Christian Faith Is Mysterious, Messy and Full of Paradoxes, Ken Wytsma Says (Book Interview)
CP: How was the experience different from writing your first book, Pursuing Justice?
Wytsma: Pursuing Justice was motivated by a deep desire to surface, define and explain biblical justice in its many facets. It was coming from a strong passion to teach on a subject central to scripture, but so often neglected or misunderstood.
The Grand Paradox was motivated by similar passions, but the difference is that the subject of pursuing God or faith is so central to our felt experience in life. This current book touches the deep parts of our soul: our doubts, fears, confusions, desires and so much more.
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I have loved the experience of writing both books, but I am particularly excited about how The Grand Paradox has the power to really clarify and encourage people's understanding of God or ability to discern God's will for their lives.
CP: When it comes to living a life of faith in, and obedience to, Christ amid this "grand paradox" — God is mysterious and life is messy — how can being part of a local church help?
Wytsma: An honest conversation about following Christ — about being a disciple of Christ and walking by faith — when approached biblically, necessarily means addressing faith and discipleship in the context of community. It requires understanding what it means to grow in Christ with people in front of us, behind us, serving, supporting, and encouraging us — and with us doing the same in return for them.
To talk about the life of faith in a vacuum — as just between God and me — is equivalent to saying, "Love the Lord your God," and skipping the rest of the commandment, "and love your neighbor as yourself." I love God by loving others, I learn to love God by loving others, and others learn to love others and God through the same activity. The one cannot be divorced from the other.
When we isolate our discipleship from the church, positive resources that God has provided — scriptural teaching, community, worship and prayer, and the meeting of needs through both giving and receiving — are lost.
We also grow through those negative aspects of church that we'd rather not acknowledge. We grow in Christ and grow in love by learning to work with challenging, negative people and stepping into leadership when necessary in order to pour time and wisdom into those less mature in their faith. Tilling the soil is useful toward the harvest, and breaking down a muscle makes it stronger. Much of what can be beautiful through community exists first in the messiness of community.
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, "Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ Jesus in which we may participate."
CP: Readers should not skip the foreword by Pastor Eugene Cho. It's excellent. He wrote that the honesty with which you write about your own faults must mean you're either gutsy or insane. So, which is it?
Wytsma: I hope the answer would simply be … honest.
It's a sad thing that the Christian faith as we know it today is filled with so many answers to felt needs. Felt needs aren't bad. Felt needs aren't wrong. But when all we're doing is responding to felt needs it's hard to get to the conversation that needs to happen even if I don't realize it or know anything about it. In fact, most of the deepest truths in Scripture are words initiated by God, prophets or teachers that often found general audiences struggling to catch up.
Truth should shape what we're talking about, rather than what we happen to be talking about shaping our understanding of truth.
I honestly believe that so much more is possible in our relationship with God than what many are experiencing. This book was born out of a passion that if we returned to scripture and looked afresh at what it means to pursue God we would find life giving, hope filled and joyous words and answers to guide our faith. Whether gutsy or insane, I just hope it hit its mark and will be a blessing to those hungry to know God more.
