Why write?

Last fall I had the opportunity to participate in a seminar led by Brian McLaren at AST (see the link to Brian to the right). I happen to think he's one of the more astute and thoughtful reflectors on the church and world today. The fact that he sees the United Church as a helpful model to correct much of what's wrong with the church in the United States doesn't hurt either! Anyway, it was a very interesting and inspiring event. During the three days I had the opportunity to ask him: "How do you make time to write so much?" Because if you check out a lot of his writing - prior to 2008 anyway - was the lead minister in a significantly sized church near Washington D.C. He also has a growing family and gives every impression of being a pretty engaged dad. Nowadays he's one of those folks who are always headlining events. Everytime you turn around he's keynoting something somewhere - and that's just North America. He does it world wide.


So, how do you do it? Prior to moving to Halifax (2000) I did a fair amount of writing - at least for someone fulltime in a pastoral charge. I was very privileged. I even got to do a stint with the Kingston Whig Standard as part of the community editorial board. Newpaper editors are a lot less forgiving of wasted words than journal editors! Those various possibilities were an important creative outlet. In the last decade my writing was much more limited and very focussed on a couple of major projects. So, how to get back at it?

McLaren's answer? Actually there were two: "I write when I travel" and "Blog." Well, I don't travel all that much and when I do I am usually so whacked at the end of the day that it would be gibberish!! So, here's the blog. I look forward to my interactions with you and thank you for indulging me. I anticipate a variety of subjects which I hope will interest you as much as they interest and push me.