The Shack---A Pastors Response

In my office still to this day is a copy of Frank Peretti’s book “This Present Darkness” which sold in excess of 2.5 million copies worldwide and remained on the Christian Booksellers Associations top best sellers list for over 150 consecutive weeks after its release.   I remember shortly after its release in 1986 that there was an uproar of Christians who were struggling with this book.  The struggle was this:  There were numerous people who were taking the fictitious characters and plots in the book regarding spiritual warfare and trying to apply them to their lives to live by!  I very well remember a Christian call-in show in the Detroit Metropolitan area that was talking about this latest epic novel that had the Christian community in such a buzz!  I remember the response of the host of this show, who incidentally had a degree in Theology, say…..”Brothers and Sisters, this book is not part of the Bible, and you cannot pattern your life after its story,…..IT’S FICTION!  Words well spoken,……… and Wisdom smiled!

Now, here we are 31 years later and that debate has surfaced again!  This past Saturday, I went and seen the movie “The Shack” for myself.  I read the book after my wife read it and asked me to read it as well.  I actually read the book in 2 days, because it was that well written!  Following is my response to “The Shack” from a Pastors perspective.

The movie is a little over 2-hours long, but honestly it doesn’t seem that long.  It doesn’t because it is that well produced and acted.  I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and plan on going back to see it again!  Here’s why in the midst of all the controversy I enjoyed it so much and my response to the criticism! 

First, I enjoyed the movie because I enjoy good fiction!  I am a fan of McDonald, Lewis, and Tolkien and the fiction they wrote.  When I was young, I was introduced to J.R.R. Tolkien and from that I went to C.S. Lewis’ the Narnia Series and his Space Trilogy then to the writings of George McDonald.  I LOVED IT!  I see these as great literary works of fiction and like Peretti, The Shack is another really good modern day example of this genre.

Second, and I want to make sure we deeply understand this point………. The Shack is…………..FICITION!  As Followers of Jesus, we DO NOT get our theology from ……….. FICITION!  It is an allegory of one man’s severe pain from two separate instances in his life, his subsequent anger at God, and God’s attempt at healing him from that pain!  It is a fictitious ALEGORY!  And like all good fiction it weaves a story around the characters and the plot, and while it is very entertaining, ………. WE DO NOT GET OUR THEOLOGY FROM FICTITIOUS NOVELS!  We get our theology ONLY from the BIBLE!  Brothers and Sisters, this is a book and subsequent movie utilizing methodology from the genre of literature we call…………FICTION!  It’s NOT TRUE, nor should we TAKE it as truth, nor should we pattern our life after it!  It is merely a form, might I add a really good form, of ENTERTAINMENT that is NEVER intended to be taken literally or truthfully!  To establish truth or life patterns from fiction is to violate the intent of the genre!  It is merely ENTERTAINMENT!

Third, It never ceases to amaze me that within the Body of Christ, we complain incessantly about the filth and violence that comes out of Hollywood, and yet here is a movie (REMINDER…..FICTION) that positively displays ONE MAN’S journey to having his relationship with God healed after two horrible tragedies!  And since I have seen the movie I can assure you, there is NO NUDITY and NO FOUL LANGUAGE!  However, sometimes the body of Christ gets so determined to fight a fight, that we pay very little attention to the fact that we are fighting THE WRONG BATTLE on the WRONG FRONT!  We are sometimes like Don Quixote so determined to find an enemy behind every tree and under every rock, that we don’t realize we are attacking a Windmill!  If the devil can get the Body of Christ to fight fights that really don’t exist and engage in battles on fronts that really are no fronts at all, then he has successfully diverted our attention and energy from the REAL fronts and the REAL battles that are raging all around us!  The Shack, either in book form or movie form, is NOT one of those fronts!  My friend Steve Chelette, a Christian Kingdom Businessman in Texas, knows personally the people behind this project and was even invited to support it and attend the premier.  He assures me that these people are devout Followers of Jesus with Pentecostal roots!  Their desire was to use a fictional work to tell the story of one man’s journey back to intimacy with God, after his healing!  There is NO diabolical plot to subjugate pure doctrine and Holy Truth,……………BECAUSE IT’S FICTION!  There is NO plot to overthrow Spiritual discernment or promote universalism,………….BECAUSE IT’S FICTION!  There is NO plot to water down sound Biblical truth,…………….BECAUSE IT’S FICTION!

Fourth, for far too long the things of culture that influence our society has been kept from the Body of Christ.  Some of this is the fault of the devil deceiving us into believing that they are intrinsically evil, but some of this is our own fault!  We willingly walked away from the things that influence our society and cursed them as evil!  Then when we dropped them and walked away from them and then the people without the Spirit of God aka the “world” picked them up.  Now, these cultural shaping things devoid of the influence of the Kingdom of God began to shape society.  Our response far too often within the Body of Christ is to get mad at this and “curse” the fallen sinful influence of society and talk about how evil our society had become, ignoring the fact that WE are the ones who turned our backs on those things which shape culture!  If we truly believe in the permeating power of the Kingdom of God and the life-changing shaping of society that Kingdom has, then it is OUR RESPONSIBILITY to “OWN” ………….EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF THAT WHICH CAN SHAPE AND DETERMINE SOCIETY!  Bill Bright, the Founder of Campus Crusade for Christ and Loren Cunningham, the founder of Youth with a Mission referred to this as the “7-Mountains of Influence.  These are seven aspect of all culture that “shape” our society and that are meant to be embraced by the Body of Christ, infusing them with Kingdom principles and reality!  Those 7-Mountains are:  Business, education, family, government, media, religion, and yes,………..ART AND ENTERTAINMENT!  These belong to the Kingdom of God and therefore belong to the Body of Christ!  It is our assignment to “infuse” within EVERY aspect of these 7-Mountains the principles and leadership of the Kingdom of God!  Our task is NOT to run away from Art and Entertainment, but to be the “LEADERS” in Art and Entertainment, much like the Writers, Producer, Director, and Actors did with “The Shack!”  And remember, the “KEY” word here is ……. ENTERTAINMENT!  Much like Peretti’s “This Present Darkness!”

And Finally, much like the movie that came out a couple of years ago entitled “The Son of God,” which was not at all Biblically accurate, the movie The Shack can be a WONDERFUL discussion starter for those who do not know Christ!  This is “OUR” opportunity as the Body of Christ to take a form of entertainment that might raise some questions about the nature of God and humanities relationship with Him, and speak into those questions the truth of God’s Word!  To share with genuinely hurting people, what God’s Word truly says about those painful life-situations we ALL face and who the Bible declares God to be!  Think about it……….. Letting the Spirit of God use this form of entertainment we know as FICTION to actually feed a conversation about REAL relationships with God and what we can expect in that relationship!  And who will God use?...............HIS BODY,……….So long as we are not so busy “cursing” art to realize that God is using that art to give us an opportunity to speak into the lives of those truly searching for God in a really hurtful world! 

In conclusion, …………… GO SEE THE SHACK (not for little children;… Too intense)!  Then ask God to position you to use this form of entertainment to start a discussion with those who desperately need the Truth that YOU possess in your heart...........The truth of Jesus and His love for us!

~~~Pastor Steve Gardner

NOTE:  You can read more about the 7-Cultural Mountains by clicking on this LINK or visiting 7CulturalMountains.org of