I left the ministry for a job in the “secular” world. And it was the best thing that ever happened to my ministry.
You see, all those years huddled around Christians, entrenched in evangelical culture, interacting mostly with those who thought like me, those who shared my beliefs, values, and terminology, those who rarely challenged my opinions or forced me to evaluate the nuances of multicultural interchange, left me out of touch with the larger world. Leaving that cloister was a shock at first. Yet eventually, working alongside those of, sometimes, radically different religious and philosophical persuasion, was revelatory. And much needed. All those Scriptures about being Christ’s witnesses, the salt of earth, the light of the world, being wise in how we act to outsiders and making the most of every opportunity, always being ready to give an answer to those who ask us about the hope we have, and going into the world and making disciples of all nations, seemed to come to life.
In a way, the Church had insulated me against the very thing Christ had called me to do!
So when I joined the Christian fiction community, I was rather shocked to see the same insular calcification I’d witnessed in church.
- Christians,
- writing for Christians,
- agented by Christians,
- published by Christians,
- reviewed by Christians,
- sold in Christian book stores,
- given Christian awards…
- and very defensive when it came to their Christian industry.
Yikes! Didn’t these folks realize we were called and commissioned to reach the culture, not isolate ourselves from it? Had they skipped those verses about letting their light shine (which can only be done in the dark)? I mean, why worry about “how we act to outsiders” if we rarely interact with them? Weren’t we just talking to ourselves?
Literary agent Chip MacGregor touched on this in his regular Q&A column recently. He asked Is crossing over from the CBA to the general market possible? and veered this way:
…from an agent’s perspective, many faith-based writers simply don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to writing for non-Christian readers. They aren’t part of the non-faith world, they don’t hang out with non-Christian people, they don’t watch non-religious TV or listen to radio programming that’s antithetical to their beliefs. In essence, they CAN’T speak to that group, because they don’t know the language.
And then Chip goes on to illustrate this using a CBA writer who, apparently, needs to get out a little more.
I was in a meeting a few years ago with a well-known Christian personality who wanted to “write a book for the general market.” She was big news, so we were all excited… until we saw her idea. It was basically an outline drawn from the book of James, with verses to support every point. When I tried to explain to her why that book would NEVER be picked up by the general public, she didn’t understand me. “But it’s TRUTH,” she argued. “It’s GOD’S truth, and people will see that if they would pick it up and read it!” You see, she just didn’t grasp the fact that the majority of readers won’t listen to that argument… The general book culture isn’t interested in books from a strict evangelical viewpoint. Other Christians are, but the general reading public are not. And that’s an issue I face regularly with faith-based authors.
So no, for most religious writers, “crossing over” is a very, very difficult task.
As usual, I appreciate Chip’s candor. His observation that Christian authors’ inability to speak to the “world” is a direct result of them not being enough IN the world, is incredibly important. So in many ways, the CBA is reflective of our insular evangelical culture. But sadly, I’ve learned that this is an observation many Christian authors bristle against.
Christian authors CAN’T speak to general market readers because they don’t know their language.
And the reason is because we’re too busy talking to ourselves.
In the “secular” world, you don’t have the luxury of demanding that everyone watches their language, dresses appropriately, minds their theological Ps and Qs, and follows the Gospel program. No. In the “real world,” the impetus for “adjusting” is on us. We are the ones who need to season our conversation with salt and be wise in how we reach and speak to “outsiders.” However, as Christians, writing to Christians, published by Christians, speaking in Christianese, we never have to worry about that.
In a way, Christian fiction has insulated us against the very thing Christ had called us to do!
Your thoughts?
As always, much food for thought Mike! I think we get comfortable being with those who already share our viewpoints. It’s easier than the possibility of having to bring up our belief in Christ and having others scoff or ridicule us.
Well-said, Mike. As an author, you have to identify your audience. What I’ve never understood is CBA books that include the plan of salvation, since I would say the majority of CBA readers are believers in the first place. I think true crossover books COULD include messages for saved and unsaved, but those kind of books are extremely rare. It’s either written CBA, to a Christian audience, or ABA, where Christian worldviews spilling into your writing aren’t welcomed w/open arms.
Very tough situation for a writer who wants to reach everyone. I’m finally realizing you can’t reach everyone all the time. You have to hone your audience and choose representation accordingly. There is a place for exhortation/edification and building up the body of Christ in literature, as well. Sometimes I think that’s a larger mission than we realize–expanding the vision of the body and how the members can differ vastly from one another.
It really is a catch-22. I think in the end, some authors are more burdened for sharing the Gospel (which really, how much can we do in the ABA anyway? more restrictive now than ever), or for building up their brothers/sisters. For me personally, I love finding a good Christian fiction novel that doesn’t preach to me. Novels like THE TELLING. But I have to hunt those novels down, because they’re often not the ones that receive all the CBA awards.
I completely agree! I’ve deliberately chosen to write for the general market and ignore the so-called Christian market for precisely that reason. Like you, I’m a retired clergyman, but I came late to my vocation, and had a number of other areas of activity before I was ordained. I’ve been appalled at the insularity and blindness to worldly reality of many so-called Christian authors. They seem to believe that being confronted by the Bible will convert people in and of itself. That didn’t work for the martyrs of ancient times, and I doubt it’ll work for us today. We have to do as Jesus did – engage people where they are, as they are, and show them by example more than by our words that there’s another and better way. As St. Francis of Assisi put it, ‘Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.’
(BTW, as writers, wouldn’t it be great to know what Jesus wrote on the ground in John 8:1-11?)
I totally agree.
But I also have to say that most Christians don’t read Christian fiction. The CBA is specifically for Christians who read Christian fiction. It is possible that other books –written by non-Christians– can also bring people closer to God.
The Bible says that in the last days God will pour out his spirit upon ALL flesh. God didn’t say He would only pour out his spirit on Christians. So there are lots of truths from God’s spirit being poured into many stories by authors of different and no faiths. The only difference with the Christian writer is that they want to pour in ALL of the gospel in one book.
I think perhaps if we are happy to show just a bit of the truth in each of our stories — God’s love or a need for a sacrifice or the holiness of God or the horrible confusion in life. Something that is a true seed that will cause people to grow. Paul planted, Apollos watered.
Christian writers want an altar call at the end of their books. They want to present the entire picture, which ends up with folks dong the whole doctrine thing being pushed into someone’s throat. A little seed in a story, for instance, that shows the supernatural nature of the world might open up so much more of a person’s soul to the gospel than doctrine can open a person’s mind.
I’ll add, Mike, that it appears you are pretty entrenched in the evangelical christian culture by writing this. How is it that catholic and episcopalian and mormon writers — who are often just as avid about sharing their faith– can write for the general public? Consider Anne Rice.
I will also say that by limiting evangelical Christian to AMERICAN evangelical Christian, you are showing a typical American narrowness. There are evangelical Christians in the rest of the world. I suspect there are evangelical Christians in other countries who write in an ambassadorial way that non-Christians can understand. It is a bit like comparing the treatises written by 13th century Christians who lived in Middle Eastern Islamic countries with treatises written by Christians who were firmly entrenched in Medieval Europe and who had no real external non-Christian challenge to their faith. I’ve seen some great Korean films with evangelical Christian concepts that speak both to the Buddhist and Christian in Korean culture.
So I totally agree about the fact that evangelical christian writers sing to the choir and have lost the ambassadorial skillz, I have got to say that assuming that evangelical Christian fiction is only written by evangelical Christians is also a kind of insulation. Many Christians of different denominations want to share their faith.
I like how Eric Wilson says it, “If not one non-Christian picks up any of my books, I feel I’ve failed in my mission.”
Well… Mike… I disagree to at least one point. I think there is a deep need to consider to which market God calls. Not everyone is called to be a preacher, or an evangelist. In other words, God did not call us all to be the same part of the body.
To prove my point look at the tags on the right. The largest words are Christian fiction, Christianity, Critical Thinking, Culture, Publishing, and Theology Writing. This is your focus and your niche, and I believe your calling. Your blog helps other writers and those interested in Christian writing. Not all Christian writers have that kind of focus for their blogs. I really do believe that God has called you to this.
By the same token, there are many Christian writers writing for Christians so that Christians will have wholesome, godly entertainment. I doubt there are any Christians that glean their theology from fiction books or fiction TV shows. True believers use their Bibles for that and reach for a Christian fiction book for entertainment. That really is why authors write fiction, correct? Are there any fiction books that have changed societal morals or values? Perhaps non-fiction ideology has, but we all know there’s not much money in those kinds of books.
I was not called by God to evangelize professionally. I am not drawn to bars or to pool halls to witness to the downtrodden. I evangelize in my daily walk, but I have been called to edify the Body through my writings and my teaching. Jesus did this, but He also nurtured, succored and edified His followers. There is just as much need, I venture to say even more need, to lift up, refresh, and replenish Christians so they can go into the world, but not be of the world.
Here’s the main crux. There are a lot of Christians who seek out the lost, draw them to Christ, and then the churches think the job is done when it actually only beginning. Christian authors providing Christian writings helps Christians to be the peculiar people God created then to be.
Engraved in His palm,
Gina
“By the same token, there are many Christian writers writing for Christians so that Christians will have wholesome, godly entertainment.”
I would love to read more wholesome, godly entertainment. At the same time, I also want to think deeply about things, whether pondering new things or seeing old things in new ways. I want to be challenged, delighted, and taught (generally indirectly) by the things I read and watch. Along with all of that, I’m looking for speculative fiction because I love the challenge of using my imagination to see things another person has entirely made up.
I’m not interested in romance as a genre. I’m not interested in books that don’t take risks, and that prefer to stay within a comfort zone or “safe” boundaries. I am also definitely and completely not interested in finding out that the book I was reading or the movie/TV show I was watching was nothing more than a glorified sermon.
Fiction has always been a way by which I’ve grown as a person, because it allows me to see the world through the eyes of someone else, someone who isn’t like me. This is what I crave, and this is what I look for every time I’m in a bookstore. Unfortunately, I have found through experience that I find these kinds of books far more often in either the library or a bookstore that isn’t specifically Christian.
And, no, I don’t think my standards are too high. George A. Macdonald was a Christian author who wrote books like this all the time.
“I doubt there are any Christians that glean their theology from fiction books or fiction TV shows.”
This is unfortunately not true. The amount of theology about Satan and hell that has been taken completely from Paradise Lost is ridiculous, and yet it permeates churches, masquerading as Biblical truth.
Along with that, many people have taken theology from C.S. Lewis’s fiction (sometimes they check back with the Bible to see if it says the same thing, sometimes they don’t), or Madeleine L’Engle’s or what have you. Fiction is extremely powerful in creating for people an easy way to imagine and grasp important concepts. Why else do you think Jesus taught in parables? They may not have been books, but they’re now part of a book, and we glean our theology from them all the time.
“True believers use their Bibles for that and reach for a Christian fiction book for entertainment.”
I would be wary of following the phrase “true believers” with anything other than “believe in their heart and have confessed with their mouths Jesus as their Lord”. Or the same meaning with different wording. Because, as much as we can tell a lot about a person from the fruit they display in their lives (the fruit of the Spirit, that is, not how many people they’ve converted), only God knows their hearts. After all, we look at the outward appearance.
So, to say that you know exactly how to define true believers is the same as telling God that you can do his job for him. You are deciding right and wrong. While I don’t believe this was your intention, it is what happens whenever we make value statements like this that aren’t coming from “this is what God says is right”.
I say this out of concern, because, when we think we know more than God in an area, we stop ourselves from any growth we might have in relation to it. And that’s the last thing I want to see in a fellow Christian.
“There is just as much need, I venture to say even more need, to lift up, refresh, and replenish Christians so they can go into the world, but not be of the world.”
Yes, yes, and yes. As I’ve said, though, I haven’t found many sources of this in Christian fiction. Ironically, the greatest encouragement and refreshing in my capacity to be in this world but not of it has, after God and the Bible, come mostly from secular sources. I would love for there to be things, people, etc, that do this that are Christian, because building each other up is what we should be doing as the Church, and because there is so much joy in giving and receiving that kind of God-based encouragement. But, again, I have found very little of that from Christian sources. I don’t mind, because I’ve got God living inside of me, but I do want to participate more in that give-and-take that comes from being in a community.
If this all reads as being rather harsh, I promise I don’t mean this to come from anything other than love. I wanted to point out that not everything is as simple as your words were portraying them. I hope this has given you some good food for thought. 🙂
many great books are full of cultural references from either Greek or Roman mythology or biblical references. The majority of our culture, especially if they are public school from k-12 have little classical context and zero Christian context to draw from. It is a big gap. I don’t know how to bridge it.
I totally agree that the bulk of CBA fiction is by and FOR Christians. I have no issue with that. The Christian fiction market really began (as I understand it) as a place where Christians could go to for specifically Christian stories. In other words, it came about to fill a need of (at least a certain demographic of) Christian *readers*. And that is fine! Many Christian readers feel “fed” by reading Christian fiction and Christians need to feed themselves as much as they reach out and feed others. You can’t feed someone else spiritually if you yourself are starving.
The issue I have is that too many “Christian fiction” authors want that label and wear it like a great big badge AND claim to be writing their fiction in an attempt to “reach the unsaved.” It’s like sticking a neon sign above your head that says, “I’m here to drag you to church,” and wondering why the person inside the house won’t open the door when you knock.
But what if you don’t want the label? What if you ARE a Christian but want to write for someone not looking for “Christian fiction”? That’s where the system is all messed up. The secular publishing industry seems to want to send anything and everything with overt Christian content to the CBA to handle.
Anyway, this article reminds me of a quote I read by the lead singer of a great band I recently discovered: “We are very intentionally not trying to save the church; we are trying to save the world. We believe that if we follow the pathway of a typical Christian band and stick to only playing churches and stick to being signed to a Christian label, we’re not going to fulfill the purpose that we are called to fulfill. That’s great for a lot of bands, and I’m really glad that there are bands doing that, but we know why we’re here, and we’re not here for that.” – and – “…the average rock music lover will never have a chance to be impacted by our music if all these Christians keep calling us a christian band online and scaring them away. Posting that we’re playing ‘Holy Tabernacle Christian Fellowship’ on our facebook is a death sentence for us, it alienates us from our potential or realized non-christian fans.”
What band? (You knew I had to ask…)
If I post it here, am I doing exactly what they don’t want me to do? 🙂
I don’t know . . . my own Christian life has been quite the opposite of your own, Mike. I’ve been over-saturated with secularism. I play the oh-so-feared “violent video games,” I live in a town that is like 20% Christian, most of my closest friends are non-practicing or just non-believers — most of them swear like sailors, some smoke weed — etc. God has led me to help convert some of these friends, but still, it’s lonely. I mean, soul-crushingly lonely. Sometimes the best thing I’ve had was a “corny Christian novel” to make me feel less alone. I’m thankful for CBA, even though I don’t read it much anymore.
I don’t see a problem with their being a market for Christian Entertainment. Because it’s serving a demographic. It’s selling for a reason, after all — people want to read it. And their reasons are their own. I can’t judge them for it. I can’t accuse them of isolating themselves. Maybe they’re not much different from me. Maybe they’re just seeking a little bit of shallow comfort before they’re thrust back into this mess of a world we’re supposed to clean.
I am ambivalent about this. As a writer, I have to write what I know. Since I study the Bible and go to church, I write about characters who study the Bible and go to church. That’s the culture I know. My readers will presumably be people like me.
But as a freelancer, I work with writers in both the Christian submarket and the general market. I’ve been encouraged to “embrace my niche” and specialize in the Christian submarket, but I am concerned about being trapped in that bubble, isolated from others. I enjoy working with my general-market clients, one of whom is Muslim. I don’t know whether her books will draw non-Muslim readers any more than mine will draw non-Christian readers. All I know for sure is that we have to tell great stories first, because without that, we won’t have readers of any sort.
I’m glad I went to a secular university. Two thirds of my relatives who attended a Christian university jettisoned their faith.
Oh, wait, one of the jettisoners came back to the faith.
When I started writing (toward the end of my high school era/right after high school), Christian fiction was essentially the limit of my exposure to literature. It was all my mother allowed me to read, with the exception of a few other stories (like the Boxcar Children).
But since my life did not reflect a Christian fiction novel AT ALL (some domestic abuse situations, living below the poverty line, etc), I floundered for a while with where I was supposed to fit in, despite the strong foundation my faith had. Christian fiction was all well and good for edification and faith-building, but what about REAL life situations that extend beyond religious affiliations?
(And I am not by any means saying that Christian fiction doesn’t deal with these issues, but 10-20 years ago, it wasn’t as easy to find on the Christian fiction shelf as it *might* be now.)
Then I started reading ‘secular’ fiction, and I started finding characters whose lives I could relate to.
And I started praying, asking God what I was supposed to do with my writing, because I didn’t want to the stigma of being a “Christian fiction” author. I just wanted to be an author who was a Christian.
And God told me to just write the stories inside me. That He would lead me where they were to go, when the time came, whether it was “Christian fiction” or “secular”.
But He reminded me that first and foremost, I was to be a Christian. And I could be a storyteller after that. Because sometimes Truth has to be hidden like treasure, and the book can be the map to it, without being pushy and obnoxious. As long as I don’t hide my light.
I may write for the non-Christian market, but I can leave no doubts that I am a Christian, despite that. Otherwise, what’s the point?
My take on this hasn’t really changed–with one exception.
1. Everyone should write what she is called to write.
2. One camp isn’t “better” or “right” than the other.
3. Christians can be found working in all walks of life.
The change has come in my recent realisation that there IS a problem in some areas of the Christian fiction camp; it has become not just about serving one area of the market but about a self-righteous sort of cliquishness that allows no other ways of doing things to be considered.
I do NOT claim that every Christian writer and publisher falls into this trap; that clearly isn’t the case. But as long as _some_ Christian writers and publishers have a vaunted idea of themselves as automatically holy because of their job choice this problem will persist.
I am somewhat in your mode of thinking as well. Just a caveat however, my experience with writers in my writers group of genres outside the explicitly Christian camp is little different from those within. The Steampunk guys all hang together as do the couple of women who write Vampire/Political Thriller/Erotica ( you heard me). Cliquishness is not a solely church phenomenon.
Good article, Mike. I’m not into holy huddles either, which is why I decided early on to write crossover novels for YA. After all, isn’t that what God would want of us….to share Christian morals/ideas/theology(though done in a non preachy way) with this lost world? Even when my wife and I owned and ran a Christian bookstore some years ago, we deliberately put things in it that appealed to the secular world as well. In short, we saw our shop as an outreach. God’s Peace. Geoff.
To use a cliche, you hit the nail on the head, Mike. When I decided to write, what to me was Christian fiction, my goal was to reach readers and offer good fiction written from a Christian world point of view. Turns out, it’s not quite that easy.
I feel your pain. I write for games like Dungeons&Dragons. It is very difficult to write faithfully and not come off as a self righteous snob. I do have a reputation for running good adventures. I try to put my Christian views into my writing. I know it is anything close to easy.
Forest Ray…what a mission field! Nice to know there are guys like you out there writing game stuff.
It seems very hard to address this issue without the discussion devolving into an “us” versus “them” mentality, even when the subject is offered with good intentions. At least, that’s been my observation. The self-righteousness brews at the surface on both sides, and quickly spills over. I notice it in my own attitude and in the attitudes of others.
Personally, I have to check myself all the time. For example, my radio is pre-programmed with 3 Christian stations, and several secular stations of varying musical genres. When the Christian station plays the newest arrangement of “How Great is Our God” for the 33rd time, I change the station. If the secular station is playing a smutty song, I change it. If it’s playing the latest Justin Timberlake or Bruno Mars, I sing along because the songs are in my range 🙂 But then, there are some JT songs I will change because I don’t like the lyrics. In a nutshell, that’s how I approach both cultures: the Christian one, which I will never fully understand or relate to, and the secular one, which I understand is only good for me in careful measured doses. Will my writing ever “fit” in either camp? That remains to be seen. I have my doubts, honestly, but nevertheless, I can’t help but write what I am, and I am a cultural hybrid.
I don’t view one side as “better” or “cooler” than the other. I enjoy the best of what each has to offer and I don’t apologize for it. And while I admitted above that the American evangelical culture befuddles me somewhat, I’ll never bash it because, despite all its faults, it still brought me to Jesus.
I hired on at the phosphate mines when I turned 22. It was strange for me to be in an environment where most of the co-workers could give any sailor profanity lessons. Funny thing is, during the first week, another employee looked at me strangely and barely managed to say, “Tim…are you a Christian?” I said yes, and he didn’t treat me any different afterwards, except for watching his speech. In fact, he was much nicer than before.
When we were around others that cursed and didn’t know about me, he automatically defended me, admonishing his longtime friends and fellow workers. They’d hang their heads in shame, stop cursing, and surprisingly, treated me even better than ever.
I worked at the mines for almost 12 years before leaving to other ventures.
The thing is, I came from a Christian upbringing (it’s all I’ve ever known), which included month-long tents rivals during the summers, attending Christian schools (mostly), and hanging out with Christian people. When I hired on at the mines, and heard all that foul language, I didn’t fall apart. It simply went in one ear and out the other…because I remembered something my parents had always told me.
They used to say, “Son, anything you ever hear us say, or see us do, you can say or do.”
I can honestly say that not once in my now 40 years have my parents ever failed at being an example.
However, they’ve also taught me to think outside the box, so to speak. That there are some “good things” in the world not labeled “Christian”, which can be sampled, digested, for education, entertainment, and even inspiration ; it’s just a matter of finding them.
Many can’t relate to what I’m saying, and I understand that. This is just my experience of life thus far; and everyone’s experience is different.
I totally get this. I went to a Christian school from grades 8-12, and heard all the time that, after high school, we should go to a Bible school for at least a year. The fear was that going to a secular university would cause our faith to weaken or for us to lose it entirely. I didn’t take that advice at all and went straight into a secular university, figuring that if all those years at a Christian school (plus being homeschooled for three years before that) and being raised in a fantastic Christian home wasn’t enough to build a strong faith, and wasn’t enough time for me to see how good God is, then I had some major issues.
Ironically, the greatest amount of growth in my faith and my knowledge about God since I was homeschooled has occurred since I started going to a secular university. Jesus said his sheep hear his voice and know that it’s his. When you recognize his voice and are only interested in learning from that, it doesn’t matter what you surround yourself with. You will thrive.
Good article, Mike, and you make very good points.
Jesus commands us to be “salt and light” to the world, but salt is useless if it stays in the salt cellar, and light is of no help unless it goes into dark places.
I’m with you, Thea.
I also attended a secular college, where I challenged the establishment and their PC stuff–didn’t go along with any of it. The neat thing is, every Professor I had seemed eager for me to speak up. In private conversations, they told me that their own opinions could get them in big trouble, and that they appreciated my bluntness when around the other students.
The thing about being a Christian, IMHO is this: God has given us the ability (if we use it) to dive into the mire (should the circumstances dictate) without getting dirty. I’m not advocating that Christians are perfect, but they do have some protection, in degrees, according to the strength of one’s faith, knowledge, willpower, and the grace of God.
Chip’s my agent, and we’ve talked about this. A LOT. Those discussions resulted in my heading into the general market. As Chip said (paraphrased), “John, some writers are supposed to be doing it for the CBA; you’re not one of them.”