WRITING TIPS AND THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY-PAPER DELIVERED AT A RETREAT.

I’ll like to begin with this quote by Reihard Bonnke, ‘More than thirty years ago, as a young missionary in Africa, I sometimes preached to five people. My opportunity to see the impact of the glorious Gospel presented in the ‘’proven’’ tradition of foreign mission had come!’ He was talking of mission in a continent of over a billion souls with about half yet to receive salvation and freedom in fulfillment of the biblical word in Mark 16:15. Putting this in the context of the Nigerian situation, by situation here, I mean, location, particularly in the North-region where antagonism dog all evangelists; where going to church is like walking among mines; where hope is all that is left by all Christians, felt forsaken by the authority, and can only hold on, in wait for when God, as surely, he would arose in battle and root all oppositions.

Yet again, quoting from Bonnke’s book, ‘Evangelism by Fire,’ ‘Gospel is not good news to people who don’t hear it-that an unreached gospel is no gospel at all,’ Put differently, any gospel is no good at all if it does not reach the people who need them the most, that is, those referred to in Matt. 9:13..

What all these means are that, when you preach to your congregation in your church, you only have done so to the only ‘five,’ in attendance but that there are millions others out there, who do not have the privilege of listening to your sermon. How do you reach them? All that happens in the church that you work to shepherd are reflections of societal issues. Your role in writing whether authorship or characteristically, the everyday scribbling that you do as part of your daily work can help to meet and reach yearnings of wider audience beyond your immediate environment.

Written book is the wind that carries ministries into the mind to plant the seed that germinate into plants that spread further seeds to areas unheard or thought of. The importance of writing in book-form has been made more important as the best medium in which billions of solid, good Christian messages can be dispersed-much of them done in the most imaginative technique. What makes writing best communicative medium becomes glaring when compared to virtual and audio electronic communicative devices that are though important as technological collaborative processes that have mass appeal, but are of higher cost, with short attention span while books are cheaper, have longer attention span and intimately, personal.

So, why don’t the clergy write as they should? First thing I can think of is, like every other being, inertia. This is one of the prime reasons significant many with inspiring messages have yet to reach the world. There is also the fear of inadequacy, of failure, of not being able to finish what is started and then, there is the dearth of requisite technical ability of those willing to or those already writing, not able to produce well written books that would meet standard scrutiny. This last bit explains for instance the inadequacy in the representation of Christian writing and authorship works among books that wins national and international book prizes. But Christian writing remains as important to the world to understand, interpret and explain aspects of societal struggles in marriages, the growing process among the youths, in politics, the religious conflicts, etc. There are so much wealth of material that should inspire each and every minister; wonderful ground swelling stuff that should propel the Christian ministries to every nook and cranny worldwide and reach every class in term of appeal, without losing the high standard of the ‘word’ in its original form. That is the aspiration that I hold dearly and ever so often when I edit books or write reviews of Christian authors. But then, I cannot but weep that such rich goldmines of ideas are caged by the same stereotype approach that have, over the years prevented these ideas from reaching those who need them the most and for the majority of those who hunger, left hungrier still. But this needs to change.

What are the skills most needed in writing and what are the attitude that may hinder them? Writing can be a hard mental work; rewording, decorating and presenting aspect of the Bible and its stories are not difficult to master, but even then, not everyone who has done so did with the right technique of presentation. I don’t blame all those who have made the attempt. Rather, I praise them for their attempt. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the requirement of dedication required as a writer, intimidated by the ideas sources, confused by the plethora of the many ‘How To,’ books out there, difficulties in attempt at writing in your own words, inability to start writing and then keep the focus going to finish, uncertainty of your ability to string words to expectation, etc. Good news is, we can learn and writing being a lifetime exercise gets better with age and practice.

I still am learning and have been learning: Long after I had started writing and was a journalist with the Guardian and Vanguard Newspapers, I enrolled with Writers Bureau, London to do so, I went on a short course at Oxford and have at every opportunity attended countless workshops and interactive seminars, but still, I burn with the hunger to learn and the more I write, the more I want to learn to do it better because, I have come to discover that those things I find not easy, others have found ways do them effortlessly, what I found breathtaking or smart, others see them as common place. And I have also discovered that there is no one way of writing a book, no writer fits into one template but what works for you. Much more importantly, interacting, reading and continually learning help the writer find that pathway.

Key points to remember in writing:

1.    As in all genre of writing, you’ll need to research well.

2.    Get into good writing habits: Creating a piece of writing is much easier if you work out an effective writing routine.

3.    Don’t keep going back to rewrite or re-read your work too often until it is finished: that may make the work not get off from the start, judgment becoming clouded

4.    To be successful, a good piece of writing must have the following basic ingredients:

a.     A strong narrative voice…a clear vision and ability to weave a spell like stories told to us when we were young-stories real enough to make us believe Father Christmas existed.

b.    Interesting, stimulating or atypical settings…places that are dramatic, exciting location, unpredictable or challenging, but shows clarity.

c.     Believable character that interact in unusual ways…passionate about life with clearly defined personalities, mannerism and motivation.

d.    A hero or heroine with whom readers can empathize with…stories that reflects the complexities of life, vested in a character.

e.     Drama, exploit, dilemma, a main character must resolve

f.      Writing that has texture as well as carefully blend of dialogue, action and description.

g.     Realistic sounding dialogue…every dialogue should move the plot forward, inject excitement and, or tension.

h.    A great opening, dramatic climax and cliff-hanger ending...suspended opening, suspense filled or puzzling mystery, logical climax and the ending, the grand slam.

5.    Conflict; whether between protagonists or internal, is essential…is the very stuff of writing. The more struggles there is in a narrative, the more lively, animated and gripping, the outcome.

6.    Decide on a theme before writing…what is it about? What is the message you want your readers to internalize? E.g. evil lurks where we least expect it, no one is beyond temptation…& the reader should see this clearly.

7.    Choose a view point and be consistent…do you do your writing in the first person (I did this) or the third person (Peter did that) or be the detached, god-like narrator who looks down on all the actions.

Thank you for your time.