An evening with William Paul Young, author of “The Shack”
On Sunday I had the real privilege to spend a few hours with Paul Young (he goes by his middle name), the author of “The Shack.” If you haven’t read it yet, you’ve probably heard about it and the person who pointed you to the book either told you that you’d love it or hate it – there really is no in between with this book. As far as Paul is concerned, this book truly is a “God thing” – he said last night that they’ve spent less than $300 in marketing and are approaching 500,000 units sold! This is unheard of in the publishing industry and is an amazing story of the power of word-of-mouth marketing.
When I heard that Paul was going to be in southern Ontario this past weekend, I emailed him to see if we could arrange for him to come up to Orangeville to spend some time with our staff, elders and spouses. We’ve all been reading his book over the past several months and wanted to spend some time hearing his story and asking some questions.
I met Paul & Earl for dinner and then we headed over to the church. Earl introduced Paul who then spoke for close to an hour and a half just telling his life story – brokenness, pain, redemption, grace, more grace, more pain, more grace. Hearing his story shed some incredible new light on the book and pulled together some of the loose ends that I still had in my mind around the story.
Paul’s story is – in its simplest form – a story of grace. It would cheapen the experience for me to just type out some of what Paul told us but suffice to say that if you ever get the chance to hear Paul speak where he will be telling his life story, make sure you are there.
After a quick break we did some Q&A – some people asked about specific moments in the book, some asked about some “bigger picture” things and Paul also talked about some of the criticisms that have come up since the book was released. It was clear that there were things in the book that have had significant impact in the lives of some people on our leadership team and to hear Paul flesh out his thoughts a little bit more was great.
The night ended with lots of hugs (if you meet Paul, get ready for hugs!) and he took time to talk with everyone who wanted some of his time. It was so evident that he is incredibly appreciative for every moment that he’s got left and wants to give whatever he can as an overflow of the grace that he has been shown.
After a quick nap (Paul said he got back to his hotel at about midnight), he and I were on the road at 4:00 on Monday morning to head down to the airport for his flight home. Although it was ridiculously early we still had a great conversation on the way down to Toronto and one more good hug before he took off to catch his flight.
FYI – Paul may have let the cat out of the bag a little bit last night but he said he’ll be speaking at the Catalyst Conference later this year in Atlanta. Pretty amazing for a guy who’s first book came out 11 months ago!
Hi, Chris. I just want to say that I think part of the problem Driscoll has with this book is that so many supposedly educated people have latched onto it as though it is theologically sound. It appears to me that the author never intended such – he was writing a kids’ book. In using imagery that children could understand and appreciate, he dealt with the trinity in a way that simply doesn’t match up with most conservative beliefs. That doesn’t make the book bad, just easy to misapply. It really should be read for what it IS, not as a theological text, which some appear to be reading it as.
Thanks a bunch for dropping by my blog – I love getting comments, and they’re awful rare at this point. I’m really working to make my writing more focused, topical, and interesting, rather than just burbling about what I did last week…
If you are interested in a link swap on the old blogrolls, I would be glad to add you to mine. You’ve got my buddy Fred McKinnon on yours already :)
I had no interest in reading The Shack until I saw Mr. Young at Catalyst. I liked him and so I bought the book.
I wanted to like the book, and indeed I did like moments in the book, but over all I just couldn’t connect or identify with the characters.
With regards to the book not being theologically sound, that’s silly. One of my favorite books of all time, The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis, is also not theologically sound and it is a portrayal of Christianity.
That doesn’t disqualify it as a good book. Nor does it disqualify it as a tool with which God has spoken to me.
Personally, I read all “Christian books” with an attitude of skepticism, especially the ones that outright claim to be “theologically sound”. Those are the ones that cause me to keep my guard up the most.
peace|dewde
I haven’t meet Mr. Young nor have I had the opportunity to hear him speak. I have however read “The Shack” a couple of times. Some of these people need to reread the book. If you don’t like, it its pretty well evident you have some prejudice to work out. I have bought 5 copies of the book and passed them on to friends or aquaintances. GOD Bless Mr. Young and I plan to purchase more copies for Christmas gifts.
Thanks,
Alta Lee (TN)