Write the vision, make it plain

While I was speaking with a pastor in London, England, he told me, “When I was in school, I was very focused on studying and writing. Now that I have a church, I am very focused on preaching and visiting. As a result, I may not be able to write an article for you.”

I reflected on a quotation printed on a poster advertising a church film festival: “If it can be written or thought, it can be filmed.” My mind rewrote the poster: If it can be preached or thought, it can be written. Complimenting my colleague on his passion for ministry, I suggested he not think of it as ministry or writing but ministry including writing. Ellen White put it this way: “Let the ministers regard it as a part of their duty to send short articles of experience to our papers. . . . We want truth, solid truth, from solid, consecrated men, women, and youth.”¹

A pastor may respond, You ask us to write; how aware are you of the heavy load we bear in the field? I answer, it is because of your heavy load that we ask you to write; and, yes, we are aware. I have been blessed to be a church pastor, college professor, and conference president. In each capacity, I have been pastor of a church. Even as conference president, I pastored a church; and my successor is doing the same.² My heart is with the local pastor because the local church is the heart of the work. Ben Schoun states, “The local church and, consequently, the local pastor is central in the task of reaching the world for Christ.”³ It is because of what pastors go through that we need them, and those who support them, to write.

We cannot abandon pastors on the battlefield. They must have the very best of resources to stand a fighting chance. They are at the epicenter of the battle. It’s where David sent Uriah. It’s risky, dangerous, and deadly. It’s home to both enemy fire and friendly fire. Why, then, would anybody want to stay on the battlefield? Schoun quotes Christian Century editor Harold Fey: “The more dedicated, intelligent and sensitive a minister is, the more he will be wearied by the tedium of the daily rounds, frustrated by his frequent inability to get things done, [and] harassed by the petulant, grumbling, meddlesome members of which every parish has its share. Every day he will die a little under the weight of his cross. He will be many times tempted to flee from such ordeals. But he remains on the job because he knows that the parish—not the bishopric, the professorship, the executive office or any other laudable ministerial post—is the arena where Christ’s battle for the world must be fought.”⁴

In this great controversy, pastors are fighting for their very lives. That’s why Habakkuk shouted, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?” (Hab. 1:2, ESV). Long before the advent of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, Microsoft’s Surface Pro, or Apple’s iPad, God replied, “ ‘Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it’ ” (Hab. 2:2).

God gives the mandate: write the vision. In order to write it, you must catch it. Pray and meditate on Jesus every morning because whatever ministry battles we are fighting, we must write that Jesus is the answer.

God gives the method: make it plain. Our writing must involve thorough exegesis, faithful hermeneutics, and courageous exposition. As Stephen Covey says, “Sharpen your saw.”⁵ 

God gives the mission: “‘So that a runner can carry the correct message to others’ ” (v. 2, NLT). Our goal is urgent and audacious: for the gospel— or as John called it, the everlasting gospel⁶ —to reach the world for Christ. Start today—even as Chad Stuart has in the lead article. “The articles published in our papers should be full of practical, elevating, ennobling thoughts, which will help and teach and strengthen the mind that reads them. God help our editors to choose wisely.”⁷ Send in your best, and we will give you our best. May the same God who guides you in your task guide us in ours.