The Christian Book Formula

In Searching for God Knows What, Don Miller writes about attending a seminar called Capturing Literature for the Glory of God (because, he remarks, after all, "we can't have literature running around doing anything it wants, now can we?"). At the seminar, he was presented with two "formulas" for a successful nonfiction/Christian book.

Formula #1:
1. Describe a crisis. Not a problem, not a nuisance. It must be a crisis that will result in something terrible if the reader doesn't act now.
2. Describe and vilify a clear enemy that is perpetrating the crisis.
3. Spell out the ramifications of the crisis if it goes unchecked. Paint a picture of a war against "evil forces."
4. Set out a three to four step plan for dealing with the crisis.

Formula #2:
1. Paint a picture of great personal misery. Describe a time where you experienced failure or felt no control over a situation.
2. Talk about where you are now - how you have control of the situation and how wonderful and fulfilling it is to feel control over the "problem."
3. Give the reader a three to four step plan for getting to where you are.

Its sometimes difficult to tell just how serious Miller is when he describes things like this, but the formulas he is spelling out are - for sure - the ones that seem to be selling a lot of books these days. And the thing that, to me, is striking about this is that these are the same basic formulas that (1) drive most of the rhetoric behind radical political ideology (right or left) OR (2) lie at the center of most self-help psychobabble (Dr. Phil, Oprah, etc.).

But should Christianity boil down to making sure we know who we're against (and why, and how we're against them, and how we're going to "get" them).

Similarly, is Christianity really about identifying some simple, universal steps that will make us happy? Miller reflects on the latter question with these words:

The truth is there are a million steps, and we don't even know what the steps are, and worse, at any given moment we may not be willing or even able to take them; and still worse, they are different for you and me and they are always changing. I have come to believe the sooner we find this truth beautiful, the sooner we will fall in love with the God who keeps shaking things up, keeps changing the path, keeps rocking the boat to test our faith in Him, teaching us not to rely on easy answers, bullet points, magic mantras, or genies in lamps, but rather in His guidance, His mercy, and His love.

Perhaps its high time that we all trade in the anger-filled language of hate politics and the me-centered language of self-help for something that more closely resembles an authentic relationship with God...

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