Essential reading for all church leaders

BEING REAL:
The Apostle Paul’s Hardship Narratives
And The Stories We Tell Today.
By Philip Plyming
SCM. 149 pages. £16.99
ISBN 978 0 334 065 562

I was immediately attracted by the title of this book. I was a bit nervous because the book is based on a PhD Thesis, which could mean “heavy going”, but I need not have worried. Philip Plyming has carefully processed his academic work in conversation with his own story, the Apostle Paul’s story, (mainly in 1 and 2 Corinthians), the gospel story, and 1st- and 21st-century cultural patterns.

This is some achievement in 149 beautifully written pages. How is this accomplished?

The first two chapters introduce the reader to Corinth. The author shows us that the Corinthians valued winners; they were the original “shiny happy people”. This made them suspicious of Paul, who appeared to be distinctly “off-message”, talking about his vulnerability and weakness as if that was in some way honourable.

Chapters 3 and 4 explore the hardship narratives of Paul in the Corinthian correspondence, showing that Paul embraced a cross-shaped theology that saw God at work in surprising places. The author demonstrates how Paul can find joy in these hard times by a simultaneous experience of the power of the cross and resurrection in his life.

The final three chapters explore how we can tell our stories today. This is done against the seductive background of social media, which thrives on posts that present the best version of our lives!

The author makes good use of the idea that we view our lives both from a front stage and a backstage point of view. The front-stage view is what we want to project to others, the backstage view is what we tend to conceal. Such a tendency can seep into Christian communication, where we are more likely to accentuate the positives and conceal or spin the negatives. This tendency can be compounded by revealing a pseudo-backstage view of our lives, that presents a highly curated version of our weaknesses that aims to cast ourselves in the best light. The antidote to this is being real by showing an authenticity that is shaped by the message of the cross and resurrection.

In this section I was helped by the author’s insights on how to maintain boundaries by not over-sharing. By contrast, the author shows how Paul in his hardship narratives presents aspects of life from his backstage for a specific purpose and in a way that exalts Christ rather than himself.

The author, who is a victim of clergy abuse, had suffered periods of depression, and has 20 years of experience in various forms of Christianity, has modelled this wise restraint in his writing. He has wisely revealed enough to signal that he has experienced great vulnerability without over-sharing. Plyming concludes that his book is about Paul, but it has turned out to be about Jesus. This book is also a book about the author, but one that helps us to see the glorious sufficiency of Christ through Paul’s theology of the cross.

This is essential reading for all church leaders, and anyone who wants to live authentically in a world of actual and virtual masks.