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The Upper Room

Magazine Editor Description / Editorial Needs

The Upper Room is the spiritual companion of more than 3 million people worldwide. Each of the reader-written meditations encourages believers to open their hearts to God. The Upper Room is offered in 75 editions, translated into 35 languages, and reaches over 100 countries.

The Upper Room needs meditations (devotionals) that address daily situations and help readers see the connections between Scripture and their situation. We particularly need material based on the books of law and history from Hebrew scripture (the Old Testament). We need meditations that address how faith is lived out in the workplace, relationships between parents and adult children, loneliness, parenting teenagers, and social action as an expression of Christian faith. We would also like to see meditations that help people understand how personal relationship with Christ differs from knowing about Christ and the church. We always need good meditations for the special days of the Christian year: the Sundays of Advent, Christmas, the Sundays of Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. Typically, meditations are 250-300 words long.

We seek material that reflects diverse cultures and inter-cultural experiences. Good devotional writing builds on Scripture in such a way that the Scripture cannot be separated from the story/comments of the writer. We continually seek to increase our pool of writers and welcome new names.

Style of writing preferred:

We want clear, direct, economical writing. Because our publication is translated into many languages, we cannot use writing that is very colloquial. Standard English without word plays, poetry, or too many “first-world” images or allusions is necessary. Also, we encourage writers to avoid a preachy tone.

We do not publish:

Poetry, fiction, cartoons, humor, meditations built on alliteration, puns, hymns, or situations that would require extensive explanation for other cultures. We also do not use meditations that use children as negative examples for doing things that children naturally do (e.g.: mispronounce words, misunderstand, behave immaturely, etc).

Overworked topics or things we see too much of:

The familiar Psalms (23, 46, 91). Also, very familiar passages from the New Testament that are cited so often, it is difficult to treat them in a fresh way. Among these are Matt. 5:13-16, Matt. 25:31-46, John 10, Luke 15, Rom. 8:31-39, and 1 Cor. 13. We get many meditations that discuss illness and death; we can use only a few in each issue. The same is true of cute-children illustrations.

For more information or to submit a meditation, please visit http://devotional.upperroom.org/.

About the Editor

Lindsay Gray joined the staff of The Upper Room in 2012 after receiving her Master of Divinity degree. In her work as managing editor, she enjoys collaborating with writers, helping them share their experiences of God in clear and relatable ways. Lindsay lives in Nashville with her husband, Dawson.

 
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