An Interview with Bruce Bickel, Stan Jantz

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Bruce and Stan, you have co–written several books. Readers are used to seeing your names together. But when did you initially meet, and how did you eventually form the Bruce and Stan partnership?

We first met more than 25 years ago at a church in Central California where we were both attending and volunteering as sponsors of the college department. We were in our twenties and probably didn’t know a whole lot more than the college kids we were mentoring, but because we had wives and preschool children, the students listened to what we told them—which wasn’t much. With our wives, we took a couple of vacations together, including one memorable trip to a pristine resort on the Northern California coast that stretched our budgets. On the drive home, we decided we needed to figure out a way to make a little extra money so we could return to the resort the following year. Most guys would have invested in real estate, played the stock market, or opened a worm farm. Not us. We decided to write a book, figuring anybody could do it. What was more amazing than two novices having the chutzpah to write a book was the willingness of Harvest House—a successful and respectable publishing company who had little to gain and much to lose by taking a chance on a couple of writing rubes like us—to actually publish it. Fortunately, 25 years and more than 60 books later, we are still writing. And the last time we checked, Harvest House was still successful and respectable.

So, do you guys just write books together, or do you also hang out?

Hanging out together was how we came up with book ideas. And that was more fun than our actual jobs, so we would do it whenever we could. But apparently we neglected our respective household chores, so our wives came up with an ingenious plan to keep us separated. The Jantz family moved from Central California to Southern California, and the Bickels moved from Central California to the Seattle area. Now, with about 1,400 miles between us instead of just four, we can’t goof off together under the guise of “working on our books.” We don’t get together nearly as often as we used to, but now we are much more productive when it happens.

Your book title, I’m Fine With God...It’s Christians I Can’t Stand, is about as direct as it can get. But who is the message of the book directed to?

The book actually has two audiences—Christian and non–Christian. We first have Christians in mind, because it seems like the behavior of many Christians is often judgmental, hypocritical, and inappropriately intolerant. Frankly, we think such attitudes and the shameful actions they spawn give God a bad name. Maybe one of the reasons many non–Christians are increasingly hostile toward God is that they are fed up with Christians. Rather than take offense at this hostility, we need to figure out why we are so off–putting. We also wrote this book for non–Christians (and we hope more than a few read it). The message we want to convey to them is that they shouldn’t hold God accountable for the misguided actions of His followers. Don’t let the distortions conveyed by a vocal minority of Christians keep you from knowing the one true God.

I’m Fine With God is a very different project from your previous books. What do you hope to accomplish?

Our past books have been instructional (the Christianity 101 series) or inspirational (the God is in the Small Stuff series). With I’m Fine With God, we’re in the motivational mode. We’re seeking to encourage Christians to be more conscious of and sensitive to the way their conduct and attitudes are perceived by those who don’t yet look at life from a biblical perspective. And it is our hope to motivate non–Christians to evaluate the claims of Christ without being deterred by Christianity’s lunatic fringe. So, this book is a bit of a departure for us, but hopefully we retained a style that is correct, clear, and casual.

At what point did you start feeling uncomfortable with the behavior and actions of some Christians?

There wasn’t any one “point” that tipped the scales. We’ve been bothered by the offensive and unloving behavior of Christians for some time. And, by the way, we aren’t exempt. We have also been guilty of doing or saying things that probably make unbelievers uneasy or upset. Correcting our behavior by doing those things that Jesus tells us to do is something all of us who call ourselves Christ followers need to do. Of course, now that we’ve vented our feelings in this book, we are more aware than ever of the goofy and offensive things Christians continue to do in the name of Christ. We suppose we could stop reading newspapers, magazines, and the Internet, and we could stop watching television, but then what would be the fun in that? Every time we discover another despicable act (which happens daily), it just reinforces the reason we wrote this book in the first place.

OK, confession time! You say you have been guilty of some embarrassing behavior as Christians yourselves? Please share!

In the past, modesty prevented us from writing about ourselves. With I’m Fine with God, it was personal embarrassment that prohibited us from citing our own examples. Actually, we’ve each had plenty of regrettable moments in this regard, and we’ve described them in the book, but didn’t attach our names to them. Let’s just say that the two of us are all too familiar with Christians who are quick to judge, painfully hypocritical, and obliviously insensitive to people who have a different faith or no faith at all. Each one of us was involved in enough deplorable episodes to fill the book with examples, so we’ve got plenty of personal failings that went unreported and are available for the sequel.

Were you nervous about how the Christian community might respond to a book title like this? What feedback have you gotten so far?

We weren’t really nervous about it, because we just assumed that there would be certain people who would be upset by I’m Fine With God...It’s Christians I Can’t Stand. In fact, if we don’t upset anyone, we may not have gone far enough. As it is, we injected enough humor into the book (at least we think it’s funny), and we didn’t set ourselves up as authorities (that’s one thing we’ve never been accused of in any of the books we’ve written). As a result, we hope the average Christian will find some things to identify with. What’s interesting is that so far we’ve had very little push back and a whole lot of interest in the book. Maybe people are identifying with our approach, which is basically to apologize for our actions and to suggest conversation rather than confrontation. It’s amazing how many walls come down when you take the first step toward meaningful dialog, especially when you ask for forgiveness first.

What are some positive things Christians can do to project a more welcoming image, but still remain strong in their convictions?

Christians often have unrealistic expectations of non–Christians. We expect them to behave according to biblical principles, but why should they? We need to realize that telling someone to obey the Bible makes little sense to them simply because we believe the Bible to be God’s Word. Although we feel no compulsion to follow the precepts of someone else’s faith, for some inexplicable reason we expect others to adhere to the principles of our faith. That dichotomy sets us up as being spiritually arrogant and intolerant.

Similarly, we have to stop being so hostile toward the culture. Yes, aspects of our culture seem to be increasingly anti–Christian. But it shouldn’t surprise us that society does not understand God’s principles. We wouldn’t either without God’s redemption and His transformation of our thinking. Rather than protesting and fighting, we might have much more success if we calmly try to explain the basis of our beliefs.

Give us the details on Conversant Media Group. Why form a media company? What is ConversantLife.com, and how does it fit into the mix?

We formed Conversant Media Group about a year ago to provide a way to produce content that doesn’t fit into the traditional publishing model. Books are still a very effective way to communicate information—in fact, they are probably the best way—but the reality is that there is a growing segment of the population that gets its information from other media. This so–called “new media” centers on the Internet, along with audio and video downloads. ConversantLife.com is a content and media Internet hub that uses new media to encourage conversations about faith by meeting people where they are with engaging content from trustworthy communicators. We are delighted that Harvest House is working with us in this new enterprise. As we said, they have a track record of success and respectability. We hope some of that rubs off.

What can people expect to find on ConversantLife.com?

This site explores and reveals the faith component that permeates all aspects of our culture and life. You’ll see it in the news stories and articles that are posted by the site’s users. It is fascinating to read about current events, politics, business, entertainment, and global concerns in the context of a Christian worldview. And this isn’t done in isolation, because the site is designed to promote user participation through discussion threads and comments. In addition to the articles posted by the site’s users, there is a cadre of bloggers who comment on socially relevant topics and issues. Some people will go to the site to follow the commentary of a particular blogger; others will be interested in a particular subject area (such as creative arts, science, relationships, or spirituality) and read the postings of several bloggers in that category. ConversantLife.com is designed to provide a variety of perspectives from people, all of whom are passionate about their relationship with Christ, to the goal of initiating conversations rooted in faith about all aspects of our cultural experience.

What’s next for the Bruce and Stan duo? Any upcoming projects?

We are still writing books in our very successful Christianity 101® book series. This year, Harvest House will release two more Christianity 101® Bible Studies (Galatians and James), as well as Evidence For Faith 101. And there are rumors that we may be writing a sequel of sorts to I’m Fine With God...It’s Christians I Can’t Stand. That may depend on the success of that book, so make sure you buy a copy for yourself and several more to give away to unsuspecting Christians and non–Christians.