A-Team Interview with Common Grounds Author, Glenn Lucke

I'm about halfway through Common Grounds: Conversations About the Things that Matter Most, an excellent book that presents the Christian faith in a manner consistent with the nature of the Bible itself - by means of story. What's unique about this volume is that it can be useful to non-Christians desirous of learning more about the faith as well as to those already following Christ who want to grow deeper in their understanding and practice of biblical Christianity.

Today at The A-Team Blog, Amy posts the first part of an interview with Glenn Lucke, one of the book's authors. Glenn explains why they chose narrative to unpack theological issues:

Ben Young (my co-author) and I discussed how there are multitudes of young-in-their-faith believers who would like to know and live out more of their Christian faith, but they are very busy professionals and lack time and even a map of where to go. We realized that a straightforward, didactic prose book of Christian teachings would probably not motivate lots of young adults to read it.

However, Ben and I knew that young adults were hungry for teachings if the teachings could be presented in an interesting manner. Ben had preached a remarkable series of messages for over a year on the essential teachings of the Christian faith. What began as a gathering intended for a small core of leaders at the church exploded as well over a thousand young adults flocked to learn.

So we knew there was hunger to learn Christian teachings and we suspected that a didactic prose book of teachings would not satiate that hunger. So, I suggested that we use Plato's dialogue genre and tell a story involving young professionals at different stages in their faith journey.

Glenn also gives a few hints about forthcoming books in the series. I hope you'll read the entire interview and, of course, the book.