“A Christian writer is a ministering prophet with a broken heart.” ~ Ethel Herr

Inspiration floods my heart this morning from a dear soul who always nudges me further along the writing trail. Ethel Herr, author of An Introduction to Christian Writingknows this trail is often fraught with tears. Though we might have an urgent message to share, God first has to “break our hearts with the things that make Him weep,” she says.

Herr gives two functions for our writing as ministry:

1. “To arrest the attention of a readership that is saturated with ideas and pressures almost to the point of insensitivity to anything we have to offer.” It’s hard to get people’s honest attention, and penetrate their heart, Herr says.

2. “To present all of life from the Christian viewpoint, both to non-Christians and Christians. Our world is dying for the lack of a good, clear image of what God is like. Thousands of people have rejected some erroneous pictures of God that they have seen in church or in the lives of professing religious persons or in the writings of non-Christians who tried to write about things they did not understand.”

Our biggest writing challenge is providing our readers with a clear biblical picture of God.

As writers who are Christian, we are servants of Christ Jesus; servants of each other. Herr reminds us that we write to meet the needs of others, not our own.

Lord, enable us today to write with clarity, purpose, and love. Keep us humble, sensitive, truthful, and real, so that our words might minister.

Next post: Writing as Worship