Creative Writing in Ministry Preparation: Narrativizing Formational Reflection

This paper is part proposal and part example. Our proposal, in essence, is a challenge to faculty to consider the value of incorporating various forms of creative writing into the ministry classroom. Incorporating creative writing can serve as a means for equipping students in their own spiritual transformation through the practice of narrativizing formational reflection. Our theoretical framework for using creative writing as a pedagogical tool is built on metacognition as classroom practice, which challenges students toward reflection and internalization. Following our proposal, we provide two tangible examples of how this proposal has been implemented in a seminary-level classroom. The first example uses a narrativized autobiography to challenge students to think through their life and ministry direction. In this assignment, they are tasked with writing their obituary, as it pertains to their ministry influence. The second writing example, which took place in our course on spiritual formation, uses C. S. Lewis’ fiction to challenge students to think through their own spiritual blind spots as a means for guarding against temptation. Following these classroom examples, we provide pedagogical and professorial evaluation as we reflect on student and faculty perceptions of the success of these assignments in the ministry classroom