Has the impact of The Shack surprised you?
It surprises me every day. It’s kind of nuts, honestly. Croatia dubbed the book their nation’s book of the decade, for example. Their ministry of culture contacted me and asked me to come speak to the country because they’ve been so hurt. Oh, my goodness—was that surprising. But you know, it’s given people a voice to say, “I have a great sadness and you’re telling me that my tears matter.”
How have you processed the controversy surrounding the book?
Thankfully, by the time I wrote it I’d already destroyed my own reputation, so I didn’t have to worry about that [laughs]. I had no job security issues involved with it, and no position or status. I’m an ordinary, common person. So when people get upset about it, a couple of things—I’ve gone through enough of the arduous incremental journey toward healing that I have a pretty good, solid sense of who I am. When I get into a conversation with someone who is upset, or I hear that people are upset, I think a couple things. First, an angry person is an engaged person. An ambivalent person just doesn’t care. Someone who is impacted by the book positively and someone who has every red flag flying—at least they both are engaged. There’s a possibility for conversation.
Secondly, I know that they’re not coming to tell me about me. If I made that mistake, we’d end up with a war. But they are interacting with their own responses, based on their own paradigms. They’re coming to tell me in the only language they know how about who they are. And that is really helpful, because I’m not at risk in this. I’m in a place right now where I’m no longer addicted to being right. I don’t have to defend that. My world is an open book.
Talk a bit about the movie. Why a screen adaptation?
From the very beginning, that was the long vision. When those 15 copies started getting out, and we made a few more, a couple copies got in the hands of some guys in California. Their immediate thought was to turn it into a movie. That’s what started the conversation about formally printing the book, in fact. It was through those relationships that the book was put into print. Twenty-six publishers turned it down, so two of the three guys in California created a publishing company just to put it into print. I didn’t understand publishing, let alone moviemaking. But the big, long-term vision from the beginning was to have a film tell this story.
It has been a gift and a grace to get to be a small part of the film production. I saw the script and gave input, was in on conversations about actors, on the set—all this crazy and wonderful stuff. Lionsgate asked me to come to the first days’ shoot and pray a blessing over the cast and crew. It was so wonderful to come together in a community with those people.
The movie is brilliant and incredibly powerful. They had a huge task—to walk the fine line between becoming nonartistic Christian propaganda, and on the other hand becoming some kind of nebulous spirituality that had no definition or meaning. While I walked into this with great freedom and an open hand as to the results, I’m thrilled with how the film turned out. It’s so powerful. They managed to walk that line. The acting is incredible; the cinematography is over the top.
Those who love The Shack and are invested in it will be incredibly pleased with what they see. Just take tissues. I’m warning you. It truly touches your humanity to the core.
What conversations do you hope the film will start—especially within churches?
I hope it will raise our view of humanity. I think we’ve inherited and perpetuate a very low view of humanity. I think the incarnation alone—God becoming fully enfleshed with us—is a high view of humanity, not a low one. It’s not as though God is going to the garbage dump to rescue pieces of trash, this is about God going to the most elegant and beautiful masterpieces, who are dressing themselves in the trash of lies. I hope that within the community of faith that this would help raise the conversation about God’s high view of humanity, so that we can begin to agree with that. In that context, we have to begin to realize that healthy community moves at the speed of the slowest. When we are stopped dead in our tracks by loss and suffering, that’s when we need the community to slow down and be present to us. Because that’s what God does. He slows down to our speed. He’s present with us. Those kinds of realities are communicated well in the film. The imagery is powerful.
Often, we as religious people are disinclined to face the hard questions because we’re sort of embarrassed by them. If the film, like the book, gives space for those conversations to happen, I will be thrilled.
For ways your church can engage with The Shack, go to Outreach.com/TheShack.
Paul J. Pastor is an Outreach magazine contributing writer and the author of The Face of the Deep: Exploring the Mysterious Person of the Holy Spirit (David C Cook, 2016).