poetry?
Christian or not, book publishers have the same goal: Selling books. And Christian or not, book editors surely do not want to risk the reputations of their companies or themselves by publishing books apt to have few sales. That’s understandable, but if Christians are to be the head and not the tail of publishing trends, perhaps we might reconsider.
Would we have the poetry of Dante, Milton, Herbert, or Eliot if they were seeking publication today?
Would poems by Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins find a place in our society?
Why does Amazon show 5,240 results for “spiritual poetry” and 22,634 for “religious poetry books” with many new titles released by traditional publishing companies, while 10,453 titles for “Christian poetry” merely include poems by Christians or present the works of poets long dead or overflow with self-published poetry that often demonstrates little thought of readers and no editorial input?
Readers, movie-goers, and television-watchers show an avid, sometimes morbid, interest in the afterlife and spiritual realm, so the “market” is obviously there, and the field is wide. Lord willing, I’ll post an overview of the exquisite Torah-based poetry of a Jewish poet this week on the Bible People blog because I am delighted to see poetry on a literary level bring Judeo-Christian scriptures to life. But we need more Christian poets and writers who speak in an educated, poetic voice to spiritual seekers.
We need more artistically winsome ways to win over people who see the church as irrelevant and win back Christians who have fallen away.
We need more Christian publishers ready to take a stand and take a chance that, yes, all genres have power. Poetry has power, and from the beginning – in the very beginning – was the most highly poetic Word.
~~
© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved. For articles on a variety of Bible topics, see Blogs by Mary. May God bless and guide our work in Jesus’ Name.
~~
April 19, 2012
April 3, 2012
Holy Week makes an ideal time to visit churches, inconspicuously!
Christians may still be in the majority in the U.S.A., but church pews do not reflect this very well! With attendance dropping dramatically from year to year, smaller churches have become in danger of closing. These trends seem particularly worrisome in a climate building toward religious intolerance of Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical, Pentecostal, and other Christian denominations.
What if all of our churches closed?
or
What if our churches embrace one another in Christ and work together to re-unite, rather than dis-member, the Body of Christ?
For many years, my family and I had a variety of work-related moves around the country that gave us the blessing of being part of almost every major denomination. Therefore, I consider myself an ecumenical part of all! That’s not an experience Christians commonly have, however, so I want to let you know what I found to be true in every denomination of every church of every size:
People get their feelings hurt and stop attending their home church.
New pastors, priests, and rectors come and go, sometimes changing things too quickly for church members to accept and adapt to the changes, and so they pull away.
Christians who grew up in the church their parents picked might be familiar with that denomination but might not choose it for themselves!
Many people seem afraid to search for another denomination, perhaps because their families might not approve or they’re timid about attending an unfamiliar service without an invitation from someone who can accompany them and explain the order of worship.
But then, many Christians seem shy about inviting others to church for fear they will be rebuffed or thought of as a religious fanatic!
Other reasons cause declining interest, too, but what do we do about what we know?
We can let the situation slide until the whole church backslides into an ineffectual influence at a time when the power of Christ is surely needed!
or
We can pray about the problem and see what God brings to mind. For example, some workable solutions might be to:
Invite friends, family, or neighbors to attend a worship service with you.
Consider visiting a church denomination you have never attended.
Look for the official website for the headquarters of every denomination that interests you, and also visit sites of denominations you think you would never consider joining!
Research the mission statement, creed, or general information about each denomination.
Especially, notice the mutual beliefs important to you.
For example, if you believe in baptism by immersion, check out the official websites for Southern Baptist, Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and Roman Catholics, the latter of whom lets you choose immersion if you desire. That assumes, though, that you have not already been baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit since that is considered a valid baptism by Catholics, Episcopalians, and many other denominations.
With a little online research, you can find out whatever you want to know, but here’s what I found that’s important to me:
Most Christians in most denominations love God and the Bible.
Most denominations have the same basic tenets of faith, for example, believing in God as the Father of Jesus, Mary as the Virgin Mother, Jesus the Christ as Savior, and the Holy Spirit as our advocate and spiritual guide.
Most churches also welcome visitors – with open arms anytime, but if you want to be inconspicuous, that’s most likely to happen during Easter (or Christmas) as people return to church worship, recalling the reasons to come together and celebrate:
Jesus Christ has come!
Christ has forgiven you!
Christ has died for your sins!
Christ has risen!
Christ lives in you and in the church Body of Christ.
What Good News to celebrate with each other in the churches of our choice! What Good News to write about in our poems, devotionals, books, stories, articles, letters, emails, tweets, text-messages, blogs, and love notes throughout the year!
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© 2012, Mary Sayler, all rights reserved. For articles on a variety of Bible topics, follow Blogs by Mary.May God bless your Holy Week and your church search in Jesus’ Name.
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