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EDITORIAL
An editor’s job description II

Jim Coggins

In the editorial in the previous issue (Jan. 19), I began expounding what I have called an “editor’s job description” from Ecclesiastes 12:9-11:

“Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true. The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails – given by one Shepherd.”

Following is the concluding part of that exposition.

Content I: “What he wrote was upright and true.”

When I teach writing workshops, I say that the first rule of writing is having something to say. A badly written article that has something important to say can be edited. A well-written article that doesn’t say anything cannot be fixed but only thrown away.

While my judgement undoubtedly fails at times, we evaluate every article in the feature section by two criteria: “Is this article faithful to Scripture?” and “Is this article in agreement with the Mennonite Brethren Confession of Faith?”

Content II: The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails.”

The words “goads” and “nails” remind us that there is a point to what we publish; the articles are intended to “make a difference” in the life of the reader. We are most encouraged when we learn that what we have published has had concrete results, such as the sex abuser who turned himself in to police after reading our issues on sexual abuse; the church that organized an appreciation dinner for its pastors after reading an issue on pastors; the people who have come to Christ as a result of reading our special evangelistic issues called Encounter.

Content III: “The words of the wise are given by one Shepherd.”

This is the key to our editing and a great encouragement. It is good to remember that God is teaching people, showing them what His Word means and giving them stories to tell. In one sense, my job is simply to discern what God is teaching to other people and then provide a channel for them to pass that teaching on to other people. Often I am amazed at the wonderful articles that just come to my desk from people whom I have never heard of.

In this process, there is another Bible passage that often guides me:

“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar – when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene – during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert” (Luke 3:1-2).

It is fascinating that the word of God did not come to any of the people with important positions, not even to the high priest in God’s temple, but to John in the desert. The point of this passage, I think, is that the word of God goes where God decides, not to positions. It is not that the word of God always goes to the poor – John was the son of a priest, and David was a king. It is rather that we can’t guess ahead of time who the word of God will come to. My job is to decide who has something to say from God, not who has a position. We publish articles from pastors and housewives, conference ministers and seniors, Bible scholars and truck drivers, high school students and lawyers. What they have in common, I hope, is that God has given them something to say.

Herb Kopp, another former editor of the Herald, used to say that the best articles come from what is burning in the heart; they arise when people have something that they just have to say.

The Herald is unusual. Magazines such as Christianity Today and Faith Today are almost entirely written by staff or by commissioned writers. In contrast, the majority of articles in the Herald come in freelance from people so moved by something God has taught them that they send it in without being asked. One of the reasons I don’t commission more articles is that it is difficult to know what is burning in someone else’s heart. It is my experience that commissioned articles may turn out to be clear and thorough, but often they are passionless. This is unfortunate because if a topic doesn’t move the writer, it won’t move the reader either.

It is amazing to see how issues come together using this process. Frequently, we unexpectedly receive a number of articles from various people on the same topic, we notice similar good articles that can be reprinted from other magazines and we learn of people with expertise who can be asked to write. Well-rounded issues seem to come together without planning on my part, and I can only assume the planning was done by the “one Shepherd”.

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Last modified January 11, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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