“But I’m not a writer”

That’s something I hear from lots of pastors. “I’m a pastor, not a writer.” Perhaps that is something you think yourself: “I couldn’t write a blog, I’m not a writer.” And if not that, “I don’t think I’ve got a book in me, I’m not a writer.”

If that’s you, let me start with the good news. Nobody says you have to write a blog or a book. So, rest easy. If you don’t want to write a blog, you don’t have to! If you don’t fancy writing a book, don’t! No pastor is called by God to write blogs or books. These are things we’re free to do if we have the inclination or we think it would be particularly valuable for our wider ministry and the opportunity to do it arises. But, let’s just be clear, nobody must do any of these things.

But let’s get one thing clear: just about every pastor is a writer. You may never write a single blog post or do any work towards writing a book. But if you are a pastor, you are almost certainly a writer.

How do I know? Notwithstanding there are probably some pastors out there who never write anything down, have no scripture, notes or anything else in writing. They prep in their head and deliver it all from memory and never write anything. I accept some of those guys may not be writers, but I am willing to bet that hardly any pastor is actually one of them. Even the noteless delivery guys tend to write stuff down when they’re preparing for Sunday morning; many of them even learn their script by rote. But whether you are a noteless delivery pastor, you preach from flashcards, a skeleton outline or a full script, you are almost certainly a writer.

Every week, pastors write sermons. Every week, they prepare notes. Every week, they edit those notes (or, at least, they should do!) Every week, pastor, you are writing. If you are like me, you are writing full scripts, in full sentences, which require edits and changes. If you aren’t like me, you are writing notes and outlines and working out what you are going to say as you do it. But you are writing.

If you wanted to start a blog, it would be easy to take your Sunday notes, edit them into full sentences (if you haven’t done so already), edit the wording down a little, and present your sermon as a blog post. If you did this every week, you would soon have a set of sermons written up in concise style that could readily be edited together into a book. Again, I am not saying you ought to or should do this, just that you can do this because, whilst it may not look like it, you already are doing this.

That, of course, is just with reference to your sermons. Pretty much every pastor is a writer. But if you are able to write sermons, with bible content, applications that move beyond the text and theological thoughts drawn from the text (and you can because you do), you could do exactly this in a blog post or newsletter. The theological thoughts you think in your sermon preparation could easily turn into theological thoughts in a journal or blog. Theological thoughts from a journal or blog can easily becomes theological thoughts fleshed out in a book. Again, it is not to say you must or should do this, simply that you can do this because, to some degree, you probably are doing this already.

Without making this a must, should or ought, is there credit in asking whether it is worth using the skill God has given you writing sermons and turning it to blessing the church more broadly? You may not jump from writing sermon notes to writing a theological treatise straightaway. But you might go from sermon notes to blog posts. Your writing will probably sharpen up as you do it that way too so that, in time, the thought of going from blog posts to book seems less daunting.

I remember when I went from doing A-level to university, the only 3,000 word essay I had ever written was one piece of coursework that I was given months to complete. The thought of doing that every week terrified me. As I got into university, 3,000 word essays became the norm but then came the 10,000 word dissertation which seemed unfathomably long. After that, as I did my MA, 5,000 word papers were quired until the 25,000 word dissertation, which seemed unfeasibly long. I have since written short books, edited a medium sized book and authored a 70,000 word book – by far and away the longest thing I have ever written.

I’m not suggesting length means any of these things were any good. I’m pretty sure some of those undergraduate essays were dreadful! I am just saying that one tends to start with smaller bits of writing before working up to bigger ones. What seems daunting and unmanageable now becomes less troublesome the more you do it. And it bears saying again, if you’re a pastor, you are probably writing several thousand words a week already!

If you don’t want to get into writing, that’s cool. If you don’t fancy writing a blog, you don’t have to. If you don’t want to write a book, there is no compulsion. But if you are a pastor, don’t put it off simply because “I’m not a writer”. The reality is, you are a writer and there is every reason you could do it if you want.