I just finished reading the book Sacred Service in Civic Space: Three Hundred Years of Community Ministry in Unitarian Universalism by Kathleen R. Parker. It reinforced something that has become increasingly clear to me over the last seven years or so: that not all ministry happens inside a church, and that one of many valuable forms of ministry is writing.
In her book The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult, Alice Walker said of her writing, “The way that I understand my work is that it is a prayer to and about the world.” (Incidentally, Alice Walker delivered the commencement address this year at Naropa University, where I am a new graduate student. Synchronicity is a marvelous thing.) What a beautiful and powerful way to think of our writing…as a prayer both to and about the world.
I would combine those two ideas to say that not only is our writing praying to and about the world, but it is also ministering to the world. One definition of “minister” is as an intransitive verb, meaning “to give aid or service.” By that definition, we are performing an act of ministry with the words we write.
I think by considering our writing to be a sacred act–whether of prayer or of ministry–we allow ourselves to value it more highly than we might otherwise. In doing so, we empower ourselves to truly use our words to change the world.