Editor’s note: This week we welcome Rev. Dr. Andy Kinsey (he/his) as our guest. Andy shares how the Writing Table has been helpful for him as he worked on his dissertation. He is a United Methodist pastor in Indiana and has completed his dissertation in practical theology at Durham University in England. He is currently serving as an Associate District Superintendent and an adjunct instructor at the University of Indianapolis.
Writing Is a Spiritual Practice!
Over the last four years, I have been working on my dissertation in practical theology at Durham University in England. While doing research, I was introduced to the work of Eileen Campbell-Reed and Christian Scharen. Their work on the pastoral imagination resonated deeply with what I was doing on forming local pastors for ministry in the United Methodist Church. I soon found myself contacting Eileen and attending the Writing Table. Coaching also followed.
At the beginning of my dissertation, I acknowledge Eileen and the Writing Table for the support each provided. Indeed, I never thought about writing in a community. Yet I quickly learned how valuable the practice was – that writing itself is also a spiritual practice. It was one of those “Aha moments” when the light bulb goes off: the “writing process” involves our whole being and is not a simple technique or trick to turn on. It entails opening oneself to risk and surprise. The shift was crucial.
But I also found assistance when Eileen shared Robert Boice’s ten rules for writing. Here was wisdom for starting to write before you are ready. You begin writing even when you may not feel like it. That is, if you wait until you are ready, you won’t begin!
And true enough, as I discovered, once you begin, you can’t stop, or, at least, that’s what I experienced. That daily time set aside for writing became the key to adopting the BIC method, as painful as it was: Butt In Chair! Nothing works better than sitting in place and setting your intention. The practice of writing takes on a ritual quality.
The Writing and Editing Journey
Boice’s wisdom was useful, along with being kind and compassionate to oneself while writing. As a “perfectionator,” I realized that more than one draft was going to be necessary in writing a dissertation. In fact, “vomiting” on the first draft or even the second draft was not only permitted but expected. As editor and author Allison K. Williams puts it in Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Page to Book: the writing and editing journey is one of believing in our work so much that we want others to critique it. We want people to give us feedback, regardless of how awful our first drafts might feel. We may write on our own, but we can’t make sense of the process on our own. It takes companions along the way.
The Writing Table and Eileen’s feedback on my research have been those companions! I can honestly testify (if I may) to how the whole practice plays out. Little by little, we take steps and mature, gaining confidence. We may not know where we are going at first, but we adjust along the way and finish the race.
Indeed, this was the case for me: as several at the Writing Table may know, writing a dissertation usually takes longer than we expect, so patience is required. It normally also means that we get frustrated, so encouragement is needed. And it typically comes down to plain perseverance, so love becomes a steady force. It’s all part of the journey.
The Surprise of Community
For anyone considering the Writing Table, then, I say, “Go for it. Come! Take part. It doesn’t matter where you are, or what project you are doing.”
That’s what I have found. After all, I was also hesitant, if not skeptical. I was unsure, but I learned – just as I have with other new ventures, such as doing empirical research!
Yet that’s the mystery of writing. Somehow and someway, it happens. From the silence in writing, as Wendell Berry writes, the beauty emerges.
That’s the gift awaiting us all as we take our places to sit down and be quiet. It’s what I have received upon walking this path and being surprised. You will be too!
Learn more about projects completed at the Writing Table since 2020!
