(Recently, I was asked by my undergraduate alma mater, Mid-Atlantic Christian University -- formerly Roanoke Bible College -- to write a short column for their newsletter. It was to be about my work as a writer in a series, "Ministry in the Marketplace." Enjoy!)
When I packed my car for that drive
to Elizabeth City, N.C. in August of 1977, I really wasn't sure where my life
was headed, but making a living sitting in a press box or walking the sidelines
of a high school football field was certainly not on the map.
I was heading to Roanoke Bible
College for a year to be better grounded in my faith, but thought I would
eventually be playing cowboy, managing a farm somewhere. Working as a sports
writer was not likely.
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| Newspaper work means mult-tasking today. |
But by the time I arrived in
Elizabeth City, I had just become a smack-talking sports fan extolling the
virtues of the Kentucky Wildcats to anyone who would – or would not – listen.
My life changed. I served several
churches in North Carolina and Kentucky, eventually landing back in my hometown
of Lawrenceburg, Ky., where I started attending high school basketball games
for the first time since I had graduated nine years before.
On a whim, I paid a visit to The
Anderson News, the same weekly newspaper I had written for as a high school
student. I simply asked the editor for a chance to write again.
Admittedly, I was thinking more
about a way to get into games free and maybe make a little money doing so. To
my surprise, I left the office that day with some reporter's notebooks and a
press pass for the big game Saturday night.
Over more than 30 years, that paid
hobby evolved into a full-time job. Much has changed in the newspaper business.
My bulky old Smith-Corona typewriter bit the dust years ago. Today, I sometimes
file stories from my smart phone and provide in-game updates on Twitter.
And over that time, I began to see
one of those lessons I learned in college come to fruition: Almost anything can
be a ministry.
Even sports writing.
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| With former Clemson football coach Tommy Bowden. |
I simply read.
I devoured every kind of writing
imaginable, from weekly papers to the Washington Post to Christianity
Today. And while my writing appears in a secular publication, it has a
distinct Christian flavor.
It is just who I am.
Several years ago, I was riding
around the golf course with a local minister. I shared that I sometimes miss
the pulpit, but he replied, “I think you are where you need to be. I am
convinced you reach more people through your writing.”
That’s debatable.
What I do know is that having the
freedom to tell Christian stories in a secular publication is priceless. I have
told the story of a high school softball star that had not missed Sunday School
from the day she was born. I offered a Christian viewpoint when the high school
football coach was told he should not pray with his team. When another softball
player hit a home run to send her team to the state tournament, I made sure a
picture of her showing the “John 3:16” written on her eye-black was prominent
in the paper.
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| Oak Ridge Boy Joe Bonsall shared his faith in our interview. |
And my writing has expanded to
non-sports work and I have been able to share the faith of some major country
music stars who were going to be in the area.
There are times that eating too
much fast food, driving too many miles and working too late makes me wonder if
it is worth it.
But recently, a young man contacted
me to see if I would be interested in sharing his parents' story of leaving
Kentucky for the mission field.
“We wanted you to be the one to
tell their story,” he said.
I was deeply touched and humbled.
That's because God really can use
any profession to share His story.
Even a sports editor.
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