An interview with Gordon Cheng

Gordon, how did you come to Christ?

A school friend told me that if I was a Christian and wrong, I would have just wasted a lot of Sundays with nice people. But if I was not a Christian and I was wrong, then I was going to hell! I realize there are logical flaws in that argument now. But it was enough to convince me to keep talking to him. He told me the gospel, and started me off going to church and reading the Bible.

I realized from reading the Bible that Jesus was Lord and God, and I also woke up to the fact that being a Christian wasn’t about being good, but about asking Jesus’ forgiveness. Luke 15 talks about the angels rejoicing when someone realizes this, which I thought was rather marvellous. So here I am, in God’s grace.

How do you occupy your time?

Read. Write. Edit. Sleep. Talk to friends. Enjoy the family. Cook. Eat. Houseclean. Pray. Inhabit dark corners of the internet. Catch buses. Oh, and I am a promiscuous Facebook befriender. Try me! I’ve only ever dropped three people, but then three people have dropped me, so there’s a bit of yin and yang going on there, or something. (DON’T think I haven’t noticed, you three!)

Tell us a bit about your background and interests.

My background is that I am half-Chinese, half-Swedish; I grew up in Sydney, went to an agricultural high school, studied Psychology at the University of New South Wales, got married, studied Theology and ministered in Melbourne for 10 years with the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Fiona and I have three lovely daughters. I’m also an ordained Anglican minister.

As for interests, I hope I’m capable of being interested in just about anything other people find interesting. But, at the moment, I am playing the piano, singing in a choir, watching the Tour de France, luxuriating in having finished a Masters thesis after 20 years, and trying somewhat sluggishly to run at least an hour every second day (not there yet).

What are five books that really helped you grow as a Christian?

1. Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
2. Fundamentalism and the Word of God by JI Packer
3. The Book of the Judges: An Integrated Reading by Barry Webb
4. Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
5. The Everlasting God by D Broughton Knox.

What are you reading now?

Just sitting on my desk I have an abridged version of Augustine’s Confessions which I am planning to carry around and read when I’m waiting in queues or whatever. Under that is Walking with Gay Friends by Alex Tylee, which is really good but I am worried about the looks I get when I carry it, so I tend not to read that on the bus.

Then there’s Engaging with Barth by Gibson and Strange. Barth was a brilliant and compelling theologian, and therefore all the more dangerous to evangelicals; Ovey’s chapter on Barth’s trinitarian theology made me feel particularly anxious just in the last few days about what looks like Barth’s Sabellianism.

Then underneath that are Calvin’s Institutes—although, if I am going to be honest, it’s really just the stuff on church in Book IV that I’ve been skimming. With that is Luther’s Table Talk, The Deliberate Church by Dever and Alexander, The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter and A Lifting up for the Downcast by William Bridge, another Puritan.

I seriously recommend the last one if you are worried about Christians and depression, but even though it is not that long, it is not a skim read.

Buried under all that is an old Atlantic Monthly.

Just lately I’ve also read Kate Grenville’s The Secret River, and some great detective fiction by Peter Temple, whose books you read for the descriptions of Melbourne and the fans of the Fitzroy football club as much as anything else. Language and adult themes warning.

And what books would you recommend as must-reads right now?

I already mentioned Engaging with Barth by Gibson and Strange, but that is more for the theologs out there. Any of Broughton Knox’s Selected Works. Let’s not get carried away though; you really only need to read the Bible. Start with Romans and memorize that, as Luther recommended; that’s what I’m teaching my daughters.

Oh, if you are even a little bit interested in the evangelical heritage of Anglicanism, especially with all this GAFCON bizzo that has been going on lately, then you could do a whole heap worse than read Ashley Null’s brilliant Thomas Cranmer’s Doctrine of Repentance: Renewing the Power to Love. It will cost you an absolute bomb, but just quietly …

What would your friends say are your hobbyhorses?

Low-cal milk is the abomination that causes desolation. Pork fat is actually necessary to the taste of pork, bacon, etc., so why breed it out or trim it off. Salt is good. Corduroy was a mistake. Buses are cool. Trams are cooler. Riding bicycles is safe. How come there aren’t more orange cars. Robotic implants could work really well for us. Ten hours sleep per night is acceptable. Sydney weather is fantastic. We should name names. Why is everyone so down on smoking? Netball is over-regulated. Clapping between movements is fine, just get over it. Joe Jackson can’t sing in tune—really, he can’t. Bratz dolls are disgusting. Non-peer-reviewed medical treatments are largely effective because of empathy plus placebo.

I have a few more ideas, but perhaps you can e-mail me.

What’s something that makes you angry?

Selling out the terrible glory of the risen Lord Jesus in the interests of marketing the Christian message to modern hearers.

And who is someone who inspires you?

Bruce Hall, the senior minister of our local church.

What is your ideal day off?

Driving to Austinmer with the family.

Give us your top five musicians.

• Bach
• Bartok
• Mozart
• Bob
• Joni Mitchell

Thanks Gordo!