From: Rich Tatum [rich] Sent: Friday, November 03, 2000 2:04 PM To: Kathi Sharpe Subject: RE: Comments Right now the biggest problem is that you seem to have multiple purposes in what you've written. One is educational ("this is what Wiccans really are and believe"), one is apologetic ("this is how a Wiccan responds to the Gospel"), and another is testimonial ("this is how I responded to Christ"). I think you should focus your essay on one theme. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't deal with all three issues, but it will help if you develop a central purpose for each essay/article. It really does help if you first write out what the big idea is: what is the one thing you want readers to "get" when the read your article. Then, don't add anything to your article that distracts from the big idea. Here's an idea, go back and look at some of the mails you've written as you experienced God's blessings. Try to recapture some of that excitement. As a reader of your emails, I didn't need to know much about Wicca to understand that God had performed a miracle in delivering you out of it. Here's another suggestion, look at the couple of passages where Paul gives his testimony … there's one in Acts 26 before Agrippa ("Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.") and there's another in 2 Corinthians 11 where he talks about his troubles ("Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea … "). Take the lead from Paul: give only enough attention to your past to provide context. Focus the audience's attention on God's handiwork rather than the past. Does this help? As for the references, if you're writing for a Christian apologetics group, there's no harm in providing educational links. But, otherwise, I'd be very careful. This might be something you'll want to consider building a website resource for sometime down the road, so you can provide the correct context and avoid urging people toward paganism. Rich.

 
The Sharpe Logs: email and chat transcripts with Kathi Sharpe, ex-Wiccan
© 2001 by Richard A. Tatum
Check out my blog!