Lillian Daniel: Pastors writing badly
Why do pastors write so poorly for their own church newsletters?
The front page, saved for the pastor, is often wasted on a throw away paragraph, a canned story from the Internet, or a few sentences from a reference book (“The Webster’s dictionary defines ‘stewardship’ as …”)
The pastors whose monthly missives cross my desk are not people who are writing impaired. Many of them have grown their churches on the strength of fine preaching. They are people whose reverence for the Word keeps them up late in the night wrestling with images for Sunday morning.
So what happens to those words when they are required to grace that all important front page of publications with names like “The Squire,” “The Pilgrim,” and “The Parish Post?” It is as if these same wordsmiths suddenly become illiterate.
In fact, their lack of content is sometimes even the subject of the article itself. (“I didn’t really know what I was going to write about this week, and then my sister from Orlando emailed me this story about a little crippled boy whose father wanted him to play baseball…”) Or worse still, the tossed off paragraph that begins with a statistic (“Did you know 90% of Americans say they believe in God…”) and goes nowhere (“Well, I don’t know what those statistics mean, but I just thought I’d share them with you.”)
As a minister, I know exactly where this goes wrong. We get busy. We do the many things ministers do, and then pour our creativity into that weekly sermon, and sometimes at the end of all that, another 250 words for the newsletter is more than we can scrape from an empty jar.
But the reality is that churches and clergy will be remembered historically not through their sermons, but through those dreaded pastor’s pages. Fifty years from now, our sermons may or not exist, but I guarantee you that in churches large and small, a volunteer archivist will have piles of newsletters organized by date over the decades. Newer, web-based newsletters are going to have an even longer shelf life than the paper ones. Even worse, they will forever be associated with your name in a search engine.
Pastors tired of writing newsletters would do well to remember that most Sunday worship attracts a fraction of our members. That means that more people may be touched by that newsletter than by our worship. The newsletter may be the only connection a home bound and elderly member has to the church. Just when I am convinced no one reads the newsletter, I hear a story about an article that truly turned someone’s attention back to God at a crucial moment.
And for good or bad, they have a wicked long shelf life. They lie on people’s kitchen counters for a neighbor to pick up, they get sent off or emailed to relatives if a child’s name is mentioned within, and they are even perused by petty clergy colleagues with an axe to grind.
I do have an axe to grind, and it is this. As much as I appreciate the minister’s workload, I want to suggest that even in the busiest week, we prioritize. As long as the newsletter is an afterthought, we miss an opportunity for ministry.
Lastly, sloppy newsletter articles are, in their frequency and practice, a rejection of one of Christianity’s historical treasures -- the well-written epistle. We are a religion in which we gather to worship, to hear the gospel, the prophecies, the songs, and then, as odd as it may seem, a letter. A letter from a pastoral leader to a church.
I don’t aspire to write like Paul in every issue of the Pilgrim newsletter, but I am humbled to note that 2,000 years later, we know him by his letters, and not his preaching. We also know those churches. And in their struggles, in their arguments, and in their growth, they had a leader who wrote to them carefully, critically, lovingly and with all he had. It’s time to reclaim the pastoral epistle at the local level, move the newsletter article higher up the list and take it seriously again.
Lillian Daniel is a senior minister of a church she does not want to name, lest anyone were to find it and review the uneven quality of her own newsletter articles. This post was originally published at the blog of the Christian Century.
I share these strong feelings
I share these strong feelings and add a few comments: 1) Pastor's columns (and all church newsletter articles) must be brief. 250 words should be the absolute maximum. Many pastor's columns run far longer, often 750 words or more. An early mentor told me, "Think poem, not essay." In our pastor's columns we should humbly strive to create little gems. 2) The secret of good writing is re-writing. Borrowing a slogan from realtors, the three most important words for writers are "edit, edit, edit." This usually means eliminating adjectives and other superfluous words. Most sentences can be improved by cutting out a third of the words in them. 3) Since it obviously takes time, the key is this: View writing as a spiritual discipline, just as important as prayer, and as an act of ministry, as important as serving at the altar, speaking from the pulpit, or visiting a person in need. When I ran a seminary D.Min. program a veteran professor said to me in dismay that he had had Student A ten years ago in the M.Div. program and now as a D.Min. student and that he had deteriorated in his critical thinking and writing skills. Sadly, he said that in his experience Student A was Exhibit A of a problem in the vocation of ministry. We can do better!
pastoral letter
You really need to get out more. There are good ones out there -very good ones.
Hard to imagine
A pastoral leader "getting out more" than Lillian Daniel. And surely the fact that there are "very good ones" out there doesn't undo her observations here.
"church newsletter"
I was at a youth ministry conference over ten years ago where a marketing specialist told a group of youth workers that the term "church newsletter" had become an adjective (in his corner of the marketing work, anyway) meaning "done poorly or shoddily."
From layout to the quality of our writing, most church newsletters can use an overhaul. Of course, is the state of the church newsletter simply a symptom of the declining state of most of our churches?
Archived newsletters
Recently one of our colleagues turned up a newsletter he'd kept from three or four decades ago. The minister's message was certainly long, but that was unimportant when you found that he was saying stuff that people are only just thinking about now, in this decade. Our words certainly live longer than us, so I endorse everything you've said.
Witness
Fred Wood, long time pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Tucson, served as a witness to me in his weekly stack of pastoral letters. Written to college students, parents, young married couples, retirees; the letters were theological, thoughtful and the result of tireless prayer. The memory of him with a stack of letters in hand is a beautiful picture of pastoral ministry.
The medium is the message
I'm afraid Daniel is correct, but I'm also saddened that church newsletters are still the cultural cache that they are. What other institution regularly sends out such shoddy pieced-together error-prone time-sucking pieces of paper most of which are surely ignored?
Technology being what it is today, I don't quite take Daniel's point that sermons won't be around in 2,000 years, but should we really work on improving our newsletter-writing rather than the entire medium itself?
The congregation I serve struggles with this currently, but I wonder, even if pastor's columns are superb, if we're missing the point.
http://adamjcopeland.com
Don't Throw Them Away...
I have often wondered about the time and resources used to produce a church newsletter as well. The irony of the 21st century is that we face a crisis of communication amid a multitude of options for communicating. So many choices, so little time, even less money.
But, one scene stands out to me from this year. I visited the home of a family whose business had exploded and burned to the ground the day before. In their lovely den, by the fireplace and the two recliners, on top of the coffee table next to the pair of reading glasses was one singular item for reading: the church newsletter. Folded halfway open, it looked as if it had just been left aside recently. The feel of that paper was all about a prayerful reading.
For those individuals - is the time, effort - and, labor of writing a well articulated letter - worth it? Absolutely.
Timely Reflection
How appropriate to discover this today! I was just reflecting this morning on why I struggle to create quality writing for the monthly newsletter, when I carefully work on sermons, blog posts, letters and more.
I made a New Year's Resolution to make better contributions to the newsletter, but I still don't have any better ideas for topics.
By contrast, I create a weekly 1-2 minute video message that I post online for my congregation. It is a sermon preview for that week, but it serves a very similar purpose to the pastoral epistle or newsletter article, a point of contact and theological reflection that is delivered to people between Sundays. Those come easily and naturally, and I think more people watch them than read the newsletter. Perhaps my struggles with newsletter articles is a sign of my generation, who treats anything snail mail as last priority.
Thanks for such a timely reflection!
http://forthesomedaybook.wordpress.com
e-newsletters
I so appreciate these comments and I am truly helped by them as I negotiate the same things you all do in my ministry.
I think many of us are debating whether to do away with printed newsletters, with concerns for the environment and for the old school medium.
In my church, we thought everyone would opt to get the newsletter via email, but many have switched back to wanting the hard copy. They say it feels different to read it at work on your computer than at home at your kitchen counter.
A number of folks said it was just too easy to delete as an email, one more thing to take off the "to do" list. When it came in the mail, they might not read it right away but they would get to it.
Often when churches move to weekly email blasts instead of newsletters, which many are doing, the blasts are just a list of events and links, and you lose that front page longer article from the pastor. Have any of you seen email blasts that preserve the pastor's column?
I agree that blogs are another place where the pastoral epistle takes root. And my observation is that the blog posts can be worse than the newsletters, in terms of trivial content and bad writing.
But of course, also like newsletters, blogs can also be truly wonderful, well-crafted and labored over, conveyers of the Holy Spirit.
In any case, I think we often underestimate the importance of all these types of writings.
The sermon is not the only thing that deserves the attention of our inner editor.
And now I have to go write my article for the next issue of The Pilgrim. Any ideas?
Regarding print vs.
Regarding print vs. electronic: Obviously, electronic is here to stay and it's foolish not to use it as vigorously and wisely as we can. (And remember, teenagers do not read email anymore, so social media like Facebook is the only way to go w/youth.) But a member of my church who is on the alumni council of his college reports survey results suggesting if you want something to be read the single most effective tool is printed material that is mailed. Once it gets into the house (and isn't pitched w/o being opened) it's there -- on the coffee table, on the back of the toilet, on the night stand, or wherever people put stuff to read later or to pick up and glance at now and then. I can't give a citation for the survey, but he says it was influential in the college's thinking on how to communicate with alums.
In many churches they have
In many churches they have down away with the newsletter altogether. We have attended several that don't even use any type of bulletin. In this internet age, many of the younger churches are posting their sermons, activities, etc... online and just assuming all the members have access.
e notes
We have moved away from the printed newsletter. We now send out a weekly email with events and things to note. We also send out separately a note from me as pastor. It comes on a different day, and it contains no events to highlight. It is a short reflection that seeks to blend life and theology. I have been hearing from many folks that they really appreciate it. It helps them connect their lives with their faith. I do seek to make sure these reflections are well written.
Bad church newsletters
I receive several newsletters from area pastors and their churches. From my observation this article is absolutely on target. Simple spelling and grammar rules are commonly violated, rhetoric frequently goes nowhere and paragraph organization seems to be arbitrary.
I use my newsletter as an intentional tool for ministry. Many members now live at a distance, are home bound or work on weekends. There are significant numbers who choose to not attend too. I know the newsletter may be the only contact these members may have with their congregation and keep that in mind when writing, choosing content or promoting activities. My intent is to help those not in the pews to engage with the life of the church. Additionally, each monthly missive includes an addressed envelop and an invitation to support a second-mile ministry. Those who respond know they are not giving out of guilt or obligation to a grasping congregation.
I know many copies of the newsletter are promptly discarded but four years of this pattern has re-engaged others with the church in sometimes surprising ways. An intentional capital campaign was strongly supported by non-attending members.
The creation and editing of a newsletter can be a significant ministry in the life of a congregation, even a small congregation. It deserves excellence from the pastor equal to any other ministry or worship service during the month.
We put into it what they expect to get out of it
If it is a good article, people will want to read it. If they are getting quality elsewhere from you, if the topic is engaging/relevant/faithful, and if it is presented well, they will read it.
If they read the newsletter.
We have a half & half congregation- people who depend on the newsletter, and people who never/barely read it. Such is the life in rural USA today.
My article is actually on the back of the newsletter, and the main news items on the front page. That way, the most engaging news is "front page news" but my short article is what people see before the newsletter is opened. Of course, if it is no good, the rest of the newsletter may not get read as well.
I liked the idea of the little 1-2 minute video intro to the week's sermon in one of the comments. hmmmmm.
evans cycles
That is very helpful. It presented me a number of ideas and I’ll be placing them on my blog eventually. I’m bookmarking your website and I’ll be back. Thank you again!
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