Thursday, August 17, 2006

Having an Impact

I think it is important to remember as we walk through this life that we have an impact on those around us -- it may be positive or negative. It may be our children, co-workers or people we don't even know. But they watch what we do and hear what we say. Are we always conscious of this fact in our interaction with others? And more to the point, are we conscious of our (potential) impact in what we as authors write?

The primary market for Christian fiction are people similar to ourselves -- Christians. I consider it sort of like preaching to the choir. But how do we get non-Christians to read our work and thereby receive the message conained in our writings? That's where our writings might really have an impact on lives. A friend of mine challenged me recently on this point. He asked what marketing am I doing to get my novel into the hands of non-Christians so that they read the redemptive storyline in The Election? That's a tough question to answer but I think it merits an anaswer.

My answer to his question was that the only effective way I know to market fiction -- whether to Christians or to non-Christians -- is by word-of-mouth. Is there something I'm missing on this point? The same is true with spreading the gospel message. Those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ must be about His work of spreading the good news. If not us, who?

Terry Whalin has an interesting post today about Stephen Baldwin and the impact he is having through his radical faith. Baldwin had a life changing experience with Jesus Christ and he is making a difference in the lives of those with which he comes in contact.

Another interesting post I read today was by Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost. Joe blogged about how he has certainty in his salvation. It is interesting to read the comments (at least 40) as some defend Joe's faith in Jesus Christ and others attack it as irrational. But whether they know it or not those non-believers who are posting comments to Joe's site (and countless other non-believers who read it) are being impacted by Joe's evangelical post.

What are you doing to make an impact in the lives of those around you?

Jerome
Sphere: Related Content

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home