I recently wrote a story for a trade magazine about "The Shack," the runaway best-seller that was published by a company formed for the purpose of bringing the book to market.

To say it succeeded is an understatement. Just after sales crossed the one million mark, Windblown Media announced a publishing and distribution agreement with the big-league Hatchette Book Group. This on the strength of one Website ad and a ton of word-of-mouth advertising.

While I haven't finished reading the novel, I'm almost done and find it enjoyable and thought-provoking.

These days, such an admission is an invitation for attack from the folks who have lambasted author W. Paul Young and labeled him a heretic and worse. One compared the book to "A Course in Miracles," the New Age material promoted by Oprah Winfrey and others.

A parable, not a theology text

Respected observers such as Chuck Colson have also criticized the book, Colson saying it had a "low view" of Scripture. I can see how naysayers fault it for skirting close to universalism, yet at the same time I find some of the bashing amusing and downright hysterical.

Not only is Young a graduate of a conservative Baptist seminary, the two partners who formed the publishing company are former pastors. Not exactly people on the cultic fringe.

In addition, some of the criticism is misplaced. The story is a parable based on some painful experiences in Young's past, and the incredible reaction it has stirred shows how it has touched numerous hearts. He wrote it to explain to his children some painful experiences that caused him to withdraw from the religious community for a season; as he told me, "My main goal was to get it to Kinko's by Christmas."

Therefore, to attack it as some form of systematic theology text is a bit much. One Christian bookstore manager I interviewed said, "It's not written as doctrine, it's written as a segue to the love of God for people who are hurting. It's fiction and it deserves a chance."

Missing the point

The debates over whether "The Shack" is another "Pilgrim's Progress" or an off-base opening of the door to a New Age god will probably rage on. Most of it will miss the forest for the trees.

Instead of joining in, pastors and church leaders ought to ponder why a relatively short novel has provoked such a strong reaction from the reading public who we often hear is vanishing into cyberspace.

Could it be people are embracing a book that paints a much different picture of God than an angry, old man just aching to strike people down for any mistake? A God whose love isn't based on human understanding or a performance-based ethic? A relational Trinity that doesn't imitate the hierarchy so popular in many churches? I suspect its challenges to tradition are at the root of much criticism.

Yes, there are some questionable elements within the book, but wise leaders will spend time reviewing it with their congregations—or in small groups—and comparing it to Scripture, explaining their disagreements.

Books like "The Shack" represent golden opportunities to engage people outside the Church on their level. Screaming shrill criticisms and waving fingers of judgment only confirm the negative conceptions many already harbor.

While fighting for orthodoxy, we must remember the tone of our voices matters as much as the words we speak.