Quick answer
Your Christian fiction is too preachy when characters sound like Bible study leaders instead of real people, problems get solved with perfectly timed Scripture verses, and your narrator keeps explaining spiritual lessons.
The fix is simple: show faith through character action and authentic dialogue rather than explaining theology to readers. Trust your story to carry your message without turning into a sermon.
I know. That stings. Especially when you’re writing to honour God, not to win literary prizes.
But here’s what I’ve learned after publishing in both Christian and general markets: authentic faith resonates. Sermons disguised as dialogue do not.
The good news? “Preachy” is fixable. And fixing it doesn’t mean compromising your faith or watering down your message. It means trusting your readers enough to let them discover truth through story, not have it explained to them like children.
Let me show you how to spot the warning signs and what to do about them.
What does “preachy” mean in Christian fiction?
When readers say Christian fiction feels “preachy,” they’re not saying your book has too much faith content. They’re saying your book stopped being a story and became a lecture.
Preachy writing happens when you:
- Stop trusting your story to carry your message
- Start explaining theology instead of showing faith in action
- Turn characters into mouthpieces rather than real people
Think of it this way: when you’re watching a film, you don’t want characters turning to the camera to explain what you should be learning. You want to experience the story and draw your own conclusions.
Your readers want the same thing. They picked up your novel for a story. If they wanted a sermon, they’d go to church on Sunday. If they wanted systematic theology, they’d read a commentary.
This doesn’t mean your faith disappears from the page. It means your faith is woven into the fabric of the story rather than stitched on top like a patch.
How to tell if your Christian fiction is too preachy: the 5 signs
Sign one: your dialogue sounds like a Bible study instead of a conversation
You know this one. Two characters are having a conversation, and suddenly one of them launches into a three-paragraph explanation of Romans 8, complete with cross-references.
Real people don’t talk like that. Not even devout Christians.
What preachy dialogue looks like:
“Sarah, you need to remember that God works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 promises us that even in our suffering, God has a plan. We may not understand it now, but we must trust in His sovereignty and rest in the knowledge that He is working everything out for our ultimate good and His glory.”
What authentic faith-filled dialogue looks like:
“I don’t know why this happened, Sarah. I really don’t.” Emma squeezed her hand. “But I know God hasn’t left you. He’s right here in this mess with us.”
The difference is clear. The second version shows faith without explaining it. Emma doesn’t quote chapter and verse. She doesn’t theologise. She speaks like a real friend offering real comfort grounded in real belief.
How to fix preachy dialogue:
Remove chapter and verse references from character speech
Cut theological explanations down to one simple sentence
Have characters speak from emotion, not doctrine
Ask yourself: would my friend actually say this out loud?
Sign two: every problem gets solved with a prayer and a Bible verse
This is the Christian fiction equivalent of deus ex machina. Instead of a god descending from a machine, it’s a perfectly timed Scripture verse that solves everything.
Common examples:
- Your character is struggling with doubt and opens their Bible to exactly the right verse (picture your reader’s eye roll)
- A relationship is falling apart and someone quotes Ephesians 4, triggering instant reconciliation (another eye roll)
- Financial crisis resolved when a character remembers to tithe and money miraculously appears (even more eye rolls)
Real faith doesn’t work like this. Real spiritual growth is messy, complicated and takes time.
Look at how Francine Rivers handles this in Redeeming Love. Angel’s journey from brokenness to healing isn’t solved by a single prayer or Bible verse. It’s a long, painful process of learning to trust, to believe, to receive love. The faith is there, woven throughout, but it’s not a magic solution.
How to fix the magic verse problem:
- Spread spiritual growth across multiple scenes and chapters
- Show characters wrestling with Scripture, not just receiving instant clarity
- Allow doubt, confusion and unanswered prayers to exist in your story
- Make faith part of the journey, not the quick fix
Sign three: your Christian characters never doubt or struggle with their faith
If every Christian character in your novel has unshakeable faith and perfect theology, you’re not writing realistic characters. You’re writing cardboard cutouts.
Real Christians struggle. They doubt. They get angry at God. They wrestle with unanswered prayers. They question their calling. They wonder if they’ve heard God correctly.
The Psalms are full of this kind of raw honesty. David doesn’t just write pretty worship songs. He writes things like, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?”
Your characters can do the same.
Readers connect far more deeply with characters who wrestle with faith than with characters who have it all figured out.
Why? Because that’s their experience. That’s real Christianity, not the sanitised version.
What struggling faith looks like in fiction:
- A character praying but feeling like their prayers hit the ceiling
- Someone who believes in God but is furious about their circumstances
- A person questioning whether they misheard God’s call
- Characters who love God but don’t understand His timing
In my book, Kemi’s Journal, the protagonist is honest about the cost of following Christ, and she is livid:
Yet, even as I sometimes wish I’d never set foot inside a church, at the same time I thank God with all my heart for this faith that threatens to cause me much unhappiness – from Kemi’s Journal, by Levi Read.
This is “fury + faith” in the same body.
A preachy scene tries to soothe the discomfort as fast as possible, but real discipleship often does the opposite: it exposes what you can’t ignore anymore.
My character believes in God, yet she’s angry about what obedience is costing her, angry that conviction has made life messier, and angry that following Jesus has complicated her choices instead of simplifying them. That unresolved tension is what makes the moment feel true.
It’s also what makes readers connect to the character and her story, because we’ve all be there.
If your scene resolves the discomfort too quickly, it will sound preachy. Let faith and fury (or whatever emotion you want to stir), coexist long enough for the reader to feel the weight of the choice.
Sign four: the narrator keeps interrupting to explain the spiritual lesson
This is subtler than preachy dialogue, but just as damaging.
Your character experiences something, and then the narrator steps in to make sure the reader didn’t miss the spiritual significance.
What narrator intrusion looks like:
Rachel watched the sunrise over the lake, marvelling at the beauty of God’s creation. She was reminded once again that just as the sun rises faithfully every morning, God’s mercies are new every day. His faithfulness never fails, even when we are faithless.
YAWN.
The problem isn’t the content. The problem is you’re not trusting your story or your reader.
How to fix narrator intrusion:
Show us Rachel watching the sunrise. Show us what it stirs in her. Let the image of faithful sunrise after dark night do its own work in the reader’s imagination.
Rachel stood at the edge of the lake, watching gold spill across the water. Another morning. Another chance. She let out her breath.
The spiritual truth is still there. But now it’s embodied in the moment rather than explained to us.
Sign five: non-Christian characters exist only to be converted
If every non-believing character in your novel is either waiting to be saved or acting as a cautionary tale, you’re not writing authentic characters. You’re writing evangelistic tracts with names.
Real non-Christians aren’t narrative problems waiting for a Christian solution. They’re complex human beings with their own motivations, struggles and worldviews.
What authentic non-Christian characters need:
Their own valid reasons for their beliefs
- Complex motivations beyond “lost and searching”
- The possibility they won’t convert in your story
- Legitimate questions your Christian characters can’t easily answer
- Dignity and humanity, not just a conversion arc
The strongest Christian fiction treats non-Christian characters with the same complexity as Christian ones. They’re not just there to make your protagonist look righteous by comparison.
The filter method: how to show faith without preaching
So how do you show authentic faith without preaching?
The answer is what I call the Filter Method. Instead of telling readers what they should think or believe, you filter spiritual truth through your character’s unique perspective and personality.
Different characters will experience and express their faith differently, just like real people do.
How the filter method works:
A theologian character might naturally think in Scripture references, but they’d think in shorthand, not full verses. That’s just Romans 8, not Romans 8:28 says that God works all things together for good.
A new believer might express faith with wonder and questions, not certainty.
A lifelong Christian struggling with disappointment might have a more complicated, layered relationship with God.
Someone raised in the church might use casual Christian language without thinking about it, the way any subculture has its own vocabulary.
Filter method example:
Instead of having your character think, I need to trust God’s timing (which is a spiritual platitude, by the way), try:
She wanted to shake God by the shoulders and demand answers. She didn’t, obviously. But she wanted to.
See how the second version shows faith (she’s engaging with God, even in frustration) and personality (she’s honest about her feelings) without a single theological explanation?
The Filter Method means your character’s faith shows up in their thoughts, choices and dialogue in ways that are authentic to who they are, not in ways that serve your agenda as the author.
Why authentic faith resonates more than sermons
Here’s what I’ve discovered after years of writing in both Christian and general markets: readers are far more intelligent and spiritually sensitive than we give them credit for.
They don’t need everything explained. They don’t need theology spelled out. They don’t need conversion scenes that hit every point of the Romans Road.
What they need is to see real people wrestling with real faith in the middle of real life.
When you trust your story, when you trust your craft and when you trust your readers, something remarkable happens: the faith in your fiction becomes more powerful, not less.
Why showing beats telling in Christian fiction:
Lived faith is always more compelling than explained faith.
Show me a character choosing forgiveness when everything in them wants revenge, and I’ll understand grace more deeply than any sermon could teach me.
Show me a character clinging to hope when circumstances are devastating, and I’ll see faith in action.
Show me a character honest enough to tell God they’re angry, and I’ll recognise authentic relationship with the divine.
This is what all the Christian fiction “greats” do.
They don’t preach. They show. And in the showing, they reveal truth more powerfully than any amount of explaining ever could.
What to do if your manuscript is too preachy
If you’ve recognised your manuscript in any of these five signs, don’t panic. This is fixable.
The key is learning how to:
- Filter faith through character perspective instead of narrator explanation
- Write dialogue that sounds like real people having real conversations
- Trust your story to carry your message without constant theological commentary
- Show spiritual growth through action and choice, not just prayer and Bible verses
- Create complex characters (both Christian and non-Christian) who feel like real humans
Three immediate fixes you can make today:
- Search your manuscript for chapter and verse references in dialogue. Cut them or turn them into casual references.
- Find every place your narrator explains a spiritual lesson. Rewrite it to show the character experiencing that truth instead.
- Look at your non-Christian characters. Give them at least one scene where they’re fully human, not just a conversion project.
Your next step: learn to write faith authentically
Your story matters. Your message matters. And your readers deserve your best craft in service of that message.
The difference between preachy Christian fiction and powerful faith-filled storytelling isn’t in how much faith you include. It’s in how skillfully you weave that faith into character, dialogue and story.
That’s exactly what I teach in Christian Writer Foundations. For just $7/m, you get:
- Complete dialogue training (how to write conversations that sound like real people)
- Character development that goes deeper than surface faith
- Scene structure that shows rather than tells
- Examples from published Christian fiction showing you exactly how it’s done
No over-spiritualised platitudes, just practical, craft-focused training from someone who’s actually been published in Christian fiction and understands both the calling and the market.
Join Christian Writer Foundations today and learn to write faith authentically.
