Fascinating Authors

Q: What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?

Author: The subject of the local church is something I have struggled with in my own life. The Bible paints such a wonderful, liberating picture of who and what the community of Jesus is to be like. That simple picture has been buried under the debris of centuries, so as to be almost completely lost. I want people to regain the simplicity and wonder of what God always wanted us to become as local churches. And I want the world to see it.

Q: How long did the book take you from start to finish?

Author: The book was a work in progress for many years, because each time the manuscript was ready, someone would ask another question or raise another issue that needed to be addressed. So the time spent actually writing was much shorter than the period during which it was written.

Q: What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?

Author: Probably the greatest challenge was to remove excess emotion from its pages; in particular, anger. I love the church as the gathered people of Jesus, but I am utterly heartsick over what we have allowed the simple Biblical church to become. Perhaps you will still detect anger, or deep sorrow in THE GATHERING. But I hope none of it is unnecessarily accusatory.

Q: What surprised you the most about the book writing process?

Author: The need for revision. As a copywriter, I work with words all the time. But when writing something from my own heart, steeped in my own emotions, the words became personal. And I needed so many revisions to make sure my words and Biblical observations were objectively true, at least as far as I could.

Q: Did you have any favorite experiences when writing your book?

Author: For me, the greatest part of the process was having friends and acquaintances – manuscript guinea pigs – call me in tears because the book had addressed their own private heartache over the church. Or bubbling with excitement because it had dealt with the exact issues they had been wrestling with. This kept me going, even when I wondered if anyone would ever read it.

Q: What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?

Author: Let me take a run up to that question: In the book of Acts in the New Testament, we see the first groups of believers sharing their lives, their possessions, and their food in a wonderful burst of freedom. They were free from the domination of temples and holy places, free from priests and Pharisees, free from the oppressive cycles of Sabbath days. Their freedom was spontaneous and it was infectious. No one organised them into programs and tithing campaigns. They were a family and a community meeting in each other’s homes. I want open people’s minds to the wonder and the possibility of that same explosion of freedom. I want people to have hope that change is possible.

Q: What projects are you currently working on?

Author: Right now, I am getting my book on Revelation ready for publication. I have seen far too much fear and confusion created by misguided reading of what was a first century book of hope and comfort. I want to unravel the fears and confusion. I am also writing series of children’s stories…I believe in the power of stories to open the mind to think, dream and reflect.

Q: Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?

Author: Writing is just one more expression of who I am. Bible teaching at home and abroad also continues to be a major component of my life. Along with that I continue to work as an advertising copywriter, and am involved in business in various places. I believe that every ability we have should be harnessed into the service of the Kingdom of God.

Q: So, have you always wanted to write?

Author: It is more that life has its seasons, and it seems to me that this is now a season to try to put my thoughts into more durable form. I have spent decades teaching in person. Much of what is on my mind to write is simply a tidying up of those things that I have taught throughout the years. I have no delusions of grandeur over this, nor am I a guru. If I can help a few people, then I will pleased.

Q: Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?

Author: Biblical research is important, but observing life is also a major part of my writing. Along with experience in business and western church leadership, my life has taken me to some of the worst famine regions of the world, and into some of the most brutal dictatorships. Good teaching should be sparked by the needs of life in the real world, not just be an abstract course of theory to be covered.

Q: How did you come up with your title?

Author: THE GATHERING is based on the Greek word we translate as “church.” That word is the “ecclesia”, which the New Testament uses to speak of a group of people gathered out of the world to belong to Jesus. Not an institution, or a denomination, but a simple group of people gathered into a new family by Jesus.

Q: What books have influenced you the most?

Author: There are too many to mention! Obviously I like to read books of profound thought and wisdom. Currently I am enjoying works by Walter Brueggemann. I have read numbers of times THE SUBVERSION OF CHRISTIANITY by Jacques Ellul. As have I also read THE CHALLENGE OF JESUS, by NT Wright. But what also impresses me is when men and women use literature to effect change. Authors like Dickens, who attacked the social evils of his day by writing stories, often with humor. I like what Lewis Carroll (Rev Charles Dodgson) did with Alice in Wonderland. Children in his day were locked in a humorless prison of Victorian austerity. Carroll states that he wanted to give them back childhood, laughter and imagination. I love the power of story and good literature. Intentional books do influence me.

Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview!

To learn more about the book or Author, please visit – http://www.littlemanbooks.com/