Frequently Asked Questions
Or at least questions that have been asked
Follower: How Getting Close to Jesus Brings You to Yourself is a book I wrote that tells the story of Simon Peter as a way to illustrate what it can be like to follow Jesus here and now and discover our true selves. It’s being published by Credo House next year, and I’m currently raising up-front publication costs through a Kickstarter campaign which I’d love for you to be a part of if you’re up for it.
When I created the campaign, just over a month ago, I put two questions in the FAQ page that no one has ever asked me but seemed like ones someone could. And then someone sent me a private message over there and asked me a bunch more that were also really good.
Now that we’ve cleared the $5000 mark on our way to the $8000 goal (yay! thank you, backers!), I’m starting to get more questions, and they pretty much line up with the seven in the FAQ page. But the FAQ page is kind of hard to find, so I’ve been posting them one-a-day as videos on Instagram, and wanted to put them in writing for you here. I hope you’ll find them helpful. Thanks for your interest in the book. We have just under a month to reach our goal.
What inspired this project?
The initial inspiration came when I was learning about stages of faith while in training as a spiritual director. Someone in my cohort challenged the concept as not being "biblical," but I felt like it was quite resonant with my experience of getting to know Jesus, so I decided to try to find a character in the Bible whose story reflected a similar trajectory as various stages models. Simon Peter was a great fit--he even transitions from one name to another as his relationship with Jesus deepens.
By the time I had stumbled upon Peter as a likely test case, I was also just beginning, unexpectedly, to pastor a church, so I crafted what I was finding into a series of sermons that first year. I have used the audio recordings of those sermons as course content for one of the online courses I teach in a second (online) ministry, The Pilgrimage. In 2022 I reworked the sermons, added a few more chapters, and turned the whole thing into a book, in hopes that others beyond my small immediate spheres could benefit from Simon Peter's story told in this way.
How do you envision Follower impacting readers’ lives?
The content for Follower has already been impacting people's lives for a number of years now; I'm just hoping to broaden the base. One way that I think it helps people is by giving them a way (back) into the Bible that might gently challenge and convict but isn't guilt-inducing and scary. As one early reader said, "I was constantly surprised at how light it felt - it didn't weigh me down with its introspection, didn't overwhelm me or make me feel bad about myself or tired. As is no surprise if you know the author, it was uplifting and thought provoking while also keeping me interested in the next word, the next line, the next thought."
My hope is that, as people re-engage the Scriptures (and a particular person/story in Scripture) for themselves, they'll start to find themselves in it in new ways, and reconnect with Jesus more genuinely than they may have before, for their transformation and that of the world around them.
Just small goals, I guess.
Who is the audience for this book?
The audience is anyone who’s interested, of course! But if you fit into one or more of the categories below, the book is especially for you:
Deconstructing Christians who are attempting to hang onto Jesus while jettisoning the trappings that harmed you
Reconstructing Christians seeking a way back “home” without the toxicity
Churched Christians feeling unsettled by the familiar—or by injustices you are discovering in the Church at large or specifically
Lay leaders looking for effective new ways to care for other believers before those believers, too, jump ship (Note: when they do, may it be to swim to shore where Jesus is making breakfast on the beach!)
Pastors and teachers seeking fresh ways into familiar stories
Individuals curious about stages of faith
What role do you see storytelling playing in faith journeys?
[This is my favorite of these questions, by the way!]
I am firmly convinced that, while there may be a need in at least some subcultures to relearn how to read (by which I mean--how to read in an engaged way, critically and insightfully and in "dialogue" with what the author is really trying to say), at our core humans understand story, because we live story constantly. We are story.
And so I am equally convinced that perhaps what we need for change in our day is less spoon-feeding of, or bludgeoning with, takeaways and more invitations to find ourselves--and ultimately Jesus--in the stories of others. Fewer application points and more identification points. Less analysis and more engagement. I believe there's a reason so much more of the Bible is story and poetry than instruction, and that's because story and poetry go deeper--maybe more slowly and less obviously, but with greater staying power--and transform who we are at the center.
Is Follower like your other book, Favored One?
Favored One is a novel and Follower isn’t, but I use similar Bible reading and interpretation tools in each, and both involve storytelling. I think you might also find that, just like in Favored One, Follower tells the story of a very well-known biblical person, and keeps the person’s story quite true to the available biblical information—but it will also surprise you with insights and observations you may not have considered before.
6. Why did you decide to crowdfund this book instead of publishing it in a regular way?
In fact, independent publishing isn’t all that new. A lot of famous authors first published their own books. But what we tend to think of as traditional publishing is still a very important publishing option, which I haven’t written off (so to speak!) for other books. However, given the nature of “markets,” traditional publishing also has some built-in restrictions which make it financially risky for those publishers to print a) people who aren’t already famous and b) people who like to cross genres or otherwise write books that don’t fit a known category. I tend to do this a lot.
Although I had a tentative and conditional offer from one traditional publishing house—with whom I’m interested in possibly working in the future—ultimately I decided that Follower needs to be something that it can’t be if I went the traditional route. I also realized that regardless of how the book got published, in order to recoup either my own costs or the publisher’s advance, I was going to need to do a lot of social media posting. I decided I’d rather have people’s partnership on the front end, which engages real relationships a bit more (that is, after all, one of the main thrusts of the book), instead of trying hard to generate sales at the back end. Thanks for believing and participating in this process with me and with each other!
What if you don’t meet your Kickstarter goal?
If the Kickstarter goal is not met by November 18, I will not receive any of the moneys pledged. (It’s how Kickstarter works.) Since I still need those moneys to help get this book into your hands, I may run another Kickstarter with a lower goal number to at least offset the costs, or I’ll find another way to crowdfund the publication of this unique book. Thanks for your help in reaching the goal as it stands, and avoiding contingency plans!
Next week we’ll start talking about things in addition to Follower again, but please don’t forget our funding deadline. I hope you’ll be part of the story.