I am currently reading ‘Sweet’ a novel I discovered on Nathan’s blog download don t look now bedtime stories dvd download
and finding it very interesting – partly because it is written about a scene I have been so intricately involved with for the last 34 years, but partly because it addresses the ongoing issues of co-dependency that plague both church leader and church member. By that I mean, the people needing a pastor and pastor needing to be needed.
Nathan summarises the story well with these words:
Tracy Ryan’s third novel, Sweet, is the story of three women caught in the thrall of a manipulative pastor of a conservative Baptist church in the outer-suburbs of Perth circa 1986. The Reverend William King is a complex figure, genuinely caring but always controlling.
Cody is seventeen and has just lost her brother in a car accident. In her grief the church offers her a degree of purpose and meaning. Yet she seems to fall into Christianity, rather than converting through conviction. Soon, William is pressuring her to give her testimony in front of the church, the story of her conversion from the darkness of ‘Romanism’. But this story he is trying to impose on her doesn’t ring true; her nominally Roman Catholic background is neutral in her memory.
Kylie is a young mother whose husband Mick is frequently away shearing. Her Baptist neighbours take an interest in her and babysit her children; soon she finds herself sucked into the church. Mick is unimpressed by her heavy involvement and she is torn between the church and him.
Carol has been a Christian much longer and her story is about the disintegration of her externally perfect Baptist family. As problems with her daughter and husband arise, she begins to realise that life isn’t as simple as her faith has taught her.
If you have been part of WA Baptist churches over the last 20 years then the scenery will be very familiar and like me you might even find yourself wondering who the ‘Reverend William King’ is…There is too much insider knowledge for this not to be based somewhat on personal experience.
So far it hasn’t been an overly negative portrayal of either the Baptists of the time or of William King (although there are definite issues with both).
Sometimes our history can look so embarrassing in hindsight, while in the moment it can actually appear to make perfect sense. The ‘separateness’ of the cultures is probably what strikes me most strongly at the moment, possibly because this has been my own significant shift. It was the era when we stayed away from sinners except for purposes of overt evangelism.
If you are easily offended by a few pretty graphic sex scenes then its not the book for you, otherwise you will probably find it a good read.
It is well written, easy to follow and yet at the same time has some substance for those of us in churches and ministry. I think it would be an interesting book for those in the ‘pastoral care’ field to use in their training courses as it would shine the spotlight on the complications of being both pastor and church member.
I am just over half way thru and looking forward to the rest!download human traffic divx
Hamo, was that separateness really noticeable in the 80s? I was only a kid, and so my memories are less clear. I do know that going into a pub was a definite no-no, but I thought that was just in the conservative country.
Do you think there are Baptist churches still like the one described? One thing I didn’t mention in my review was how far the Baptist world has come – not altogether in the direction I would take it, but definitely away from that particular brand of conservative piety.
So far pretty accurate and for some it would still ring true.
We almost prided ourselves on being separate (for some reason) which is possibly why for me the engagement with the world has become a primary message we need to hear.
She was my creative writing tutor when I was in 1st year at uni back in 2001. Now I really want to read that book!
sounds like a good read
thanx for the heads up
Thanks Hamo for the recommendation.
Gday.
Stumbled acroos your blog while I was googling street ministry/contextualization. Great to find an aussie take. (I’m an aussie ministring in Scotland)
I can’t comment on the book but I can relate a snippet from my own experience of the ‘seperatedness’ of baptist churches Queensland in the 80’s.
I remember having to find a group of friends that didn’t include baptists to go to the movies with. I’d moved over from the uniting church in my late teens because the local baptist youth group had more of my school friends in it, but movie theatres were a no go area, there was a feeling that if something wasn’t put on by the church you didn’t need it anyway, and of course no public displays of affection were permitted.
I remember strange rules like boys and girls, if they were to interact, had to stand side on to each other and at a distance that would allow an adult to walk between them.
A few of my friends had an aversion to any public gatherings (movies/concerts/bookclubs/spectator sports) well into thier 20s.
I don’t know that a church could function like that nowadays. I doubt they’d be able to last past a single generation in a ‘post-denominational’ world. People would just go to the church down the road.
Funny the foibles various churches had (or maybe even still have) — and while those particlar forms of legalism may have been left behind, the predisposition to legalism (a legacy of the Fall) still beats within every chest.
Here at MBC I’ve had many opportunities to challenge the legalism of the past, which the church has been slowly growing out of. So some folks here are ready to dive into new ways of trying to plug the Gospel, and others are just sitting there being super-cautious, wary of some of the ridiculous extremes at the other end of the spectrum they’ve seen or heard about. I can’t really blame them too much for that.
But that means that personally my greatest challenge as a pastor is to be patient with church people who need to grow, in the face of the urgent need of a community/ world that needs to hear the Word of Life…
… because I just got a message this morning, telling me that the mother of one of our congregational fringe-dwellers has died. Did she know Jesus? As far as I can tell, most probably not. Some days I just wanna cry.
On we pray.
Its a long journey Mike….but if those folk can be released…..they can change their world.
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