I am probably happiest in my professional life when I am writing, whether the subject is a sermon, a Bible commentary, an editorial, a news article, or a book project. I harbor a vague empty spot if I am not working on some sort of writing project, and so far there has been no lack of them. In a sense, I see this as a confirmation that God has gifted me in writing, and called me to use that gift in proclaiming or promoting the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'd have to begin with the Bible, of course, especially after I learned to appreciate its textual history, literary development, and nuances of language. Any number of favorite grammar, lexicon and theological dictionaries have supported that effort. I have always been more inspired by missionary biographies and well-written Bible commentaries than by church histories or systematic theologies. Bob Dale's books on church administration and leadership were helpful in practical matters. For spiritual reflection, I have long been a fan of Frederick Buechner's insightful volumes. In recent years, I've been drawn to Brian McLaren's growing corpus of contributions to our understanding of faith in a postmodern world.

The impact of writing on the world of religion cannot be measured, as humans have sought to codify or reflect their understanding of the divine for as long as they have known how to put words in physical form. In the Ancient Near Eastern world, innumerable documents were devoted to the gods, whether in brittle clay cuneiform tablets, stone monuments, or heiroglyphics on papyrus or building walls. Israel's identity cannot be separated from the people's covenant with God and the giving of the commandments. Israel's historians, theologians, prophets and poets understood the importance of preserving their faith understanding in written form, giving rise to the scriptures. This human impetus for putting theological belief into written texts has continued, and (I believe) will continue as long as humankind uses words to communicate. It is only natural to express our deepest needs, hopes, and aspirations in written form.

Beyond the basic desire to preserve faith understandings, writing (along with reading) has served and continues to serve as an essential medium for communicating the gospel and having conversations about faith. The popularity of religiously-oriented books, the explosion of the Internet, and the plethora of Web sites devoted to religious matters provide abundant evidence of the importance of writing in communicating religious beliefs.

As a ten-year-old, I began to sense that God wanted me to be involved in some sort of "Christian" service as a missionary or pastor, and this intensified during my senior year in high school. It was also in high school that I discovered an interest in writing through my English teacher, June Kelley. These two interests developed along different paths for some time: on the ministry side, I moved from service as a BSU summer missionary to becoming a "preacher boy," and youth revival leader, to accepting a call as pastor at the age of 20.

Meanwhile, I edited my high school newspaper and wrote sports features for The Red and Black, the college newspaper at the University of Georgia. While serving as pastor in Hogansville, Ga., I also wrote a devotional column for the local newspaper, The Hogansville Herald.

After moving to North Carolina and entering Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, I continued serving a church, but also started writing for Proclaim magazine. During the next few years I also had articles published in The Student and The Deacon magazine, all publications of the former Baptist Sunday School Board. While doing my doctoral work, I wrote for academic journals (a different style of writing altogether!). And, during my last pastorate, I began to write weekly commentaries for the Smyth & Helwys Formations curriculum. The project began as an effort to encourage our church to use the material before a commentary was available. Eventually, I was asked to continue the project in Baptists Today, and this continued until I accepted my current position.

As a pastor, the two streams of pastoral ministry and writing flowed side by side, with ministry being the larger stream. When I became editor of the Biblical Recorder, writing became more paramount.

In one sense, the pleasure of writing is like the pleasure of washing the dishes or mowing the lawn--though labor is involved, there is a great sense of accomplishment in the finished product: you can see where you've been. There is joy in turning a well-crafted phrase or completing a sermon or article that clarifies an important truth.

For me, the greatest joy of writing is the sense of communicating and connecting with my readers. In the academic world, I learned to write in such stilted and arcane language that only other academics could understand it. While there is some pleasure to be found in producing a properly obfuscatory puzzle for the reader, it is a small pleasure. My greatest joy in writing is to tell a story or explain an issue in such a fashion that ordinary readers will not only understand what I'm trying to communicate, but also enjoy the engagement.

The inspiration came in the form of an invitation, in the summer of 1994, from Smyth & Helwys officials and editors. I was invited to meet with them and several other potential commentary authors to talk about the upcoming commentary project. Since we were so early in the process, I had the opportunity to choose which Old Testament book I wanted to tackle. I selfishly asked for 1-2 Samuel because I have a special interest in Hebrew narrative, and because I believe 1-2 Samuel is at the very heart of the Hebrew Bible.

The offer was like a gift to me: our only daughter had died the previous January, and I wasn't sleeping much anyway. The long process of writing the book gave purpose to the late nights and early mornings. The opportunity also made all the time and effort I had invested in Ph.D. studies seem a bit more worthwhile, as it provided an excellent outlet for exercising the academic competence I had gained from that experience.

I agreed to participate in the project on one condition: that I be allowed to write so that readers could both understand and enjoy the book. I've read too many commentaries that were high on scholarship but so abstrusely written that ordinary people could not begin to understand them. I wanted my commentary to be academically informed but also reader-friendly. Fortunately, this fit in nicely with the planned format. Since 1-2 Samuel is basically a narrative, I was able to write the commentary in a rather flowing fashion, while chasing rabbits and putting more arcane matters or tables in the sidebars. In this way, readers could follow the story more easily. More than one person has told me that they read it through like a novel, which is no mean feat when dealing with a 747-page Old Testament commentary.

As I was writing, the editors occasionally pushed me to adopt a slightly more formal writing style, and I couldn't persuade them to include lyrics to a rap song I wrote about David bringing the ark to Jerusalem, but you can't have everything.

I hope the book will impact the reader with a few "aha!" moments as they come to grips with the issues of kingship in Israel, national identity, the Davidic covenant, and the moments of grace that come bubbling up through the porrige of 1-2 Samuel. Both the major and minor characters of 1-2 Samuel are gripping in their portrayal. At times, the narrative reads like a soap opera with themes of intrigue, lust, rape, murder, and betrayal. At other times, the grand sweep of the story is breath-taking. At all times, the presence of God lurks in the background, breaking through on occasion to demonstrate power, provision, and judgment, along with faithfulness and mercy. God's faithfulness to the covenant with David--despite David's sin--speaks volumes about the ways of God with humankind, and stands at the root of much prophetic and New Testament theology. I hope the book will help readers see this connection in a clearer light.

My primary ministry is expressed through the role of editor/president of the Biblical Recorder, the news journal of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. I also continue to enjoy writing projects not necessarily related to the Recorder, along with speaking and teaching in a variety of settings. I would like to say that I'm also deeply involved in personal ministries of caring for others, but the statement would be untrue. That is a growth area for me.

Family time is the best time for me. I enjoy playing with Samuel and watching him grow. Jan and I enjoy travel a great deal, and Samuel is a good sport about it. Jan and I enjoy golf (though not often enough), as well as musical theater.

Personally, I long for time to read books that are pure fun, like Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. Every few years, I treat myself to a rereading of Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I've written so much and often so transparently that I have few surprises left. I'm left-handed, right-eared, Lasik-enhanced, and snake-bitten, but those characteristics shouldn't be particularly surprising. I once spent a summer swinging shifts at a spinning mill, which answered any doubts I ever had about going to college. Some might be surprised to know that I set out to become a pharmacist, but chose a different path when my qualitative and quantitative analysis professor started using calculus to solve a chemistry problem. I always excelled in math, but when my calculus teacher introduced imaginary numbers, I couldn't imagine them. I shifted to biology/chemistry education and taught school for a while. For a year I was the entire science department at a small high school, but a baby possum who wanted to nest in my shirt helped to shift my career ambitions elsewhere.

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