theo-MAGAZINE Writer’s Guide 2021

M A G A Z I N E

WRITER’S GUIDE 2O21

big ideas WITHOUT THE BIG WORDS Despite its richness and depth, the Bible was not written in theological jargon but in common language.

If the mass media can push big bad ideas by avoiding big words, big theology can be made just as accessible to the average reader.

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eformed Christians possess and enjoy an embarrassment of riches, both in the heritage of our fathers in the faith and also in the exciting developments of recent decades.

Sadly, the Reformed world has become overly cerebral, attracting the bookish and academic but failing to communicate the wonders and benefits of its thinking and practice to the wider culture.

While the Bible itself was written to capture the imagination in order to take captive the culture, nobody cares what conservative Christians who are serious about the Bible have to say.

Too many Reformed types think, write, and speak like scribes, accountants, and lawyers. Serious people must also be boring and humorless! But the Bible’s authors were none of these things, which explains why so many academics struggle with its literary tropes and seem unable to communicate much of it at all in a relevant way.

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The hermeneutics “industry” has convinced many that without a seminary education, their grasp of the Bible will forever be elementary. In reality, academic culture has disassociated the Bible from the world of common people to the point where anything beyond “kindergarten” theology is deemed unsuitable or impractical for Christian living.

It is the sermons that are dull, not the hearers. All Scripture was composed for common people, so it has more in common with popular literature, music, and entertainment than many would like to believe.

Churches wrongly rely upon spectacle and catchy marketing techniques as a substitute for the Spirit, but God used similar techniques by the Spirit.

When viewed afresh, the Bible shows us that God Himself is the Great Copywriter, the Master of the Pitch, the Ultimate Ad Man, able to present breathtakingly big ideas without the big words.

This is the motto and strategy of theo MAGAZINE.

It is the sermons that are dull, not the hearers.

So, Reformed theology has the substance (what we need) but the devil knows that our eyes and ears respond to style (what we desire). Satan still uses the God-given attraction of outward glory to control the narrative. This is how the enemies of God captured our once-Christian culture.

substance vs style Sin sets at odds things that God designed to exist and function in harmony. That includes heaven and earth, man and woman, brother and brother, priest and king, nation and nation. Likewise, the Bible knows no dichotomy between substance and style.

Like those well-intentioned softies who claim Jesus was a priestly pacifist and ignore the promise of His coming as a sword-tongued, rod-wielding king, good theology tends to eschew outward show in order to avoid the appearance of worldly glory. But this is the academic equivalent of pietism—the truth remains naked, hidden in the Garden, while God calls us to robe it in glory for rule in the Land and conquest in the World. We are not pimping the truth for prostitution but preparing it for marriage.

The two trees in Eden, representing priesthood (what we need) and kingdom (what we desire), presented our first parents with a choice between substance and style—a deadly lie wrapped in the kingly glory promised by God, or obedience that would lead to the same glory but via the path of humble, patient, priestly submission.

Blueprints, technicalities, and the shorthand of jargon are mundane necessities but they are only a means to an end. They are behind-the-scenes make-ready for a command performance.

Reformed theology is the enthusiastic stage hand who only shows you the set-builders’ workshop, the lighting apparatus, and the sound desk. It ought to be the polished MC who draws back the red curtain and captivates the hearts and minds of men.

Faced with the same choice, Jesus chose to be stripped of all glory, except in mockery, on the cross. But Revelation describes His subsequent glory and reign as our priest-king in an unparalleled literary marriage of substance and style.

The prophets and apostles show us that bold testimony need not be sloppy. Jesus’ discourses bear the characteristics of careful, prayerful preparation.

C. H. Spurgeon’s apparently “effortless” preaching was the result of thousands of hours of agonizing WRITER’S GUIDE 2021

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over words and careful honing of the message.

God made it this way because the preparation of the truth for a glorious delivery engages and transforms the humble messenger.

Only a king who has written out the entire Law of Moses by hand can write heart-rending psalms, pithy proverbs, and fragrant love songs. Only the prophet who lives on raw locusts and honey can proclaim God’s curses and blessings. Only a sacrificial lamb is worthy to open the scroll. Only the seer who “eats” and digests the bittersweet book of bread and wine can bellow it out as “seven thunders.” The sign that confirms the words is the spectacle of a run-of-the-mill bush (substance) that is burning but not consumed (style).

making simple the wise If you can’t explain something simply, you simply don’t understand it well enough. That is why one does not really comprehend something until one is called to teach it.

Mediating knowledge in an effective way is hard work because, as a wise king tells us, such mediation requires suffering in the flesh (Ecclesiastes 12:12). This means that presenting the riches of Reformed theology in pop-culture or “magazine” form for mass consumption without stripping them of their vital power is the real test of our academic mettle.

If we want the aroma of the labors of great theologians to fill and charm the world once again, the raw materials must be buried and resurrected, incinerated and transformed into a smoky, “supernatural” savor that pleases God. Cultus cannot become culture without transforming fire.

Our unwillingness to do this is the reason why the arts have been hijacked by the “strange fire” of rich, gifted, ingenious deviants.

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The quality and ingenuity of modern media and entertainment shows us that although many people are not big readers, they can follow a rich, complex narrative—in fact, when it comes to the Bible, their intuitions often outclass the academic “technicians.”

This means that honing theology for a popular audience is not a matter of deconstruction or dumbing-down, of puréeing the truth for spiritual infants. That practice is precisely why we have lost the culture. It is instead a matter of deduction and reduction, of cooking our delights to perfection and presenting them as a feast for the soul.

Our failure to do this is perhaps not so much incompetence as it is laziness. Blaise Pascal and Mark Twain both apologized for writing a long letter because they did not have the time to write a short one. Any successful director will tell you how hard it is to cut five hours of footage down to a feature-length movie that captures and keeps the

The world is using the tactics of Jesus but we are not.

Their great cultural prowess was born in the “nursery” of liturgy and sacred music, and their cities and vineyards will be given into our hands.

While we must not be guilty of compromise or syncretism, we can still send in our spies.

As God accommodates us in order to inhabit us, transforming us without changing Himself in any way, so we also can accommodate non-academics in a way that presents the core principles of biblical “terraforming” without any compromise. attention. We are Abraham, blessed by God to become a nation; but to become a blessing to all nations He also calls us to “kill our darlings.”

There is an element of pride here as well. Elites distanced themselves from the rank and file by developing their own accents and idioms, and academia obscures great truths by long-windedness and the bureaucratic standards of academic writing.

Despite appearances, the fundamental concepts in the great advances in biblical theology and practice, meticulously researched, peer-reviewed, and recorded in weighty tomes, are not above the heads of the hoi polloi. A truth must be established through the messy process of scholarly debate, but once that is done, we can simply get to the point.

With all this in mind, it is no sin to draw upon the marketing expertise of the worldly, those who have studied human beings in order to present hard information in an accessible and unforgettable way.

ideas that stick In their book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip Heath and Dan Heath present six key qualities of an idea that is made to stick: • Simplicity: How do you strip an idea to its core without turning it into a silly soundbite?

• Unexpectedness: How do you capture people’s attention ... and hold it?

• Concreteness: How do you help people understand your idea and remember it much later?

• Credibility: How do you get people to believe your idea?

• Emotional: How do you get people to care about your idea?

• Stories: How do you get people to act on your idea?

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As noted by the authors, these six points form an acronym that almost spells SUCCESS. If we add the Spirit, it becomes clear that these qualities are all found in the teachings of Jesus. In other words, the world—along with worldly religion—is consistently and effectively using the tactics of Jesus, but in most cases Reformed theologians are not.

Progressives, like advertisers, have successfully used these points not only to establish outrageous lies by controlling the narrative but also to demonize the truth as extreme and dangerous. As history shows us, this is not a bad thing for Gospel ministry. After all, God used shock-and-awe tactics to grab people’s attention. Eating with sinners, let alone cooking with dung or preaching naked, is a tactic straight out of the Holy Terror Playbook when it comes to dealing with pearl-clutching reprobates.

Pushing the boundaries has long been the strategy of magazines and advertisers. But the actual rebels, once the unchallenged gatekeepers of cool, have now unwisely resorted to styling themselves as merchants of outrage. That leaves them vulnerable to carefully-aimed, well-timed truth bombs.

Since we are the radicals now, we have the advantage of scandalous surprise, and the response of the wicked is often the very publicity that Jesus needs. If you see a billboard with the “Christ” crossed out of “Christmas,” consider that the principalities and powers, to their own shame, have once again paid to lift Jesus up for the world to see.

Our enemies delight in rattling our foundations, but so does our God. They come only to destroy; He comes to purify. Likewise, when we deliberately rattle saints and sinners, the bottom line of all our motives must be love for God and Man. Theology, lifestyle, testimony, book reviews and movie analyses in short, punchy, thoughtful pieces that are easy to read and remember, all informed by a biblical worldview, will help to bring Reformed theology, biblical typology, sound eschatology, and faithful living and practice to the mainstream.

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magazine-ready Writing for theo is mostly by invitation, but if you are a regular writer or blogger within the conservative Reformed camp (preferably but not necessarily postmillennial in outlook), with a deep love for God and a passion for the Bible, we will consider any quality submission on any subject that suits the strategy and purpose.

We understand that writing in a mass market style could be a bit of an adjustment, so some general guidelines and helpful tips are in order.

• Be jolly. If you are good-humored, readers will not protest too much when you start wielding your sharp mind and even sharper wit.

• Be surprising. Pique readers’ interest with plants and payoffs, clues and reveals, and other devices that keep them reading. An article should be a

Pick a hobby horse and turn it into a show pony.

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miniature “page turner,” so write your non-fiction with the dramatic and plotting sensibility of a novelist or screenwriter.

Share what you know with contagious enthusiasm.

Pick a hobby horse and turn it into a show pony.

Learning is a discovery, so write like an explorer.

Stay helpful, positive, and constructive. The best way to expose the darkness is to shine the light.

Bad ideas are fair game but people are not. If you do need some vinegar in the recipe, mix it with honey. We aim to inspire and co-opt, not repel.

The Bible is written the way it is because truth changes minds when it resonates in the flesh.

Aim at the mind through the heart. Do this by putting your own heart into it and write with a level-headed passion.

Modern readers tend to be visual thinkers, so paint pictures with your words.

These will be new ideas for many Christians, let

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alone non-Christians, so be small on details but big on ideas and inspiration.

Communicate ONE BIG IDEA, even if you have to hide some smaller, related ones inside it. Truth is always a family tree. Like computer files, it is best kept in a related hierarchy of folders.

Think of your article as a TEDtalk, a summary that shares your vision, offers a solution, and answers a question while provoking many more.

You don’t have to include everything you know on your given subject. Share just enough for the reader to gain an understanding, and offer an invitation to further reading.

For examples of writing style and vocabulary, take a look at any premium mid-brow magazine.

As a general guide, your word count is 1500-2000 words, but it depends on your subject matter.

You can submit previously-published work if you own the rights or have the publisher’s permission.

Theological terms and archaic expressions can be used where necessary, but must be explained.

It is telling that Genesis shows us how the game is played before Exodus gives us the rules. In the same way, this writer’s guide was a show-and-tell. If you already understand the stakes and the strategy, the guidelines merely serve to keep you on course.

If you have any questions about the magazine or your ideas, or need help with a possible submission, please contact editorial@theo-magazine.com.

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M A G A Z I N E

editorial@theo-magazine.com