Aspiring to Importance
You always want readers when you write. Sometimes you write something that is insightful, sometimes fun, sometimes revealing, and every so often, if you write enough, you’ll write something important. Or at least you believe it’s important. (Time is the only true judge.)Not Important
This week’s cover is not important, but I do believe it insightful and hopefully revealing on where the Apostolic movement is in late 2008. I love to tackle big topics/ideas, and try to suss out what it means. Once I determine the meaning(s), then I foist it on unsuspecting readers with a dash of practicality, so that it remains real. Just noticing a problem without offering at least a partial solution is lazy. (My biggest complaint about academic writing is the 20 page paper identifying a problem through a list of primary sources and not offering solid actions in response.)
I find it disturbing that so few Apostolic writers are willing to tackle big ideas or define historic moments, as both can guide us to become more effective Christians within them. When we don’t refresh ourselves, we fall back on habits and tradition that may not be as effective anymore. It’s necessary to clear our vision.
Important
The last article of importance I wrote was my case for the power of small conferences. It’s important because it’s a necessary next step that no one is taking. It’s important because there are too many Apostolics feeling isolated because they don’t believe there are like-minded brethren with their identical calling. It’s important because it represents a flowering of Apostolic thought and action that’s engaging our current culture without compromising our doctrine. It’s important because it moves us past the historic preacher-singer-church building paradigm.
It’s the article I wish I could force every Apostolic to read, not because I wrote it, but because once read, it might give the enthusiasticly indifferent the courage to modify their habits and create change in their lives by attending. That change will transfer to their churches, and then into their communities.
The work of God is enriched by the courage of individuals pursuing him. To me, that’s important. That’s what the article aspires to accomplish.
Uncomfortable Application
My Question to You: When’s the last time you read anything “important” (article, book, interview, essay, fiction) by an Apostolic writer? What was it and why do you think it was important?
My Follow-ups: When was the last time you aspired to write something important? Did you succeed, at least in your mind? Why/why not?
posted by kdc at
11/21/2008 10:55:00 AM
3 Comments:
wow. you gave me something to think about today. i read so much from so many sources, i don't know the last time - other than 90&9 - that i specifically read something by an Apostolic writer.
and i don't know the last time i wrote something that was meant to be important.
here's my question in return: how can i, as a creative writer, determine what is perceived as important by my reader? is it enough to share my soul in hopes of encouraging someone? or must i find some topic that changes someone's perception?
good thoughts to ponder . . .
Great questions/thoughts. I’ve kind of been pondering this “important thing” since I posted it.
I’m not sure you can purposely set out to write something “important.” When you choose what will be your important essay, you most often try too hard, writing overworn tropes while sharing obvious points of concern with a predictable (and often vague) plan of action. I think the topic chooses you. (If it’s not important to you, then it’ll never be important to the reader.)
Yet once you’ve got the topic that’s burning in your bones, you still have to execute. The very few times I’ve written something I considered important, it was either as the idea developed itself early or after it was published. Not so much through those murky middle drafts. Important for an essay would be reframing a significant issue with a specific call to action (and change), while for fiction, it would be personalizing a revelation, so that you can no longer view a burning issue in the same light (say, what Uncle Tom’s Cabin did for slavery in the mid-1800s).
At least that’s what I think I think.
k->
kdc:
Excellent work on your assessment of Apostolics and politics. You'd get my vote, if you were running for political office.
The last important thing I read by an Apostolic writer was a draft of David Norris's treatise on Oneness theology (hopefully it will be on shelves by Spring, 2009). Its importance lies in its novel approach to the topic and its sweeping theological depth and "more than an apologetic" breadth. I worry it will not be widely read.
I have two or maybe even three answers to your follow-up.
My first answer was I have never aspired to write something Important. Only Writers or Composers write important things. I am neither. Okay. So that's a lame cop out.
My second answer was that writing my string quartet (1992, BC) was a time that I had aspired to write something important. I feel that I succeeded inasmuch that it was a minor accomplishment, but not because the work had any lasting aesthetic value.
My third and final answer is that I aspired to write something important in the manuscript of the sermon I preached last night. I felt that I was successful in writing something important, not because it was entertaining, nor because of the post-sermon response, nor from the amens and congratulatory remarks people gave me. Rather, I feel that I was successful because that through the use of the manuscript, I was able to communicate the Word of God, making clearer a somewhat challenging text (Obadiah) and in the process, offering a couple practical applications of the text to our lives today.
Thank you for asking the questions and for your authorial and editorial ministry.
EG
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