Practical Ministries Class – Lesson #10

“Christian Writing” - (part two)

Hint for the Week: Perhaps you are needing some help with your writing or preaching outlines. There is another really good internet site that is sponsored by the Churches of Christ that might be of some help to you. We can never guarantee that such sites, or any books for that matter, are 100% correct on all religious matters, but this site may be worth a visit if you are having mental block and need a little push to get your mental creativity juices flowing again. Check it out at: and see if that isn’t something that is beneficial for you.

Introduction: As we begin our second part of this lesson on Christian Writing, as a part of our Practical Ministries class, we want to look at some more of the ways in which Christian writing is helpful as a ministry in its own right.

Again, since this is a HANDS ON class today, we will be taking some time to try to put some of these skills to work in class today.

  1. Church Bulletins: Church bulletins can run a vast range of types and purposes. The two most- used purposes of having a bulletin are:
  1. information dissemination – it is full of all kinds of newsy things about what is happening with the church family, what is going on when and why, etc…
  1. a means of teaching – some bulletins are mostly a tool for teaching. They may teach Bible lessons, or may have articles written about a religious topic, or they might be a combination of those two. Sometimes there is a bulletin type

“c.” in which part of it is newsy and part of it is used for a teaching time. (When we lived in Arkansas, our bulletin was definitely a type “b” teaching type of bulletin. It was handed out all over the community and used as a teaching tool. It had lots of good articles, and we always had a box on the back that told exactly what a person needed to do to be saved. Many times church members had been in religious discussions with others and needed a little help, they found a copy of their bulletin and were able to complete the personal teaching because of the information on salvation on EACH BULLETIN)

Along with determining what the bulletin is trying to accomplish, you need to be sure to leave a lot of open space in the bulletin. If there are words all over the paper and if they are all run together, the chances of it being read are not very good. A good bulletin needs some space between articles and items of interest. A bulletin should “LOOK GOOD”, especially if you expect non-member to take an interest in it. I know I have NOT read some bulletins we get from other churches because the materials were so tightly fitted together that I found it unreadable. HAVE PRINT THAT IS LARGE ENOUGH TO BE READ BY THE READERS. One place we were, we would print up a few special copies of the bulletin in extra large print for those who were having trouble with their vision. Now in the age of computers, this would be even more easily done than in the past. You may want it to be personal with your articles, or you may want to make the articles less personal. For more than 10 years I gave my bulletin article a very personal touch and called it “Art to Heart Talks”. It involved Bible teaching, a little counseling, or some encouragement, each week.

  1. Perhaps you would like to be able to design appropriate business cards for the church, preachers, or religious organizations. (Like the Central Iowa Missions program)
  1. There is always a need for well-written Biblical tracts and pamphlets. These can be done in many forms from single sheet to bi-fold, tri-fold, and booklet form.
  1. There is always a need for newspaper articles. You may be advertising the hiring of a new preacher, or an upcoming Gospel Meeting or VBS. You may want to write a religious article to do Bible teaching each week. You may want to use it as a tool for encouragement and outreach into the community. If we don’t let people know we are here and what we stand for, we may never make contact with many possible good prospects.
  1. Perhaps you are quite eloquent with the pen or keyboard. You might enjoy writing religious based articles to submit for publication in brotherhood papers, magazines, and periodicals. (this would include articles on morals, Godly families, and Bible textual or topical studies) I have had a couple of articles that I wrote published by someone else. It has given me more personal satisfaction to have someone else publish my work than I have when I publish my own work. Many of our brotherhood publishers will accept articles for consideration. That doesn’t mean you will ever get published. In fact, only a very, very small percentage of people who submit an article for publication ever has it published. If you go this route, do not be easily discouraged. I submitted my first piece for consideration for publication when I was in my early teens. Someone else published nothing I submitted, until I was in my mid-40’s. (It is unethical to submit the same article to several publishing companies, especially if any of those companies have copyrighted material)
  1. Perhaps you might be interested in beginning your own publication. Alton Howard has his own publishing company. The “Four State Gospel News” is also such a paper. Orrin Nearhoof publishes and distributes a list of Iowa Churches of Christ, and pertinent information about them on an almost yearly basis. There are small brotherhood stateside church publications like: “Harvest Fields of the Dakotas” and “The Nebraska Cornhusker”. These tell of some of the happenings of the church within that area. Our congregations in that state/states send in some information on what is going on in their respective congregation. These pieces of information are compiled, edited, and printed on a congregation by congregation basis (usually alphabetically) in a booklet form. Additional articles, charts, schedules for church camps, state-wide or area-wide singings, etc. are also included. Some of these may be published on a monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual basis. Keeping your mailing lists current and up to date is a real challenge. You will be charged postage costs for each piece that is returned with a wrong address. It is a lot of work, but if you enjoy this sort of thing, it may be right for you. It also helps if you can get several other members who are interested, to help with the gathering of information and of keeping the mailing lists updated. Eventually, if everyone has internet, these papers could be transmitted on-line, but you still have record keeping. Usually these papers are not distributed for a fee, but you may have people who want to contribute to the cause. Thus you need a book-keeper, also.
  1. We need Christians to write “clean” novels and short stories that can be used in the home as well as in schools.

CONCLUSION: I hope that this lesson, and the last one, dealing with “Christian Writing” have perhaps inspired you to use some of your writing skills in the service of the Lord. If Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, and Paul, hadn’t been writers, information in our New Testaments would be in short supply. Even non-Biblical sources have said, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” In many foreign countries, it is estimated that Bible literature changes hands at least 7 times before it is finally thrown away. You can not underestimate the value of the printed page, but there will be nothing printed if Christians don’t write! Are you interested? Let’s talk.