Ten Questions: We need generous liberty

10 questions with Sophie Killingley

1. How did you become a Christian?

These stories are never straightforward, are they? As a kid I loved the Jesus I found in my stories and Bible but, growing up in church, this got crowded out by fear, shame and a kind of religious scrupulosity where I was desperate to please the church leaders, and a Jesus that was never satisfied.

I burned out in university, exhausted with trying to please a god that I didn’t connect with in any meaningful way. I had strange moment on a train reading a book; it was a John Newton quote, and I was suddenly filled with a sense of God’s immense love and care for me. It was only then that the Bible started to properly make sense.