Pioneers, Not Prairie Romances

It’s one thing to ridicule prairie romances and the people who read them. It’s quite another to offer a viable alternative for people who hunger to read something more ambitious.

Last week, several readers speculated that Pentecost suffered from a lack of important writings due to a non-existent academic culture, insecurity, and a tendency to romanticize the past. I would also add the lack of a paying infrastructure for writers, a church-specific culture that encourages (often healthily) high involvement, and the lack of Apostolic examples to emulate.

All of these factors distract from the solitary task of writing serious works of high ambition. Most of these factors distract from the solitary task of writing simple-minded romances, 365 day devotionals, and religious self-help books. Except, the later are appearing by the dozens.

See, I hate writing this, but at the end of the day, they’re all excuses. Ultimately, we’re either going to pursue the calling God placed in our hearts, or we’re not. We’re either going to sacrifice our lesser interests for a significant dream or we’re going to keep filling our schedules with more unmemorable events. We’re either going to face the fear straight-up or allow self-justification to confound our heart. As Jedi Master Yoda said, “Do or not do. There is no try.”

O Pioneers!
One reason I started ninetyandnine.com (with a like-minded bunch of hearty adventurers) was my utter frustration with the quality of articles in our official publications. By quality, I’m not just dismissing the writing, but the article topics—so very few seemed to be engaging the world around them. The only way I could change that was to co-create a different type of Apostolic magazine. It’s pretty well consumed my life for seven years now, but we all have something to show for it. God blessed our dive off the cliff.

Writing something important will take a similar fearlessness. Right now, in our little sub-culture of Christianity, it calls for pioneers, the determined loners who are willing to grind out the trails for others, the bull-headed who are willing to make mistakes (sometimes in public), lose days (weeks?) of their lives exploring dead-end ravines, and face unforeseen difficulties just to reach their destination (which may not be all it’s promised to be).

It takes a different mindset.

Interestingly, it’s the mindset of an apostle that’s needed. Interestingly, one definition of “apostle” is “pioneer.” Think about it—we call the Apostle Paul the greatest missionary ever because of all the churches he pioneered.

The mission of an apostle is “to proclaim God's revelation, to teach the new truth the church would need to grow and thrive.” That’s the mission of pioneer Apostolic literary authors. After all, our most ambitious writings must proclaim God’s revelation through characterization, metaphor, and exposition.

That the apostle's calling is the most peculiar of the five-fold ministries isn’t the issue. It’s the most necessary for the growth (in every sense) of the Church. It’s when the apostles are unleashed that the transformations occur. It's in the unexplored lands that God rewrites man's rules with revival. It's what pioneers crave.

We don’t need more Apostolic writers. We need more writing apostles.

Ready to dive off the cliff with me?