Emma Scrivener
1. How did you become a Christian?
I didn’t grow up in a Christian family but Belfast in the 1980s and 90s was a very religious context.
I had family members taking me to a Presbyterian church in the morning and school friends taking me to a Pentecostal church in the evening. I was a confused, moralistic, people-pleasing good girl.
It took until much later – when my moralism and confusion dragged me down to life-threatening anorexia – to meet Jesus. Encountering him in the Bible (momentously in the book of Revelation) made the difference. As I met a Lion, fierce and trustworthy who was also a Lamb, broken and bleeding, I found hope and new life.
2. What lessons have you learnt since that you would want to pass on to a younger Christian version of yourself?
The gospel is true for you too. No matter how good you think you are, no matter how bad you think you are, Jesus loves you. Christianity is not a system of self-improvement, it’s the offer of a Person more beautiful than anything or anyone else.
3. How would you describe your prayer life?
In Jesus, flawless! My High Priest upholds me before the Father continually. In the day-to-day of my life, it’s up and down. But returning to the objective truth of Christ’s Priesthood is vital. And I’ve found that keeping it simple and focusing on who I’m praying to makes all the difference.
4. Which two or three Christian books apart from the Bible have most influenced your faith?
Growing up, Narnia, Pilgrim’s Progress and The Lord of the Rings captivated my imagination. In more recent years Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Telling Secrets by Frederick Buechner.
5. Who or what have been your biggest Christian influences?
My first Sunday School teachers taught me a faith that I didn’t quite grasp but that held onto me through some very dark times.
When I worked at All Souls Langham Place, I encountered a huge mixture of personalities united in a passionate love for Jesus and His word. That was absolutely formative – especially in showing me how the Bible speaks into every area of life.
6. What are the main challenges you believe Christians face today?
It’s the same as it always is. We need to live out a vibrant, real and completely counter-cultural faith in the midst of a lost world.
7. What encourages and what discourages you?
I’m encouraged by meeting other believers, knowing their struggles and seeing their faith in Jesus. I’m discouraged by bullying, especially at an institutional level, and by Christians arguing over the things that (to me at least) don’t matter, whilst ignoring the things that (again to me) really do.
8. What makes you laugh?
My own ridiculousness.
9. What would you want to say to the wider evangelical world?
Nothing at all. I think the wider world is best served by Christians keeping their head down and serving Jesus in their local settings.
10. Which Biblical person (other than Jesus) do you most look forward to meeting in glory and why?
I’d love to see Jeremiah laughing with Jesus! And also the thief on the cross – to share his wonder.
