Why do readers of any genres read?

Ask them and you will typically get these answers:

1. I read to escape my boredom, to be entertained.
2. I read to be distracted.
3. I read to feel, to change my mood, to make me forget my mood.
4. I read because I like to believe life is more than what I see in my waking life. It is where I meet honorable people (characters).

Why do people read Christian fiction?

1. Because they crave the Light. The common, all-too-human ugliness and darkness are what they see in their every day life. They want to believe there is still light (good people) in this world.
2. Because they look for God, consciously or not. It is hard to find something you don’t know how to look for. You cannot find evidence if you don’t know what you are looking for. How do you recognize God? How do you see his footprint? People need to learn how to look for God’s work and figure out where God begins and where they end. The line is blurry for too many people.
3. Because they seek a way to get to God. Too often, God is viewed as this deity perched up on the highest shelf, thus unattainable by humans. Christian fiction is their hope to find a way to get to him. It gives a tangible manifestation of their quest and if they read the right story for them, they will hear God’s whispers and find their way to him.
4. Because they crave hearing from God. Of course, the Bible is God’s Word, but it is still cryptic. They are epic stories that relate very little to our humdrum lives. Christian fiction is a bridge. It can take epic lessons and apply them to our lives and it can take our lives and turn it into an epic story that has God’s name written all over it.

There are only a few ways to write stories that resonates deep within the reader:

• Dig deep, get to the root of most human painful experience (abandonment, abuse, negligence, etc.), and you will create a story to which many readers can relate.
• Look beyond appearances and let God’s works shine through. Show your readers how God works when He says “let there be light”.
• God is not linear in his works, He is universal… He controls the chain of events, the ripple effect, and the consequences. One act, his word, doesn’t go back to Him without doing everything it was meant to do. Nothing – absolutely nothing – gets lost. For lack of better words, his work is holistic, multi-purpose, complete, and perfect.
• God works where and when we can’t. Look for God in the impossibilities, in behaviors unnatural to human nature.

God can use anything – did he not use a donkey to speak to a prophet? – to ‘speak’ to anyone. A story is as good as anything to spark a real desire to know God or hint toward a way to find him.

Related links:

4 Reasons to Read Inspirational Fiction

Purpose for Christian Fiction