Ted Dekker Answers The Faithful Fifteen
September 2004
FaithfulReader.com: What kind of testimony to your faith are you demonstrating in this book? If you are writing fiction, do you write fiction that is based upon your faith, or that has a message for the reader? Is your goal to demonstrate your faith in your writing?
Ted Dekker: All of my writing is testimony to my faith in one way or another. That doesn't mean that it's all spiritual; rather it's all a reflection of who I am, and I am a person of faith. As are we all to some degree or another, however misguided or pure hearted.
I can create only because I am created to create. I am the creature seeking to know the Creator who created me to create, unlike all the other species that share the planet. At times I see my Creator in a surprisingly clear view and it inspires me to run after him. I try to write about that experience as best I can. If that's not inspiration, then I'm not sure what is.
Having said that, as a novelist I have the great privilege of recasting issues in what most think of as edgy stories. The trilogy I've just written --- BLACK, RED, and WHITE, all now out --- allows me to cast a group of counter-culture vagabonds known as the Circle against a much larger and more powerful status quo intent on their total destruction. The reader will see our own world in the prevailing culture and live vicariously through a character, Thomas Hunter, who can only defeat this great enemy by adopting a strategy that flies in the face of common reason against all odds.
It is a story of war and danger and alternate realities without a single "Christian" character, but mostly it's the story of every Christian who wants to follow in the passionate attitude of Christ who turned his back on the mediocrity of the status quo.
FR: When did you come to a saving knowledge of Jesus? Where are you today in your walk? Is your faith an important part of what you do?
TD: I found my faith in Christ when I was six. I am now half way through this marathon called life, pressing towards the goal, which is a prize that has beckoned me for many years. When I die and cross that finish line, I will collapse in the arms of a million angels who have relentlessly cheered me along the course. Then I will stare into the eyes of Jesus and any disappointment I may have for not having run faster will vanish to the winds of raw bliss.
FR: Tell us about your church experiences, how you grew up (or maybe didn't grow up) in the church, where you attend now, your involvement in your local assembly, etc.
TD: I grew up as a missionary kid. My religious and spiritual experiences come from when my parents took the gospel to a stone age tribe in New Guinea forty years ago. The culture they landed in was quite different from most. The people coated their skin with black grease and strutted around with piercings that would make anything Rob Zombie might wear look like a prepubescent exploration. We're talking pig's tusks and two-inch bamboo shafts. The prevailing hairstyle for men was long, mud-soaked dreadlocks.
Although my father gave no indication that they should change any of this, the first real convert took it upon himself to make a bold statement that would rock his world. He wanted to look different from the others, so he did something quite radical: He cut his hair off. Imagine the horror of the people! Short hair? How absurd. How rebellious. How revolutionary. How counterculture. Then again, Christ was counterculture. I often wonder what counterculture looks like this culture.
I attend a local church without regard to denomination and am involved when I don't travel.
FR: Tell us about your current church family/fellowship. How does it influence your work?
TD: This is a hard one. I write what I see. If you want to know how my local church influences my work, you'll have to read that work and draw your own conclusions.
FR: Who are your spiritual mentors? Your professional mentors?
TD: Professional Mentors: Philip Yancy, for his insight into humanity. John Piper, Dallas Willard, Thomas Merton for their insight into God. Dean Koontz for his insight into weaving a tale.
Spiritual Mentors: Carl Mederias, Missionary to the Mid East, and Mike Bickle, IHOP.
FR: Discuss your calling/mission --- as a writer, and as a Christian.
TD: I am a missionary. My gift of communicating God's Character through story was born and nurtured in me as I traveled the globe. Now I'm a foreigner peering into this bubble we all love called America, spinning tales that help us reflect on a few truths. These truths may or may not lead a reader to open their mind and heart to the Father, depending on the choices they make.
My father learned a language called Dani to shine the light of truth on 70,000 natives in the jungle. His son learned a "language" called story to shine the same light on as many who might read those stories. The simple fact of the matter is that we are all teachers of some ideology, whether we like it or not. Our children, our siblings, our friends --- they all take something away from our lives.
Frankly I'm quite happy that I have the opportunity to influence through writing. Books, unlike lives, can be edited.
FR: What are your Scripture reading habits?
TD: I read for the novels I write, and for the pleasure of connecting to my Maker. My thirst for the Word seems to go in cycles. When I was in the sixth grade I used to force myself to read a chapter a day, for the pure discipline of it. Now, I read as diligently for a different reason. I'm hooking into the source of all good things, all great pleasures.
FR: What books have most influenced your work?
TD: Other than the Bible? THE DIVINE CONSPIRACY by Dallas Willard for its broad, layered philosophy of Christian life; John Piper's DESIRING GOD for a transforming vision of God; and Stephen King's THE STAND for the fascination it ignited in my mind at age 13.
FR: Do you read secular fiction at all? If so, who are your favorite authors, and why?
TD: I read primarily secular fiction, too many authors to list. Naturally Dean Koontz for his keen insight into humanity and spirituality.
FR: What are your other media habits --- television, movies, music, etc.?
TD: I listen to music all day. Loud music. Start with worship bands, then move to movie scores, then to progressive or alternative rock. Bands? Vineyard worship. Ruth Fazal. Joanne McFadden, Black Hawk Down. Dream Theater. I love Linkin Park's music, but find their lyrics dark, dark, and ultimately dark, dark is boring and too easy. I loved DC Talk, especially Supernatural. There are a ton of progressive bands that you wouldn't know. I'm always on the hunt for emotive music that is lyrically clean. Nothing my kids can't listen to.
I also watch every movie that sounds remotely interesting. Television tends to bore me, although "24" on FOX is a must. The rest is too terribly predictable.
FR: Do you and your family have any special faith-based traditions?
TD: Other than celebrating Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter, no. Not outside the church.
FR: Tell us about your prayer life and habits.
TD: I'm not sure what a prayer life is. I've grown up with the term, but I dislike it rather pointedly. It's one of those patently Christian things that gets separated from our regular lives. Having said this, I will tell you what is most interesting in my communication with God these days. I have become quite fascinated with knowing Him after this life ends. I realize that I have been in a slumber to the real hope of a magical bliss that awaits all of us who will one day attend His wedding feast as the bride. When I pray now, I ask Him things for this life, but I have become a bit preoccupied with the next life.
In fact, I've been so taken by the early church's obsession with this topic, and our own avoidance of it, that I've written a book, due out next July from Thomas Nelson. It's called THE SLUMBER OF CHRISTIANITY.
FR: Describe what you believe the role of writing in religion is.
TD: Writing promotes the traditions found in religion by recording them and discussing them in many long-winded ways. I have no interest in this.
Faith, on the other hand, is worthy of inexhaustible pros. All my work is based on faith in one way or another. It's the readers' job to connect the dots. Every reader will connect them in different ways, depending on where they're coming from. I spin the tale as I see it. Beyond that, it's up to readers and powers that steer their minds and hearts.
FR: Tell us about one or more of your favorite encounters with readers.
TD: The e-mail and message boards at teddekker.com. I love reading readers' reactions to my stories and the visions that my stories have created in their head. Recently we asked the members of The Circle [our fan group] to create images [pictures, drawings, etc.] from the visions in their head that they have gathered from The Circle Trilogy: BLACK, RED, and WHITE. It has been amazing seeing what they have come up with and to see how talented these readers really are.
FR: Would you share a story about someone you've brought to Christ or share how your writing has helped someone?
TD: Here's an e-mail I received recently:
Dear Mr. Dekker;
I just wanted to drop you a note and thank you for your wonderful books. I love fiction and I have read tons of it for many many years now but I have not read a book that impacted me as much as Blessed Child and A Man Called Blessed did. It has stirred things in my heart like I never could have imagined! I have fallen in love with God all over again and in a way that I never even imagined! My Faith level has soared to a much higher level as a result of reading your books and contemplating the power of God to heal and to reveal Himself in a profound way.
There is so much more I could tell you that reading your books has stirred, but I don't want to take up too much of your time. It has also renewed my love for God's word and reading His promises for me and my family. I just want to stand up wherever I am and Shout.... "God is real... He is the same yesterday, today and forever just like the bible says! He is powerful and we underestimate His love for us and I believe that if we increase our Faith level and really believe in our hearts that He is the same Jesus who walked on this earth that we will see more miracles take place and many hearts changed and healed!
Thank you again... I am looking forward to reading this next book you have out!
Sincerely,
Paige
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