Books are not meant to be idols or possessions or decorations. They are a means of communicating. A book on a bookshelf is worthless.
Biographies are not meant for entertainment but for edification. As I am reading over the rough draft of Grace Upon Grace, my autobiography, I see some things you ought to know. A large part of it has to do with bookstores. Because of the success of evangelism and edification in the bookstores I have been in, I came to the conclusion that bookstores were the means of evangelism. I sold many people on bookstores. I was wrong. Many of the stores went under financially and from a ministry perspective.
The success of the ministry was because of the person in the store, not the store itself.
In 1953-54, I had a course in command communications at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. As part of the course, I was required to take a correspondence course in strategy and tactics from the Naval War College in Newport, RI. In this course, I learned of the principles of war. Principles are different than methods. They are abstracts. I began using these principles in evangelism? As a result, I wrote a Christian book called Principles of War. It first came out in chapters in Command magazine.
In the OCF bookstore in Annapolis in the early 60s, we published a newspaper called The Nameless News. I chose to write an editorial on bitterness. I had nothing special in mind. That editorial hit a chord in Annapolis.
In the 25 years following, I did much conference speaking for InterVarsity, OCF, CBMC, and ISI. I often spoke on bitterness, with similar results. In 1990, my oldest son had his secretary transcribe one of the taped talks and give me 100 printed copies. Since then, about 300,000 copies have been printed in magazine form in English and as a bound book done by Canon Press. It is also been translated into 20 foreign languages, with another translation currently in progress (French).
Biographies are not meant for entertainment but for edification. As I am reading over the rough draft of Grace Upon Grace, my autobiography, I see some things you ought to know. A large part of it has to do with bookstores. Because of the success of evangelism and edification in the bookstores I have been in, I came to the conclusion that bookstores were the means of evangelism. I sold many people on bookstores. I was wrong. Many of the stores went under financially and from a ministry perspective.
The success of the ministry was because of the person in the store, not the store itself.
In 1953-54, I had a course in command communications at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. As part of the course, I was required to take a correspondence course in strategy and tactics from the Naval War College in Newport, RI. In this course, I learned of the principles of war. Principles are different than methods. They are abstracts. I began using these principles in evangelism? As a result, I wrote a Christian book called Principles of War. It first came out in chapters in Command magazine.
In the OCF bookstore in Annapolis in the early 60s, we published a newspaper called The Nameless News. I chose to write an editorial on bitterness. I had nothing special in mind. That editorial hit a chord in Annapolis.
In the 25 years following, I did much conference speaking for InterVarsity, OCF, CBMC, and ISI. I often spoke on bitterness, with similar results. In 1990, my oldest son had his secretary transcribe one of the taped talks and give me 100 printed copies. Since then, about 300,000 copies have been printed in magazine form in English and as a bound book done by Canon Press. It is also been translated into 20 foreign languages, with another translation currently in progress (French).
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