The Pound for Pound Principle and Transparent Gratitude
Double book review:
Mike Kai, The Pound for Pound Principle: Becoming All God Designed You To Be (Authentic Publishers, 2013), 192 pages, ISBN 9781780781006.
Douglas Kozub, Transparent Gratitude: Processing Through Success Myths and Struggles of the Soul
I need to share some background so that my two book reviews below can be read with understanding. Both books were written by men who pastor relatively new Foursquare churches in Hawaii. Each book is the first book by its author. I know both authors, though I know Doug Kozub better than I know Mike Kai.
The Foursquare Gospel Church has enjoyed remarkable growth in our Hawaiian Islands. Our 50th state now has around 50 Foursquare Churches, and eight percent of the state’s population attended a Foursquare church on Easter weekend. My wife and I attended the 8:00 AM Easter service at the Blaisdale Arena near downtown Honolulu, a large public venue building which was rented for the weekend by New Hope Christian Fellowship, the largest church in Hawaii. We got there at 7:30 AM, and found 5,000 people waiting in line for the doors to open. 8,000 attended that service. 25,000 came to Easter services at that arena Easter weekend.
Foursquare started its Hawaiian outreach in the last 50 years during which it separately sent four ministers and their wives to begin churches in the islands. The last two men that came experienced and led the success that has marked Foursquare in the Islands. Ralph Moore was the first of these two, and he started a church under a tree on the Kailua side of the island of Oahu. That church, Hope Chapel, has now grown to seven hundred churches all over the Pacific, Asia and beyond. The second pastor is Wayne Cordeiro, and his New Hope churches have also spread in similar numbers throughout the Pacific, Asia and more.
Cordeiro’s Portuguese dad was in the military and married Cordeiro’s mother, a Japanese woman, when he was stationed in Hawaii. Moore is Caucasian (or a “haole” in the local dialect) though his second in command who came with him from California is Japanese.
Moore and Cordeiro each have unusual talent for recognizing, mentoring and training men and women for the ministry. Both have taught and written widely on Church growth and the pastoral profession.
Foursquare is a small Pentecostal Holiness US denomination that was started in the 1920’s in Los Angeles, California. It has 1,700 churches in the US and 6,000 plus credentialed ministers. 250,000 or more attend one of its US churches each weekend. Its largest church is Church on the Way in Van Nuys California which has the largest Hispanic congregation in North America. I have been a staff pastor in Foursquare since 1986. Foursquare has now established itself in about 140 countries, and in some with great success.
THE POUND FOR POUND PRINCIPLE
Mike Kai
The Pound for Pound Principle is the personal autobiography of its author, and it is a lovely warming recollection of the life of a man who started with relatively little, and has experienced a great deal of success in ministry at the age of 40.
Mike is what Hawaii calls a local. His ethnic background includes four nationalities. He grew up in Honoka’a, a small town of 2,000 on the Island of Hawaii or the big Island. His dad was a policeman, and his mom stayed at home to care for their children. Mike was small in stature as a child, suffering the associated taunts while dreaming about what small kids hope for. Mike’s religious background was Catholic; his favorite pastime was playing basketball. He was a fair student, and the nearest big city was Hilo where 25,000 people lived two hours from his home.
Mike moved to Oahu where he became a single father raising a daughter. A friend and co-worker brought Mike to Hope Chapel where he became a Christian in 1989, met his wife, and sat under the ministry of Ralph Moore who saw a future in Mike that was very different than what Mike saw.
Mike soon became the youth pastor at Hope Chapel, and he and his wife Lisa fell in love with ministering to the young people there. Mike was an excellent youth camp speaker; a second daughter came along, and he and Lisa were delighted to be in the service and will of God in one of the most respected churches in the State.
Mike writes about lessons learned in his early years of pastoring. He weaves his love for sports into his thinking pronouncing that a leader’s call is to be the best pound for pound person one can be. Then God began to speak to Mike through a respected prophet, others and through God himself. It was time for Mike to go and that meant stepping down to pastor a struggling church of 40 people in Waikele, a part of Oahu that is hot and dry.
Mike was not pleased with this eventuality though he and his wife both put their hearts and souls into the new venture. He writes of the difficulties they faced though they were locals who were easily embraced by the community which they were serving.
Mike and Lisa have built the Waikele church to several thousand attendees each week. Even the building they lease for meetings seems beyond possibility. His story is a moving retelling of a successful response to a call from God. His book is well written, moving and particularly worth reading by those who are beginning to respond to a call to ministry.
Publisher’s page: http://www.authenticpublishers.com/product/poundforpoundprinciple
Preview The Pound for Pound Principle: books.google.com/books?id=C9z85jtSJqsC&dq
Mike Kai to discuss his book The Pound for Pound Principle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-6usWiirlA
TRANSPARENT GRATITUDE
By Douglas Kozub
I was attracted to Doug and his wife Tyla when they arrived in Honolulu in 2000 to serve as interns at New Hope Christian Fellowship. The attraction arose since they came from Southern New Jersey where I had lived for many years. They were in their 30’s. Doug had been a youth minister; he had a MDiv from Westminster Seminary and Tyla had been a national class swimmer at Memphis University. They added a son to their two daughters after they arrived, worked hard at the church, and then felt led to pioneer a church in Lihue, the largest city on Kauai, one of our State’s three major neighbor islands.
I wondered about this since the people of Kauai are not particularly welcoming to outsiders, and moreso to haoles from the East coast. I questioned them as they were making plans to move, but they were convinced that God had called them to Kauai. They have now been there for ten years, and they struggle with attendance, finances, setting up church in a school each weekend, and more. They also have had some real success in their church of a hundred or so. Tyla ministers to the women of the church with Bible studies and special events. Doug’s teaching is from an educated spirit filled background tempered to suit his audience.
Doug’s book chronicles the ups and downs of their pastorate. It has not been easy, and Doug writes about the efforts he has made to overcome their disappointments. He has been to the church growth conferences, studied church growth on the internet, in books written by mega church pastors, and so on.
His book reveals the other side of a call to ministry than the one Mike Kai has experienced. My assessment is that they are both successful in their calling, and that there is much to be learned by reading their thoughts as they enter their middle years in ministry.
I know that both of these men are successful in their calling. I base that statement on what their wives say about each of them. Hawaii is one part of our country that is experiencing growth in the evangelical camp. That growth is the result of the efforts of Mike and Doug and their wives.
Two books that are worth reading and applying what they reveal to your ministry efforts.
Reviewed by H. Murray Hohns
Originally published on the Pneuma Foundation (parent organization of PneumaReview.com) website. Later included in the Winter 2014 issue.
