Becoming a Newspaper Columnist

            Shortly after I moved to Minden, I was interviewed by a reporter from the Minden Press-Herald.  For a small town Minden had a rather ambitious newspaper.  The best I can remember, it came out five days a week.  They didn’t publish on the weekends.  My arrival on the scene at Minden was deemed to be a news item, so a lady came to my office and interviewed me.

            During the course of the conversation, the subject of my writing experience came up, and that led to an invitation to write a regular column for the paper.  Two or three other area ministers also wrote columns.  Minden was a traditional Deep South community, and very much a part of the Bible Belt, so it seemed natural to them to have ministers contribute columns on spiritual topics.

            As I read over the other columns, I came away with the impression that they were often little more than a summary of the previous week’s sermons.  I thought I might have more readers if I tried something different.  I asked about writing a column on family issues.  It was sort of a natural extension of the radio spots, although I didn’t confine myself to family issues on the radio.   The columns appeared weekly, and were well received in the community.   The paper named my column Family Matters.   At the time that was the name of a popular television sitcom.

            Once I wrote a column about fishing.  It really wasn’t about fishing. It was designed to get the attention of the fisherman who might be neglecting his domestic responsibilities.   Minden was filled with fisherman, but few of them heard my sermons.  They were on the lake on Sundays.   I thought one or two of them might read my column, so I wrote something of a parable about fishing.

I went on for several paragraphs about how a successful bass fisherman might give his undivided attention to the business of catching fish, and then I suggested that he might have a better relationship with his wife, he would take that much interest in her.   As things turned out, there was a man in Minden, who was a Bassmaster.  He read my column, and his wife contacted me to tell me how much he liked it.   I had done quite a bit of research to make sure my references to fishing were authentic.  I think he was impressed with my accuracy.   I hope he took an equal amount of interest in his marriage.

            I wrote Family Matters throughout my tenure at Minden, and that ended up having an influence on a new direction in my ministry.  It started with the internet.  I’ll talk about that next.