I was only four years old, but I have distinct memories of my mother and father sitting around a dining room table that is adorned with a manual typewriter and an arrangement of tidy stacks of paper. Organizing, categorizing, typing, scribbling changes, and retyping, they labored over something important. I didn’t care much about what they were working on, but I knew it was important and not to interrupt.

Only lately have I come to a more complete understanding of what they were up to. The work was published in a book called Scattered Abroad: The Story of English-language Baptist work in Europe in 1966. Mom and Dad were serving as missionaries in West Germany at the time, and this book was Dad’s first–and only book ever published. I do not know how many copies were sold or more likely given away but I still have one of them.

On balance, the book is fairly technical, pre-occupied with the who, what, when, where, how, and why of Baptist mission work in Europe at a time when America’s military presence was at a peak following the end of World War II and the Korean War, and with the conflict in Vietnam just heating up. It is full of detail about which church was started where and by whom. The interest much of this content generates for me as I read it today rivals the interest it generated for me as a four year old watching my parents work.

But the prologue and epilogue are different. They are snapshots of my father’s theology and serve as sign posts of the legacy he and Mom left to my three siblings and me. My book,  Finding Theo, begins with a quote from Dad’s epilogue in Scattered Abroad: “The farmer stands at the fountain head–he is closest to the source. He knows for sure ‘God sendeth the rain.'” This, in a phrase, captures just about all you need to know about my dad, who was raised on a farm in southwestern Oklahoma. I will write more about that another time.

Dad often commented, especially later in his career, how he would enjoy the opportunity to teach or mentor young preachers as they exited seminary about the practical aspects of being a pastor. Running a business meeting, preaching, officiating weddings and funerals, counseling, and the myriad of other tasks a pastor faces can be daunting, especially early in a career and can make the difference in success or failure.

When I learned about the Pathways to Ministry program at Wilshire Baptist Church, I knew it was exactly the sort of thing Dad envisioned. So, here I am with a book of my own fifty years after Dad published Scattered Abroad. I don’t know how many copies will be sold or given away. Whatever happens, I know the very first fruits of Finding Theo belong to the legacy my parents left as they helped people find their way, their calling, their great gift to a world in need. Learn more about Pathways to Ministry at http://www.wilshirebc.org/learn/pathways-to-ministry/. All the proceeds for sales of Finding Theo in hardback between now and May 6 benefit the Pathways Endowment fund.

In the prologue of Scattered Abroad, Dad refers to Romans 8:28 and says, “God will put the shattered pieces together–but this time in a new and more beautiful way.” Essentially, we wrote the same book.