Local author Gordon King will be launching his new book Seed Falling on Good Soil: Rooting Our Lives in the Parables of Jesus tomorrow evening.

McNally Robinson will be the host of King's book launch tomorrow evening. The book, Seed Falling on Good Soil, is about King's experiences in international development work. He finished writing the book during the recent United States presidential election.

"The book was written out of reflections on work I had been doing around issues like hunger and poverty," King told us this morning. The book is full of stories from the world we live in and how they relate to the stories that Jesus told during his ministry, often called 'parables'.

seed falling good soil
"A parable is a story that has an actor, or a series of actors. A plot in which there's a difficulty that must be overcome, and a resolution," King explained. "The parables dealt with some of the most painful issues of Galilee and Judea in the first century."

Those issues included poverty, gender issues, issues of exclusion due to race, hunger, exploitation and more. King pointed out that these issues that affected the people of the first century are still issues ingrained in our society today.

"Some of the basic issues in humanity have never changed," "These stories, which are stories of the Christian faith, told by the founder of the Christian faith, still have great currency in our time."

King highlighted the story of the Good Samaritan. He points out that the Samaritan takes care of the man who was beat up, in a land that he is not welcome. "It's a man who shows his commitment to God and to neighbour that crosses all boundaries of ethnicity."

King's vocational background deals with issues of poverty and hunger. He's dealt with violence, against women and against children. He said the parables gave us a spiritual strength and basis to address these issues.

"[These parables] help us find our way forward as agents of God's kingdom rather than as passive bystanders."

The book launch takes place tomorrow, March 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the McNally Robinson at Grant Park Shopping Centre.