Part XXII - The Development of Wisdom Hunter “You knew this - TopicsExpress

Part XXII - The Development of Wisdom Hunter “You knew this book would be offensive to our group,” the president of the mission board berated the CEO of Questar, “yet you published it anyway. And you published it behind our back. You even told Randy to print the book under a pseudonym.” “Whoa...whoa...,” responded the CEO of Questar. “The book doesn’t mention your denomination one time. Your mission board is not named. And none of your names are even hinted at. So, I can’t see that there’s any ethical violation here.” “We’re still going to pursue a lawsuit!” The CEO of Questar was a sharp, quick-witted businessman in his late thirties. “Alright then...go ahead and file the lawsuit,” he quipped. “As a matter of fact, do it today. Please do it today. This will blow the sales of the book right out of the water!” The phone call did not last long. Shortly afterward I was contacted by the mission board and was told that a law suit would be filed against me. “As a missionary, you were sent to Germany to plant a church, not sit at the foot of the alps and write a book.” “I did plant a church, a very fruitful church” I told them. “I can give you a host of names and phone numbers right now, and you can personally contact those who’ve been part of the church. They’ll testify to the number of hours I spent in the discipleship of their lives. This is a point that just cannot be contested.” Thankfully, but for reasons unknown to me, the law suits were never filed. But three of our supporting churches did ask that seven months of their support be returned to them. I promptly wrote reimbursement checks and mailed them. A few weeks later our denomination’s major periodical - with a nationwide circulation - printed an article that lambasted me and my book. The famous Christianity Today even published an article, albeit a lot more objective. All the while, Wisdom Hunter continued to sale. Somewhere along this time frame Questar finally decided to print and market the “cleaned-up” version. I was still trying to gather my bearings in life when my wife and I received a notice from the pastor of our home church. He wanted to meet with us in his office. To be continued... Randall Arthur RandallArthur