About a year ago, a pastor asked me to explain Christian fiction to him. Puzzled, I felt sure he was making fun of me. But no, he honestly did not understand why people read Christian fiction. I smiled and asked, “Why do you tell stories in your sermons?” He answered, “My stories are all true, not fiction.” At that point we had a healthy conversation about the parables Jesus told. After our conversation, I pondered the role of Christian fiction in my own life.
Without question, Christian fiction strengthens my faith. As I explained to my pastor friend, God strengthens my life toward being a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ through each and every Christian novel I read. A few years ago, characters in one of Blackstock’s books showed me what teamwork looks like. Characters in Gohlke’s books inspire resilience in my faith. Chiaverini’s characters teach me about genuine relationships among friends. My list is growing as I recall these parables set in the context of my life.
And I’m not alone. Frequently, church librarians admit that most of the books checked out are those found on the Christian fiction shelves. That is certainly true for our Enrichment Center. Why is Max Lucado now writing fiction after all his years of writing faith-based non-fiction?
Karen Swallow Prior’s book, On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books helped me find the connection between fiction and spiritual growth. She explains the practices and images of a virtue found in classic fiction including The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Temperance), Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (Diligence), Persuasion by Jane Austen (Patience), and others. Through it, the virtues came to life for me as I reflected on my understanding and application of these virtues in my own journey to become a fully devoted follower of Christ. I can’t wait to gather a group to discuss and reflect on the ideas of this book!
Recently, I rediscovered Madeleine L’Engle. Many of us likely read her books The Arm of the Starfish or A Wrinkle in Time in junior high school. I was not much of a reader in my teen years, but when I read these books, I discovered a new world.
Now, here I am all these years later discovering the long list of books written by L’Engle. Stemming from her faith, her books have faith messages to readers who probably are not believers in Jesus Christ. I wonder how many readers became aware of Christ through her books.
L’Engle also wrote Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art where she described her approach to writing as an opportunity to be creative with God. In the same way, she suggested that books offer readers the same opportunity to be creative with God as they read instead of watch television.
Now I find myself reflecting on a book’s story as to what God is teaching me. A new habit I’m developing is keeping a journal to capture my reflections after reading both fiction and non-fiction. I am taking one of those “extraordinary” steps Pastor Jay challenged us to do a few weeks ago.
Have you seen his recent blog post titled Book People where Sean Dietrich tells how his Granny taught him to select a book to read among all the others on a shelf: by looking at the picture of the author. Remarkable, isn’t it? They say that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but what about the life of the author? Dietrich tells of visualizing the faces of the authors sitting on library shelves. I caught myself doing just that as we finished organizing our collection of books in our new location. Some of you have already stopped by the Enrichment Center to see who is sitting on our shelves. Whether the book is fiction or non-fiction, a transformative adventure awaits us all.
In essence for me, the authors we find on our Enrichment Center shelves are an extraordinary part of the ministry team who serve our church family. They are waiting to let God use the words and stories in their books to open our eyes and hearts to experience transformation in Jesus Christ.
Many of them interpret Scripture for us through non-fiction to help us understand God’s Word. And many of them provide parables set in our context that help us embrace and apply Scripture in our daily lives. Karen Swallow Prior reminds us that “Reading literature, more than informing us, forms us.” As we read their books, the authors become our companions in a very real transformational relationship as we become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.