An Interview with an Author: Christine Paxson and Rose Spiller
It’s Author Thursday on my blog! Today, meet Christine Paxson and Rose Spiller, who have co-authored the book No Half-Truths Allowed—Understanding the Complete Gospel Message and a companion study guide to go with it. Both were published May 9, 2020, by Ambassador International.
From the start, Chris and Rose both had a pretty solid knowledge of the Bible, theology, and doctrine from teaching Bible studies for almost 20 years. They started their ministry, Proverbs 9:10 Ministries, which focuses on getting others to know God and learn more and more about Him.
Chris and Rose decided they wanted to learn even more. They committed to completing the “Dimensions of the Faith” course offered through Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. It took 14 months of hard work but they earned the certificate. Then they started online courses through Reformed Theological Seminary and Biblical Training’s Institute program.
Chris grew up in Lancaster County, and her husband’s family is local to southeastern Pennsylvania, too. They have been married for 31 years and have twin sons in the U.S. Air Force, and one of them is getting married to next summer. She enjoys working on the landscaping in her yard, playing golf, and traveling. They have had a number of cats and dogs over the years. She loves reading, particularly Christian nonfiction. Her favorite fiction genre is alternate history.
Rose and her husband, Ed, have been married for more than 33 years. They have a daughter in Mississippi and one in Georgia, a son in Pennsylvania and one in Indiana. Last fall, they sold their house and are now living fulltime in an RV so they can travel between the four of them and spend a few months at a time with each. She says it has been a crazy experience, and one she wasn’t sure she was up for, but it has been amazing!
Learn more about Chris and Rose through the links at the end of this interview.
—By Jessica Brodie
JB: Tell us about yourself and your faith journey.
Chris and Rose: If you want to hear our individual faith journeys, take a listen to the first podcast episode of “No Trash, Just Truth!”
JB: When did this particular story first stir in your heart?
Chris and Rose: About four years ago, we decided to create a ministry called Proverbs 9:10 Ministries. That verse is, “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom; knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Getting others to know God and learn more and more about Him is what we’re all about! First, through proclaiming the Gospel; and further through understanding Scripture better and better through our writing, teaching, and podcast.
We created the ministry during a time when both of our families spent a couple of years attending a church that did not put any priority on reading and understanding the Bible, nor did it teach theology and doctrine. We came to the church after we had both spent decades in churches that highly valued all of those things. Encountering that lack of Scriptural knowledge made us start writing and teaching Bible studies together, start Proverbs 9:10 Ministry, and eventually turn one of our studies, No Half-Truths Allowed—Understanding the Complete Gospel Message, into a book and companion study guide.
JB: Do you have other books coming out in the future?
Chris and Rose: Our next book is also being published by Ambassador International sometime in 2021. It’s called “The Bible in Six” and is an overview of all 66 books of the Bible, divided into six parts. We wanted to give people who don’t understand the Bible or are intimidated by it a tool to get the basics and highlights of each book, as well as some help with interpreting some of the more complex narratives. Our hope is that it will whet their appetites for delving into reading and studying the Bible on their own.
We’re going to be offering The Bible in Six as one of the conferences we offer once things open up again. We’ve written eight Bible Studies so far, and are currently working on turning one of them into a third book.
In October 2019 we started our podcast, “No Trash, Just Truth!” Every week, we publish a 20-minute teaching session, usually either expositing Scripture, like in our “Women in Scripture” series that starts by going through the books of Ruth and Esther, or taking on some current and hot topics and applying Biblical Truth to them.
Right now, we’re in the middle of a series called “The Best Sermon Ever,” about the Sermon on the Mount.
JB: What do you hope for readers to take away from your books?
Chris and Rose: We saw the need for deeper study and more knowledge of the Bible, and part of that was countering false ideas of what the Gospel is. The Gospel is the message every human being of every age needs, so you have to get it right. For instance, telling someone that God loves them and wants a relationship with them is true, but it’s not the Gospel. They need to know that they are sinners, separated from God and deserving of His wrath, and that the only way to fix that relationship with Him is to accept that Jesus paid the penalty for them in their place and ask God for forgiveness based on what Jesus did for them on the cross. That’s what they need to have faith in and trust in.
There are a lot of false gospels out there and they are used in Christian circles on a regular basis. We go through most of these false gospels in the book and point out why they’re not the Gospel.
The book also gives a solid foundational knowledge of Christianity. We have chapters on each of the three Persons of the Trinity and explain every facet of the Gospel.
Check out Chris and Rose online:
Email: proverbs910ministries@gmail.com
Link to Proverbs 9:10 FB: https://www.facebook.com/pg/prov910/posts
Link to “No Half-Truths Allowed” FB page: https://www.facebook.com/NoHalfTruths/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/prov_910
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/proverbs910ministries/
Website: https://proverbs910ministries.com
Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/615385
Parler: https://parler.com/profile/Proverbs910ministries/posts
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiT78nJP8AQbn8mlpl1r3wg?view_as=subscriber
