A Balanced Christian Diet!

Apologies to those of you who have clicked through to this blog post thinking it will give you nutritional information.  That’s not what this is about.  The balanced diet I refer to is a balanced diet of Christian reading.  Allow me to explain.

Up until going to university the only Christian book I’d ever read was the Bible, the RSV as a matter of fact.  I’d been vaguely aware that there was Christian literature available, but wasn’t all that interested since my faith at that stage was of a very loose and notional variety.

It was after coming to a deeper understanding of the Christian faith and making a personal commitment to Christ that I became aware of all the Christian books I’d been missing out on, partly because I was given ‘The Cross & the Switchblade” as a gift shortly after I made the commitment.  This book had me hooked from the first page and had a profound and lasting influence upon my life and faith.

I soon found the local Christian bookshop and devoured works by Christian authors like David Watson, Michael Green, AW Tozer, Billy Graham and several more whose names escape me.  As the years passed and I married and our daughter came along I continued with the reading I have always loved.  I read authors like Joyce Meyer, RT Kendall, Martyn Lloyd-Jones and many more.  They all had one thing in common: they were all fundamentalist or evangelical Christian authors and their writings confirm and strengthen what I now realise was an evangelical faith that bordered on fundamentalist.  It didn’t matter to me though, at the time, as I was pretty intolerant, saw the world in black and white and thought that anybody who didn’t agree with my faith stance was themselves lacking in faith.  I’m ashamed to admit it, but it is true.

It was following God’s call to become a Methodist Local Preacher that led to a change of mind.  I started on the ‘Faith & Worship Course” and very early on requested a meeting with my Circuit Superintendent.  It seemed to me that the course was far too liberal, questioning things that I didn’t feel needed to be questioned and challenging what I believed were essentials of the Christian faith, such as the inerrancy of scripture.

My very wise Superintendent asked me about what I’d read by way of Christian literature and commentaries over the years and gently suggested that maybe I should read books by authors whose theological viewpoints I might now agree with.  Because I trusted my Superintendent I did as he suggested.

Over the next few years, as I finished my Local Preacher training, candidating for ministry and undergoing pre-ordination training, I read very widely.  I read classics like John Robinson’s “Honest to God”.  I devoured the writings of Karen Armstrong and John Shelby Spong.  I discovered the works of John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg and read essays by other members of the Jesus Seminar.  I have found the works of Borg, and also Brian McLaren particularly helpful.  That is not to say I haven’t continued to enjoy works by evangelical authors too, particularly the works of NT Wright.

I haven’t suddenly become a liberal, or a progressive or post-modern or any other label you might wish to come up with.  I have had my faith challenged, on one occasion almost to the point of destruction; but undertaking and maintaining a balanced diet of Christian reading has, for the most part, been of enormous benefit to me both as a Christian disciple and Methodist Probationer Presbyter.  My understanding of scripture has increased greatly and my preaching enriched as a result and my faith is actually deeper and stronger.

If you only ever read books from one Christian theological stand then, at the start of this New Year,  I urge you to deepen and broaden your reading.  It may challenge you, it may surprise you and it may unnerve you but, ultimately, it will be worth it.