It is not preaching if you are sitting down – Part 2

You may not have read the comment to the last post ‘Is it preaching if you are sitting down,’ so I am copying it here because it got me to thinking.

Like many of you, I have read Christian fiction novels and heard the gospel preached through those pages.  I just never thought of it in the way Mara Reid (name used by permission) expresses it.

Read what she has to say.

Let me tell you another place women preach while they sit down.

Christian fiction.

Southern women are in the lead in the Christian fiction market. I suggested to one of them that the reason for this is because, traditionally, Southern churches are very restrictive of their women. She heartily agreed.

I’ve seen more than one preacher in these fiction books stand up and give a rousing sermon, as good as any real ones you might hear. But I’ll guarantee you; the words come from the female author, sitting at her computer writing the story. She didn’t run and get her husband or her preacher to come and type them for her. The words were burning in her own heart and would not leave her alone until she published them. But it is preaching nonetheless. And another creative way for women to get around the stupid rules arrogant men make for them.

Let’s hear it for women bloggers and fiction writers and song writers and poets and every other female finding new and creative ways to get the Word of God out.

PREACH IT LOUD AND STRONG, EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU, MY SISTERS.

What an army of preachers!  They are preaching to the choir, certainly.  Men don’t read these novels.  But most preachers who stand up before a congregation each Sunday are preaching to the choir, too.  Look at how few respond to the invitation to accept Christ. 

If any woman is strengthened in her resolve to follow the Lord, or if some woman accidentally picks up one of these novels and hears the gospel preached through the words of the author, then her preaching has been just as effective as a male pastor.  The author will never know the full impact of her words.

The significance of this is that women may have found another way to ‘do church.’  The early day Christians found that when they were no longer welcome in the synagogues on the Sabbath, they started their own worship on Sunday in homes and other meeting places. 

In more recent times, women, denied by their churches, found another way to ‘do church’ when they went to the mission fields. Who knows, but that we haven’t found yet a new way.

So let’s all say it with Mara – PREACH IT LOUD AND STRONG, EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU, MY SISTERS.

(note:  Please read more of what Mara Reid said about these Christian authors in comments at the end of this page).