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Hi friends,
@that_writer_girl_99 asked me how I include the gospel in my stories without sounding cheesy. I figured I’d share my thoughts publically here so we can all participate in this discussion.First of all, let me point out that this isn’t a dissection of the large topic of theme — this is just one part of that. Theme is about more than just presenting the gospel. What I am about to share is no replacement for Josiah’s Theme Mastery course.
That said, it will hopefully be a good complement to it, since presenting the gospel in fiction isn’t something that is really covered in the course.
I’d like to start by sharing my philosophy on the purpose of Christian fiction first. I used to think that my purpose as a writer should be to write stories that shared the gospel so people could get saved. That’s not to say that every book I wrote had to contain the gospel, but I wanted at least some of them too. Now I think a little differently. The gospel’s the gospel of course and whether it’s presented in conversation, non-fiction, or fiction doesn’t change its power. The problem though is that fiction isn’t really made to explore doctrine and apologetics. It can handle these things, but only in a limited degree under the hands of a skillful writer. Non-fiction and conversation do not have this limitation. Therefore, I’ve concluded that fiction should have a different focus that aligns with its strengths. I now believe the purpose of fiction is not to convert people, but to form a culture in which the gospel can flourish — preparing the soil for the seed, so to speak. Here are some ways this can work.
- A culture familiar with Christian allegories will be able to understand the gospel much easier.
- Readers who have encountered the ideas of a just God, sin nature, meaning in life, Providence, etc are likely to start asking questions which could easily lead them to a study of Christianity.
Hopefully that made sense, because I need to move on at the risk of spending all day typing this out.
Okay, next. One thing you need to watch out for is writing any theme or message that you feel comfortable with. If I go study creation science intensively and get all excited about it and decide to go write a novel with a message of young earth creation, it ain’t gonna turn out good. Why? Is it because that topic is inherently preachy? No, it’s because there’s no story where nothing needs to be explored. If I have all the answers already, I’m not only lying to myself but I’m going to end up with a story that doesn’t have a realistic “journey” from one set of ideas to another. A good story should teach you as you write it. You should come away a better person after writing a novel because it stretched you and your perception of the world. Yes, write about things you believe in, but write with curiosity and humility. Write what you don’t fully understand. Here are two examples:
- I know God is in control of all things and have good reason to believe that, but sometimes it seems like the events in my life are out of control.
- I believe Jesus came to this earth as the God-man, fully two natures. It seems harder to disbelieve that than to believe it, but it’s still hard to understand. How could the God-man cry out, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”
If I write about either of these topics, it will be a journey for me. That is the key. Don’t expect to take your reader on a journey if you aren’t going on a journey yourself.
Okay, that was a little bit broad, covering theme as a whole. Let me drill down a little more into the specifics of sharing the gospel.
Keep in mind, I cover this in my Jumpstart Your Novel course in the lesson on theme. This won’t be quite as thorough, but I’ll give the best overview I can.
Fyi, I’ve only included the gospel in one of my stories — Edwin Brook. I think it’s in Chapter 28 if I remember correctly. This is how I did it:
Start with the gospel in question. Actually, I’m just going to copy a section from my book because I find examples the best way to make a point. This is my protagonist Edwin here:
“Once, I was enamored with the concept of salvation. I believe even now that there is something wrong with humanity, for justice does not always prevail. It made me seek for something that could bring hope. Something that could cure wrong. The tale of the Christ who suffered to appease divine wrath against the world appealed to me, but I had to consider the proofs. If this Christ did indeed rise from the dead as is claimed then everything said about him is true, and if he did not, then not. I do not know whether he did. There is no proof that miracles are impossible, but I did not see it happen with my own eyes. I put more faith in my own observations. A central dogma of God is that he works His dictates on earth so that all is turned to good even from evil. That is why I reject such a faith, because I see destiny as a force that works both good and evil and none can say why. That is why I am a fatalist.”
See what I did there? I shared the gospel, didn’t I? But I shared it from a position of doubt. You don’t have to have this much doubt. You could just as well have a believer of weak faith share the gospel. Some doubt is necessary. That way, you aren’t giving a message, you’re giving a question. Is the gospel true? That is what your story is testing.
How does this test work? Well, set against the gospel we have this idea that the world is a random place of mixing good and evil. If we want to leave our audience with the gospel, we need to show that this idea is wrong. Not say that it is wrong. SHOW that it is wrong.
In my story, how I did this was I had events conspire so that my protagonist was faced with the reality that amazing thing were happening in the world around him and that he more than anyone was to blame for the evil in the world. In the end, he saw how everything fitted together like a picture. In other words, his theory was wrong.
This doesn’t prove the gospel and it doesn’t need to, but for those struggling with the same things my protagonist struggled with, it could hopefully be very powerful.
Okay, here’s another thing. A few words can make all the difference. You can make the exact same statement using different words and one can sound pushy while the other sounds natural consider this example:
Version 1: “Yeah, I know there must be a God. After all, just look at how complex the world is.”
Version 2: “Yeah, you know, I studied hummingbirds once. They’re pretty crazy. I was almost like, ‘Wow, there must be someone up there a whole lot smarter than me.’ But not too much smarter, I hope. You know, that would be freaky. It would, like, throw off the whole balance of power in the universe.”
It’s all about staying natural to your character + staying just a little on the safe side. Revise, revise, revise!Another suggestion would be to make the gospel important to your plot. If it’s there just because, you may want to rethink it. I feel that generally speaking a good conversion scene is one that you can’t possibly remove from the story without ruining it. The gospel should change the whole course of the plot, the shape of the story world, or answer the great question your character has been asking all throughout the book.
Finally, don’t skimp on the power of the gospel and conversion. It’s a crazy thing. It’s hard to understand. It’s life-changing. It’s not the work of men, it’s the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s a miracle. It’s a sacrifice. It’s hard. It’s the most wonderful thing ever. It’s a heavenly conspiracy to establish an underground aristocracy that will end in everlasting glory.
Be in awe of it.
Oh yeah, and one other thing too. Just because you have the gospel in your story doesn’t mean anyone has to be converted, though good conversion scenes are awesome.
Okay, that’s all for now. I need to have lunch.
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…wow.
There’s a lot here, so I’ll analyze it a bit later (when I have time), but thank you so much for this, Daeus! I’ll get back to you soon, and once I plan out the story (and where exactly the gospel elements fall in it) a bit more, I’d love to get your take on different parts and pieces of it, if that’s okay?
Thanks again. @daeus
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
@daeus Awesome! Tagging some more people so they know about this!
@seekjustice @jane-maree @kaya-young @rochellaine @catwing @sam-kowal @aliaI'm a Kapeefer 'TIL WE'RE OLD AND GREY!
www.jennaterese.com@daeus
Thanks for sharing with the rest of us. 🙂 I really like how you said, “A good story should teach you as you write it.”and I was so confused
@Daeus my luck says this gif won’t work, but here you go anyway.
Awesome stuff. You should, like… I don’t know, do a course on it or something. XD
@kate-flournoy Well, maybe someday. (You know, like when gifs start working for you.)
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@daeus Thank you for sharing this!!! I so agree! You put something hard to explain in simple terms. Yeah, I actually started writing Mahinia when I was searching for answers for myself. Its been a learning journey for both me and my character.
By the way, what are all the turtles for?
"In a mask, was he?"
@ariel-ashira To scare away the foxes, of course.
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@daeus Interesting. 😀
"In a mask, was he?"
@daeus Thanks for sharing this. I find the idea of writing a story that teaches you as you write pretty revolutionary in the area of moral story topics. If your story is an exploration not just a statement, you can learn and grow so much more yourself as you create it.
*Giarstanornarak tries to melt chair*
Also, Daeus has 22 turtles in his signature.@daeus This is amazing. Thank you for sharing. @filewriterbase13x I think you might like this. Pretty relevant, right?
www.livforhim.wordpress.com
@daeus, don’t have time to read it right now, got some major writing that needs to be done *glances at self imposed deadline* but I shall defiantly look at it later. thanks for taking the time to write it.
@jenwriter17, thanks for tagging meWIP - Decisions
Kapeefer til we're old and grey@daeus Wow. You just clarified the subject a lot for me.
I thank thee, O wise king of the KeePers, for imparting thy knowledge upon thy humble servants.
😉
A Kapeefer for life!
Compendium of KP Literature: kapeeferliterature.wordpress.com@daeus I don’t have time to read it all now. But I read a good chunk, and it was helpful already.
Thanks.
Turtles scare away foxes? I thought sitting in a box with a pair of socks eating green eggs and ham did that… Or does that only work for people named Sam?IMMA KAPEEFER! Til we're old and gray!
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