Prize Writing
a writing competition to the glory of God
1: Are you human?
2: Do you want to win a $150 Gospel gift card, some Gospel merch, books, and of course, coffee?
If you answered yes to both of the above questions, you will want to keep reading this. And even if you’re thinking, “I’m not a writer, so this isn’t for me,” you should still keep reading—because I think this is still for you, even if you don’t know it yet.
I will first explain question number 1: are you human?
If you are human, you are made in the image and likeness of God. This means your purpose in life is to image God—reveal Him, reflect Him, express His nature—with the body and soul He has given you.
Our imaging God, or reflecting God’s likeness, is multifaceted.
I image God through my capacity for reason and morality. But I also image God by expressing His attributes of love and mercy through using my physical hands to give a physical piece of bread to another human who is in need, to satisfy their physical hunger.
There are endless ways to reveal the Infinite God to the watching world; and each of us is created to fulfill this collective purpose for Humanity in our own unique way.
I would love to go on forever talking about our image bearing—how we deface the image through sin, but how Jesus, THE Image of God, renews us and restores us to proper image bearing through the gospel.
But, that’s not really why you’re reading this, is it? You want that 150 bones and you’re wondering what all this has to do with writing. Thank you for being patient. I'll tell you now.
Our God is a Creator.
He makes things. He expresses ideas and truths using beauty. He tells stories.
In the first chapter of Genesis, He sees a void of potential; and by His Word makes something Good out of it.
Okay, I know all of that is charged with meaning and we could go 100 different directions with it. But my point for now is this: one way we should image God is by creating like Him.
We should make art. We should build beautiful things. We should tell good stories that point to The Story.
We can image God by writing—using words to creatively express ideas in a way that is meaningful and Good, like we see our Creator God doing in Genesis and beyond.
Whether you consider yourself a writer or not, or if you think you’re good at writing or not, you are an image bearer.
And unless you’re illiterate, you know how to write. And if you think you’re illiterate, have I got news for you.
This brings me to question number 2: do you want $150 to pay for you and all your friends’ coffee, some merch, books, and your very own coffee beans to take home and brew?
We want to incentivize you to embrace your purpose—to image God through creativity and the use of words and story to express Goodness, Truth, and Beauty.
We want you to write for the glory of God. And we also want to give you prizes.
(Which means we also get to image the God who gives good gifts, by giving you good gifts. Full circle!)
So, here is how this will work:
The set topic everyone will run with is, you guessed it: The Image of God.
However, there is no requirement for genre. You could write an exposition on Genesis 1:26-27. You could write a fictional short story. You could write a tragedy or a long poem. You could write a Socratic dialogue between Jesus and Adam about image bearing. Get creative.
Your only restrictions are:
your piece has to be 1000 words or less
you may not use AI in any form or fashion
Other than that, have fun and use your creative freedom.
Once you have finished your writing, email your submission to: t.r.jones@gospelcoffeeclub.com
Also, send us a message to let us know you sent in a submission so we don’t miss any.
Deadline for submission is March 5th, one month from today.
Once we receive, read and evaluate all submissions, a winner will be chosen. The winning submission will receive all aforementioned prizes as well as their submission being featured on the Gospel Coffee Club substack for all to read and enjoy.
If you have any questions at all or need clarity on something, please shoot us a message on Substack, Instagram or Facebook.
Happy writing! And may the odds be ever in your favor.
