Unashamed Servant-Leadership - The Long but Sweet Journey to Publication Part 1

My book Unashamed Servant-Leadership was released by Langham Global Library on 14 December 2017.  It has been an interesting six months plus as a new author. 

My doctoral dissertation on Asian Christian women leaders' growth, challenges and impact in the kingdom of God was a book-in-waiting. When I first proposed my research idea, both my research supervisors encouraged me to release the research findings as a book.  At different times, they told me, "this is cutting edge thought".  I put the idea of a book aside.  You see, I had no money to pay any publisher.  And I really desired a writing mentor.

I began praying and asked God to give me the best publisher who would be generous enough to help me.  One fine June day in 2016,  I met with Dr. Riad Kassis, a scholar and a director at Langham Partnership at the Global Proclamation Congress for Pastoral Trainers in Bangkok, Thailand.  In the course of the conversation, he introduced me to Langham Publishing and later sent me the necessary  documents to be submitted to the publisher.
I completed the forms and included my first chapter in my submission.  I was told that it would take some time to consider my submission.  By this time, I had begun to mobilize prayer for my book.
The publisher  replied me within a very short time!  They requested that I send my manuscript to better evaluate the possibility of publishing this book.

What do I do now?  The rest of the book was still in progress.  But I took another three months to re-shape my dissertation, chopping off at least 10,000 words.  I submitted the manuscript and waited.

Fast forward to April 2017 - It was on the second day of my trip to the Holy Land.  I remember that I was sitting at a cafe with my friends, emotionally and mentally exhausted after going through the Holocaust Museum.  Upon checking my emails at the cafe, I let out a loud, "Praise Jesus"!  Langham Publishing had written to offer me a contract!  What a wonderful surprise on the second day of my trip to the Holy Land.

Throughout this process, God was with me.  I prayed and invited some endorsers for the book.  I am thankful for brother Sundar Sangma from Haggai International,  Dr. Karen Hatley from Missional University, Dr. Sierry Tendero from the Philippines Council of Evangelical Churches, Women's Commission and Dr. Violet James from Singapore Bible College for their endorsements.

 The prayers of righteous men and women were answered by God when He allowed my publisher to release the book on 14 December 2017.  It was the perfect early birthday gift to receive while I was on a ministry trip to Mexico.

God was my writing mentor and fulfilled my heart's desire.  Here's an excerpt from pages 3-4 of my book:

Everywhere I travelled in the mission fields to teach pastors and leaders, men would be the largest group in my class.  Women’s participation in discipleship classes was negligible.  Once when I travelled to the Middle East to teach an inductive bible study course, I discovered that the leaders had expected a male teacher.  In Nepal, the all-male group of rural pastors tested my knowledge of the Bible for 45 minutes before they accepted me as their sister in Christ and their facilitator, teaching them the basics of discipleship.   As recently as 2016, the Christian brother sent to meet me at the airport completely missed me because he was expecting a male leader to arrive for a conference which had an all-male attendance.
In all my discipleship classes, the few women who joined learned so well that I could see the transformation in their thoughts and actions.  All the women I have ever discipled used the same course materials and were given the same assignments as men—they were not given preferential treatment—and they proved that they were able to think as well as their brothers in Christ.  In fact, some of the best students were actually women who were not ordained pastors.  Just like their brothers in Christ, the women’s goal was to obey God and to use their gifts accordingly.  These were true evangelical Christians who desired to be obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

My books are available at various stores in print and electronic formats.  Please visit FAIM Resources page.

In addition, you can listen to a radio interview and read articles at this link http://www.faim4christ.org/interview.php

In the next blog, I will share about the design of my book cover.

Enjoy reading and God bless you,
Rachel R






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