John Watkins speaks to Daniel Strange about his new book, Making Faith Magnetic
On one level the basis of the book, the five magnetic points, seems fairly complex. Who is your target readership?
It’s not meant to be complex but rather a helpful framework to support our understanding and engagement with the world around us. We’re often bewitched, bothered and bewildered by our culture, so the magnetic points give us a set of biblical lenses through which to make sense of our world. My target readership is disciples of Jesus who want to ‘keep themselves from idols’ (1 Jn. 5:21) and ‘give a reason for the hope they have’ (1 Pet. 3:15) – I hope that’s all Christians!
How far are the longings of our hearts conscious or sub-conscious?
Fallen human beings are messy! The Bible says we know God and don’t know Him at the same time. We are running to Him and away from Him at the same time. We are idolaters and deceive ourselves, but idols are fashioned out of good things in creation so at the basis of our idolatrous worship of other things and people is also a suppressed truth. We are all worshippers. Sometimes this is more conscious in our lives, sometime more unconscious and seen only in the fruit of our lives, the specific decisions we make, the patterns and ‘scripts’ we follow. Isaiah says that the one who creates and worships idols doesn’t stop to think (Isa. 44:19). Part of our witness is to get people to stop and think.
In our evangelism should we be always thinking of these ‘magnetic points’ of contact? How do we do that?
The magnetic points I hope are a framework to support how we connect and confront people with the claims of Christ. Using the points gives us traction to link our friends’ lives with our own. Furthermore, I would suggest that we are not to think of our lives as a pie-charts which compartmentalise into segments like ‘evangelism’, ‘work’, ‘church’ etc. Rather, our lives are a flow diagram: we are followers of Jesus, magnetised to Him and by Him, and naturally this should lead to us being witnesses for Him in all our lives.
Do these points of contact work across all cultures or only in the ‘developed’ west?
As long as there are human beings, the points are there in some form. Yes, they come in a variety of configurations, and are often buried, but they are always there. Remember that J. H. Bavinck’s (the originator of the points) original context was as a missionary in Indonesia and so the points were applied in a non-western setting.
In your experience is there one main question/longing people have?
At one level, I think the current cultural narrative does revolve around questions of fulfilment, well-being and happiness, if people stop and think about these things at all (see above). However, beneath this I think there are the ‘magnetic points’ I talk about in the book: a way to connect, a way to live, a way out, a way to control and a way beyond. These are responded to in so many different ways, but our lives are attempts to answer them.
People increasingly regard our faith as somewhere on a spectrum from irrelevant to evil. How do we get a hearing to tell them of Jesus?
By showing people (in numerous ways) that we all have a worldview, we all have commitments, we are all under authority of some kind in our lives, we are all worshippers. The magnetic points give us the traction we need to say that Jesus is both the subversion and fulfilment of human lives and cultures. He is the fount of living water rather than a cracked cistern who cannot hold water. It’s not easy and can take a lifetime of witness in relationships, but it’s part of what it means to love our neighbour.
What is your prayer for this book?
That Christians in their local congregations will come together and collaborate on how the points can be applied in their own lives and contexts. Let’s engage together and support one another in our discipleship and witness. Let’s think about how we can not only critique culture but build a new culture in our local contexts.
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