Monthly Archives: December 2013

Writing for Life, Xenia, Ohio

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Earlier this fall, Mark and I traveled to Xenia, Ohio, home to Athletes in Action, Cru’s ministry to student and professional athletes and their fans. We helped train their communications team to tell better stories. But as usual, we gained every bit as much as we gave from spending time with them.

Bruce, one of their free-lance writers, drove seven hours from his home in Wisconsin to spend the day with us. He interviews baseball players who have a faith-based testimony. He easily moves from one interview to the next. When asked for his secret to getting great interviews, he told us he asks for them. We smiled. He explained further.

When he interviews an athlete he asks for the name of a teammate who can answer questions about that players faith. During the second interview, he asks that player if he can tell his story, too. Of course, they all agree. He continues, in this way, to interview athletes and write their stories. His work is posted at beyondtheultimate.com. You can read his work here:  http://www.beyondtheultimate.com/athlete/Ben-Zobrist

While we were in Xenia, I taught one of my favorite seminars. I call it Sort. It’s step two of the writing process. Can you finish the sentence: This piece is about…. Once a writer clearly states in a sentence or two what the piece is really about, then that writer can pick the details that most closely fit that statement. I call this the focus statement. Not every detail can be included in every piece. By picking and choosing which details to include, the author helps the reader more easily understand the point of the story.

We had a spirited discussion among writers and editors in the room. Writers want to include everything. They usually think they need more words. I know this. I’m a writer. Editors want to tighten up what’s already been written and think the writers could write their stories using less words. I know this. I’m an editor. As they talked to each other, I smiled because I have been on both sides of that discussion.

Mark and I were grateful for the time we could spend with our new friends in Ohio. We’re going back again this spring for a longer conference. We’ll invite other staff members from the region to join us. Already, we’re planning content for that conference. We’ll keep you posted about our progress.

Marriage, the Empty Nest and Ministry Together Again

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Winz onlyMy thoughts have turned to marriage several times over the last few months. Anne Marie and I are planning to celebrate 25 years of wedded bliss—well, mostly bliss—in April.

We’ve been working on a story for Worldwide Challenge that tells about a couple in North Carolina whose marriage came apart, but later was renewed by God’s grace. Now they’re helping other couples.

Then last month, as we traveled to to Nebraska, I saw how my parents remain committed to each other after more than 55 years. We met my brother Rex’s new wife. He “finally” got married, reminding me that it’s better to wait for the right match at the right time than to rush things. We also spent time with my cousin, a widow after her first husband’s tragic death, now happy with her second husband of two years.

In Ephesians 5:21, Paul addresses marriage and offers a basic instruction: Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. This references a voluntary act of yielding in love, not a submission that is forced by one side or the other.

Early in our marriage someone advised Anne Marie that sometimes you can chose to be right or you can chose to be loved. We joke that she prefers to be loved and I prefer to be right, so we can both be happy. At least I hope it’s a joke. But the truth is, I often benefit from choosing to submit to her preferred direction.

We’re seeing more and richer opportunities to practice this idea now as we live in our empty nest. From November 13-16, we were in Xenia, Ohio, to teach writing and editing skills to some Cru staff members who work with our Athletes in Action ministry.

They recently started a magazine, and their team leader contacted me asking for help with writing. I knew where to send him. He and Anne Marie planned for what they need and landed on three writing topics and three editing topics.

We spent those days in November with their staff. That conference went so well, that we’re going back again in the Spring. Please pray for us as we plan the details of that conference. We’ll post more details as we have them.

Writing for Life, India

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Ministry leaders from came from India and Bangladesh to learn how to write and tell better stories.

Ministry leaders from came from India and Bangladesh to learn how to write and tell better stories.

 

Last May, a dream came true for me. The dream had been five years in the making. In partnership with some of my friends I had worked with in the Philippines, I developed training to help teach our national staff members how to tell better stories. That morphed into a five-step writing process, 50 pages of notes and two days worth of seminars.

We started and ended each of our days with prayer and praise. We experienced the presence of God in our midst, and wonderful things happened.

The writers in the group felt empowered to write better stories because they better understood each of the elements that makes up a story. They learned a process to work when they write. They took away some very practical tools they could begin using right away.

The leaders who use the stories to cast vision and raise money among the business community in India thanked us for giving them a practical way to evaluate the stories they receive from staff members doing the work of the ministry. Instead of saying, “I like it,” or, “I don’t like it,” they now look at a checklist of five elements every story contains. Based on that checklist they can make specific comments about each story.

Our national staff members now own the writing process. Wrap your mind around this: They are now writing stories in their second and third languages. Stunning.

But how do you measure the success of an event like this? Any of us can attend a conference and take good notes, but then what? Do we close the notebook, take it home with us, set it on a shelf and never look at it again? If so, then so what? The real proof is what happens six months later.

Since the conference, Siman, one of the students from Bangladesh, trained all of the Campus Crusade staff members in his city in the Writing for Life method of story writing. Last week, two of our leaders from the United States forwarded to me a multi-page report, complete with stories and pictures, that was ready to be sent on to donors who had helped fund an evangelism project in India. A year ago, this would have been unheard of.

There is much more progress to be made, but our India staff members are now feeling empowered to write better stories. It’s just a hunch, but I think experience bears me out, anyone who can write a better story can also begin living a better story.

Mark and I have a part in this story. As we teach the things we have learned about using media to write and tell stories, we’re finding th