We forget that there is something in the wrestling match of life of working out our faith, working out what God is saying, what it means.  Following him every day, surrendering to him every day.  That builds us and causes us to grow so strong in our faith and in our relationship with him that we can actually help transform this world or point others around us to Jesus.  All of these things he’s commissioned us to do become realities because of the lifelong struggle.  But we want it unwrapped now.  And it’s a mindset that we, as a body, have got to move away from.  We’ve got to embrace the mystery, and the conundrums and the veils that come along with following Christ. 

Christianish feels different in tone and format than your first two books—perhaps a little more mellow and less high adrenaline.  Was that intentional or was that a variation that was dictated by the subject matter? 

It was a little bit of both.  It was intentional that I wanted to really steep this book in a flow.  If you’ll look deeply into the themes of each chapter, you’ll see how they parallel to the portions of Christ’s life that I’m talking about.  It goes in order from his birth and his “scandalous history” all the way to when he left this earth after having risen from the grave.  So, it takes his life in order and I wanted to have that sort of linear thinking in it.  But outside of that, I wanted a more accessible book. 

I love the tone of my first two books.  They do tend to be a little more manic, but the downside of that is you have to get all the way through the book to really glean every ounce of what’s in it.  And I wanted to created something a little more segment-able so that people could sit down with a single chapter, get the laugh, get the story, get the aha moment, get the teaching in it and then set it down.  To follow how we transition from Christianish to truly followers of Christ, this was the approach that fit best. 

Looking toward the future, you and your wife just had your fourth child at an “older age in life.”  Could this perhaps provide fodder for your next book?

Well, it just depends.  I do have a book in mind at some point of what it means to come to Christ as a child, as opposed to what we as adults have redefined what it means to come to Christ as a child.  But I’m going a complete different direction with my next book if my publisher will have it. 

Any final thoughts regarding Christianish and why people should give it a try and ditch the ish?

I certainly hope those who’ve read the first two books will realize it’s the same comic sensibilities and intentional message like the first two.  But those who haven’t given my works a try before, I hope that this will be the most accessible place to start.  And hopefully it’ll get you thinking. 

To read the prologue from Christianish, click here.

To read an excerpt from Chapter One, "Scandalous," click here.

 
Mark Steele is the President and Executive Creative of Steelehouse Productions in Tulsa, Okla.  He is also cohost of "Steelehouse Podcast,” along with Steelehouse director and writer Jeffrey Huston, where each week they discuss God in pop culture. 

To listen to the weekly podcast, please visit www.steelehouse.com or click here.  You can also subscribe for free to "Steelehouse Podcast” through iTunes.