How can we be fully ourselves? How can we pray?
Take a few minutes to hear about friendship with Jesus and the difference it makes (my book Transforming Love) and God-encountering, time-tested ways to pray (my book 7 Ways to Pray). Elliott and I chat at the Christian Resources Together gathering in September 2024, where I gave a keynote address and the closing devotional.
I invite you to receive my monthly newsletter, with a prayer exercise, for ways to encounter God.
In the thirteen years that I’ve run the Woman Alive book club, my editor was the lovely Jackie Harris. I’ve loved working with Jackie, who is a quiet giant – one who gets things done and lives out her faith with grace (and who has some exciting new publishing ventures lined up!). But with the change in ownership from CPO to Premier Christian Communications, we’ve moved to a new editor, Tola-Doll Fisher, whom I’m really looking forward to getting to know better. She responded enthusiastically to me interviewing her about reading, as she loves books. How fabulous is that! I look forward to her new book coming out next year as well.
Welcome to the Woman Alive community, Doll! We’re so glad you’re here.
What are you reading just now? I love reading but I put books on hold while I’ve been writing my own this year! I’m being published by SPCK in June 2020 and my editor has just literally just signed it off so I’m about to dive back into the world of reading again. The only thing I read consistently throughout was To bless the space between us by John O’Donohue. A friend bought it for me as a gift and it is absolutely beautiful. There are blessings for every threshold of life and it feels very uplifting.
What’s a favourite book from childhood? Two interesting things characterised my childhood reading: 1) My primary school teacher told Mum that I was “slow” and behind in reading and writing. Her response was to take me out of school and teach me herself! That begun a lifelong love of books and writing. 2) Mum said television was “the enemy of progress” so refused to have one in the house! This meant I ended up reading everything we had at home – no matter the intended age. My favourite is the Almonds and Raisins trilogy by Maisie Mosco. It’s about a family of Jews who fled the pograms in Russia to live in Manchester. The books follow the journey as they settle and grow in the UK. I remember it sitting on the bureau in our hallway for years before I picked it up and I devoured every word!
Ebooks or physical? Both! Although I dropped my kindle behind the radiator in a shared flat a few years ago and never managed to recover it 🙁
Reading in a bath? In bed? On a train? Where else? My favourite place to read is in a comfy chair in a calm room with relaxing music in the background. I used to read on my commute but I often get so engrossed that I get cross when I have to get off! I also like to read in bed but I’m not very good at putting a good book down so my sleep inevitably suffers!
What’s in your to-be-read pile? I’m about to start reading Almonds and Raisins again! I love it and it feels very comforting when I read the familiar story. I’m also about to get back into another favourite book. Front Row by fashion editor Lisa Armstrong is about the friendship between a model, a model booker and a magazine editor. As an ex-model and magazine editor, this always feels hugely relevant to me. A friend and colleague has also recommended How to pray by Pete Greig which I’m looking forward to. I like to make sure I’m reading books by women and men as I find there is often slight difference in how they present.
You can subscribe to Woman Alive here – get a free Woman to Woman prayer journal! If you’d like to read my monthly reviews for the book club, they are here. And join our thriving Facebook book club group! That one is here.
I love interviewing authors for the Woman Alive Book Club. Here’s an interview with American writer Holley Gerth from last year. She says she “would love to have a cup of coffee or tea with you so she could listen to you share your heart and encourage you. She loves words, chocolate, and most of all, Jesus.”
You’re Loved No Matter What: Freeing Your Heart from the Need to Be Perfect came out of connecting with thousands of women and hearing this over and over: “I’m so tired.” I could relate and began to look into why so many women are weary – even when they have a strong faith. What I discovered is that so many of us believe lies that tell us we have to try harder and do more or we won’t be loved. I wanted to share the truth our hearts need to hear so that we can be set free from striving and live in grace.
My grandparents owned a Christian bookstore when I was growing up and I always dreamed of being a writer. God grew that desire within me as a I went on to work for DaySpring [a Christian gift and card company], become a counsellor and life coach and then set out on my own to write books. All along the way, I found myself encouraging women – whether it was one at a time or in front of a crowd of thousands. What makes me happier than anything else is to see a woman take hold of who she really is and how much she’s truly loved.
The authors who have influenced me most are the women of incourage.me, a site I cofounded about six years ago. There are about thirty contributing writers and most have released wonderful books. They share in ways that are brave and real – which helps me do the same. Two of my other favorite books are If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat by John Ortberg and In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson. Both have given me courage and helped me move forward on God’s path for my life.
My husband and I have been married over fifteen years and we try to read Scripture and pray together each morning. I’m not good at maintaining things or keeping a routine. For example, I’ve killed every plant I’ve ever owned! So it helps a lot to have someone keep me accountable. It also helps Mark and I stay on the same page as we do life, ministry and business together.
I’ve tackled the new challenge of creating a workbook to go with my first book, You’re Already Amazing: Embracing Who You Are, Becoming All You’re Created to Be. I’m really excited about having material for groups to use. It is interactive and creative so it’s fun to think about all the things that can be included in it.
I love hearing from readers. One woman told me she had walked away from God because she felt like he could never forgive her because of mistakes she’s made. She didn’t want to go to church or talk to “religious” people. But someone gave her my book and it helped her see that God really does love and accept her. She told me she had reconnected with God and wanted to grow in her relationship with him.
Today Tanya Marlow, a wonderful person – writer, thinker, feeler, Bible-delver, and one who suffers from a severe form of ME – has interviewed me on her blog, “Thorns and Gold.” She asked probing questions that I answered while partly wondering if I was sharing too much! I so appreciate her on many levels. She’s also hosting a giveaway of Finding Myself in Britain via her blog – instructions at the end.
Hi, Amy – tell us a bit about you!
Hi! Well, I’m married to an English vicar and we live in a lovely but draughty vicarage with our two wonderful kids. I’m a writer and speaker with a long history in editing; I love writing devotional thoughts and running the Woman Alive book club.
I grew up in Minnesota – the land of 10,000 lakes and hearty people who survive the shockingly cold winters. I’ve now lived longer outside than inside of Minnesota, however, for when I was at university I went to Washington, DC, for a studies program – and ended up staying 10 years! When there, working with a wonderful Englishman-in-America, Os Guinness, I met a visiting Englishman who was studying abroad as he trained to be a vicar. We fell in love and married and I moved to the UK nearly two decades ago – a mind-boggling amount of time.
Something you might be surprised to know is that I’m a (lapsed) aerobics teacher. I love going to the gym and enjoying group exercise with my friends.
Read the rest of the interview at Tanya’s blog here.
An interview with Os Guinness, whom I had the privilege of working for in Washington, DC, for ten formative years of my life (starting when I was an intern with the Williamsburg Charter Foundation, many a year ago). Os is simply brilliant, but he’s also funny, caring, and deeply passionate about the transformation of people and society. He’s one of the greats.
Os Guinness is a writer, speaker and social critic who is the author or editor of over 30 books. The great-great-great grandson of Arthur Guinness, the Dublin brewer, he’s an Englishman who has lived in America for over 30 years.
In the last 50 years many countries in the West have grown more secular in public life and more diverse in the private world. Thus fewer people understand “Christian language,” and fewer are interested in what we are saying. So to reach them, we have to be persuasive, which is why I’ve written Fool’s Talk. Jesus never talked to two people in the same way, and nor must we. St Paul, for example, spoke differently when he addressed his fellow-Jews in the synagogue and when he spoke to Athenian philosophers at the Areopagus.
Jesus spoke straightforwardly to his disciples because they were open to him – though they often misunderstood him. But when he spoke to the crowds, and especially to the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, they were closed to him and his teaching. So he switched to stories and parables that were far more subversive and challenged them to see his point – despite themselves! One of the deepest and most persuasive ways we can talk is to ask questions, and that is something we can all do – ask questions that make people think about what they believe and the problems in their faith if they thought more. Then they become more open to the gospel.
The sociologist Peter Berger describes a “signal of transcendence” as an experience that is so deep and challenging that it punctures what people used to believe and points to something that needs to be true if their experience and longings will be satisfied. Perhaps the example most Christians know best is how CS Lewis, as an atheist, was “surprised by joy.” In setting out to follow the signal of joy, he abandoned his atheism as unsatisfactory and eventually came to know the Lord.
CS Lewis was brilliant in both reasoned argument and in highly imaginative story telling. Like many others, I came to faith through reading Mere Christianity, and I have always loved his imaginative works such as The Screwtape Letters and The Chronicles of Narnia. Some of his collected essays are remarkable too.
The Call is my bestselling book, and the one that triggers the greatest response. People appreciate how it encourages Christians to see their place in the whole of life as God’s calling. Being a mother, a teacher, a lawyer or a taxi driver can be just as much part of God’s calling as being a minister or missionary.
Being born in the brutal realities of World War II in China and witnessing the beginning of the Communist era, my story is quite dramatic up to the age of ten, and then not that different from many other Western lives after that – though my time at L’Abri with Francis and Edith Schaeffer in the late Sixties was dramatic! If I write a memoir, it will not be because I think my life is that important, but because we need to recover the sense of “handing on well” today. The craziness of modern views of generations makes a healthy view of tradition harder than ever, and we Christians should be passionate about both tradition and renewal.
The sub-title to The Wisdom House is “Because you don’t always have to learn the hard way.” In the book I imagine my five grandchildren coming into my study one at a time, not as the little ones they are now, but as the adults they will become. We get the chance to talk as we sit in the two armchairs in front of the fire.
Perhaps these conversations take place when somebody had broken their hearts, or when they are going for their first job or buying their first home. Maybe they happen after they have been betrayed by friends or when they need help to piece back together a dream somebody had trodden over. Our talks are based on some lessons I have learned personally, but most are lessons I have heard from those far wiser than me.
It is true that we live in a consumer society, but I believe that in our hearts we crave something more than quick-fix answers. What we really long for is wisdom that will help us not just to get through life, but to thrive in it. Wisdom is not based on IQ, wealth or apparent success. In fact, unusually in modern society, it is something that is truly available to everyone. All you need is some time to listen and a little humility.
Out of the fifteen books I have written, The Wisdom House is the only book that I really enjoyed writing. I am so grateful for the privilege of writing, but I do find it hard work. With speaking there is still a lot of preparation involved, but it comes more easily to me. So if I had to choose between writing and speaking, it would be speaking.
The original idea for the Sixty Minute… books was that they could be read in an hour. But I think the essence of that series is that the books are not only short, but down-to-earth, and although they contain elements of my faith they are accessible to everyone – those of all faiths or none. People sometimes say to me, “When I read your books you don’t teach me one thing I didn’t know already, but you turn lights on for me.” I know that critique wouldn’t be enough for Stephen Hawking, but I’ll settle for it.
Many so-called ‘prodigals’ had never turned their back on God but on something else. This is what I found through talking to people at the Bringing Home The Prodigals events across the world. I began to think about what that something might be, and it led to my writing Getting Your Kids Through Church Without Them Ending Up Hating God. I believe in the local church – I attend my local church almost every Sunday – but I think there are lessons we can learn that will make it harder for our young people to walk away and, if they do, make it easier to return. The response to the book has been very positive and we also have a course for use in church homegroups.
I can’t wait to write the next book in The Wisdom House series – in fact, I have already started!
An interview that originally appeared in the Woman Alive book club, where I talk all things books with prominent Christian authors.
Soul Keeping was very moving to me to write, particularly because it gave me a chance to reflect on Dallas Willard during the final days of his life. I hope that through reading it, people will realize the wonder and mystery of what it means to have a soul and learn how to care for it well.
The book of Dallas Willard that impacted me most was The Spirit of the Disciplines, and I’d recommend that for folks to read. But my quick warning would always be that Dallas’ material is very dense. And, at least for me, I often have to read it through several times to be able to absorb it—kind of like osmosis.
There’s no particular story behind the long titles of my books [If You Want to Walk on Water You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat or Everyone’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them] other than I have a mind that tends to think in thoughts that can only be expressed in long titles. And, there’s something that I like about combining the thoughtfulness and substance of deep thinkers like Dallas Willard with a spirit of fun, joy and delight that can make it accessible to people. So I try to aim for that.
Another Christian classic that is great for our soul in a hurried world is Richard Foster’s book, The Celebration of Discipline. If someone’s looking for a work that’s shorter and more easily applied, The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence remains an absolute classic.
Nancy and I read together separately. We actually tried reading together back when we were dating and first married, but both of us are teachers and we would tend to start teaching each other, and that’s not great for a marriage. But we do love to read the same books and then talk about them on our own, and we do that for spiritual books from folks like Henri Nouwen to fiction and biography, and Nancy’s favorite adventure sagas.
I am always reading a book about Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is one of my favorite characters. I like history and biography immensely. I also loved the most recent third volume about the life of Winston Churchill, which was begun by William Manchester before he died. I also read The Fault in our Stars, and even though I’m not a young teen, I thought it was quite well written.
John Ortberg is the senior pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California. He has written books on spiritual formation including The Life You’ve Always Wanted, Know Doubt, The Me I Want to Be and Who Is This Man?. He is married to Nancy, and they have three grown children.
Here’s an interview that ran in Woman Alive previously from when I chatted with two great friends – Deborah Duncan and Cathy LeFeuvre, who bonded during the morning commute. Their friendship inspired a fictionalized account of two friends who become a life line to each other. Life Lines is published by Authentic Media.
During our journeys to work together, we talked about not only the day-to-day stuff, but we also began to chat about things that had happened in the past. We laughed – a lot – about some of the ridiculous things that had occurred in both our lives. We started a private blog where we shared more stories and became more creative, making up stories as well. Suddenly, we found we had 20,000 words, some fantastically funny anecdotes which also had some kernels of depth, and we had created these two fictional friends – Louise and Esther. We had the foundation for our book.
Although many of the stories were birthed in our imagination, some are based on reality. Believe it or not, the very first story in the book – where Esther writes to Louise about the previous evening’s most hideous ‘Christian Singles Night’ is based on a real evening, with lots of embellishments, of course.
And there is another story in the book where Louise attends a church event (not at her church) and attempts to get one of the leaders to talk to a woman who obviously wants to know more about the Gospel. When she approaches a male leader to ask if he will speak to the woman, he looks at Louise and says ‘You’re a woman…!’ Implying that he, as a man, is ill equipped to talk to a female about Jesus. That, unfortunately and bizarrely, is also based on a true incident.
A key to a really great friendship is shared experiences and often shared values. Even if you’re separated by geography, it’s important to keep in touch. That’s why sometimes, even if we haven’t seen our great friends for a while, we just pick up where we left off.
Women talk. That’s a reality! We talk to each other about lots of things that are happening to us, and we share confidences and troubles, fears and joys. Sometimes there are things that women can only share with other women, without being misconstrued or misunderstood. It doesn’t mean we don’t share with the men in our lives, but most women will recognize the importance of female friends. Louise and Esther are two such friends!
Admittedly some of their confidences are rather over-egged and exaggerated for literary effect, but at the heart of Life Lines is the truth that when one has a friend or friends with whom you can truly share, some of the bad stuff we encounter in life doesn’t appear so awful after all.
Being a good friend involves accountability. Sometimes it’s only your closest friends who can tell you just how irrationally you may be behaving. In Life Lines, when Louise begins to behave irrationally over the matter of some fair trade chocolate eggs, it’s up to Esther to tell her just how mad her behaviour is, but in such a way that Lou doesn’t fly off the handle but sees just how hilariously weird she has become.
They say a problem shared is a problem halved – well that’s true. In the case of Esther and Louise (and Debbie and Cathy) a problem laughed over also helps a great deal. Sharing things that happen to us helps to put situations into perspective; it helps us to see the big picture outside of the small hurts and gossip that unfortunately pervades even in church. And when wonderful things happen, it’s fantastic to have someone with whom to celebrate.
True friendship is not a competition. Some friends may feel possessive, which can be difficult. At times, friendship is one sided, with one friend having to do all the hard work. If we’re losing friends, then maybe we’re the one who always expects our friends to contact us.
Being a friend means being sensitive to the needs of others. In Life Lines there’s the story of Sue who asks Esther if she can borrow her unused wedding dress – unused because Esther has just been dumped! That (fictional) story, and others, reveals how best not to do friendship, and how not to become so obsessed with your own world that you forget that others around you are hurting. That blinkered type of friendship, when it is all about you and not the other person, is probably not a friendship at all.
Social media can help us be a better friend – by staying in touch. It’s very easy to send messages and have conversations that way. But remember, no amount of social media status updates can replace face to face meetings. Or phone calls where we hear each other’s voices.
Even though one of us is married and the other is not, we have so much in common. It’s great to have a friend whom we can unburden to at times, and encouragement is a very important part of our friendship. Laughter is often the way we handle this – seeing the funny side of a situation sometimes is a great help. We also pray together, which is fantastic encouragement. For we’re both Christian women seeking to find God’s will for our lives.
Of course, being married and being a mother brings a whole host of responsibilities and being a single also has its challenges but ultimately we believe God has a purpose for each one of us outside of our personal relationships or status. God does not define us by our marital status, even if church and the world sometimes does. We try to encourage each other to be the person God wants us to be … for ourselves.
Ultimately, true friends will remain close – no matter what is happening in their lives!
Phew – my too-busy season is over, and I can be more attentive here on the blog. Here’s an interview with the amazing Jeff Lucas – the prolific author and not-to-be missed speaker and broadcaster. He spends his time with one toe on each side of the Atlantic (his official title is teaching pastor at Timberline Church in Fort Collins, Colorado).
Through spoken or written word, I want to creatively communicate truth with vulnerability – I am weary of the image that some Christian leaders present which is about strength and arrival; I am about weakness and journey. I want to liberate, agitate, and bring relief. I love to hear people say, ‘It’s not just me – I thought that I was alone in my thoughts and fears.’
I love Jesus, but am endlessly frustrated with the religious clutter that surrounds him. I want to help remove the rubbish, not as someone who loves to knock things down, but rather to build up. I love the church, even though she drives me crazy at times. Ultimately, I want people to discover what it means to be healthily human, rather than becoming more spiritual – and of course healthy humanity is only ultimately possible as people discover a life of love and friendship with God in Christ.
Being a pastor who lives on both sides of the Atlantic means that I am able to write about the joys and challenges of church life while actually experiencing it, which was not the case when I was traveling full time. And interfacing between the church cultures in American and Britain gives me such a valuable opportunity to see the strengths and weaknesses of both Christian communities.
When Adrian Plass and I work together, most of the time it’s both serious and funny. We write back and forth across the Atlantic, occasionally meet to collaborate on the manuscript, and then tour with the Seriously Funny evening. Kay and I love being with Adrian and Bridget. Our conversations together are fuel to my soul, filled with hope, angst, questions, half-answers, and laugh-out-loud stupidity.
The Wisdom of Pelicans by Dr. Donald McCullough is my book of the decade. McCullough was a distinguished church leader and university academic who had two affairs and lost everything – his wife, his job, his car. He almost lost his faith. He spent a lot of time walking the beach, and watched the ungainly flights of pelicans each day, and wrote this book, describing life lessons that he discovered as he watched and walked. It is a beautiful, gut-wrenchingly honest book. I have been in personal contact with Donald and have sought to encourage and thank him. We have exchanged very warm emails, and he told me that my encouragement came at a very timely moment for him.
My grandson Stanley likes it when I make up my own stories, which can be completely pointless and follow no logical plotline whatsoever. He laughs even when I’m not funny. I’m grateful.
Lovely to feature this interview with Julie Klassen (originally published in Woman Alive), who just won the fiction award for the Minnesota Book Awards with her book The Secret of Pembrooke Park. This makes me happy on many levels, not least because Minnesota is where I grew up but also because I was a reader of her book when it was in manuscript form, reading it through quirky Anglican eyes!
When I look back, I see how God graciously led me to become an editor. I learned so much from working with other editors and talented authors – things that taught me not only about writing but about how to craft a full-length novel. I am thankful for my years with Bethany House Publishers. But, I am also thankful that I could hang up my editorial “red pen” and focus on my writing. Two benefits I’ve especially enjoyed are having time to read for pleasure and developing friendships with more authors.
I think many of us, regardless of our place of birth, are swept away by the romance and chivalry of Jane Austen’s time. In fact, when I visited the Netherlands last year, I met with members of the Jane Austen society there. And last autumn I attended the annual meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America with attendees from several countries. Miss Austen (and Mr Darcy) fans are everywhere!
I have loved all-things-British ever since I read The Secret Garden and Jane Eyre as a young girl. But like so many women, it was seeing Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice that inspired me to read all of Jane Austen’s novels and cemented my love of the Regency time period. I find it a romantic time – with gentlemen in tail coats and tall boots and women in those lovely gowns, the courtly balls, and the chivalry where the mere touch of gloved hands during a country dance sparked romance. Sigh. It was also a time when church attendance and family prayers were commonplace. (After all, Jane Austen herself was a clergyman’s daughter.) Whatever the reasons, I am thankful so many readers are drawn to the era as I am.
When I am up for an award, I am always anxious when awaiting the big moment. Of course it’s a thrill to win, but that emotion is rapidly overshadowed by amazement and gratitude. I believe God has given me this gift, and I’m so thankful to be able to use it for His glory.
When I first visited the UK, while other tourists were visiting the London Eye or Buckingham Palace, I dragged my long-suffering husband to places like the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries and the Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. After all, I was researching my second novel, The Apothecary’s Daughter. On our second trip, when researching The Maid of Fairbourne Hall, we focused on visiting houses with their servants’ areas intact, such as in Bath or Newport. We also visited Devonshire and Cornwall where I pinpointed the setting for The Tutor’s Daughter.
I finally have “a room of her own,” as author Virginia Woolf described as necessary for fiction writers. For years, I simply wrote wherever I could find a quiet place – the dining room, while the kids watched TV in the living room, or tucked upstairs in our bedroom. Indeed, I wrote my first several novels without my own room, so I don’t know that I agree with Virginia Woolf, but it sure is nice having my own space.
Julie Klassen is an award-winning author of historical fiction. She enjoys travel, research, BBC period dramas, long hikes, short naps and coffee with friends. She lives with her family in Minnesota.