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Writing About the Word to the Street
Interview with Jodi Detrick

If you, as a woman in ministry, had the opportunity to speak to 1.1 million people about life and faith from a biblical perspective, would you take it? Jodi Detrick, minister, director of the Women's Ministries Network for the Northwest District (AG) and life coach, writes a regular column for The Seattle Times that has the kind of influence many of us only dream of. In this interview, Jodi shares about her unique ministry, and how she serves up "the Word on the street" for thousands of people in the Pacific Northwest.

To read Jodi's most recent column, click here.

WIM: Tell us a little about your ministry background and how your love for writing began.

Detrick: I'm a third generation Assemblies of God pastor's kid. Both sets of grandparents, and my parents were in the ministry. My mother, Louise Dunlap, was a credentialed minister, and now I have a 25 year-old daughter who is also an ordained AG minister — so that makes three female ministers in a "generational row" in our family. Both my mother and my grandmother were avid readers and were always writing something sweet and profound. So I think I have ink in my blood.

WIM: How did the opportunity to write for The Seattle Times present itself?

Detrick: One of the pastors in our Network, Joe Fuiten, made me aware that The Seattle Times was looking for a new columnist to write about issues of faith and values from an evangelical Christian viewpoint. The column has a regular rotation of writers: a Catholic priest, a Jewish Rabbi, a Muslim gentleman, and a mainline Christian minister. When I heard about it, I began to think about who might fill this position as their new columnist.

At first, I didn't consider myself an option at all. But as I continued to think and pray about it, I felt this internal nudging to explore the possibility that God might want me to apply. So I sent in a bio with some samples of my writing, including other published works.

After a few weeks, I got a call asking me to come in for an interview with the senior editor and some departmental editors. I have to say, it was pretty intimidating walking into this huge, old building in downtown Seattle, meeting with the top staff of a newspaper that was founded in 1891 and has won 7 Pulitzer prizes. But the Lord was with me and I felt an incredible peace. After a lengthy interview, they told me that they'd received lots of applications and would be doing some more interviews, but would let me know. Some time went by and I figured they'd chosen someone else. But I'll never forget getting the call saying they wanted me to be their new columnist. I was with my daughter, Jana, on a little trip to celebrate her recent ordination, and we just cried and rejoiced together.

WIM: Talk a little about the ministry value of writing in the newspaper. What opportunities for influence have you noticed? Do you receive comments and e-mails from readers?

Detrick: Actually, I'm pretty blown away by the privilege of having a voice to talk about issues of faith in Jesus to one of the most unchurched, skeptical (especially when it comes to evangelical Christianity) cultures in our nation — the Pacific Northwest. It is both humbling, and to be honest, a little frightening at times. I'm very aware of both the awesome responsibility to represent authentic Christianity well, and my own inadequacy to do so. Most of the people who read my column do not attend a church and never plan to. I constantly pray that something I write will create a spark of interest and a hunger to know the living God.

I always receive comments and e-mails back from readers. Most of them are pretty positive, even if they don't come from a Christian viewpoint. Some have been very touching. I've also received a few that could scorch your eyeballs, telling me what an idiot I am to have such crazy beliefs. But that just comes with the territory. It's well worth it to know that someone might read my words and begin to open their heart to God's love. I pray more and more Christians will have a voice in the major media outlets.

WIM: Where do you get your ideas for writing? What things do you consider when writing to a generally unchurched audience?

Detrick: I think that to be a good writer, it's helpful to be a "noticer"— to always be on the watch for things that are relatable or could be meaningful in written form. So I try to live a life that "takes note" of what's happening around me and to write those things down.

I also journal ideas and thoughts when I'm reading and studying Scripture. In fact, many of the things that I speak and write about, sometimes months or even years later, were scribbled longhand on the page of a journal. Then something will spark the memory of that entry and I'll have to go back and hunt it down.

I've recently discovered a great idea that makes the hunt much easier. If you leave a few pages in the front of a journal blank to create your own Table of Contents, and then number your journal pages, highlighting entries you might want to find later, it makes the whole process easier. Wish I'd known this year ago.

As I take those small pieces of thoughts and ideas and begin to write, they start to take shape and fill out to form an article. It usually takes me 2-3 hours to write a column. Then I'll "let it rest" and go back to tweak it, considering any suggestions my "family editors" have made.

The editors at The Times do not dictate, or even suggest, topics for their religion columnists. I am free to write about any subject as long as I keep a respectful tone toward those of differing views, which is something I'd want to do anyway. That's an amazing gift of latitude.

When writing for an unchurched audience, I think it's very important to stay away from stilted, churchy, or "insider" language. I love to use humor and try to find things that many people will relate to when I'm writing. Authors call that "the hook," something that makes them want to keep reading. At the same time, I'm constantly praying that I can deliver up something of substance, a spiritual truth that will have made reading my column worth their while. I've written about a wide range of subjects related to faith — the Cross, Communion, giving, suicide, the value of reading the Bible, pride, the pace of life, just to name a few. But I always keep in mind the reader who has never been exposed to church or a biblical foundation. My goal is that the Holy Spirit will use my words to shine a glimmer of hope into the darkness of some bleak heart, to create a hunger to find out more about this God I write about.

WIM: Do you have any tips in general for allowing the Word to speak in meaningful ways "on the street?"

Detrick: One of the things that I so love about Jesus is that He mingled with the common, every day men and women on the street. He looked them in the eye and spoke their language. I think He still wants to do that today, often through you and me. I think that, first and most importantly, we have to let the Word speak to our own hearts, on our own "street," so to speak. Are we listening to His voice in our own context as we daily spend time with Him and read His Word? I don't care how spiritual we are, or how long we've known the Lord, or how big and important our ministry is — this is the one area that we have to fight for in the busyness and stress of our daily lives. I still struggle with keeping this priority straight. But having meaningful communication with Him is the bedrock for communicating meaningfully about Him.

With that in place, be a student of the world around you. Listen to what people are saying and how they're saying it. Prayerfully look for ways to speak truth to them, using the language of their life, drawing word pictures that they can see and understand. It's so worth it when someone has an "Aha!" spiritual moment because you took the effort to communicate in a relatable way.

WIM: Share some tips for women to gain a writing platform through their local newspapers or magazines, especially in a larger metropolitan area.

Detrick: You know, I truly believe in the principle of the open door. And sometimes, you have to knock on that door before it opens. If you're interested in this kind of writing, do a little exploring to check out what opportunities are available. Does your local paper have a religion or faith column? Do they allow guest columnists? Many times that is the case. What would it take for you to write for them? What might that kind of column look like?

If you want to see samples of my past columns, you can go to www.seattletimes.com and put my name in the search box on the top right-hand side of the home page. Or you can find my past columns on my blog: www.wordweaverwonderings.blogspot.com. I try to post all of them there, so just keep scrolling down through previous pages. Obviously, there are so many great writers out there who have a different style of writing — check them out, too — but maybe seeing how I write for an unchurched audience might be helpful to get you started.

Pray, do your homework, pray some more, and then go for it. You never know when God might open a door you never dreamed was possible. I'll be cheering you on and praying that our writing tribe will increase. And I'll look forward to reading your columns!

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