Fiction at Charisma Book Expo

Well, I’m back from the Charisma Book Expo, a conference/expo sponsored by Charisma Magazine to be both a spiritual experience and highlight books and resources for the charismatic Christian market. What’s of potential interest to readers of this blog is that two of the major speakers at the conference have turned to fiction writing for one reason or another.

Tommy Tenney has written a book titled Hadassah: One Night with the King, which has now been made into a movie titled just One Night with the King. I haven’t seen the movie as it has not been released yet, and in fact, I haven’t read the book. I just heard Tommy Tenney discuss them at the conference.

The final night speaker was John Bevere, and while I’ve read some of his non-fiction books, I have been enough out of touch that I did not realize he has written and is about to release a novel of suspense, Rescued. He has also produced an allegory in audio theater format titled Affabel: Window of Eternity.

I’ve talked a good deal about the value of fiction, though one of my major points is that fiction is valuable as recreation. My tendency is to recommend less explicitly theological fiction. Tommy Tenney’s book is primarily intended as a good, enjoyable story, though it is based on a Bible story and certainly has spiritual implications. Both of John Bevere’s fiction offerings are definitely in the form of explicitly Christian literature.

I’m planning to look at all of these. This is not a review, but merely my impression after listening to the authors talk about their work.