Why do you write books? What's the story behind your book writing?
Contradict Movement 4/4/2025
In undergrad at Concordia University Irvine (CUI), I stumbled across a stack of free Christian publications in the Theology Department’s offices. I often pick up free publications in my path; trash cans are always nearby if needed. This publication contained an article that answered the question: “Are you called to be a Christian author?” To my surprise, I met all the criteria that the article suggested.
I can’t recall all the requirements today, but I remember the first item on the list was having good scores in all of your written essays for classes. At my community college, I had a literary writing class. After the first paper, the professor was sorely disappointed in the class and offered that everyone should consider rewriting the paper to meet the guidelines he had provided for the paper. Expecting the worst and with much confusion, because I thought I had met the provided requirements, I received my paper back and saw A+ written at the top with the note, “Where did you learn to write essays?” The answer: Mrs. Hampton’s 8th-grade English class.
I passed through the argumentative writing course at the community college with ease too. When reading the article on discerning if you were called to be a Christian book writer, I had two electives that Literature professors taught. I could tell I excelled in these courses from professor feedback and grades… and in my BA in Theological Studies classes, I consistently scored high on the class essays. This article made me stop and consider, for the first time, maybe because my papers have been recognized as being well-written and substantive by professors with doctorate degrees in writing and theology, that I might be called to be a Christian book author.
I recall another criterion listed was possessing a unique voice or message. I am a Lutheran from the South! There are few Lutherans in the South. In my high school, of 1,600 students, only 5 were Lutherans. I bumped shoulders mostly with Baptists, Methodists, and Pentecostals, but half of my extended family is Roman Catholic. At CUI, I saw that my Lutheran experience was unique. I didn’t know the Lutheran lingo and culture that the other Theology majors knew, many of whom were raised in Lutheran education schools from kindergarten. They didn’t go to community college; they weren’t taught in the public-school systems as I was… they didn’t quite understand why other Christians think and act the way they think. Frankly, I was having to learn if I was even Lutheran myself after being dumped into what was a queer (as in different or odd) Lutheran environment at CUI. I began to see that as my classes progressed, I possessed a unique voice to bridging the gap… I could take the Lutheran Confessions, what we Lutherans believe to be the accurate representation of what God has revealed to us in his Word, and speak this truth in a way that sat well with Christians from different denominational tribes. I was leading Bible studies on and off campus that drew people who confessed Christ but didn’t attend church, maybe weren’t even Christian, and from Lutheran and other denominational backgrounds. It seemed I had a unique voice or message. A couple of professors also indicated this to me positively.
I took the article and its criteria to heart. I was delivering a series of Bible messages at a Pizza bar then, and I thought I should turn those messages into a book. I was also working as a campus gatehouse entry guard every other weekend during the 11:30 pm to 7:30 am shifts. Few cars came through at this hour, so the job was mostly watching movies. Instead, I turned those shifts into writing sessions! Upon completing that book, I sought to find a publisher, and I found that it was next to impossible for me to get published as a Christian book writer.
Most publishers wanted to guarantee that if they published my book, they could sell a good number of copies (from what I could ascertain, at least 5,000 copies). This meant having a platform with at least 5,000 sure buyers. It clicked with me then why so many of the authors of Christian books that are published by the popular publishing houses are megachurch pastors who have 5,000-20,000 attendees at their churches every Sunday. Oftentimes, they have an online following that is even greater. Their audience guarantees the necessary sales to turn a profit regardless of their systematic theology or message. It didn’t matter how great my content was; to find a publisher who could actually get my book into stores, I would need to first have a platform!
After about ten years from when I finished writing that first book, which has still never been published, I had a new book to write, Contradict – They Can’t All Be True. I didn’t waste my time seeking a traditional publisher; I chose to pay WestBow Press to publish the book. They edited the book, created the formatting layout of the text, designed the cover, acquired ISBN numbers and got my book into Amazon and Barnes and Nobles online sites in three different formats. I still owned the copyright, but I split the royalties with WestBow Press. I could have gone a route of true self-publishing, but I chose to work with WestBow Press because they were an imprint of Thomas Nelson. Now they’re an imprint of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan. I thought Contradict would make such a big wave due to its cover’s eye-catching and provocative message that Thoams Nelson would pick it up and move it forward to the bookstores and retail stores for me. That never happened… but I have sold over 10,000 Contradict Movement stickers and 2,000 Contradict books, and have 11k followers on Facebook and 1.7k followers on YouTube. From what I can tell, this still isn’t enough of a platform to entice a publishing company to invest in republishing Contradict or to pull the trigger on financially backing a different book I’d write.
Since publishing Contradict, I have started writing two different books and published a third book instead. The first book I started to write was intended to be my follow-up to Contradict, GP—God’s Promise. I have written about a third of that book thus far, and it has only taken me ten years to get that far, despite already having made promo videos for it that have sat on YouTube for well over five years. I started a second book, OC Apologist – On Christ Apologetics, which I have written about 90% of, and I discovered that it would be well over 500 pages in book format print, so I broke it into 3 volumes. The first volume's initial draft was finished in October, but the editing process is taking a really long time. I’m working with volunteer editors (and only one of them has given me back a completed edit). While waiting on the editing of OC Apologist – On Christ Apologetics Vol. 1 to be completed, I started work on a third book, Elements of the Passion!
Elements of the Passion was a Lenten sermon series I gave in 2023 as part of my duties as the pastor at Oak Road Lutheran Church in Lilburn, GA. As I was putting the sermons together each week, I was greatly edified as I saw how the various elements of Christ’s Passion, ashes, dust, wood, thorns, hyssop, clothes, metal, bread, wine, blood, water, and darkness had imagery and themes that ran from Genesis to the cross to Revelation. In a few instances, the elements were directly involved in the Fall or the subsequent curse for Adam and Eve’s sin, but Christ bore that curse through the elements’ presence in his Passion. Then sometimes we see a complete 180 reversal of the curse through the element’s presence and role in the new heavens and new earth at Christ’s return for his people. The way these elements appeared again and again throughout Scripture, forming a singular story across millennia, continents, and languages as Scripture was written, was indicative that the motives of these elements were not a literary conspiracy or fluke, but an aspect of God’s divine plan. It was a plan predetermined from before Creation, that God the Father would send his eternally begotten Son to take on the sins of the world. Not only was this a great demonstration of the Father’s love, but it was also a unique apologetic for Scripture being the divinely inspired Word of God.
The sermon series was well received at Oak Road Lutheran Church, and it was well received in my soul, and I was doubly blessed, as I read the Scriptures and discovered the Biblical Theology of each element of Christ’s Passion and when delivering the sermons. Since these sermons were already written, I thought it would be good to share them with a broader audience by turning them into book chapters. My previous book, Contradict, has had some genuinely humbling reviews from people I don’t even know, or people I have since met after they read my book and left their reviews. One review put my work on the same pedestal as Frank Turek and Norman Geisler’s book, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. Another invoked my work on the same level as Ravi Zacharias, and the Great Jon Bongiorno, The Royal Publisher of Oz, said, “[Contradict] belongs among the great apologetic works of the modern age!” With such positive feedback, I see no reason not to continue to write as a hobby and venture into sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
I have considered seeking publication with my denomination’s Concordia Publishing House (CPH). However, I don’t think my voice would fit with CPH, especially with the themes and content of future books I have planned to write. Frankly, I don’t have the time to spend on proposals, especially when I suspect they will be rejected. I also write when I have time, and if I’m under contract with a deadline for writing a book, it could be stressful if I don’t have the time. If I did work with Concordia Publishing House, it would be a great opportunity and would certainly provide a massive platform for my books. I will pray about pursuing such an option.
Currently, most of my Contradict book sales have come from Amazon, and most book sales in the USA come from there too, so I have chosen to continue writing and publishing with Amazon, using their KDP publishing system. I have complete say over the final content of my books (unless Amazon changes its practices in the future). I will own full copyright of my book to have the option to republish with a traditional publishing house. As long as I purchase the ISBNs for my book instead of using the free one Amazon offers, I am not limited to only using Amazon’s print-on-demand services. Amazon provides affordable options to buy copies of my book, charging me the print fee only, even when purchasing just one book. WestBow Press charges me an arm and a leg to buy my book in print. I also have 60% royalties with Amazon after the cost of printing.
Another great benefit of writing and publishing with KDP is that I can put the Contradict Movement logo on every book’s cover and say that each book is published by Contradict Movement. At the moment, that’s my goal… be my own publisher (and God willing publish others who want to write but don’t know how to get their book to print). I currently have a list of 30 books I hope to publish over the next 10-20 years. I aim to publish OC Apologist – On Christ Apologetics late in 2025. I have a very special book planned for 2026 (it’s currently top secret – and it’s one CPH will never publish, so I won’t even try). I hope to have OC Apologist – On Christ Apologetics Vol. 2 and The Needle and the Word – Reading Scripture Like Listening to Vinyl in 2026.
Of course, you know what God says about our plans:
Proverbs 16:9 – “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”
$7.77 on Amazon!!! Please order. Direct message me if you want a digital copy to read and to consider leaving a review.