c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Max Lucado was a missionary in Brazil when he began writing in 1985, and that’s where he might be today if he hadn’t become a bestselling author.

Since his literary debut 20 books ago, however, the 43-year-old Lucado has become a publishing phenomenon, selling more than 11 million copies of his homey, heart-warming works like 1995’s”When God Whispers Your Name”and 1997’s”In the Grip of Grace,”both of which won major evangelical awards.”I never had a strategy,”Lucado said from his office at Oak Hills Church of Christ in San Antonio, where he has served as senior minister for a decade.

Instead, he says he owes his success to divine appointment.”I believe that God, in every time period, says, `I need a handful of people to minister to the poor.’ Perhaps he also said, `I wonder if there’s someone out there who might write a few good books. Let’s use Lucado.'” As with most of his previous books, the recently released”Just Like Jesus”(Word) was inspired by a sermon series he first preached to his 2,000-member congregation.

Lucado said he will rewrite his sermons up to 40 times to make them read well.”What you can get by with for the ear may not work for the eye,”he said. But speaking or writing, Lucado communicates in a style that’s warm, winsome, and uncommonly effective.”You hear football players like Emmitt Smith say they don’t know how they score touchdowns; they just have an instinct. With me, I think the Lord said, `Lucado can’t hit a golf ball, and he’s not very good looking. Let’s give him an instinct for words.'” Lucado was raised in the Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, a million-member fellowship founded in the 19th century to restore New Testament teaching and practices. But he says his religious upbringing”did not have a huge impact on me.” Rather, it was his dramatic recommitment to Christ during his years at Abilene Christian College that led him to the ministry.”I was well on my way to becoming an alcoholic,”he said.”I was sitting in a pickup truck in a little west Texas town saying, `There’s got to be something more to life than this.'” He called upon the mercies of God, and mercy _ not judgment _ continues to be a hallmark of Lucado’s ministry.”One thing I have really emphasized in my teaching is God’s love and his tenderness,”he said.

But mercy isn’t the end of the story; rather, it’s just the beginning of the Christian’s journey. As he writes in”Just Like Jesus,””God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way.” The book describes foundational Christian virtues like forgiveness, compassion, purity, endurance and hopefulness through evocative stories and illustrations. Its brief, breezy chapters, which can be read in about 10 minutes, downplay theological rhetoric and emphasize practical application.”I learned long ago to envision a trio of people I’m writing to,”he said.”One is an elderly lady who is retired and on a limited income. One is a very busy mom, like my own wife Denalyn, whose life revolves around car pools,

school events and other engagements. And the other is a stressed-out businessman who may be trying to start a new company. I ask myself, at the end of each lesson, is there something there that is going to encourage these folks?” The themes found in”Just Like Jesus”have been a staple of Christian writing since ever since St. Paul urged believers to”be imitators of God.”In the 15th century,”The Imitation of Christ”_ a book published anonymously but attributed to the monk Thomas a Kempis _ instructed readers how to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, becoming the second most widely-read Christian book after the Bible.

A century ago, Congregational minister Charles Sheldon wrote the bestselling religious classic,”In His Steps,”which tells the story of how a town is transformed when a minister challenges members of his congregation to do nothing without first asking,”What would Jesus do?”In our own day, that simple question has inspired the million-dollar”WWJD”phenomenon, which includes wristbands, books, Bibles, musical albums, and most recently, a board game.

Lucado has little to say about WWJD-related commercialism, but he’s glad high-schooler Jenna, the oldest of his three daughters, wears a WWJD wrist-band.”It’s a good reminder for her as she looks down in the middle of algebra class.” He believes there’s an urgent need for Christians to be more Christ-like today, a time when many people’s perceptions of believers come from TV and politics.”If my perception of Christians came only through what I saw on television or through political activism, I would feel those are weird people,”he said.

Lucado has nothing against religious broadcasting. He has his own 60-second radio program,”UpWords,”which airs on 800 Christian stations and is financed by book royalties. But, he said,”lights and cameras seem to change things,”often producing”flamboyant displays of worship services that are more like Barnum and Bailey.” As for activism, he has plenty of convictions.”But the question we have to ask is how politically active was Jesus, and how politically active would he be today? Sometimes I think we create agendas and put Christianity out in front of them when it’s questionable whether it really is or not.” Lucado is successful enough to resign his Texas pulpit and focus solely on his international congregation of readers, but such a move isn’t in his plans.”I love pastoring, and I love writing,”he said.”I don’t know if I’m a writer who preaches or a preacher who writes. But I hope I never have to choose between the two, because they are the twin passions in my life.”

DEA END RABEY