Preachers and Storytellers
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I’m a lay minister in the Church of England. It was on a cold winter weekend in 2001, staying at a medieval monastery in Kent with my fellow Readers in training, that I realised that God had stirred up in me the gift of preaching – the gift of being able to communicate the sacred truths of His timeless Word in a way that is accessible and relevant to people’s everyday lives.
I’m still learning, of course. I love being a lay minister but still feel uncomfortable with the label of preacher even while I find preaching fulfilling. I’ve never forgotten what one of my tutors said: “You can’t preach it if you don’t live it.”
I enjoy crafting sermons, although it can be very demanding, mentally and spiritually. There’s always a spiritual battle involved. The enemy of our souls doesn’t want people to hear effective preaching that will change minds and hearts.
Writing a sermon is totally different from other kinds of writing. I have a solemn duty under God not to teach heresy or to confuse my own bright ideas with the Spirit’s voice. If I submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit, His holy fire will set my wholly inadequate words alight.
All of our life should be for Christ, so He is no less involved in my creative writing than in my sermon-crafting, if I surrender my writing to His rule.
I’m still learning how to do that too. My imagination goes off in all directions, some of them very exotic indeed. Are there subjects which are just plain inappropriate for a Christian writer to tackle? For example, I don’t watch or read horror. I find the horror genre troubling for its obvious links with the occult, the emphasis on graphic violence and the fact that evil usually triumphs in the end. But is it possible for a Christian to write a ghost story with redemptive elements? I’ve already tried that and found it satisfying … the ghost in my tale exacted a much-deserved revenge on the person who had abused him for years. I had no regrets about writing a dark end for a fictional character who absolutely deserved it. This was my world. I had created it.
Fiction isn’t theology. Of course I believe in redemption and the wideness of God's mercy but in literature, not every single bad character has to be redeemed. Stories would be very saccharine otherwise.
Preaching can be a form of storytelling too. Practically all of our Lord’s teaching was highly visual. He was a brilliant and challenging storyteller, plus He was steeped in hundreds of years of His Jewish oral tradition.
May the Spirit bless our storytelling, so we tell stories that God wants the world to hear.
Thank you for this, Philippa. I'm a URC lay preacher, and I see my writing and preaching as two sides of the same story-telling coin. And yes, I recognise the spiritual battle to stop us getting the message out - whether in sermons or fiction.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Dorothy. :)
DeleteThank you, Philippa. My takeaway from this lovely blog is ‘all of our life should be for Christ’. What a great reminder, thank you. ~Emily
ReplyDeleteThanks, Emily - I came across the phrase on the internet somewhere (as you do) and it resonated with me.
DeleteLovely post, Philippa! Your post has touched a question I have pondered about: Should Christian writers write dark fiction, horror and erotic fiction as long as it leads to redemption? It would be lovely to know what others think about this. It has just struck me that preachers, pastors, etc are writers!They write the sermons they preach 52 weeks in a year which can amount to a novella or even a novel! Theology is definitely non fiction.AMEN to your prayer for the Holy Spirit to bless our story writing which He wants the world to hear. Thanks and blessings.
ReplyDeleteThat is a really good question, Sophia. I think that the horror genre should be approached with huge caution, for obvious reasons, bearing Philippians 4: 8 in mind. As for erotic fiction, which a lot of women are into, it can focus as much on emotions and feelings just as much as the sex. But that's a very tricky area for Christians. We shouldn't be watching porn, so to be writing something that tips into porn is really not on, for our witness and our spiritual health. The Song of Songs is sensual and erotic, but it's not explicit - the metaphors are delicate and, yes, pure. I think Christians CAN write about sex, but I don't think we should do so in a graphic and pornographic way. I mean, the world has tons of this stuff ... we should be counter-cultural.
DeleteThanks Philippa, I found this very thought provoking. A timely reminder for Christian writers to remember the spiritual battle. I neither read nor write horror. It sits uncomfortably with me for the reasons you suggest. However, many other genres contain ungodly themes too. Crime writing can contain graphic violence, for example. This is something I'm thinking about in my writing. When I include such things, I try to consider what the purpose is and whether it is necessary. The other issue I'm thinking about is the use of profanities. I know for some Christians this may seem naïve, and would be clear there can be no case made for it, but might characters in dialogue seem unrealistic if portrayed in an overly sanitised way? I'm sure Christian writers will have differing views!
ReplyDeleteThank you David, and yes, indeed the profanities issue ... I wince more at blasphemy than a loud four-letter expletive when someone has caught their thumb in a door. I don't read much crime but I watch a lot of crime drama, and I can mostly cope with very dark material as long as it is handled in a humane and realistic manner, by which I mean that the victims are presented as people we should profoundly care about. I hate 'torture porn'. I can cope with a lot of darkness in a story as long as there is a strong redemptive element. I think that Sally Wainwright's 'Happy Valley' achieved that, but we all have different thresholds and triggers.
DeleteI've seen quite a lot of war films, mainly WW2, and the same principle applies. I expect dark and disturbing scenes because war and genocide are very dark and very disturbing and shouldn't be sanitised. It really depends on how it's presented. The superb WW2 series 'Band of Brothers' is a fantastic example of how to do this well. It's a gruelling watch at times, obviously. I think Christians should be able to portray dark realities without being gratuitous.
I too wince at blasphemy. Something well written and intelligent like "Unforgotten", I think, is perfectly all right. Criminals are often brought to justice and the human condition is examined in a thoughtful way. But there are lots of things I'd never go near - horror being one of them
ReplyDelete'Unforgotten' was a very good series. Cold cases are very sad and haunting. 😐
DeleteI don't go near horror. An obsession with occult darkness is very unhealthy.