Page 14 - MyFaith Mag April 2017

interview
Q&A WITH DERON SPOO
BRAD KIRSTEN
Brad Kirsten: What an honour to sit across from Pastor Der-
ron Spoo, from the First Baptist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
I don’t know too much about Tulsa but I can tell that this
guy that I follow on YouTube is an inspirational individual
from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he just tells me the weather is
not too unlike Cape Town - a few seasons in one day and
you never know what you’re going to get.
Deron Spoo: That’s exactly right! Now one thing - if you
come to Oklahoma, get ready for tornadoes! I don’t know if
you have tornadoes here in South Africa, but they’re fright-
ening but they’re also fun too.
Brad Kirsten: I’ll tell you what is also frightening, is the Word
of God, for a new believer. And, I’ve heard a story that
you’ve told before about a young woman in your Church,
who had her very first experience of Church in her whole
life, in your congregation. Tell us that story, very briefly?
Deron Spoo: Yeah, that’s right. So, she looked to be in her
mid-thirties; I stepped off the platform after teaching on a
Sunday morning and, she shared with me her name, and
she said ‘this is my first time in Church, in my entire life.’ And, again. Because, as we become more and more familiar
she asked a rather innocent question, you know, ‘is there a
book you people read - meaning Christians - that will help
me understand what you believe about God’. And, in a
moment, that was just like a quick movie that I saw in my
mind, I could see me handing her Bible. She would, maybe,
get through Genesis; maybe make it through Exodus, but
when she got to the Levitical Law, she would check out and
she would say: ‘this is weird, I don’t want any part of this’.
So, I knew that there must be a way to make the intimidat-
ing Bible more approachable for people. And, I searched
all over the web, to try to find that tool that I was looking
for. And, when I couldn’t find it, I decided to write it, but for
my own people, as a Pastor, to give newcomers into our
Church an opportunity to engage with the Scripture, for the
first time.
Brad Kirsten: We have a Pastor who does quite a lot of
broadcasting on our station. One of the questions, one of
the comments he often makes is: if your devotional is above
your Bible, in the pile of books next to your bed, you’re in
trouble. And, I’ve come to get that feeling that the Bible
is tough for some people to read, and without a Pastor, or
whomever, writing through a devotional, people struggle to
really go and take chunks on their own, because they just
don’t have what it takes to, maybe, figure out the trickier
stuff. I mean, Paul certainly hasn’t made it easy for us.
Deron Spoo: No, no, no, and even Peter said Paul wrote
some very difficult things. So, in this book, what I tell people,
or what I try to communicate, is that the Scripture is the most
valuable thing. And, in fact, I encourage people to read
these forty chapters of the Bible, as a place to start. Read
the chapter first, then read my devotional - maybe there’ll
be some benefit from that - but then, go back and read it
with the Bible - it’s like a friendship - you know, you must
break the ice a little bit. And, as you listen more to the Scrip-
ture, you’ll start to hear the voice of God. It takes time and
patience. So, if I can just give a little guidance, a little bit of
a nudge, then I’ve accomplished my goal.
Brad Kirsten: Let’s talk a little bit about the nudge. I know
you’ve got forty points, as it were, to help those who read
‘The Good Book’, to get a better grasp of the Bible. How
have you set it out? I mean, what was your plan, originally,
to say, if we can get these parts down, we’ll make the over-
all picture a lot easier to understand.