Rev. Martha R. Jacobs on lifting our voices through the written word

Just Write!

In my role as managing editor of PlainViews, I have been attending the major cognate group conferences. So far, I have been to the APC, AAPC, ACPE and NACC gatherings. I set up a PlainViews display and sit behind a table, awaiting people who pass by. Now that PlainViews has been in “publication” for nine months, many who stop by the display table have very positive remarks about PlainViews and comment on the relevance of the articles to their everyday work.

Yet, when I suggest to them that they consider writing an article for PlainViews, the look on the majority of their faces is one of disbelief, and in a few cases, horror.

While covering the display table, I have been privileged to hear the stories of so many chaplains and other spiritual care providers about the work that they do and the personal challenges that have come into their own lives, even as they deal with patients, family members, clients and students, who are also dealing with personal challenges. I have felt graced to be a witness to these stories. You have read about several of them in various issues of PlainViews. There are many more stories about which you have not read. Why? Why have these professionals discovered new meanings, had new understandings and observations and been recipients of great grace as they walk people into life and into death, and yet are not represented in PlainViews or other publications?

I am currently working on my Doctor of Ministry degree. I have spent the better part of the past year researching end-of-life issues and the impact clergy have on those who are dying and their family members, as well as the impact of having advance directives. I have amassed over 100 articles. Less than 15 were written by chaplains or other spiritual care providers. The majority were written by doctors, nurses and social workers. We deal with death and dying and yet our voices, for the most part, are silent in professional journals.

What is holding us back? Are we afraid that someone might challenge our idea or our theology or our view? Do we think that we do not have the capacity to write? Do we think we have nothing to say? Do we think we are not qualified to write an article about something with which we are intimately involved? Or about someone with whom we are involved? Are we so overworked and so under inspired that we don’t have the time or energy to write?

Perhaps one of these reasons is why you have not written for publication. Perhaps you have not thought of yourself as a writer.

I would like to encourage you to write. Write for submission to PlainViews (only 500 words/2 pages). Write for your place of employment. Write for a professional journal. JUST WRITE!

PlainViews is the quality publication it is in large part because of those who contribute to it. We are only as good as the articles that are submitted for consideration. We can only remain a quality publication if all of us who work in our profession begin to be heard through articles, columns and commentaries. Let us not continue to allow others to write the articles and books that we should be writing. Let us not have to grouse when we see yet one more book on spirituality and healing or death and dying written by someone who has initials after his/her name that are not M. Div. or D. Min. or Ph.D.

We need to create a body of work that best exemplifies our vocation. There is no time like the present to begin this step towards a more “legitimate” place in the world of ministry, spirituality, medicine, and life and death issues. We become known by our work, our writing and our willingness to share our own pain and the pain of those we serve.