Four Questions with Carey Wallace

Everyday Liturgy: I really enjoyed your novel The Blind Contessa’s New Machine, but there is this other piece of your writing I didn’t enjoy as much: your essay in Comment “On Discipline.” That article has been nagging me to set aside time to be creative and write (I’m writing this during one of my two hour blocks). It’s like a ghost that haunts me and whispers “be disciplined” every time I watch more than an hour of TV. How are ways you have found to keep the habit of discipline fresh and alive?

Carey Wallace: The best way to keep discipline fresh is simply not to break it. When we work consistently, our work creates its own momentum, so that even when we encounter hassles or resistance, we’re willing to fight through them because we can’t wait to finish the chapter, or song, or painting we’ve been working on. That creative urge won’t sweep us towards creation every single day: that’s why we need discipline, for the days when it doesn’t. But when we apply discipline consistently on the hard days, we’ll find that there are fewer and fewer of them as the power of our work, and our ability to access it, becomes stronger and stronger.

That said, a disciplined life is not a life of constant work. It’s a life of choices, carried out. We make choices about what to work on, and when. But we also make choices about when to stop work and rest. If we make choices about when to work and rest, rather than being prompted by anxiety, guilt, or exhaustion, both our rest and our work are sweeter, because we aren’t torn by whether we should be doing one when we’re in the midst of the other.

I love television, and rest is important. We just shouldn’t be watching television when we’ve committed to work. And we shouldn’t keep working when we really need to rest.

EL: The publishing world is changing at a rapid pace. How do you see your work as a writer changing in the next few years?

Carey: Jorge Luis Borges talks about the fact that all good writing, throughout time, has so much in common that you could easily believe it was all written by the same author. It’s stunning how “modern” Greek plays seem — even the jokes are still funny, thousands of years later. And it’s amazing how timeless some “modern” authors feel, from the moment their work comes into print. The machinery of publication may make it easier or harder for a season to get read or get paid, but I don’t think the real work of a writer ever changes. And I believe good work will always find a lasting place.

EL: You’ve been working on this new project Songs About Books, could you tell us a little about it?

Songs About Books is an EP of songs that I wrote and recorded about the books I love, in celebration of the paperback release of The Blind Contessa’s New Machine. It includes tracks about Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor, The Arrival by Shaun Tan, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams, and So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell. It’s my way of saying “no artist works alone” and pointing back to some of the writers who have lit my own way. It’s not for sale, but I’ve been making it available for trade. If anyone would like a copy, they can just send me something they’ve made. So far, I’ve received fine art, a knit bunny, a handmade bag, homemade cookies, paper flowers, a ceramic tea cup, photographs, jewelry, and dozens of other amazing items. I’ll be posting them in a gallery on my site soon, but in the meantime you can find out more information about the project here on my website and email me for trade directions at theblindcontessa[at]gmail[dot]com.

CAREY WALLACE | songs about books from Zeke Anders on Vimeo.

EL: What are some words of encouragement you have for fellow artists as they pursue their work as an artist?

Carey:  Be the best listener in the world. Listen to the people who came before you. Listen to the people working beside you. Listen to crazies on the street and clerks in the stores. Listen to singers and clowns. Listen to the ocean. Listen to the news. Listen to yourself. Listen for the voice of God.

And also, don’t listen to anyone.

Four Questions with Marcus Goodyear

Engaging with different voices is always important. In blogging it is so easy to concentrate on your own view, and let other views orbit around it. “Four Questions” is a series on Everyday Liturgy which looks to authors & artists to ask them four questions about their craft.

Today’s guest is Marcus Goodyear, a poet and editor. His collection of poems, Barbies at Communion, is particularly good. If anything, his life is a bit meta-, because his vocation is literally vocation: he works for the H.E. Butt Foundation, which works to transform daily work through Laity Lodge and The High Calling.

Everyday Liturgy: Editing is a hugely underrated vocation, because you are constantly in the background. But as a poet, you are at the forefront, writing intimate words you share with an audience. How do you see the role of editor and the role of poet intersecting?

Marcus Goodyear: I think of poetry as something like verbal weightlifting. Most people who exercise with weights in a gym are training for something else–football or basketball or ironman competitions. Whatever. The weight training tones muscles more efficiently than just practicing their sport.

It’s the same with poetry. Poetry forces a writer to focus on the essential building blocks of writing–phrases and clauses and sentences, sound devices like rhyme and meter and alliteration, figurative language like metaphor and metonymy. Of course, poetry also teaches writers to be concise. That’s a lesson every writer needs to learn over and over again. We love to hear our own words.

Poetry training gives strength to any form of writing, from journalism to fiction to theology.

And of course, there are the people who write poetry for its own sake, just like their are people who lift weights just to lift weights. The Arnold Schwazenegger’s of the literary world, I suppose. Remember Mr. Universe from 1970s?

It’s a little weird to like poetry for its own sake, but there are some of us who do.

All that to say, poetry hones a writer’s skill and ability with the elements of writing. These are the same skills that an editor applies to the work he or she is editing.

EL:  As the editor of a website devoted to vocation, The High Calling, how have you seen the Christian laity’s thinking about vocation change over the past five years? Is it getting better, or worse?

MG: Have I really been doing this for five years? That seems weird to me. Even so, five years is just a short percentage of the time that Howard Butt has been trying to educate Christians about lay renewal and vocation. He’s been working at this since the 1950s!

The biggest challenge has been trying to get people to care about this topic. Lilly Endowment has helped in the past five years with its Program for the Theological Exploration of Vocation. David Miller left Yale to found the Faith and Work Initiative at Princeton, and his book God at Work has begun to influence many of the leaders of regional faith and work groups. Bill Peel founded the Center for Faith and Work at LeTourneau University. Will Messenger’s team on the Theology of Work Project continues to make good progress on their knowledge base.

Of course, The High Calling itself has grown tremendously. Since 2007, our site has seen 500% growth. I would argue that we are the single most productive organization in the world on the topic of faith and work.

So I would say it is getting better. Since the 1980s and 1990s, there has been a steady growth of grass roots organizations thinking about faith and work, but the movement is moving into formal institutions like Princeton and LaTourneau. And some of the smaller movements like The High Calling have grown up quite a bit in the last few years.

Pastors still struggle with the concept, but they at least have a growing awareness of the need. Many of them have never worked in a traditional career. This makes it hard, and maybe even a bit threatening, for them to talk about faith and work. A lot of the organizations I have mentioned above are making specific efforts to help pastors now.

EL: What are the best ways you have found to balance your work with your art?

MG: Who says I have balance?

It is really a matter of priorities. Art, poetry, theater, stories, these things are important for me psychologically. Creativity helps me stay positive and healthy. Art is also a key element in my personal worship and study. For example, I’m afraid I’m not very good at traditional prayer. But I can write poems.

For me, the real challenge is not balancing work and art, but juggling family, work, art, and church. As much as possible, I look for ways that my passions can overlap. My family is involved in our community theater–where I divert much of my creative energies. My work has a lot of room for creativity and writing. And my church is very focused on the arts.

Honestly, though, I’m not good at balance. I over commit on a regular basis and crash and burn and end up staying up too late or getting up too early. Then I will get a grip, say no to new projects for awhile and keep things under control. Until I over commit again.

It seems to be a cycle that I run through about once a year. But I don’t give up. And my family is supportive and understanding–in part because I do my best to support their passions as well.

EL: What do you think is the most vital way churches can help lay persons figure out their vocation and succeed?

MG: That is a very interesting question. I’m not sure the church as an institution should presume to give career advice. Which is to say, there are many good organizations and services that help people explore what careers are available to them. In high school, I talked with my teachers a lot about career. I talked with my dad a lot. I remember going to a career center. In college, I talked with academic advisers and professors. My church as an organization didn’t give me much formal career advice.

On the other hand, my youth pastor met with me at lunch regularly to talk about what was going on in my life and faith. Many of those discussions had to do with my anxieties about my future career, I’m sure.

He served as a mentor to me, during those years. But he couldn’t do that for everyone. He didn’t have enough time. But he had a church full of professionals. Every church does. How hard would it be for churches to provide a simple system for establish professionals to mentor young professionals for several weeks over lunch or breakfast or coffee?

Another thing pastors could do is simply remember their audience when they are writing sermons. Most people will spend 50% of their lives at work. Pastors need to be talking about how we can make our work meaningful–with a healthy theology that accepts the intrinsic value of work. The workplace is more than just another mission field. Our faith is more than a sales pitch. There are so many rich and thoughtful resources out there to help pastors think about work in a meaningful way, including The High Calling’s own free Sermon Notes series with a new sermon about the theology of work every month.

We in the pews need to extend grace toward our church leaders as they try this new concept. We need to encourage them that their work in the church is valuable, just as we need them to encourage us.

To find out more about Marcus you can head on over to his blog, Good Word Editing.

Four Questions: Scot McKnight

Engaging with different voices is always important. In blogging it is so easy to concentrate on your own view, and let other views orbit around it. “Four Questions” is a series on Everyday Liturgy which looks to authors & artists to ask them four questions about their craft.

Today’s guest is the prolific Scot McKnight. Similar to N.T. Wright, Scot has the wonderful ability to take complex academic discussions and present them in concise, accessible prose. His writings on fasting, Mary, hermeneutics and the atonement have all been formative in my own thought and practice. I wanted to ask him some questions about his new book, The King Jesus Gospel.

Everyday Liturgy: In your new book The King Jesus Gospel you talk about how contemporary evangelicalism is a “salvation culture” instead of a “gospel culture.” What are some examples of contemporary evangelical worship that are rooted in “salvation culture”?

Scot McKnight: First, think of many of our songs, which are rooted in our personal experience of salvation instead of in the glory of God, the centrality of Jesus Christ, and our empowerment by the Spirit. Many think Philippians 2:5-11 and Colossians 1:15-20 are early Christian hymns, not to mention the rich hymns of Revelation, and you will see a remarkable difference between our experience-based music and their Christ-focused lines.

Second, how much of our worship is focused on Christ? Notice again the art of ancient churches: they all had wonderful art that found its focus in Christ. I’m thinking of Hagia Sophia’s famous depiction of Christ, or even the cross-shaped York Minster. What is the “shape” of our churches?

Third, think of how the ancient liturgy led us to the Table. That was the focus and the climax of the “service” while ours is focused either on a sermon or on an invitation. There are huge theological factors at work here, and we are losing theology and not gaining it.

EL: What are some of the changes churches can make to their worship that would make their worship services a cultural expression of the gospel?

Scot: The major shift is simple and yet will prove itself difficult because we unfamiliar with it: we need to readjust everything so that our entrance, our music, our readings, our sermons and our sacrament all lead us to the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit, all known most clearly in Jesus Christ.
We could go through our hymnals and cut out all songs that aren’t focused on God.

EL: What are some spiritual disciplines that people can begin to practice that will help them live out the gospel of Jesus?

Scot: Bible reading. We need to become mastered by the Bible’s Story and to let that whole Story—Genesis to Revelation—guide us to Jesus Christ.

Spiritual disciplines make me nervous at times, mostly because they are often too focused on “my own” spirituality. They tend to draw attention to how we are growing, our own condition before God, etc. Genuine spiritual disciplines will draw us into God and then into the world where God is accomplishing his mission. So I would urge us to reconsider some of our disciplines, and begin to see other-directed praxis as discipline: evangelism, service, compassion, visiting the marginalized and unempowered…

EL: In your book you discuss how the sermons in Acts are the best example of the gospel of Jesus. These sermons are pretty different than the sermons heard from many pulpits today. How should pastors look to preach a two thousand year old message to our contemporary culture?

Scot: Evangelism needs to be reshaped from a persuasive rhetoric designed to precipitate decisions toward a declarative rhetoric designed to exalt Jesus Christ. The essence of the sermons in Acts was to tell us stuff about Jesus and not to persuade sinners to accept Christ.

Good evangelism takes us from creation to Christ and to the consummation, but one doesn’t need to do the whole each time, esp if a congregation or a person has no clue. The center of evangelism, and all good preaching, is Christ — we tell people about Jesus. That Story of Jesus has the power to awaken faith in sinners and the saints. So, we need to become people who are most concerned with presenting Jesus.

If you want to know more about Scot McKnight you can read his blog, Jesus Creed.

Four Questions: Ed Cyzewski

Engaging with different voices is always important. In blogging it is so easy to concentrate on your own view, and let other views orbit around it. “Four Questions” is a series on Everyday Liturgy which looks to authors & artists to ask them four questions about their craft.

Everyday Liturgy: Over the past couple of years you have been writing on your blog about defining a freelancer’s vocation. Most people have their work defined for them by their boss and the company they work for. Is it hard to be the person that defines your own work?

Ed Cyzewski: I wanted to write because I was sick of watching my ideas die on my bosses’ desk or in meetings. The down side of working for myself as a writer is that I still watch my ideas die. However, I get to explore what I want, and there is a lot of joy and freedom in that.

Having said that, it’s not always easy to know what you’re passionate about until you’re passed through some trial and error. The mistake I’ve made is overloading myself with too many projects instead of focusing on the things I can do best. The more I focus on a few things, the better off I am. I’d say that defining my own work is better, but it’s still hard and there are some tough days.

EL: How has your journey into self-publishing been?

Ed: That’s a good example of something that didn’t quite work for me. I put together a book on nonfiction publishing that received great reviews and endorsements, but it didn’t bring in much by way of income or speaking opportunities. It’s a ton of work, and I don’t think anyone unfamiliar with publishing has a clue how tough it is to really edit and market a book well.

Every serious author needs to develop self-publishing ideas, especially if you already write regularly on a blog. As long as you get professional editing and a high quality cover, there’s no reason why you can’t self-publish. Having said that, it may be more viable to work with a small press that at least provides a lot of that support to you at no charge and helps you market your work to a niche audience.

EL: What are the pros and cons you see of the current publishing climate?

EC: The cons are that no one knows what the future is going to look like, Amazon is getting way too big and powerful, and acquisitions at many publishing companies are down.

The pros are that e-books and tablets will crack open creative story-telling opportunities that we have just barely glimpsed and e-books may make small scale publishing more possible and sustainable for many.

EL: I find when I am working on a project that Parkinson’s Law always reigns: work expands to time allotted. How do you maintain a sense of discipline when you are, in essence, your own boss?

That law is quite true. I always evaluate my time use, remembering that some time will always be wasted. I keep a daily to-do list, and I set aside Friday as my “fun writing day” to work on long-term book projects. If I don’t get my other work done in 4 days, I lose my fun writing day.

I also try to start my day with some projects I’m passionate about in order to make sure I get some of them done and build some momentum before I begin working on the projects that need to get done for my business clients. This means that I’m more motivated to work on enjoyable projects when time is a luxury, and I put pressure on myself to complete the tough projects when my day is more limited.

I need accountability, so I always recap my day to my wife. I’m also looking into getting a coach or someone who can help me keep my life balanced.

If you want to know more about Ed’s self-publishing project, check out www.pathtopublishing.com. The rest of his books and projects can be found at www.edcyz.com.

Four Questions With David Wheeler

Engaging with different voices is always important. In blogging it is so easy to concentrate on your own view, and let other views orbit around it. “Four Questions” is a series on Everyday Liturgy which looks to authors & artists to ask them four questions about their craft.

David Wheeler is the author of Contingency Plans and a fair number of essays around the internet. He lives, works and creates in the Seattle area. You can read some of his recent poetry on his site Dave Writes Right and a newly published poem “Through A Glass, Dim but Never Dark” on GENERATE Magazine.

Everyday Liturgy: As a poet, how do you see spirituality or faith influencing your craft?

David: Poetry has a musicality to it that has a rich history in spirituality, liturgy, worship and prayer. It’s meditative to write. In that sense, every poem I write is like a prayer, but that doesn’t mean I feel limited to spiritual, meditative, or even reverent subjects. I do, however, notice its influence on the tone I take, much of the time. Still, a poem of mine like “Your Bright Wounds” is a snide criticism of acting injured, a boy who cried wolf approach to taking things personally, self-indulgence. I don’t think critique like that falls outside the purview of spirituality, especially when self-important injury is an attitude I see so prevalent in religion today.

EL: When I was just starting to write poetry as a high schooler my poetry was highly devotional. It was like George Herbert kind of stuff (in tone and content, definitely not in craft!). I think that reading older poets like Herbert and Hopkins has set the tone that poets of prior generations have filled the blatantly religious poetry category, so to speak. Contemporary poets are urged to be more subtle. Do you find yourself trying being subtle with spiritual aspects in your poetry?

DW: Sure; I strive for subtlety. Not because I feel oppressed by earlier generations’ heavy hands (devotionally, confessionally, formally, etc.) but because one thing sticks with me from writing courses, and that’s Emily Dickinson’s urge to “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” It’s boring of me to state that I’m, on occasion, dissatisfied with my body. I wish I was less bony, kept better posture, had a fuller beard, had a darker complexion. I’m not distraught; I’m just vain. But for me to truly get across how it is, I write a poem like “On Anatomy & Physiology,” infusing those feelings of ingratitude and vanity with the slanted truth that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made.

EL: Do you think there is a place for more blatantly devotional poetry in the poetry world today?

DW: Certainly. Scott Cairns, for one, is a powerful poet whose devotional poetry is clearly (at least to me) craved by many. And I don’t think we’d be the same without someone like Thomas Merton, who maybe falls more heavily on the devotional side, but is nonetheless a poet. Kathleen Norris, too, when she was publishing more poetry. Even Wendell Berry makes the poetry world spin inside and outside religious circles. There’s clearly a place and desire–Rumi and Hafiz are some of the toughest to keep in stock at the store–but like all poetry, tastes are nuanced. For me, I like Stephen Dunn, and I’m not even aware of his spiritual leanings. [Eds. note: David named three of my favorite authors—Berry, Cairns & Norris—all in one answer. We're tracking here!]

EL: I view the crafts of poetry and prayer as merging or blending together sometimes. How do you see poetry in respect to prayer?

DW: One of my favorite Barbara Kingsolver quotes is this: “When the writer converses privately with her soul in the long dark night, a thousand neighbors are listening in on the party line, taking it personally” (“In Case You Ever Want to Go Home Again,” High Tide in Tucson). I very much agree. Poetry is a type of prayer that lets others pray with you. I keep St. Augustine’s prayer book around my house. Every once in a while, I peek through the liturgy. There’s something about praying other people’s words that opens my soul up to bigger things; I appreciate that I don’t have to spend all my energy thinking of what to say. But in the rare instances I do have something to say, I can’t help but wonder who’s listening in, taking it personally (in a good way).

You can read my review of David’s book of poetry Contingency Plans on Englewood Review of Books as a special preview of their print edition.

Four Questions with Scotty Smith

Engaging with different voices is always important. In blogging it is so easy to concentrate on your own view, and let other views orbit around it. “Four Questions” is a series on Everyday Liturgy which looks to authors & artists to ask them four questions about their craft.

In my role at The Plant Church I write prayers for our weekly services. It is a learned experience to balance both the personal devotion and movement of the Spirit in one’s own life with the community-driven message of God’s kingdom. In writing prayers for church, it is a deeply personal and integrally communitarian act of worship. You don’t want your prayers to be so personal that no one can see the universal message of the gospel. At the same time, you don’t want to write a prayer that is so broad that it loses your fingerprints on it. The psalms are a great example of this type of art. David and other poets signed their names onto poems that have resonated with the faithful for millennia. Scotty Smith’s new book, Everyday Prayers, is a collection of deeply personal prayers for every day of the year that are grounded in a daily Scripture passage. The text is caught in the tension of personal devotion and the universal reach of the gospel. It is great to see a voice that offers up worship in an honest and authentic way. I asked him four questions about the book and how he sees this style of devotional prayer influencing the church today.

EL: How do you see Everyday Prayers being used in personal and corporate devotion?

Scotty Smith: I’m getting great encouragement from individuals for whom the prayers give voice to the cry of their heart. I’m also having parents tell me they use the prayers as married couples and with their whole families. Some pastors have also indicated use of certain prayers in corporate worship. All of these are most encouraging.

EL: What is it about praying the way you do in the book that you find so exciting and life changing?

SS: We can hardly go wrong praying the Scriptures back to God, right? So these prayers offer me, and many others, a new way of meditating upon the Word, memorizing Scripture and praying according the heart of God. Also, because each of these prayers is written through the lens of the gospel of God’s grace, they enable believers to discover much more of the person and work of Jesus.

 EL: Has Everyday Prayers been used as a resource in churches and small groups? What kind of feedback have you had?

SS: I’ve gotten great feedback from many quarters, as more and more people are discovering the book through friends, my prayer blog and other means.

 EL: What is the biggest obstacle to cultivating this style of prayer in a person’s spiritual life?

SS: Bad theology (we really don’t believe God is this good and gracious); unbelief (it’s hard to believe God really wants to spend this kind of intimate interaction with us); lack of priorities (busyness, noise and muchness crowd out the important things of life); fear (can we really trust God with all our brokenness, weakness, struggles, anger and sin?)

My heartfelt thanks to Scotty for taking some time out of his day to answer these questions. Now it’s your turn. How would you answer these questions?