Exchange Writers’ Guidelines

Purposes of Exchange: BE HEARD!

Exchange is about community and opportunity as they advance the Kingdom of God through the marketplace. Sawyer’s Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration presents a strong argument for coalescing a broad diversity of inputs to explore options and find the most creative and effective solutions to complex problems. Exchange was created to give voice to as broad a constituency as possible. Well known voices have established communications channels but the rest of us do not. The intent of Exchange is to spark and stimulate new, even controversial discussions, and to be open to hearing dissenting views to allow the perspectives and creativity of others to nuance our own understanding.

Our Readers

Exchange is new so we do not have a deep analysis of demographics – sex, age, locale, profession, etc. But, readers do include academics, missions practitioners, students, thought leaders, and business people all looking to make a difference by ministering to the world. And they specifically care about the issues surrounding the integration of their Christian faith with evangelistic marketplace opportunities. There is a strong focus on business-as-mission (BAM) so content related to BAM will often find a high rate of acceptance.

Writing Style

Make it accessible. Big words may drop readers’ interest. However, if technical terms are necessary, realize many readers may not have equivalent expertise and that you need to explain some concepts in greater detail than in a targeted trade or academic journal.

DO NOT BE SHY! You need not be an accomplished writer or published author. We are far more interested in your perspective. Every one of us has gifts and talents and function in unique settings. Your experience and thoughts are unique and may very well hold the key to help others resolve a particular problem or guide their thinking to develop new and creative strategies.

If English is your second language and you are not confident in the final copy in English, either work with a good translator who can help capture your sentiment or work with Exchange staff on clarity and rewrites. But do not let language barriers stand in the way of being heard.

Content & Types of Articles

Exchange is looking for a wide variety of inputs but they should be directly or closely-linked to the integration of Christian faith and the marketplace as a relevant place of God’s activity among us. There are exceptions, such as the book review on Sawyer’s Group Genius (http://wp.me/p1Z8Bv-c5) which discusses the value and techniques of highly productive collaboration, a practice of extreme importance in the globalized Church. But on the main, stay on topic . . . read the articles in past issues of Exchange for guidance.

Be reasonable. Exchange is looking for well-reasoned, critical thought. If the topic is one well under discussion in current literature, have a fair grasp of that literature and cite it as necessary. There are prophetic voices to be heard among us but articles should be well thought out and avoid preaching. (Avoid words like “should” and “must.”)

Be prepared to be challenged by the editorial staff if your arguments are thin, illogical, or hard to substantiate! (We think this is fun because we like the idea of iron sharpening iron!)

Categorically articles should fall into significant news items and events, profiles of practitioners or thought leaders, companies, institutions, and missional initiatives, book and blog reviews, opinion pieces (related to particular initiatives, practices, or biblical and theological concerns), theoretical theological and biblical pieces, marketplace ministry trends, letters to the editor reflecting on previous pieces, best practices, and so on. “Big topic” pieces will be considered for use as Feature articles. By no means are articles limited to these categories . . . pitch us your ideas.

Length

Articles should range anywhere from 600 to 2500 words. The most important criteria is that the message be presented as it needs to be to communicate effectively. Pitch us your ideas, including a preliminary draft as soon in the process as possible and let us work with you to finesse the appropriate content and length.