In 1988, my first book Healing the Masculine Soul pioneered the Christian men’s movement and has been a bestseller since, with French and Italian translations. Fully ten years later, in 1998, it appeared for the first time on the “Top 50 Most Requested Religious Titles” list at #30. In 1991, my Focus on the Family interviews drew a listener response in the top 10% of the show’s history. Those same interviews were re-broadcast three times, the last in 2008.

In 1986, I wrote No Small Snakes: A Journey into Spiritual Warfare, but could not sell it. Over twenty years later, in 2008, the largest Christian publisher in the world (Thomas Nelson) bought it. Their senior editor told me that my chapter “The Bible as War Story” was “the best chapter in any book I’ve read except for the Bible.”

The good news is that my ministry has always been ahead of its time, and the message of God’s truth and grace endures. Being ahead of the times, however, isn’t always easy. My ministry is not often well received, because it focuses on healing wounds, which we fear because they often stir shame. The world invests considerable energy in covering shame, because it cannot do what only Jesus can and does, namely, remove it (Rom. 8:1). We don’t want to be healed as badly as we want to cover our shame. While I’m grateful for my ministry, often this translates to “income challenged.”

In 1985, I wrote my very first book Broken by Religion, Healed by God: Restoring the Evangelical, Sacramental, Pentecostal, Social Justice Church. An agent in Colorado Springs declared it “a message of life to churches”—and was dismayed when no publisher would touch it. “Too hot to handle,” declared one. “Something here to offend everyone,” wrote another. Though men around the world praised them, my subsequent men’s books Fight like a Man: A New Manhood for a New Warfare and Sons of the Father: Healing the Father-Wound in Men Today were dropped by publishers.

Even though Masculine Soul remained in print as a bestseller, my royalties have been minimal. While the customer pays as much as $15 a copy, unto today I receive as little as 75 cents. When digital options exploded amid the publishing industry, I knew this was a way at last to update and restore my out-of-print books, publish new ones, and receive a fair return. The cost of self-publishing is daunting—from production to promotion—but I’ve trusted the Father to provide.

In recent years, the Father seems to have curtailed my conferences in order to focus on writing. As a card-carrying extrovert, I miss being out in public ministry. But the fruit has been two revised, updated books and five new ones.

Now in my 70s, I’ve worked out to stay Caleb-fit, and still tend to operate on the frontiers of the Father’s advancing Kingdom. Pioneers, however, are not always well received by the natives. A ministry which proclaims both the truth and grace of Jesus is not readily received by those who would deny or curse the wound—whether with truth-less politically-correct “tolerance” or grace-less religiously-correct judgment.

As Christians have increasingly defined ourselves by this wordly deception, my ministry has become more needed even as it’s become more marginalized. Long ago, I realized that the Father had wisely designed my ministry to depend upon His provision via other, supportive Believers. My goal today is simply to write what I believe the Father’s given me, to use however and whenever He sees fit. Stepping out in faith, I’ve trusted Him to raise up those supporters, and He continues to prove Himself trustworthy.

If you sense the Father would have you come alongside me in my ministry, here are several ways:

1. ask your friends to Like my FaceBook page
2. buy and display my ministry bumper sticker “A Real Man Is a Man Who’s Real”
3. Prayer and intercession
4. A new non-profit is currently being established for tax-deductible donations and when operative, will be announced on my site and to my email list.
5. Credit card donations can be made at www.paypal.com, but cannot be processed as tax deductible.
   

I’m grateful for your support.