William Paul Young

William Paul Young was born May 11, 1955, in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada in the family of Christian missionaries. The first six years of his life he spent with his parents in New Guinea among the Dani, a technologically stone age tribal people. The Dani became “family” for little Paul.

When his parents came back to the West the future writer graduated Warner Pacific College as a specialist in Religious Studies.

Since then Paul worked in different fields: telecommunications, investments, insurance, building activity. He owned his own business for some time. Paul also ministered in a big suburban church and studied in a seminary. He is married to Kim Warren. They have six children and five grandchildren.

William Paul Young is the author of The Shack, which soon became one of the top-selling fiction books all around the world. It has been translated to 40 languages and published in 40 countries of the world with the total print of 15 million copies.

William Paul Young will become a special guest of the V International Festival of the Christian Book, which will be held in Kiev, Ukraine.

Conversations in the book and answers from God were created as the result of your personal relationship with God or they just reflect your view on things you write about? (Marat, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan)

Because I wrote this story first for my friends and family with no thought of publishing it, the book reflects the experiences of life.

Do you recognize Jesus as your God? With respect! (Dmitriy, Ukraine)

If you are asking if I believe that Jesus is God, one of the Three-in-One (Trinity), then yes, I do. There are many reasons for this, both intellectual and experiential. Why would not love come and join us in our broken humanity, becoming one with us so that we might be free. Jesus is my hope and my life.

I would like to do a movie based on your book. How can I contact you about this issue? Blessings to you. (Alexander, Russia, Tomsk)

Questions regarding the potential for a movie are very much undecided at this point. When one is as naïve how it all unfolds. One thing that I do know, God is in the details of our lives and I can trust in God’s character and heart in all such matters.

Dear Paul, please, tell us what pushed you to write The Shack? Your desire to minister to someone’s wounds, the spirit of times (I mean that it became quite fashionable to preach with allegories) or something else? And one more question. As far as I know, your book caught attention of many unbelievers. What do you think is the reason for that? Maybe it was the unusual way of describing God in a different manner, different from the standard view of an old man with the stick who always punishes sinners. Thank you. (Panov Evgeny, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan)

My wife, Kim, was the instigator. She enjoyed my writing over the years and had been asking if I would ‘…write something as a gift for our (six) children (ages 17-30) that would communicate how you think, because you think outside the box.” So all I was trying to do initially was write a Christmas gift for my children. I made 15 copies and went back to work, never imagining that it would be actually published one day. What I wanted to do was communicate to my children that the god I grew up with (much the way you describe in your second question), the god of western Platonic dualism, never healed any of the damage in my heart…mostly because I no longer believe that god actually exists, except in our wounded imaginations. I think that all humans are ‘unbelievers’ on the road to belief and becoming and The Shack has given us a ‘language’ to have a conversation about God that is not a religious conversation but one that is fundamentally about relationship and things that actually matter to the human heart, about our sadness about the tender places that cry out when we are alone or lost or far from home.

Did you have any commercial interest while writing the book?

None at all. I made the 15 copies and went back to my jobs…three jobs at the time. I did not even imagine any of what has happened. This was a gift, because it has left me free with regard to all the ‘commercial interest’. It is what the story has done inside the human heart that still matters to me today.

How often do you visit Portland, Oregon? In your book you describe all the details of our region quite professionally. Would you like to share your word with the Messianic Community? What is your attitude toward the Messianic movement? Thank you in advance for your answer, peace and blessings to you! (Evgeny Galuk, Community “The House of Praise”, Portland, USA)

I live in a smaller town 30 minutes from downtown Portland, Oregon, so I am in Portland very often. Even given as a family. Even though I am not a big fan of ‘institutional’ religion (where one is required to perform in order to win the approval and affection of God), I do love ‘faith cultures’, how human beings creatively form community around things that truly matter. The Messianic Community is one of those faith cultures. Of course the danger is that we turn our culture into dogma that then divides human beings from each other, something we unfortunately are inclined to do. The world does not need any more religious bigots but wounded healers.

Greetings to you, William! What would you advise to tell people who begin to create problems in church after reading the book? They say that God is different from the One we preach about, He is just the same as described in your book. People who left the church begin to advertise your book. They do not obey the ministers of the church. They do not want to develop their spiritual life. (Sasha Nobodin, Russia)

Sasha, you must recognize that people can attach themselves to anything or any idea whether or not they Prince of Peace, we have destroyed whole communities of precious ones. Also, the journey into ‘freedom’ sometimes requires that we learn how to challenge the ways we have thought in the past. If you have children yourself, you understand that this process is not without friction and change. The Church does not belong to any man or group of men, but to Jesus, and there is a very important part of this that we must deeper than that and would require a conversation spanning hours if not days, so I cannot adequately respond here. Sometimes one leaves not because we are losing our faith, but in order to preserve our faith.

Paul why do you think your book has so much positive feedback from the secular society and so much negative reaction from Christians? (Nikolay, Kiev, Ukraine)

Please understand that I have received much more positive response from Christians than negative, but you are correct in assuming that the only negative response has been from Christians and not any from the secular community. There are many reasons for this. Some Christians are motivated to protect their doctrines from the possible intrusion of heresy and their intention as gatekeepers is noble, while others are simply afraid. Most of the angriest response has consistently come from religious people who have not read or refuse to read The Shack. Secular society, unfortunately, is often much more engaged and opens to excuse for keeping distance from actual change and transformation. I think part of the work of the Holy Spirit being the older brother in the story of The Prodigal Son.

Just a question about writing. Were you writing the Shack in several goes, just on inspiration or systematically by parts? How do you work when writing a book? Do you expect for an inspiration to come or sit down in your planned time and begin to write one chapter a day, for example? (Andrey R., Ukraine)

I am one of the most unorganized writers you will ever meet. For example, I think that ‘writer’s block’ simply means that I want to do something else more than write. I usually write when time and idea coincide, which might be on the train to work or when the grand children take a nap etc. The Shack began with ‘conversations’, asking God questions that I was not allowed to ask as a religious boy growing up in the church. The story came later an grew to embrace those questions.

Who was the first person who you gave the Shack to read to? What was his/her reaction? (Viktor)

I have a wonderful group of friends who were part of the journey. I would send them versions as I neared completion and they would let me know what they thought. Some of their responses were instrumental in re-working sections of the book, so in that sense there was a great deal of collaboration of ideas. What surprised me from the start was how visceral and affective the response was, how the story was touching deep emotions in their hearts.

Wonderful book!!! Thank you!!! Wonderful description of relationship within the Trinity!!! While I was reading the book God opened many things to me that I didn’t understand or didn’t accept during many years of pastoral ministry. Praise God!!! Wishing you many blessings from God!!! (Vadim, India. www.globalchrist.ru)

Thank you! Part of the wonder of ‘relationship’ is participation. We are not simply allowed but invited to participate are wondering, the flawed parts are mine.

There were many talks in American press about legal trials with your former partners about the arrangement of the copyright royalties for the Shack. Don’t you think such processes are disgraceful for Christians? (Vladimir, Kiev)

Not at all. We are all flawed human beings and sometimes success will bring things out of us that failure never would. It is not an easy process but God is in the midst of this as well. We are working hard to find resolution and getting help to do that. We have to learn to do even this with humility, grace and forgiveness.

Thank you for the bravery to speak of church problems, freedom and society issues that traditionally are not spoken about. But in “the showdown with gods” there is some metaphysical biblical freethinking for putting into the mouth of a vague “Trinity” plain human thinking even if it is with so called biblical accent is daring, reproachful and yes, responsible before God. What do you think? (Vitaliy, USA)

Your question makes me grin! I like the way you have phrased it. If you think about it, every Sunday millions of men stand behind their pulpits and do exactly the same thing (put human words and perspectives us).

I found an article by Alexander Kolomietsev. Please, give your comments on it: http://www.slovo.org/dn/Ресурсы/Статьи/tabid/82/EntryID/175/language/ru-RU/Default.aspx (Magunik Ruslan, Noviy Rosdol, Ukraine)

From the editors: Paul Young can not give answer on this question, because the English material hasn’t been given.

Greetings! Can you yourself call the Shack a Christian book? Do you think it can lead someone to biblical Christianity? (Alexander, Novaya Kahovka, Ukraine)

It historical ‘Christian’ perspectives? Absolutely! I think Athanasius and the early church fathers would love The Shack. But you yourself know that in a room of ten Christians you will probably get ten different definitions of ‘biblical Christianity’. I am not interested in leading anyone to biblical Christianity but to Jesus, and deeper into relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Why didn’t you stop from printing the book after receiving so many refusals from the publishers? (Ruslan, Ternopol, Ukraine)

First, I did not take it personally. I actually do believe there is a God who is good all the time and involved in the details of my life. Even though I don’t understand what God is up to most of the time, I trust.

Hello William. Please, tell us what Christian and secular writers influenced your own works? What writers would you recommend? (Dmitriy, Russia)

I look at my library and there are many writers who have been an influence, some that would surprise you I am sure. Some are very difficult and weighty and others simple and easy. Here is a brief but not exhaustive list, both ‘secular’ and ‘faith based’: Kierkegaard, Jacques Ellul, AW Tozer, Nietche, Brennan Manning, Baxter Kruger, Miroslav Volf, CS Lewis, Dostoevsky, Kahlil Gibran, Karl Bart, Dietrich Bonheoffer, George MacDonald, Pascal, Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Fredrich Buechner, Malcolm Smith, Orson Scott Card, Asimov, Richard Rohr, Jean Vanier, NT Wright, Dallas Willard, Dickens and many more.

Do you think your book could compete with the bestseller Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which helped to free the slave consciousness during the time of slavery in America? And as it is in our case, should we free or protect something during the reign of Christian liberalism, secularism, atheism, populism, freethinking etc.? There is a problem of extreme in Christianity, swinging from one side to the other, swinging to law, conservatism, liberalism, there is a problem of adding or removing words from the Bible when speaking on biblical language. So how do we stay healthy, without those extremes? To be or not to be, that is the question and the call to the society from the Shack? (Vitaliy, Sacramento)

Ah, what a beautiful mess and none of it surprises God. For myself the answer is to learn to be a child and trust the Holy Spirit. Each day we get to participate in the midst of the mundane and common, as well even more important that we continue to embrace that which matters, the simplicity of loving God and loving our neighbor as yourself. I am not smart enough these days for much else.

Please, tell us what gave you the idea to write this book. I understand that you probably will answer that it was God but through what or through who did He give you this idea? Thank you. (Oleg, Ukraine)

I mentioned before that I was trying to obey my wife, Kim’s, request, so she is the one to essentially blame for all this, and I am grateful!

Despite much criticism your book receives much praise. I will definitely read it in the near future. How much time did it take you to write The Shack?

It took 50 years to live and six months to draft the first complete manuscript. It is a true story, just not real…like a parable. Fiction with truth embedded in its words.