Hensley: The curious intersection of newsrooms and pulpits
One of the more surprising findings from a Pew Research survey earlier this summer indicated that an overwhelming majority of journalists, if they had it to do all over, would again travel the same career path.
That’s what 77% of the almost 12,000 surveyed said and a pretty strong affirmation. I’ve wondered often about this, having transitioned out of and then back into the journalism world. For me, the appeal has always been the writing and storytelling aspects. Since it’s an uneven and uncertain world for aspiring authors, this was the next best thing.
The rewards, such as they are, come quickly. I take pride in seeing my name above (or beside) a story I’ve written since the first time it happened in the pages of the Dalhart Daily Texan. Doesn’t seem like that long ago, but it’s been more than 40 years.
Whether it was a story about a football game, community event or interesting person, I have always enjoyed hearing what people have to say, getting them to talk about something important to them and sharing that with an audience.
Journalists have the opportunity to chronicle a community’s finest moments as well as its greatest heartbreaks. Sometimes these things can happen within days of each other. They have the chance to interview community leaders and hear the passion in their voices. They also show up and advocate, through powerful reporting, for those on the margins of society.
I can’t speak for my colleagues, but I see this as a calling. Freedom of the press and all of that is important, but there’s more to it than that. It is sharing the narrative of the place you live with the people around you. You do that day after day in one place long enough, and you become deeply attached to your hometown.
At least I hope you do.
I can always tinker with the great unfinished books aging gracefully on the hard drive of my personal computer at another time. At least that is what I tell myself – that there will always be time. While that might have sounded pretty convincing 20 or so years ago, reality says otherwise. There are more years in the rear-view mirror of life than there are ahead on the road. That’s the way it goes.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve had conversations with friends regarding this vocation, which admittedly, isn’t what it used to be. I could spend the rest of this space (and a whole lot more) lamenting that, but it wouldn’t change the state of the industry.
The most intriguing question was about whether, knowing what I know now, I would have gone into the ministry earlier in life. The short answer is no. I would not have been ready then and would most likely have been a pastor crashing on the shores of ineffectiveness. I still worry about that today, but I feel better equipped.
It has not been without frustration, though. Just as our church was gaining momentum, the pandemic took hold, we spent three months not meeting in person, and in some ways we’re still trying to recover. Now, with the pandemic continuing, we have this serious discord reverberating throughout the United Methodist Church with congregations and pastors having to make tough decisions about their future.
There is certainly a lot to be said for seminary-trained pastors and all the wonderful gifts and graces they bring to their churches. Likewise, there is also something to be said for second-career, bi-vocational pastors like myself who also bring uniquely different gifts and graces to a church. Fortunately, the two churches I’ve served were and are filled with patient and understanding people.
In just a few months, I will celebrate my 10th anniversary as an appointed United Methodist Church pastor. Ten years ago, I never saw this coming. My basic philosophy has been to do my best to stay out of God’s way one Sunday morning at a time.
I also think my training as a journalist is helpful as a pastor, strange as that might sound. I don’t mean the part about being a skeptic, but rather skills like researching topics, interviewing people and putting together a story. Don’t read too much into that; I don’t do the heavy lifting on Sunday mornings in the pulpit. I do the best I can. God does the rest. And that is enough. Sunday after Sunday.
One day a few years ago a friend asked me to officiate a funeral. It was a young, extremely well-liked person and took place at a large church. It was well-attended, and there were several others who spoke before me. Afterward, a friend who’s known me both as journalist and pastor, made a comment that’s stuck with me to this day. He said, “It looks like your calling found you.”
I’m not sure that would have been the case 30 or so years ago. The point here is we’re all on this journey called life, doing the best we can to find our way. Sometimes, we get so caught up in where we think we should be or, worse, deserve to be, we forget to appreciate where we are and what we have.
The chance to write stories about people and have them published in a newspaper (and online) is a real blessing, as far as I’m concerned. It’s more than that, too, because those people trust us with their words, thoughts, emotions and dreams and expect us to treat them with care and respect.
All of which, at least in my case, helped prepare me for another amazing – and unexpected – chapter of life as a pastor. That also continues to be an incredible blessing.
Color me surprised that these two seemingly different livelihoods could somehow co-exist, but it is also one more reminder of how God can meet us where we are and take us places we never could have imagined.
Doug Hensley is associate regional editor and director of commentary for the Avalanche-Journal. He can be reached at dhensley@lubbockonline.com
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Doug Hensley the curious intersection of newsrooms and pulpits
