Okay- your 15 minutes is up, Mr Hyatt...
Had a fantastic time meeting Paul Young and talking about the Shack and relationship vs religion today. A lot of fun...
Some highlights-
Got shown into the "green room"- basically a conference room where they park folks waiting to go on the air. It was just me and Paul Young, hanging out and talking for probably 20 minutes.
He's an amazingly humble guy. This whole thing has taken him so much by surprise- he described himself as an "accidental author." This is a book he wrote for his kids and copied off (15 copies!) at Kinkos and thought that would be the end of it. Some that read it urged him not to allow it to be.
2.5 million copies later, 9 weeks at #1 on the NY Times bestseller list, Oprah is reading it right now and it's what they call in the publishing world "a phenomenon." And still- the guy is very, very humble- pointing everything to Jesus.
Speaking of which, I mentioned to him that I had heard there was a movie in the works- and my fear that as Jesus-centric as this book is (it ends with the statement that someday, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord), NO Hollywood studio would allow it through without watering it down into the new age claptrap that its critics imagine it to be.
He assured me that a. a movie is in the works b. they retain creative control and Jesus stays in the picture and c. (and this blew my mind) 8 or so studios had been vying for the rights and they already had, without asking for it, $100,000,000 committed to make it. "We're not making Left Behind here..." he said. And still- that humility. He said that if they got right up to the making of the thing and felt like the Holy Spirit was saying "That's good enough- I did what I wanted to do," he'd have no problem with not making it/walking away...
I think Paul did a fantastic, authentically transparent job. And man, the guy was preaching the Gospel in the most humble way possible- just by talking about what God had done for him and in him.
Love it that not only did a heresy hunter call in, but they actually played Driscoll's take on the book from youtube... and seriously-in the brief clip they played, the guy sounded unglued. Two points about that: Paul Young knows Gerry Breshears (Driscoll's writing partner) and knows that Mark has yet to actually read the book (if he had- he'd know that his two main points, that the book promotes modalism (it doesn't- pg 101) and that the book promotes goddess worship (it doesn't- God appears as a man at the end, making again, the very biblical point that God is not male or female, but Spirit- there's even a great rational in the book for why God wants us to refer to Him as "father") were complete crap. I asked him what Gerry thought and (hope I'm not speaking out of turn- Gerry, feel free to correct me here) but he said he loved it. That actually meant a lot to me- I respect Gerry, who was one of my theology profs at Seminary, and I know we disagree on some things, but my assessment of the Shack was that there's nothing fundamentally unOrthodox about it- relieved to hear Gerry agrees! Now I just wish he'd tell that to Driscoll... :)
The discipline of talking on radio is a whole different animal. I realized I'm used to talking in multi-point statements, saving the most important point for last (you know- for impact!). Can't do that on the radio... never got the chance to make more than one point! :)
Paul hung out long after the show was done, talking to one of the hosts in particular, just sharing his story. And pointing at the Good News of Jesus the whole time.
I was impressed with the man and really enjoyed the experience. I even got an OPB/Think Out Loud mug out of the deal! (See pic above)
I'll try to post my review of the book later today...
