Despite the seeming tragedy of losing an exciting opportunity as president of Here’s Life Publishers in 1992, the Lord kept dropping opportunities my way. In addition to the two books described in the previous installment, I was approached about helping a marriage counselor upgrade his book, Discovering the Mind of a Woman.
Does God have a plan for us when we are set adrift when our company is sold? I had seen the Lord provide a position at Here’s Life Publishers when I was released at Christian Herald in a cost-saving move. But now I was 62 and as former president considered not an acceptable editorial hire by book publishers I approached. I did have severance pay to tide me over for some months, but what then?
Every Saturday our small daily, the Tryon Daily Bulletin, features a local person on the cover, with a story inside. Saturday was my turn.
How can God turn an overwhelming debt load at a publishing house into a series of God Moments? At Here’s Life Publishers we were a for profit subsidiary of Campus Crusade for Christ, with the chairman of the Board the executive vice-president of Crusade. What I did not realize when I arrived as editorial director was that Here’s Life Publishers was being kept afloat by regular draws on a “slush fund” at Crusade, that our losses would be half a million on sales of just over two million the year I arrived.
How long does it take for an acquisitions editor to become truly effective?
When I got to Moody Press in 1970 I thought God had given me remarkable preparation for my new role as acquisitions editor.
What happens when an innovative evangelistic product offends the sensibilities of influential people? In the late 1960s the editorial team at Moody Press became an active proponent of a creative evangelistic and discipling tool, a magazine they called Emit, Time spelled backwards. It purported to have been published during the last year or so of Jesus’ life, including news reports on Jesus trial, crucifixion and resurrection.