It was October 1984. While working at the Christian Book Nook in Oshkosh, I was thanking God for everything he had provided for me as a writer. The one thing yet missing was the support of a Christian writers club. “Lord, I don’t even know any local Christian writers.”

The phone rang, and a customer asked to order The Christian Writer’s Handbook by Margaret Anderson. Before Marjorie Berg and I hung up, we agreed to start a Christian writers’ club. Over the next four months, we planned, prepared and advertised.

We also decided our club’s purpose would be: “To encourage and inspire Christian writers to develop their God-given talent and achieve publication.” We prayed for members committed to working toward publication according to God’s plan for their writing. Names of local Christian writers came to us in wonderful ways, and soon Word & Pen began its . . .

That first year we had 17 members. Our monthly meetings opened with prayer and a writer’s devotional—a tradition that has continued down through the years. We also critiqued each other’s manuscripts, listened to speakers or educational tapes, shared our successes, and declared the writing goals we hoped to achieve during the next month. After collecting enough money to cover our $3.00/month room rental, we closed in prayer.

Seven months later, we officially adopted the name Word & Pen Christian Writers Club, based on two scriptures:
∙ 2 Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the WORD of truth.”
∙ Psalm 45:1 “My tongue is the PEN of a skillful writer.” We also elected officers and set annual dues at $12 to cover expenses, including a club newsletter.

The next month, we published our first issue of the Word & Pen Christian Writers Club Newsletter. We mailed copies to each member to encourage them and keep them up to date on club news. It included a summary of the last meeting, useful information about the next meeting, and articles of interest to writers. A year later at the September 1986 meeting, Lois Wiederhoeft joined the club. She has held continuous membership through the years and served in several leadership positions.

In the fall of 1987, the Oshkosh YMCA raised our rent to $10/meeting and pushed Word & Pen into a new phase of growth. Unable to afford the new rent, we decided to take turns hosting the meetings in our homes. Over the next four years the unexpected benefit was that we became close friends. The downside was that we slowly began to ease off on writing for publication. By 1990 our membership had dwindled to seven.

We responded with a unanimous decision to sponsor a one-day writers’ seminar. On October 20, twenty-six Wisconsin writers arrived at New Life Community Church in Oshkosh for “The Writer In You,” featuring local author Margaret Houk as our speaker. Charging $25 per person which included a luncheon, we met all expenses. We included a table where conferees could purchase books provided by the Christian Book Nook and another table where they could pick up free guidelines, sample copies of magazines, and publishers’ catalogs. Despite the success of that seminar, Word & Pen slipped into a severe crisis. A year later, only four members remained. As leader, I called a meeting to discuss our options. For some reason, only Lois and I were able to attend. After praying and asking God what he wanted, neither of us felt that we were to disband the club. We remembered material on forming a writers’ club that Gloria Splittgerber had picked up at a writers conference in Missouri. After studying it, we felt sure this was the new structure God had in mind for Word & Pen. On November 21, 1990, Word & Pen’s four members voted to reorganize the club. We hammered out an official constitution, and immediately each member became a club officer. I was president; Lois Wiederhoeft, vice president; Mildred Turner, secretary-treasurer; and Carl Acker, publicity chairman. By faith we advertised and planned our first meeting as a professional club. We also moved to a more central location—the basement of Victory Bible Assembly of God Church on Bell Street in Neenah. Easily accessible from Highway 41, our new meeting place opened the club to writers from Fond du Lac to Green Bay.

God honored our faith in Him with an excellent turn-out at the January 1992 meeting. Not everyone decided to join the club, but that year our membership climbed to fourteen, and we formed our first critique group. Four of us exchanged manuscripts at the regular meetings, critiqued them at home, then met on a second night each month to share suggestions and return the manuscripts to their owners. This method allowed us the time to offer more in-depth critiques on the manuscripts.

God also blessed us by giving us the opportunity to start a sister club. At the Green Lake Christian Writers Conference that July, a few of us met two writers from Milwaukee who wanted to organize a writing group. Drawing on our experience and encouragement, they launched the Sword and Light Christian Writers Guild which served writers for several years.

However, by the end of the year, we began to pray about a new meeting place and decided to try a room at the Neenah YMCA. At our January 1993 meeting, Don Derozier joined the club that and offered to see if we could meet at his church, St. Thomas Episcopal in Menasha.

In February 1993, our regular Thursday night meeting convened at St. Thomas in its beautiful hospitality room. Our club now had all we needed in meeting facilities. We could gather in the same central location each month. We had the atmosphere of a lovely living room to promote writing friendships. In the same room we also had a place to store and display our club library. Membership shot up to twenty-two.

That same year, our Monday night critique group grew large enough to split into two groups—one for short manuscripts and another for book-length manuscripts. By this time two-thirds of our members were publishing writers. 1994 brought another significant change. I had served as club leader for eight years, and our two-year-old club constitution now made it necessary to select a new president. Members elected Beth Grosek who guided a membership of seventeen during the next year.

In 1995, we elected Don Derozier as her successor. His first year in office included two major events: our club’s 10th anniversary in February and our second writers’ seminar that fall

Along with guests (including past members), we celebrated our anniversary in the St. Thomas gymnasium. Following a pot luck meal, we enjoyed a open microphone program where members read their original manuscripts. We closed the evening as we always do—with prayer.

Other than writing, members spent most of that year preparing to sponsor our second writers’ seminar. On September 22-23, seventy-five writers from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois gathered at New Life Community Church in Oshkosh to learn from national speaker Marlene Bagnull. We offered conferees the same amenities as the last time, along with a continental breakfast and noon luncheon catered by La Sure’s. Each writer’s cost for this seminar was $35-55, depending on how soon they registered. Again the Lord blessed our efforts, meeting all costs and sending everyone home well-satisfied and ready to conquer new writing horizons.

In 1997, Linda DeVries became president. Under her leadership, the club launched a new venture—teaching a series of writing classes at Appleton’s Thompson Center for senior citizens. One afternoon a week from May 4 to June 22 in1998, six Word & Pen members taught various classes on writing fundamentals, journaling, and the writing and marketing of poetry, fiction, nonfiction & devotionals. What great fun that was!

Two years later in 1999, we elected Patricia Kohls as president. On June 25 of 1999, Word & Pen marked another first in its history: American Christian Writers, a national organization, chartered us as one of their groups, an association we have maintained since.

In September 2001, Word & Pen began hosting Reading Nights once a month at Basic Books in Oshkosh which continued for a little better than a year. We also decided to post a club web site, featuring club information and samples of members’ manuscripts. Member Shari Voight put it together, and Word & Pen hit the Internet trail..

Lois Wiederhoeft took over as webmaster in November 2003. Working with a friend who had helped her launch her personal Web site, she gave Word & Pen’s a new look and moved it to its current host, mychristiansite.com. Lois continues to serve Word & Pen as our webmaster.

2002 and 2003 were years of transition. Members decided to stop holding elections. Instead, we adopted a less formal meeting arrangement. By 2004, we settled into our current leadership format with Christine Stratton as our facilitator, myself as treasurer, and all members taking turns providing refreshments, devotions for writers, and educational programs. Any club business items are handled through email discussions. We find this less formal arrangement comfortable and satisfying. It enables us to focus our two-hour meeting time on writing as we continue to welcome both visitors and new members.