Robin Jones Gunn Answers The Faithful Fifteen
October 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?
Robin Jones Gunn: The characters in SISTERCHICKS IN SOMBREROS and in each of the Sisterchicks novels are at a change point in their lives. They discover they don't have all the answers and are surprised to find that God is much more amazing than they first thought. He has never stopped pursuing them. He has dreams for them that they have not yet explored. Taking the next step in trusting God leads them into more freedom than they experienced in the first half of life. I believe this. I'm experiencing this. The stories parallel my journey.
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?
RJG: Jesus captured me when I was twelve and has never let me go. Today I am deeper in awe of Him than ever. He is everything.
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.
RJG: When Ross and I married 28 years ago he had just finished seminary and took a position as a youth pastor in southern California. He was on staff for the next 22 years at a variety of churches. Some of our experiences were pretty awful. The best part was always the teens and we are still in close contact with many students who are now married with their own kids. When we moved to Portland, Oregon ten years ago we were involved with a large church and connected with many wonderful people. Three years ago our family decided to join Imago Dei, which was a brand new church in Portland that was just starting. WE LOVE OUR CHURCH! It's a unique church that draws in a variety of artists, students and young families who are committed to authentic community. I think my husband and I are the oldest members. Our son, (22 years old) and daughter, (18 years old) are very much at home at Imago Dei. My husband is now in private practice as a counselor. He does lots of pre-marital counseling at Imago Dei.
FR: Tell us about your current church family/fellowship. How does it influence your work?
RJG: I love meeting people at Imago Dei who have no church background or a bad experience with Believers that gave them a wrong impression of Christ. They influence me to write outside my bubble and not slip into using the limiting language of christianese. I also love the way our church enters into demonstrating the Gospel by feeding the homeless or welcoming refugees. It's a place where art is nurtured and integral in worship.
Here's one example. On Good Friday we have a candlelight service at Imago Dei where a variety of artists use their particular medium to interpret the meaning of the last seven words of Christ on the cross. An artist might work on an oil painting in front of the church during the service. A musician might give us a new song. Original drama is presented. Our daughter has done worship dance. Each year I've written and read a piece that reflects on the crucifixion. The piece is not something I would pursue to have published and therefore feels like I'm using my gift to truly edify the Body of Christ rather than receiving payment for doing what God gifted and called me to do. I found this to be an important step as a Believer who is in the business of crafting words. During the remainder of the Good Friday service, all the candles are put out except from two at the front of the church. We are invited to come in a discipline of silence and partake of communion. We leave the church as a body of somber and reflective people. When we gather again on Easter morning, the celebration begins with bagpipes! He is risen indeed! The entire neighborhood knows it!
FR: Who are your spiritual mentors? Your professional mentors?
RJG: My spiritual mentors are several women who are already in heaven. Their biographies have had a powerful impact on me over the years. A few that come to mind are Amy Carmichael, Madame Guyon, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. One of my professional mentors is Anne deGraaf, an amazing friend and incredibly gifted writer. Anne and I met at the Frankfurt Book Fair nine years ago and since then have connected every year to do some life journeying together for a few days. Anne lives in the Netherlands. One year we were interviewed together on television in Canada. We've eaten beignets in New Orleans and sung along with our favorite CD while driving in a red convertible in Florida. This past July we laughed ourselves silly in Paris. One of my favorite mentoring times was four years ago when we met up in Oxford on a brilliant autumn weekend. We went for a long walk along the Thames and tried to describe the amber sunlight coming through the giant leaves. Anne is my "iron sharpening iron" Sisterchick.
One of my other professional mentors is Ethel Herr. When I first started writing fiction in 1986, I lived about an hour away from Ethel. She invited me to join a critique group at her home. For six years, on the first Wednesday of every month, I would put my feet under her kitchen table and she patiently taught me how to craft a story. Ethel selflessly gave her time and wisdom to me. She is an amazing woman.
FR: Discuss your calling/mission --- as a writer, and as a Christian.
RJG: I've thought a lot about the concept in Romans 11:29 where it says, "The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." In another translation it says, "For God's gifts and his call can never be withdrawn." I know this passage relates to God's gift of salvation and His choice to call us to Himself. I've wondered if in a larger scope there is some truth to how this relates to the way God has uniquely gifted and called each of His followers. I'm "wired" by God to tell stories. He gifted me to do this. He called me to communicate His Kingdom through this art. I've asked God what it is that He wants me to say specifically and the theme/mission statement continues to be that I am to express how He is a Relentless Lover. He never gives up on us because we are His first love and He wants us back. This theme waves like a banner over my life and over everything I write.
FR: What are your Scripture reading habits?
RJG: For the past few years our family has been reading through the Bible using a Daily Walk Bible. We have a High School Bible Study group that meets at our home on Tuesday evenings, and each week we discuss the chapters all of us have read that week. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading The Message and seeing familiar passages in a fresh light. I love listening to The Book of God on CD. This is a fictionalized version of the whole Bible prepared by Walter Wangerin.
FR: What books have most influenced your work?
RJG: I think people and real life situations have influenced me far more than books. I enjoy reading biographies and classical poetry. I always want to know the story behind the story. Where is the passion coming from in those who express truth? What life experiences have built their belief system? Those are the stories that influence me the most.
FR: Do you read secular fiction at all? If so, who are your favorite authors, and why?
RJG: I read a variety of fiction and nonfiction. I don't have a current favorite author. This is what I've read in the past month: three books written for the Christian market by authors who requested my endorsement of their book, a collection of Maori legends from a book I was given by a Maori in New Zealand, a work of fiction focused on Australian aborigines, THE WEIGHT OF GLORY by C. S. Lewis, and yesterday I picked up a historical novel about a daughter of a New England whaler. I know. Not much of a pattern there. I read smorgasbord style all the time.
FR: What are your other media habits --- television, movies, music, etc.?
RJG: The music I listen to (especially while writing) is also smorgasbord style. The dial is always set on "shuffle." I spend more money on CDs in one month than I do on coffee or movie rentals. My favorite movies are the ones my daughter and I watch together. Lately it's been a string of old musicals. Yesterday we watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I don't watch much television.
FR: Do you and your family have any special faith-based traditions?
RJG: Christmas Eve we prepare and serve dinner at a homeless shelter in downtown Portland. Easter is a big holiday for us with a gathering of friends after the celebratory church service I mentioned earlier. Thanksgiving is my favorite. We always have a house full and set up two long tables in the living room so we can all eat together. We spend many hours at the table reviewing all that God has done for each of us during the past year.
FR: Tell us about your prayer life and habits.
RJG: I think prayer is conversation with the Father as well as sacred worship. God has made it possible for us to come before Him freely at any time. Yet He is God Almighty and deserves our reverence. So I'm not sure I have a prayer life, since prayer flows in and out of every hour every day of my life. I don't know how to separate prayer from the rest of life. Prayer is the invisible spoken and unspoken threads that knit my heart to God's heart. My days are spent willingly captured in the web woven by those threads.
FR: Describe what you believe the role of writing in religion is.
RJG: The word that comes to mind is "proclaim." Writers and, in my case, a simple storyteller, is given words and insights into the kingdom of God and is then entrusted to express those truths. To proclaim what they see in their imagination…to create with written imagery something God first created in their thoughts.
The first few verses in I John come to mind. Here it is from The Message: "From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in --- we heard it with out own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we're telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us. We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!"
FR: Tell us about one or more of your favorite encounters with readers.
RJG: Great question following the thought from I John! Every time I hear from a reader that she has come to Christ after reading one of these "proclaiming" stories, I'm in awe of how God chose to use a fictional character to draw someone to Himself. The joy of the reader doubles my joy.
FR: Would you share a story about someone you've brought to Christ or share how your writing has helped someone?
RJG: I have a thick file full of letters from young hearts who wrote to tell me that they surrendered to Christ after reading one of my novels. I can't say that I brought them to Christ. I believe God was pursuing them and it pleased Him to use a Christy Miller novel or Glenbrooke novel or Sisterchicks novel to soften the woman's heart and prompt her to come out of hiding and enter into a completed relationship with her Heavenly Father. The letters I've received from Africa and Brazil and the Philippines are the ones that amaze me the most. How did the books get there? I am going to meet these readers in eternity because of what God did through one of these novels! That is incredible!
A 15 year-old girl from Brazil wrote, "I did not understand about God until I read your book, SUMMER PROMISE. We, the adolescents, need a special language and you gave us the words to understand God. As soon as I understood I bowed to give Him my heart." A 30-year-old women from Jamaica wrote, "I am in prison in Panama for international drug trafficking. When I read your book, SECRETS, I saw the only way to be free was to be free inside by making peace with God. You showed me what I needed to do."
When I was a teenager, I was certain that the best way I could serve God would be as a missionary in some remote place like Africa. Or Brazil. Or the Philippines. And look what God did! He didn't send me. He sent my stories. I think God is amazing.
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