Hannah Schaefer | Echo
What would you do if you worked for the Son of God? That's what professional writing professor Dennis E. Hensley asked himself 20 years ago, and the question led to his newest book "Jesus in the 9 to 5." The Echo met with the author to hear his insights on what he discovered during the writing process.
Echo: What inspired you to write this book?
I have been working on "Jesus in the 9 to 5" for more than two years. It's my 54th book, and it's different from anything I've ever done. I am known as a motivational speaker and writer, so they look for me to write books like that. But I wanted to do one from a totally Christian perspective about what (the) New Testament says about the quality of work that we do and redeeming our time.Echo: Did you find a way to do this?
I thought, "Okay, now how would I do that?" And as I tried to wrestle with that, I came up with the idea of doing a little story and then add some notes for teaching, but it didn't work. Finally, I decided, "No, this has to be a novella almost all by itself." So I started writing these vignettes, fictional vignettes, in which Jesus Christ himself was running a company in the 21st century. Of course in the furniture industry, he's a carpenter.Echo: How did you choose to present Jesus the way you did?
I wanted to present Jesus as a person with wit. In that opening vignette, I tried to set that up in a couple ways. At one point Peter says, "Who sent you?" and he says, "We'll talk about that someday maybe," thinking that this is so far beyond Peter. But the reader is going to think, "I know what's going on there!"Echo: What problems did you have to deal with writing the book?
It took me two years to really get the book the way I wanted it. And when I tried to market it, people didn't know what it was! Finally, one night I said to my wife, "Nine publishers have turned this thing down. Either I'm not a writer anymore, or I don't know how to judge material. I don't know what's going on." And she said, "I think that's your problem . . . So many publishing houses are swallowing the little publishers out and are being run by business people. You need to talk with someone who is an editor and who is a writer, too. Writers know what readers want, not accountants."So I sent Chip MacGregor, my agent, my manuscript and he called three days later and said, "I'm laughing my head off, man. This is funny, it's great, and it's entertaining. Jesus is witty, he's clever, yet he's insightful. This is nothing like anything I have ever seen. Let me send it out to five publishers I know would really appreciate it." He got a bidding war going, they all loved it! So they were fighting against each other, and finally AMG Publishers offered the best overall contract. But they said, "We don't think you can do this twice. These stories are great, but you really got a lot of the New Testament. So you have to write two or three more vignettes for us to show us you can do a sequel." So I had to sit down and come up with three more stories!
When I submitted it, I met with the editor and he said, "Oh, these are good. This is good. OK, we like it." So they signed the first contract, and the second book is coming out around next year. Now, the third one will be the real challenge.
Echo: What response do you hope to receive from your audience?
My hope is that people would read this book and say, "You know what, every single thing that Jesus taught, 2,100 years ago, and every single thing that he did 2,100 years ago could be done today and it would have the same message and same meaning and same impact."Jesus in the 9 to 5" will be released Oct. 18 on Amazon.com and select bookstores.
