The Writing Ministry

And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. (Habakkuk 2:2)

The Lord gave the word: great was the company (Heb. army) of those that published it. (Psalm 68:11)

Treat this as a roll call of sorts where your response is required.

A friend of mine one day challenged his pastor with a question I will pose for us to ponder.

Why is there no writing ministry in the church?

Churches have almost any conceivable ministry to bring in as many members in the mainstream of the church as they increase their visibility and challenge members to give.

I am asking this question because my friend was not given any answer by this eminent pastor. And I do not want to speculate as to why no answer was forthcoming. I just want to write what I feel God wants to do in our generation.

Do you realize that the Bible we read is the result of the writing ministry? Do you know that the growth and spread of our faith lies squarely on the writing ministry as it complements the spoken Gospel? Even closer home do you realize that any church or ministry will depend on writing to manage its growth as well as connect with partners? Do we realize that any history we read depends on who wrote it? Thus we many times have erroneous history because the ones who wrote gave us what they wanted us to get as opposed to the truth.

That the pen is mightier than the sword is no exaggeration. Whoever releases information has power over the ones who receive it.

I want us to appreciate the fact that though God has given us the world to convert, we have diminished the use of this powerful tool in our evangelism and teaching. Thus we seek to maximize all other ministries yet neglecting this one which is the unifying factor over all the others.

Has the god of the world blinded us as to the power of this tool as he knows how detrimental it could be to his schemes if used right?

Just look at the world and the extent it goes in polishing that weapon for its use.

The fourth estate so called is a worldly writing ‘ministry’ whose purpose is the glorification of the god of this world. But before you attempt to shout me down tell me the major owners of the media.

There is literature and journalism and media production and mass media plus many others in between whose main training is effective writing for the god of the marketplace, the one Christ called Mammon who in actual fact is Lucifer.

If the world invests so much to train its scribes why is the church blind to that simple reality that we have in us the power to win the world to Christ in a fraction of a generation if we will seek to know and do what God will have us do with this mighty weapon?

But there are Christian writers and writing. I know someone is objecting. There are even Christian journalists and other writing professionals. Isn’t writing just writing?

No! One writes the way he is trained. It is the agenda of your trainer that you pursue and his methods you employ so that the end product is according to the intention of the curriculum developer.

To put this point across I want us to look at radio and TV. We have what many call Christian broadcasters because they are run by people who are professed Christians. Have you ever wondered why small boys and girls are the ones running the show there? How does a church that unashamedly preaches that a woman should not preach give small girls hours on radio or TV to run program after another as an anchor? Why do we have young people run counseling programs where there is a plain lack of depth or application? Where are the old people? Where are the elders and pastors?

The answer should shock you though it ought not. Those are the standards of the media. An old man being on radio or TV on anything that is not history is not chic. A religious person (pastor or elder) responding to questions and running a program is boring as he may not have the most current clichés and ‘vibes’ that will keep the listeners guessing and asking for more.

That is the media for you. That is why you find a girl dressed very modestly when releasing her most spiritual album then as her popularity grows becomes more and more undressed so that the only thing identifying her with Christianity are the lyrics of her songs.

That is Mammon for you. You will not get all that popularity and money for nothing. You are paid to push his agenda whichever method you use. And it is understandable that many successful Christian song birds get swallowed up by immorality. This is because like it has been said it is he who pays the piper who calls the tune. Mammon will therefore ensure his agenda is pursued when he is the one who promotes you through money, popularity and air time. Remember this?

And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. (Luke 4:6, 7)

Am I advocating writing that is totally different from the one we see?

Can we have a synthesis of darkness and light? Is it possible to blend the god of the world and the Creator?

I am calling for us to listen to God with utmost seriousness to get an accurate picture of how He wants us to use this tool for His glory.

But we have to remember that it was not this way in the past. The Bible was not written by people who were trained in the media and literature schools of the times.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. (Exodus 34:27)

Writing originated with God. It was the obedience to His order. We can therefore conclude that our spiritual heritage can be read because God gave His messengers something to write. Their obedience is the Bible we read. And we will see it when we read the prophets. At one time or the other we will read of the order to write what God showed or told them with a clear order. I have just taken the example of Moses since he wrote the first books of the Bible. But there are very many instances of God telling His people to write that I would fill pages if I chose to put all the verses here.

The first difference between the writing of the world and the writing from God is the source and motivation. In the world I will write because I have a message that can attract an audience and paymaster as I can’t write for nothing. In the other I write because I have received a message and order to write it from God. One will lead to my reward whereas the other may lead to my death as we see with Jeremiah and other prophets.

I want to say that it is impossible to write God’s message if I am looking at the reward or payback. I cannot write a book in response to an order from God and expect any human reward. I write because I have been ordered to as opposed to an expectation for any worldly reward. In fact writing God’s message will fill me with dread as I know the world will be on my case because the message is against it.

Why is this important? My expectation for reward and fear of reprisal will shape my message so that it becomes acceptable to my recipients because chances for any reward will dim if the message is abrasive as many messages from God normally are. I will therefore try my utmost to soften that message so that the recipients will feel constrained to comfortably pay for it or continue having me for their friend.

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4)

Of course we know that not all God’s messages are out rightly offensive. But it would be folly to expect every message God gives you to be friendly. It is therefore important for God’s scribe to let it sink in his heart that to really pass God’s message it is important to expect the opposition of the world. And nobody will pay you for a message they are opposed to.

The second point flows from the first one. God’s message has its recipients and He is the one who directs us to them. But I must first be receptive of the first point to move on to the second. And I will repeat it. It is impossible to write God’s message the way He wants it when I have a bottom line that must be guarded. That is of utmost importance because apart from it I will be a slave of my recipients and eventually become an abomination to God.

Who are the recipients? I will mention a few.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (Luke 4:18, 19)

Who of those are able to pay for God’s message?

How many Christian writers write for these categories of people? How many have messages that are designed specifically for those kinds of people?

I love books. It is almost impossible for me to pass by a book stall and not stop for some time to at least look at the titles. The leading and most attractive Christian titles are the reason we must have a scripturally sound writing ministry in these end times.

Jehovah’s Witnesses preach that this world is all there is as there is no heaven or hell. Going through any list of popular Christian books you might be led to think that they have all been written by Jehovah’s witnesses as they are so full of the here and now.

Even worse is that you will find them side by side with the writings of secular writers, some who are known to worship the devil because the truths they teach are ‘useful to the church or marketplace’. The uniting factor is their definition of success and fulfillment which is money and more money.

Even the pious ones are not much different as piety is treated as a means to the acquisition of that ‘success’.

What would happen if we shifted to the needy in our writing? The first thing is the expectation of a financial reward. We will be literally sowing into God’s kingdom. We will like Christ said be banking on the eternal bank where no thief can reach. We will be exercising the faith that Christ expects from us. And we will be telling the world that we believe in the existence of a real heaven and hell.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:20, 21)

We will be more concerned that heavenly values are enhanced in our readers as opposed to the values of the world as most ‘christian’ books are doing, amplifying greed and earthly ambition. We will seek to ingrain our readers with a craving for the life of Christ as opposed to a craving for worldly success that we are unable to distinguish the secular and spiritual writer as their arguments are not much different only that one has Bible quotes.

We will be practical as opposed to challenging our readers to aim at what only 0.1% can achieve, and especially because it is a goal that is totally futile in eternal terms.

Finally we will be real and not assume that we are the model because others have a reality too.

Among some titles I expect to see from our pool is ‘Godliness with Contentment for the dollar a day Parent’, ‘When losing a job is what your faith needs’, ‘Why borrowing makes you a slave’, ‘Ambition and Greed, when they mean the same thing’, ‘Sharing your faith in the midst of need or opposition’, ‘Victory over Advertisements’, ‘The Bible I Love’, ‘The Gospel to the wise (who might be fools in God’s sight)’, etc

They will be books that will bring out the message of the cross to our target group, which is actually the whole world, only that some feel that they do not need it until they have a crisis that their success has a nil chance of sorting out.

Another thing we will pursue is literacy. We will stop assuming that everybody has the kind of education we have and so can understand what we write. We will stop assuming that most Christians have a Bible or that they can read it. We will stop assuming that all Christians understand the basics of our faith because we were started on our journey from the crib and so think that as the norm. We will therefore seek to make the Gospel as understandable to as many as possible by using the best method as God will give us.

We will seek to take our people to a point where they thoroughly understand the faith they will connect to once they believe the Gospel we preach. Otherwise we may be misleading them into accepting another gospel, which like Paul said is no gospel at all. We will seek to produce obedience to those we present our writing to as opposed to accessing their resources through their planting a seed to our ministry or giving us under one pretext or the other.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19, 20)

We will invest in the writing ministry not as if we are buying shares that will appreciate in this life but as the buyer of a pearl of great price who sells all to access it.

Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. (Luke 18:22)

I want to invest where God recognizes and rewards. By the way it does not mean that investing in heaven has no earthly rewards. It only means that those rewards are managed from another dimension and therefore not understood from this plane. We therefore invest in heaven and wait for a heavenly reward however it comes. We fear to invest in heaven many times because we do not really trust God to release a fair reward. And this is the reason a writing ministry must be sorely focused on the heavenly to be of any worth there.

Heavenly currency can release earthly wealth like it did to Abraham and Job and David. But it can also produce poverty like Lazarus (neighbor to the rich guy who went to hell) and the poor widow who out gave the tycoons. And that is the reason we really can’t use worldly standards to gauge a heavenly outcome. We will just need to place our faith in God and do what He requires us to do. Then we will allow Him to do with us as He wills.

One certain reward from heaven is peace, and not peace because you have all that you need. It is a peace that comes from a heart that is in union with its creator. Like Christ said it is a peace not like the world gives. It is a peace that supersedes human understanding. Peace that is a deep mystery to those who lack it yet tangible to them as they relate with those who have it. It is a peace they could sell everything they have to get yet feel unable to surrender their own selves to access as it requires more than all they have. They must even surrender who they are to an agenda whose only clear direction is ‘follow me’ without saying where to. And that is where most disconnect with the divine as they feel it is unfair of God to lead without giving a snapshot if not map of the whole journey. But we have that problem because we are not interested in knowing who God really is.

Let us suppose that we have determined in our hearts that we will listen and write only what God gives us without wrong expectations or fear of reprisals to that message. We have finally listened and written it down and have it in an exercise/ notebook or even computer for the digital ones. Some may have even recorded the message somewhere (though I think this will be tackled later if God so directs).

How will this message go to the people God wants us to take it? Surely I will not carry that message and take it to the poor, the jailbirds, hospitalized, depressed, etc? How many can I reach if one at a time will be able to read the message? How long will it take before all can read the message they so urgently need?

That message will need to be broadcast to a needy world. It will need to be amplified so that it goes farther than my single pen and paper.

Again we have a noble past. There was a tribe of Israel whose duty was not only teaching the scriptures but copying them diligently long before the printing press was invented. The scribes we read in the Bible were the persons called of God into that noble ministry. Incidentally they were freed from all the other cares of the world because they were denied lands so that they were not distracted from that calling even by a vegetable garden.

Now we are fortunate as we have the technology and equipment to be able to copy that message to as many people as we may be interested in.

But as with the scribes of old we will need partners to facilitate our involvement in this ministry. We will need computers to write those messages.  We will need resources to make those copies. We will need paper and machines to be able to produce the copies that are required to reach the places they are needed. We will need stores and warehouses where the books will be stored before they are dispersed. We will need transport to take the material we produce to their intended destinations. And of course we will need food and other daily provisions to be able to maintain our focus on availing this message as we listen, write, polish (edit) and finally publish it.

I am sure something is wondering why I am beating around the bush. Why not just say we will need money? The answer is that we do not need money as an item. We can easily be blinded by the world in thinking that we must have money to do anything.

Let me explain. We do not eat money. We eat food that is produced by farms. Paper is produced in a factory. A printing press produces books. We don’t store books in money but a house. A vehicle and not money carries the books. Someone might be challenged to give equipment instead of money. There might be equipment that is unserviceable in one place that can be made to work in another. A computer that obsolete in one place might be largely useful in another. The giver might then be dumping yet the receiver gets something of great value. I am not saying that we want to receive rejects, though. Givers in this ministry will give what God had ordered them to give.

Money can facilitate that but it is not those services. Though it might appear like a short cut it can very easily be sabotaged at very short notice as it is subject to the world. This is how I want us to view money. It is a tool we can use to do something as opposed to the only thing we need as mammon would have us treat it. Giving out a tool is not as difficult as giving the only security mammon has convinced one they have. That is what made the rich young ruler run away from eternal life as mammon had bought him out completely. These are some of the things we ought to be writing about.

Since this ministry requires constant connection to the divine to be relevant and fruitful, we must emphasize the primacy of prayer and Bible Study even before getting you plugged in. You must be convinced by God Himself that you need to join this ministry from wherever you are. And by this I am talking of this writing ministry being active on all corners of the world, especially now that we are a global village in more ways than one. Let me illustrate.

For a long time I had been sending texts to friends of messages God gave me. I had to really condense them due to the limitations of that service. But they were very effective. However some friends started complaining that the texts, though useful, were clogging their phone memories and many times disappeared and pleaded that I posted them on the net. But I didn’t really know how and did not feel the urgency as I am always careful to venture when God’s time is right.

Then one day I met a friend when I had my computer at a place there was internet. He held my hands and told me that he will leave me after I got a blog as he really wanted to have those messages. He helped me set up the blog and left me with the responsibility of posting the messages. And I have never looked back.

Incidentally after the door opened on the internet the network provider stopped the unlimited text message subscription so that sms became too expensive to use. It is also interesting to note that I have traffic from all over the world, even some countries that are closed to the Gospel. Yet never once have I advertised the blog and it does not even have an easy name to search or remember.

The net is one place where the writing message is urgently and desperately needed. It saddens me when I see believers waste so much of their time on trivialities, even vanities on such a forum. It must make God feel worse as He is the one who said this.

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (Matthew 12:36)

But like I said on a post on the media the one who owns the media sets the rules on its use. I must decide to be an enemy to that system to pursue the agenda of the kingdom of heaven. And it has to be a very deliberate decision. Again I must expect opposition from that system to pursue the interests of a higher kingdom.

But even if we properly used the internet as the focus of our writing ministry we will be severely limited as very few people can access it. You may be shocked to learn that very many people in places that have freely flowing internet either can’t access or do not know how to use it. The internet is mainly the mainstay of the youth who really do not know how to use it profitably due to the fact that it is clogged with overabundance of information for their growing hearts to distinguish between frivolity and substance.

We therefore must pursue this ministry in the traditional way to be able to minister to as many people as we can with God’s message. We must produce books, booklets, pamphlets, fliers with God’s message and take it where it is needed. We must translate the message to as many languages as there are to be able to reach the people where they are in a language they can understand.

We went on a mission to a city where I was shocked to note that you could not find any printed paper even on dumpsites, not even a newspaper cutting. That is when I realized that what we take fore granted is rare elsewhere. Whereas we burn old books or books we do not use because we assume that nobody can use or accept them, there are places where the printed page is very precious. Imagine the impact of a writing ministry in such a place?

We went on a month long mission to Mozambique and the cry for training and Christian materials was heart rending. We got a friend to translate some material into Portuguese. I did the layout and since I do not know the language sent the document to several people we had been ministering with to proofread and give their assessment of the work before I took it to the printers. I wrote them several times asking for the report yet received none. I had to print it like it was. Then I came to learn what had happened. When they received the material they were exuberant and forgot everything else. They just made copies and started teaching it. Can we really flood these people with the right message? Isn’t it an opportunity of a lifetime if we made it our priority to take God’s message to people in dire need of the same?

That is why we will need to stand to be counted. That is why we must invest our all in this ministry once God convicts us of our need to be part of it. And we must think of the whole world even as we pray to be part of it. We must take God serious enough to expect an avalanche of fruit and breakthrough as we faithfully pursue our role in it.

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. (Psalm 2:8)

Which better way of getting this inheritance than spreading His knowledge to the ends of the world through the written word?

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)

Is there any better way to fill the world with this knowledge if not through the writing ministry?

Why am I saying that writing is the ministry that bonds all other ministries? How is writing superior and more lasting than other ministries?

Let us compare writing with a sermon. (And I am speaking as a person who has been active in both having preached much longer than I have written). It is said that a person can only remember 5% one hour after hearing a sermon. In 24 hours, probably 1% or less can be remembered. And we cannot gainsay the spoken word. It is powerful, even though very little can be remembered. Suppose that sermon is printed and shared out. I can have the same sermon as completely as it was prepared. I can even go back to verify something that I think I got wrong. In other words I can interact with that complete sermon for as long as I need.

I cannot feign ignorance if I have the written sermon as I would the spoken one. I cannot guess as to the meaning of what the writer means as I would the speaker.

A writer is more careful that the words and phrases are clear. A speaker can be caught up with the subject and be carried away into another world especially if the subject or crowd is enthralling. I know there are times the sermon so caught me that I literally got to another dimension altogether.

But that does not happen with writing. Though inspiration is a must for good writing, it is not enough because one must think beyond that inspiration to the readers. This is because unlike the speaker who can modify his delivery as he sees the response of the hearers, we must anticipate those responses even as we write to be effective. There is more maturity and self criticism in writing as we must anticipate opposition as our readers will have the leisure of time to critique my message as thoroughly as they wish.

How many people have gotten saved as they were trying their best to prove that the Bible was this or the other, especially a collection of tall tales? How many have picked a tract that on reading led to their salvation?

That is the power of the written word, especially when it is written from an order from God. And this is what I want us to get involved in. I have been involved in this ministry for over seven years now and can confidently affirm that it is the ministry for this generation especially if we will focus our writing on scripturally sound messages under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Then we will take the message where the need is dire and the receptivity for the same is guaranteed especially because they have no luxury of choice.

Let me give you what I think our first assignment is. I have prepared a Discipleship Bible Study in English as it is the language I am competent in for it. The driving force for it was the mission field especially places where the Gospel has not reached or where Christianity is so shallow for the lack of such materials. I know that many languages have no such material from what I know at least in the few countries I have ministered in. In fact even in Kenya the vernacular languages do not have any in our very Christian nation except probably one or two who may have something very little. From my experience with translating the material from English to Portuguese, I found a lot of barriers (red tape) to do so because of the copyright and permissions. That is the reason I made this material so that anyone who needs it can translate without much problem as my permission is already granted as I want as many as possible to go through discipleship.

We will therefore need translators into languages that do not have discipleship materials. We will need printers to make those books into those languages. I can do the layout if the translators are unable. We will need to train people to run with this vision where discipleship is so alien though the book is self explanatory for most. And we will need transport to take the books where they are needed.

For those who will not rest until I put some money in the post I will concur. For the most part I will want the translator to do it as ministry and not for pay. This is because we must look at this as ministry. There is no harm if we had something to appreciate the translator. Assuming we have the translated book (soft copy), we will need US$ 500 for the printing of 1000 copies in Nairobi. That includes design, plate making, runs and binding. Subsequent copies will be substantially cheaper to produce. That is what we will require to produce the book in another language when we get a translation. I can give this figure because I have been printing books and know how I can cut costs in the process.

But you can have the book printed anywhere else, provided the message does not change.

Should you want to translate, please tell me so that I can send you the book. Should you want to get involved in any other way, also contact me so that we can work out your involvement.

I need to mention that I printed about 750 books with the money I had available and they are almost finished and the response from the ones I gave is very encouraging. There are people who had never been involved in Bible Study who have already started. I gave several books to a pastor friend in Uganda and he told me that they were received so well that instead of a person having their copy one copy was shared between four or five people which does not make much sense. They need over a hundred more and I do not have that many remaining. I therefore need money (that is what you wanted to hear) to reprint. This will also be for sending to some of you who can use the English copies.

I am trusting God that we will eventually have our own printing presses in several countries. In fact there is one printing machine that you feed a soft copy and you get the finished book on the other side already bound. That is my prayer item. We will also need to have our own houses where our equipment will be as well as the warehouses where our books will be stored before being sent to the unreached nations and tribes.

But before we build this huge industry of writing ministers and their writing I feel it would be essential to set up two key boards from all over the world. We will need a board of management and a board of elders. The management takes charge of the work (logistics, resources, distribution etc) whereas the elders take spiritual responsibility of the work. These will establish that whatever we write is sound scripturally as well as in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Both teams will need to be people who are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom as we see in the Bible.

We will also need a very strong prayer team also from all around the world to keep these leadership teams focused on their assignment. This will help us avoid the snare of Mammon when the resources start flowing as the ministry grows.

I trust this vision can be tied with the vision I posted in June last year (Varsity on the Hill) that it would be instructive if you read that as well.

You can contact me through e-mail at biqilpublishers@gmail.com.

If you need to call me or send me a message on my cell phone or there is something you need us to discuss, I am also available. My number is +254 722 220 147.

I believe this is just a sketch of the ministry as I see it and it will need the input of all of you God is calling to become what He envisions. It is His ministry anyway. I will also continue writing as I receive from Him and consolidate all your input.

God bless you