Faith Storytellers Writing & Publishing Style Guide

Updated January 2024

Please use the Faith Storytellers Style Guide and Punctuation Guide below for all submitted content. If not listed, please follow AP Style. Please note that we do use the Oxford Comma, which is traditionally used in book publishing and printed material. If you see the reference (direct from AP), the style is quoted directly from the AP Style Guide.

• Style Guide (below)

• Punctuation Guide

• Also: Avoid using the name of a church in a story so the focus stays on God not the church organization. It’s OK to name the denomination.

Note: Special thanks to Lutheran Church of Hope for providing us their Style Guide to use as a foundation; many items are directly quoted from that guide.

A

addresses – In body copy, abbreviate avenue (Ave.), boulevard (Blvd.) and street (St.) in numbered addresses. Example: He lives on Pennsylvania Avenue. He lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He lives at 240 Washington Road.

Advent – capitalize when referring to the season

ages — a 6-year-old girl; an 8-year-old law; the 7-year-old house. Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or as substitutes for a noun. A 5-year-old boy, but the boy is 5 years old. The boy, 5, has a sister, 10. The race is for 3-year-olds. The woman is in her 30s. 30-something, but Thirty-something to start a sentence. (direct from AP)

altar call — lowercase on all references.

a.m. – time reference, use periods (9 a.m.)

Amen – when used in a prayer it should also have an uppercase A and a period after it.

and – spell out in most cases

apostle — Lowercase: the apostles, the apostle Paul, the 12 apostles; but: the Twelve, the Eleven.

Apostles’ Creed (the)

B

baptism – lowercase b, when referring to the official act in church, unless referring to a specific title of an event. “My son’s baptism” is correct.

Bible – always capitalized

biblical – always lowercased (adjective)

Bible citations and books of the Bible – when quoting verses, always use quotes around the quoted section.Always include in the (says, according to). Use the complete spelling of the books. No space should be used between the chapter and verse. For example: 

the Book of Acts Acts 1:1-5

“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth,” says Genesis 1:1

the first chapter of Genesis

body of Christ

C

Catechism - uppercase

Celebrate Recovery – (Capitalize program names if proper name)

childcare – one word

Christian Christianity

city — Capitalize city if part of a proper name, an integral part of an official name, or a regularly used nickname: Kansas City, New York City, Windy City, City of Light, Fun City. Lowercase elsewhere: a Texas city; the city government; the city Board of Education; and all city of phrases: the city of Boston. (direct for AP)

classes – class titles that are based on the name of a book or DVD series should be enclosed in quotation marks

commandment — capitalize when referring to one of the Ten Commandments; otherwise, lowercase: the FirstCommandment, the Seventh Commandment, the commandments, a commandment.

commas in a series – When three or more items are listed in a simple series and the last item is preceded by and, or, or nor, place a comma before the conjunction. Example: He attended a Lutheran church, a Methodist church, and an Episcopal church on Sunday. (This is the Oxford Comma)

communion

composition titles – Always put TV shows, books, novels, songs, movies in quote marks such as “Lost” and “The Prayer of Jabez.” Periodicals are not included in this. They include newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, etc. Theyshould just be referred to as the Des Moines Register, New York Times, Time magazine, People magazine.

confirmation – lowercase unless referring to it used within the title of an event.

COVID-19 Pandemic — Proper name of the pandemic that struck the world in 2020. Always reference the year “COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020” or “the global pandemic of 2020.”

cross

currency – when indicating price of tickets or books, use dollar sign and numerals (example: $5)

D

dad, daddy — lowercase

dates – use the day of the week and the Arabic figure without st, nd. When a month is used with a specific date,abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct. Nov., Dec. When a phrase lists only a month and year, do not separate them with a comma. When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas. Example: January 1999 was a cold month. Jan. 2 was the coldest day. Feb. 14, 2014, was the target date. 

days of the week – always spelled out, never abbreviated

devil

devotion – do not shorten to devo

drive-thru

E

ebook — no hyphen

email — no hyphen

F

Faith Storytellers — Proper name of our initiative to life up and share the story God is writing in the world through our website and book. Also the proper name of our book.

Faith Storytellers Framework — Capitalized, refers to the principles and steps that Faith Storytellers champions on how to develop and write or tell a story.

Faith Story Guardrails — Capitalized, refers to specific boundaries that can be used to see if your story follows the framework and principles of Faith Storytellers.

Father — Capitlaize when referring to Father God. “Father, God” is correct, as is “Heavenly Father. Lowercase when referring to your biological father unless used as a proper name. “My father” is correct, as is, “I wept a my father’s funeral.”

freewill offering

G

God – always uppercase unless referring to something that takes the place of God (“money is a god to her”).Adjectives used to describe God remain lowercase, as in almighty God, mighty God.

godly – Of or from God; divine.

Good News (the) — Capitalize when used as a reference to the Gospel. Do not capitalize the unless it’s at the beginning of a sentence.

Good Samaritan when referring to the Good Samaritan in the Bible or to someone who embodies the characteristics of the Good Samaritan.

Gospel – Capitalize all references to the message of salvation through faith in Christ

grades – use “students in grades 9-12” and “age 3 – grade 5,” not ninth - twelfth or 9th – 12th.

H

Hallelujah (not Alleluia)

he/him – Lowercase if “God” has already been referenced. Replace “he/him” with God or Jesus if there is any confusion about who the reference is for. I love God and he loves me. Never uppercase when referencing Jesus.

heaven

Holy Spirit — Capitalize when referring to the third entity of God.

Holy Bible/Holy Scriptures

Holy Communion

holy

hymn — Capitalize when referring to a specific hymn; otherwise, lowercase: Hymn 22, Hymn of Praise, Hymn of the Day, the hymn they sang.

J

Jesus – capitalize. Also, Son, Son of God or Son of Man. Adjectives are lowercase when describing him, such as heavenly Son of God. 

K

kingdom — Lowercase when modified, when the term is used generically, and in of constructions: God’s kingdom,kingdom of God, kingdom of glory. However, capitalize (the Kingdom) when standing alone and referring to the kingdom of God.

King of kings

L

Lamb of God Last Supper (the)

Lent

Lenten season

life groups – lowercase small groups unless referring to a proper name or official title (Example: St. Bart’s Life Groups for Men.)

Lord of lords

Lord’s Prayer (the) Lord’s Supper (the)

M

Mass — refers to Catholic service, uppercase

Messiah — A title for Jesus

Ministry – capitalize when referring to a specific ministry if it’s part of the proper title (Southern Iowa Women’s Ministry); lowercase in all other instances if it’s refering to a general type of ministry (adult ministry, care ministry, Jesus’ ministry)

mom, mother, ma — lowercase

months – The following are acceptable abbreviations for months of the year when used with a specific date. Example: Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. NOTE: Spell out when used alone or with only a year. Always spell out March, April,May, June and July. Examples: June 1, 2022; Aug. 1, 2022. August 2022.

More than — Use when referring to a number greater than the one used. “More than 20” is correct, “over 20” is not.

N

noon – use instead of 12 p.m.

numbers – spell out numbers less than 10; use numerals for numbers greater than 10. Use figures for 10 or above and whenever preceding a unit of measure or referring to ages of people, animals, events or things. Also in all tabular matter, and in statistical and sequential forms. (direct from AP)

O

OK – not “okay;” OK’d, OK’ing, OKs are all acceptable.

Over — Do not use when referring to a number of greater value, use “more than” (see reference).

P

Pastor – Always uppercase when used as a title in front of the name (Pastor Mike Brown), but lowercase when speaking generically about “a pastor” or when the name is in front (Mike Brown, pastor). Do not use Pr.

Pentecost

percentages – Use symbol (%) instead of spelling it out when using with a number: 10% is acceptable, not 10 percent.

phone numbers – Insert hyphens between all numbers. Example: 888-843-5267 ext 555. No parenthesis around area codes.

p.m. – time reference, with periods (8 p.m.) potty-trained – preferred to toilet-trained

Psalms — Capitalize when referring to the Old Testament book or a specific psalm: The Book of Psalms, Psalm 8. Lowercase when used as a general term: this psalm.

Q

Q&A

S

Samaritan – Capitalize as it’s the proper name of a people group. Good Samaritan is also capital.

Satan

sanctuary – lowercase

Savior

Scripture(s) – always uppercase as a noun when referring to the Bible

scriptural – always lowercase (adjective)

seasons – always lowercase (winter, spring, summer, fall)

Sept. 11, 2001 attacks — First reference for the terrorist attacks against the United States. “Terrorist attacks” or “9/11” is fine on second reference.

service — refers to worship service or weekend service, lowercase

Son – Capitalize when referring to the second person of the Trinity: Son of God, Son of Man, Son of Mary, Son of Man. Lowercase son when referring to your biological or adopted son.

spiritual – lowercase

song titles – always in quotes. See titles.

song lyrics — Use / between lines: “Mary had a little lamb / Little lamb / Little lamb”

spaces – one space between sentences, always.

Spirit of God

states – When using a state name only, always spell out the state name. When used with a city name, states should be spelled out. See AP Style for which cities do not need a state next to it. (listed below) The rest should have state names, such as Waukee, Iowa; Ely, Minnesota. NOTE: Use the two letter Postal Service abbreviation only when using complete address and ZIP code on an insideaddress and on envelopes and mailing labels. 

T

T-shirt

Ten Commandments (the)

theater – a building (for example: movie theater popcorn)

theatre – a form of fine art

times –examples: 8 a.m., 6-7:30 p.m., 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Titles (compositions) – titles of songs, movies, books, and classes based on these items should have quote marks around them. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” Capitalize all words in a title except articles (a, an, the); prepositions of three or fewer letters (for, of, on, up, etc.); and conjunctions of three or fewer letters (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet, etc.) unless any of those start or end the title. (direct from AP)

Titles (job) – Do not capitalize communications director, etc., unless used before a name:

Carlie is the communications director. She visited Care Director Kolette Nelson.

Trinity — Capitalize references to Trinity and the three persons of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (preferred to Holy Ghost). See God and Jesus and Son in the Stylebook.

W

website – lowercase, one word

Word/word — Capitalize when referring to the incarnate “Word,” who is Jesus. Lowercase “word of God” or “holy word.

worshiping/worshiped/worshipers – one p

www – remove before URLs. Example: faithstorytellers.com  

Z

ZIP code