The following was excerpted from a Ministry Site Study report submitted in spring 2018 at Bethany Theological Seminary
Not many people know the inner workings of Brethren Life & Thought or the intentions behind all the work that goes into it. As a recent Bethany student, I wrote a Ministry Site Study paper on BL&T, specifically looking at it as a ministry – for that it is. This condensed version is meant to explore both the how and the why of BL&T.
First off, BL&T’s work includes a variety of media: The academic print journal, the web-blog, and various social media presences, particularly a Facebook page. The purpose of BL&T as a whole is, first, to “nurture the life and mind within the Church of the Brethren with faith, humility, courage, and integrity.” However, a wider audience outside the Church of the Brethren is also actively targeted. BL&T is directed at anyone, Brethren or not, who seeks a Brethren-specific perspective on theological issues and those that concern the life of the church. Thus, BL&T also engages in conversation with other denominations, particularly the other two historic peace traditions, Quakers and Mennonites.
The print journal itself “solicits peer-reviewed scholarly articles, thoughtful interpretive essays and short creative works, including poetry, related to the faith, heritage, and practices of the Church of the Brethren and related movements.” Thus, broadly speaking, the journal itself is intended for a more scholarly readership while the blog and the social media presences aim at a larger audience. However, “scholarly” is to be understood in the broader sense, for the major target groups are clergy and congregations. The journal often deals with topics relevant to pastoral ministry and thus hopes to provide orientation for pastors. Also, congregations as a whole might often find themselves interested. All in all, content editor Denise Kettering-Lane say, “the hope is that the journal can be a resource on issues relevant to the church, whether the pastor or the congregation uses it.” Of course, at the same time, the journal is also a scholarly resource, for example for purposes of research.
Institutionally, the journal consists of three employees working part-time. A content editor (Denise Kettering-Lane) responsible for the content and editing of the journal, a managing editor (Karen Garrett) responsible for the business requirements and institutional workings of the journal, and a social media editor (Chibuzo Petty) responsible for the blog and social media presences. All three are employed by the 15-member board of the Brethren Journal Association (BJA). This association officially produces the journal, but any individual subscriber to the journal is automatically a member of the association. Thus it effectively falls to the board of the BJA and its president to oversee and guide the work of the three employees.
The BJA is closely tied to Bethany Theological Seminary and in its publishing activities acts on the seminary’s behalf. Thus, Bethany is officially the publisher of BL&T. The relationship between Bethany Seminary and the BJA is characterized both by Bethany providing journalistic and academic freedom and the BJA ultimately answering to the seminary.
Historically, BL&T is currently in its 63rd year of publication. The first issue appeared in the summer of 1956, originally as a quarterly publication, then under the guidance of editor Edward Krusen Ziegler. From the beginning, it was the journal’s purpose to provide various and dissenting voices on a range of topics pertinent to the Church of the Brethren. In the editorial notes to the second issue of BL&T, Ziegler noted:
Were we to present no new points of view, no challenge to our present thought – indeed, no heresies – we might well question our reason for being! For Brethren Life and Thought is an organ of opinion persuasively stated, research done in scholarly fashion, spiritual and intellectual challenge winsomely and incisively presented. […] We want never to publish an issue which is not provocative of real thought, and often of spirited reply.
This approach has characterized BL&T throughout the decades of its publication and to this day. Despite ongoing financial challenges, the journal has persevered to this day and now is looking towards new challenges of digitizing and virtual media in the 21st century.
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Presently, the journal is published twice a year, with slightly varying emphases. The fall issue is typically centered around a specific topic, while the spring issue is a conglomeration of various topics. Thus the process related to producing them varies. Topics of fall issues are usually suggested by the board and then solicited by Kettering-Lane, who will approach writers to contribute. Spring issues contain a mix of solicited and unsolicited articles. Of the usual five to eight articles, three to four will typically be pieces authors have sent to the editor on their own initiative. Those articles in spring issues that have been solicited by the editor typically center around interesting events or occurrences that do not justify a whole issue dedicated solely to them. For example, articles in the spring issue of last year included a number of papers from a conference on conscientious objection during World War One.
Articles are not exclusively written by accomplished scholars; Kettering-Lane’s wish is to strike a balance between established experts and newcomers. People from all levels of education have been published, among them beginning academics who required their articles to be peer-reviewed.
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Once an article is written and edited, the editor sends it back to the author to obtain permission for changes made; then everything goes on to the layout artist. In the case of BL&T, this is an external contractor. The editor then proofreads the issue and afterward sends it to the printer, Mennonite Press. They another proof and sends it back to both editor and layout artist for examination. Then the issue goes into print and is then mailed.
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The BL&T blog and Facebook page make for the other primary media outlet of BL&T. They are currently run by social media editor Chibuzo Petty. It is noteworthy that Petty himself has designed this position he now fills. He had been on the BJA board for two years as a new student of Bethany seminary when the person who had previously occupied a position called the “blog editor” quit. Even though that person did good work, the focus of BL&T as a whole at that time was not on social and online media. Facebook and Twitter accounts existed, but neither were very active. The blog received more attention but even that was occasional and went through seasons of more and less activity. Petty, as a board member, saw the need for drastically expanding online activities as a media outlet in the 21st century. Thus, he designed the position of social media editor and proposed it to the board, convincing it of the importance of online media. Then he himself applied for the job. The board accepted both proposals and Petty has been in charge of the online side ever since. During this time, the blog has increased its rate of postings and the Facebook site has drastically grown. In the one and a half years that Petty has held the position, the number of fans increased from around 400 to over 1600 (up to 2000+ since the writing of this assignment). Petty was, and is, intentional to aggressively promote the Facebook page since it provides a channel to actually reach people with the original content of the blog posts. “I could post on the blog every week, but without Facebook, nobody would read that,” he explains. Thus, a large part of Petty’s work is ensuring that the Facebook page continuously relates content to its fans, primarily that of the blog, but also external content. He averages around two to three Facebook postings a day, which social media strategists agree is an ideal number. Another large part of Petty’s work is spent in Facebook groups centered around various topics that have to do with theology, peace, social justice and similar Brethren concerns. There he both looks for new and interesting content and solicits the blog’s content to a wider readership. “My job is to curate content just as much as it is to create it,” Petty says.
There are a number of guidelines on the content Petty publishes. Of course, a focus is on Brethren concerns, but Petty – he himself actually being a Quaker – has broadened this to perspectives from all three historic peace churches. He also makes sure that this content is engaging to the users, adding questions or prompting responses. For example, a particularly popular post was about active shooter drills at schools. A few weeks after the parkland shootings, Petty posted an article about such drills, questioning the psychological and spiritual impact they had on children. A lot of people had meaningful responses to share, whether they were teachers, parents, or simply interested and concerned about the matter. These are kinds of “indirectly Brethren” topics that gain a lot of traction.
Other prominent topics include Brethren concerns like eco-theology or simple living. Petty also has to keep in mind that BL&T’s Facebook followers are a very diverse group and that their interests vary accordingly: About 400 of the 1600 Facebook fans are Nigerian, on account of the comparatively large Brethren presence there. Also, users’ positions drastically vary on the political as well as theological spectrum, but the content needs to appeal to all of them. A large part of Petty’s work is thus being intentional about being non-partisan and not overtly taking a side but still facilitating conversation.
Production and acquisition of the content vary. Some of it is written by Petty himself, some by authors he solicits (he tends to have specific people for specific topics) and some by people that send drafts on their own initiative. This is where the social media editor is also an editor in the classical sense. Petty proofreads and edits all texts sent to him.
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The way the blog operates is presently undergoing a change to be better suited to its ministerial needs. Currently, it is a kind of “potpourri” of various topics. But a Facebook poll Petty has conducted has shown that readers would like it to become more of a devotional space. Thus, the way the blog operates will change: Every week, a sermon will be posted, written by a member of one of the three historic peace churches. Around the sermon, Petty will draw up some framing questions to engage users in conversation about it. The blog will exclusively focus on this content, which makes for 52 postings a year. In this way, Petty will be able to increase the number of postings (it was around 40 last year, which is still considerable for a web blog) while also meeting peoples wishes for content.
Like any print publication, BL&T was not able to elude the trend away from print to online publishing. For academic journals, this is even more dramatic since many institutional subscribers such a libraries turn to digital-only subscriptions. Therefore, the board and the editorial team have agreed on a twofold response: On the one hand, the online activities of the blog and social media are to be broadened. On the other hand, the three editors and a number of board members have formed a committee to profitably digitize the print journal. As of right now, BL&T receives a flat sum for a contract made with the scholarly database “ATLA”.
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So, what is the ministerial side of the whole affair? There are, in fact, multiple aspects:
- First of all, BL&T ministers to the Church of the Brethren in a number of ways. It does so, for one, by dealing with topics that are prevalent in the Church of the Brethren at a specific time; as controversies ensue, BL&T serves as a platform to bring diverging Brethren voices into conversation. As it is in all church settings, during a controversy, people will typically tend to be partisan and stick to their own opinion group, thus precluding constructive conversation and often replacing it with mere polemics. BL&T, in contrast, is intentional to include multiple perspectives next to one another without placing higher or lower value on a particular one. It does not primarily seek to provide answers but to facilitate constructive conversation within the church. This is about empowering pastors and congregations to come to an own informed position and, if necessary, offer a perspective different from their respective peers’ or their own. BL&T is in this sense first of all intended to be a resource and has been used by pastors and congregations as such, for example in Sunday school classes or church council meetings. A congregation, for example, that is struggling to find its own stance on the topic of sexuality might use one or multiple BL&T articles published on the issue to facilitate discussions over a common lunch. There are other, more indirect ways, however, in which BL&T ministers to the Church of the Brethren. Being a historian herself, content editor Denise Kettering-Lane points out the importance of knowing once congregational history for finding a congregational identity among present circumstances. “I think it is a ministry to be able to preserve and understand our historical narrative,” says Kettering-Lane. From this past, we can gather important pieces of an identity for the present. Kettering-Lane continues: “For example, we [the Brethren] were historically a people who never took up arms. How does that help us to deal with the fact that we are currently in the longest ongoing war in American history? (referring to the officially still ongoing war in Afghanistan)” Of course this is also true for topics that concern the church in the narrower sense. What does the Brethren tradition have to say about human sexuality, for instance? Thus, current topics and historical identities come together in BL&T to minister to the church of our day. Kettering-Lane points out that this applies to the Brethren world in particular, which has historically been very divisive over theological issues. Thus, BL&T also advances ecumenical efforts, at least within the Brethren world.
- Closely related to the ministry to the Church of the Brethren is BL&T’s ministry to the wider society. This ministry occurs in two ways: BL&T both ministers to a wider audience itself, specifically in its online activities and enables the Church of the Brethren to also minister to that audience. Finding an own congregational identity consequently leads to being able to better promote this identity to the external world. As president of the board, Jim Grossnickle-Batterton points out: “We [the Brethren] have historically not been cultural drivers, but have tended to be cultural followers. We either went along or stood against developments in culture and society, but we tended not to initiate these developments ourselves.” Grossnickle-Batterton says that a considerable part of BL&T’s ministry is to help change that. “We on the board would like to see the denomination be a bit more of a cultural driver and offer positive alternatives to things going on in society.” The board is here thinking of traditional Brethren concerns like simple living, environmental issue, peace concerns, militarism, and nonviolence. The journal in this way serves as a conduit or channel for the Church of the Brethren to minister to society and at the same time serves to empower the Church of the Brethren as a whole to do this.
This split is basically congruent with the division between the journal as such (directed more at the Church of the Brethren and at an academic setting) and BL&T’s online media (directed to a wider audience), which has its very own ministerial dimensions, although it ministers in similar ways.
Social media editor Chibuzo Petty names as one of his biggest frustrations with the churchly world the lack of conversation. “The gospel is nothing if not a deep, meaningful conversation. But in the church, we don’t want to have conversations on crucial issues and we don’t make space for those conversations in our worship. As a ministry planter, I’d love to see congregations where conversation is central.” Thus, the largest ministerial aspect of his work is, for Petty, curating space for these conversations. He is concerned with the “post-religious” trajectory that Western culture is taking. Non-polemical conversations about questions of faith are not commonplace anymore, which takes a significant spiritual part out of our public life as a society. Thus, to instigate these conversations is an essential ministry to society as a whole. In this work, Petty is able to offer peace church tradition perspectives to a wider audience. It is, quite simply, a ministry of getting people to talk to each other. He emphasizes, however, that there are other ministerial aspects as well, which might come as a surprise, such as pastoral care of readers. Even more surprising, but by no means illogical, is that he considers editing a ministry akin to discipleship. “In both, we put something of ourselves out there – our walk as Christians – and others ‘read’ it and sometimes critique us, hopefully with the purpose of walking with us.” Editing and discipleship both profit from and are based on communal cooperation. Denise Kettering-Lane sees a similar aspect. “I love working with authors, particularly with someone who has maybe never written a journal article before and might not be sure whether they could. As an editor, you can then give them confidence that they can do this.” In this way, not only readers but also authors are ministered to.
Despite some of the institutional necessities, and some differences from a congregational setting, there is a surprising number of parallels to classical “pastoral” ministry. To facilitate conversation, to create and sustain a healthy spiritual identity, to encourage where possible and maybe even lovingly reprimand where necessary the body of Christ is akin to a very meaningful way of pastoral ministry. Certainly, it is no accident that God himself, in Jesus Christ, utilized a medium to convey the salvation of the world, to give himself over to us in the medium humanity. What is true for the world of the media in the 21st century is certainly true of the gospel of Christ as well: The medium is the message.
Martin Jockel is a burgeoning journalist from Gießen, Germany. Formerly affiliated with Youth With a Mission (YWAM), he currently studies at the University of Marburg. While in university, Martin spent a year abroad studying at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Indiana.