Ken Smith welcomes email dialogue with readers of his books

Kenneth W. Smith email

Re Dick and Jane: Is there really a need for pre-marriage counseling?
There are many couples that have none at all and their marriages seem strong. The purposes of the book and pre-marriage counseling itself is to prepare adults for marriage. Those adults often have no basis for their beliefs, having not thought through many of the problems that they will encounter in their own marriages. For most couples there is no great thought about children until the wife becomes pregnant and immediately their experience from their own families comes into play, the values that their parents had dominate the thinking. If those values are not similar or were stresses by divorce, stress builds up.

If the parents of the couple had different concepts of bringing up their children, then the couple needs to have some basis for establishing the concepts that they will call into play in their new marriage. All the concepts discussed in the book are not the "final word" but rather lead to discussion and the final decision of the couple. Preferably the pre-marriage counseling has helped the couple to establish compatible concepts. The purpose of the counselor is not to "tell" the parents what to believe or do but to establish the discussion and understanding of the couple.

With all the pre-marriage discussion, making of the arrangements for dress, service, reception and financial responsibilities there should really be more discussion of how the marriage will "play out." More and more the models that the youth will use as patterns for their own marriages are really filled with anger, competition and divorce. Such models, even though lasting marriages have been constructed, are not positive models for the new marriage.

One hundred percent of those who have had five sessions of pre-marriage counseling say that it was totally helpful, recognizing that they have had troubled homes from which they came, or if not a troubled home that they had fears that their own marriages would not be long lasting and stable. This included a homosexual couple who also wanted to establish a long lasting relationship, but who could not legally have a marriage relationship.

When you write a parable book do you begin with an incident or a concept?
I must confess that most of the parables begin with an incident that I have observed and from there leads to a concept. Probably Jesus with his parables started with a concept that he was trying to relate and used the parabolic form to strengthen that concept. He was establishing a new way of thinking of life. He was not forcing his theology on others who came to him, but rather was showing in a positive way some concepts that may have been missed through the law or legal system. In the story of John, No Greater Prophet, there is a long discussion between Jesus and John. Many things Jesus knew or took for spiritual granted, while John had to discover them either in one to one conversation or in study in the Temple. Most of the concepts that Jesus explained with parables were concepts that did not "break" the law but added a spiritual value to the legal concept. In a sense his life was a parable of love, the kind of love that is not sexual, or extended merely in hugs but rather in a self-giving service to others.

Possibly his warning to the disciples to not waste time talking and thinking of the "last times" was a fear that the personal salvation of the believer would be considered more important than service, or showing love to others. In discussing Left Behind, he has proven to be correct, where the emphasis is on getting yourself saved rather than saving others through showing Christian love. The parable books show the theology of the author, as did the original parables, whether Old Testament or New Testament.

Hawaiian Parables seemed to jump out at the author. Occasionally he was loaded down with four or five parables all of which "asked to be written." They concern very real people or events. There are still others that are waiting to be written, things that people have done or Hawaiian instigated events. The author continually invites the reader to write some parables about the area in which the reader lives. The more you write, the more you will realize that we live in a parabolic world.

Why do you write Christian novels?
The Biblical record is sufficient to tell of the things of the faith that are necessary for salvation. However, there are many thoughts and concepts that can be covered in a novel that are not covered in Scripture. The life of a preaching and counseling pastor is one of continual learning, both from events daily around him or her and also from persons, places, and things that impact Biblical persons. For the most part the person who reads a novel has established the novel in his mind through the reading. You can be shown a picture and you will soon forget it, if you even recalled it later the same day.

On the other hand if you read a novel your mind puts together various concepts and thereby builds a picture that stays with you. As a teenager I read many of Kenneth Roberts's novels of the Eastern part of our country. When it came to remembering dates, so that they could be regurgitated for tests, he was definitely lacking, but when it came to remembering the pictures of Benedict Arnold, and the other conquerors of the wilderness, those pictures are still with him.

My hope in writing biographical novels is that the reader will build pictures that "add flesh" to those persons talked about in Scripture. The novel adds to and does not subtract from the Biblical person. If the reader reads all the passages that name the individual, and a Bible dictionary or a concordance will list them for you, he or she will soon see what is taken from Scripture and what is added in the novelist's work. The framework of all my biographical Christian novels includes all the Biblical mentions of the life and work of the depicted person.

Who were some of the contemporaries of Samuel McGerald, the author of The True Faith And How I Found It and what did they say about his writings?
These are comments from 100 years ago. I know nothing of their credentials but I can sense their spirit of love. These and other comments are in the last pages of the book.

The Rev. Dr. Clifford, of London who stands at the head of the Nonconformist bodies of Great Britain, says of the book - "It has the charm of personal experience. It is a fascinating story of the successful struggle of a soul towards the light. Moreover, it speaks the truths of the gospel in their simple Bible and New Testament force. It must do much good."

Dr. A. B. Leonard, Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church: - "A timely book. It should be scattered by the hundred thousand among English-speaking Roman Catholics in this country, and it should be translated into German, Spanish and Italian for distribution among those nationalities in America and in their native countries. The book is not controversial, but experimental, and is written in a spirit most commendable. It should be read also by Protestants of all denominations."

Rev. Ward Platt, D.D.: "I consider it a classic. It is so convincing a story and so winsome in the telling that all spirit of controversy is banished and one simply drinks in the sweet message and is refreshed. I wish it might be circulated by the hundred thousand and in several languages."

Explain why you were driven to write Dear Timothy.
Dear Timothy is the view of an older pastor, now retired and looking at ministry from the pew. For three or possibly four years the seminarian dwells on the ministry and how things should and do appear from the pulpit side of the church. He or she is then thrust into the position of pastor still carrying the baggage of theological discussion that is often way above the average lay person. Dear Timothy helps the new pastor view his actions from the lay person's point of view.

Wise is the pastor who examines his ministry, his presentation of Jesus the Christ and of God's love not when there are problems in the congregation but while things are going along fine. Dear Timothy helps him or her do that not only in the pulpit but also in the counseling relationship and in daily contact with members of the congregation and members of the community of which the congregation is a part.