How Pastors Write for Public Life

Charlotte Gullick

In partnership with Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. 

You preach on Sundays. You tweet or blog or post during the week. You take seriously, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s admonition that “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” You are not silent. Still, you wonder: Am I saying enough? Is anyone listening? What else can I do?

It takes courage and skill to move from the comfort of your congregation to engaging in a more public conversation. In this workshop How Pastors Write for Public Life, dive into your creative interests, expand the language palette you use, adopt a collaborative practice, and expand your own public voice.

Workshop facilitator Charlotte Gullick is the Chair of Creative Writing at Austin Community College. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the Institute of American Indians Arts and an MA in English and Creative Writing from UC Davis. Her blog, “the spectacular vernacular,” explores writing, street wisdom, and the power of storytelling in the community. She is active on social media (Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook) and recently completed a day workshop “Writing to Change the World” with the Op Ed Project in New York. She sits on the advisory board for The Telling Project, which brings veterans’ stories to their communities. Ms. Gullick’s previous speaking and teaching engagements include the Writers’ League of Texas, the Associated Writers Program annual conference, Seton Cove Spirituality Center, Austin Memorial Burial & Information Society, and the Travis County Correctional Complex. Her own fiction and nonfiction aim to honor and explore people of divergent cultural experiences and faiths. 

I loved this workshop. I feel that I was renewed in my own creativity, not only in writing but in sermon development, etc. Further, I believe this workshop will help me navigate my own discernment of future vocational goals.
— Participant from 2017