I recently completed all the John Le Carré novels. Le Carré primarily wrote espionage thrillers such as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Mark Twain famously said, “Write what you know.” Le Carré knew spies. During the cold war, he served in both MI5 and MI6. His first hand experience as a spy gave his novels a realism that is lacking in many modern spy thrillers.

One of the things that is unique about Le Carré’s novels is that they contain little “action”. When you think of a spy thriller, you expect car chases and shootouts, assassinations and fist fights. Such moments are few and far between in Le Carré’s work. Why? Because true espionage is not about killing and violence. It is about conversation, surveillance, and relationships. Most thriller writers mistake spies for assassins and law enforcement: they “get” the bad guy. But that is not the role of a true spy.

A spy serves the purpose of gathering intelligence. If a spy finds a bad guy, the last thing the spy wants to do is kill or arrest him (or her). The spy wants to convert him (or her). The British spy wants to learn the information the Soviet spy has. So the spy builds relationships with those who know something. The British spy finds out what the Soviet spy wants, builds a relationship with them, and then converts them to to the British side.

It turns out, spies are not superheroes. They are people and want the same kinds of things that all people want: love, money, peace, sex, justice, acceptance, purpose, forgiveness. The spy cannot convert their enemy without knowing their enemy, without seeing them, without a relationship with them.

I wonder if Le Carré should be required reading for pastors. Of course, there are lots of lessons in these novels about what not to do (deception, betrayal, etc.). Nevertheless, the role of a pastor – and, for that matter, the role of a Christian – is not wholly different from that of a spy. We are not policemen. We are not the moral law enforcers of the world. We are spies – sent out to glean information, to figure out what God is up to in the world. What God is doing in the life of my neighbor?

When I encounter an “enemy”, my job is not to “get” them and tell them how horrible they are. My role is to convert them. To recruit them as a fellow spy. And conversion is not done through force but through relationship: listening to and learning the heart of the person. 

Conversion

A number of years ago on a flight, I found myself eavesdropping on a conversation a few rows behind me. I was trying to pay attention to the book I was reading but the conversation turned to the topic of religion and I could not help but listen. I am a spy after all!

The two conversants were strangers – a man and a woman, both in their late 20’s or early 30’s. As they talked and shared basic information about themselves, the woman shared her parent’s disapproval with her living with her boyfriend. She said, “They’re very religious, and I guess that’s okay, but…they just push it so hard.”

“Yeah,” the man said, “They, like, try to convert you!”

The word “convert” was said almost as if it were a bad word. How dare someone try to convert someone!

I could not help thinking about why “conversion” has fallen out of favor in our culture. We like the idea of independence, of becoming the person that I want to be. Religion, beliefs, and values are seen as personal and private matters. What I think and believe and do is none of anyone else’s business! 

As I have thought back on that conversation, I have come to believe that conversion is a beautiful thing. Sure, it can be attempted poorly. It is quite possible that this woman’s parents were pushy, legalistic jerks who tried being the moral police long after their daughter was old enough to make her own decisions. Or I think of the street preachers who warn all the “sinners” that they are going to hell. But the basic idea of trying to convert someone – to woo and attract a neighbor to a different way of life – is countercultural in the best way.

Too many times when there are disagreements between people, we ignore those disagreements as if they are inconsequential, or we attack and belittle the other person for their “ignorance”, or we turn to political power and try to force our way of thinking onto those that we disagree with. Conversion provides an alternative path: the attempt to attract someone to our cause. We treat our neighbor as a neighbor, as someone we love and care about. We treat our cause as if it is something beautiful and worthwhile. It is not something I have to force on you, it is something I have to offer you.

Gospel

The gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be treated as if it were inconsequential. If it is true, then it is the most important truth there is. If it is true, then we do not live in the same world we thought we lived in. We live in a world where a resurrection happened! Treating Jesus as a private, personal matter is not an option.

But then how do I share this gospel with my neighbor? Do I argue with and combat my neighbor? Do I turn to political power and try to force my neighbor to be Christian (such as the Christian nationalists attempt to do)? Or, do I try to convert them, to woo them to the beautiful truth of Jesus?

The fact is that the Jesus way is not the way of power over my neighbor, but the way of power with and for my neighbor.

The image of a spy ironically provides a helpful metaphor. We are not policemen, trying to seize and overpower our neighbors. We are spies, trying to attract our neighbors to a better way.

Confession

But there is still a danger with thinking of conversion this way. It is the temptation of thinking I (or we) are the good guys, and they are the bad guys – and the good guys are trying to convert the bad guys.

When you read John Le Carré, you learn pretty quickly that espionage is rarely a story of good guys and bad guys. The “good guys” are as morally ambiguous and prone to corruption and sin as the so-called “bad guys”. These are not stories of heroes saving the day. The battles that take place in a John Le Carré novel are not the battles between nations, but the battles that take place within individual people.

Sin, evil, and moral ambiguity are not only present in the world but in the Church. Like a British spy in a John Le Carré novel, our motives and actions are not always pure. We have to be honest enough and confess that we are as in need of grace as those whom we seek to convert.

Perhaps, we are the ones in need of conversion! Perhaps conversion is not a one and done thing. Perhaps it is something that must continually happen as we learn to surrender to the grace of God.

Thank you, John

John Le Carré passed away in 2020. So far as I know, he was not a believer in Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, he has taught this pastor much about the way of Jesus, the brokenness and loneliness that exists in every heart, and the battle between good and evil that lies within each of us. So thank you, Mr. Le Carré. You did not intend it, but you wrote better pastoral leadership books than most of the “experts”